The white-suit with the satchel waved a hand in the air.
“Of course they are,” he responded. “They only had to deal with one that’s still alive. We’re the ones who should be worried.” He paused and keyed his mic. “Alpha Team to Charley Team.”
“This is Charley Team. Go ahead with your traffic, Alpha.”
“Charley Team, what’s your status?”
“We’re good. Hospital is under full lockdown. The staff has been isolated in the cafeteria and the patient rooms are locked. We’ll start conducting rapid field tests on the staff momentarily.”
“Copy. Check on Bravo Team over in the ICU. We can’t reach them on the radio. We’ll rendezvous with you outside the cafeteria when we’re finished down here.”
“10-4. I’ll send someone over there in a few.”
The three men stopped right outside the morgue’s double-doors and froze.
The white-suit in the middle put the satchel on the floor, unzipped it, and brought out three MP5 submachine guns with attached suppressors.
“The deceased’s medical and company employment records have been wiped, but don’t forget to take the toe tags off of the corpses,” he said as he handed the others their weapons. “That could be detrimental if one of them gets discovered.”
The other two men nodded.
They gripped their weapons tightly as they walked through the double-doors and stepped inside the morgue.
The morgue was a rather small, cement room with six freezers on each side. Two stainless steel tables with attached sinks sat in the middle of the room.
“Let’s make this quick,” the lead white-suit said as he walked towards the first set of freezers. He pointed his weapon at the door and placed his finger on the trigger, ready. “Open it.”
The other two men readied their weapons and carefully opened the first freezer door...
The metal cadaver tray rolled out.
It was empty.
“Move up,” the leader said as he walked towards the second freezer, weapon ready.
The two men opened the second freezer, pulled out the cadaver tray, and stared at the body bag lying on it, waiting.
The body bag wasn’t moving.
Relieved, the white-suits unzipped it and revealed a naked elderly woman.
She looked peaceful and calm.
The lead white-suit fired a single shot into the woman’s head.
The other men tore the barcode tag off of her toe, zipped the body bag back up, pushed the tray back and slammed the door shut.
“Move up.”
The group moved to the next freezer and opened the door.
When they pulled the cadaver tray out, whatever was inside the body bag suddenly started thrashing around, trying to get free.
The white-suits pointed the gun at the cadaver, shaking.
The cadaver inside the body bag let out a feral scream.
Suddenly several freezer doors started rattling as whatever was inside them bashed against them, screaming and howling.
The white-suits startled and looked around the room as the commotion grew louder.
“Dammit!” the lead white-suit said as he quickly shot a three-round burst at the corpse inside the body bag without even unzipping it.
None of the shots landed in the corpse’s head.
The banging intensified at the sound of the gunfire. Some of the freezer doors started to open as their weak hinges snapped off.
The corpse inside the body bag became livid and ripped open the bag’s zipper. It frantically started crawling out of the bag.
Without hesitation, the white-suit fired another burst at the corpse’s exposed head.
The corpse went limp, tumbled off of the cadaver tray and lay motionless on the floor still tangled in the tattered body bag.
The others in the freezers went into an uproar.
The white-suits abruptly turned towards the other freezers, surveying the room with their MP5s.
Freezer doors flung open and cadaver tables rolled off of their rails and crashed against the floor as the corpses inside the bags tussled inside, ripping and tearing through the thin material.
“Sir…” one of the white-suits said as he started cautiously backing up...
The corpses crawled out of their bags and started clamoring onto their feet, snarling as they focused their black orbs towards the three white-suits.
“Take them down! Open fire! Open fire!” the lead white-suit shouted as he switched his MP5’s firing mode to full-automatic.
The naked ghouls stood up and started sprinting towards the white-suits with black gore foaming from their mouths and tags still attached to their toes.
The white-suits started walking backwards towards the door as they fired at the advancing crowd.
A few of the shots struck true and sent two of the ghouls tumbling and flailing against the floor. Most of the shots were ineffective chest and abdomen shots that did very little to impede the horde’s relentless advance.
Ammunition depleted, the white-suits dropped their empty magazines to the floor and quickly tried to reload with trembling hands.
Before the white-suits even had a chance to finish reloading, the infected took them down one-by-one and started ripping their protective suits apart.
Their deafening screams echoed down the morgue corridor.
Two floors above, the hospital staff were forced to sit along the wall in the cafeteria.
Six men in CDC white-suits were in there with them.
The staff members looked at the men uneasily, nervously.
Three of the men were armed with M-16s and stood at the opposite end of the room while the other three were crouched at the end of the line, taking saliva samples from each of the hospital staff members and running the cotton swab through the quick detection kits.
One of the hospital doctors looked perplexed as he watched the white-suits performing the swab tests.
“Is that a rapid field test?” the doctor asked.
The white-suits didn’t answer him as they continued to do their work.
The doctor frowned and raised his voice.
“How do you have a rapid field test for an unknown virus?” the doctor asked. “What is this strain?!”
