I waited and waited until the moment was right. Then I pulled the pin and tossed the grenade underhand toward the clearing like I was throwing a bocce ball. I was so concerned about the grenade landing too close to the door that I threw it too hard in the other direction. I watched the grenade’s high arcing trajectory with bated breath. It cleared the area I wanted it to land in and plucked a zombie in the forehead who stepped into its path. The grenade careened off the ghoul’s forehead and then hopped across the concrete before rolling to a stop in the middle of the clearing I was shooting for. I couldn’t have put it in a better spot if I had walked it out there myself.
I was so busy reveling in my good fortune that I didn’t think to hit the deck. When the grenade went off, the force of the blast took care of that for me. I flew backwards and landed flat on my back. I lay there for a moment watching the glory of a mini mushroom cloud. When the smoke cleared, I leapt to my feet and ran to the edge of the roof to check out the grenade’s handiwork. Just as Celeste had promised, the crater from the blast was roughly fifteen feet in diameter. It was much deeper than I had expected, which was all the better. The zombies outside the blast radius fell into the crater one after another on their way to the door. Once in the crater they were too far away from the retina scanner for it to pick them up. The crater was just close enough to the door that zombies walking in from the sides couldn’t get in front of the scanner without falling into the hole.
“What did you do?” Alex yelled to me as I made my way back down the ladder. “My ears won’t stop ringing.”
“It was the neutron grenade.”
“Why bother?” Celeste asked. “There’s no way you got all of them.”
“Nope. Didn’t get them all, but I did make a big ole hole in front of the door. They’re all falling in, and now they can’t get in front of the scanner.”
“That’s very clever, Royce,” Celeste said with a warm smile.
“Happy to be of service. I’m probably going to get cancer from it, but . . . ”
“Don’t worry about cancer,” Alex said. “It’s not even a serious illness anymore.”
“We better get some more of those grenades then,” I said, grinning. “Seriously though, let’s load the van before too many of those freaks fall in that hole, and they start piling on top of each other.”
26.
Alex, Celeste, and I loaded the van as carefully as we could, trying to maximize the space available. We packed one side with boxes of meat and cans, and created a flat space with bags of rice on the other to lay Mike on.
Alex and I helped Mike up on his makeshift bed.
“Mike, we’re going to take you to one of those research hospitals you told us about and get you fixed up,” I said. Alex and Celeste wouldn’t look at me or Mike. It was clear they didn’t like my plan, but were uncomfortable speaking against it given Mike’s predicament.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Mike said, groaning in pain. “It’s a military hospital. They aren’t just going to let the three of you waltz in and out of there as you please, and that’s assuming they haven’t been overrun.”
“Let us figure that out. Your job is to hang on until we get you there, okay? Where’d you say the nearest facility was, DC?”
“Yes, DC.”
“We shouldn’t go to DC,” Alex said. “It’s too populated. We need a place that will have less of those things walking around.”
“We can’t go far. This guy doesn’t have much time.”
“That’s true, but if we go to the capitol, we might not even make it, and where does that leave him?” Celeste had a point.
“Mike, is there another place we can go?” I asked. “Somewhere outside the city?”
Mike lay there looking at the ceiling. I couldn’t tell if he was thinking or losing consciousness.
“We can go to Weston.” He coughed. “It’s a small town. There’s a secret facility operating inside an abandoned insane asylum. It’s about . . . eighty miles northeast of Charleston. Shouldn’t take more than a few hours.”
“Alex, Celeste, what do you think?”
“We can try,” Celeste said.
“All right, I’ll get the door.”
They climbed in the van, and I walked over to the door and started pulling on the chain to open it. Each tug made my wound itch and burn. Once I got the door open, I climbed into the passenger seat next to Celeste, who was sitting between the seats on a sack of rice. I put my arm on the armrest to steady myself as Alex weaved through the zombies still wandering the business park. That’s when I noticed the blood from my wound seeping through my sleeve. Celeste was looking out my window, and I pulled my arm down nervously between the seat and the door to hide the wound. I couldn’t tell if she noticed, and I stared blankly out the window, unwilling to find out.
27.
By the time we reached Weston, Mike was passed out in the back of the van and dripping with sweat.
“You think he’ll turn soon?” Celeste asked, checking on his condition.
“I hope not, but we better keep the guns handy just in case,” I said.
It was dusk as we crawled down Main Street in the van. Weston was tiny. It reminded me of a movie set for small town USA that had long been abandoned. Tall weeds sprouted right through the pavement, and the cars parked along the curb were caked with dust. Other than the weeds and grime, some of the shops almost looked as if they were still taking business. We passed a restaurant that still had an open sign hanging in the window, and the filthy steel tables were still arranged neatly on the outdoor patio. Other shops were boarded up and riddled with bullet holes.
“What happened to this place?” I asked.
