It was an average night for Ashley. Well… about as average as you can get for an asylum nurse. Most people wouldn’t be able to work a job like this. The screaming patients, the bad conditions, and just a creepy environment would make any normal person never want to set foot in this place. That’s how Ashley felt before she got here. At first it was horrible, Ashley hated the place. The patients were crazy (obviously) she didn’t like most of her co-workers, and she didn’t feel safe at first. The only thing that kept her there was the pay. Which was above average for a regular nurse. Having to deal directly with those psychos to deliver their medicine always had her in constant fear. But after a year of the same daily routine, it’s just her life now.
    She pushed her cart to the end of the hall and swiped her key card to get out of the hallway. Thankfully she only had to deal with the A-Wing patients. She not dare go into intensive care. She had never been there and never wanted to. The horror stories the other employees tell her were something she never wanted to experience for herself.
    “Hello” she said to about every other employee she passed. She still didn’t know everyone there because of the large amount of employees they had, such a large asylum needed a lot of hands on deck to keep it running.
    “Hey Ashley”!
That was Madison. Her best friend and coworker. They met on the first day during all the instructions and they've been close ever since.
“Hey girl” Ashley replied “What wing were you working tonight”?
“Intensive, oh my God it was horrible. One of the patients tried to attack me when I was administering a shot. Thank god for the security that helps out or that would’ve been it for me”
“Geez that sounds awful” Ashley responded “I don’t know what I would’ve done. You want to grab some food after I clock out”?
“Yeah that sounds great” exclaimed Madison “I’m literally starving I haven’t eaten all day”
“Alright ” Ashley started. “Well we can go to Mc…”
“Crap” Madison cut her off.
“What is it”?
“I left my phone in the intensive wing”.
“Alright let’s go get it”
They walked over to the stairwell and Ashley slid her key in the card reader. They speedily walked down the stairs until they got to the intensive wing.
“I sure hope it’s not in that one wacko’s cell” Madison prayed “If it is , the psycho can have it”
“Calm down… I’m sure it’s somewhere in the hall. Maybe in the office at the end of it or something” Ashley comforted her.
Ashley slid her keycard in the card reader and the door slowly slid open. As it did all the noises of hell broke lose. Constant blabbering and insane gibberish filled the air. Screaming, moaning, crying, and shrieking blasted their ears. To any normal person, this was the strangest sound ever. To an asylum nurse, just another day at work.
They walked down the hallway ignoring every time the patient's call them over,, as they were taught to do. If anything they were inmates. Ashley hated calling them patients with the knowledge their not gonna get healed. Just taken care of until they pass away.
“Alright” said Ashley “Let’s go check the offic...:”
Everything went dark and a loud whirring sound filled the air. The only thing lit in the entire hallway was a candle towards the end on the side, which they used when they wanted to conserve wing power. But this was different, this wasn’t called for. This was a random power outage.
“ASH, ASH, ASH” Madison said in a loud whisper. “Turn your phone light on”
“Okay, okay, okay” She fumbled in her pocket and pulled her phone out and switched the light on. What she saw when she flipped it on, was the stuff of nightmares.
The entire hallways doors were wide open, and patients were starting to shambel out. Highly, highly dangerous patients at that.
“Ash, Ash we gotta get…” 
    A patient snuck up behind Madison and took her to the ground, as she was on the ground he started brutally attacking her. The patient took notice of Ashley and mid attack looked at her and cackled “Hahaha better run” The scene behind him was insane. A big brawl had broken out. Inmates were beating each other to death.
    Ashley ran over to the far side exit near the office, with her phone light still on. Ashley had to get out of there. Even with her phone light off she would likely not survive. The patients have incredible eyesight in the dark due to their constant exposure to it. She got to the exit door and frantically swiped her key card.
    “C’mon, c’mon please” she begged. Nothing
    She looked at the office and saw the door was still slightly open. She rushed into the room, frantically pulling the door closed behind her. She laid a hand on her chest as if to will her heart to stop racing as her eyes searched for a hiding place,a weapon, something. She had just watched one of her friends get murdered and she wasn’t about to end up the same.
