Psych Ward Zombies Read Free Page A

were kept. Beyond the central area of nursing station and day rooms, another long corridor extended for about 50 yards. This hallway was lined with the doors of the patients’ private rooms.
    Dave spent most of his time on B Ward and was primarily responsible for the ten patients who lived there. However, on these night shifts he had to cover the entire hospital after all the other physicians had gone home at four o’clock. He swiped his name badge at the door of B Ward and walked into his home away from home.
    His office was not far from the entrance to the ward, down a small hallway where the patients were not allowed. Outside his office was a plastic wall plaque that read, “David Hexer, MD”. He was able to unlock the door to the office with a small metal key, since all the private offices in the building still relied on physical door keys. No matter what sort of chaos was going on outside on the ward, Dave was the only one who had access to his office. He took great comfort just knowing that he could lock the rest of the world outside.
    He placed his belongings on his desk and sighed. The hands of the small clock on his desk reached out to display exactly one o’clock. “Just in time,” Dave mumbled to himself, relieved that his shift was off to an uneventful start. Still, there was a sense of uneasiness he could not shake. Why had Devlin made such a big deal about being on time? And why hadn’t he seen any of the other physicians in the hallway as he had walked in?
    He paused for a moment, trying to fit all the pieces of the puzzle together. Failing to reach any brilliant revelation, pushed the thought from his mind and sat down at his desk. The desk and office chair were both specially-made for little people. They had been provided by the hospital, thanks to the Americans with Disabilities Act.
    Dav e spent a few minutes looking through his work emails. His mind was preoccupied with the stress of needing to get all his regular work done in the three hours before the other physicians would leave for the day. At that point he would be left with responsibility for all five wards, and the barrage of crisis calls would surely keep him from getting any work done on his regular ward. He stared at the computer, deleting one email after another about administrative requirements, new regulations, and other forms of micro-management. He happened to glance at the bottom corner of his screen, where a small blue box contained the words “Medical Staff Meeting: 12 minutes overdue”.
    “Holy crap! ”
    Suddenly it all made sense. Today was the monthly staff meeting for the physicians, and Dr. Devlin, as Medical Director, was in charge of the meeting. The meeting was supposed to start at one o’clock, but Dave had been so immersed in his dread that he had completely forgotten about it. Devlin was intimidating even under normal circumstances, so Dave did not want to see him angry. He grabbed his pen and clipboard, and bolted from his office. The door slammed behind him, locking automatically .

Chapter T wo
     
    The meeting was held in a conference room located in the Administration Tower. As the name implies, the only offices in the tower were for the administrative staff. This layout was somewhat unfortunate, as it strongly reinforced the perception among the hospital employees that the administrators were sequestered away in their ivory tower, oblivious to how things worked on the wards. While it was referred to as a “tower”, the Administration Tower was actually only two stories tall. From the outside, the appearance suggested a squat guard tower overlooking a sprawling prison. The tower had an elevator, but Dave had decided to run up the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator car. Looking back, he now wished he had elected to wait the additional 45 seconds, rather than walking into the room out of breath and panting.
    Taking a deep breath, he opened the door and slipped into the room with the hope that no one