H7N9 Penitence

by Mark Campbell

  He reached a hand out towards Jane to help her up.

  “I’m fine,” she said. She ignored his extended hand, helped Danny up, and then finally got up on her own. She examined him with concern.

  Aside from a scraped elbow, the child appeared unharmed.

  Teddy crouched down and smiled at Danny.

  “How about you? Are you hanging in there, little man?” Teddy asked.

  Tears welled up in the boy’s eyes as he rubbed his bloody, scraped elbow. He looked down to hide his tears.

  “Yeah,” Danny said with conviction. He wiped his eyes and his runny nose with his crusty sleeve and then looked up at Teddy with a serious expression. “I already told you I’m a big boy.”

  Both Jane and Teddy couldn’t help but grin as Danny stood tall, puffed his chest out, and flexed his thin arms.

  “I see…” Teddy said. “I guess nobody better mess with you!”

  Danny’s face beamed.

  “That’s right!” Danny exclaimed.

  Jane looked over at Teddy and smiled as she placed a hand on his arm and squeezed.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  Teddy smiled back and shrugged.

  “I’d like to think that you’d do the same for me.”

  “Before? Probably not so much,” she teased. “Now? Well… the odds are looking more favorable for you.”

  Teddy chuckled and shook his head.

  “I guess I wouldn’t expect any less from the woman who–”

  He stopped talking and he lost his smile.

  Jane frowned.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “Just listen,” Teddy muttered. The low ominous hum of the returning chopper was explanation enough - Jane’s eyes widened with fear.

  “The son of a bitch is coming back around!” she exclaimed.

  “We have to get off the street,” Teddy said as he looked around, thinking.

  There was a four-story building across the street. It was covered in white stucco and had a terracotta awning over its shattered glass sliding doors. Two ambulances stood parked on the curb in front of the building - their rear doors open. Aluminum crowd control barriers, most of which had been knocked over, made a zig-zag path from the street up to the building’s entrance; luggage and clothes covered the ground. Silver letters above the awning read ‘Tucson Metropolitan Hospital’. A weathered banner strung across the awning flapped in the breeze and said ‘Official Red Cross Triage Center’.

  Teddy pointed towards the building.

  “Let’s go this way,” Teddy said. He placed his hand on the small of Jane’s back and urged her to go forward.

  She grimaced as she looked at the building.

  “Why the hospital?” she asked as she walked beside him.

  Danny held her hand and looked up in awe at the skyscrapers with his nose encrusted in snot.

  Teddy thought a moment and shrugged.

  “It’s probably the only building I’d trust to be actually empty at this point,” Teddy replied. “Frankly, I’m tired of running into unexpected company.”

  They ran across the street and through the hospital’s shattered sliding glass doors just as the helicopter banked around the corner.

  ***

  The pilot watched as the trio disappeared inside the hospital. He reached up and keyed his mic in frustration.

  “Whiskey-Twelve to Command, come in. Over,” the pilot said.

  “Go with your traffic, Whiskey-Twelve.”

  “Command, while on patrol over the medical district we took fire from some squatters armed with small-caliber weapons. Targets have been neutralized, but a few escaped into the hospital. Requesting any available ground team to sweep and clear the building in case any more are held up inside, over.”

  “Whiskey-Twelve, mark the area, over.”

  The pilot turned around towards the gunner and gave a thumb-up.

  The gunner nodded, picked up a small orange pistol, and fired a flare up into the sky.

  A bright red flare exploded in the air and slowly fluttered down towards the street.

  “Command, area is marked,” the pilot relayed. “Be advised, the roads in this area still have heavy traffic congestion. Over.”

  “Zulu-Bravo to Command,” a different voice responded over the radio. “This is Lt Christopher. I have a visual on Whiskey-Twelve’s flare. We’re in the medical district cleaning up a squatter encampment just a few blocks over. I can send some of my men over there in one of our heavies to cut through traffic and be there in about five mikes to deal with Whiskey’s rabbits, over.”

