“These aren’t your garden-variety patients, Doc, as we might have mentioned,” drawled Gaines over his shoulder. Reynolds grunted in agreement.
“I can see that.”
“You didn’t see or hear anything, doctor?” asked Kim. “Nothing to indicate an escape?”
“Uh, no. I was in my office,” he said, glancing down at Shelly. “I was, uh, waiting for the call from the chief or from your people.”
I covered a smile and turned away. Stress makes people do crazy things, I guess. She’s young enough to be his daughter!
Kim shook her head in disgust. “We’re just going to have to do this the hard way, then. Bravo Six, Alpha Six.”
“Bravo Six.”
“Any movement outside?”
“No, ma’am. It’s all quiet out here. Well, except for the press.”
“Good. Stay sharp.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“AEGIS Five, Alpha Six. Sir, I think we should move the press lines back. If we get a breakout here and have to put some down…” She left the sentence hanging, but we all knew what she meant. Secrecy would be out the door. It was one thing to edit and suppress reports coming from Afghanistan; it was a completely different story to do it here on our own soil. At least, that’s what I’ll tell myself.
“Good idea. I’ll get on it right now.”
“Out here.” Kim turned back to us. “Alright, squad, we’re moving to hunting protocol as of now. Gaines, you’re on point. Eaton, cover the doc and the girl. Martinez and Reynolds, on our six. We’re headed for the cafeteria; that’s the last source of food for this thing. Everyone stay frosty; let’s move.”
We had cleared about half the floor towards the cafeteria when we heard the scream, cut off abruptly. Ahead of us, no doubt headed for the same place as we were.
“Well, I guess we know where it is, ma’am,” I said, sighing.
“Eaton, find a place to stow the doc and his nurse. Give him a weapon.” Kim turned to the doctor as Eaton moved to the last storeroom we’d cleared, double-checking it for walkers. “Listen doc, I can’t keep you with us. You’re going to slow us way down and we need maximum mobility for this hunt. Still, I can’t just leave you, so here’s what we’ll do.” She took the offered sidearm from Eaton, checked the magazine and handed it to the doctor.
“You ever fired one of these?” she asked.
The doctor straightened. “I was in the National Guard in college. I’ve had the appropriate training.”
“Good. You’re going to need it. I want you both to get in that room and lock it behind you. If anything tries to get in without identifying as one of us, you shoot it. These rounds will go right through that door. Aim high,” she said, indicating average head height on the door. The doctor nodded and helped Shelly toward the room.
“Oh, and doctor?” He turned back to Kim. “Save the last two rounds. Just in case. Clear?”
The doctor blanched, but nodded after a moment. “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. Stay safe.”
She waited till he’d locked the door, and then signaled for us to move out. We immediately began moving more quickly, toward the source of the scream we’d heard, ignoring the rooms around us. Now was the time for hunting, not clearing. We were reasonably sure there were only two active walkers now — the candy-striper and whomever had screamed — and we didn’t need to search every room.
We came around yet another corner, and stopped, crouched down below the windows of the hospital pharmacy. The sounds coming from inside were gruesome, and I realized that we might only have the one walker, after all. This one sounded hungry.
Kim tapped me on the shoulder, and signaled that she wanted eyes inside the room. I pulled a small fiber-optic periscope from a pocket, easing the tiny lens over the ledge of the pharmacy counter, just enough to see inside the room.
I wish I hadn’t.
I’d seen some horrible sights in Fall Creek, but I’d managed to put them behind me. Now, they’d all come back. It felt wrong for a zombie to be wearing that particular uniform while bent over, chewing and tearing at the guts that it had ripped from the poor pharmacy technician’s stomach. Blood was everywhere, and I nearly heaved my lunch all over the floor.
What the hell was he doing in there, anyway? He should’ve evacuated with the… oh ho, now I get it. I sighed as I saw the bag next to him full of prescription bottles. Who’d worry about a little missing Oxycontin or Vicodin when it’s all over? Not him, anyway.
I must’ve been more than a little green as Kim put a hand on my shoulder to steady me, and I shook my head. I pressed the charging trigger on my X-29, and backed away from the window, then stood. Fortunately, the walker’s back was to me, and it didn’t hear or see anything before the twin electrodes from one of my rounds impacted between the shoulder blades, causing it to convulse for several seconds.
The blood obscured the white on her uniform. Not much of a candy-striper now, I thought. Not much of anything now.
I nodded to Kim and the rest of the squad moved into the room, Gaines pulling a set of cuffs and the other mask assigned to the squad from his pack. This one too was trussed, although we didn’t have a handy privacy curtain to wrap her. Kim had Reynolds and Martinez fetch a bedspread and sheets from the nearest private room, and we carefully rolled her into it, making sure to avoid the blood from both victims, though this proved difficult due to the sheer volume of it.
Once that was done, Rachel stepped forward and put two rounds into the pharmacy tech’s head. That was one potential zombie that wasn’t coming back.
