“Shit!” Tony took a step forward and fired again. The momentum of the impact threw the ghoul’s head back and his body followed. What now? Tony thought. He understood that the lady with the baby must be out of her mind with fear. If she wouldn’t trust him, he couldn’t help her. He fired again and sent the ghoul on the left spinning; an arc of thick filth fanning out from the new opening in its skull.
“Ma’am, please, we can get you out of here. I know you’re scared but think of the kid.” He hollered. The glass on another window strained and crackled under the pressure of pounding hands.
*****
Sitting in the driver’s seat of the Bronco Andy nervously squeezed the steering wheel while wondering why that Jack Mason character didn’t ask him to join his group? Both he and Denise heard the gunfire from within the hospital. Andy was sure they could have used his help. A part of him worried that the others questioned his abilities. Looking at the prescription on the dashboard, he remembered that he was entrusted to deliver the bag in case the others didn’t make it. Shaking his head he realized that it was probably better that he didn’t go. Two nights locked in a windowless room without any real food had left him a little bit stupid. He turned to the gear in the back seat, wondering if there were any more protein bars around. His heart almost leapt into his throat when Denise let out a shriek.
“Oh my God, there’s one!” She pointed her trembling hand towards the parking lot. A man in an Oakland Raiders football jersey and stained white sweatpants approached mumbling small growls. He raised his right arm and Andy saw the meat of his forearm almost completely eaten away. Its hand hung uselessly in an extreme angle from its shattered wrist. The distorted creature moaned again as it approached Denise’s widow. She scrambled between the seats, screaming all the while, until she landed in the back, behind the driver’s seat.The dead Raiders fan fell against the window, its broken hand whipped at the end of its wrist through a range of motion that almost sent it off into the air. Only decaying gristle held it on now. Andy wasn’t hungry any longer.
“Drive!” Denise urged, slapping the back of Andy’s seat,”let’s go, go, go!!!”
Andy didn’t want to just leave. The men were still shooting, which told him that they were most likely okay. He had seen Jack’s team out on the paintball field. If they were half as good in a real-life crisis as they were in mock warfare, they should stand a good chance. Andy wasn’t about to take off and make them all ride in the open bed of a truck.
“We gotta wait for the others.”
“They’ll be fine, they got guns!” She shouted.
“See if there’re any guns back there.” He said. It was only one dead man; a skinny, one-handed corpse in his fantasy-football costume. Andy felt that he should be man enough to handle one of these things. Almost as if it had heard Andy’s thoughts, the ghoul bared its teeth against the window and exhaled. Andy saw its blackened tongue, swollen gums, and the bits of rotting meat between its lower teeth. Andy’s face soured, any idea of fighting the thing fled as the creatures twisted his head against the glass as if finding the right angle would let it inside.
“Fuck this,” Andy said and started the Bronco.
*****
Mason fired while thinking, this could turn ugly real fast; the last of the approaching corpses fell. The hallway was thick with the smell of expended gun powder, aerated grey matter, and ammonia tinged infection. We’re still on it, but this could go south quick. In the distance they heard Tony’s Colt.
“Gabe, stay here and cover the rear!” Mason said, “Billy, you’re with me.” Gabe put his back to the wall and nodded. Billy followed Mason as he jogged up the concourse. Mason high-stepped over the bodies like he was running through old tires on the football field, but Billy had to slow down and dodge the splattered remains with more effort. His tennis shoes squeaked as they slipped on a splash of blood. He stopped and hollered, “Wait.” Mason stopped and turned. He saw Billy looking down, around at the blood, then back to Gabe.
“I’m gonna stay here.” Billy said. Mason saw resolve in Billy’s expression, not cowardice. There was no point in arguing.
“Right, cover our escape.” He said nodding, “Be right back.”
Mason turned and ran down the concourse leaving Billy to back up his friend.
