by Mark Clodi
“Think we will pass this thing?” asked Stewart.
“Yeah, it is obvious none of us are sick or infected. Amelia, weren't you with a woman who got bit too?”
“Yeah Max. She looked like she had a bad cold or the flu before she died. Got hot, then cold, then died.”
“Like Sarah, then. So we should be okay.” Max said nervously.
“Next!” rang out an authoritative male voice. The soldier at the curtain opened it up and moved to usher Kenny into the examination area.
Kenny looked at Max with concern on his face, “What do I do?”
“You gotta go with him and do what he says, he is just going to look you over, like at a doctor's office.”
“Oh boy.” muttered Seth.
“I don't like doctors!” Kenny moaned.
“No, you will be fine, really, they are just going to look you over.”
“C'mon please.” said the young soldier, “It will be okay.”
“I don't want to go alone!” wailed Kenny.
A uniformed Doctor appeared in the doorway, “What is the hold up?”
“This young man is nervous.” said the soldier, emphasizing 'young man'.
“Oh?” said the doctor, then he looked closer at Kenny, “Oh. Well, yes, one of you can come in with him and keep him calm then.”
“I'll go!” said Seth.
“No!” yelled Max, Amelia and Stewart all together, causing Riley to let out a growl.
“I will go.” Max said, “If that is okay with you Kenny?”
“Yeah, that would be okay. They won't shot me will they? I don't like shots.”
Max looked at the doctor, who shook his head slightly, “No I don't think they will, we should be fine.
Once inside the examination area the doctor asked Kenny his name and age and took Kenny's temperature and checked his heart beat and pulse. He then started to examine the young mans body, carefully going through his hair and looking behind his ears and in his eyebrows. Kenny laughed at that and asked, “Why are you looking all over me like that?”
“For cuts and other wounds. Anywhere the skin is broken could be an infection. I have to make sure you are not sick.”
“Oh, it tickles.”
“I will be more careful. Kenny, I don't want to tickle you. I have to look at you all over. So I need you to take off your robe now.”
Kenny giggled, “No, that would show my bathing suit area, I can't show you that!”
“Kenny I am doctor and I need to make sure you are healthy, haven't you been to the doctor before?”
“Yeah, he saw my butt, he poked it with a shot. I didn't like that.”
“Well I won't be giving you a shot today, but I will need to see you all over to make sure you are okay. You can hold your robe over your, ah, bathing suit areas, until I need to look there.”
“That is pretty thorough doc.” said Max.
“We have no choice, the sickness seems to enter in from the saliva of the...ah, 'zombies' and a bite mark could be anywhere, so we check.”
“What happens if there is an open cut or wound?”
“Then the patient goes into quarantine.”
“For how long?”
“Right now? Until further notice. We have, I think, fifteen people we flagged, over at the county jail.”
“What happens to my kids if I get put in quarantine?” asked Max growing more alarmed.
“They will have to stay with other parents until you are released. Were you cut?”
Max, all modesty pushed aside lifted his robes and revealed a scabbed over scar running the width of his abdomen.
“That qualifies.” said the doctor, “What happened?”
“I got shot, well grazed really, a week or so ago. It has healed up fast and isn't causing me any trouble right now.”
“Sorry, but you will have to go into quarantine.”
“I don't think I can do that. I have my kids to think of. I got there in time to watch my wife die of this...sickness and I won't leave them again.”
Kenny stood there, naked with his white robe bundled up and pressed into his groin watching Max talk to the doctor. The doctor took a step back from Max, “It isn't my decision, the military sent word down. I just sort people and they take it from there.”
“I won't leave my kids.”
“Guards!” yelled the doctor.
The young soldiers outside the entrance immediately leveled their rifles on the people waiting in line, telling them not to move. In the examining room Max saw the back wall pulled down behind Kenny and four soldiers leveled rifles at him.
“Yeah doc?” asked one middle aged soldier with several stripes on his sleeve.
The doctor pointed at Max, “He needs to go to quarantine.”
Kenny, twirled around and tried to hide his partial nudity from the soldiers, face growing red. Riley started barking loudly behind the other screen.
“Max? What is going on?” came Stewart's voice.
“They want to separate me from the kids.”
“Sir, you're cut, you could be contaminated, we just have to hold you for a little while until we can clear you.” said the middle aged soldier calmly.
“I won't be separated from my kids. I went through hell to get back to them once. I won't let it happen again.”
“Sir, you are not going to be separated from them forever, just a short time while we make sure you are okay.” the soldier said in a level, reasonable tone.
“Fine. Put me back on the road with them. Get me out of here. I am not going to the jail.”
The sergeant shook his head slowly, “Now we can't allow that. What if you are infected, what will your kids do then? This is for everyone's own good.”
“Excuse me but aren't we still in the land of the free? Aren't I still a citizen, able to do what I want and go where I please?”
“No.” came the doctor's curt reply, “An executive order has been issued establishing a curfew and martial law.” He pointed to the middle aged soldier, “The military is in charge of all security issues.”
