by Joe Kelly
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“Hurry up.” Mark said in a low voice. Ori only shot him a dirty look as he hooked the curved end of the pry bar into the narrow crack between the two frosted glass sliding doors and pulled. The door to the emergency room slid open suddenly throwing Ori off balance. Mark shouted a warning as he snatched Ori back by his collar with his left hand the rifle in his right hand rising into position.
The Undead filled the emergency room and were already pushing through the gap in the doorway. Mark back pedaled in horror dragging Ori with him as the zombies who had been on the other side of the door staggered out grasping fingers barely missing Ori as he was pulled out of the way.
Ori moved back on his own power as Mark let go, putting distance between himself and the Undead, he and Mark opened fire. Their wild fire settled down after a couple of seconds and fell into the pattern they had become used to when dealing with the undead. Jared moved to the right of the doorway, while Steve moved left so that the zombies were shredded in a cross fire as they poured out of the emergency room.
Pappy wasn’t happy about being stuck in the back of the Truck where he couldn’t even get his weapon into play without someone being in the way. Unable to effectively engage the undead streaming out of the ER, he settled for keeping an eye on the area around them. Last thing they needed were more zombies coming around the building and catching them unawares.
Deacon and Kyle looked lost unsure what to do so they stayed behind the trucks watching the road and the parking lot to the left where some kind of medical clinic and Medical supply store sat both men were ready to help when ever needed but didn’t like pappy didn’t want to get in the way either. .
“Step back” Jared yelled over the thunder of gunfire. All four men took a step back keeping up their rate of fire. Bodies lay heaped in and around the front of the doorway. But more undead emerged from the ER , some tripping over the pile of bodies, determined to reach the fresh meat that was so close.
Jason leaped out of Marks truck and grabbed a propane canister. Running forward, he launched the canister over the heads of the walking dead and into the emergency room. He could have qualified for the Olympic shot put team with that toss. Jared gave him a look of approval. “On my mark.” he yelled at Jason, who nodded as he ran back to the control box., checked the bomb number and inserted the battery to the correct unit.
The withering fire did little to stop the flow of undead, who kept coming like rising floodwaters. “how damn many can there be in there” Steve hollered as he changed magazines for the second time. Jared shot a look back and saw Jason had the control box open Seeing Jared looking Jason gave him the thumbs up.
“Fall back to the far side of the trucks.” Jared called out as one the four men turned and sprinted for safety. Ori placed a hand on the edge of the bed and leaped into the bed, another leap taking him to the ground on the other side of the truck. Pappy knowing what was coming ducked down in the bed cussing steadily.
Jared slid behind his truck took a quick look to make sure his people were covered then shouted. “Blow the damn thing”. Jason nodded and pushed the button.
.
Jared hadn’t been sure what to expect, when Ori had propose making Propane bombs. But what they got was pretty good all things considered. The explosion blew out all the glass in the emergency room sending it flying. Bodies were thrown forward slapping against the trucks, and blowing a few of the undead into the air. Jared looked up to see one zombie cartwheel over the bed of his truck snapping its neck when its head smacked the edge of the bed. Another fell in the back of Steve’s truck and Pappy’s indignant howl of alarm could be heard over the ringing in his ears.
“Son of bitch, I’m gonna put my boot up your ass, rip out your teeth and feed them to you.” Pappy hollered at Ori who having designed the damned bomb was in his book responsible for the zombie that had landed in the bed of the truck with him. “And you, you half rotted, syphilis carrying, Limp dicked, asshole,” Pappy Yelled in a surprisingly strong voice at the zombie “I’m gonna kill you a second time.”
Mark leaped to his feet, ears ringing ready to help and saw Pappy struggling with a zombie, the old man could barely hold its head away, its teeth snapped an inch from his throat. “Gonna gut you, you goat raping, Kilt wearing. Transvestite” Pappy said hoarsely, as he tried to shift around.
Finally, he got his feet up and into the zombie’s stomach and pushed up with every bit of strength he could muster and grunting in pain. As soon as he pushed the mobile corpse up far enough his right hand shot up from his side and he drove the old bayonet he always wore up thru the bottom of the things jaw and into its brain. The zombie suddenly went limp and pappy shoved it off breathing hard. “Don’t just stand there looking at me you pussy, shoot the bastards.” Pappy hollered pointing at the undead.
It only took a few more minutes to finish cleaning out the remaining zombies. Those closest to the bottle bomb had been killed when the shock wave had turned their brains to jelly. At around ten meters out , arms, legs and occasionally heads had been torn away and scattered around the emergency room where a few small fires still flickered.
Jared stepped over a shredded body and put a bullet into another zombie that was nothing more than a head with a torso. “Be careful, there might be more like that. Don’t want any one getting bit on the ankles.” He said.