“Ma’am, would you mind running us through splatter checks?”
“Good idea again. Everyone, splatter check.” We all inspected each other for random drops of potentially infected blood. Gaines and I disposed of our gloves, replacing them with fresh ones from our packs. There was no way they’d be usable again, not with all that infectious blood. That’s when I realized a fatal flaw in the plan to capture these things: the blood.
It doesn’t matter what Gardner wants; we can’t capture these things alive.
I turned back to Kim. “Ma’am, we can’t take these things with us.”
“Oh?” she said, surprised. “What do you mean?”
“We’ll have to leave these for a clean-up crew. We don’t have the equipment to transport these things. Just look at all the blood that’s on this one.”
All of us turned to look back at the twitching zombie form, and the bloody stain that was rapidly spreading through the covering. There was blood everywhere.
“Shit. Shit shit shit. AEGIS Five, Alpha Six.”
“AEGIS Five here.”
“Sir, this isn’t going to work. We can’t transport these walkers. We can put them down and immobilize them, for a while anyway, but we can’t take them anywhere.”
“Why not?”
“The blood, sir. It’s all over everything. We’d have to have some sort of biohazard container to take them out in.”
“Shit. I hadn’t thought of that, and I’m betting neither did Gardner or his people.” Anderson paused. “Well, we’re not going to put the cleanup crew through that without procedures tested and in-hand. Neutralize both walkers.”
“Sir?”
“On my authority, major. That’s an order.”
“Yes, sir.” Kim straightened as if the world had come back into its proper place. “All squads, capture protocol rescinded. Neutralize all walkers on sight.”
More than a few muttered comments came over the radio, and I agreed with them as I muttered under my breath. “Finally.”
I turned to Kim. “Do you think we should check out the cafeteria, just in case?”
“Hmmm, maybe…” Kim was interrupted as a single gunshot sounded from down the main hallway, in the direction we’d left the doctor. “Shit. Martinez, neutralize that one. Let’s move.”
Martinez nodded, putting two quick slugs into the zombie’s head through the wrapping. We all ducked as ricochets
caromed off the thick mask and zinged down the hallway to bury themselves in plaster. “Fuck!” I said, looking wide-eyed at Angelo, who blushed and shrugged. I unwrapped the sheets carefully around the head, and he took a more well-placed shot this time. Stupid shit like that is going to get one or more of us dead.
I shook my head as we jogged back to the storeroom where we’d left the doctor and the nurse. One shot? Just one? No way. The door was closed, but I didn’t trust that.
“Eaton, cover me.” She and Kim took up a covering position as I knocked on the door, standing to one side. “Doc, it’s Blake. Open the door, please.” No sound could be heard, and I looked at Kim, who signaled for me to knock again.
“Doctor Underwood, please open the door. Shelly, if you’re okay, please open the door.” I glanced down and saw blood leaking from under the door, moving toward my boot and the others. I jumped back as the door opened, Shelly’s bright white sneakers tracking through the blood, her face devoid of emotion.
“He said he was sick; said he’d never get better and didn’t want to be one of them. I asked him not to do it, but he didn’t listen. I’m going to my station, now.” She walked down the hallway toward the nurse’s station, but stopped when Kim gestured at Eaton, who put an arm around her and started whispering in her ear.
I looked back into the room, and wasn’t surprised at all to see Doctor Underwood lying back against the blood-splattered wall, the white-painted concrete bricks dripping with bits of brain and skull. Eaton’s pistol was still clutched in his hand, and I could see the flash-burn marks under his chin where he’d shoved the barrel of the gun before pulling the trigger.
I also saw the bite mark on his arm, partially obscured by the burns he’d suffered earlier. He’d seen the bites on the woman brought in and probably heard what had happened to the candy striper, and knew what was going to happen. I didn’t blame him at all; I’d have done the same thing, or my squad would do it for me when the time came.
“Bravo Six, Alpha Six.”
“Go ahead, Alpha.”
“Proceed to the northwest corner entrance and secure the cafeteria. Estimate between 40 and 50 staff have taken refuge there.”
“On our way, ma’am.”
“AEGIS Five, Alpha Six.”
“Go ahead, Alpha Six.”
“Second package neutralized. Three casualties, civilian, including the walkers. One survivor, civilian.”
“Roger. What’s the status of the other staff and patients?”
“Unknown at this time. Bravo team is securing the cafeteria.”
“Acknowledged. Get the survivor out of there and begin standard sweep and clear once Bravo team has secured the others.”
“Yes, sir. Out here.” Kim turned to the nurse, who had left bloody footprints down the hallway from her sneakers. “Shelly? We need to get you out of here, but I’m going to need you to do something for me, first, ok?”
The girl looked blankly at Kim.
“Ma’am, I don’t think she’s here with us right now.” Eaton said, passing a flashlight in front of the nurse’s eyes. “No dilation; she’s gone, ma’am.”
