by Katz, Gayle
“It’s OK. We’ll just go together. Did you want to turn off your phone to conserve energy too?” asked Zan.
He shrugged and pocketed his device. “Good idea.”
“So, where to now?” Owen asked.
“Well, we’ve got this part of the hospital cleared. I think we need to head to the individual rooms, perhaps even the O.R.” Charlie put her phone back in her pocket.
The team walked down the hallway to the patient rooms to clear those first. Then they would tackle the O.R.
“I wonder what infected the entire hospital?” asked Owen.
As they strode down the hallway, they had to kill the odd zombie lying on the ground. Whatever had infected them had incapacitated some people, while others it had turned into full-blown zombies.
This outbreak was different than the last one in Portland, and the one that happened in Dallas.
“Well, the only things I can think of are that they’ve been directly infected with the virus, or that they have had something to eat or drink containing it.”
“There’s no way someone could have run around jabbing people with needles,” said Zan.
“I don’t think so either,” said Charlie.
“I hope it’s not in the Portland water supply,” said Owen.
“No, I doubt it,” said Charlie.
“Food then?” asked Zan.
Charlie nodded.
“I wonder why they did it?” asked Owen. “If there is no zleader, then why change all these people into zombies?”
They found the patient rooms on the upper floor and entered the first one. It was empty.
“Well, there could still be a zleader, but they could be human,” said Charlie.
“What?” exclaimed Owen. “What is the point of that?”
“Well, they could be hoping to amass a gang of zombies who would do their bidding, I expect.”
“Wow,” said Zan. “Zombies are chaotic even with a zleader. Imagine a human trying to organize them!”
The second room they were in had two people who were actually patients and sleeping. They quickly left, ensuring that their door was tightly closed.
“I’m not the evacuation party,” muttered Charlie, as the team pushed a bench in front of the door. “That will keep them safe for a bit.”
They did the same with the next few rooms. A few of the patients looked up confusedly.
“Power is out!” yelled Zan. “Everyone stay where you are!”
They also closed and barricaded that door.
It appeared that the patients weren’t infected, so that was something.
“So, what would infect the workers and visitors in the hospital but not the patients?” asked Owen.
“Geez, you ask a lot of questions,” said Zan.
“Well, it could have been food in the cafeteria. I highly recommend no one eats or drinks anything unless it’s from a vending machine or straight from the tap,” suggested Charlie.
The other two nodded.
After they’d checked the rest of the rooms and the nursing station, they headed up to the next floor. Fortunately, it was a small hospital, so this was the last floor.
“We’ll check this floor and then leave,” said Charlie.
“Wait a minute,” said Zan. “What if some people were infected and left the hospital?”
Charlie smirked. “Our job is never done.”
Fortunately, there wasn’t much happening on the top floor. There were a few patients still lingering in the waiting room. They were told to go home.
“Weird,” said Owen. “It’s like the hospital is completely abandoned by the staff.”
In the distance, they heard the sound of sirens.
“Great. Help’s here,” said Charlie. “Owen, go down and tell them what has happened. If Sergeant Bourne is there, fill him in. Otherwise, tell them to contact him.”
Owen nodded and headed out. He pulled out his cell phone for light.
“So, now what?” asked Zan.
“We forgot a floor.”
“Really? The roof?”
“Nah, that’s not an issue. I’m thinking the basement, where the morgue is.”
“Oh, right,” said Zan. “The basement. But you don’t think there will be zombies in the morgue?”
“Nope,” said Charlie. “But there might be zombies down there somewhere. Plus, it takes a lab to make whatever virus has turned these people. I want to snoop around a bit.”
“Great. Well, begin snooping because we’ll be interrogated once the cops arrive. The less said, the better.” Zan followed Charlie to the exit stairwell. This was definitely the one that headed down to the basement.
They reached the basement hallway without incident. The halls were quiet. There was no one in the office. They finally reached the morgue, and pushed open the doors. There was no one in there, except for two bodies lying on gurneys. They were definitely dead.
“OK, so nothing here,” said Zan.
“OK, then just one more room,” said Charlie, pushing through the swinging doors.
Charlie walked up to the one remaining door in the hallway. Above them, they heard some gunshots.
“We must have missed a few,” commented Zan.
“That’s fine,” said Charlie. “The Portland Police likely have experience with this, even if they don’t want to admit it. Besides, I’m getting rather tired.”
Zan yawned in response.
Charlie pushed the door open. It was the lab. She had a look around. “It looks like your standard lab.” She pulled open a small refrigerator. Inside were some small vials. “They’re all marked as standard vaccines, plus a few blood samples. I don’t see anything weird here,” Charlie said. “It’s all basic stuff. There’s nothing like any experiments or anything.”
“Doesn’t look like it. Anyway, as I said earlier, I doubt that anyone created an injectable virus, and then ran around the hospital jabbing people.”
“Fine,” said Charlie. “Let’s get out of here.”
Chapter 8
________________________________________
Owen was waiting for them in the main admitting room near the exit sign. “Hey, any luck?”
They shook their heads. “Pretty clear the rest of the way.”