“Mark, Chris, and Jason. Check the interior door into the hospital if its open close it for now.” He looked around. “Steve, your with me and Jill. Ori, you, pappy and Rob keep the parking lot open. Kyle you and Deacon I want you to back us up, if we shout you come running”
“I wonder how so many of those things ended up in here?” Steve asked as they stepped from the waiting room into the Actual ER. “never mind stupid question.” he said, in the early stages those bitten had rushed or been rushed to ER's where they had turned and attacked the people around them.
Jared frowned and pointed at a boom box sitting on a counter. the red battery light was still on. Some one had placed that here not long ago, no later than this morning or the batteries would most likely be dead. “Maybe not so stupid” he said then placed a finger across his lips for silence.
They did one sweep thru the ER before they were satisfied that it was empty of undead. Once they were as safe as could be expected they opened the Duffle bags they had brought and began to load anything that looked promising.
Medicines were in short supply at the camp and what was there in the ER was scattered on the floor or in a storage room that was thankfully open. Steve chuckled as he held up an opened package. “ Viagra, who ever the guy was he wanted a hard on” Jared laughed with him. Whoever had hit this place might still be alive and in town.
“How’s the parking lot Look?” Jared asked over the radio.
“a few dead folks are wandering this way but not a lot” Ori replied.
“Mark, status?” Jared asked.
“Don’t see anything in the hallway, but there’s a lot of closed doors.” Mark reported.
“Okay hang on we will be there in a few minutes. We have to load this stuff first” Jared replied.
ten minutes didn’t sound like a lot of time, but when your waiting in a very dim hallway, in a hospital where undead may be roaming around it can seem like an eternity. Mark thought as Jared and the others finally appeared.
“Glad you could join us” Mark whispered.
“Sorry we stopped off for coffee, and Steve had to flirt with a nurse” Jared replied.
“no problem I know how big a man whore he can be” Mark said with a quiet laugh
Jared peered thru the sliding glass door into the hallway beyond. A little light filtered into the dim hallway from a couple of open doors. The rest of the doors along both sides of the hallway closed all the way up to the intersection. There in the intersection in the deep shadows Jared could see an overturned gurney and a body. “This gives me the creeps” Jill said. Me too Jared thought but didn’t say anything. Probab
ly is a body, a zombie would have gotten up to check out all the gunfire and the explosion.
He glanced up at the signs on the wall then pointed the way to different sections of the hospital “well any one ready to visit the pharmacy?” Jared asked, already feeling the knot of nerves in his stomach come to life again.
They moved into the hallway, closing the sliding door to the ER behind them. Jason and Chris remained behind with Deacon and Kyle to hold the door just in case.
They moved as quietly as possible but with the tile floor they were still louder than Jared liked. All of them constantly expected one of the closed doors to open and zombies to pour out into the hallway. which only kept the entire group more on edge. Checking the signs at each intersecting hallway they moved slowly towards the pharmacy and deeper into the shadow filled hospital.
Finally, they reached a large hexagonal area decorated with fake plants and overturned benches, that had served as a waiting area for the pharmacy. Rust colored blotches of dried blood marred the once polished floor. Past the door on the opposite wall the hallway continued deeper into the building.
Jared sniffed and only smelled mold and the old smell of blood and death but not the stink of the undead. The window to the pharmacy was shuttered from the inside and from the look of the four-inch thick high impact plastic, they wouldn’t be able to shoot thru it.
“I think we would hurt ourselves more than the window or door.” Jared said as he studied the thing. Drawing his knife he stuck it in the wall, and sawed out a section of wallboard to shine his flashlight in to the hole. “Reinforced wall. The door frame is definitely reinforced, I don’t even have to look to know that.” Jared slammed a fist into the wall, “Damn it.” We need those meds”
“Shouldn’t there be some kind of system, that in case of emergencies, like power outages that you can open the door.” Jill asked.
“Sure it’s a doorknob on the inside.” Jared replied with grim humor.
“We could always level the place with the dozer” Steve said.
Jared leaned against the wall thinking. “How much cable do you have on your winch?” he asked.
“A hundred feet which won’t reach here anyway, and even if it did there aint no way in hell my truck is going to pull out a reinforced door” Steve replied as Jared looked thoughtful, then turned and eyed the two office doors across from the pharmacy.
“We need to check those out, because if theres a window in there, I have a hundred feet of cable too. And I wasn’t thinking about the trucks. we do have a dozer out there” Steve started grinning, “ that might just work”
Half an hour later, Jared stepped thru the hole where a door had once been and smiled as he looked around. “Grab the bags, we have work to do” he told the others then keyed his radio and asked “how’s the street look out there”
“As empty as an Albanian whore house” Pappy replied.
“Who gave him a Radio?” Steve asked with a shake of his head
“There’s a few on the north side Jared, maybe twenty in all.” Ori added. “they are all spread out, we were about to take them out with shovels and axes.”
“Be careful” Jared instructed needlessly then turned back to the pharmacy. “ I wonder if the pharmacy just down the road has been looted.”
