A vintage green ambulance van roams the streets of Virginia looking for me. I can’t let my guard down.

In December 2022, my company hosted an on-site blood drive. After finished giving blood, I was given a chocolate bar by a smiling nurse. In hindsight, I should have noticed then that her uniform was slightly different from the people who were part of the blood drive.

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I remember noticing a dirty mint green 1970s camper van. It had a small blue siren light on the roof, which was the only thing that told me it was an ambulance. It seemed out of place among other white vehicles associated with the blood drive. I thought all this while munching on the chocolate bar.

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About 15 minutes later, I found myself clutching my stomach on a sofa in my company’s front lobby. I felt like two monkeys were having a knife fight in my stomach. I heard people were talking about me as they hovered over me but I didn’t look up to see. The next thing I know, I was carried into that green ambulance van.

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The trip was short, which raised my concern. I worked at the company for over 10 years, and every time someone had to go to a hospital, they always went to the one in Harrisonburg, Virginia, which was at least 40 minutes drive away from our factory.

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There was one other hospital that I could think of. We passed by it almost every day because it was so close, but no one goes there.

The hospital was a two-stories building in the middle of a cornfield. I had never seen any cars parked near it. If someone told me the building was abandoned, I would believe them. The only indicator that it was a hospital was a very old banner with a faded plus sign on it.

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The ambulance driver guided me through the front door and then left. Four nurses in classic white nurse uniforms walked out to greet me. They all smile nervously as if they were being held at gunpoint.

The nurses all seem to be wearing heavy makeup. Their skin…, and this might sound weird, but it felt like they were not wearing their skin comfortably. I almost wanted to shake them so that their inside would be more aligned with their skin if that makes any sense.

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The nurse formed a line and guided me to a room. I was weirded out by all of this and starting to want to leave. One of the nurses told me to sit. As soon as I sat down, she quickly strapped me to the chair.

I freaked out right away. I asked her what she was doing. She didn’t answer and went to join three other nurses in the room who had their backs against the wall in the room’s dark corner. They all stood there and watched me in silence, still smiling nervously, not moving.

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I had about enough and was just about to open my mouth to tell them to unstrap me, then I heard heavy footsteps getting closer to the room. The man was wearing a white coat, so I guessed he was the doctor in charge. But, he was huge. He could easily be seven feet, but he hunched over. He too, looked like he was too small for the skin he was wearing.

I was so nervous when talking to him. His uneasy forced grin didn’t help. I explained my symptom and the doctor just nodded. He then turned to the four nurses standing in the dark. He said to them to admit me.

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If I could I would have jumped out of my chair. I said firmly that I was not going to get admitted, are you crazy? The doctor shook his head and said that he couldn’t in good conscience release a patient who is unwell.

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I started to get extremely nervous now. This guy was serious. I told him that he could not admit me against my will. His eyes widen and his grin became even wider. He then said in an eerie calm way, “sonny boy, of course, I can”.

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The doctor then handed me a glass of water, he then said casually that food poisoning can sometimes cause delirium. My mind was scrambling. This doctor just threatened me. I realized that if I made a scene, he could use that as another reason to admit me.

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Just when my lip touched the cup, I could hear a loud voice screaming in my head saying: don’t! A bit of it seeped in between my lips and went into my mouth anyway. Then, a nurse wheeled in a bed with several straps on it. I grabbed my phone, thinking about speed-dialing someone, but then my ears started to ring and I felt like the room was spinning very fast. I then passed out.

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I woke up to a sound of a woman crying and wailing loudly. It was dark but I could see. I was strapped to the bed, but I still tried to pull my neck up to try and look around to assess my situation.

There were curtains surrounding the bed I was strapped to. In addition to the woman’s wail, I could hear grunting from all around me. I realized that I was in a very large room, like a school gymnasium. The grunting and crying sound around me were from other patients.

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What helped me at the time was that I was on a thin line between being fat and normal. This meant I could make my belly flatten quite easily by just holding my breath, and even easier if I was lying down. So I felt like I could wiggle my way out of the bed restraint. As I was wiggling, I started to see the detail of the painting on the ceiling.

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It was a painting of the nurses and the doctors of this hospital, standing shoulder to shoulder, looking down from above, right down at me. Their eyes were hollowed out, and their mouth were wide open. There were no teeth or tongue, just black paint. I had never seen such a horrifying painting before in my life.