“The cops searched the hospital, then said they were going for a bite to eat,” said Owen, filling them in.
“Good. Well, this outbreak has been contained,” said Charlie.
“Yeah, apparently some zombies got out of the hospital, but roadblocks were set up as soon as someone called 911 from the hospital, like hours ago.”
“Good,” said Zan. “I’ll look forward to getting some sleep.” She took a step to the exit.
“Umm,” Charlie said. “Where were the cops going to eat?”
“Dunno,” he said. “Maybe the cafeteria?”
Zan stopped.
“But, did you tell them our theory?” she asked.
He shook his head. “No, darn it. I’m running on empty here.”
“Umm, surely they wouldn’t eat any cafeteria food with dead people in there, right?” asked Zan.
“I don’t know,” said Charlie.
“OK, I’ll go and report in with Sergeant Bourne,” said Owen.
“OK,” said Charlie. “We’re heading back to the cafeteria.”
Zan was muttering something under her breath as they walked back to the cafeteria. Charlie winced and tried not to hear what she was saying.
“So, what’s the longest you’ve gone without sleep?” asked Zan.
“Hmm. Probably about 48 hours. I literally crashed in my bed after that,” said Charlie.
“I think I was the same.”
“Staying up late, this is nothing,” said Charlie.
In the distance, they could see what appeared to be a cop. Zan held her cell phone up in the air. “Good thing I brought that power stick with me.”
It was a cop. They relaxed.
“What’s it like up there?” asked Charlie.
When the figure saw them, it sped up and raced at them.
“Quick!” cried Charlie. “Get your dagger out!” She struggled to find her dagger in her back pocket, and then grabbed onto it.
Zan distracted the zombie so that Charlie could rush up and stab the cop in the eye socket. He fell to the ground.
“Yuck,” said Zan. “He must have turned quickly.”
“I wonder how many cops went to the cafeteria?” asked Charlie.
“Don’t know, but we’ll have to check it again.” Zan led the way.
Soon they were back at the hall with the gift shop and the vendor booths. Ahead of them was the cafeteria.
“Blech,” said Zan. “You’d think the cops wouldn’t be so stupid as to eat food in a cafeteria where people died.”
Charlie shrugged. “Nothing surprises me. If everyone were smart, we wouldn’t have a typhoid outbreak or whatever the cops call this.”
Soon they were at the entrance to the cafeteria.
“Looks pretty quiet in there,” said Zan.
“Well, we need to check anyway,” said Charlie. She couldn’t do much but tag along with Zan, as she was the only one with a working cell phone that could light up at least a small part of the room.
There was a strange humming noise in the distance, and then the lights came back on. The hospital lit up with noise. The fridge at the back of the cafeteria came on.
“Finally!” said Charlie.
“I’ll just go have a look in the kitchen,” said Zan, while Charlie peeked into the booths again. It was just the same old dead bodies from the last time that they had been there.
She shrugged. “Nothing here. Hmm.”
In the distance, a crash came from the direction of the kitchen. Charlie went racing to the back. She saw Zan lying on the floor with a zombie on top of her. She’d dropped her dagger and was trying to hold off the zombie cop from biting her head. She had her hands on his neck. Unfortunately, he was much bigger and stronger than she was. Every second he was able to slowly get closer to her head.
She kneed him hard in the groin, but that had no effect.
Charlie raced up, quickly placing her dagger back into her back pocket holster. She then grabbed a frying pan from the counter and swung it through the air.
The zombie flew off of Zan and hit the ground.
That gave Zan a chance to stand up, grab her dagger, and plunge it deep into the cop’s eye socket.
“Good job,” said Charlie.
Zan went over to the sink to clean off her dagger. “Say, what’s going to happen when they see dead cops in here? The patients and staff are easily explained away.”
“Well, I expect they’ll place fault on some crazy riot happening in the hospital. I suggest we get out of here,” said Charlie.
“OK, back to the entrance then.”
The pair walked back the way they had come.
“OK, so, it can’t have been any cooked food that infected the cops,” said Zan.
“No?”
“No. It must have been something packaged, or in a bottle, like soda or cookies.”
“Good point,” said Charlie. “Someone could have contaminated some of the food supply before it reached the cafeteria.”
“Right,” said Zan. “The trick is to figure out what and where that supply line is.”
“Well, let’s find Owen and get some rest. Looks like we have some work to do tomorrow. Say, how’s it going with you and your parents?”
“Fine, I guess. Since I moved back in, they don’t even talk to me about career or school anymore. Dad removed all the musical shit from my workroom in the basement, and put them in his office.”
“Good,” said Charlie. “Well, you can hang out at my place whenever you want. Gran will always welcome you.”
“Thanks, I appreciate it,” she said. “Oh look, there is Owen.”
“Great, I think I can drive us home,” said Charlie.
The team walked to her vehicle and headed home, with a strict warning from Sergeant Bourne that they all had to meet at the local police station after school the next day.
“It’s a good thing I don’t have that part-time job anymore,” said Owen. “I can barely keep up with schoolwork with all these things happening.”
zzz
Slim and Jaz were at the back of the donut shop. Jaz was lying on the floor spasming.
