“Okay.” Natalie answered, a little puzzled. She had no idea who Scarlet was.
“You can’t take a team into a hospital.” Jessie said. “It’s suicide. Even retrievers won’t do that.”
“I have to do something.” Natty said. “I can’t turn away from what I saw in the clinic. I just can’t.”
Jessie gripped his forehead and squeezed. He had to write her off. She was going to get herself killed. So long, little lady. You should have stuck with me.
Right his inner voice laughed. Run away and get your little painting. Talk about a suicide mission with no payoff. Do you really think you’ll be coming back? A city of millions and you’re going to walk right in and take it? Meanwhile, why don’t you turn your back on someone who looks up to you, thinks you’re one of the good guys, doesn’t shy away when she looks at your face. Wave goodbye in the rearview as she marches off to her death. I know you don’t care about yourself, you don’t care if you get killed but you’re really going to let her die, too? For no reason?
“What?” Jessie said. Natty had a hand on his arm and was asking him something.
“It’s okay.” She said. “I know you have to go. We’ll figure something out.”
He stopped squeezing his forehead, the maniacal laughing voice of the monster in his head was fading but the wolf stared at him. It didn’t pace or snarl like it sometimes did, it simply stared. All eyes were on them and he could see careful hope in some of them. The ones that believed Bastille’s stories. The ones that believed he was still the Road Angel.
Jessie studied the large drawings and hand carved pieces laid out on the conference table. They’d been getting things ready for a week and tomorrow was the day. They were going over the plan one last time, looking for anything that might screw up everything. The drawings weren’t to scale but to the best recollection of everyone the roads, bridges and buildings were accurate. Even the model of the hospital with the entrances and delivery doors plainly marked. Their nurse, who had been a nurse’s aide in an old folk’s home before the fall, had been in it a few times. She knew where the dispensary was and the best route in. Solomon, one of the Amish farmers that was quick with a whittle knife, had made little figures representing every person on the raid team and the vehicles they would be using. They had come up with a decent plan that involved subterfuge, stealth and a big distraction.
The hospital was in the middle of a town that was across the river and some fifteen miles away. Too close to drive straight back. If ten thousand shamblers showed up in a few weeks they wouldn’t be able to kill them fast enough before they were overrun. When he’d asked them why they didn’t hit an easier target, a pharmacy perhaps, Miles told him they’d tried but those were in the center of towns, too. In the two they’d hit, all the good medicines were in the safe, locked up tight. The hospital was open 24 hours, they were betting their safe was open. If it wasn’t, there would be a large selection of alternate meds that could be used.
Jessie had gone down river in a canoe to a marina and found a rich man’s sailboat. It was a little big for the Hudson, a little overkill, but it would haul a lot of weight without getting tippy. He slipped back up to a railroad bridge that crossed a feeder creek less than a mile from the hospital. He tied off then used the canoe to get back to the island. Their quietest trucks were gasoline powered and still ran fairly good even though they occasionally stumbled, sometimes died, from the degraded gas. They were armored with bars over the windows and steel bolted to the bumpers. Everything was cut with hacksaws and drilled by hand, they didn’t have a welder or torches, but they were solid.
“Okay.” Jessie said, looked up at the gathered men and women and moved his marker as he spoke.
“Plan A. We’ll assume the hospital is chock full of the undead. Everyone went there when they started getting sick and as soon as the power went out, the zeds would have been trapped by the sliding doors. They’ll be day one zombies. Hundreds of them. As soon as the first one spots you, it’ll start that godawful keening they do and the rest will come running. I’ll go in loud and proud with the Merc. We’ll be blasting music and Natalie will be on the machine gun thinning their numbers. We go straight into town, circle the hospital, and maybe shoot out some of the windows on the far side to get their attention. After that, we try to clear the streets for you, lead as many as we can away from the river. That’s our job. Wallace, you’re up.”
Sergeant Wallace stepped forward and moved her four carved wood pieces on the map.
