by Mark Clodi
"You men, move! Pick up the stretcher and carry him in further, get away from the glass doors!" Bill bellowed with authority. The men hastened to obey and Max's group took shelter in a hallway away from the front, where Ruben stood Stewart up and leaned her against the wall to assess her injuries.
The old man let out a low whistle as the three men looked at Stewart, she had a pistol butt sticking out of her chest over her heart. Stewart looked at the men, then glanced down and slid sideways a little, only to be propped up by Ruben on one side and Max on the other.
"That…looks bad." she said.
"It must have been blow off of one of the soldiers." said Javier.
"Yeah, unless there is a new kind of mortar shell I ain't familiar with." said Ruben with a touch of sarcasm.
Stewart reached up with her right hand and grabbed the pistol butt.
"No, leave it, a surgeon will have to take it out. Can you walk?" asked Max.
A loud crash in the entryway drew their attention as a squad of men pushed their way into the building. The sergeant yelled, "We couldn't hold! Evacuate! The officers said to head west! Move people!"
"Sergeant! There are zombies there, waiting for us!" Max shouted. Stewart grasped the butt of the pistol and pulled it out of her, with Ruben watching. Her blood didn't gush out, it seemed to solidify as it touched the air and her wound sealed.
"Perv. You just wanted to see my boob." Stewart mumbled as Ruben held her up.
"Well….yeah." he replied, the tone of his voice showed that wasn't his intent at all.
"Officers said to head west, set up a new line of defense around the barracks, to cover the rest of the men, who will be heading this way in less than three minutes. Anyone who can fire a gun needs to head out now, this building will be overrun. Let's go!" The sergeant didn't wait to see if the people in the lobby would follow he turned and ran back outside and headed towards the barracks Max had just come from.
"We, we can't go that way!" Max sputtered, closing his eyes a moment he let go of Stewart and sought out the zombies he knew were there. "They are coming!"
"From the west?" asked Bill.
Nodding Max said, "And the east. Bill I don't see many of our guys retreating, no living. I see a lot of isolated groups, surrounded by the dead."
"What do we do, Sarg?" asked Javier.
"We head south, of course." All of them knew that Chicago was lightly inhabited, but north into Wisconsin, was more of a crap shoot, there were pockets of heavy zombie populations dotted with uninhabited regions. "First we get some weapons, and food if we can find it."
"So the armory or the px?" asked Ruben, who undoubtedly knew the way to both by heart, the man was good at knowing where to find things.
"Armory. We can pick up food along the way if we have to. Stewart can you walk?"
By way of an answer Stewart let the pistol butt drop from her hand and stood up.
"They are here." Max said, pointing to the front door.
A trio of zombies rushed by the doorway, followed by some slow, shambling zeds in a motley assortment of clothing.
"Max get that rifle!" Bill said, pointing to a rifle left by one of the wounded who had fled the lobby. "Javier, Ruben, each of you give him a magazine. The armory is that way, right Ruben?" Bill had gestured out the front door, where there was a block sized chunk of lawn with a flag pole.
"Yeah, maybe we could go west a little and try to work our way around…"
"Max?"
Max shook his head, "Too many, I don't know Bill, I don't think we can make it."
Slow zombies started shuffling into the lobby.
"Goddamn it. To the stairs, get upstairs now!"
"Bill." said Max pausing, "We can't go anywhere from there, if we go up we'll die."
Hundreds of zombies flooded the lawn in front of the hospital.
"We die now or we die later, I'd rather die not at all, but I'll take later if it is an option. Go Max!"
None of them fired at the slow zombies as they hit the stairwell. Max noted it went up to the fourth floor and did not provide roof access.
They ran into three men coming down the stairs and tried to ward them off going down, but the three did not listen. A few moments later they heard the sound of gunfire from the stairwell and screams as the men were overwhelmed. On the fourth floor they closed the fire doors and Bill took out a plastic restraint, like the kind often used in lieu of handcuffs when police made mass arrests, and looped it over the double doors, effectively locking them together.
"What if a human comes up here?" asked Max.
"Us or them, brother." said Ruben, but Bill hesitated.
"He's right, we can't take the risk of locking them out." Taking his belt knife Bill cut through the plastic. Shrugging he said, "It wouldn't have held them long anyway."
People were coming out of the rooms all along the hallway, curiosity on their faces. "What's going on?" asked an older African American man, in a wheelchair with his leg in a cast from his hip to his toes. He had on a name tag on with the words, 'Amir Lincoln' printed on it in black marker.
"Zombies are coming. We have to get to the roof." answered Bill.
"What about us?" called another man further down the corridor.
"You gotta get to the roof too."
"Where do we go from there?" called another faceless voice.
"Nowhere, we hold them off."
"The stairwell at this end has roof access." said an orderly dressed in light green hospital scrubs.
"Let's go then." said Bill curtly.
Behind them they heard the people scrambling to follow the soldiers, Ruben lagged behind long enough to take out a new plastic restraint. Casting a glance over his shoulder, he strung it through the door handles alongside the one Bill had just cut off. He stepped back to look at his work with some satisfaction.