“Shit.” Kim sighed. “Take off her shoes and do a splatter check; Gaines, pack her out of here. Reynolds, get the door. Martinez, on point. We’ll follow up with Bravo once she’s secure.”
“Yes, ma’am,” chorused the other members of the squad, moving off to their assigned jobs. Gaines, for his part, merely picked the girl up and laid her over one of his shoulders like a sack of potatoes after Rachel cleared her for splatter. I doubt the girl even noticed, judging from the complete lack of expression on her face. Off in her own little world, and maybe never coming back.
Seeing your boyfriend attacked and bitten by a zombie, then watching him blow his own head off to keep from turning into one had a tendency to do that.
blow his own head off to keep from turning into one had a tendency to do that.
Chapter Sixteen
Cheyenne, Wyoming
He’d never been one to follow the news very much, but it had been a week since he’d heard from Doris, and Jason was nervous. First, there was the cryptic text message about something important to show him, and she stands him up. Then she doesn’t call, text, or email for a week. As far as he could tell, her car hadn’t moved from her parking lot in all that time, either.
He’d called the police, but they couldn’t or wouldn’t do anything. She’d gone off without telling anyone before, she had no next of kin, and there was nothing suspicious.
Not to them, anyway. But I know Doris, and something isn’t right. This whole thing is suspicious.
He raised the expensive digital camera he’d snagged from her kitchen table and took a few photos of the soldiers standing around, as well as the one talking to the police chief. There was nothing that indicated that they were anything other than what they were supposed to be, but he was far too paranoid for that.
You didn’t get to be on the government’s cyber-crimes watch-list by believing everything they told you.
Still, there was a connection here. Doris had been talking to this same group — USAMRIID — last week when the toxins had spilled up in Rawlins. What a lame-ass coverup that was, he thought. This is no toxic spill, but these same USAMRIID guys are here. For one lousy sick person? Right.
Suddenly the emergency room door opened, and the group of soldiers that had gone in an hour before emerged, and it appeared that the big one was carrying someone over his shoulder.
He zoomed in with the camera, along with the rest of the crowd, and saw that it was a nurse in pink scrubs. Where the hell are her shoes? And why is this guy carrying her? Suddenly he noticed one of the rifles he’d spotted earlier, carried by the tall redhead. He found himself forgetting about Doris for a moment, as her looks put Doris to shame, and he wondered why she’d chosen the Army when she could just as easily have been on the cover of any fashion magazine.
Focus! What the hell type of rifle is that?
He wrenched his attention back to the rifle, and zoomed in with the camera. Now that he was getting a good view of it as the big soldier loaded the nearly passed-out nurse into the back of the police chief’s car, he realized it didn’t just look futuristic. This was an actual, functioning weapon, and he took several photos of it.
Suddenly, he noticed that the redhead was looking his way, and gesturing at one of the other men in the group. The tall, graying soldier with movie-star looks shook his head and began jogging toward the barricades.
Jason was no fool; he knew what came next. Pretending to tie his shoe, he slipped the memory card out of the camera and into his sock. As he stood up, he pulled another from his pocket and slipped it into the camera, turning around just in time to see the soldier arrive at the barricade.
Damn, he’s tall, thought Jason, looking for a name on the man’s uniform but failing to find anything other than the USAMRIID logo. He noticed several scars on the man’s forearms, and he could tell this was not someone to screw with. Ever.
The soldier cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled. “If I could have everyone’s attention over here for a moment, please.” The crowd quieted down somewhat, and several reporters pushed their way to the front. Jason was only too happy to let them, easing his way back to the rear of the crowd as the soldier continued.
“For reasons of national security, I’m going to need to confiscate all recording media as of right now.” The crowd roared with disapproval, but the soldier merely stood there and held up his hands. “You’ve all seen this drill before. You’ll get your tapes, discs, flash drives and whatnot back before you leave here today, but we need to make sure that we’ve got all the information we can about this potential illness.”
Again, the crowd roared, questions peppering the soldier, who simply ignored them.
“As I said, this is a matter of national security, and you will comply with this order. USAMRIID will see that your materials are returned to you.” Another two soldiers trotted
up, one carrying a canvas bag and the other a notebook of some kind. “Please turn over all of your materials to these two; you will be issued a receipt. If you prefer not to wait for the return of your materials here, they will be mailed back to you.”
Jason snorted as he reached the back of the crowd. Sure they would. Empty, no doubt, with some glitch blamed for them being wiped. This ain’t my first rodeo, soldier-boy. He had a slight smile on his face as he turned to move away from the crowd and ran smack into the immovable wall of the large soldier he’d seen before.
“And just where do you think you’re going, kid?” drawled the big man, one huge hand coming down on Jason’s shoulder. “I saw that camera, there. We’re gonna need the memory card from that, buddy.”
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