*****
“This is Bullshit!” Tony said ejecting the spent magazine. He reached into his pocket and collected a few bullets. He tried to remain calm and reload the magazine without taking his eyes off of the threats outside. He dropped a round and decided to let it go and just continue loading from the supply in his pocket. The brass shells were slippery but he managed to fill the magazine. Loading the weapon he had to fire right away at a young girl ghoul in overalls who was able to climb over the fallen bodies and reach the edge of the window. She stretched her mouth open at the sight of Tony. He purposely fired twice while looking away. He heard her fall into the room with a cold flop. He looked quickly and saw that the body wasn’t moving. Even though he did his best to look at her without seeing her; just quickly enough to confirm that she was down, he still took in the image of the red-brown gruel that erupted from the back of her bright blonde hair. Sickened by the sight and concerned with the situation, he found himself fighting the urge to climb back up into the rafters and escape. Nikki was probably worried sick or pissed off that he made her wait up there but it was easier to deal with the dead knowing that she was safe.
“I’m gonna have to leave you if you don’t open the door.” He shouted to the closet.
The glass on the right side window gave way beneath the pressure of a bloody-faced ghoul. It pushed forward with both arms, sending the pane to land on the recklessly piled barricade of tables and plastic cribs with a clatter. Tony mentally cursed. To come all this way and not save the kid wasn’t something he wanted to live with. Tony aimed the Colt; his flashlight shone and reflected on the wet pus weeping from a wound on the corpse’s face. He fired, punching a small hole in its forehead, and quite a large one out the back.
Leave or kick the door down and hope that it doesn’t break the lady’s legs, or worse, hurt the kid. He only had five bullets left in his magazine; a decision had to be made. He looked at the door considering how hard to kick and only then realized that the baby was no longer crying. He couldn’t remember when it had stopped. Tony feared the worst when the closet door suddenly opened.
*****
Andy, now fifty feet from the hospital entrance saw two more walking corpses in the parking lot moving towards the entrance. From a distance, and possibly since he had been immersed in darkness for the past two days, they looked like normal people, but he knew better. They just didn’t move right. He noticed that they could pick up the pace when they saw him, but that their knees and elbows had trouble bending. He stopped the Bronco. The Raiders fan that had frightened Denise so, had disappeared. He looked around, checked all the mirrors, but all he could see now were the two newcomers from the lot.
“That one must have gone inside.” Andy said.
“They have guns, they’ll be fine.” Denise urged again almost bouncing with fear on the edge of the backseat. “Let’s go deliver that prescription like he said!”
“Then these other two might go in too. Maybe our guys won’t expect them.”
“They have guns!” she said as if nothing else was needed to deal with the dead. Andy grimaced and put the Bronco in gear.
Thirty-Six
Tony sighed when he saw Nikki’s beautiful smile staring back at him from the door.
“What? I told you to stay up there.” He said. Her smile faded.
“I came down from the ceiling. She wasn’t budging.” Nikki turned her flashlight on the woman in the rear of a small storage room. The woman shivered in the corner next to a wall of metal shelves. She held a bundled infant in her arms. Tony saw that a small clear plastic crib had been moved into the room along with diapers, cans of formula, and other items necessary for a newborn.
“S
he must have been hiding in here since the start.” He said moving past Nikki. He took to a knee before the woman.
“Ma’am, we’re here to get you and junior out of here.” The woman looked up blinking in disbelief. “We’re gonna climb up into the rafters, where they can’t get us.” He said reaching out to her. The woman flinched back and the baby began crying. Tony stood and left the storage room.
“We can’t climb around up there with a baby.” Nikki said covering the windows with her pistol, braced from below with her flashlight in the other hand. “Let’s take care of these ones and make a run for it.”
Tony shuddered. He preferred the sneaky approach, the trick play, or gimmick maneuver to a straight-up fight. There were still five creatures at the window. He felt his stomach tighten at the thought of Nikki and the lady, not to mention the infant, in the halls now that they had broken the silence with gunfire. He was roused from his worry and surprised when Nikki bumped her shoulder into him with an impatient grunt.