“Just sit down and shut up,” one of the white-suits carrying the M-16s ordered.
“Who is the chief epidemiologist?! I demand to speak to them!” the doctor shouted.
The doctor stood up.
The white-suits pointed their M-16s at him.
The doctor paled and slowly put his hands in the air.
“I’m not going to repeat myself,” the white-suit said as he sighted his weapon on the doctor. “Sit down. Shut up.”
The doctor nodded and quickly sat back down, defeated.
One of the nurses started sobbing.
Another nurse took her smartphone out of her pocket.
“Put your phone away!” another white-suit ordered as he waved his weapon at the staff. “No phones!”
The staff members let out a slight gasp as the weapon was pointed in their direction.
More people broke out into tears, trembling.
“This is going to be a goddamn social media fiasco if they don’t get the cellphone situation contained,” the white-suit grumbled as he lowered his weapon and looked at the others.
“They’re headed to the cellular towers now. Calm down,” one of the other white-suits quietly replied.
While the armed white-suits were distracted, Rebecca quietly slid her phone out of her pocket and started typing a text message to John…
One of the white-suits turned around and happened to notice her. He quickly pointed his weapon at her.
“Hey! You! What did I just say?! Put the phone away!” the white-suit shouted.
“I was just checking for any missed calls,” Rebecca said as she quickly pushed ‘send’ and put the phone back in her pocket.
“Miller! Make yourself useful and collect their phones!” one of
the other armed white-suits yelled towards the three men that were crouched down at the end of the line collecting rapid test samples.
“On it,” Miller said.
Miller stood up and sat the specimen collection tray down. He pulled out a roll of red biohazard bags and tore one off.
“Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please,” Miller said as he opened the bag and started walking down the line. “Phones, pagers, tablets, whatever else you have… Put them in the bag. You’ll get them again after you’ve been released. This is standard protocol. We don’t need misinformation getting leaked out and causing a panic when there isn’t a need for one.”
Miller went down the line as the staff members reluctantly tossed their cellular devices into the bag.
One of the nurses hesitated and shook her head.
“I… don’t have a phone on me,” she said quietly. “I left it in the car.”
“Just so you know, lying to a federal official is a felony,” Miller said in an aggravated tone. “If I find one on you when I conduct a pat search, you will be arrested by the police officers waiting outside.” He paused. “You will all be thoroughly searched prior to leaving this room so it’s in your best interest to be honest.”
The nurse lowered her head, pulled her phone out of her pocket, and tossed it into the bag with the others.
Miller walked along the line until he came to Rebecca.
She looked up at him, frowning.
“Your phone,” Miller insisted as he held the bag out towards her.
Rebecca tossed her phone in the bag, shaking her head.
Miller tied the bag shut, slung it over his shoulder, and started to walk back towards the group performing the rapid field tests.
“Miller, I nearly forgot,” one of the armed white-suits said.
Miller stopped and turned towards the voice.
“Go to the ICU and check on Bravo Team,” the armed white-suit said. “Tell them to check their radios. Alpha was trying to get a hold of them.”
“10-4,” Miller said. He walked out into the hallway carrying the bag of phones over his shoulder.
As he walked down the hallway, he heard a few concerned patients knocking on their doors.
Miller ignored them as he made his way to the ICU.
He pushed open the ICU’s double-doors with his foot and stepped inside.
He froze immediately.
The two white-suits from Bravo Team were standing with their backs facing the door, twitching. They were slouched over with their arms slumped down at their side; their weapons were on the floor.
Mike’s bloody corpse was lying motionless on the floor in a pool of blood and broken glass.
Miller’s eyes widened as he stepped back and threw a hand up in disbelief.
“Jesus Christ! We’re not supposed to butcher them! What part of ‘surgical precision’ didn’t you understand?! Oh! You just wait! The clean-up team is going to lose their shit when they–”
Both of the white-suits turned towards Miller’s voice.
Their visors were shattered and their respirators were hanging off of their face. Black bile seeped out of their mouth and dribbled down the front of their tattered suits.
Miller gasped in horror and tried to run out of the room.
One of the white-suits sprinted towards Miller and leapt atop of him, sending him crashing through the double-doors and sprawling out into the hallway.
The bag of phones slid across the floor and stopped in the middle of the hall.
The white-suit started ripping Miller’s suit apart, exposing his face.
The other white-suit ran out from the ICU and joined his companion.
Together they kept Miller pinned down and started vomiting tarry bile on Miller’s face.
Miller clawed at his attackers helplessly as the substance seeped into his orifices.
A patient trapped inside a locked room nearby heard the commotion and started knocking frantically on his door as he tried turning the knob.
“Hey! Who’s out there?! What’s going on?! This is bullshit! Let me out! Let me out NOW!” the man inside the room shouted.
He started kicking on his door.
One of the infected white-suits got off of the floor and charged towards the door, screaming.
He slammed against the door repeatedly with his shoulder.
The wooden door shattered and the white-suit ran inside the room.