“Sir, look it won't be that bad. Your kids can come and see you during the day, heck if they are cut at all they might be in there with you, right? Let the doc here do his job and we will wait for the group of you to get cleared so we know who to bring where.”
“You have the guns.” Max said pointedly.
“You don't have any idea what we have been through already, how bad things are getting.” said the soldier.
“Funny, I was going to tell you the same thing.”
“The guns are as much for your protection as ours. Please come this way.”
Max reluctantly moved forward and immediately had his hands bound loosely behind him with a plastic strap. The wall was restored to its original condition and Kenny wailed as he was cut off from Max, until finally Tom came in to stand with him.
Max was told to sit down on a long bench, which his did, no sooner had his butt hit the wood then he felt a wet spray on the back of his head.
“What the hell?” he yelled, attempting to stand up, only to be forced down by the sergeant.
“Sorry. Hey Ryan, you could have warned him first.” then to Max, “We spray each of you. If you escape there are 'shoot to kill' orders on anyone with day glow orange spots on their heads. We are not taking any chances. Remember this is not my idea, I am following the orders of the higher ups and they have good reason for doing what they are doing.”
“I think the Nazis thought that too.” Max said bitterly, “A dot on my head is just like a star of David on my jacket right?”
“Look, Max, isn't it?” Max nodded, “My name is David Rosenstein, so knock off the Nazi talk. This is nothing like the holocaust, nothing. For you to even compare what we are doing to that makes me sick. This is a public health crisis and we have to be able to control the sickness. We've had some trouble already with infected people getting out, turning into one of those things and spreading the disease. You are marked now, if you escap
e you will be killed, end of story. On a personal level I don't want that to happen to you. No one is going to beat you, no one is going to throw you into an oven and turn on the gas. You got that? This is for the public safety, and for yours.”
In the end Stewart, Tom, Amelia, Erin and Cory were on the bench with Max and all he could do was sit and watch as his kids were led away crying.
Chapter 19
The entire section of the bridge was falling, Bill had enough time to realize that as the concrete gave away underneath his feet. Ruben's face showed a look of surprised concern as he reached lower for Bill's hand, then he was jerked backwards our of reach by a soldier behind him.
John? Bill thought with shock. The kid in the new uniform looked like his son, but he couldn't be. Scrambling around on the loose gravel Bill felt like he was trying to run up the down escalator at a shopping mall. Gravel started pelting the river so far below him, ringing off of the lawn tractor and creating a steady series of geysers in the slow moving water next to the bank. Lurching sideways Bill tried to clasp onto the only thing that didn't seem to be falling down, the thick metal guardrail along the side of the bridge. The problem was he couldn't get his footing under him to make a decent jump for it, bit by bit he was being sucked into the hole. The gravel was streaming past a bar of exposed metal that had been used in the concrete for support, the concrete was wearing away from it like a soil eroding away in a rainstorm. The metal bar was not yet gone...if only he could get reach it with his foot and use it to lever himself up. Bill fell into the stream of gravel and was lucky to get his hand on the bar instead.
The support acted like a metal vine; bending sideways under his weight and swinging him downwards in an arc that pushed him more towards the river's center than the shore. It also put him twenty or so feet closer to the river's surface. I won't get a better chance than this. Bill thought as he let go and flung himself towards deeper water.
Ruben was pulled back along the train bridge as the span nearest the far shore collapsed into the river, taking Bill with it.
“Goddamn it! I almost had him!” Ruben bawled out at the young man in a clean uniform who had pulled him back. “Oh, shit. Sorry.” The kid who had pulled him back was John, the boy had stumbled into their camp fifteen minutes after Bill left, he was tired, wet and muddy. If Ruben didn't know the boy was alive he would have sworn he was one of the walking dead, right now the young man's face was a pale, ashen color and he seemed to be having trouble moving. Slowly John sank to his knees on the still swaying bridge. The boy hadn't made it to the other squad, instead he'd been chased by undead most of the morning, until finally he tossed away his rifle and swam across the river to safety. The zombies seemed to lose interest in him, or so he said, when he dived into the river to swim across. Now he had just seen his father fall into the hole in the bridge and tons of rock and concrete fall down after him.
“C'mon, get up. We gotta move back off the bridge. I almost had him...” Ruben said, wiping a filthy sleeve across his eyes.
John didn't say anything he just continued to stare at the missing span of bridge, tears streaming down his face. Ruben did his best to manhandle him to his feet and get him turned around towards the other men. “Did he die?”
“He's gone John. He's gone. We gotta get off this bridge now. I don't know how steady it is going to be with part of it missing.” the older man continued pushing the younger one by the shoulders to the far shore.
“He could be okay. He might be in the river.” Said John breaking free and looking downstream from the wreckage.
Ruben joined him there and scanned the water, the two stood for a few seconds, seeing only muddy water that the collapse had churned up from the riverbed.