  “Command to Zulu-Bravo, affirmative. Proceed to the marked location. Whiskey-Twelve, break away and continue your patrol. Another encampment was reported near the university district. Investigate and report, over.”

  “Zulu-Bravo copies, over.”

  “Whiskey-Twelve copies. We are en route, over.”

  The pilot turned the craft away from the hospital and sped towards the University of Arizona’s Tucson campus.

  CHAPTER 22

  It was pitch-black inside the hospital.

  Teddy reached inside his pocket and pulled out a lighter. He spun the spark wheel three times before producing a tiny flickering flame.

  The lighter’s flame was miniscule, but it was enough to bathe the lobby in dull orange light.

  The lobby was cluttered with toppled crowd control barriers, overturned stretchers, and empty wheelchairs. Numerous dead bodies were draped with dirty sheets on the tiled floor. A skeletal corpse wearing nursing scrubs sat slouched in the chair behind the reception desk that was situated in the center of the lobby with the phone dangling off the hook. Two double-doors were on opposite sides of the room; both had handwritten signs on them but it was too dark and too far away to make out what they said.

  Jane covered her nose and held Danny close.

  “Jesus…” Teddy muttered, grimacing from the stench. He looked down at the covered corpses all around him and frowned. “Déjà vu.”

  “What is it?” Danny asked, squinting as he struggled to see.

  Jane quickly placed her hand over his eyes.

  “Don’t look, sweetie,” she said. “Just keep your eyes closed and hold mommy’s hand, okay?”

  Danny nodded, reached up, and squeezed her hand tightly.

  Teddy extinguished the lighter and put it back in his pocket.

  “We don’t have to stay in here long,” Teddy said. “We can just hide in here until it’s gone and then continue on our way.”

  “That time can’t come soon enough,” Jane mumbled with her hand cupped over her nose and mouth.

  Teddy cocked his head to the side, listening.

  The sound of the helicopter’s blades faded away as the craft disappeared in the distance.

  They waited in silence for several minutes.

  “I think we’re good,” Teddy eventually said with a sigh of relief. “Come on. Let’s get–”

  His words were cut off by the sound of squealing tires, crunching metal, and breaking glass coming from the street.

  “What’s going on?” Jane asked with alarm.

  “Stay back!” Teddy barked as he hurried towards the lobby doors to peer outside.

  An armored tactical military flatbed plowed through the traffic and pushed cars aside as if they were nothing more than tin trinkets. It was painted a drab olive color and had six large wheels, two in front and four at the back. Six soldiers wearing gas masks, helmets, and urban digital camouflage uniforms were standing on the back of the truck with assault rifles slung across their chests.

  The truck came to a stop right in front of the hospital and the driver hopped out.

  The driver wore a mask and helmet like the other men, but his uniform bore sergeant insignias. He motioned towards the hospital with his left hand while brandishing his rifle with his other hand.

  “Squad!” the sergeant barked. “Move out! Sweep the building and find the rabbits!”

  The soldiers
in the back jumped off the sides of the flatbed and started running towards the hospital lobby - their rifles ready.

  Teddy spun around and returned to Jane.

  “We have to go deeper inside!” Teddy said as he took her by the arm and started running. “Soldiers are coming!”

  “You have got to be kidding me!” Jane yelled in exasperation as she ran beside Teddy. She held tightly onto Danny’s hand. “You’re nothing but bad luck, Teddy!”

  “Yeah, that seems to be the only type of luck I’ve had my entire life!” he yelled back.

  “Mama! What’s happening?” Danny asked as he struggled to keep up with her.

  Jane picked Danny up and cradled him against her as she ran.

  “We have to run, sweetheart, just close your eyes,” she said breathlessly. “I’ll protect you.”

  Danny squeezed his eyes shut and wrapped his arms around her, coughing into her chest.

  Darkness surrounded them as they neared one of the double-doors in the corner of the lobby.

  Teddy took out his lighter, spun the spark wheel, and held the flame up in the air as they ran.

