by Max Lockwood
“I understand that,” Derek said. “At this point, everything will put us at risk. We can die from lack of food, water, and/or shelter, or we can die from being ambushed. Our current priority is sustenance and medicine. After those needs are met, we can readdress the situation.”
“Okay,” Melissa said shortly, dusting the dirt off her pants. “Then let’s get this over with.”
Before long, they were close enough to the nearest town that they could see buildings. There were no signs of life yet, but there was also no smoke rising from the buildings. That was a plus.
Since there were no more trees or bushes to hide behind, they walked straight down the main road, into a town with a population of about ten thousand people.
“Look,” Melissa said, pointing to a little blue sign. “The hospital is only a mile away.”
“Did you hear that?” Derek asked Victoria, who was struggling to keep her eyes open. Derek had been carrying her again, since they were walking so quickly to get in before dark. The sun was just starting to set when they reached the town. Derek had kept them right on target.
“Yeah,” she said weakly. Her blood was starting to leak down the bandage and onto Derek. If he noticed, he didn’t seem to mind.
The town looked to be in decent condition. In fact, it looked completely untouched, except for one thing—there were no people to be seen.
“I don’t want to be negative here,” Melissa started, looking around, “but this place is a ghost town. Do you really think we’re going to find a doctor here? I think it’s more likely we’ll find a whole clan of infected people.”
“We’ll find out when we get there,” Derek said. “Is there any water left in the canteen?”
Will shook the one that was hanging around his neck. The sloshing sound revealed that there were no more than a few sips left.
“Here, Victoria,” Derek said, holding it to her lips. She drank the water, then rested her head back on Derek. It had taken too much of her energy to swallow the tiny bit of liquid.
“Is that it?” Will asked, as they followed the signs down a residential area. A small, four story building sat in the distance. It had reflective glass on every side, the sunlight turning it into a magnificent shade of pink.
“I bet it is,” Derek said. “Listen, I don’t think we should all go in at once.”
“Why not?” Melissa asked.
“There’s no one in this town. That’s not a good sign.”
“So, what should we do?” she asked. “Should we keep going until we find a working hospital? I’m sure we could take a car and drive to the next town fairly quickly.”
“There’s no time for that, even if we did drive,” Derek said. “But I still don’t think we should all go in at once. Just in case of an ambush or a trap, you know?”
“The militia knows we wouldn’t get far without going to get help,” Will said.
“Exactly,” Derek answered. “But, it is pretty crazy that we’ve made it this far.”
“I’ll go,” Melissa said, pulling her gun from her pocket. “I’ll run up there, check the entrance, and if it looks okay, I’ll wave my canteen in the air.”
“Are you sure?” Derek asked.
“I’m sure. I think I owe this to the group.”
Will scoffed, but she ignored it.
“If you’re sure, go ahead,” Derek said. “We’ll be waiting for your signal.”
Melissa slung her canteen over her shoulder and took off running down the street. Her flat feet pounded the pavement with every step, until she was out of sight.
“I hope she gets attacked down there,” Will muttered under his breath. “That would serve her right.”
Derek gently sat Victoria on the ground and elevated her injured leg. He looked up at Will, his icy blue eyes making contact with Will’s. His stare was so intense that Will couldn’t help but look away.
“I think you need to go easy on her,” Derek said. “It’s a traumatizing thing, taking a life. Even if that person has been infected. She clearly feels bad about it.”
Will balled up his fists in frustration. “Then how come she pulled the trigger so quickly?”
“She was scared. I hate to say it, but I really think she made the right move. There was nothing that could have been done for your friend. Melissa was protecting herself, but she was also protecting the group. She was especially protecting you. You were inches from being infected.”
“I think I could have calmed her down. Then we could have tied her up and kept her stable until we could get help.”
“Wishful thinking,” Derek said. “That may have happened, but she could have also infected us all. There’s no way of knowing. For what it’s worth, she made a tough call that she’s going to have to live with for the rest of her life. It would be good of you to stop treating her like the villain.”
“Natalia wasn’t the villain,” Will argued.
“No, she wasn’t. But this is war. People are going to die. It’s never fair or just, but we have to keep fighting. We can’t abandon our mission because we didn’t like how it was going. We march on until we reach victory.”
Will kicked a rock across the street. He looked down the row of empty houses, wishing that Natalia would pop her head outside the front door, like nothing had ever happened.
The group heard gunshots coming from the direction of the hospital. Will and Derek were on high alert, but Victoria hardly stirred. She was being drained of life more and more by the minute.
“Do you think she’s okay?” Derek wondered out loud.
Will didn’t know how to answer that. He wasn’t even sure he cared at that moment.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
More shots rang out. Derek tensed up and grabbed his gun.
“I’m going to help her,” he said. “If we don’t come back in fifteen minutes, take Victoria and get out of here.”
“But—” Will started to object, but Derek had already left. He watched him stride down the street toward the hospital.
