"It Rose from the Gurney!"

"It Rose from the Gurney!"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

Back when Fatima Hospital was still small my Tita Bing and I saw something there that has been in our memory for decades. This was back in the 80's when the Hospital only had a couple of floors or so. We went to visit my Lolo Romy in the hospital who just had Ear surgery done. Being new to the place my Tita Bing and I asked around to find my Lolo's room. We got lost.

Before we knew it we were climbing some stairs that lead to a double door. It was a bit dark but we found ourselves getting more curious about this stairs and the room just above it.we tried the door and was surprised when the door opened when we pushed it. We didn't know where we were and I didn't have a word for it back then but I believe that this was the Hospital Morgue or at least a Dissecting Room,I still am not sure . There were Several rows of bodies in gurneys there. Some still  tightly covered by white blankets. Some were covered by a heavy green tarpaulin like material. At the end of the room was  a raised stage where 3 more gurneys were placed. The 3 were lined in a neat row and all 3 cadavers that were on top of them was covered. 

I was holding on to my Tita Bing because the place didn't seem to be the place that you would want to hang out in . I was also feeling something very strange about the cadaver in the middle of the stage. I did not know for sure but the corpse rose up. Sitting up rigid and throwing the covers that was on it. Fear set in very fast and I was not able to see what the thing looked like , did not hear it moan or say anything,did not see it move down from the gurney it was on. All I know was that it rose up to a sitting position. I was not sure who grabbed who but we backed out of that room and we were running back down to look for more people. We did not look back. We were not as curious a couple of seconds before. We just ran. All I knew was that my heart was racing and it did not stop until we saw more people around us.