It would take time to cultivate an antivirus and work with the infected. The safe house was a precaution. It wouldn’t be for long. I just needed to get Daniel Spratt.
*
Nurse Roberts
“Will it never end?” I muttered to myself, as I headed towards a patients room. He had been pressing the buzzer incessantly for five minutes. We were short staffed and I was already pulling a double. I didn’t need to listen to him complain again about how the food was horrible or he was too cold, or how a patient had wandered into his room and tried to bite him or whatever else the old fool was griping about now.
“Yes, Mr. Weston. What can I help you with now?” I asked.
I stepped up to his bed. He was staring straight ahead at the wall, drool running down his chin.
His finger was pressing the call button repeatedly, but he didn’t seem to be aware that he was doing it.
Jesus, has the old goat had a stroke?
Lifting his wrist, I checked his pulse. Moving my fingers around, I struggled to pick one up.
“Mr. Weston? Can you hear me?” I shone a penlight in his eyes. They didn’t react to it at all.
“Damn,” I muttered.
Hurrying outside, I found Dr. Yani at the nurse’s station, “Doctor, there’s a problem with Mr. Weston. He’s non-responsive and I can’t detect a heartbeat, yet he’s conscious.”
Dr. Yani followed me back into the room. Mr. Weston was no longer in bed. He was in the corner of the room, moving like a sleepwalker, moaning softly.
“Mr. Weston. Are you feeling all right?” Dr. Yani said.
He checked his reactions too. He led Mr. Weston back to the bed and sat him down.
“I want some tests run on him, nurse,” Dr. Yani said. He probably didn’t even know what my name was and I wasn’t going to help him.
There was a commotion from outside in the hall. I glanced over my shoulder, only to hear Dr. Yani scream in pain. Mr. Weston had attacked him. Blood dripped from his face, as he clutched his nose.
“What happened?” I cried.
“He bit me,” he said.
Bit? Weston had said someone had tried to bite him too, but the room was empty when I had checked.
Another scream came from outside the room. I hurried out into the hall. Another patient was roaming the hall. He lunged at a nurse and sent her crashing to the floor.
“What are you doing?” I cried, running towards him.
He swung his arm at me, catching me in the face. I stumbled and caught myself against the wall.
More screaming echoed around me. I ran for the phone to call security. Coming up the hallway towards me was Stan Lewis. He was another patient of mine. One who had went into cardiac arrest this morning and died.
I watched in horror, as he came closer. His eyes were glazed over and his skin was an unnatural color. He dragged one of his legs behind him as he went. This was quite impressive considering he hadn’t been able to walk for the past fifteen months.
“Stan?” I said, as he walked past me.
He stopped walking, his head turned slowly in my direction. He snapped his teeth at me, making a strange gargling noise.
Frozen in shock, I didn’t move in time as he fell on me and bit my neck. Screaming, I shoved him backwards, aware of how cold his flesh was.
I clamped a hand over my neck, but the wound seemed bad. Stumbling to the nurse’s station, I grabbed some gauze and pressed it to the wound.
I called down to security, “Please send someone to the third floor. Help us,” I mumbled, as I felt dizziness wash over me. My legs gave out and I tumbled to the floor.
As I started to lose consciousness, a body fell to the ground beside me. It was Dr. Yani. Part of his nose was missing and blood leaked out from the hole. He was dead.
A second later, he blinked. How could that be? He was dead, I was sure of it. I was less sure when he got to his feet.
My final thought before everything went black was - when did the world go mad?
*
Danny
I switched the coffee maker on in the doc’s apartment. Well I assumed he owned it. He must have a lot of cash to afford this place and his house. There was still so much we didn’t know about him.
Jack and I had been hiding out here for a few days now. She had been released from the hospital and told to rest. The doc was right about the police. They sent a cop round eventually but he was more interested in what happened at Trinity. He spent most of the interview with Jack, watching the TV in her room. She could have told him anything because I don’t think he was listening.
What she did tell him was that she had been shot by in a drive by. She didn’t see who did or the car. We had found her and took her to the hospital. He seemed to buy it and we promised to come down to the station and make a more formal statement. That never happened.
The situation in Trinity had been controlled. Breton had wiped out all the infected. Now that the dust had settled, the doc had decided to make his move and meet with Breton with our demands. He had set up ‘safeguards’ that would mean Breton couldn’t touch us. The doc wasn’t exactly forthcoming with his plans, but hopefully he could get us our lives back.
Right now all we could do was wait. Not that I minded in this swanky apartment.
“This place is amazing,” I said, for probably the tenth time since we had arrived. It sure beat anywhere I’ve ever stayed.
Jack was lying on the sofa bed in the living room. The TV was on above her, tuned into the news. She was propped up on some pillows. She looked paler than usual.
“And the view is pretty good too,” I said, grinning at her.
She rolled her eyes at me, “Do any of your lines actually work ever?”
I shrugged, “Sometimes.”
She tried to sit up.