Alex didn’t say a word, and Celeste was slow to answer. It was clear they hadn’t been out of the city enough to see something like this. “After the invasion, the Chinese came into small towns and rounded everyone up. They wanted everyone in the cities so they were easier to control and put to work,” she said.
“Looks like there wasn’t much time to prepare.”
“Most people didn’t know it was coming. The Chinese took people from where they stood, rounded them up like animals, and hauled them off in caravans. Those who holed up and put up a fight were sent to the reeducation camps.”
“So they left everything behind?”
“Everything.”
“We should take a look around on our way out. You know, see what we can find.”
“We should,” Celeste said with a sigh.
28.
A brief detour off Main Street led us to the expansive grounds of the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. The building itself was an ancient, rectangular stone structure with multiple floors and narrow wings stretching off into the distance. The stained, white clock tower at the center of the building seemed out of place against the portent Gothic architecture. The tower’s peak was adorned with a large copper steeple that thrust violently up into the sky.
As intimidating as the building was, it was dwarfed by the grassy acreage. The grounds were peppered with mature trees, and among them, we could make out shadowy figures stumbling around in the distance. We pulled the van up front. From what we could tell, the facility was deserted. It was getting darker by the minute, yet not a single light shone through the hundreds of barred windows that dotted the front of the building.
“This place gives me the creeps,” Celeste offered.
“Me, too,” I said. The mysterious figures were getting closer. Zombies in bloodied hospital gowns made their way toward us through the mist. “Look at that. Place has probably been overrun, but at least we know there’s a hospital. Let’s go take a look.”
I grabbed a gun and jumped down from the van. Celeste followed.
“You coming, Alex?” she asked.
“No, I better wait here to keep an eye on Mike,” he said.
“Dude, no way. You stay in there you’re going to be bait for all those freaks over there,” I said.
“But wha
t about Mike? Won’t they smell him?” Alex asked.
“Maybe, but he also might become one of them by the time we get back.”
The thought of being trapped in the van with Mike was all the motivation Alex needed to grab a gun and join us.
I put my hand on Alex’s shoulder. “Look, pal, you were really brave back there at the storage depot. You saved my life again when you pulled me out of that mess. You got this, man. Fire up that laser, and let’s go torch some freaks.”
“All right,” Alex said with a sheepish grin. He stepped back and activated his weapon. The laser shot out a good ten feet right between Celeste and me.
“Be careful, Alex,” Celeste said, stepping away from the beam. “We better keep our lasers short. We don’t want to hurt each other.”
29.
We tiptoed into the building, expecting to find ghouls at every turn. Instead, we found ourselves exploring the annals of an abandoned insane asylum. The rooms were mostly empty save for an occasional antediluvian restraint table bolted to the floor, which was littered with brittle plaster that had broken free from the crumbling walls. At first, we moved slowly through the pitch-black rooms, with only the warm glow of the lasers to guide our path. After failing to run into a zombie for a good ten minutes, we started moving faster and faster until we reached the end of the western wing.
“This is weird,” I said.
“I know. They couldn’t have just packed everything up and left,” Celeste said.
“Even if they did, the building wouldn’t be in shambles.”
“Perhaps the hospital is located in the other wing,” Alex suggested.
“I hope so. We better go find out,” I said.
We worked our way back toward the other wing. As we walked through the lobby at the center of the building, the clock struck the hour. The thundering bell rattled our bones. We all took a combative stance as if we were under attack, then stood and laughed at the absurdity of the moment. When the clock stopped chiming, the reverberating echo was replaced by howling emanating from somewhere beneath us.
“You hear that?” Celeste asked.
“I do,” I said. “Where’s it coming from?”
“I don’t know.”
We stood in place, listening carefully before we moved toward the source of the sound. The wailing led us to towering white drapes that appeared to be covering a very large window. I grabbed the cloth and yanked it back, unveiling a door that was slightly ajar.
“A secret passage,” Alex whispered.
“Come on . . . follow me,” I said, putting my hand on the door.
“Why?” Alex cried. “We know what’s in there.”
“We’re here to find the hospital, right?”
“Yes, but—”
“If they’re trying to stop the outbreak, then what’s the one thing they need to have in the hospital?”
“Patients.”
“Bingo. Let’s go.”
I pulled the door back and leapt into the doorway, ready for anything. Instead of zombies, I found a dimly lit stairwell.
“Okay, let’s go down. Careful with those lasers behind me, okay?” They nodded.
There weren’t more than twenty stairs. At the bottom, they met a concrete hallway that ran to the left. I stood at the corner, my back to the wall, and waited for my companions to catch up. Once they did, I spun around into the hallway. A crowd of zombies at the other end of the hall had their backs to us. They were gathered around a large steel door, screaming and scratching at it in agony. Most wore gowns, but some were soldiers, and others wore the uniforms of medical personnel. Alex opened fire abruptly with his machine gun, which immediately got the ghouls’ attention and sent them running toward us. Alex turned and ran back up the stairs, and Celeste and I followed. I looked behind as I rounded the corner and saw what I thought was a face peering through the viewing window on the other side of the door. When I got to the top of the stairs, I slammed the door shut, and then stood panting with my back against it.
