The old hospital building lay on the outskirts of town. For many years it had been left to decay, the new more modern building having taken its place. The front hall was filled with dirt and leaf decay heaped along the walls. Paint peeled off in great slabs, crunching beneath their feet as they searched for somewhere to rest. The place had been stripped of all the furnishing but since then illegal dumpers had left their trash in piles about the grounds. Vandals had smashed windows dragging old chairs into the building to sit around a drum fire while they drank. The evidence of their shenanigans lay discarded everywhere.

"What's your name?" Karl was the first to break the ice.

"Jimmy." He puffed in reply not being athletic, the run had nearly killed him.

"I'm Karl."Smiling he held out his hand for the lad to take.

"What are they?" He questioned shaking the hand tentatively.

"Well I can tell you one thing for sure, they are no longer people." Karl sat on a cushion less chair.

The Noise of feet echoed through the room causing them both to pause and look. As the sounds got close,r Karl looked for something to use as a weapon but came up empty. It mattered not anyway as armed soldiers swarmed the room like angry wasps ready to strike.

"Names!" Barked one of the soldiers without any emotion.

"I'm Karl and this is Jimmy." The old man spoke clearly, finishing it off with a large friendly grin.

"Don't move until we test you." The faceless solider ordered.

Jimmy clearly was not emotionally ready to have automatic weapons thrust at him, he began so sniffle and then sob. He shook uncontrollably, raising more suspicion onto himself.

"Test me first." Karl said stepping before the lad. "He has been through a lot."

The lead solider didn't seem to care one way or the other who he tested first. Not even registering that he had heard, he grabbed Karl's arm roughly, sticking a needle through his skin.

Karl's smile didn't waver for even a second. When the uniformed man pushed the plunger he looked at Jimmy and kept the smile up. A strange sensation filled the bus driver, as his abdomen split and his intestines dangled freely between his legs. He refused to believe what was happening. Even as his buttons popped from his driver uniform and his chest cavity opened. Involuntarily he stepped forward as a burst of machine gun fire ripped through him, spraying red fibers and blood across the room. He wanted to stop but whatever was inside of him continued to contort his already misshapen body. The last thing Karl heard before the deafening roar of the flamethrower engulfed him were Jimmy's screams, as his skin melted in the flames that engulfed them both.