by Frater, Lara
Dan stood next to me and didn’t see my reaction. He took his tire iron and swung it hard against her head. It connected and sent her little body flying off and smashing against a display of antacids. A bunch of bottles fell to the floor with a clang. I kept my light on her the entire way.
The girl got up again, the bottles on top of her falling and making more noise. Her head had a large dent in her formerly cute little face but no blood covered it, only decaying matter. Dan hadn’t hit her hard enough. She planned to charge again. She made the moan. The sound they make when close to a kill. Despite that Mindy was crying and Dan had hit her, the girl had her dead heart set on me. She moved in my direction. Her month open with flesh and blood dribbling out of it. I wasn’t afraid, not of the pain or of me dying because if she killed me, I died for keeps.
A loud bang and the girl flew back with a bullet in her throat. She didn’t die but it was enough force to knock her down.
I turned around and to see a startling sight. Tanya, clad only in underwear and a tank top, her dark skin a contrast to the white clothes. She held out her handgun in front of her.
She went over to the girl who was down but not dead. The moaning returned but whether it was the constant flinging, the dent in her head or the bullet in her throat, she couldn’t get up. The girl reached out to Tanya almost as if she wanted to hug her.
Tanya didn’t fall for it. She shot her once more in the head. The sound reverberated all around the infirmary and probably the store. No blood splatter because the girl was already dead. This time for good.
I felt lightheaded. I gathered my wits or I would faint. I didn’t want to do it here. I kept thinking about the glazed over eyes.
“You good?” Tanya said to me and then looked to Dan, still holding his bloodied tire iron. He dropped it to the floor with a clank. He was always a good hunter, better than me, but he hated killing kids. I looked at him and knew he thought about his own daughter. He didn’t seem to notice Tanya’s lack of clothes.
“Boss lady,” Tanya said. “You okay?” She spoke the words slowly so I finally nodded.
“How many of ours dead?”
“One for sure, Eli—“ My voice trailed off.
“Come on boss lady,” she said, her voice still slow but stern. “Don’t fall apart. Tell me what’s going on?”
“Mindy—it bit Mindy.”
“I put a tourniquet on,” she called from the dark. “I’ll be all right.”
The flood lights came on illuminating the room and revealed Jake, wearing only pants, and Dave. Robert had returned but stood far behind them looking sickly.
“Shit,” Dave said, looking at Eli, his best friend. “What the fuck happened?”
“The girl-- Jennifer,” I said. “The girl—must have been infected.”
“She dead?”
“Tanya killed her.”
Dave looked at Tanya with wide eyes not in a sexual way but in surprise and shock. Tanya didn’t look embarrassed but she must be freezing. I shined the light around the infirmary and saw the cot that held Annemarie was empty.
“Annemarie?” I said. “Mindy, where’s Annemarie?”
“How the fuck should I know? I need you to come here and look at my wound.”
The floodlights revealed Mindy, Eli and the dead girl, but no sign of Annemarie.
“Annemarie!” I screamed.
Jim finally brought Harlan. His rifle pointed up as he looked around but it was already over. Not that there was much he could have done.
“Fuck,” Jim said.
“Rachel,” Dan said. “You look after Mindy, Tanya and I can search for Annemarie,” then added. “After Tanya gets dressed.”
“I’ll come with,” Harlan said.
“Check on Maddie and the kids.”
“Will do.”
I grabbed the first aid kit and I went over to examine Mindy even though I thought it was futile. I gathered my wits. I took her wrist and cleaned off the bloody wound to find it messy but not so deep. Ironically the bite wasn’t that bad and if the girl didn’t carry the virus, Mindy would be fine. I bandaged it up because I didn’t want her bleeding infected blood everywhere.
“I put on a tourniquet,” she repeated. She still held it tightly as I cleaned out the wound.
“I’m sorry, Mindy.”
“Come on, doc, you gotta to help me,” she went from the slight weeping to sobbing.