    “Crap, crap, crap, there’s nothing here” she needed a weapon. Some of the inmates in the asylum and especially in intensive care are numb to pain and even incredibly strong. So if they wanted to or knew where she was, they could easily get past that locked door.With nowhere to hide she had to get out of there. She grabbed the fire extinguisher off the wall as her only defense, and decided to wait for the perfect moment to get out.
    Outside the office window was chaos, inmates were beating each other to a pulp. And she even spotted a few nurses who were unfortunate enough not to make it to the office.
    “This is literally hell on earth” Ashley said to herself. She started thinking of a plan to get out. The keycard door can be manually pulled out if she had a crowbar or similar tool. But she needed that first. One of those would be in the supply closet toward the far end of the…
    Her thoughts were cut short by a knock at the door.
    “Helloooooooooooooo” a shrill laughter followed “Anyone home”
    She stayed silent. Not wanting to draw any attention to her location
    “Listen sweetie” the evil voice continued “We saw you run in there, you’re not safe”
    The window crashed open as the inmate shouldered his way through it. “There you are, you didn’t think you could hide forever did you”?
    Ashley grabbed the fire extinguisher hose and pointed it at him “Get back, get away”
    “I’m not scared of you” laughed the inmate “you should be scared of me though”.
    He took another step and Ashley let loose a fury of white powder into his eyes.
    “Aghhh I can’t see” He screamed. Taking her opportunity, Ashley ran up and bashed the blinded inmate upside his head with the extinguisher. And proceeded to hit him with it multiple more times.
    Bloodied and exhausted, Ashley climbed out the broken window the now dead inmate had broken. Carefully and slowly, she made her way to the utility closet, narrowly avoiding detection multiple times. When she reached the closet, she thoroughly searched and found the holy grail! A crowbar.
    Once again she made her way back to the office and door. She slowly maneuvered. Being careful to avoid all human contact. The door and office were in sight! Freedom at last. She got to the door and slowly started prying it open. It was strenuous and well beyond what she would be able to do under any other circumstances. She finally got the door open enough to slip through. She slipped her leg through, then her arm, then her…
    “Where do you think you’re going” a sinister voice asked
    She was grabbed by her other arm and pulled back into the chaotic wing.
    “You nurses don’t have the privilege of getting out” the madman taunted.
    “GET OFF ME” she screamed and kicked at his face “GET OFF”
    “I’ll get off once I get out” he yelled madly. Ashley kicked, punched, and squirmed trying to get the madman off her. She got one arm loose and grabbed at the crowbar.
“GET AWAY” she yelled as she swung the crowbar at his head. She heard a loud cracking sound and assumed she broke his skull. But his grip on her never loosened. He got close to her face and his hot smelly breath hit her face. She winced away and muttered “What do you want from me”. The inmate, crowbar still lodged into his head c***ed his head back and laughed.
“I want you to get me outta here” He swung his head forward and headbutted Ashley right in her head, knocking her out.

    The world was spinning, at least it was to Ashley when she came too. There was a candle flickering in the distance. Ashley slowly sat up and got herself together. Her head was throbbing from the force of the headbutt. She slowly stood up and looked around. The room was completely barren, except for a candle flickering in the corner.
“Where in the world am I” she asked herself. She looked down and noticed she had been stripped of her nurse uniform. “That must’ve been what that psycho wanted” she said aloud. Ashley went over to the candle and picked it up. That being the only source of light now that her phone’s gone. She was freezing, having on only a pair of leggings and a short sleeved shirt, not even any socks and shoes. She almost could feel frostbite creeping up her feet. She walked over to the door and saw a very small opening. Almost like a mail slot. She slid the cover off and yelled out the hole “Anyone out there”? No response. “ I could use some help, I’m a nurse here, I’ve been thrown in here by the inmates” No response. It then dawned on her where she was. She was in solitary. And if the entire asylum had went to crap, there was surely no one around down there to help her.
