Doctor Connelly let out a long sigh. “You don’t know the half of it. I’m actually a pediatrician. I was treating a young lady with some bad burns on her arm from an accident, when we were suddenly swamped with strange cases. We had people coming in sick, people turning into those monsters on beds in the hallway, and some who’d already turned locked in clinics. We were losing ground fast. Hospitals in Huntsville and Birmingham were being overrun, and the military was evacuating both cities.” She paused to take a sip of the gray water. “Then, we lost contact with the outside world. The last thing we heard was that the military was moving to the south towards us. They kept saying something was following them.”
“A swarm,” I said.
“Yeah. And a big one, too. The National Guard slammed into town with about a thousand undead hot on their heels. They had no tanks, no trucks, no jeeps, no vehicles of any kind. Just the weapons on their backs. They tried to stop them outside town, but the barricades failed. Then they moved to the streets and around this clinic. We were surrounded.” Doctor Connelly folded her hands in her lap and looked at her feet.
“Those poor young people. They fought so bravely. The battle ebbed and flowed in and out of the building.” She pointed to the ceiling. “We all ran upstairs to the roof, grabbing any survivors and supplies we could. Those brave soldiers covered our retreat. I watched as the zombies dragged them down the stairs screaming.” She paused for a second to collect herself.
“Then what happened?” I asked.
“The soldiers were annihilated. Not too many made it through. The remaining fighters pushed the swarm back outside and into the woods. They held them at bay while we tried to evacuate. The soldiers found a few working cars and trucks and improvised a caravan out of town. That’s when I found Amy.” She paused to stroke the young girl’s dark hair. ”She was so badly hurt that I stayed behind. That was about a year ago or so, I guess.”
“What happened to the caravan?” Ryan asked.
“I don’t know. I like to think they made it through. Maybe they’re fighting somewhere else, saving other people from the monsters.”
I thought of all the brave soldiers who fought and died in this mess. They stood and tried to destroy an enemy they weren’t trained to kill. Countless soldiers who were the only line between life and complete chaos in the early days. “Good job surviving for a year in this place.”
Doctor Connelly shook her head. “Just dumb luck. The clinic was a pretty secure place at first. It had a few months of food and water, and I would take trips to the outside world in the daylight to find more. I used a few weapons I found on the ground around the clinic. Had to figure out how they worked.” She smiled a little. “It became a little game. I would go outside, and the Red-Eyes would try and hunt me. I even kept score.” She pointed to a sticky note on a nearby dead computer screen. It had lines that I assumed represented Red-Eyes she had dispatched. About a dozen lines were scrawled on the sheet of yellow paper.
“Looks like we found a zombie-killer,” I said.
“Oh, no,” the Doctor said. “Most of my kills were just lucky. I mostly just ran away and hid from them.” She paused to sigh again. “Like a scared bunny. I’m glad you guys came. The clinic is finished. When those stupid rednecks pulled the door off its hinges, Amy and I were exposed. I locked myself in here with the radio to wait for rescue or the end.”
I put my hand on her shoulder. “Well, we’re here now. We’ll get you out of here.”
“Thank you. I didn’t think anyone would come.” Tears began to well up in Doctor Connelly’s eyes. It had been a long year. For all of us.
Looking around the room, I noticed microscopes and other lab equipment scattered on all the desks and tables. “You’ve been researching this thing, Doc?” I asked.
She looked around. “Yes. Not making much progress, though. Maybe one day I can write a paper on it. I hope someone is around to read it.”
“Come up with any ideas on what caused all this?” I asked. Ben and Ryan leaned in to listen to the doctor to hear her theories.