John seemed drained, even more lifeless than he had been when he came in this morning. Ruben was not doing much better, a third of his squad was missing and probably dead. And for what? Two survivors from fourth squad, both of whom needed rest and probably medical treatment. Thinking about that Ruben came up with a plan of action.
“Let's go John.” the boy didn't resist and Ruben towed him to the edge of the bridge where the rest of his men were waiting. “Kirk, when we are done here get the lieutenant on the radio and tell him the bridge collapsed, see what he wants us to do. Tell him we recovered two soldiers from fourth squad, but lost three of our men doing it. Also tell him one is injured and needs medi-vacced and all of us need some rest. We are buddy-ing up again the new pairs are me and John, Joe and Dan, Kirk and Javier and finally Larry and Matt. Barry is wounded, we'll put a gun in his hands if we have to, but he is out of the rotation. John, Joe, Javier and Larry you guys bed down next to your new buddy, well put Barry down next to the supplies. The rest of us will be on zombie watch for two hours then we switch off, we will keep doing this all day if we are given the chance. This clear?”
John spoke up softly, “Just like that? You replace my dad just like that?”
“This is why we have a chain of command John. Organization wins wars, not weapons, not men, not bravery. All of those things just make winning easier. Speaking of which Javier, you are in second spot now, until we get replacements or hear otherwise, the rest of you need to treat me as Sergeant and Javier as corporal. All of you break into the power bars, eat two each even if you have to force them down. And drink at least a liter of water too. Got that? Okay, now take up spots around the supplies, I want one pair east of them, one pair more northwest, one southwest and John and I will take up position here by the bridge, watch for zombies swimming or wading across the river and if you see any yell out to everyone else. Everybody clear?" Ruben saw only wearily nodding heads, "Good, now go do what I said. Two bars, a liter of water!”
The men got themselves situated as Ruben had told them to and soon everything grew quiet.
“John.” Ruben said.
“Yes, uh, Corporal?”
“I didn't replace him as 'just like that'. Your father was a good man. He would want me to do my best to make sure his kid lived through this.”
John, from where he was laying on the ground nodded once, curtly.
“He was pretty smart, your dad. You should know he was going to go after you, even if the Lieutenant told him not to?”
“I would have done the same to find him.”
“I know. He wasn't easy to kill, your old man, the zombies couldn't do it; it took a bridge collapsing on him.”
Kirk came over and got Ruben's attention, “Yeah Kirk?”
“The lieutenant says to stay put for now, get some rest and keep an eye on things.”
“Did he say how things were at the other bridges?”
Kirk nodded, “Yes, they are holding, the zombies all stopped attacking after this last surge. He said to watch out, because of how they stopped.”
“How they stopped attacking?”
“Yes, it was, well he said it seemed, well...coordinated. As if it were planned.”
Ruben stared out across the river, looking at the few zombies he could still see that were milling about on the far shore. Planned? he thought, We could be in worse trouble than I imagined.
Chapter 20
The van was jammed with undead, the sliding door remained open and Nita directed one more woman to push into the squirming mass.
“Nita?” Hugh asked.
“What?”
“I don't think that one should count, she only has one arm.”
“Shit.” she said, pulling the zombie woman back. Pushing the woman to move west with her mind Nita looked around for another zombie that might fit into the van. Not seeing one she shrugged her shoulders and tried to slide the van door shut. It took some effort and required Hugh's help. Once closed they stepped back and the van rocked slowly as the undead moved around inside of it. The two of them were at an old farmhouse out in the middle of a bunch of cornfields, zombies were streaming by slowly through the corn, making it ripple like water in a pond.
“It is still a pretty good count, for a van anyway.” Hugh sa
id.
“I dunno, I think I could do better.” from the tone of her voice Nita thought she could do much better.
“Do you think they will eat each other?”
This brought another shrug, “I dunno. It could happen, if they get hungry enough. There might be enough energy in there to make one of them almost normal again.”
They took a few more steps back from the gently swaying light blue van. “Nita?”
“What Hugh?”
He gestured towards the van, “Why do you do that?”
“I don't know. It just makes me happy. I don't know why.”
Red bounded out of a corn field and up to them. He looked over the van and smiled, “Good one Nita! I don't think you could have gotten more in.”
The zombie woman shrugged her shoulders and looked out across the fields.
“What?” Red asked, looking at Hugh, “Did I say something wrong?”
“She thinks she could have done better.”
Red put his arm around Nita's shoulders, “Well practice makes progress, so chalk this one up to experience and do better next time.”
Nita turned her head to look at Red, “Red, why do I do this?”
“You are asking me? I don't know, doesn't it make you feel good?”
“Well yeah, but why does it make me feel good?”
Red thought about it for a minute, the smiled and said, “HellifIknow. I do know one thing though.”
“What?”
“I am jealous because of it.”
“Really?”
“Yeah love, I don't have anything like it. Hugh here doesn't either. Of the three of us you are the only one with a hobby. You are the only one that really feels good about things anymore.”