He moved from underneath the table, but the sheet got caught around his head to leave him guessing where the zombies were. He got lucky and freed himself before running past them like a sprinter during a race, nearing the door to almost touch it when the pain in the arse, chopped up zombie gripped his foot again. Clive yelled at it as the grip remained strong, but this time he wasn’t able to free himself. The zombie tugged hard and tripped him, leaving him falling back to crack his head on the floor. He was knocked out.
He woke again a minute later to his head throbbing like someone was drilling inside his brain, but, when he tried to move, he couldn’t. He tried again, putting in extra effort, but his legs were stiff. He lifted his head to see two blurred figures sitting on either side of him eating some type of meat.
The canteen wasn’t open until the morning so how did they get this food? he thought, feeling sick from the throbbing pain.
But, as his eyesight slowly returned, saw puddles of blood by his legs.
Clive stared at the zombies tearing and eating the flesh from his limbs; the pain not registering because of the shock. But, as it subsided, he bellowed out loud. He slammed hands against the floor as more strips of flesh were yanked from his legs; opening his mouth to scream over and over again.
TWENTY-THREE
Wayne raced into the building, closely followed by a truncheon wielding angry-faced Jason, whose mind was set on taking down something similar to the creature behind Nash’s death. They heard a faint yell as they reached the reception desk but couldn’t see anyone needing their help. But still, the sound spooked them enough to become alert.
They saw Hazel racing towards them from down the corridor before a tearful Julie rushed out of the waiting room; both closing in at the same time as another squeal was heard.
“Where’s that coming from?” Wayne demanded, checking for the sound. “Seems far away.”
“It’s coming through the air vents,” Hazel replied, pointing at one on the bottom of a nearby wall.
“How?” Wayne snapped. “I told Julie to make sure no one went down to the lower levels.”
The young nurse raised a quivering hand as a teardrop slid down a cheek. “I’m Julie,” she said, wiping her face. “I spoke to the staff and also placed a sign on the exits leading downstairs…No one should’ve gone down there.”
“Well, it sure sounds like someone did,” Jason said, staring at her.
Julie looked to the floor as a sense of guilt washed over her until finding the strength to fight back. She knew she may have been partly to blame, seeing as it took her a few minutes to go from watching over Gary to organising what Hazel told her, but this wasn’t all down to her mistake. And she needed to let the officers know that.
“I did everything I was asked to do to prevent someone from going downstairs, but I can’t keep an eye on all the exits. I’m not a superwoman you know.”
Hazel hugged her before she lost it completely and ran out of the building, but another scream slipped through the vent to make them shudder.
“Someone must’ve ignored your signs!” snapped Wayne, glaring at the vent. “Who would be going down there tonight?”
“I don’t know,” Julie replied, sniffing as she struggled to cope. “Anyone who works in the morgue.”
“There can’t be many on duty at this hour, surely?” Wayne scratched his head. He tried to come up with a plan, but not knowing how many people were down near the morgue had him stumped. “Think…I need to know.”
Hazel gripped Julie tight, becoming her protector to swipe away Wayne’s aggressive approach at questioning her. She wasn’t standing for it anymore. Julie didn’t deserve it.
“That’s enough,” she said, holding out a hand. “She did her best…Now, haven’t you got a job to do?”
Wayne scrunched his lips and nodded before glaring at the vent again, moving closer to it as Jason watched on.
“Are you okay?” he asked, seeing the concentration on Wayne’s face.
“I don’t hear anything now,” Wayne replied, looking back at him. “I think that person is dead.”
Julie gulped as she pushed her head into Hazel’s breasts.
They shivered as the officers discussed a plan of action. They listened to them work out a way to enter the basement unnoticed before Wayne told them to do what was meant to have been done before. He and Jason would handle the rest. But, as the nurses followed them to the nearest exit, everyone’s hearts beat faster.
“Was that the best sign you could put up?” Jason asked Julie, close to smirking after reading the sign again. “Beware! Keep out!”