I doubted Mindy had immunity like me.
“You know I can’t. You know your choices.”
“You fucking bitch. After all I went through, after that monster raped me, this is what I get?”
I wanted to say I understood what she’s going through. I remembered when I was bitten. How Joel wanted to shoot me, insisted on it, but I wasn’t ready to face my own death, so I took a gun and left. No goodbyes.
Mindy sobbed uncontrollably. No one said anything and I didn’t comfort her. At one time, a lifetime ago, when I was an OB/GYN nurse who helped bring babies into the world, I had a kind bedside manner. Now I felt like I had no emotions.
“What’s going on?” a female voiced yelled. Annemarie came into the infirmary followed by Tanya, now dressed, but barefoot, Dan and Harlan.
“Annemarie, where were you?” I asked.
“I was feeling better so I decided to rest in my space.”
“The kids are fine, scared but okay,” Dan said, “and Maddie too. I didn’t tell them about Eli.”
I wasn’t sure if I was angry with Annemarie or relieved. She might have saved Mindy or she might have been a victim herself. And she didn’t listen to me.
“Oh god,” Annemarie said, looking over Mindy. Mindy held the tourniquet tightly, and then when she saw Annemarie, she let it go. It didn’t matter, it wouldn’t help. I can already see Mindy’s skin color fading. “You got bit?”
Mindy started crying again. Annemarie held her in her arms while she wept, careful not to touch the blood. I decided not to chastise Annemarie. Losing her best friend was going to be enough. We were all looking over Mindy that I almost forgot Eli.
“Tanya,” I paused, looking over Eli’s body as it began to twitch. “Eli. He was killed by the girl.”
Tanya went over to the body and shot it once through the head. The sound echoed for a few seconds and silenced the room. The silence broken with Mindy’s sobbing. We didn’t like to waste bullets, but for one of our own, they got it quickly. I was glad I brought in Tanya, she might be a hardass, but that made her useful. She had no qualms about taking out the kid. I wanted to apologize for thinking she robbed the pharmacy.
I had a bad thought, glad that Eli was looking after the girl and not Maddie.
Jake, still missing his shirt, went to Mindy and touched her shoulder gently. He grabbed the hand that wasn’t wounded.
“Mindy—“ he paused. “You know what has to happen.”
“No,” she said, but she looked weak and pale. Already she was almost white as sheet. First signs of the zombie virus. She would be dead in a few hours, and then she would rise anywhere from a minute to an hour. “No, I’m not going to be one of them. Just wait a little while, okay, maybe nothing will happen.”
“Let’s go to the roof, Princess is there now. She’ll make it quick,” Jake said, his voice, soothing.
“No! she yelled. “I’m not having that fucking coldhearted bitch kill me.”
“Sweetheart,” Harlan said. “I’ll do it. It will be quick, promise.”
“No,” she said. “No one is killing me. Help me up.”
Jake and Annemarie helped her off the floor.
“Now, give me a gun. Give me a fucking gun.”
I nodded at Tanya who handed her gun to Mindy. Instead of pointing the gun to herself, she pointed it at me. Her hands were shaky. I felt no fear at having the gun pointed at me. Not even a moment. I almost welcomed it but I knew Mindy, knew that her ex-husband took everything and she didn’t fight back. I knew she wasn’t going to shoot me.
“I should fucking kill
you.”
“What will that achieve?” I asked. “It won’t save you.”
“You’re nothing-- you’re nothing like Abe. Abe saved me you didn’t.” Her voice was as shaky as her hands. No one in the room seemed to think Mindy would shoot me but Annemarie and Jake took a few steps back.
“I didn’t ask Abe to kill himself and I didn’t ask to be in charge.”
“You’re a lousy leader, we all think so.”
“Then I’ll give it to anyone. Anyone who wants it,” I looked at Dave. “Dave you want to be in charge?”