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As soon as I broke free, I opened the curtain and saw the other beds. The grunting ceased by then, and the only bed that seemed to have any movement was a woman who was crying uncontrollably.

I wanted to go to her and ask her what was wrong. I even considered asking her to escape with me. Suddenly, she started to jump up on her bed and dance, which I could see in silhouette through the curtain. She started to laugh maniacally, saying that this hospital was the final destination, we are all going to die. Never mind then, I thought.

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I got out into a hallway and there was no one. As I walked past a stairwell, I could hear the sound of people praying in unison coming from the basement. This creeped me out so badly. But, I wondered if the reason why I could escape easily was that they were all downstairs.

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I may have woken up earlier than they expected since I drank only a few drops of the water the doctor gave me. I passed the room where they strapped me to a chair earlier, and thank god, I found my phone and shoes.

It was already dark, but I didn’t care. I just jumped out of the window and made a break for it. The night was surprisingly well-lit thanks to an almost full moon. While I was walking along the edge of the cornfield, I noticed human heads poking out from the field.

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I know I shouldn’t stop, but curiosity got the better of me. I peeked and saw people in hospital gowns just walking in place in the cornfield. Their eyes were opened, and they were still blinking, but they just stood there, staring at nothing. It was like they were lobotomized. I didn’t have time to stick around though, I had to hurry out of there.

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I knew there was a plaza about 4 miles from where I was. Everything but a liquor store must have been closed by then, but I will take my chance.

I called a friend from the factory to come pick me up in front of the liquor store. About ten minutes after the call, a bunch of lights lit up in the distance. Those lights were coming from the cornfield. They finally knew I escaped.

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As I was getting into my friend’s car, I could see the green ambulance van approaching from far away. My heart sank to my stomach. Is the van going to follow us? I kept glancing over my shoulder to see, but it never did. I thanked my friend about 50 million times during the ride.

My friend dropped me off at my former supervisor’s house. She was also my mentor at the factory. Her husband was a physician and he gave me some real medicine for my stomach. I was welcomed to stay at their guest house.

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The next day, I was fully recovered. My mentor’s husband said that the hospital he worked at could give me a doctor’s note.

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My mentor’s husband gave me a ride to the hospital in Harrisonburg. Just as I was about to get out of the car, I saw the same green ambulance van from that awful hospital. It was like it was waiting for me. I started to panic. What if it could somehow drag me back to that hospital and I wouldn’t be lucky like last time? I told my mentor’s husband that I didn’t need the doctor’s note anymore.

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I got back to my company to get my car. It was the weekend so there weren’t a lot of people. I planned on asking people at the front desk on Monday how they allowed my kidnapping to happen. Just when I was about to leave, my heart sank when I saw that green ambulance van showed up in the company’s parking lot.

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Did the ambulance van know I was coming? Was it tracking me somehow? Did somebody at the factory gave them my information and tell them that I was coming?

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I quickly got into my car and drove out of there. I told myself I was not going to go anywhere near that area ever again. I thought I was going to have to quit.

That all happened in December, and I did quit. Yes, I did not even take the end of the year bonus. I was so freaked out by that experience and it was not a small thing. Those people, the van, and the grinning nurse was right here at the company.

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In late January, I had to go to my mentor’s house to do her a small favor. I couldn’t say no, since she did so much for me.

On my way back from her house, I stopped at a gas station along Interstate 81. I was just about to pay for my drinks when I turned and saw the green ambulance van making its way into the station.

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I screamed in my head for the cashier to hurry up. As soon as I got my things, I sprinted to my car. As I drove out, I could see the ambulance van moving, trying to cut me off. Good thing there was another car that got between us. I managed to escape again.

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I looked back at the green van through my rearview mirror in anger. I realized now that I can never return to this area again. But that was still not the end of it

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In late February, my niece called me and said she saw a dark green van parked on the opposite side of the house she was living in, which was the address I listed as a home address back where I work in the factory.

Then, just last week, the first week of March 2023, I went to a post office in Maryland to get my mail from my PO Box. When I got out of my car, I saw a van. It was the same type of van but it was in a different color and didn’t have an ambulance light on the roof. I stared at it for about ten seconds, then I saw movement in the driver’s seat. I wanted to scream in frustration. I didn’t know if I was too paranoid or not, but I got back into my car and drove out of there.

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From now on, I knew that at any moment if I let my guard down, I might find myself waking up back in that room. I could still remember that painting of the nurses and doctors without eyes and wide open mouths staring down at me.