“Come on! You promised to help me get to my parents.” She said.
Nikki took two steps forward, swung her pistol up, braced with both hands, aimed and fired. Tony could have sworn that she had just a touch of swagger in her hips. He stood amazed at her posture; the steadiness of her shoulders. She was using the Weaver firing stance that he had shown her just the other evening that now seemed so long ago. Her first shot hit a creature in the nose, pushing skin, meat, and bone inside-out like a discarded sock. Her second shot missed another, but she corrected and brought the thing down. She shifted two paces to the left with her gun lowered and reset her aim, firing twice and dropping another ghoul. Tony moved quickly back to the cowering lady while Nikki continued her controlled firing.
“We’re going to leave soon. We’re heading down the hall, to the big hallway and out the back. Can you do that?” He asked. The woman looked at Tony as if slowly realizing for the first time that someone had finally come for her. Despair fell from her countenance as she struggled to stand. Tony reached to help her and she froze while looking at him. He showed her his open hand. She flinched as Nikki’s gun fired again.
“Its gonna be okay, we have a ride waiting for us.” He said.
The woman found her feet and stood, rocking the crying infant in her arms, holding its head to her chest and covering its other ear with her hand.
Nikki fired five more shots, adding three more bodies to the pile outside of the nursery. She didn’t understand Tony’s reluctance to just take out the creatures and make a run for it. They were far safer now then the situation she and Veronica had endured yesterday at the shack. She moved forward while loading her second full magazine and peered out through the broken windows. Her flashlight reflected off the white tiled walls of the hallway casting an eerie glow, illuminating the wrecked pile of dead before her. She listened as best as she could through her ear plugs. Something was approaching from the left. Nikki sidestepped to the right and aimed.
Mason turned the corner fast with his shotgun raised. He froze in her beam and smiled. Nikki’s finger twitched but not enough to fire.
“Did you shoot all these Blondie?”
“Most of ‘em.” She said lowering her weapon. “Not as many as yesterday.” She began to push a crib away from the door. Mason nodded in reluctant approval.
Tony emerged from the closet with the nurse and infant. She moved slowly and looked around the room as if it were unfamiliar. She stopped and reached back into the closet for a large diaper bag that swung slow and heavy in her grasp. Tony pushed a small desk from in front of the door. Nikki took the bag from the woman and shone her light on a case of cans on the desk.
“Maybe you should bring those” she said to Tony.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Formula,” said the nurse, surprising Tony, “She can’t eat solids.” He looked at her for a moment and smiled, then holstered his weapon and picked up the box of formula.
“Do you have everything else you need in that bag?” he asked, “We don’t want to have to come back here.” The nurse began rocking the infant.
“Yes. What’s happening?” She shook her head. Tony reached out to her.
“Not now, we don’t have time. We’re heading to the left and down the hall to the main entrance them out the side door. Hold the baby’s head ‘cuz we may have to shoot.”
Nikki opened the door and slung the heavy bag over her shoulder. Small shots began to ring out from the atrium area.
“Come on!” said Mason as he turned and began running down the concourse.
Wandering ghouls from all around the hospital converged on the main entrance opposite Gabe and Billy, attracted to the sounds of gunfire. A few approached from the second floor of the large open area, finding their way to the stairs. Others from outside the building began crowding the open main entrance. Gabe fired five rounds from his twenty-two as fast as the trigger mechanics would allow, hitting an approaching creature on the stairs in the torso only twice. Billy, his heart racing, lifted his rifle and shouted.
“The head, he said the head.” Billy tried to calm down and wait for a good shot.
“Shit! Shit Shit!” was Gabe’s only reply. He moved further away from the hall into the open to get a better angle on a ghoul. He fired three shots that found their way into his target’s shoulder.