Dave didn’t respond. He looked like he wanted to fade into the shadows. No one else in the room said anything, leaving me to Mindy’s wrath. I didn’t blame them. Mindy needed to focus her anger and I was a good enough target.
“You don’t get it, Nurse Ratchet,” she said. “You don’t. Abe could lead but he realized the world wasn’t coming back. You cope because you don’t care about us, except maybe your fag and fattie.”
“Mindy— “ I said, ignoring her slurs. Jim didn’t seem fazed but he didn’t say anything which was unusual for him. “I care about all of you. All I want is for all of us to survive.”
“Survive for what reason? You know what we should have done? Had a fucking bender. Eat all the food and drink, then ended it all by stuffing ourselves with pills. It would have been a better way to go. My life has always been misery, that son of a bitch husband, that rapist—two hours he fucked me--”
“Mindy, I’m sorry—“ I said.
“Stop fucking apologizing! After I go, you should all follow me,” she said, and looked around the room. “This world belongs to the dead, the human race is extinct.” She waved the gun around. “Maybe I should let the undead have me. Maybe I’ll leave and join them.”
She didn’t. Instead she turned the gun to her head and shot. Blood splattered on the aisle behind her soaking the display for vitamins and weight loss drugs, and her body jerked and fell.
I didn’t say anything, my vision faded, and I felt myself falling into an abyss. I felt someone catch me before everything went dark.
Chapter 6 The cold woke me. I was in my bed and covered with two comforters. The light from the skylight seemed gray and dingy. The cat snuggled next to me, under the covers. I wore the clothes from last night, except the sweatshirt which had Mindy’s blood on it had been removed.
“It’s snowing,” a voice said. “Guess it’s not spring after all.” I looked up to see Dan. He sat on a folding chair with a book in his hand.
“What time is it?”
“About 10.”
“I’m missing my rounds,” I didn’t panic, but I did move the blankets over and swing my legs to the side of the bed. Dan got out of his chair and took my arm to help me up.
“Don’t worry about it today. I don’t think anyone is expecting you to do rounds. They want to burn the bodies soon. Before they smell and the snow gets heavier.”
“Did they look over the girl?”
“The girl?”
“Jennifer,” I shouldn’t refer to her by name, but she was a person once. “She didn’t have any sign of bites. Mindy and Eli didn’t find anything. I need to look her over.”
“What’s the point? She’s dead.”
“Yes—but Dan,” I said, grabbing his arm. “There were no signs of bites on her. How did she get it? What if the virus has mutated? What is it’s airborne? I have to see if she was bitten.”
Was the virus going for full extinction? Would I be the last person left alive?
Dan looked horrified. “Get dressed,” he said.
I had a new job: coroner. I had to strip a poor girl’s body, one who had been kidnapped, abused, ravaged by a horrible virus, bashed in the head, and then shot three times. I didn’t blame her at all for killing Eli and Mindy, even though I wanted to. I wanted someone to take responsibility for all of this.
I looked everywhere on her little decaying body, ignored he horrible stink I smelled even with the mask, but couldn’t find a bite just some bruising around the arms. Tanya shot her in the neck and head. We would have noticed a bite in both places. The rest of the body was intact. I worried about burning her. What if the virus was airborne? Would burning spread it?
I checked her body on the roof in the tent that the shooters used for warmth. Tanya had been the only one to assist with no sarcasm or squeamishness. I’m beyond glad I let her in.
I couldn’t find anything and no one showed any signs of getting the virus. Was it some kind of fluke? Did a zombie get too close to her? Did it have anything to do with the crazy woman?
Then I found my answer and gasped. I pulled away from the body so suddenly that Tanya jerked.
“What you find?” she asked and I showed her my horrifying discovery.
“We should tell the others,” she said, calmly.
