by Dennis Elder
“The phones must be down or something. Nobody’s picking up in emergency. I’m going to go up and grab an ER Doctor,” said Leny.
“Sounds good, but hurry, I don’t like the way he’s breathing,” said Mary.
Leny sprinted to the sub-basement elevators and hit the button. But the elevator didn’t come. Out of frustration she hit the button again. It was an older Hospital and the elevators could be slow sometimes. After few seconds Leny broke for the stairs and started climbing.
Two floors up the hospital staircase exit door opened up next to the emergency entrance door. It was one of those automated doors that rolled open when somebody got close to it. When Leny exited the door the first thing she saw was a woman lying right in the middle of the automated door. It was opening and then closing on the woman’s torso, over and over again.
“What the…” said Leny as she bent down toward the woman.
She got a hand on one of the woman’s arms and shouted for help.
“Hey, I need some help…” said Leny, but then she stopped in mid-sentence. When she looked back toward the nurses’ station she realized no one was behind the counter.
“Strange,” she thought to herself. “There are always nurses behind the ER station.”
She turned back to the woman in the door entry and with a little strain she was able to pull her through the door. When the door finally closed, it stayed shut.
Leny moved toward the station and said, “Hey, where is everybody?”
When she got to the station she found two nurses lying on their sides. Blood was coming from the mouth of one of the women. Both were unconscious. Leny didn’t know what to do at first. There was broken glass on the floors too. Her shoes crunched as she cautiously moved farther into the building.
“Hello!” cried out Lenny.
But no response came. What did come was a slow realization that the hospital’s interior hallways were littered with people lying on the floor.
Chapter 21:
By the time Doc Martin, Susan, Frank, Randy and Jake got back to the police station it was close to four in the afternoon. They had collected everything Mark asked for plus a few extra things. Most of their items were riding in two Shopping carts they borrowed from the local grocery store. Frank, Randy and Jake were holding Bushmaster machine guns in both hands. Susan and Doc were pushing the carts.
On their way back from the Convention center, they decided to climb the stairs of a local fourteen-story building. They took a good look around and learned a lot. When they got back to the station they carefully shut the Police station construction gate behind them and quickly moved the collected equipment inside the station’s front doors. They kept their weapons in hand and then headed down the stairs. Each of them held a good-sized mag flashlight.
When they opened the basement door they found Tyrone cutting through the cell bars still holding Boon hostage. They’d found a portable acetylene torch about 15 blocks away in the back end of a truck.
Mark looked back to see Doc and his crew come in through the stair doorway. Then he looked back to watch Tyrone finish up.
The torch was loud in the confined space, so Doc waited to report. Everyone was standing around watching Tyrone. When he was sure the last cut was finished he cut the torch’s gas and oxygen flow. The torch popped, and the flame went out. Tyrone then picked up a small sledgehammer by his right foot and with one stroke broke out the cut section of cell bars. Everyone stepped back a bit when the red-hot bars fell to the ground. Now that the door’s lock was free, Tyrone reached out with his gloved hand and pulled the bars back.
“Free at last my brother,” said Tyrone.
Boon Seteran stepped forward and out of the cell.
“Thanks,” said Boon.
“My pleasure,” replied Tyrone. And then in a more serious tone said, “Sorry about shutting you in like that. We didn’t realize the power would be gone.”
Jake moved forward to offer his apologies too and said, “Yea, sorry too. Glad you’re finally out.
“No worries fellas,” said Boon. “Just glad be out of there.”
Jake and Tyrone both shook Boon’s hand and it was obvious all was forgiven.
The air in the basement was pretty smoky.
“Let’s head upstairs and find a place to debrief,” said Mark.
The men and Susie quickly ascended the staircase and gathered in the squad room. As they passed the entry doors, Boon curiously looked out the front door windows. Earlier the guys had told him what to expect, but he wanted to take a look for himself.
The squad room space was big enough for all of them. Here the air and light were much better. They pulled some chairs together in a circle and sat down facing each other.
“So, what did you learn?” asked Mark, as he faced Doc.
Doc started. “We met two others that were still walking. Everyone else we saw was either dead or close to it. The distribution of bodies between here and Convention center was like what we all saw out on the road. Both walkers we saw were just as incoherent as the guy we saw earlier. It’s like their minds were half-baked. They act like four years olds when it comes to urges, and their vocabulary is… well, primitive.”
“Did you have any trouble,” asked Mark.
“One of the walker dudes tried to get a little friendly with Susan,” said Frank.