  The scribbled paper sign’s wording on the door became clearer as they moved closer: SYMPTOMATIC WARD – PPE REQUIRED PAST THIS POINT.

  Orange light reflected off the row plastic-draped corpses. The bodies were stacked in a macabre fashion against the back wall. Stiff, wispy limbs dangled out under the plastic – hospital identification bands still wrapped around what remained of their wrists.

  Teddy and Jane slowed down and stared at the disquieting scene.

  Jane held Danny close so that he couldn’t turn his head and look. She frowned as she spotted a woman’s shriveled hand poking out from underneath the plastic.

  “That could’ve been me,” Jane reflected. “Do you still wonder why I didn’t get on one of those buses back when they gave the evacuation order?”

  “I’ve seen worse, trust me,” Teddy said with a frown. “At least these people weren’t left to die locked away in cells.” He hurried towards the double doors. “Come on, let’s go.”

  They went through the double-doors just as the masked soldiers entered the lobby.

  The soldiers turned their weapon’s tactical lights and scanned the lobby.

  Teddy and Jane found themselves running down a narrow hallway that had been blocked by thick plastic flaps hanging down from the ceiling along with a biohazard placard. Large spray canisters of blue disinfectant and boxes of goggles and paper masks had been placed haphazardly on a folding table against the wall in front of the flaps.

  The flaps reminded Teddy of the entrance to one of those drive-through carwashes.

  The air was an odd mixture of heavy disinfectant, a rank smell of decay and a barely noticeable tinge of sickening sweetness.

  As they pushed their way through the flaps, the lighter flame extinguished and they were swallowed in darkness.

  “Fuck,” Teddy muttered as he blindly stumbled forward. He tried to reignite the flame, but the lighter simply sparked.

  He heard small pieces of metal skittering across the floor as he walked.

  After five more spins of the spark wheel, the dying lighter produced a faint flame.

  Teddy looked down at his boots and saw that the floor was covered with brass shell casings and bits of glass.

  “Oh my God…” Jane murmured in disbelief.

  Confused, Teddy looked up.

  The hallway they were in was once part of the intensive care unit. Observation windows on both sides of the hall looked into bay after bay of hospital rooms; every window was shattered and the walls were splattered with blood. Slain men, women, and children were crammed inside like sardines and lay strewn atop hospital beds, broken medical equipment, and each other. The faces of the dead were frozen in perpetual horror as flies and roaches feasted on their decaying flesh. Behind them, the walls were riddled with bullet holes and multiple ceiling tiles had been chipped away. Light fixtures and ventilation shafts hung freely from the dropped ceiling.

  Down the hallway, the doors leading into each section of the ICU were chained shut and the nursing stations were abandoned.

  It was a massacre; the final solution to a pestilence that ran out of control.

  Teddy looked away with disgust and shook his head.

  “What is it, mama?” Danny asked.

  “It’s nothing,” Jane quickly said.

  “I want to see,” he protested, voice muffled by her bosom.

  “No,” she shot back. She kept his face buried against her chest so that he couldn’t turn and see the horror.

  Teddy spotted a t-intersection ahead as the hallway opened up to another empty nursing station.

  “Keep moving and stay close behind me,” Teddy said as he started walking faster in the dark. He kept the lighter held out in front of him.

  Behind them, the double-doors swung open and the hallway was inundated with bright white light as two soldiers scanned the area with their tactical beams.

  “Run!” Teddy shouted as he started sprinting forward, nearly slipping on the spent brass.

  Jane kept Danny cradled against her and followed Teddy.

  “Movement! Left corridor!” one of the masked soldiers barked to his companions as he brought his rifle to his shoulder.

  “Stop right there!” the soldier’s partner ordered.

  Teddy and Jane took a hard right at the intersection and scrambled down another narrow corridor.

  A burst of gunfire rang out and splintered the circular desk at the nurse’s station.

  The noise startled Danny; he cried out, covered his ears, and kept his face buried deep against his mother.