She started banging on the door very loudly “HELP PLEASE, I WANT TO GO HOME” She put her back against the door and slowly slid down in defeat. She put her head on her lap and started sobbing.
“WHO’S IN THERE CRYING” a loud voice rang out through the solitary hallway.
Ashley sprang back up “YES HELLO” she yelled out in joy “I’M A NURSE THOSE PSYCHOS THREW ME IN HERE” Footsteps started walking towards her. She heard the door groan and it slowly slid open. There stood a security guard for the asylum. Armed to the teeth with a blast mask, assault rifle, police baton, and a bullet proof vest.
“We’re in a very bad situation right now we need to get out of here” he told Ashley.
“Where are the police” she asked “It’s been hours where’s our help”
“During a power outage we have no wall phones here or wifi. I would call off a cellphone but as you know we get no service far out here. The only way anyone could call the police is if they get out of the asylum and call once they leave the wooded area surrounding us. So far I don’t believe anyone has made it out”.
“Are you serious”? Ashley gasped.
“As serious as can be” he replied “It’s a complete bloodbath up there, it’s been hours fighting those freaks, there’s so many of them, and so little guards. Most of the nurses and doctors have been killed, with the exception of you”
“So how are we gonna get out of here”? Ashley inquired.
“We can’t, unless we get some power running through this place”.
“How are we gonna do that”? She asked
“Well we need to get the generator up and running, which means we need fuel. If we go to the basement we can get gasoline canisters”
“Why haven’t you done that already”
“A bunch of them are down there and I can’t get anywhere near the fuel canisters without having to kill them first, which I’d like to avoid doing if possible”.
“Alright well let’s get down there and get out of here”.

Ashley and the security guard snuck through the wings and made it to the basement stairwell. The guard loaded his rifle and threw Ashley his pistol.
“If they come too close for comfort, shoot them. Otherwise try not and shoot them unless you’re sure that you’re in danger”. The guard told her
“Alright, I never got your name”. Ashley said
“I’m Austin” he stuck his hand out to shake hers. Ashley shook his hand and said “I’m Ashley”
They turned and opened the basement, the room would’ve been pitch black if it wasn’t for the candles all around. With those candles illuminating the room you could see the inmates walking around. Doing the usual. Blabbering, constant gibberish, no destination when they walk around the room. Just kind of shambling around.
They snuck past about all of the inmates within seconds, and the fuel canisters were in sight. She grabbed up two and the guard grabbed one. Then started the walk to the other side of the room. They both slowly maneuvered their way to the other side of the room. Being careful not to touch the inmates or that could be their life. The door was almost in reach.
Ashley grabbed the knob and pulled it open. She went out the door and turned around to wait for the guard. He was almost out the door when a few pairs of hands grabbed him and pulled him to the ground. Ashley watched in horror as all the inmates in the room started beating him down. Ashley pulled out the pistol he had gave her and fired off a few shots. She shot and killed a few inmates, but there were still at least twenty beating on him. Ashley realized it was futile so she grabbed her two fuel canisters and made a run up the stairwell to the power room only one floor above.
Luckily the keycard door was already propped open and she got inside. She walked over to one of the generators and pulled the gas cap off. She poured her first gasoline can in, then picked her other one up and emptied that one in two. A loud whirring sound filled the air as power was restored, at least for a short while.
“YES” she screamed almost jumping with joy. She ran to the stairwell and went up to the main floor and through the lobby.
It was chaos, nurses and doctors dead, security guards slaughtered as well, and inmates lying on the ground. Everyone could have got out safety if the entire building wasn’t electricity dependant. Ashley walked up to the lobby door and slide her keycard. It slid open and she went outside to smell the fresh air.
“Thank god I got out of there, now I have to alert the police” Ashley said to herself. She ran over to her to car, got in, started it up, and drove away. “I hope I never have to work there or any other place like that ever again” Ashley sighed.