“Slow down and aim!” Billy yelled as he fired three slow, carefully aimed shots at a ghoul near the front entrance. It fell and tripped up a creature behind it.
“Shit!” Gabe gritted his teeth and aimed carefully. He thought he heard someone yelling over the steady firing of Billy’s rifle. Lost in a sort of panic fog, he resumed firing.
Mason sprinted down the wide hallway. He saw Gabe and Billy in profile firing towards the main entrance. As he closed the distance, he saw a third figure at the end of the hallway. The silhouette was unfamiliar, but its gait was unmistakable. It plotted slowly towards the men, with its arms upraised, a hand dangled useless from the right wrist. Mason didn’t dare risk firing the shotgun and catching his friends in the blast. Even if he stopped and took careful aim, he just wasn’t that good with the shotgun.
“Behind you!!!” he hollered, pumping his legs with fury. His chest pounded as the ghoul was almost on Gabe’s back. Gabe appeared completely unaware of the undead Raiders fan that closed in. Mason pulled out his Luger. At the edge of the hallway, he stopped and took aim. He was close enough now that he knew there was no way he could miss the ghoul. Mason flicked down the safety and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. He pulled back the Lugar’s slide and a live round plopped out on to the floor before the action snapped closed. He pulled the trigger again and would have heard the click of a bad firing pin if not for Gabe’s cry of surprise.
Mason threw the Lugar at the attacking ghoul. It spun in the air and bounced off the creature’s head. Deflected by the impact, the corpse only sank its teeth into the back of Gabe’s neck without tearing the meat free. Mason took five running steps and leapt on the creature knocking it down with the butt of his shotgun. It rolled over and bared its freshly bloody teeth, only to receive two shot shells worth of lead pellets from Mason’s over-under. Gabe’s knees buckled as he turned in a panic. His face drained of color as he felt the trickle of blood on the back of his neck. Mason snapped his shotgun open and reloaded. Gabe’s expression told him that the creature had broken the skin. Mason just stood staring; uncertainty froze him in his tracks. The thought of preemptively shooting Gabe, to prevent him changing into a monster, began to appear in his mind. Billy stopped firing and approached.
“What’s wrong?” Billy asked. Neither man answered.
The others emerged from the hallway. Tony moved the nurse past the men before she could get a good look at the situation. Mason took Gabe by the arm and rushed him towards the exit.
“Grab the medical crap from the Bronco?” Mason commanded. Tony stopped, holding the door open for the nurse and Nikki.
“What for?” he asked.
*****
Alexandra felt the safety harness bite into her shoulder as the Blackhawk banked hard to the right over upper-Whisper Lake. She heard the pilot report their speed as one-hundred and ten knots to Denkinger before they slung around the center of the lake. As they leveled out and slowed, she saw for a brief moment the edge of a lake shore and knew that the camping area must be ahead.
“There.” She heard Richardson’s voice over the headphones, “That’s my son’s boat.”
The temperature inside cooled as they slowed and descended to a hover.
“Ninety degrees to Port.” Said Denkinger and the Blackhawk turned so that their right side was facing the campground.
“Look at all of them.” Denkinger’s voice said.
Alexandra couldn’t see anything from her seat in the back row. Reiss, two seats down from her, stood from his seat and slid open the Starboard side door, revealing the shore leading up to the campground. A large number of figures staggered from many different parts of the camping area. Men, women, and children with various exposed wounds began to approach the shore.
“Bring us in lower.” Richardson ordered. The chopper came within ten feet of the water kicking up a fine mist into the cabin. Alexandra adjusted her safety belt and leaned forward for a better view. She saw the infected group converge near the lake shore, some reaching out in the choppers direction. As they flew nearer, she could see their physical trauma more clearly. A woman with only a greasy red skull where her face should have been pushed her way past a smaller man with a torn neck. The faceless woman roared.
Rise & Walk (Book 2): Pathogen Page 24