Julie just huffed and shrugged her shoulders.
“Maybe you should change it to crazy people are in the morgue,” Wayne said, grabbing his baton before smiling at her. “That’ll work.”
The nurses stood back as Wayne and Jason fought with feelings of dread; both breathing deeply as they neared the door. But Wayne froze as a flashback of him and Nash entering Vincent’s living room crashed into him. He shuddered, fearing that a dead person like the mother who was buried in the garden was behind the door; his head fogging up to scare him into lowering his baton.
“You’ve got this,” Jason said, gritting his teeth. “We need to do this for Nash…”
He was pumped up and ready to go but needed his superior to do the same. He knew the only way that would happen was if he opened the door, so he did but nothing was there.
“…Now are you ready?”
“I’m ready.”
They slipped through the doorway to hear it being barricaded by the nurses before slowly walking along a corridor; both whacking batons against walls to listen out for any movement. But it was too quiet and it freaked them out.
“Right, let’s get this done quickly and efficiently,” Wayne said, smacking his baton against the wall again. “I don’t want you racing around like a madman. There could be people still alive down there so no over the top impulses…You got that?”
“So no guns then?”
“Keep it holstered until it’s necessary…I don’t want you shooting up the hospital and scaring everyone upstairs.”
Jason nodded as they reached the lift, but, as he leaned over to press the button, Wayne grabbed his hand.
“No! Too much noise…We’ll take the stairs.”
“But we’ve just been banging on the walls,” Jason said, acting surprised. “Now you don’t want any noise?”
Wayne almost laughed. “We banged on the walls to see if any were up here, but now we know they aren’t we need to surprise them.”
They cautiously moved past the lift and aimed for the stairs, standing side-by-side until reaching them; keeping the truncheons out in front ready to swing at any intruders. But the silence scared them more than the thought of seeing one.
They followed the stairs, reaching the bottom to catch faint groans in the air; becoming louder by the second as they moved along another corridor.
“Stop…” Wayne softly said after spotting blood footprints on the floor. “We must be close.”
“We sure are,” Jason replied, pointing at a line of blood next to a bloody handprint on a wall. “Very close.”
Suddenly, a phone rang, spooking them into falling back against a wall; its ringtone echoing all around them.
“Do you think one of them has a phone?”
“Not if they’re dead,” Wayne replied, sweating. “Must belong to the person who screamed.”
Jason spotted Gary’s I-phone lying on the ground so quickly picked it up and turned it off, eyeing up the area to see nothing approach as he pocketed it and carried on walking. Wayne kept close to him as they neared the corner where Clive had bumped into his killers before stopping abruptly after witnessing the tray and smashed glass on the ground.
“Shit!” Wayne said, holding Jason back. “Now we know someone was here.”
“But what about others? Surely someone would’ve raised the alarm if they saw this?”
“True
…So let’s just assume that the person attacked was the only one.”
Wayne cautiously peered around the corner but quickly jumped back after seeing a mutilated body laid out across the legs of a sitting zombie. It was trying to place the dead person’s eyes into its eye sockets but one slipped from its bloodied fingers to fall to the floor. It groaned as it slammed a hand on the ground, moving it briskly as it sniffed the air. Wayne gulped as thoughts of the creature knowing he was there shook him up, but the sniffing stopped within seconds and the fallen eye was picked up again.
Jason closed in but Wayne placed a hand in the air to stop him. There was no need to speak, Jason knew he’d seen something.
He waited for Wayne to make a move but he was watching the zombie place the eyes into its sockets before seeing them fall out again to be picked up and placed in backwards.
“What are you doin’?” Jason whispered; slowly turning the corner to see the victim on the floor. “What the fucks happened to his brain?”
Wayne shook his head and stared at Clive’s body, flinching to see the top of his skull missing.
“I have no idea,” he whispered back, raising his baton to the sound of another groan. “But that thing is freakin’ me out.”
“You mean the thing that used to be the bank manager.”