I left the tent. People had assembled for the funeral. It was cold and the snow was light but annoying. I wore a hood but it still got into my eyes. Jim had brought up umbrellas but it didn’t help. The bodies lay on the ground slowly getting wet under white sheets. Eli, Mindy and the woman who brought the girl were underneath. Yesterday they were all alive.
I wanted to leave the woman’s body outside the doors as a warning to others. I wanted her alive so I could shoot her again. Maybe in the knee caps like Abe did with Tom.
“What’d you find, doc?” Jim asked. Then he took a step back when he saw the look on my face.
“I know how she got the virus—“ I paused. “It isn’t airborne, so don’t worry. She was deliberately infected.”
“What?” Annemarie asked.
“I found a puncture wound between two of her toes. Someone injected her with the zombie virus.” I looked at the woman’s corpse on the ground. I watched the population and my family die. I watched people die in zombie attacks, I saw the strong take advantage of the weak, yet nothing prepared me for the cruelty of what this woman did.
“Jesus,” Robert said and made the sign of the cross.
“You bitch,” Annemarie said and kicked the corpse. “You cocksucking bitch.” She kicked her a few more times before Jake pulled her away, then she started crying. “You should rot in hell.”
Maddie made another sign of the cross. “Please God, forgive our trespasses.”
At this point I’d given up on any god. I looked at Jim. “You knew her, didn’t you?”
He looked at the body intensely.
“Jim, please.”
“We knew her,” Ashley said. “At first, I wasn’t sure ‘cause she’s thinner and filthy.”
“Where?”
“In the beginning, when the council was only Jim, Abe and me. We wouldn’t let her in. She was nuts. The interview started good, but she started getting weird. Started talking to herself. Jim asked her about her illness, asked what meds she had been taking and got them for her. She threw them in his face and stomped out.”
“Jim?” I said, looking at him.
“Yes,” he said. “It was a hard decision. I think she was schizophrenic. If she had taken the meds and come back normal, we might have taken her in. Of course we interviewed her because she claimed to be a doctor,” he paused. “Maybe she was and perfectly normal on her meds.”
I touched his shoulder. “You couldn’t have known she would do this.”
Dave hadn’t said a word about this which surprised me, but he was staring intently at the sheet over Eli, his best friend. Annemarie didn’t look happy but it wasn’t Jim or Ashley or even Abe’s fault. Who would have thought this woman in her delusion could be so heartless and callous? The zombie plague had bought a completely breakdown of society including no mental health services for people who needed it, and no prisons for the criminals.
Harlan was on sentry duty. He watched us but mostly looked over the roof. Everyone was here except Rosa, who volunteered to stay with Simon and Brie so Maddie could be here with me. Princess was absent as well. No surprise. Jim had an umbrella over Annemarie. She was still sick
and I worried that her cold and the shock of her best friend’s death might make it worse.
Robert went to Mindy. He put his hand on the sheet that covered her body, and then said the Lord’s Prayer. Mindy prayed. She wanted to believe that God would save her from this. Maybe she was right. Maybe this was how he saved her.
Robert went to Eli, said the prayer again, and then moved to the woman. I wouldn’t do anything for her, if there were a Hell, that’s where she belonged. I almost stopped Robert from doing it, but I know I had to control my anger. He didn’t pray for her, instead said: “Lord, forgive you.”
“Doctor, you should say something,” Jim said. He always knew when the change subject.
I didn’t want to. I wanted to go back to bed and curl up with the cat but they were looking at me for words, advice, something to make everything right.
“I will miss Mindy and Eli. Eli was a help to the council and he got the toilets to flush. Mindy was an amazing nurse. In another life, she would be a doctor. They were both stubborn and invaluable to this place, to our survival. We will miss them,” I paused. I wouldn’t cry.
“Do you think you could show emotions for one minute?” Annemarie said with tears in her eyes.
“Come on, doc,” Jim said. “It’s okay to be upset.”
Maddie put her arm on my shoulder. “It’s okay, honey. I know you have emotions and this upsets you. We’re all here for you.”