An uneasy feeling sat in Will’s stomach. If both of them were killed, then he would have to look after Victoria all by himself. Without a hospital, Victoria would surely die. Then he would be alone.
He didn’t know if he could be on his own again. First, his parents abandoned him. Then, Elaina and Alec got separated from them. Now, his newest traveling companions were about to get themselves killed.
Besides, a life alone on the road would be so devastatingly lonely. He didn’t know where he would go or what he would do. However, the thought of becoming attached to another group made his heart hurt. He didn’t want to replace the people he’d already lost, and he didn’t want to have to go through the pain of losing anyone else. Either way, he would be a broken man, traversing the barren land alone.
“I see a light,” Victoria muttered, her eyes only opened a small crack.
“What?” Will stuttered, afraid that Victoria was leaving him before the others could get back.
“I see something shining over there.”
“Don’t go toward the light, Victoria. Stick with me.”
“No,” she said a little more forcefully. “Look down the street. Do you see that too?”
Will turned his head. A metal canteen flew into the air and landed somewhere below the horizon. Then, it reemerged, flying even higher. The light from the setting sun hit the metallic side of the canteen, reflecting light back at Will and Victoria.
“That’s her signal,” Will said, scooping Victoria off the ground. “Do you think it’s safe to go?”
“I don’t think she would have thrown that thing in the air if it wasn’t.”
“Good point.”
Will carried Victoria toward the hospital, moving as fast as he could without causing more injury to her leg. Thankfully, Derek met them halfway and helped him bring her inside. He hadn’t even made it to the front entrance before he saw the canteen. Melissa had worked quickly.
“The entrance is all clear,” Melissa s
houted, holding the front door open for them. “I’m pretty sure the whole place is clear. The inside looks deserted.”
“Okay. I want you to take up the lead again,” Derek ordered. “We’re looking for a clean examination room. If we can find one with supplies ready, that would be good. Mostly, I’m concerned about being attacked while we’re in here. Don’t be afraid to use your weapon, but be careful with it. Only shoot if you’re positive that the target is a threat.”
Just as he warned her, Derek tripped over something in the entrance, nearly losing his balance and dropping Victoria.
“What the—” he started, before realizing what he had stepped on.
Below his boot was the overturned body of a woman wearing a pair of mint green scrubs. Beside her were two other bodies, both wearing hospital gowns.
“They were infected,” Melissa grimaced. “I’m sure of it. I watched them clawing at each other before I made my shots.”
Derek stepped over the bodies, holding Victoria’s body as far away from them as he could.
“Any sign of others?”
“Not that I could tell.”
Will squinted his eyes so he only had to see just enough of the bodies necessary to step over them. Seeing people on the ground like that just made him think about Natalia. He needed any kind of distraction he could get. It didn’t help that he was in a place that represented illness and death to him.
He hadn’t always hated hospitals. His mom was a nurse, so occasionally he would visit her at work. He hated germs and getting dirty, but her hospital always smelled like disinfectant. It made him feel safe.
This hospital did not smell nice at all. Will could smell the faint odor of decaying flesh and was terrified to find something that would haunt him for years to come.
“Has anyone ever told you that you’re great at killing people,” Will said sarcastically to Melissa. “I mean, fantastic job here. I bet you killed them before you even saw their faces.”
“Shut up,” she warned, her face turning beet red.
“Did you see the fear in their eyes before you pulled the trigger, or talk to their friends and family to make sure it was the right call?”
“Stop it!” she shrieked. “I had to do it. Why do you choose now to suddenly be an infected sympathizer? Have you always advocated for the rights of sick killers? Or is this all because I had to save you from your psycho girlfriend?”
“Enough,” Derek roared, his voice echoing down the hall. “I can’t move unless I have my unit in place. If I can’t move, I can’t help Victoria. Get into position and stop your bickering.”
Will stood up straight and brushed his hair out of his face. Melissa blinked tears of frustration away.
“I think the first floor is mostly reception and maybe a few basic exam rooms,” Melissa said. “A lot of times, the surgical suites are on higher floors.”
“Let’s take the stairs,” Derek ordered. Melissa opened the door to the staircase and walked through the dark toward the second floor.
The next floor looked a lot more like the hospitals Will had visited his mom in during his childhood. But, instead of clean and controlled activity, this was an unorganized and vacant mess. Carts full of supplies lay scattered on the floor. Extra beds lined the halls and rooms were stuffed to the brim with an array of medical equipment.
“This is really creepy,” Will noted, pushing over a gurney so he could walk through the hall.
“What happened here?” Melissa wondered.
“I’m guessing that they got overwhelmed here. There’s a good chance they saw a lot of patients who were suspected of being infected. I wonder if it just became too much for them to handle and they had to shut down. Too high of a demand for medical care, too few providers willing to put their lives in danger. That’s my guess,” Derek said.
A shiver ran down Will’s spine. There was something incredibly unsettling about an abandoned hospital. He thought about Elaina, who so desperately wanted to go to a hospital to do her research. If she knew how creepy it was, she wouldn’t want to be there either.