Wayne glared at the zombified version of Vincent as more groans rang out before striking it across the face with the baton. But it didn’t fall. It just snarled and showed teeth. Wayne breathed fast, feeling scared as he slammed the baton against its face a few more times, seeing it topple over to slowly bounce back up again before looking at his shaking hand holding the weapon soaked in congealed blood.
“Why won’t it die?” Jason questioned, cringing at the sight of the dark juice leaking down the zombie’s face. “Hit it again…”
He touched his gun holster as Wayne struck the zombie again and again; each blow causing more damage than the one before as Vincent’s jaw hung off. But the beast still wouldn’t die. It got back to its feet, swinging hands like it was holding imaginary tennis rackets, growling as the officers avoided being touched.
“…Just put it down!” Jason worryingly shouted as the zombie aimed for him. “I can’t deal with…”
But a blast from Wayne’s gun sent sound waves crashing into Jason’s ears, rocking him into falling against a wall to see Vincent collapse.
Wayne re-holstered it, cringing after seeing blood and brain matter dribble down the wall that the bullet ended up in.
“Are you happy now?” he said, close to vomiting. “It’s down.”
Jason nodded as he eyed the fallen creature that now had a large hole in its forehead before poking his ears to try to stop them from ringing.
“It’s fuckin’ freaky seeing one movin’ about,” he said, stepping over the body of Clive. “But what about Nash?”
“What about him?”
“He could be one.”
Wayne stared at Jason. He knew he was right but it was taking a while to sink in. He shook his head and gulped before pointing towards the morgue room, feeling the hairs on his arms stick up from a sudden rush of nerves.
“Then let’s find out,” he said, moving past the bodies to follow the bloody footprints. “There’s more of them…We just need to find em’ before they kill again.”
They neared the door, but it flung open and knocked them over as the other naked corpses bundled out of the room. One was biting fingers off a torn away hand whilst the other had a mouthful of Clive’s brain. Jason panicked as he watched them closely before rolling along the floor to gain some distance. But the fingerless hand dropped next to him. He squirmed and got back to his feet, dodging the zombie’s swinging arms before jostling it to the ground, but struggled to hit it with his baton. Wayne blinked fast as he rose off the floor to see Jason scuffle with the corpse of Frank. He wanted to help but couldn’t stop shaking.
“Use your g…un,” he rushed from his mouth before staggering backwards. “Shoot it in the head.”
“You shoot it!” the angry reply came as Jason pinned Frank to the floor.
He was just about to crack the zombie’s head in with the baton when the zombified version of Nash suddenly pounced on him, pulling him towards its mouth.
“Come on, Wayne, shoot them!” he bellowed, slamming the baton around Nash’s face. “Snap out of it!”
But Wayne remained stunned.
Jason winced as Nash squeezed him tight; the strength stopping him from breathing as he lost the grip on the baton. He kicked out at the incoming Frank, sweating from fear as he smacked the back of his head against Nash’s chin; happy to see the grip loosen to allow him to breathe again so he could reach for his gun. He pulled it from its holster and aimed it at Frank but Nash’s cold hands wrapped around his stomach again, causing the gun to fire a bullet into a wall. Jason squirmed as he was lifted off the ground, but another bullet fired into Wayne’s left arm to knock him over.
Wayne reeled around on the floor in a desperate effort to reach for his gun, but terror overcame him after seeing Frank crawl along the ground to reach him. He closed his eyes, expecting to be attacked, but the zombie just got back to its feet and snarled at him as it shuffled along the corridor.
Jason tried every self-defence move he’d learned at the police academy but none were working as the zombie kept the grip tight. It lashed out to bite him but a hand gripped the bottom of its jaw to force its mouth shut, but, as Jason tried to shoot it, it quickly threw him against a wall and wrestled him to the ground.
Wayne opened his eyes to hear Jason panting for breath before seeing Nash pin him to the floor like a mad cage fighter looking for a victory. But Wayne was still too shaken to reach for his gun.