  Teddy’s flame died. He threw the lighter down on the floor and kept running. It was hard to make out much of anything, but there was limited light coming from underneath a door at the very end of the hall and revealed enough of a path for him to safely navigate past a seemingly endless number of exam areas and sealed patient rooms.

  “Just keep running forward!” Teddy shouted breathlessly. “There’s a way out ahead!”

  He maneuvered around a large modular supply shelf that was loaded with hospital gowns and boxes of latex gloves, but nearly tripped over a skeletal ghoul still inside a punctured blue CDC hazmat suit that was slouched against the wall with its legs sprawled out across the floor.

  “We’re right behind you!” Jane shouted back. She glanced over her shoulder as she ran and squinted as the two soldiers turned the corner and blinded her with their lights. “And so are our trigger-happy friends!”

  One of the soldiers stopped, aimed his rifle, but hesitated at the sight of the young child in Jane’s arms.

  The other soldier didn’t hold such moral qualms; he pushed his co-worker aside, raised his rifle, and fired a three-round burst.

  The shot was wild and the bullets ricocheted off of the wall.

  As Jane passed the supply shelf, she reached up and tipped it over.

  The modular unit toppled and blocked off the hallway with boxes and metal shelves.

  Jane held onto Danny tighter and continued running after Teddy.

  At the end of the hallway Teddy slammed against the fire exit door and flung it open.

  Sunlight and fresh air poured into the stuffy corridor.

  Teddy stumbled out into a narrow alleyway that ran between the hospital and a low-rise skyscraper. Rolling trash bins and medical waste dumpsters lined both sides of the alley.

  Teddy squinted and held the door open for Jane and Danny.

  “Hurry!” Teddy shouted as he motioned for her with his hand.

  Jane brushed past him with Danny and got out of the line of fire.

  Down the hall, Teddy saw a group of soldiers knock down Jane’s flimsy barricade.

  Teddy slammed the door shut and barricaded the door with one of the rolling trash bins.

  Breathless and covered with sweat, he stepped back.

  Jane put Danny down and dusted him off as she looked at him
with concern.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  Danny nodded with red eyes and puffy cheeks.

  “I wanna go home now, mama,” he said. “I don’t like the bad men…”

  “I know, baby, but we have to keep moving for just a little bit longer, okay?”

  “Okay…” he replied quietly as he looked down, sulking.

  There was a loud bang at the door and the three of them startled.

  Jane quickly picked Danny back up and cradled him against her.

  The door shook violently as the soldiers tried to open it and the bin started to wobble and roll away a small bit with each blow.

  “That’s not going to stop them for long,” he said. “Come on, let’s head to the street.”

  They ran down the alley with Danny cradled in Jane’s arms as the soldiers pounded against the door behind them.

  Suddenly, three middle-aged men and a young Hispanic woman emerged from the street and blocked off the end of the alleyway. They were wearing dirty civilian clothes and had bandanas wrapped over their nose and mouth. All four of them were carrying military grade carbides.

  Teddy and Jane froze.

  “Christ… they’re not even one of ours,” one of the armed men said in exasperation. He looked at the others and lowered his weapon.

  “Who are you?” Teddy asked, narrowing his eyes as he stepped in front of Jane to cover her and Danny.

  The group ignored his question.

  “Yeah… but, Joel, they have a kid,” one of the other men said.

  “So what? I do too back at camp,” Joel chimed back.

  “Hey assholes!” Teddy shouted, fists balled. “Get those guns out of our faces and tell us who you are!”

  “Relax,” the Hispanic woman said before any of the man could respond. “We’re from a small camp nearby. We were on patrol when we saw the helicopter’s flare.” She paused. “We didn’t know who the pilot spotted and thought you might’ve been one of ours.”

  The pounding at the door intensified and the trash bin inched further and further away.

  “We don’t have time for this, Mariah. They’re not ours so let’s get out of here,” Joel told the woman.

  Mariah shook her head as she kept her eyes on Jane.