Donnie had no idea what was going on outside. He was completely engrossed in his latest book, The Shadow Demon Game. His main character, the daring Elizabeth Fredricks, was in a jam that not even he was sure how she would get out of. At least, not yet, anyway. Apparently, his writing was too suspenseful and the grease-ball burgers he ate every day finally caught up to him. Donnie realized what the heart attack was when it struck him and he managed to get to the phone, but 911 was busy. No one would ever learn what happened to the daring Elizabeth.
Muffy was a small dog living in a tiny apartment with her owner. She could smell something wrong out in the hall but didn’t know what it was. Her owner had gone out that day to do the things that people do. She was left a small bowl of food that was to be her breakfast. She had no idea it would be her last meal, and that her owner wasn’t going to return.
Section 4:
Exodus
23:
Toby
At first, Tobias wasn’t sure of Cender. He was pretty sure the young doctor was being influenced by one drug or another. Cender did have some sort of a plan though, which was better than what he had. After Abby and Cender shared their stories with each other and with him, Tobias showed them parts of what he filmed. While doing that, he noticed the batteries were getting low. He was either going to have to find new batteries, a new camera, or stop recording things altogether. He really hoped it wasn’t the third option.
“So you think they’re zombies too,” Cender nodded.
“Well, I don’t think they’re zombies,” Tobias corrected, “but it’s the best word I could come up with.”
“I had no idea what to call them,” Abby admitted.
“Well, the consensus seems to be zombies,” Cender told her. “We’ll go with that. Now how about we get out of here?”
“I think you might need some pants first.” Tobias pointed out that Cender was wearing only a hospital gown.
“Right, pants are usually preferred. There should be a storage locker with some scrubs in it out in the scrub room.” Cender pointed to the room with all the sinks. “Could you get me some?”
“I got it.” Abby hurried off.
Tobias watched her go. As she disappeared through the swing doors, he caught a glimpse of Cillian and Jessica. A while ago, they had gone into the scrub room on their own to talk about something. They kept their voices down so that Tobias couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but he figured it had to do with the current situation and their relationship. When Abby walked in, they paused their conversation and waited for her to leave. Another thing they might be talking about was B. Jessica had flat out killed him, smashed his skull in. Although he was threatening them, waving his gun around, the fact remained that he wasn’t one of them. He wasn’t a zombie, and even killing zombies took a lot to come to terms with. Tobias knew; he still hadn’t really dealt with it. The old woman was the one he saw in his mind’s eye the most often.
“Could you look around for something I can use as a crutch?” Cender brought Tobias out of his thoughts.
“Something like crutches?” Tobias joked.
“Well, as lovely as those would be, I don’t think there are any in this room.” Cender laughed.
Tobias searched around the operating room for anything that might be useful. His shoulder itched but he tried very hard not to scratch it. Cender told him the wound wasn’t bad. It didn’t need stitches unless Tobias was worried about scarring, and he wasn’t. After it had been cleaned and something was smeared on it, Cender wrapped it in a bandage. Tobias thought maybe it was whatever the smeared stuff was that made it itch. He hoped he wasn’t allergic or something. Then again, wounds usually itched while they healed.
“I give up.” Tobias walked back over to the bed. “There is nothing in here you can use as a crutch.”
“Well then, I guess I’ll just have to use you.” Cender slapped him on his uninjured shoulder. “I would use Cillian, he looks sturdier, but he seems preoccupied supporting Jessica at the moment.”
Tobias almost asked him what he meant by that but then it clicked. He meant Cillian was being an emotional crutch right then.
Abby came back into the OR carrying a large pile of pale blue clothes. She carefully sidestepped B’s dead body. Earlier, Cillian had dragged it out of the direct path of the doors, but a pool of blood and his feet still had to be avoided. Nobody would look directly at it.
“I didn’t know what size you were so I tried to grab one of everything.” Abby put all the clothes down on a tray and wheeled it over to Cender.
“Thanks, Abby.” Cender sorted through the pile for the sizes he wanted. “You may want to turn around as I’m going commando.”
Abby turned on her heel in an instant. Tobias also turned around. He had no interest in seeing Cender naked.
“Can you get the pants on over the cast?” Tobias wondered aloud while he stared up into the viewing walkway.
“I have to wear a size larger than I’d like,” Cender answered, “but the drawstring should keep them up.”
“Should?” Knowing he didn’t have any underwear on was already too much information. Knowing his pants could fall down at any moment was beyond that.
“There are no guarantees in life. Take today for example.” The spunk that Cender normally spoke with faded as he said this last part. “I gotta say I didn’t expect any of this to happen. It’s okay to turn around now, I’m clothed.”
Tobias and Abby turned back around. Even with the bigger size, the pants were tight around the cast. Cender picked up a scalpel and remedied this by cutting a slice up the side of the pant leg.
“Fashionable,” a smirk fluttered across Abby’s lips for a moment.
It was then that Cillian walked in through the swing doors and stood in front of them. “Jessi’s changing out of her skirt,” he explained when Tobias gave him a questioning look.