"Pretty good job." said Amir from behind him.
Surprised Ruben turned and looked down on the man. "Yeah, it will make a difference, every second helps."
"You know if someone stays here they can just hold the handles up, it wouldn't take much effort."
"Yeah, but who would do that?" asked Ruben.
The man gestured at his leg, "I ain't gonna be climbing any stairs mister. They gave me crutches I can't use," he hitched his thumb over his shoulder, "they are in my room, would you mind fetching them for me?"
"Sure thing." Ruben entered the guy's room and saw the crutches. He grabbed them and brought them out to the old guy.
Amir waved him off, "No, no. I can't even pull myself up, I was thinking they are wide enough to shove between the emergency handles, you know, to act as a kind of a bolt."
Ruben slid the crutches down between the handle and the door, sure enough they fit almost perfectly and would keep the handles on the other side of the door from being engaged, effectively locking the door.
"Great, now find another set and let's get to the other stairwell."
Ruben ducked into a few rooms until he came across another set of crutches, out in the hall he saw Amir had already wheeled down to the other stairwell. There was no one left in the hallway except for them.
"Gimme one of those straps." Amir said, holding out his hand. Ruben complied, he still had another dozen or so left, so he handed the man two. "And the crutches. Now go. They won't get in here easily, maybe not at all."
Ruben paused for a moment, holding onto the crutches, and said, "You know, I could get you up the stairs."
Amir shook his head, "I'll be safe in here, two sets of locked doors, you won't have that up top, I bet they just rush by me to get you. 'Sides there are some other guys stuck in here too."
Ruben knew it was true, several patients, unconscious, were still in their beds. "Alright. Goodbye Amir."
"Goodbye whoever you are."
"Ruben."
"Pleased to make your acquaintance Ruben. Now git."
Ruben handed over the crutches and made for the stairwell and started climbing. Behind him th
e door shut with a hefty 'click' sound and he heard Amir jamming the doors with the crutches. By the time Ruben made it to the roof access they were getting ready to shut the door. It was a single door, but about forty inches wide. Bill was holding it open and he asked, "Where've you been? I'd have shut the door in another minute."
"I just came up last, to make sure everyone made it up okay."
"No one left?"
Looking Bill steadily in the eyes Ruben said, "No, there is no one left down below."
"Good, but we got a shit fan of problems up here. Go take a look."
Ruben made his way to the edge of the building, looking over he saw the walkways around the hospital were crammed with undead. Moving to look at the green he saw it was crammed full of undead too, though these seemed to be second tier, the almost human kind, but not quite supers. Worse, among them they had prisoners. A shot rang out and the gawker next to Ruben screamed, then pitched over the front of the building, yelling the whole way down. Or course Ruben didn't see the man hit, by then he was on his face, backing up quickly towards the middle of the building.
"Get away from the edges you stupid fools!" he yelled as more gunfire rang out from below. Only one more person was shot, a younger man who was already in a hospital gown. He reeled away clutching his arm with cry before being tackled by an orderly to get him out of sight.
"Bill, what do we do?" yelled Max from near the edge of the building.
"Stay near the center, if you have guns watch that building, in case they try to run some zombies with guns up there." Bill pointed to the building next to theirs, separated by only a fifteen foot gap. Luckily the building was only the same height as theirs, not taller, nor were any of the others nearby.
A hand grenade went off down below, followed almost immediately by another. Stewart and Max looked at each other, then saw a small black object sail over the lip of the parapet, to land thirty feet away. It exploded a split second after landing and sprayed shrapnel into the patients and soldiers, wounding several, one severely enough to drop him into unconsciousness.
"Holy fuck, we can't stop that!" Max yelled at Stewart, then he yelled to Bill, "You got any grenades?"
"No, throw them back if they come over!"
More grenades followed, one soldier grabbed one and tossed it over the edge, where it exploded just below the edge of the building, breaking windows, but causing no casualties. Another older looking soldier shucked off his helmet and put it over the second grenade then threw his body on top of it. The man's helmet and body did help contain the blast, but he had no time to center himself properly and was catapulted over the edge of the building, his intestines weaving a bloody pattern as he flew through the air. The third grenade was the worst, another patient; this one with his leg in a cast managed to pick it up and had just raised it over his head to toss it when it went off. The man's arm disintegrated and his head was blown sideways with enough force to break his neck, even as the shrapnel killed him. His attempt at throwing resulted in the grenade being just high enough to rain shrapnel down on the people taking cover, resulting in a plethora of wounds, many of them serious. Of the fifty or so patients and soldiers on the roof top, more than thirty were wounded to one degree or another. Even Javier, who seemed to be the lucky one of Bill's squad, had a cut across one cheek that was bleeding heavily.
No more grenades followed and the group breathed a momentary sigh of relief. The moans and cries of the wounded had to alert their enemy that they were not all dead, so their respite would only be temporary.
Working their way to where Bill and Ruben were by the door Max asked, "What now?"
"Fuck if I know." said Bill.
"Awesome." Stewart said, "I think we should have run," she held up a hand to forestall Bill, who had opened his mouth to say something, "But we are here now, so let's focus on getting out of here, not 'I told you so' okay?"
