Another man appeared from behind the house. “’Bout time the cops got here,” the new younger man said matter-of-factly. The man walked over to the shotgun toting homeowner and Alice. The look that both the homeowner and her gave the man let him know she wasn’t here to help. She looked at them both “I was in an accident and just trying to head home,” she told them.
The man with the shotgun nodded solemnly, “We’ve been calling 911 all night, figured you guys would have your work cut out for you with all the fires and gunshots we’ve been hearing.”
The other man cut in. “Why did you ask us what’s going on? You’re a cop? Aren’t you guys on top of this?” The man said getting himself worked up.
Alice didn’t know what to say. “Look,” she hesitated, trying to tread delicately. These men were obviously scared, and she didn’t want to make them worse. The next person passing might not be as lucky as her to get a courtesy question first, shoot later.
“I work nights, I clocked onto my shift at eight and on my first call I got into an accident, I have no idea what’s going on or what my colleagues are doing, I lost my radio in the crash.” she told them honestly.
Gunshots rang out from somewhere in the distance that got their attention. “Honey, it’s bad, you better get to where you’re going, we’ve had kids racing up and down these streets. Two of those things tried to get in our houses and there’s no help in sight.” The elderly man told her as he glanced at her holstered gun. Something got the man's attention from inside the house. The man turned heading back into his house. The other younger man followed him in.
She took a step towards them, “What’s the news saying?” she asked.
The elderly man stopped in the hallway and looked at her.
“They’re saying it’s a virus, like rabies…making people go nuts, get violent, not be themselves” the elderly man explained.
The other man cut in, “Says that emergency services will be stretched and to avoid traveling unless absolutely necessary while local law enforcement and medical staff get the situation under control.”
“Which I guess are nonexistent right now,” The elderly man finished.
Alice nodded somberly. “We’ll see, I’m sure not every cop in Vancouver is in as bad shape as me,” she said. Both men nodded but didn’t seem too convinced.
Alice waved her hand as she turned and continued in the direction of her house. The man on the garage roof gave her a wave as she left.
Walking along the street she couldn’t help but wonder. The only things mentioned at the pre-shift briefing were that there had been a higher volume of calls all day and a spike in violent crimes. All of the officers thought this was due to the protests. The anti-police stance was becoming more evident all over. Activist groups were taking some extreme measures lately.
The next few blocks she walked through were quiet. There were new red glows in the sky coming from fires, she guessed. There hadn’t been any more gunshots. She wasn’t sure if this was a bad sign or a good one. As she turned onto her street, she got excited. She couldn’t wait to see Max, her dog. She knew she needed to get her wound looked at soon by someone as it was starting to throb more. Her neighbor’s yellow truck was in his driveway. It belonged to Benny who lived with another guy. Benny worked at an elderly care facility so maybe he could take a look at her head, she thought.
Stumbling up to the front door she rang the doorbell. Weird she thought as she hadn’t heard Max bark. Max always barked when she was home from work.
The door opened and it was Benny “Alice!” The dark skinned Native American exclaimed. Benny wrapped his arm around her and guided her into the house. “Marcus!! Come help!” Benny yelled staring at her head.
Marcus came running down the stairs with a hatchet in his hand.
“That in case of a home invasion? That all you got?” she asked, smiling trying to joke.
The way Marcus was looking at her she could immediately sense something wasn’t right.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
Before either of them could reply to her she started to see dots. Then her legs felt like spaghetti as she felt herself fall to the floor.
Stefan
The admission nurses all pushed past Rob and Stefan to get out of the office. Brandi pushed him as he stood staring the blood covered plexiglass. Once out she slammed the door and locked it.
“Why are you locking it?” he asked puzzled.
Rob had already darted to the two large double doors to get into the lobby to try and help.
A senior nurse came out from one of the triage rooms and was shaking her head “I’m sorry but the new protocol is that we’ve to lock down the lobby” the big lady said matter-of-factly.
Rob glared at her, “Are you fuckin’ joking? There’s a kid in there throwing up and it’s full of people! Open the damn door!” Rob said getting heated.
Before the nurse could reply the intercom crackled, “Medical emergency in module E, male” a female’s voice said. The nurse looked at Rob then at Stefan, “If you two want to help someone there you go,” the nurse said not taking her eyes off Rob. Stefan knew he had to break the tension that was building. “Look we’ll help as best we can but what protocol?” he asked gesturing towards the double doors. The nurse broke her gaze from Rob and looked at Brandi.
“No…no...no, don’t look at her! You tell us!” he insisted.
Before the nurse could answer the intercom crackled again, “Medical emergency in module D, male” the same female voice said only this time a different module.
Nurses rushed past them further into the hospital with IV racks and defibrillators. Rob shot him a look and then stormed past the nurse. “We’ll head to module D, but we’ll be back!” Rob spat.