“So what’s the best way out of here?” Tobias turned back to Cender.
“Well, I personally would like to swing by the recovery ward; they’ll have crutches there that I can pilfer. After that, it depends on which exit you want to use,” Cender shrugged.
“Whichever one is the closest,” Abby said.
Cender thought for a moment. The way he moved his fingers suggested that he was planning a route. “All right, I know which way we should go, provided we don’t run into any trouble, that is.” Cender swung his legs off the table and got up on his good leg. Reaching under the operating table, he lifted up a plastic bag from beneath it. From that, he pulled out a watch and put it on, the contents of the bag clearly belonging to him. He also took out a stethoscope, which he draped around his neck, and then a white lab coat. The bottom of the coat was covered in a large bloodstain. Cender ignored this and looked through the pockets. The cell phone he pulled out of one fell into two pieces, broken, so he tossed it into a corner. He then pulled out a slip of paper. This he glanced over quickly, then folded it up and tucked it into the top of his cast since he had no pockets. The lab coat was then dumped into a corner like the phone.
Cillian glanced over his shoulder through the door’s window. “I believe we’re good to go,” he told the people and opened the door.
Jessi, or Jessica, Tobias didn’t know which to call her, stood there in a pair of scrub pants like Cender’s. She had clearly washed up in one of the sinks. Wet patches on her blouse showed where she had tried futilely to scrub off the blood, but then given up. Her attire was quite odd now. Hiking boots, scrub pants, and a fairly fancy white blouse. Tobias could see why Cillian had fallen for her in the first place; even at the worst of moments she managed to look attractive.
A loud thump drew everyone’s attention up to the viewing window. A zombie had made its way up there and was now pressed up against the glass like some grotesquely bloody suckerfish. Its teeth were gnashing, trying in vain to chew through the thick glass. Another one rushed out of the darkness and smacked into the glass next to it, its palms splayed out on the glas
s like starfish.
Without speaking a word, everyone decided it was a great time to leave. Cender threw his arm over Tobias’s good shoulder and Tobias helped him toward the door. Cillian handed him the crowbar, knowing that if he were helping Cender walk, he would have to lead. When Tobias took hold of the metal object, he thought maybe Cender could use it as a cane, but then realized it was unfortunately too short. Tobias gave Cillian a quick nod of thanks for it.
The idea of leading left a bad taste in Tobias’s mouth. He would much rather have had Cillian help Cender to walk while he stuck to the middle of the group. A quick look over his shoulder though, dashed all hopes of this happening. Cillian had a protective arm around Jessi’s waist, who clutched tightly to him with one arm and her shovel with the other. Abby was guarding the rear all alone with her stick. That also made Tobias feel uncomfortable.
They left the room with the sinks and Cender directed him with a tug on the shoulder. At least they were heading away from the entrance to the viewing room. The group was clearly torn between hurrying to their destination, and taking their time to be safe. They bumped into each other a lot, but no one said a word.
As they came to a corner where they had planned to turn, a loud crash came from around it. Everybody stopped in their tracks and looked to Tobias for some reason.
It took Tobias a moment to figure out why. They wanted him to look around the corner and find out what had caused the crash. Tobias frowned at them, but their returned scowls were more intimidating. He was clearly out-voted, so he turned back to the corner.
* * *
Leaving Cender propped up against the wall, Tobias inched his way over to the rounded safety padding that covered the sharp edge of the corner. He wished he had a mirror to peer around it, even a little dental mirror would do. He mentally smacked his forehead when he remembered the camera hanging around his neck. It would work just as well, if not better, than a mirror.
As Tobias was taking the strap off his neck, he nearly dropped the camera when a somewhat quieter crash sounded. His muscles froze as his mind raced, afraid that whatever was over there would come after him. When nothing happened, he opened the camera’s digital display screen. Tobias crouched down near the ground. The camera would make a chime sound when it turned on, so he smothered the speaker as best he could when he hit the power button. Still, he heard the chime, and judging by the faces of the others, they heard it too. Whatever was around the corner however didn’t seem to notice.
Slowly the lens of the camera inched its way around the corner. Tobias stuck it out only as far as he needed to see around it. He expected to see a single zombie thrashing around the hallway. What he expected was not what he found.
There was a single zombie thrashing around, yes. Hurriedly scuffling back and forth, occasionally bumping into stands of medical stuff, and sometimes kicking things that had already been knocked over. What Tobias didn’t expect were the several other zombies who were just standing around, not doing anything, totally silent. There were over a dozen at least, mostly dressed in hospital gowns or scrubs.
Tobias didn’t bother trying to count them all. He quickly withdrew the camera, turned it off, slung the strap back over his neck, and stood up. When he looked back at the others, his wide eyes probably told them everything, but he shook his head anyway and gestured back toward where they had come from. After grabbing Cender off the wall, they started making their way back toward the OR.
The next time they stopped was due to a shrieking up ahead, followed by the sound of a door being slammed several times. Their retreat was cut off.
Cender directed them down what looked like a short, blind alley of a hallway. It actually led to a bank of elevators. Cender started pushing the call button rapidly, as if that would make the elevator come faster. The shrieking got closer, as did the sound of a different door getting slammed open and closed repeatedly.