“You are supposed to be resting,” I said. I sat down beside her.
“I’m fine,” she argued, but winced when she moved her shoulder which was heavily bandaged.
“Just try to relax. We’re nearly home free,” I said. She had been lucky. The bullet had gone straight through, missing anything vital. She had lost quite a bit of blood though and had to be careful.
“I hate sitting here,” she moaned.
“That’s why you’ve got me for company.”
“What are you going to do? Perform magic tricks to keep me entertained?”
I chuckled, I could think of some ideas to keep her entertained, but I don't think she would respond well to it.
I wanted to kiss her. I don’t know when it had happened, but I think I kind of liked her. I had kissed her back in the desert, but that was because I was glad she was alive. Now though, I still wanted to. I considered doing just that; I thought for sure she would slap me in the face. Once the doc returned, assuming it went well, I probably wouldn’t see her again. She would go back to her life and I would go back to living on the street and stealing to survive. Maybe it was time to bite the bullet and get myself a job. Even if it was some minimum wage cleaning job.
I glanced up at the TV. There was a bar across the bottom of the screen which read: State wide alert, deadly virus released.
I leaned over her and grabbed the remote to turn up the volume.
“Oh I’m sorry, am I interrupting your TV time?” Jack joked.
“Look at this,” I said.
“Reports are unconfirmed at the moment, but it is believed we could be looking at a country wide pandemic. The virus is as yet unidentified. Early this morning, two men and a woman were admitted to a local hospital with symptoms. Shortly after arriving, one of the men died. The other two became violent and began attacking other patients. The hospital has been quarantined until more testing can be done.
Other reports show an up rise in violent attacks in the surrounding areas. It is not known if these cases are linked.”
They showed some footage of a gridlocked freeway. One man got out of the car he was in and smashed another man’s head into his car. The pictu
re changed to a bunch of people rioting in the street.
It took me a second to realize that Jack was beside me, gripping my hand.
“It’s the virus isn’t it? They didn’t contain it,” she said.
I was thinking the same thing, “We don’t know that. Get dressed; we should be ready to move.”
A million thoughts swirled around my brain. If they couldn’t contain a small town like Trinity in the middle of nowhere, how would they do it here in a city this size? I knew that things were going to get a whole lot worse.
I returned to the living room, where Jack was waiting already dressed. She beat my best time. I threw some things into a backpack. Always ready to move.
“Do we wait on Dr. Kettering?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I guess we should give him a chance to…”
Movement caught my eye from the security monitor by the door. Men with guns were running upstairs.
“Jack,” I said. I pointed to the monitor.
“Oh, God.”
“We need to go now.”
I grabbed the bag and threw it over my shoulder. We climbed out onto the fire escape.
“Where are we going to go?” she asked.
“I don’t know, but we’ll find somewhere to lay low.”
We reached the ground and out onto the street. I took Jack’s hand as we hurried along, watching for any of Breton’s men. I wondered where the doc was. If they had found us, then they could have tortured it out of him. He could even be dead.
He hadn’t bothered to tell us where he was keeping the virus, but had he told Breton?
Where could we go now? Where was safe?
An explosion ripped through the air half a block ahead of us. We skidded to a halt, looking for the source. I could see smoke a few blocks over.
“What was that?” Jack asked.
“I don’t know. Keep moving.”
People around us were starting to freak out and I didn’t blame them. They probably thought it was a terrorist attack.
As we turned a corner, several people were running towards us. We flattened ourselves against the side of the building to avoid being trampled. Where were they going? They were running in the direction of the explosion.
It soon became clear why. Up ahead, a man was battering the side of a cab with his fists. He smashed the glass and dragged the driver out. He sank his teeth into the driver’s neck.
“No, not again,” Jack moaned.
I dragged her across the street. We were rapidly running out of directions to go in.
“Wait,” Jack said.
“What is it?”
“I need to go somewhere,” she said.
“Where?”
“Follow me.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Robby
“It’s my turn Jimmy, let me play,” I whined. My older brother was concentrating on the arcade game in front of him – Zombie Mashers.
I tried to push my way in front of the controls, but Jimmy wouldn’t budge.
“Butt out, loser, I’m still playing,” he snarled.
I groaned, why did he always get to play first? Then he would spend hours on the one game. When Mom gave him the quarters, she told him to share them with me.
“I want to play a game!” I yelled.
Jimmy rolled his eyes. He dug into his pocket and handed over one quarter, “Find your own game Robby.”
I took the quarter and wandered around the arcade, searching for something good. I really wanted to play Zombie Mashers. All the other games were lame.
I glanced out the front door and saw a man watching me. He was standing in the middle of the road and his clothes were all dirty. He was staring at me. Just staring, not even blinking.
Jimmy was too wrapped up in the game to notice what I was doing.
I stepped up to the door for a closer look.
The man jerked forward suddenly as if he was having some kind of fit. He moved towards me with strange jerky movements.
Scared, I backed away, “Jimmy?” I called.
“I’m busy,” came the reply.