“It was nothing I couldn’t handle,” added Susan. “But it was weird.”
“Weird,” asked Mark.
Susan didn’t answer. She didn’t know how to put it into words. So, Doc interjected.
“The guy wouldn’t quit trying to touch Susan,” said Doc.
“Touch you?” questioned Mark.
“Well first he groped me before I could push his hand away,” said Susan. “Then he kept trying to touch me. Like I said, weird.”
“Pretty bold move, especially in front of so many men,” said Tyrone.
“Exactly, said Frank. “But sister kick boxer here laid him out when the dude tried to grab for the third time. Couldn’t a done it better myself.”
“Yea, but he popped right back up, like it didn’t even phase him,” said Sam.
“What happened then,” asked Junior
“Frank intervened,” said Sam, with an air of finality in his voice.
“The guy was getting out of control,” said Frank. “So, I put him down.”
There was moment of silence once everyone realized what Frank had done.
“Well,” said Sam. “At least now we know what the rules of engagement are.”
“10-4 to that,” responded Mark. “Team first, questions second.”
Everyone nodded. Then Mark turned back to Doc.
“What else did you learn?” continued Mark.
“After we got ourselves armed and dangerous we climbed to the top of a taller hotel and took a look around. We borrowed some binoculars too. The view was… enlightening,” finished Doc.
“How so?” asked Mark.
“We did a three sixty survey from the top of the building. Took our time and checked hard for any signs of life. There’s a big fire burning to our Northeast. I’d say it’s at least 100 acres big. All black behind the fire, muffled explosions every minute or so, and spreading fast by the time we came back down. We heard two separate gunshots. No vehicle movements anywhere. Every so often we see another HB,” said Doc Martin.
“Is that what we’re gonna call um?” asked Junior.
“HB’s?” responded Mark.
“Yea,” said Junior looking around. “Stands for Half Baked. Anyway, we need to call um something.”
“OK, then we’ll call them HBs for now,” said Mark. “What else?”
“At the convention center we looked around to see what else might come in handy,” said Doc, then turning to Randy.
“Randy, you made the list,” said Doc.
Randy took a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket and began reading, “Plenty of ammo for the Bushmasters. More than enough to wipe out a who
le brigade of HBs,”
“I really like that word… HBs,” said Jake, with a slight smile.
“We found body armor, MREs, lightweight cook stoves, good quality K-bar knives, plus sidearms,” continued Randy.
“And these, said Doc, as he reached into a plastic bag and pulled out a bottle. He shook them to let everyone know is was a pill bottle.
“These are Diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid tablets or DTPA,” said Doc. “Everyone takes one now and waits one hour before they eat or drink.”
While the bottle was being passed around, Boon asked, “What are they for, Doc?”
“This pill naturally binds to particles of radioactive plutonium, americium and curium. And it makes it easier for the radioactive particles pass out of the body in urine, thereby reducing the amount of absorbed radiation,” said Doc.
“So, there is radiation?” asked Junior.
“Yes and no,” responded Doc as he reached for a round object he had in his jacket pocket. He pulled it out and showed it to the team before he continued.
“It’s a personal radiation monitor,” said Doc. “I found a box of them in one of the Survivalists booths.”
He passed the monitor to Mark who looked at the plastic window and the markings inside and then passed to the next person. Everyone took a turn looking at the monitor as Doc spoke.
“The bad news is probably sometime last night that monitor recorded a massive radiation spike – nearly 600 rads. That much radiation would make your instantly sick as a dog, and most likely kill you. Some might last anywhere from day to a month. Depend on the health, and age of the person. Again, it would certainly make you very sick.” continued Doc.
“But we’re not sick,” said Junior.
“And I hope we’re not going to get sick,” responded Doc. “That’s why you need to take one of those pills before you eat. Just to make sure.”
Mark looked at Doc and said, “You also said there was some good news?”
Doc shook his head in the affirmative and took back the radiation monitor.
“This black needle measures where the current radiation level sits,” said Doc. “And that indicates, as we speak, there is no residual radiation.”
“That’s damn good news!” said Tyrone.
“Yes it is,” replied Mark.
Everyone was relieved they were not going to end up like one of those pitiful HBs.
“I also found a Geiger counter. We can use it to check food and water for radiation,” offered Doc.
“I thought you said there wasn’t any residual radiation,” questioned Susan.
“There doesn’t seem to be, but we’ll want to always check food or water sources before we use them. Just to make sure,” continued Doc. “Eating a can of Chili that has 500 rads of radiation still in it will kill you just as easy as whatever cooked LA last night. We also brought two boxes of bottled water and plenty of MREs for tonight supper – all apparently radiation free.”
