Chatter filled the bus as a group of students were driving through the heavy woods on the thing tarred road in a long coaster bus. As they got closer to their destination, their chattering reduced as they noticed how dense and foggy the road ahead looked.
"Are you sure we're in the right location?" Maddy asked, plastering her face on the window beside her and looking out onto the dark woody forests.
"Chill, Maddy. Don't tell me you're scared. We chose this ourselves, remember?" Tate teased her.
Maddy ignored him, looking at the weirdly shaped trees as their bus zoomed through the dark woods.
The bus slowly pulled to a stop in front of a cage-like gate of what seemed to be an abandoned hospital.
The smooth sound of the coaster door sliding open filled the quiet air. The students grabbed their bags and climbed down from the bus.
"Remember, call me when you're all done," Gordon, the driver, said from his rolled-down window.
"Yes, Mr. Gordon," Tate replied.
The group moved away from the bus as it reversed and drove away, leaving them in front of a spooky-looking building.
"Wow, look where we are," Ray commented with a forced chuckle.
Ray looked around their environment and noticed how the hospital building was the only one standing in the middle of dark and scary woods.
They were quite far from civilization.
"At least try pretending to be happy about the place," Cathy said beside Maddy.
"Quit bickering, guys. We all agreed to this, it's the perfect place for our project," Tate said, confidently stepping towards the gate.
Cathy rolled her eyes at Ray, "Whatever," She mouthed to Ray and followed Tate behind.
Maddy was the last to follow up, something about this place didn't just sit right with her. As she moved forward, she clutched her backpack tightly over her shoulder, looking down at the fog that covered up to their ankle. She shivered, the atmosphere had drastically dropped as she neared the gate.
"Shit! This gate is locked," Tate muttered as he pulled the gate but it wouldn't budge.
"Tate?" Maddy called, coming to stand beside Tate who was looking for a way to unlock the heavily locked iron gate.
"Help me with this, Maddy," Tate handed Maddy a flashlight.
"I have a bad feeling about this place," She said quietly, holding up the flashlight for him as he rummaged around the weird lock.
Tate sighed and turned to Maddy. " Relax, Maddy, it's just an old abandoned house. Don't let those movies trick you; ghosts, vampires, and zombies are not real," He spoke calmly to her.
"How about this? Stick with me throughout the project?" He questioned.
Maddy bit her lips and slowly nodded, having no other choice than to believe in Tate.
"Okay," She replied.
"Okay," He smiled at her.
"How do we get through this gate?" Ray asked.
"Maybe, look around for something and break the lock?" Cathy suggested.
Ray scoffed, "Yeah, like there'll be a piece of metal lying around the creepy woods for anyone who would be crazy enough to want to enter the cursed hospital," Ray said, shaking his head at Cathy.
"Hurry up, guys," Maddy spoke to her friends.
"What the fuck, Maddy, how'd you get in there?!" Tate asked, chuckling unbelievably at Maddy.
They stared at her in disbelief, looking at the high gates up and down.
"Climb over, guys. The quicker we get done with this place, the earlier we leave," Maddy said, stepping away from the gate.
"Challenge accepted," Tate said.
"Come on, guy, let's climb over," Tate turned to Cathy and Ray before climbing over the gate himself.
"Come on," Ray helped Cathy climb over before he did so himself.
"You're quite eager for someone who doesn't like the place," Tate teased Maddy.
"That's why I'm eager, I want to leave this place faster," Maddy replied.
"So, this is it," Ray said as they all turned and looked at the dead building.
It was dead in every aspect, the building itself looked old and worn; walls were faded and scraped, roofs were partly fallen and hanging, and the whole place was dark with no atom of electricity.
"Flashlights on," Tate said to his friends.
They brought out their flashlights from the side of their backpacks and turned them on.
They exchanged a worried look with each other for a brief second before they walked towards the hospital.
"Should we knock?" Ray asked in a whisper.
"Yeah, Maybe the zombies might answer the door," Cathy joked, causing Tate and Ray to snicker but Maddy didn't join in their fun.
"It's unlocked," Maddy turned the metal knob, and the shabby glass door screeched as it opened.
"Oh God, what's that awful smell?" Cathy asked, covering her hand over her nose.