“Hold on,” he said, finding his courage. “I’m gonna’ shoot it.”
But, as he lowered his hand towards his weapon, flinched from the pain in his arm. He saw blood slide down his hand, dripping off his fingers to splash onto the floor; the aroma exciting the zombie, causing it to lose focus. It almost let Jason go and he noticed.
Jason quickly slammed his head against the zombie’s face again until able to point the gun at it, but it growled and gripped his gun hand, leaving him firing into the ceiling.
The beast was too strong for him.
He yelped as it squeezed his hand, breaking fingers before being punched with his other one. But it was no use, the zombie wouldn’t let go.
“I need help!” he hollered, kicking out at it again. “NASH! STOP!”
The zombie let go and stared at him, acting like it recognised his voice. It moved its head from side to side as if remembering what it used to be; its eyes twitching as if absorbing the words until a smile etched on its face.
Jason nervously crawled towards Wayne, avoiding the recent puddle of blood to grip Wayne’s good hand, but the beast pounced on him again before he was lifted off the floor.
“Finish it!” Jason barked. “Before it bites me.”
“Put your head down. I’m gonna’ blast its fuckin’ head off.”
Jason ducked as Wayne released his gun. He cringed as he shot the creature in the forehead, happy to see it roll off Jason to lay still.
“Is it dead?”
“I hope so,” Wayne said smiling. “I hit the sucker in the head…So, as far as I’m concerned, in the head means it’s dead.”
“Good. Now get me up.”
Wayne helped Jason back to his feet but closely observed him.
“How are you?” he asked, checking Jason’s uniform for rips and bloodstains. “It didn’t bite you did it?”
“Nah…I was lucky.” Jason stared at Wayne’s injury, feeling embarrassed by what he’d done. “You do know it was an accident?”
Wayne shook his head and winced. He knew Jason was a loose cannon but what happened wasn’t his fault.
“Of course I do.”
“Let’s find the last one,” Jason excitedly said, feeling a mad rush of adrenaline again. “Before it escapes�
�”
They raced away, but the corpse of Nash suddenly groaned, scaring them into stopping.
“…Are you sure you shot it in the head?” Jason asked, shaking as he faced the enemy. “Because it's getting up again.”
Wayne gulped as the groans increased.
He stared at the zombie as blood poured from its head, its mouth snapping as it moved in his direction.
“It should be dead,” he whispered, aiming his gun. “Well, dead again.”
The zombie slobbered as the groans turned into roars; its eyes glowing pure evil as it closed in. But Jason hollered: “NASH!” again to confuse it. It stopped and stared at its arm before lifting the hand to its face but another bullet fired, exploding the fingers, then two more shots caved its head in.
“Now it’s dead,” Wayne said, lowering his gun.
TWENTY-FOUR
The snarling corpse of Frank had made some distance as it navigated its way towards the stairs. It sniffed the air, taking in the still lingering aroma given off by the officers before following the smell to the first step, but it struggled to walk onto it. It grimaced as it snapped teeth before showing signs of someone thinking; awkwardly raising a leg before planting the foot onto the step; doing the same with the other one as memories flooded back. It picked up speed as the other steps became easy, reaching the top to follow the corridor leading to the exit door, but it stopped and looked confused. It bumped into the door a few times but it didn’t budge so turned its attention to the handle, gripping it to smile as it was turned. But still, the door wouldn’t open because a 2-seater sofa was forced against it on the other side.
The zombie snarled as it leaned a shoulder into the door.
It gritted teeth as it pushed against it, moving the sofa with ease before walking onto the hospital’s ground floor, but it seemed undecided on which direction to take. It glared from left to right, grunting as it moved away from the area, seeing no one because of Hazel’s order to keep it clear. But a sudden whiff in the air excited it. It licked its lips and followed the smell, twitching its nose after staring at an EXIT sign hanging from the ceiling; its head shaking as it neared the reception desk. But even that area was empty of people.
Clifton Falls: A Zombie Story [Part 1] Page 17