Doctor Connelly removed her damaged glasses and rubbed her tired eyes. “I can tell you what I do know. It’s some kind of parasite. I think it’s using us in its life cycle. No one got a good look at it. It doesn’t even have a name. It enters the blood, and suppresses the immune response so it has time to work. It gets to the brain and begins to multiply. When it has bred to sufficient numbers, it releases a toxin that destroys the brain tissue. The victim begins to experience fever, unexplained bleeding, convulsions. Soon, it destroys the upper functions of the brain. Everything that makes you human…gone. What’s left is the brain stem and the more basic parts. We thought it was meningitis. Some form of bacterial meningitis, but we were wrong. So wrong.” She shook her head sadly. “Death soon follows. Then, if conditions are right, the body rises. It rises with a hunger that can’t be satisfied. A shell. A parasite factory looking for flesh to eat.”
“Damn,” said Ben, under his breath.
“At first, it moved slowly among our population. In the beginning, it could take twelve hours to a full day to kill you and make you a zombie. People traveled to their destinations not even knowing they were infected. They turned in hotel rooms, traveling in cars, on planes, in airports and train stations. Then they infected others, and the outbreak began to pick up speed. At first, it was small groups, then the small groups became larger groups. Then they became swarms. A perfect recipe for a holocaust. Add in mass evacuations, looting, and general panic, and you got a civilization ready to collapse.” Doctor Connelly took a sip of water. “The Yellow-Eyes appeared first. They were sort of a prototype. However, the conversion to Yellow-Eye caused too much damage to the host body, so the little bastards refined their process. Each successive generation was stronger, more agile. They left more of the brain intact.”
“And the Red-Eyes were born,” I said.
“Yeah. The Red-Eyes. The parasites came up with a process that created a human-sized, red-eyed psychopath predator with a taste for human flesh.”
Ben shook his head in disbelief. “Do they control the body?”
“Not really.” She handed Ben a folder of information about our little parasite friend. “They create the zombie, but then the parasites are along for the ride. Our bodies make a perfect carrying case. It’s a great place to manufacture new parasites, get food, and to spread themselves around. That’s why they bite. The parasites build up in the fluids of the creatures. One bite that breaks the skin could send thousands into your bloodstream, continuing the process. The change takes only about four or five minutes now. Barely enough time to scream…or pray.”
Ben, Ryan, and I looked at each other. “We know, Doc. We started this little trip with four people,” Ryan said.
“I’m so sorry. This damn thing has taken so many people. Too many..,” Doctor Connelly trailed off.
It was silent for a minute as everyone digested the information. “Where did it come from? Have you ever seen anything like this before? I asked.
“John, I worked for a short time in Africa with children infected with all manner of parasites. I once pulled a tapeworm as tall as you out of a young boy. I’ve been a doctor a long time, but I have never seen anything like this. Most parasites kill their hosts eventually, but to reanimate something as complex as a human being, then use us in their life cycle? I don’t think anyone has ever seen anything like that. It’s probably been here, evolving along with us all these years. It’s been waiting all this time to strike. All it takes is someone to eat a bad piece of meat or drink some water with a few bad guy parasites in it and, bang, end of the world.”
“So we wait them out,” Ryan interjected from the back of the room. “They’re dead, right? We wait till they rot, then we hose off the sidewalks and get on with our lives.”
Doctor Connelly stood up and looked Ryan in the eye. “I felt the same way. Lay in some supplies, nail some plywood over the windows, and wait it out. I figured the parasites
killed the host, but they hadn’t figured out the knotty problem of cellular decomposition. Eventually, all the zombies would turn to dust and bones.” She looked around at all of us in the little darkened room. “I was wrong. To try and further understand the nature of the infection, I took a few samples from reanimates that had been dispatched…skin, blood, organs, things like that. Under a microscope, the samples showed very little decomposition. The parasites had figured out how to slow the process down to keep their life cycle going as long as possible. A survival instinct, perhaps.”
Ryan sat down heavily like he had been punched in the gut. I felt the same way. “How slow?”
She thought for a minute. “The Yellow-Eyes may last as long as maybe twenty-four months, depending on exposure. In the Red-Eyes, I saw very little cell damage. It’s hard to tell how long they might last.”
This was very bad news. One of the things that I had been holding on to, one of the things that allowed me to go on, was the fact that all the zombies were dead. They would all eventually rot and go away. Now Doctor Connelly was telling me they might stick around. “So, let me get this straight. We could walk out of this clinic in ten years, and the Red-Eyes could still be waiting for us in the woods?”