“My fire team comes in five minutes after you. We stay quiet and get to the hospital unnoticed. Your guns and music should have pulled any of the dead inside to the other side of the building. We back our pickup truck in here.” She indicated the loading dock. “We have sledgehammers and wrecking bars to break open the door if necessary but if it had keycard entry and a magnetic lock, it should open right up. We secure the area without using our guns.”
“Steyer.” Jessie said and the other patrol sergeant stepped forward to move his pieces into position as he spoke.
“We’re the second and third trucks and we back into any open docks next to Wallace.” He said. “My team assists with the plywood and nail guns, we fall in behind fire team Wallace and secure all doors between the docks and pharmacy with said plywood. When that phase is completed, half of us will start collecting everything on the list Nurse Bell has given us from the pharmacy and the other half get the monitors and other equipment she wanted. Top to bottom in order of importance. She said it’s a large walk in safe and will most likely be open. If not, we start grabbing everything on the secondary list.”
Jessie nodded then indicated Wallace again.
“I’ll give you a ten minute, then a five-minute warning on the radio when I think the job is nearly complete,.” she said, “At which point you’ll accelerate quickly back to the hospital and eliminate or lead off any of the undead that have gathered at the docks. We will then proceed to the railroad bridge and park the trucks in the middle. If we are not being pursued, which is highly unlikely, we’ll move everything we’ve gathered into the sailboat. If we are being chased, we’ll climb down the ropes to the awaiting canoes. We’ll paddle across the river to our trucks on this side and go back in a day or so when they’ve either wandered back into town or fell off into the water to get the other trucks.”
“It sounds good.” Jessie said. “I already have a couple of kayaks at the scenic overlook. I’ll leave my car there and meet you on the water near the sailboat. It it’s clear, I’ll bring it back. If not, it can stay there until the dead are gone. Any questions or concerns?”
Everyone stared at the map, tried to think of something they hadn’t covered but they’d been working out details for a week. It was as good as it was going to get.
“Remember.” Jessie said. “Anyone can call this off if something unexpected happens. There are radios in every truck and team leaders have the handhelds. Keep your eyes open and keep everyone in the loop if something doesn’t go right. If you get into a jam, we can always fall back on plan B.”
“What’s plan B?” someone asked.
“I’ll come for you.” He said “And when I get there I’ll arrive with violence.”
Someone in the back started to laugh but it died quickly when no one else joined in. The others stared at the hard young man with the low-slung guns and the scar on his face.
They didn’t laugh.
They believed.
41
The Hospital
Jessie pulled their convoy to a stop a few miles from the outskirts of the little city. So far, they hadn’t picked up any followers from the houses they passed and if Wallace was right, they had all congregated in town. He had moved the M-60 and its articulated mount over to Natty’s side of the car. She had her Kevlar gloves on and he’d duct taped the impact jacket sleeves to her wrists so they wouldn’t ride up. Her arms would be outside the bars when she operated it.
“Wait here.” Jessie said over the CB. �
�I’ll go slow to pull as many followers as I can. Give me ten minutes then roll in.”
“You ready?” he asked Natalie and she cinched her harness a little tighter then nodded.
He dropped the Mercury in gear and eased the clattering diesel down the road. The houses got closer together and big yards gave way to tiny lots. The streets were empty except for the cars. Some parked at the curb, some in the middle of the road with doors open, some blocking sidewalks and smashed into buildings. Old plastic bags, paper cups and other trash was piled up against the houses. Tattered bits of clothing, ragged shoes and decayed corpses that looked like shriveled leather mummies were rotting away in the morning sun. He caught movement and saw a pack of dog’s slink down an alley. They didn’t look starved and he was pretty sure he knew what they were eating. They found the horde near the center of town only blocks from the hospital. The streets were packed, some swaying listlessly back and forth but most had heads up and were sniffing the air. They heard the diesel idling down the streets, its exhaust note echoing off the buildings, and were looking for the source. For the food. For the blood.