“Jaz, Jaz!” cried Slim. “Are you all right?” He frantically went through the pockets of his cargo pants. His cell phone had to be in there somewhere.
“What do I do?” he cried. “Do I call 911? How do I explain what’s happening to them?”
Jaz was still on the floor. “Just let me go,” she said. “Zombies are stupid anyway.” Her eyes glowed green.
“Tell me what to do!” said Slim to his friend. He offered her his arm. “Do you want a bite?”
She pushed his arm away. “Just call Dr. Arora when I’m gone. She’ll know what to do.” Jaz made a breathy wheezing sound.
“Who is that?” asked Slim. “How do I find her?”
“Do they still have phone books?” mumbled Jaz, getting weaker by the second.
“Wait a minute,” said Slim. “Is Dr. Arora the same as Dr. Ore?”
“You got it,” said Jaz. “We went to college together. She was lucky enough to graduate while I had to work the family pawnshop. She sent me a note after I got infected saying that she could help me. I refused because I figured out it was her. She had infected me with the zombie virus.”
Slim paced the room. “She’s the one who tricked me too. She sold me that supposedly sugar-free powdered substance for my donuts.”
“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” she asked.
“I just put two and two together,” he explained. He jammed his lips together. He didn’t want her to know that he had figured it out long ago and had said nothing. What could he have done anyway? He wanted to become rich and famous and the doctor had promised that she had the answer to long life. Except, she had promised that his donuts would be healthy. In the end, he hadn’t cared how he got rich, as long as he sold more donuts.
“OK,” said Slim, finally finding his smartphone. He pressed the button to turn it on. He quickly tapped the browser icon, and then did a search for Dr. Arora. He frowned. She would either be at her clinic or at the hospital. Since it was the middle of the night, chances were good that she was at the hospital, except the website didn’t list a direct phone number for her. Perhaps he could call the main hospital number and they could transfer him, or he could leave a message.
When Slim looked down again, Jaz was gone. Her glowing zombie eyes now looked dull and glassy. Her skin turned a blue-gray color. She smelled even worse than before. He decided to secure her body first, so he went and grabbed some large trash bags from storage. Soon he had her body wrapped up. He dragged it to the back door, and then pulled it out into the alley. He tucked her behind the garbage bin. He really hoped that Dr. Arora could help him out before someone found her body.
He went back inside again and mopped up the floor, just in case. He shook his head. Now he’d lost one of his best friends who had worked across the street. He didn’t understand exactly how she’d turned Miranda, or what the point of it had been. He knew that Jaz had been working on some sort of experiment, in between her time running The Pawn Shop.
He didn’t even want to have anything else to do with this business. He just wanted to make enough income so that he could retire.
He finished up in the shop, and then decided to head for the last bus. He’d do his best to contact Dr. Arora, but there were no guarantees.
Perhaps tomorrow would just be a normal day.
zzz
It was another regular school day. The team waited until the last of the students left the room. Zan closed the door.
“So, it sounds like everything is under control now?” asked Stewart.
“Yeah, as far as we know,” said Charlie.
“That was crazy,” said Owen. “
It wasn’t what we were expecting at all.”
Zan grimaced. “Crazy night!”
“Say, I have a question,” asked Charlie. “All this time you mention a contact. Is it Sergeant Bourne?”
“You got me,” responded Stewart. “Though I’d prefer you know as few details outside your job as possible, just in case.”
Charlie nodded. “I wondered. Because I saw him on the street after we fought the zombies at the hotel. He didn’t seem phased. It was like another day on the job for him.”
“True,” said Stewart. “I believe he’s under orders from the mayor to keep the zombie outbreaks hush-hush. If anyone asks, it was another typhoid outbreak.”
“Well, that’s just great,” commented Zan. “Because typhoid is far more serious than a zombie outbreak.”
The group had a good chuckle over that. Zombies were likely the less serious of the two medical emergencies.
“Oh, and I want to know more about being a truthsayer,” said Owen. “Do you know much?”
“I really don’t,” said Stewart. “That protective spell you learned last September, during the first outbreak, was something I got from the spell book. One page just happened to say truthsayer spell on it. Later, I went through the entire book and that was the only reference.”
“Drat,” said Owen. “Besides me being able to encourage people to tell the truth, and to perform one spell, I guess I’m not much of a superhero. I’ve tried asking my dad in the past, but he won’t tell me a thing. He doesn’t even know what I’ve been doing.”
“Oh, you’re a valuable member of the team,” said Stewart. “You’ll be learning as you go, much like how Charlie and Zan have been learning about their powers too. Unfortunately, there is only one spell book.” Stewart tidied up his desk. “That reminds me. There are two copies of the spell book. The original is in my safety deposit box at the bank. The second one is at my home, hidden in a secret location.”
“Where is it, Stewart?” asked Owen.
Stewart opened his mouth and was about to say something, but he was smarter than that. “I just told you. It’s at my home. It’s invisible to everyone. Hopefully, nothing ever happens to me, but if it does, Charlie will be led to the original book at the bank. The copy will self-destruct unless an ayer finds it first.”