“Theoretically…yes,” Doctor Connelly said, her voice almost a whisper. “I guess it depends on the food supply.”
I sat there in silence. The world really was a different place. Mankind had been replaced on the top of the food chain. It looked like we might be fighting zombies for our place in the world for a long time. “We have to get ready to go,” I said. “Is Amy mobile?”
“Yes. She can walk, but I’ll carry her if necessary. I have some things I want to bring.” Dr. Connelly turned around and began to get some small bags together.
“Okay. We have a slight problem. The car we came in died on the street outside. We’ll need another one.”
“There’s a black sport utility vehicle near the main entrance. It looked relativity intact and in the open. I tried to start it a couple of times, but it wouldn’t go,” Doctor Connelly said.
“We’ll pull the battery out of our car. Give us about half an hour, then we’ll go.”
“Sounds good, John.” We started to put our plans into action. “This place you’re taking me to…Cannon Fields. Do they have children?”
I smiled at her. “Yes. Cannon Fields has children. And they need a doctor.”
Doctor Connelly smiled. It was a big bright smile full of hope and relief. “That’s good. It’ll be nice to treat children again.”
Chapter 16
Trapped
“You believe what the doctor was saying?” Ben asked, as he tightened the bolt on the positive battery terminal of our possible new ride. “You know, about those parasites attacking the brain. Do you think she’s right?” We were working as quietly as we could. I could sense that the zombies were out in the wreckage, watching us. “How can a little thing like that cause the end of the world?”
I handed Ben a smaller wrench. The one he was using was too large for the job at hand. “The doctor seems pretty sharp. She’s had time to study it. I think I can believe her. I guess there were more things in the world that could kill us than we thought.”
Ben finished tightening the stubborn bolt, and wiped his face. “Damn. Hard to believe.” He wiped the grime of his hands and stared at his palms. “Makes me want to wash my hands about a million times.”
“I know what you mean. My skin has been itchy ever since she told us about the little bastards.” I reached into the large black SUV and turned the key. After a little grinding from the starter, its big V8 engine roared to life. I was happy to see that it had half a tank of gas.
Ben closed the hood and glanced at Ryan, who was standing in the street with rifle ready. He was watching the rows and piles of junk cars and trucks that surrounded us. He had an angry look in his eye.
“Ryan still upset?” I asked.
Ben finished putting his tools away. “Yeah. Kind of. I don’t think he blames you for Jenny as much as he blames himself.”
“Really wish he get out of the road. He’s pretty exposed out there.”
Ben smiled and slapped me on the back. “He’ll be okay. He just wants to be alone. You know the young people…always emotional.”
I nodded my head in agreement. Claire could often be moody, angry, sad, and then happy again in the space of a few minutes. I secretly nicknamed her “Hurricane Claire.”
Ben continued “We’ll get home, and he’ll feel better. Ryan just has to work it out. My Momma always said time is sometimes the best medicine.”
As we walked back to the clinic, a shot rang out. The sound echoed off the buildings.
Ben and I dove for cover behind a little brick wall. A second shot, from another location, sounded off from the junk pile across the street.
“Who’s shooting at us now?” Ben said. “More cannibals?”
“Don’t know.” I looked for Ryan. He had taken cover behind our new ride. He was in a defensive position at the back of the vehicle, preparing to fire back. Our truck wasn’t good cover, and I really didn’t want any bad guys shooting out the windows or tires. I caught some movement across the street. Two men in city camo uniforms were running around in cover behind some cars. Wallace’s men. They were here for me.
“Looks like two in uniform,” I said. “Over there in front of us.”
“That’s all I need to know.” Ben took his rifle off his shoulder and brought it to bear. He took two shots. The bullets ricocheted off the car the men were hiding behind. They had to duck.