He started to follow Rob but stopped at the nurse. “Look, just tell me, we’re here on lockdown not going anywhere. If we’re helping at least give us some information about what we’re helping against.” He pleaded with the nurse. The nurse bit her lip and sighed. “The orders came from the CDC and FEMA who are on their way. They should have been here hours ago. Security has been told to seal the lobby from outside, but we have kept the quarantine on this side until help arrives,” the nurse said.
He nodded but this gave him more questions than answers. “Thank you, I appreciate it,” he told her. The nurse nodded.
“Don’t get bit or any blood on you, you’ll be treated as infected when they do get here,” the nurse said. She gave a sympathetic look towards the double doors then turned, walking back into her triage cubicle. As he headed after Rob, Brandi was on his heels behind him. “I’ll…I’ll help, whatever you need,” Brandi stuttered.
The girl was obviously a little shook up from what she had just seen. The other admission nurses were still back there freaking out, but Brandi seemed to be hanging in there pretty good.
“Sure, just stay close and do what we say,” he told her, not turning.
Rob was stopped at the end of a hallway. They caught up to him and in front of him, several nurses were around an elderly man who was laying in the hall. As Stefan was about to walk round Rob a doctor put his hand out. “We’ll need you guys to stay back and slowly vacate this area,” the doctor said.
Rob shrugged his shoulders and turned to him. “What the fuck are we doing let's get out of here, they don’t want our help,” Rob said, and Stefan nodded in agreement.
“Actually how ‘bout we head to the morgue and try to chat with the security guy to try get more info?” he said, and Rob nodded. They headed through the hallways, passing nurses every couple of minutes rushing to get somewhere. There had been three more pages of medical emergencies since they had headed in the direction of the morgue. What really got to Stefan was that there had been no clear pages. Usually once there’s a page for a medical emergency as soon as the emergency had been seen to, they would page emergency in module whatever cleared. There hadn’t been a single one. This worried him as did the fact that the CDC was supposed to b
e here which meant it was a serious virus that probably wasn’t easy to cure, if at all. Then there was FEMA, he knew they provided mainly disaster relief. They were at the morgue and about to open the doors when they heard Brandi behind them.
“Oh my god…what’s happening?” they heard her say. They both stopped and turned to see what had gotten her attention and it was a TV in the morgue waiting room. They walked over to see what she was watching that had shocked her.
It was the news, it had a list of states declaring a national emergency, Washington was right there along with Oregon and most of the other western states.
All three of them stood there for a few minutes reading all the other info on the screen.
The A.D.D. instructions, the symptoms of someone infected and the FEMA shelters. The morgue door opened and the security guard who had met them at the side door walked out.
“We were just coming to see you,” Stefan said to the security guard.
“Why?” the guard asked giving him a puzzled look.
“You knew FEMA was on the way? So, you know more than most people here,” he said.
The guard looked a little nervous. “We just got briefed that we were to keep any infected as isolated as possible until the relief team and experts get here, they shoulda been here by now,” the guard said nervously.
“Then what? You think they’re just going to let you clock out and go home to your family? They’ve locked down the ER lobby and no one’s allowed to leave.” he told the guard who looked in shock.
The guard started shaking his head, “No..no, I was told by my supervisor that soon as they get here and I do a hand off briefing on infected bodies I put in I could go,” the guard said worried.
Brandi piped up “I wouldn’t bet on it, we were told no staff could leave until after we had been tested and cleared and even then, we would have to wait to be cleared,” Brandi told them.
“I hope not, I’ve got a family I need to get back to,” the guard said, worried.
“Sounds like you two were both fed a load of bullshit, so sounds like we need to get the fuck out of here,” Rob said.
The guard looked up at the TV as it was now showing footage from a helicopter. They all turned and looked as the info on screen had changed to a live stream. The footage showed a bridge blocked by black vehicles and people running towards the barricade. The footage said, “Live from Portland” The people on the bridge were attacking the officers at the barricade.
A female presenter began talking, “There is still no sign of the national guard who are supposed to be on scene by now! But we have had reports of them being sighted on I-5 and 205 so hopefully the officers in Portland trying to keep the peace will get the backup they need, and this situation will be brought under control!” The female news reader narrated as the view on the TV still showed the bridge and barricade.
Their attention was taken from the TV by the sound of gunshots. They were loud! Lots of them! “That’s coming from outside!” the security guard said.
“Told you! We need to get the fuck out of dodge!” Rob said.
Stefan thought about how to get through to the security guard, “You said you had a family to get to? Help us get out so we can all go home, that’s obviously where we need to be,” he pleaded. Stefan didn’t have a family but wanted out of the shit show this was becoming. It was clear no one had been told the correct information. The guard nodded and pointed down a hallway.
“Those shots came from the front of the building, we should take the fire exit at the rear of the parking lot and cut across the field,” the guard suggested. Stefan knew they didn’t have much of a choice as the other fire exits led out front where the commotion was coming from.