Just as the man was about to reach the door, another man came out of nowhere and hit the first one across the head with a sledgehammer.
I tried to scream, but no sound came out. The man with the hammer was attacked by a woman. She leapt on his back, trying to bite his ear. Hammer man threw her to the ground and hit her too.
Blood spattered up the door. When the woman tried to get back up, I realized what she was. She was a zombie. They were real. Like really real, not in some stupid game.
Hammer man finished off the woman then moved on. Running to the door, I pressed my face to the glass for a better look. He made his way down the street, taking them out one by one.
“Hey, loser, you can play now,” Jimmy said.
“No thanks, this is better,” I replied.
Who needed videogames?
*
Jack
We managed to avoid most of the chaos as we made our way across the city to my work. If we were going to disappear, there was something I needed first. My mom’s picture. I couldn’t leave it behind. It was all I had of her.
Racing into the lobby, I ran for the elevator. “Hey, Jack, you don’t work here anymore,” Martin, the security guard called.
“Yes I know. I just need to see TJ,” I replied.
He waved me up.
Danny managed to get into the elevator before the doors closed. He was panting heavily, “What are you doing?” he gasped.
“I told you, I need to get something. I’ll be quick.”
“Jack, we need to keep moving,” he said.
“I know. Five minutes.”
He didn’t look happy about it, but he stopped arguing. Hopefully TJ had tossed all my stuff into a box somewhere. Better that than in the trash.
The doors opened on the seventh floor. The office looked empty. With everything that was going on outside, TJ had probably sent everyone home; that was if they came in at all today.
“Where are we?” Danny asked.
“This is where I used to work,” I said.
“Oh, cool. What did you do again?” he said.
“I don’t think it matters anymore. I just need to grab something from my cubicle.”
I left Danny by the elevator and hurried towards my cubicle. As I turned the corner, I stopped. I had to cover my mouth to stop from screaming. My legs felt like they would give out on me.
Lying in the middle of the aisle was a body. It was missing a leg. It was Rudy. Blood pooled from the open wound, soaking into the grey carpet. He was face down, but I recognized the shirt he was wearing and the headphones he always had around his neck.
Something moved two rows over and I dropped to the floor. It was still in here. Someone must have been infected and come into work before they turned. How many more people were dead? And why hadn’t anyone called down to security?
I crawled across the floor, being careful not to put any weight on my bad arm. I tried not to look at Rudy’s body. Tears streamed down my face. I could see how fast this was spreading, and even though I knew the potential outcome, I forced myself not to think about it, because if I did, I would lose it completely. I just needed to take it one step at a time. Focus on the next task and I could get through this. The next step was to retrieve the photo. I should have headed back to the elevator, but I had to at least try and get the photo.
Moving slowly, I tried to pinpoint exactly where the noise was coming from. It was a rustling sound, maybe one row over. There was the sound of ragged breathing too.
Gaps ran between clusters of cubicles, as I approached the next one, I chanced a look over to the next row.
It was Nancy. I knew her instantly from her bleach blonde hair and ear piercings. She was huddled under her desk, head on her knees, rocking back and forth. She looked okay to me, but she could have been bitten. Scooting forward, I whispered, “Nancy?”
Her head jerked up and collided
with the desk. She swore and rubbed at her head.
“Jack? What are you doing here?” she whispered.
“I came to get my things. What happened?”
She shook her head in despair, “I don’t know. Joey from the mailroom went mad. He attacked Rudy. I don’t know if Rudy is okay.”
I didn’t want to scare her more than she already was so I didn’t tell her about Rudy.
“Where is Joey now?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I hid,” she said.
I didn’t blame her. The zombies didn’t seem to be that smart, so I didn’t think they could use an elevator. He could have gotten into the stairwell though or maybe someone took him out.
“How many people were in today?” I asked. I needed to know how many potential zombie I could be up against.
“Um, me, Rudy, Joey, TJ and Sandra I think. Things were crazy on the street so a lot of people didn’t make it in,” she said.
Or didn’t make it period.
“I’ll be right back. Don’t move,” I said.
Nancy nodded. I doubted there would be much that could make her move from under her desk.
I crawled on. I reached my cubicle to find that it had been stripped bare. Crap. TJ would probably have the stuff in his office.
Standing up, I gave the room a quick look. No zombies. I backed toward TJ’s office, still watching for them. My back hit the door and I reached out to turn the handle.
Someone smashed up against the glass by the door and I screamed. I leapt away from the door. The glass was frosted, but I could make out the shape of a man in the office. Most likely TJ. The way he was roaring and beating the glass I was pretty sure he was zombified.
Nancy’s head popped up over her cubicle, “Are you okay?” she whispered.
I nodded despite the fact that my heart was about to explode out of my chest. Maybe if Danny could distract TJ…
Wait a minute. I just screamed and Danny hadn’t come to see what was wrong. I couldn’t see the elevator from where I was. Where was he?
After Zombie Series (Book 2): Before Page 14