“OK,” said Mark. “Nice work everyone on the reconnaissance and dinner. For now, we’ll continue to use the Police station as home base. Tonight, I say we bring up the mattresses from the basement. The air down there was getting pretty stale. We get some hot food in us and set a watch. Two guards during night watches, two hours each watch. Guards locked and loaded. Frank, you organize the rotations.”
Mark took a deep breath and looked around the room.
“Anything else anybody,” asked Mark.
“Just one thing,” asked Jake.
“What’s that?” responded Mark.
“Are we planning to stay here long term?” continued Jake.
All eyes were on Mark Harris now, their commander.
“I would say that’s a negative, answered Mark. “Personally, I think we need to get out of LA as soon as possible – if just to escape the coming diseases. But there is lot of things we need to talk over and decide on, for each of us. Tomorrow we’re going to have to figure that out and a lot more, as a team. So, everyone needs to be thinking on best solutions.”
Slowly the group stood up and began talking in small groups. One by one they headed downstairs to get a mattress and their individual gear.
Mark quietly turned to Boon and said, “Boon, you need to starting thinking about logistics, what we’ll need, how we’re going to get there, etc.”
“OK, but I need to know where we goin?” responded Boon.
“We’ll talk about it tomorrow, said Mark quietly. But think about going North for now. And getting out of LA as soon as we can.”
Chapter 22: No Objections
Ivan Petrovich personally opened every sub-basement prison door and directed each of his fellow two hundred and fifty three prisoners out of their sub-basement cells into the blessed November sunshine. He had already been upstairs and found flashlights. When he reached the above ground offices and hallways he found a mass of sick and dying prisoners and guards. When the sub-basement prisoners began their own exit, several of the men got little excited and began running over the bodies in a frenzied move to get free of the prison. But once they were outside and realized all the guards were dead, the men began to relax a bit.
A couple of the prisoners instantly ran out the facility gates and down the road. Before the rest decided to leave, Ivan got their attention by bringing out a barely conscious prison guard and roughly standing him up in front of the prisoners. The surviving prisoners jeered and cursed at the guard. The big Russian held the guard by the shirt collar with one hand, while pointing a handgun at his head with the other. The men slowly quieted just as Ivan finally spoke.
“The days of the guards are over!” shouted Ivan.
The prisoners went wild.
“No more prison for us!” shouted Ivan again as he shook the collar of the weakened guard.
The men shouted their support a second time. When the rage subsided Ivan pushed his 40 caliber Smith and Wesson automatic into the back of helpless guard’s head and cocked the hammer.
“We are free!” screamed Ivan. Then he fired his weapon. The guard’s head exploded, and the man’s lifeless body collapsed to the ground. The men screamed and raged in support of what Ivan had done.
Ivan raised both his hands to get the men to calm enough so they could hear him. It took 30 seconds before Ivan could speak.
“Something has happened to give us this chance,” said Ivan. Something from above, maybe a bomb, I don’t know.
This got the men smiling and shouting again. Ivan raised his hands to calm them. This time it took much less time to quite the men down.
“All I know is we need to make sure we don’t end up back here,” suggested Ivan.
Most of the men didn’t know what Ivan was talking about. Some looked around at each other with questioned looks on their faces. A young man named Billy Doherty looked at Ivan and raised his hand before he spoke.
“What do you mean end up back here, man?” shouted Billy.
Most of the men were wondering the same thing, so everyone turned their attention back to Ivan. He looked over the group and surveyed the men. This was his chance to create something powerful. He needed to be very careful how he responded.
“Well, look around you,” started Ivan. “It is obvious that few people are still alive, no?”
The men kept silent, preferring to see where Ivan’s line of thinking was going.
“For some reason we are among those to survive,” said Ivan. “But there are probably others out there…”
Ivan looked and motioned with his gun hand toward the city of Las Vegas.
“Some survivors could be police or army soldiers.”
This suggestion gathered the full attention of the prisoners. None of them had thought about that.
“If we take off in small groups, say three or four men in little gangs… if there are army or police out there they will pick us off one by one. And if they don’t kill us they will put us back in cages, again.”
Ivan let that sink in for a second. The men
were mumbling among each other. They were condemned men and would all fight to the death rather than be put back in prison again.
A rather large Hispanic named Hector Munoz spoke up and shouted, “I’m never going back in there.”
The other men fed off Hector’s comment and shouted their support. Then they turned back to Ivan standing in front of them.