“What was that, Alex?” I inquired.
“I don’t know. Fighting?”
“Like the enthusiasm, buddy, but you can’t be going all Rambo on us. We need to work together.”
“What’s Rambo?”
“Of course. It means wild . . . commando, you know? We need to work as a team.”
“Got it.”
“There are a lot of them down there,” Celeste said.
“I know, and we’re going to have to take care of them because there’s somebody on the other side of that door.”
“How do you know?” Alex asked.
“I saw someone looking through the window.”
“I didn’t see anyone. How do you know it wasn’t one of them?”
“Because, I just know. Besides, why would they all be jonesing to get in there if all there was, was a freak on the other side?”
“He has a point, Alex.”
The zombies had followed us up the stairs, and now they were going to work on our door.
“All right, Al, you get the door, and Celeste and I will do the honors,” I said.
We readied our lasers, and as soon as Alex pulled the handle, we made quick work of the zombies on the other side. Blood, brains, and entrails saturated the carpeted steps. We walked gingerly among the carnage careful to avoid still-moving torsos and heads.
When we reached the bottom of the stairs, several zombies were still clawing at the other door. A man behind the window waved at us. We returned the gesture and then pulled back around the corner.
“I guess they weren’t ready to give up on him,” Celeste whispered.
“I think we should sneak up behind them and take them out,” I said, “but we have to use our bayonets cause we don’t want the lasers hurting that guy on the other side.”
“They won’t cut through that steel,” she said.
“I know, but what about the glass?”
She nodded.
“No shooting either, Al. Look, there aren’t many more of them than there are of us, so we should be fine. Let’s move quickly before they know we’re here.”
We raced down the hallway with our weapons at the ready. Only one zombie heard us coming so I charged in his direction and thrust my bayonet into his eye. Celeste stabbed her target in the back of the head and then hit another attacker with the butt of her rifle and finished him off once he fell to the ground. Alex made an instant kill to the back of the head as well, but he was too overcome by the experience to react quickly to the creature next to his target. It turned and grabbed him by the shoulders, but I thrust my bayonet up underneath its chin before it had a chance to bite him.
With our enemies vanquished, we had a moment to pause. Alex was as white as a ghost.
“You did great, buddy,” I said. He nodded slightly. “Looks like I still owe you one.”
As I patted him on the shoulder, Celeste noticed the dried blood on my sleeve.
“Royce, are you injured?” she asked.
“Where? Oh, that? Nooo, that’s just from when I was helping Mike.”
“Oh, good.”
Dodging that bullet made me anxious and self-aware. I noticed that I was sweating profusely. I told myself that it was just adrenaline from the fight, but I couldn’t be sure.
30.
The man on the other side of the door struggled to force it open against the bodies lying on the ground. We dragged them out of the way and were greeted by a tall, gaunt man in an ill-fitting lab coat that hung loosely on his wiry frame. His hair was dark and curly, and he wore thin-rimmed glasses that he pushed tightly against the top of his nose.
“Am I glad to see you!” He beamed. “Here, come in. Shut the door in case there are more of them out there.”
We walked down a flight of stairs and entered a lab eerily similar to the one in New York. The white room was the size of a high school gymnasium with advanced machinery dotting the floor and five large metal gurneys positioned evenly across the center of the room.
Three doors ran along one wall, and a massive metal pole stretched from floor to ceiling on the other side of the room.
“I surmise that you weren’t sent by the government,” the man said.
“Definitely not,” I replied.
“How did you even know about this place?”
“We have a friend. He worked in a communication center, and he picked up on things. He’s injured; we’re hoping you can help him.”
“How bad is it?”
“Pretty bad.”
“Has he been bitten?”
“Yes.”
“Well, as you can see, I can’t do anything for that.”
“Please, just do whatever you can. Can we bring him down?”
“Certainly. Where is he?”
“He’s out front. In the van.”
“Okay, here’s what I need you to do. Drive your vehicle around the back of the building until you find a cement patio without any furniture on it. Park the van on the patio and honk your horn.”
“Um, okay . . .”
“Now get going. If your friend has been bitten, we don’t have much time.”
31.
The zombies must have smelled Mike, because several were pounding on the door at the back of the van.
“You think that means he’s still alive?” Alex asked.
“Let’s hope so. If we gotta take him out, just be careful with the food,” I said. “Shall I do the honors?”
“Why certainly,” Celeste replied, curtsying.
I extended my laser as far as it would go and then snuck around the side of the van. Once I was alongside the zombies, I held the laser above my head and swung straight down like I was chopping wood. This stroke prevented any damage to the van, and it chopped the majority of them right in half.
“Did you guys see that?”
“I like your handiwork,” Celeste said, placing her hand on my arm and running it gently across my back as she walked around me to strike a zombie.
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