"What about the building next door?" asked Max, "I think I could make the jump."
"Yeah, you me and everyone who isn't injured, what about the wounded?" asked Bill.
"We can't save everyone." Ruben said, "And I ain't in favor of dying with them either." Another grenade went off on the side of the building.
"Can you make the jump?" Bill asked Ruben.
"Watch me." with that he got up and took a running start towards the edge of the building. The four of them, including Javier, who had crawled over while they were talking looked open mouthed as the old man took a running leap and disappeared over the edge.
"Oh fuck, did the old fool make it?" said Stewart, rising to a crouching position to see.
"Well?" asked Max.
"Yeah, he did, he made it! I'm going, c'mon!" she rose and ran towards the edge as another grenade landed on the roof and blew behind her. Stewart made the jump look easy, clearing the other roof by ten or more feet. The grenade wounded more people and after seeing the jumpers the remaining able bodied rose and started to make the run too. This worked out well for some of them, but two people were a little too focused on the run and not on where they were running; they bumped together right at the roof edge, one man tripped and fell over the edge and the other barely managed to reach the other side where he clung to the parapet with one hand. Gunfire rang out and he dropped like a stone a moment later.
The grenades stopped, but people still kept trying to make the jump, now their actions were accompanied by gunfire from below and screams from some of the men as they were hit.
"We gotta go." said Max, "From there we can jump to the next building and then maybe down to that one behind it. Or we could go down and try to weave our way through the building to the south."
"Max, we can't just leave these guys."
"Bill, you have family to think of, I have family to think of. And what about Ruben and Stewart? We can't leave them to fend for themselves. Javier and you need to jump over then we don't rest, we just go for the next one immediately to take them by surprise."
"You first."
"No, 'cause you'd do something stupid. You first."
"You just want me to draw their fire."
"That too."
"Don't leave us." said a patient nearby.
"Look man….I…" started Bill, then he was pulled up by Javier and half pushed by Max in the direction of the other building.
Ruben, on the other side, had climbed on top of a heating unit on the other building and had his rifle aimed at the green. Javier and Bill leaped at the same time and bullets from both above and below rang out. Neither man was hit by the wild fire, but down below a zombie with one of the rifles had a bullet put through his skull by Ruben. Ruben immediately pulled himself away from the edge near the green, trying to hide from the zombie gunmen. It didn't seem to matter to the other zombies; they didn't notice that one of their own had been shot. For a moment everything was quiet, when Max rose up to make the jump the pleas of those around him rose in volume begging him not to go. Ignoring them Max focused on the run, picturing his children on the other side as motivation to make the leap. More gunshots rang out, but Max landed safely. The group on the other building huddled together near the door to the stairs.
Bill stood as Max came over and said, "We are going to jump for the next one. It should be easier, they can't see us from the green."
Down below they heard a scream, a high pitched wailing. Cautiously they crept to peep over the parapet to the lawn below. The zombies had their prisoners held up above the crowd body surfing them around the green, most of the men were still whole, but a couple had been attacked and were bleeding. As they watched another one of the men was grabbed in a tug of war between two groups, the man's arm was pulled out of its socket and then from his body completely as the game played out. His scream rose in pitch until any who didn't see him would have sworn that it was a small child, not a grown man. As if that were a signal the other body surfing prisoners were pulled into the mob and torn apart, with the crowd forming feeding circles around them.
"Now! We go now, whi
le they are distracted!" Bill said. He didn't have to tell them twice. Only two other men made the jump with them, the others broke into the building and were heading down the stairs.
"We can jump down or across again." Bill said, pointing out their options, no one seemed inclined to go down yet like the others.
"I say we go across and see what is on the other side of that building." said Stewart, "Even if it isn't a good one to jump to we are a little closer to the southern edge of the campus if we have to go down inside."
"Everyone agree?" asked Bill.
Everyone did, once on the other building they found that the next one was two stories lower than than the one they were on, a distance none of them wanted to try. While they pondered their choices, a third option presented itself.
Chapter 8 — Katie
Katie went back into the corner office to pick up the gym bag, she put three of the table legs into it along with the least soiled of the hand towels. Whatever towels the man had for drying off from the shower were missing. 'Maybe it was laundry day.' she mused to herself as she stood in the doorway checking for zeds a few moments later.
Her goals were now clear, she was going to head downstairs and west, cross over to the building where she and Randy had parted ways with Heath and then go through there to the vehicle they had left on the other side. She remembered that Heath had put the keys on the seat and she hoped that the blinker he had left on hadn't run the battery down to the point where it wouldn't start the car. The car should be on a street that was clear of the devastation, once there she would decide where to head next.
After pausing for a moment to make sure the way was really clear she ran from the office doorway and sprinted towards the stairwell on the west side of the building. Katie didn't encounter any zombies, but did catch the oversized shoes on an office chair that sent her sprawling. Cursing softly she kicked off the shoes, she felt sure she could keep going if her feet were cut and no longer felt that the protection they offered was worth the risk of tripping in front of the next zombie she ran into. She did toss the shoes into her bag, in case she changed her mind later.