Tobias was tempted to shove Cender aside and begin pushing the button himself, but he couldn’t stop remembering the mall with its zombie-filled glass elevator. If an elevator like that was to open up before them, they would all be killed, devoured by the masses. Or at least infected enough to become part of the masses.
The larger hoard near the staircase must have heard the door slammer; a metal tin came skittering down the hall from that direction. Everyone huddled closer together, eyes darting from each of the four elevator doors to the hallway. Tobias kept glancing at the space above the doors, where a little window usually told you what floor the elevator was on. Not here though. There was nothing to look at, nothing to indicate whether an elevator was even on its way. Weren’t hospital elevators supposed to be faster than normal elevators? Tobias thought they were.
A soft ding caused them all to jump like a single frightened animal as opposed to a group. A pair of doors slid open and they all rushed in without bothering to check the contents. They got lucky. There was only a dried bloodstain on the floor in one corner. Cender hit the button for the fifth floor and then repeatedly jammed the ‘close door’ button. This one he pressed even more fervently than the call button, the strain from his repetitious application of force evident in his face. A single bead of sweat trailed down the side of his face and neck, disappearing beneath the collar of his scrub shirt.
Tobias was at an angle, which allowed him to see the end of the nook they were in. The shrieker rounded the corner. Her piercing screams were so loud and high pitched they were probably tearing her throat to pieces. A silent runner from the group on the other side rounded the corner just after her, surely followed by more. Tobias unconsciously pressed himself back into the elevator’s wall. If just one of them got in there, they were screwed. The doors began to close and everything seemed to slow down for Tobias. He could see the shrieker reaching forward, hand extended toward him with its ragged nails. The elevator doors slowly came together, narrowing his field of view. They weren’t going to make it; the shrieker’s arm was going to reach them before the doors would finish closing. Her arm would reach through the doors and the safety feature would cause them to spring open again, letting her and her friends inside. If only he could reach forward himself and close the elevator doors faster somehow, but Tobias couldn’t even move. His veins had become like ice, his muscles like stone. As the elevator doors limited his field of view, so did a creeping blackness at the edges of his vision. All he could see was the shrieker and the doors.
At the final moment, Abby’s stick lunged through the gap and hit the shrieker square in the forehead. The shrieker’s head was flung back, dragging her arm up with it. The stick pulled back into the elevator lightning quick, making it inside before the doors finished closing. There was a slight thump as they came together and an even louder thump as the shrieker slammed into the outside of them. Then the elevator jerked and they began their ascent.
Somebody sighed loudly with relief, possibly all of them. Everyone turned their faces toward Abby, giving her big, bright smiles. The woman was as quick as a damn scorpion. No one knew quite how to word their thanks, but she probably got the idea. She smiled back and made Tobias’s world feel almost right again. Everyone was panting as if they had just been running a marathon. Tobias thought that maybe it was because they had been holding their collective breath. He knew he had been.
* * *
Tobias started worrying again as the elevator neared its destination. Something similar to what they had left behind could just as easily be waiting up ahead. The elevator slowed and came to a stop. The doors dinged and slid open with a slight whooshing sound. The space beyond was empty. Tobias stuck his head out and looked around. There were no zombies in sight.
“Someone should stay here and keep the elevator from leaving,” Cender suggested in a whisper.
“No,” Abby shook her head, also whispering, “we should stick together. Here.” She laid the stick that saved them all down on the elevator’s door tracks.
“You think that will hold?” Cillian asked her.
Abby shrugged.
“We’ll chance it.” Tobias didn’t like the idea of someone staying behind either. He stepped over the stick and out of the elevator, leaving the crowbar with those still inside. This elevator had opened up into a nook like the last one. He went to the end of it and carefully spied around the corners. These halls appeared zombie-free as well. Looking back toward the elevator, he saw everyone but Jessi huddled at the entrance watching him. Tobias gave them a thumbs up and waved them forward.
Cillian supported Cender this time, but Jessi still stuck right to his other side. Abby was once again in the rear, but now she was armed with Cillian’s crowbar. Tobias took point but he had to keep looking back at Cender to make sure he was leading them the right way. He could interpret only about a quarter of the directional signs. One sign he saw mentioned a maternity ward, which caused Tobias to shudder. That was something he never wanted to think about.
Finally, they reached their destination and ducked inside. It was a small and badly lit room full of cabinets stacked with various medical hardware. If Home Depot had a medical section, it would probably be stocked with the same things as this room. Cillian and Jessi stuck by the door while Tobias helped Cender over to a stack of crutches in the corner, and Abby looked around the room. While Cender picked out crutches the right size for him, Tobias decided to take a look around too. He had no idea what most of the stuff was for, and some it looked almost scary. He figured it was all rehabilitation gear or something, but there were a lot of wires and metal struts making them look akin to torture devices, especially in the low lighting. Eventually he came across something that didn’t look scary, but it was still odd. He picked up what looked like a cross between a big clunky snowboarder’s boot and a sandal.
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