Order 23

“Order 23! Order 23!†I heard the medic calling down the hallway, causing me to abruptly look up from my paperwork. “Clear a path! Order 23!â€
I heard more shouting down the hall as I remembered that I was probably going to be needed when this ambulance got back, since the woman was suffering from what sounded like total organ failure. It was my best guess, but it’s not like I had any clue what was about to go down in this hospital.
I heard the familiar chime as the loud speakers came on. “Dr. Holland to Emergency 112, Doctor Holland to Emergency 112.†It crackled off as I stood up and set everything I was working on down, before coming right back on. “Everyone, please remain calm and exit the emergency wing if at all possible. Again, everyone, please remain calm and exit the emergency wing if at all possible.â€
This confused me, but I decided to push my worries aside and jog over to the room where they needed me. I was hoping we wouldn’t be too late.
As I got closer, I heard screaming coming from the wing I was headed to. I couldn’t quite shrug it off when one of them ended suddenly in the middle, followed by a long stretch of silence, then talking again at a normal tone.
I think someone might have been yelling about an anesthetic.
The door to E112 was slightly ajar, which I didn’t take as weird as I pushed through it and came into the bustling emergency room with nurses running every which way to plug the woman up to machines and stabilize her. I remember noting the woman had been restrained to the bed, which in hindsight I couldn’t be more thankful for.
Though she was unconscious when I came in.
One of the women in the room comes up to me, a frazzled smile on her face. “Dr. Holland, I’m Dr. Warren. Mrs. Larsen is in a critical condition right now, but we aren’t really sure what’s going on with her right now.â€
The room smelled vaguely of bleach, with an underlying smell of something almost rotten.
Dr. Warren continued, though she did sway slightly on her feet as she talked. “She was thrashing about something fierce from what I assume was pain or some sort of seizure. We had to knock her out for the sake of the rest of us and herself.â€
I nodded, not thinking much of it as I took the clipboard from her with the woman’s medical history on it. I skimmed the page, taking in details about her as fast as I could. “This says Mrs. Larsen was taking treatment for Stage 3 Pancreatic Cancer, but nothing else is listed. Do we know what it was?â€
“No, all anyone would tell me is that it was experimental.â€
I look up at Dr. Warren, about to ask more questions about the patient when I notice her eyes have a glazed over look to them. “All you all right?†I asked instead, and she nodded unconvincingly as she leaned on a nearby wall for support.
“I feel fine, why?â€
She was blinking rapidly, and before I got the chance to ask her anything else, she passed out on the floor of the room.
The two nurses in the room finally noticed and rushed over, leaving a syringe that was taking a blood sample from Mrs. Larsen to roll off the bed and shatter on the floor. I sighed and stepped around the bed to clean it up as the nurses got Dr. Warren out of the room. I recoiled as I looked at it, seeing the normally crimson red blood tinted green with strange colored particles swimming in the puddle. I shook my head, trying to make sure what I was seeing was real, and sure enough, I wasn’t seeing things. One of the two nurses grabbed me by the shoulders and pulls me back, her eyes wild with panic.
“What the hell is going on?â€
“I wish I knew.†I said, slowly starting to back away from the patient on the bed, but we both get stopped by someone slamming the door to the room.
I whirled around, seeing Dr. Warren standing up again, her eyes more glazed over and completely milky in color. One of her shoulders sagged lower than the other, causing her back to hunch and her head bend up at a strange angle to look at us.
It was at that moment that I remembered what Order 23 was from the safety training they made us take.
Order 23 is an unknown biochemical threat.
And I was in the room with it.
Dr. Warren’s jaw hung open, and the room began to reek even more of the rotten smell I had already started to notice in the room. The nurse beside me was standing halfway behind me, terrified, as the doctor began laughing.
It was almost inhuman: it was high pitched and insane, like nails on a chalkboard to my ears. And if I didn’t know better, I’d say it looked like she was grinning.
She lunged forward at us, but I easily managed to make sure me and the nurse sidestepped her easily, forcing the door open and stumbling into the hallway. I shut the door behind me, breathing heavily as what used to be Dr. Warren pounded on the door behind me.
“D-Doctor…†The nurse stammered out, shaking violently. “The woman on the call… she described what was happening to her before she passed out…â€
“You need to breathe for me.†I said, both to her and myself to try and steady my nerves.
“First she had an itch on her arm, then she started shaking, then… then she passed out… And then she was-†As the nurse was talking, her eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed beside me.
I turned and ran, looking back only once to catch the nurse slowly climbing to her feet, holding a similarly hunched position to Dr. Warren.
I’m in my office right now, trying to type this as I’m avoiding the temptation to scratch at my own arms. This threat can not be allowed to spread.
If you hear anyone talking about this, run. Run as far away as you can.
Order 23 will kill.
And I don’t think any of us can stop it.


Source.