by Mark Clodi
Stewart was looking at the towel then reached into the glove box and came up with a medical kit, she proceeded to pull out a pair of latex gloves (there was an entire box of them) and told Steve, “Steve, pull over and let me swap with Tom. Tom, you reload the gun and keep your eyes peeled for trouble.”
After a quick stop they were on their way again. Stewart said to Steve, “You know where the state clinic is on a hundred and thirty fourth? No? Well turn right here, then take the second left after this next light and then the first right after that, it is on the left. We’ll see if docs are in. Let me take a look Max.”
Max looked at Stewart and said, “I, I can’t, you do it.”
“Wuss. Move your hands. No, not there, move them out of the way.”
Stewart peeled back the towels, knowing from her training that this is generally the wrong thing to do, you are supposed to let the band aid work by allowing the blood to pool and seal the hole. However she had to know, if it was as bad as it looked she would not place good odds on Max surviving and from what she had heard his death would not be a pleasant one either. She pulled the last of the towel back, starting the blood flowing again and said, “Tom, hand me that bag there in front of your feet, it has gauze in it. Thanks.” She proceeded to clean up the blood so she could see the wound more clearly, there was a lot of blood. She sighed in relief at what she saw, just as they were driving slowly by the clinic.
Tom said, “Stewart! Stewart! Zombies everywhere!”
Sure enough the clinic was surrounded by a mob of thirty or so zombies, none of them looked like what Stewart would classify as ‘beta’ or ‘alpha’ zombies, those that were faster and more aware of their environment, just common ‘zetas’. Zeta for classic zombie, that always brought a smile to her face. Back to the clinic situation, Steve sped the car up as he went by and several members of the mob made lumbering runs after the moving car.
“Steve, slow down a bit, draw more of them away!” commanded Stewart.
Steve slowed, but only three of the zombies continued the pursuit. Shrugging Stewart said, “Go to the end of the block and we'll shoot these three, then circle around and try to get more of them; circle, draw them away, shoot em. Got it?”
Shooting the zombies was like shooting fish in a barrel. The three dropped easily and Steve circled the block and tried to draw more away, the rest of the mob was less inclined to follow this time around and several even ducked for cover among the nearby cars. This was going to be harder than Stewart thought.
“Isn’t there somewhere else?” asked Steve.
“Nowhere close.” replied Stewart bitterly, “Besides we know someone is still in there, otherwise why the mob?”
“So what do I do? Ram some of them? Shoot into them as we drive by?”
“No we gotta come up with something more clever than that. Pull up at the corner of the block and lets stop and think for a minute.”
Steve pulled the car to a halt at the corner and all of them looked back at the clinic, then to each other, casting guarded glances at Max when they thought he was not looking.
“Here is the thing, we have to get Max in as quick as we can, the ‘golden’ hour rule still applies even in this prolonged emergency. Max, you are not going to die, it looks to me like the bullet just skimmed across the front of your abdomen and is not inside of you, but we still need to get you stitched up and probably on anti-biotics or something, the doctor or nurse will know what to do. I think we could probably rush the zombies in the parking lot, I think they are smart enough to duck down for cover, but I didn’t see any ‘alpha’ zombies no real bad guys, right?”
“So, let me get this straight, you are thinking that we should bum-rush thirty zombies to get to the front door?” asked Steve.
“I dunno Stewart there are a lot of zombies around the building...” Tom said tentatively.
“No! No bum rushing Steve, c’mon! I mean we pull up twenty feet away and blast a bunch of them, Tom and I will sit on this side and just fire out the windows, we will drive them off and then make a break for the doors.”
“We don’t even know the doors are unlocked, I don’t think they are, otherwise there wouldn’t be anyone inside, right? So how do we let them know we need in?” asked Steve.
“Steve, use your head, the gunfire should do that, right? Any other additions or better ideas? Max? You alright, try to stay with us here buddy, we can’t have you going into shock on us okay, you are probably going to have to walk when we get to the front doors.”