“all right that’s it.” Jared said some minutes later as they swept the last of the drugs into trash bags they had found after filling the duffel bags.
“Not as much in here as I would have thought.” Steve said
“theres more scattered thru out the hospital in lock boxes, and secured storage areas on each floor, lets not be greedy today, we can come back and gather more later” Jared commented as they carried the bags out and placed them in the back of his truck. “all right lets mount up, the fuel yard is next”
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Seth looked at his watch; it was a nice watch that one of the deputies had given him. He heard lots of gunfire two and a half hour ago, probably when they entered either Waldecks pharmacy or the Emergency room. he hoped they liked his presents, it had taken a bit of work to get some of his neighbors inside. But in the end they had been overjoyed to be able to meet the new folks in town.
He looked down in the square and waved. Many of his neighbors were half way to the Hospital by now. He couldn’t wait, not really. All this excitement was giving him wood. If this lasted much longer he was going to have to head downstairs and get some relief. Stay and watch the party, or go downstairs and enjoy his fiancé. Both were fun, he thought sighing, but a good host doesn’t just leave the party before its over.
In the distance, he heard a motor, it took him a moment to recognize it as the bull dozer that had passed thru with the trucks. That thing was just annoying. He hadnt expect that nor had his friend. Let’s be honest, even with out a dozer, my slow moving and admittedly stupid neighbors weren’t a big threat.
He sighed in frustration and lifted his rifle. Good help was so hard to find as they used to say at least he had found some of the bullets his friend had suggested he use, right where he said they would be. Actually he had found almost every thing his friend had told him about during his last visit.
His friend was supposed to drop by tonight after the party to meet Seth’s fiancé and talk to him about his plans for the camp his guests had come from. Seth couldn’t wait, to share the success of his party either they could talk and laugh about it most of the night.
He removed the clip, he liked that it sounded all-military, it was the term he had heard in movies all his life, and inserted a new one with the special bullets. He lifted the rifle and peered thru the scope smiling as he saw the party favor. “I hope they appreciate all the trouble I went to”
He felt excitement build as he heard the sound of motors growing louder. He watched as the small convoy appeared at the top of the hill, he waited patiently as the Dozer moved past the strip center with the Cafeteria where his biggest party favor waited. He had used to like to eat there even if the waitresses had given him the cold shoulder. He didn’t mind so much now that he was engaged but it still rankled him. Hate to waste the shoe store too, but them be the breaks.
The first truck behind the dozer turned right down Clinton passing between the old train station and Axels Tire shop. “so they are going to the Fuel storage yard” he said chuckling at how easy it was to figure out what they were going to do. “well no time like the present” he said chuckling again this time at the joke inside the comment. He pulled the trigger, and cursed as he missed. His second shot went home and all hell broke loose.
Jared turned down Clinton, less than a block from the Fuel storage area. there were still a lot of zombies, but not as many as before since most of them had wandered out onto 52 following the sound of the motors. But there were more than enough of them left to be a problem.
He heard a shot but not from one of the weapons his people were using. He looked out the window towards the courthouse and saw a bar of light, and heard a Crack. Tracer round he realized confused for just a second and a second was far too long.
Behind him there was a flash of light, the back end of his truck bucked up, sending Steve flying from the bed and into the brush by the turn of the century train station. Debris, some of it burning began to fall to the ground. A acetylene tank riding a jet of flame shot out of the Cafeteria and crashed into the train station, in seconds the old wooden structure was burning.
Something big smashed into the hood of Jareds truck at almost the same time driving the whole front end down snapping a tie rod and shock, the truck yanked to the left and smashed into Alex’s tire shop, only the air bag kept Jared from smashing his face into the steering wheel. Somehow, he managed to get hand out to try and hold Jill back, it was of course a pointless natural reaction. Totaled the truck sat tilted to the front left with smoke rising from the engine and fuel leaking out of the ruptured fuel lines.
Bridget was just about to turn to follow Jared when the explosion occurred, the shock wave hit the truck
she was driving on its the side and sent it tumbling. Chris just reacted, as the truck went over flinging every one out. Some how he managed to grab pappy and wrap himself around the fail old man as they sailed out of the bed. He had no idea what happened to Deacon and Kyle. The truck rolled several times shedding parts and broken glass before coming to a stop on the roof of the cab.
Mark was just far enough back that his truck was only rocked from side to side. He slammed on his brakes as burning debris fell around his truck. “what the hell”
Stunned he stared for maybe a heartbeat watching as Jareds Truck smashed into the tire shop and Steve’s truck driven by Bridget rolled like a bowling ball down the street shedding parts and everything in the bed before it came to a stop in a ditch.
“Cover them” he yelled to Sharon and Ori as he leaped from his truck and ran to check out Bridget, his rifle at high ready. If she had died in the crash, she would be waking up as one of those things he thought as he slid to one knee beside the cab and peered into the truck. He really didn’t want to have to put her down but if he had to he would even if Steve hated him for it.