Ryan started to fire. He stood up, and left cover to fire a few shots at our attackers. With the automatic rifle fire, the two uniformed men had to mount a mini-retreat from cover. Ryan decided to press the advantage, and he left the truck to rain some more lead on their heads.
Ryan was too out in the open. He was a target.
“Ryan!” I yelled. “Over here!” I waved my arms for him to come to the wall. I wanted to retreat into the clinic.
Ryan shot me a glance, and started back toward the wall. He took a few steps, then started to run. He was a few feet away from our truck, when a third shooter popped up and shot him in the back. There was a spray of blood, and Ryan went down hard to the asphalt. He didn’t cry out or yell. He tried to crawl to me, but he was in too much pain. Someone was going to have to go get him.
“Dammit! They got Ryan,” Ben yelled. He turned his rifle and started firing at the third shooter.
“Cover me!” I shouted to Ben. Without thinking, I jumped out from behind the wall and tried to get to Ryan. The bullets began to fly as I approached. I ignored them and focused on getting Ryan back to the wall. I reached him, and grabbed his outstretched hand. I scooped up Ryan and his rifle and started to beat cheeks back to Ben. Bullets hit the ground and bounced around me as I ran, stooped over, in a zigzag pattern to try and thwart the third shooter’s aim. Like a laser, I focused on getting Ryan to the clinic. Ben fired over my head in an attempt to give me some cover. I felt a sharp pull on my jacket that nearly knocked me over. At first, I thought I had been shot, but it had gone through my sleeve, missing my arm. It made a ragged hole in the material.
On top of everything else, now I needed a new jacket.
As I got closer, I saw that Ben was pointing at the soldiers. They weren’t shooting at us anymore, and were now battling something else. I glanced over my shoulder. Several Red-Eyes, aroused by our gun battle, were now hunting our attackers. I watched as a few Red-Eyes jumped on the guy that shot Ryan and were now tearing him apart. He screamed and fired wildly as they took him down. That was enough for his friends. They were bugging out in a jeep, leaving him behind.
“We got a problem!” Ben said, as he fired at the zombies. A big male, foaming at the mouth, went down to Ben’s shot. I looked back, and the Red-Eyes were pouring out and heading our way. Many were in a full trot. Fresh meat in the area had created a frenzy in the local undead population. Ry
an, Ben, and I were next on the menu.
“I know. Help me with Ryan. We’ll go into the clinic.” Ben took hold of Ryan’s limp body, and we started running for the door of the clinic at full speed. The clinic was our best hope. We had suddenly become outnumbered. If we stayed outside and fought, they would eat us alive where we stood.
We ran towards the front door of the clinic, with a moaning hoard of hungry zombies on our heels. I don’t know if it was my imagination or not, but they seemed faster. Ben closed the heavy steel and glass doors of the main lobby just in time. The zombies collided with the doors and windows and began to pound rhythmically on the glass. The moaning and the screaming drowned out all other sounds. We had descended into hell.
Ben and I shifted our grip on the injured Ryan and proceeded through another set of heavy wooden doors. Ben slammed and locked those, as well. Another barricade in the way of the army of undead. Taking no time to pause and think, we started to run down the main hallway to the clinic and Doctor Connelly. She was Ryan’s only hope right now.
“How long do you think the doors will hold them?” Ben asked between labored breaths. The hallway was very humid, and it was sapping our strength.
“I don’t know.” Just as I said that, I heard glass breaking somewhere. “Not long.”
We dragged Ryan and ourselves through the hospital debris and muck in the hallway. My boots and the bottom of my pants were becoming black with all the grime. We flashed past the intersecting hallway that led to the door where we first entered this fresh hell. Ben stopped and rolled gurneys and other discarded equipment to make an improvised barricade in the hallway. “How long do you think it will take for the deadheads to figure out there’s another way inside?” Ben asked as we passed the pile of debris that was trying to resemble a barricade.
“Don’t know. Probably won’t take long.” I was right. I caught some movement in the lobby and dark hallway as we passed. It wouldn’t be long before our undead friends figured things out.
Sometimes We Ran (Book 2): Community Page 13