“No, no ideas Stewart.” said Tom, Steve just nodded and said, “Okay lets do it.”
Steve pulled the car around the block yet again and then onto the other side of the street as far away from the clinic doors as they could get and still be on the street. Stewart and Tom each took careful aim and brought down a couple of the zombies, the rest turned towards them slowly and again they fired, neither were accurate enough to bring another zombie down, but both hit their targets. After a third volley and one more head shot, the rest of the zombies fled around the corner or ducked behind the cars along that side of the road.
“Shit!” swore Stewart, “This sucks, we are going to use a lot of ammo to clean this group out! Hey Steve look at the door!”
Sure enough a man in a rumpled shirt with a traditional doctors coat was at the front glass doors waving frantically at them.
“I guess there are people alive in there. You're a lucky man Max.” said Steve, “Let me pull the car up and I bet you guys can get a couple more once the angle changes.”
Steve pulled the car up and while they did hit a couple more zombies they did not bring any down.
“This ain’t working Stewart!” said Tom as Steve backed the car up to try and get them a different shooting angle.
“I know, I can see that, they are smarter than they looked. Hey Steve can you back us up on the sidewalk in front of the clinic? We could get a shot or two off there, maybe get a couple of them.”
Steve did this and Tom and Stewart let loose another volley of shots hitting several of the undead, but only bringing two more down. Max let out a yell when two zombies, one carrying a cinder block slammed into his side of the car, the side window, amazingly did not shatter inward, but did break into a million starred pieces. Max’s yell startled Tom and as he pulled around to see what Max was yelling about he fired a round off, shattering the heavy glass in the front door of the clinic and narrowly missing the physician’s leg.
The doctor yelled something that sounded like, “Oo-oh shit you fucking douche bag!” and retreated into the clinic out of sight, several zombies made for the front door, Stewart shot them both in the head as they made no effort to dodge or hide.
Tom screamed at Steve, “Get us out of here! They are going to break through!” While Max fumbled with the revolver he had picked up earlier trying to point it at the zombies outside the window.
“Ma-ax! Don’t shoot through the window!” yelled Stewart, “Steve pull ahead a few feet, but don’t take me out of sight of the front door, if the zombies get through there we won’t have a doctor anymore!”
Steve pulled the car forward about ten feet, the zombies clambered up onto the back of the squad car, Steve reversed, catching one of them under the car and running it over, the other one started smashing at the rear window with one fist while hanging on to the antenna with the other.
In half a second everything changed, Stewart opened her side door and got a bead on the zombie riding on the trunk, she shot him once in the neck and then capped him in the head as he fell off behind the car. She was then grabbed by her feet by a hand reaching out from under the cruiser. Tom screamed and hopped out of the car after her, at the same time several of the hiding zombies made a rush for both the car and the clinic door.
Chapter 34
After getting to highway six Amelia still did not have any advice on how to proceed, so she turned the caddy onto the highway hoping it would ultimately be faster. The advantage of this particular section
of road was that it ran through mostly residential neighborhoods, so she could easily switch to the back streets if she needed to.
Amelia managed to drive a few miles before she spotted flashing emergency lights up ahead on the road, as she crept the car slowly closer she saw a police car and several tow trucks, but no people, there were also several wrecked cars pulled out from the underpass and lots and lots of shotgun shells next to the police car. No bodies, no zombies, nothing to indicate exactly what had happened, but the road was clear, she hit the accelerator and scooted the car past the underpass onto another clear stretch of highway.
“Wanna try the radio station again? Call it in? Let him know six is pretty clear so far?” asked Amelia
“Sure, why not.” Diane said, she had plugged her cell phone into the car for recharging and redialed the stations number again. Diane had not been expecting to get through, let alone on the second ring, the station was still playing canned music, the dj had not been heard since their call.
“He-ello? Is this Diane?” asked a voice on the other end of the line.
