• There was once a girl named Dawn, who spent most of her life in a hospital bed connected to tubes and wires and machines. The illness she was born with always left her light-headed, confused, and slow to react. One cloudy day, Dawn was staring out the window when there was a loud crash from outside her room followed by screams upon screams. A nurse came bursting through the door covered in blood and slammed the door shut.

    "What.... is..... going on....?" Dawn croaked.

    The nurse did not reply as she held on to her bleeding shoulder. She grabbed a chair and positioned it under the door handle so that nothing could get in. Someone began pounding on the door with their hands, not even bothering with the door handle. The nurse let out a scream before moving more furniture in the way of the door. The pounding on the door stopped, and who ever was trying to get in was now gone.

    "What..... is...... happening.....?" Dawn asked again.

    "They're coming!" was all the nurse said.

    As soon as she placed the table in front of the door, the nurse grabbed her shoulder and screamed out in pain. She fell against the wall and cried. The noise outside and the screams continued, until finally they faded away outside. Then the screams multiplied. Car horns honked, wheels screeched on the pavement as they came to sudden stops. Sirens wailed, and the sound gun shouts cracked the air. All these sounds only made the nurse cried harder.

    Hours past, and the world became silent; a sound that Dawn had never heard while being in the hospital. How could there be no sound?

    "Nurse.....?" Dawn whispered.

    There was no reply.

    Dawn struggled to lift her body and craned her neck in order to find the nurse. The nurse was hunched over against the wall. She had not moved since she had fallen, and her hand still grasped her shoulder as she stared at the floor. She didn't make a sound.

    "Nurse....?" Dawn tried again.

    This time, Dawn got a response.

    "Ugh...." said the nurse, as a trimmer shook her entire body. Her legs slowly began to move. She shifted her body in different directions until she was able to get herself to stand up. She stood still for a moment, then slowly waddled over to Dawn.

    "Nurse.....?"

    The nurse reached out and grabbed Dawn's arm, and slowly lifted it to her lips. With a sudden snap in her neck, the nurse bit down on Dawn's arm.

    Dawn scream, and pulled her whole body away, causing her to fall out of bed and on to the floor. The needles and tubes that were imbedded in Dawn's flesh came ripping out from the force of her fall. The nurse hobbled around the bed, her mouth dripping with Dawn's blood.

    Dawn sat still, watching the nurse; her ability to react shot by her illness was taking its toll. The nurse bent down and grabbed Dawn's leg, and again took another bite. Dawn yanked her leg away and knocked over some heavy machinery that had once been connected to Dawn. The machine fell on top of the nurse, pinning her body to the floor. A loud snap echoed from her back, as if her spine had just broken in two. Dawn grabbed the handle bars on the bed and lifted herself up. Her knees and legs shook, for she had never walked a day in her life. She forced one leg after another and headed for the light coming from the window. As she passed the nurse, the woman pushed the machine off her body and shifted herself around so she could get up again. Once standing, she turned around to face Dawn, who was now standing in front of the window. The nurse let out a piercing scream and launched herself at Dawn. Dawn's knees buckled from under her and she fell to the floor just as the nurse had charged at her, missing, and crashing through the window, falling from the seventh floor to the ground.

    Dawn lay on the cold floor for several minutes, before the pain in her arm and leg became too much for her to bear. She forced herself to sit up, and the world began to spin, and the room slowly going dark. Confusing these systems with her illness, she crawled over to bed stand where her medication was. She reached up for the vile, and knocked it on to the floor. She popped open the lid and swallowed two of her pills. The darkness did not go away, and she fell into a deep sleep on to the floor.

    When she finally woke up, the next morning had just begun as the sun was rising. Dawn lifted her tired body off the floor and on to the bed, unbelievably having no problem getting up and standing. Her legs did not shake, and she was not dizzy. Even more, her mind was functioning properly enough to notice this. She looked at the vile still in her hand, then walked over to the broken window. Dawn had never seen the world outside the hospital, but even still, she knew there was something wrong. The streets were deserted, cars were turned over or parked in places they shouldn't be, the birds were not flying in the sky, and the only things that moved were the loose paper that blew in the steady wind.

    Dawn had never seen the real world, but this was the world that she had woken up to.