Hearing the noise outside in the hall, panicked patients in other nearby rooms started knocking on their doors and screaming for help, pleading to be let out.
The other infected white-suit got off of Miller’s twitching corpse and bashed his way into a nearby room with a feral cry.
They heard the blood-curdling screams and the commotion all the way inside the cafeteria.
The white-suits looked at each other as the hospital staff exchanged uneasy glances.
“What the fuck is going on out there?” one of the armed white-suits inside the cafeteria asked with concern. He readied his weapon and stepped outside in the hall…
The banging and screaming was almost deafening as infected patients and the two white-suits smashed their way into room after room, systematically spreading the contagion to the unfortunate souls trapped inside.
“Shit!” the armed white-suit exclaimed as he aimed down the hall.
The infected caught in the middle of the hallway immediately looked in his direction and started blindly sprinting towards the sound of his voice, screaming, still wearing their hospital gowns.
The white-suit fired and managed to take down a few, but the horde was too massive and too fast.
“Infected! In the building!” the white-suit shouted as he retreated back into the cafeteria and slammed the door shut. He keyed his mic and started shouting. “Break, break, break! Charley Team to all inner patrol units and outside work details, Wildfire! Implement full-containment measures!”
As soon as he made the announcement, the unarmed white-suits dropped the testing kits and ran away from the terrified hospital staff.
The armed white-suits pointed their weapons at the staff and started firing indiscriminately into the crowd, mowing them down as they swept their rifles from side-to-side.
Their screams were piercing, but for many their pain was short-lived.
Others dove out of the way while some tried running towards the doors.
The white-suits quickly took down two nurses who were just a few inches away from the door. They then focused their fire at the ones who were crawling underneath the tables and taking cover amongst the corpses on the floor.
Rebecca ducked down and crawled out of the way, narrowly escaping a barrage of gunfire. She hid behind two deceased nurses and covered her head with her arms as she tried to keep low and quiet, however she couldn’t stop herself from trembling.
“Forget it! We don’t have time! Let’s go! Regroup downstairs with the others!” one of the white-suits ordered as he ran towards the door.
The others immediately stopped firing and followed him.
The cafeteria doors burst open just as the white-suits were approaching.
Infected poured into the room and leapt onto the white-suits, taking them down with ease.
The white-suits fell, screaming, inadvertently and ineffectively firing wildly up into the ceiling and shattering fluorescent fixtures as their fingers tightened around their triggers.
Rebecca frantically crawled towards the buffet-style serving line to take cover.
Two elderly male patients started sprinting directly towards her, snarling.
Rebecca screamed, got on her feet, and bolted towards the silver kitchen door just behind the serving line. She pushed the swinging door open and ran inside.
The old men opened their mouth and spewed a black, oily infectious substance in her direction.
The substance pelted against the door as it swung shut with Rebecca already safely inside.
She scanned the dark kitchen in an atte
mpt to find some sort of hiding place.
The kitchen had two long tables in the center. Both tables were stacked with pots and pans. A row of ranges and sinks stood on one side of the room and shelves of condiments and spices were on the opposite side. A large industrial refrigerator was positioned against the far wall next to boxes of dry goods.
Rebecca ran towards the fridge, nearly slipping on the polished floor in her frenzied pace.
Seconds later the two elderly patients barged into the room and froze. They cocked their heads to the side, listening and pacing.
One of the men bumped against the table and sent a stack of plates crashing against the floor.
Both of the patients became enraged and started flailing their arms around, knocking pots and pans off of the tables and shattering glasses.
The old men froze again…
Listening…
Waiting…
Distant gunshots erupted from the hallway.
New prey.
The two men snarled and darted out of the kitchen back into the cafeteria, leaving Rebecca alone as she wept inside the closed refrigerator.
She kept her eyes squeezed shut and her hands cupped over her mouth.
Chapter 11
It felt like hours passed.
John’s stomach was aching from hunger, his throat was raw with thirst, and his bladder was full.
He kept glancing at the door impatiently, but he hadn’t seen anybody ever since the doctor left with Rebecca.
He waited on the bed and simply stared at the television.
The local news from San Antonio was playing.
“–in store for us throughout the week with record-breaking temps and a muggy weekend ahead of us,” the weatherman said with a smile as he stepped aside and revealed the forecast for the week ahead.
The image switched to an attractive anchorwoman sitting behind the news desk.
“Thanks, Eric,” she said with a smile. “We’ve just received more information regarding the emergency closure of Interstate 37 to the south of our viewing area. TXDOT and hazmat officials have informed us that an overturned chemical tanker has multiple lanes blocked as authorities continue to clean up the spill. The work is expected to last throughout the night. Luckily, no fatalities have been reported. There has been no indication when the interstate will reopen, but as of now all thru-traffic is being diverted off of the interstate and onto state highways and farm roads. The towns affected by the closures are Tres Rios, Pleasanton, and Beeville.”
Fracked Page 8