“How about this one?” Melissa asked, pointing to a room. She pushed supplies off the exam table and pulled the sheet of protective paper down, not like it made that much of a difference at that point.
“Good enough,” Derek said, gently laying Victoria down on the table. She was starting to go in and out of consciousness. She didn’t have much time.
“What do you need, Derek?” Will asked, ready to help.
“I’m going to need something to cauterize the wound. If this hospital has any other blood clotting supplies, grab those, too. I need fresh syringes and bags of blood if we’re going to try a transfusion. There should be enough gauze and bandages in here. Also, we’re going to need lots of water and some food.”
“I’ll get the medical supplies,” Melissa said.
“I’ll look for a vending machine,” Will answered.
“Try not to split up too much,” Derek said, as he began to unwrap Victoria’s bandage. “There’s only one gun between the two of you.”
“Okay,” they replied quickly before running out to gather their assigned supplies.
Almost immediately, Will split from Melissa and didn’t look back as she started to protest. It wasn’t the safest plan, but things would run much more smoothly if they were apart.
Melissa found an abandoned supply cart and overturned it, emptying it of its objects. She pushed it to a supply closet and searched each shelf, looking for anything that could be useful. She found a device that packed gunshot and stabbing wounds full of an absorbent gel that she figured would work to stop Victoria’s bleeding and tossed it in the cart. She grabbed scalpels and needles and syringes, along with long plastic tubes that she wasn’t quite sure what they were used for. Finally, she picked up a small bottle of ibuprofen, if anything, to ease Victoria’s silent suffering.
The only thing the supply room didn’t have was blood. There was even a refrigerated compartment in there, but the only thing it contained were ice packs.
She sprinted back to the exam room, pulling the cart behind her.
“I have everything but the blood,” she huffed. “I have just about everything else you could need. I just don’t think they have any more blood left at this hospital.”
“Damn,” he swore under his breath as he tried to search for the bullet and source of the bleeding with a pair of tweezers. “What’s your blood type?” he asked Melissa.
“AB, I think. Why?”
“Would you be a donor?” he asked as he injected the clotting gel into Victoria’s wound.
Her knees almost buckled. Melissa hated needles and never made it through a blood test without almost fainting. She had also never given blood for the same reason.
“I don’t know,” she said, her voice quivering. “I guess.”
“Sit down,” Derek ordered, as he changed his gloves. He rifled through the supply cart until he found the largest syringe he could find. “This will have to do. Rub some of these alcohol pads on the inside of your arm.”
She followed his order, the scent of alcohol stinging her nostrils. She felt sick and wanted to back out. But when she looked at Victoria on the table, she knew she had no choice.
“I know this isn’t how these things are supposed to be done,” he said, preparing the needle, “but I’m going to fill the syringe with your blood and inject it into her. Ready?”
Melissa tearfully nodded as the tiny point of the syringe entered her arm.
Back on the first floor, Will looked for a vending machine. He avoided looking at the dead bodies in the foyer as he made his search. Finally, he saw two vending machines in the waiting room. One contained drinks and the other one had snacks.
First, he tried to reach through the bottom with a coat hanger he found on the rack. He stretched the wire out and tried to poke down a bag of crackers.
When that didn’t work, he found a glass paperweight on the front desk and threw it at the front of t
he machine. Instead of shattering the front, it merely bounced off, hardly leaving a dent.
This frustrated Will. He pounded on the machine with all his might. He kicked and punched at the machine until his hands and feet were bruised. A guttural scream rose from his chest and out his mouth, his anger and sadness over Natalia coming out through his violence. He finally had a way to release the emotions that clouded his mind.
He was just beginning to feel better when a voice from behind him spoke.
“What did that vending machine ever do to you?”
Will’s heart stopped and he jumped to find out where the voice was coming from. He regretted ever ditching the girl with the gun.
“I didn’t mean to scare you,” Alec said, his serious expression turning into a smile. “I just can’t believe it’s you.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Will stood next to the vending machine, completely stunned. He rubbed at his eyes, clearly seeing something that was not there.
“I’m losing it,” he said, slumping over against the machine.
“Will?” Alec asked. “Is everything all right? You haven’t been infected, have you?”
“No, I haven’t,” Will said, shaking his head. “It’s just not possible that you’re here right now.”
“Let me help you with that machine,” Alec said, searching the front desk for something that could help them open the vending machine. He returned with a paperclip and a screwdriver.
“Let’s try unlocking it before we completely destroy it, shall we?” Alec smiled. He maneuvered his tools in the little circular lock, prodding and poking around until he finally got the lock to release.
Plastic bottles started spilling out from Will’s beating, but they all remained intact. Alec and Will each grabbed a bottle of sports drink and chugged it.
Will wiped the blue residue off his face, his thirst finally quenched. “Want to try the other one?”
Alec used his lock picking skills to unlock the machine filled with food, they sat down and had a quick snack.
“How long has it been for you?” Alec asked through a mouthful of crackers. “Since you last ate, I mean.”