Jessie eased the burbling car to a stop as the grey wretches of humanity slowly realized the noise was where the food was. He clicked on the Dad’s Faves playlist, cranked the volume and Axl Rose started Welcoming them to the Jungle. A woman with long matted hair and the tattered remnants of a house coat was the first to raise her voice. A dry croaky moan escaped her throat and she reached for them, still two blocks away. Others joined the call and the horde started shuffle stepping towards them, urging each other onward.
“Clear us a path.” Jessie yelled over screaming guitars and revving motor. “We’re going straight in and then taking the first right. It’ll put us in front of the hospital.”
He floored it, the car leapt forward, she squeezed the trigger and started walking tracers into the crowd. The chop top launched hard, the oversized run flats squalled and rolled white smoke to blend with the black pouring from the exhaust. Natty raked fire back and forth, sent bodies tumbling, store glass shattering and concrete chips flying from the buildings. Jessie aimed for the mob and hit them at forty, sent bodies flying and black sludge sprayed the car. He bounced over the fallen ones and cut the wheel to turn the corner. All terrain tires churned the bodies, shredded muscle and papery skin, crushed brittle bones. Natalie squealed when the gun was twisted, ripped out of her hands by a gray man that bounced off the fender.
“Hospital is coming up on your right.” Jessie yelled over the screams of the undead, the roar of the engine and cursing of Natty as she wiped slime from her hands. The zombies broken head had splashed all over her.
“Light it up, blow the windows out!”
“I’m trying!” She yelled right back and sprung open the cover. The ammo belt had broken when the bouncing zed had plowed into the gun. She swiped the half dozen rounds away, laid the fresh links in and slammed it closed. She charged it, her finger found the trigger and the stuttering sound of thunder filled the car. She walked the tracers upward then across the mirrored glass. Hundreds of undead poured through the jagged openings and cascaded to the pavement. The horde in the street was even thicker and the bodies he was pushing were slowing him down. Some broke in half against the oversized bumper, the cultivator spikes on the side ripped more open and his windshield wipers were just smearing the goo. The Mercury slowed to a crawl, the big tires spinning chunks of flesh but not getting traction in the soup of bodies under the car. The smell of burning meat made him wrinkle his nose, something was caught up on the exhaust.
“Hold on.” Jessie said and popped it in reverse.
More rotting dead things were pouring down the street, moving in a wave and he caught a glimpse of the concrete barrier and abandoned police cars, doors still open. They had tried to contain the hospital in the beginning and had set up road blocks on some of the streets. He’d never punch through them, not at the slow speeds he was going. He threw an arm over the seat, aimed back the way he came in and ignored Natty’s constant stream of cursing as she strafed back and forth. He knocked them aside and she filled them with lead. Bullets passed right through the leathery bodies taking streamers of noxious black blood and fetid intestinal juices with them. They also took bone splinters and moldering bone marrow. Broken arms could no longer grab. Broken legs and shattered hips dropped them on the ground to crawl. Broken heads dropped them to the asphalt to be trampled underfoot.
Jessie bounced over the bodies, got up some speed and flung the wheel all the way over. The front and back of the car traded places as he grabbed first gear and stomped it. Natty squealed, jacked the 60 one way then another and continued to cut them down, her harness holding her tight in the seat. She spit an endless stream of curses in three different languages. Jessie cut down the next street, tore a hole through a wall of undead and kept rolling coal until they thinned out. The machine gun came to an abrupt stop as it ran out of ammo. Natty started to release the harness and grab another can out of the back but Jessie stopped her.
“Leave it.” He yelled over the motor and the music. “Let the barrel cool down.”
It was cherry red.
She nodded and grabbed the 12 gauge from the dash mount but the horde was thinning. Thousands were behind them and only hundreds in front.
“We’re approaching the docks.” Wallace crackled over the radio. “It looks good, the slowest ones are still here but they’re chasing after you.”