"Like a dead, rotten rat," Ray commented, scrunching his nose.
"Quit talking and take a picture of the entrance," Tate said to Ray.
"Yes, captain," Ray replied and took out his Nikon D850 camera from his backpack.
"Hold this for me, Captain," Ray gave Tate his backpack and stepped back from them to take a picture of the whole building before he came closer and took a close shot of the entrance.
"Done," He said and took his backpack from Tate.
"Good, let's head in," Tate said.
As they stepped inside, they noticed that the inside seemed to be a little bit in a better condition than the outside.
The white walls would have been pristine and clean if not for the unidentified stains on them. They noted that they were inside a long reception area with long fluorescent bulbs broken and hanging from the roof.
"I wonder what happened here," Tate said, his voice bouncing around the walls.
"Probably lack of management," Ray replied.
"Mm," Tate nodded.
"Hey, guys, does lack of management do this too?" Maddy asked from a corner, flashing her flashlight on the wall.
Her friends looked in her direction and were shocked to see a handprint stain on the wall, and the stain seemed to drag across the wall into another darker corner.
"Is that blood?" Cathy asked, controlling her breathing that was threatening to become loud with fear.
She wouldn't want her friends to laugh at her for getting scared over some simple stain.
"Yes, Cathy. It is," Maddy replied.
She took out her camera and took multiple shots of the stain and the walls around it.
She didn't like the place, but she knew that the pictures from this haunted-looking hospital would fetch them a full score on their project.
"Let's go see where the stains lead," Maddy said and walked forward, towards the darker corner.
"Hold on, Maddy," Tate held her back from her wrist.
"What? Isn't it what we're here for?" Maddy asked with a raised brow.
Tate sighed, "Yes, Maddy, but shouldn't we be cautious, what if a serial killer is hiding somewhere?" Tate said in a low tone.
Cathy nodded at Maddy, looking at Ray for support.
"You guys wanted to be here, now we're here. Trust me, I don't like this place any less than you all do; I just want us to get this done quickly so we can go back to the campus," Maddy said, looking from one person to the other.
"Okay, but you stay close to me," He held her wrist tightly and turned to Ray, "Do not let her out of your sight," he said.
Ray nodded and immediately held onto Cathy's hand and moved slowly behind Tate and Maddy.
They followed the hand stains on the wall as it gradually turned into a finger trail of blood on the wall, they passed the dark long passage and entered what seemed to be a laboratory where the trails ended but they suddenly noticed the bloody feet stain prints on the floor, it led up until the middle of the laboratory and ended there.
The stink of the rotten rats was heavier in the laboratory; the whole place looked scattered as if a fight between aliens and humans had taken place there.
Gooey liquids were left inside test tubes, glasses were broken all around the floor, stools were broken and fallen, and some chemicals were still dripping out from their huge containers
"This is weird..." Maddy said.
"Agreed," Ray commented.
"How about we stop playing detective and do our business and head out to another section of the hospital?" Tate asked
"Good thinking," Ray nodded.
He went ahead and brought out his tripod from his backpack and set it up at the center of the room, staying some distance away from where the blood trail ended.
"So, who'll do the talking?" He asked.
"I'll do it," Maddy volunteered.
"Okay, step into focus, awesome," Ray said as Maddy positioned herself in front of the camera.
"I'll take a private video for you," Tate said and took his phone to record Maddy.
Ray and Cathy stood beside Tate behind the tripod as Maddy started talking.
She was describing their location and their purpose of coming for this adventure in a dilapidated building, describing the condition of the building and everything they've noticed so far.
"Uh, guys..." Maddy suddenly paused her narration.
"I feel like someone's watching us from behind," She focused her eyes on Tate, afraid to look away and find out whatever it might be watching her.
"Come on, Maddy, are you trying to scare our viewers too?" Ray asked, chuckling.
"No, Ray, I feel it," Maddy said and stared at the camera as she felt the presence again, and this time, her eyes widened in horror as she saw someone standing a distance away from her through the camera.
"Guys..." Maddy called eerily, frozen in place.
"Oh...my... god..." Cathy gasped, her whole body starting to shake instantly as she stared at the bloodied man in a stained and dirty lab coat.
"Guys...he's behind me..." Maddy whispered, wide-eyed, voice shaking.