Surprised, Diane responded, “Yeah, who is this? And how did you know who I was?”
“We have caller id, I recognized your number and name from when you called twenty minutes ago. My assistant took your first call. This is Blake, by the way.”
“Hello Blake, I am pleased to meet you. I am calling to say highway six is pretty clear, we are heading westbound okay so far since the twenty five exit. You want to let everyone know that?”
“Ah, sure why the fuck not.” came his bitter response.
“What’s wrong?”
“They called me. The zombies fucking called me and and my assistants, whoever was manning the phones. And we gave them directions on how to get here. Sorry for swearing, but the ground floor is full of them now, you kind of saved my life you know. The rest of the gang was downstairs helping the ‘refugees’, I took the elevator down, we obviously still have power, the generator has not even kicked in yet. Anyway, the door opened and I saw a group of them laughing. Laughing, the bastards! They were eating the associate manager, she was my friend Diane! My friend! And they laughed and pointed at me and said ‘Thanks buddy!’ then they tried rushing the doors, but I got them closed in time. I have an elevator key, I can go to the top of the tower if I want, twelve floors up, but I came back here to the station. I mean if they get through the fire doors, they will find me no matter where I hide, right? I know this building there are not any doors stronger than the fire doors are. I locked the elevator out on my floor so they couldn't use that.”
“I am glad I warned you Blake, I am glad you are alive and probably safe, but you have a lot of power and you should use it instead of just waiting for them to come in after you.”
“What do you mean? This is a dead end Diane, no way out, except maybe jumping from the roof and we have those goddamn safety nets installed so I would only fall like two stories before being caught up in one, where I would probably die of thirst without anyone to retrieve me. Of course I could make my way to the edge of the net and continue the fall too, I guess or..”
“Cut it out Blake, cut it out! You don’t have to die there and even if you do you can at least go out helping a lot of other people. I don’t know you, but I know you were trying to help people before, now you can do even more good. Secure yourself first, throw chairs, desks, whatever in front of the fire doors..”
Interrupting Blake said, “No it wouldn’t do anything, the doors open out and …”
“Hear me out! Put the stuff in front of the doors so you can hear them coming and get out of the station if you need to, not to stop them, just don’t lean anything up against the door handle and accidentally open it, or maybe the stairwells are pretty small? You might have better luck tossing a bunch of junk down the stairwell to stop them from coming up, leave one open as an escape route maybe. We did that in the building where I was held up for awhile.”
“Oh yeah, I can do that we have a promotion where we go around to the local bars and have about twenty cases of glass cups we gave away as swag, that would make a lot of noise if they hit it, plus a few desks and chairs in the stairwell, that is going to take awhile though, there are five stairwells in the building, one at each corner and one near the elevators. Not a bad idea Diane, I might have even a few more. What else to you have?”
“Okay here is the important part, get back on the radio, you could ask people for help, tell them you need someone to come free you from the station and explain your situation, maybe. Regardless you need to get back on the air and keep telling everyone what is going on, you are it man, every other station is off the air, let people know to hit them in the head, tell them to call all their friends and spread the news that you are on the air, get people organized, right now everyone is trying to fight back on their own and we are losing, at least from my point of view, I know that of the people I spent the night with only maybe six of the twenty of us are still alive, so you gotta get people organized and have them fight back. There is no reason why the station could not be the rallying point.”
“I might even live through it. Okay I will do it, let me give you another number you can reach me at, I have the feeling this line is going to get busy really soon. Also here is my cell number in case the power totally goes out. We have a generator, but who knows how long that will last?”
Diane took his number on a small notebook she pulled out of her glove box. Amelia admired Diane’s organization skill; the last time she checked her own glove box so much stuff fell out that she had resolved to never open it again.
After Diane hung up she asked, “Well, spill it, what happened, I think I got a pretty good idea from your end of the conversation. But do you think he will make it?”