The Mercury shuddered as it careened into a group of twenty or thirty zeds that were tied together. He didn’t have time to wonder what that was all about or what the hell they had been thinking. The ropes caught on his bumper and a bunch of them were dragging behind, bouncing around but still trying to claw their way into the car. He let off the gas, slowed to stay just ahead of the fastest deaders chasing him and ignored the ones staggering out of the side roads and grabbing for them as they passed. Natalie locked the machine gun back in place and rolled the window up. She was splashed with gore and reeked.
Jessie rolled his window down, turned the music off, aimed the vents at his face and turned the air on high. He made a face at her and wrinkled his nose.
“You did good.” He said and punched a man in the head who had managed to grab onto the bars across his window. “But where did you learn how to cuss like that? You could give lessons to the truckers.”
They weren’t out of danger, not completely, but they were safe and she started to come down from the barely controlled panic she’d just lived through. She forced herself to breath in and out, ignored the stench and the bits of yellow brain matter splashed on her clothes.
And in her hair.
And on her face.
She licked her lips then spit and almost gagged, started wiping furiously at her mouth and cheeks but only succeeded in smearing the vile slime even further.
Jessie reached behind him and pulled out a roll of paper towels, handed them to her.
“You okay?” he asked after a few minutes after she’d managed to get most of it wiped off.
“I didn’t think it would be like that.” She said. “I thought it would be like clearing houses. Not so much chaos. It feels like we barely made it out alive. It seemed like we were on the verge of being overrun at every second.”
“We were.” Jessie said. “But if we didn’t do what we did, if we didn’t risk everything, the plan wouldn’t work.”
“JESSIE!” a panicked voice blared over the radio “Jessie are you there? Can you hear me?”
He grabbed the mic dangling from the little bungee cord.
“Loud and clear.” He said. “What’s going on, Wallace?”
“They broke through! They broke the plywood! We’re in the pharmacy and they’re coming over the counters! There’s too many! There’s too many!”
“Get in the safe!” Jessie yelled. “Get in the safe, I’ll come for you!”
They could hear the screams and shrieks of the living and the dead. Day one zombies, fresh and
fast and strong. There was gunfire, shouts of close the door, close the door and then nothing.
The car idled along at a sedate seven miles an hour, thousands of undead just behind and keening in hunger. Jessie turned the CB volume all the way up, adjusted the squelch and gain and listened. There was something, someone was transmitting but he couldn’t hear anything other than a break in the static. They were inside a concrete and steel room; they wouldn’t be able to transmit or receive. He tried anyway; his radio was a lot more powerful than the hand held.
“Stay where you are.” He said. “We’re coming.”
“What are you doing?” Natty asked after a moment as Jessie kept driving slowly along. “We have to help them.”
“We are.” He said grimly. “We’re leading the horde away.”
“But…”
“Do you know the route? You memorized it? You know where the cutoff is for the scenic view?”
“Yes, but…”
“I’m getting out at the next intersection.” Jessie continued, talking over her. “Go to the pull off, get the kayak and go to the pickup point on the other side of the river. It’s about a mile down but it’ll come up fast, the current will move you along pretty quick. Make sure you put your life jacket on.”
“But what…”
He drove up on the sidewalk next to a building and rolled out, not giving her a chance to protest any further. More undead were coming down the side street and he met them with steel. Natty scrambled to release her harness and slide over to the driver’s side, cursing the whole time. She caught a glimpse of him running into a doorway, bodies littering the road all along his path before she turned her concentration back to the car. The ones behind were catching up and more were coming out of an alley, knocking trash cans out of their way.
Jessie put a shoulder into the wooden door, splintered it then rushed inside. He was in the hallway of an old apartment building. Metal mailboxes were set into one wall, a riser of stairs led upward on the other. He heard excited footfalls above him and ran for the back entrance. He peeked out carefully, saw the horde doing their best to run after the car and moved jerkily into the alley. He was half a block away, far enough they shouldn’t smell his tainted blood and if he didn’t make sudden moves, he wouldn’t draw their attention. He shuffled down the cobblestones away from the moaning mob and moved in a slow, foot dragging gait towards the hospital.
Zombie Road | Book 8 | Crossroads of Chaos Page 27