Diane went to respond when the music abruptly cut off and the dj’s voice was on the air again, “Well thanks to my good fried Diane, I am still here ladies and gentlemen. First things first anyone I told to come to the station, and you know who you are, you had best stay away, it seems Diane’s warning that some zombies can talk and act like normal humans is true and several of them fooled me and invaded the station, so it is not a safe place to be anymore. Second tell everyone we are on the air and to keep calling. I have to go and do a few things to help keep me safe and will be back on live very soon. I have recorded this while I am talking and will set it to repeat until I am back. Oh and if anyone from the first group has a lot of guns, I would certainly appreciate a helping hand getting out of here too. Be back soon folks!”
After a moments though Diane said, “I think he just might make it Amelia. I think he just might.”
Chapter 35
Max struggled to a sitting position he felt so weak, so weak that all he could do was point his revolver at the open door and whisper to Steve, “Don’t move the car, Stewart is under the car, don’t move the car Steve!”
“Fuck, Max! Help her! Help her! Tom watch out, they are coming!”
Tom was busy pulling Stewart from under the car, Max risked one shot with the revolver, hitting the zombie in the leg, it barely seemed to phase it. Tom let go of Stewart with one hand and swung the shotgun around with the other firing into the zombies that were approaching the car. Steve pulled out the automatic pistol he had and scrambled over the seat to the open door, he fired into the zombies, bringing one down and momentarily sending the rest dodging sideways to avoid his wild fire. Tom bent back over to pull at Stewart, who was firing under the car with her gun hand and hanging on to Tom’s arm with the other.
Steve ran out of ammunition the gun clicked empty and he froze. Evidently the training he had been given was momentarily wiped from his mind and he sat there pulling the trigger to no effect. Max said in an almost normal voice, “Reload Steve. Reload Steve. Steve reload.”
Steve scrambled to reload and while the zombies pressed their advantage, Tom’s shotgun roared once more before he said, “I am out Stewart. I can’t reload with one hand.”
“Let me g
o Tom!” she said.
“No!”
“Let me go!”
“No!” he screamed, froth spraying out of his mouth.
A zombie loomed up behind him and Max struggled to raise the revolver, his hand was shaking so bad he could not get a clear shot and the edges of his vision started to fade into black, the fatigue and blood loss were hitting him and he started to pass out. The last thing he saw was the zombie pitching forward, the last thing he heard was the sound of Steve’s voice coming from somewhere well above him as if he, Max, had fallen into a deep mine shaft, “An a.r.r.o.w M.a.x! A.n. a.r.r.o” then he passed out.
Tom was pulling with both hands as the zombie loomed up behind him, he yelled, “Fire Max! I don’t care if you hit me! Fire Steve!” his voice raised several octaves to an almost comical pitch.
The zombie fell forward onto the side of his body, Tom thought he was done and waited for the biting, briefly wondering how badly it was going to hurt, before he realized the thing was not moving. Looking down he saw it had an arrow sticking out of the back of it's head, in fact another one was down and several more had arrows sticking out of their necks and shoulders, following the flight of the arrows backward he saw a young man and a woman standing at the edge of the parking lot amongst the heavy vegetation firing arrows into the zombies, he made himself smaller and grabbed Stewart with both hands gaining a few inches on the zombie that was trying to pull her under the car. Steve finally reloaded and fired into the remaining zombies. He saw, better than Steve, the other young men and a woman wading into the parking lot with swords, a baseball bat and even an ax! They were cutting the zombies down and they were moving to guard the front door to the clinic. As he watched one of the ‘good’ guys was mobbed by three zombies, the largest one, and he shrugged them off and hacked at them with his sword, then had to drop it when it become wrapped up in one of the zombies insides, he reached back to his belt and pulled out a large dagger and continued to slash and hack as he was once again bowled over, his friends were busy fighting their own battles, but were quick to come to his aid as soon as they could, getting him to his feet and putting his sword back into his hand, then pushing him towards the zombies between them and the clinic. Steve could swear they were laughing.