“Let’s go,” he said, leading the way.
They could hear screams and shouting coming through the air ducts from other parts of the hospital. As they got to the fire exit leading out into the parking garage, there was a group of three nurses already at the door. The nurses turned as they heard them running down the hallway. One of them was covered in blood and another was cradling her arm.
“Whoa, hold up,” he told the group as he looked at the nurses. They stopped as the nurse covered in blood walked towards them. “We’re not going back up there,” the nurse said, holding back tears.
Stefan could tell she was terrified, and he didn’t want her getting any closer to him in case she was infected. “We’re not trying to keep you here, we’re getting out, too,” he reassured them.
The nurse gave a half smile and put her arm around the nurse who had the injured arm. The other one pushed the door setting off the fire alarm. They all rushed out into the garage and the coast was clear, there was no one there. As they ran towards the exit leading onto the road, they heard a growl. A man with blood around his mouth stepped out from behind a car. “He’s infected!” one of the nurses screamed.
The man burst into a fast hobble towards them, but he wasn’t very fast at all. As they reached the exit a soldier grabbed the first nurse to reach it. The soldier was in green with a FEMA armband on.
The soldier tackled the nurse to the ground while two more appeared with rifles drawn. The group all put their hands up in the air. Stefan was still worried about the infected who was behind them. He turned to look at how far away the man was. “Hey! You! Face forward!” One of the soldiers ordered. Stefan opened his mouth to explain but the other soldier must have already seen the man. Two shots rang out echoing inside the garage. The soldier walked towards the man letting off three more shots. The man staggered back as they slammed into his chest. The soldier on the ground finished zip tying the nurse’s hands then looked at the soldier firing.
“It has to be the head!” The soldier on the ground shouted to his colleague.
The second soldier, who still had his rifle trained on the group, turned to fire at the man also. Stefan wasn’t sure what came over him but as the soldier raised his rifle, he pushed the soldier over. Stefan then sprinted out the exit away from what was unfolding behind him. As he stepped onto the road something big slammed into him. He felt his feet lift on the ground and the feeling of weightlessness came over him as he spun through the air. The concrete rushed up to meet him as he met it with a wet thud. He felt warm fluid coming down his face.
He knew it was blood and couldn’t feel his legs. He put his hands on the ground to try and lift himself up. Just as he got his chest lifted, he felt the sharp cutting pain of teeth sinking into the side of his arm on the bicep.
Rob
As the group burst out into the parking garage, Rob felt in his gut something wasn’t right and he should have listened to his gut. As the group had headed towards the exit that led cars out onto the main road three soldiers had rushed them and were now zip tying the nurses up. An infected who must have been lurking in the garage was now behind them. Shots rang out as one of the soldiers fired at the oncoming ghoulish man. A soldier on the ground zip tying a nurse shouted to his colleague to aim for the head. This made sense to Rob, every zombie or horror movie he had seen with diseased people had the same parameters when it came to dispatching the infected. Somehow, he couldn’t help but laugh in his head of the irony that here in real life it stood the same.
He stood with his hands raised, frozen in place, too scared to move for fear of being shot. Stefan somehow lost it, though, and tried to make a move. He watched in slow motion as Stefan pushed one of the soldiers over then sprinted out the exit that cars used. Then his stomach lurched in shock as Stefan ran out onto the road outside of the parking garage. A car drove straight into Stefan with a shuddering thud as metal hit flesh and bone. Rob had always arrived on car accident scenes after they had happened but always imagined the person being hit to fall straight over. This was the first time he had seen it in person and that wasn’t the case. Stefan’s whole body lifted off the ground and cartwheeled through the air in awkward angles then hit the ground with a wet slap.
Stefan’s body lay there at a weird contorted angl
e as he groaned and tried to lift himself up. Robs hands were still raised but he walked forward slowly towards his friend who was in a position where he could drag himself along on his arms. Rob stopped in place though as the muzzle of one of the soldiers rifles was pushed into his chest. “That’s far enough, big guy,” the soldier said, glancing over at Stefan who was in the middle of the road trying to pull himself up. Out of nowhere a man can stumbling into the middle of the road and slumped himself down beside Stefan and sunk his teeth into Stefan’s arm.
The soldier shook his head, “See, too late for him, fucking idiot!” the soldier muttered seeming agitated. Rob noticed that all three of these men who were seemingly trained soldiers were awfully on edge.
“Let’s pull back,” a soldier said patting the one who was in front of Rob on the shoulder. It was the one who had initially shot at the infected that had appeared in the parking garage. He turned and looked around, he’d been too focused on Stefan and had failed to see the soldier put down the man who was lurking in the garage. Rob’s hands were zip tied behind his back and all he could hear were screams coming from inside the hospital and the nurses all sobbing as they were zip tied, too.
His attention was turned back to Stefan as a shot rang out! He looked over to see the man who had bit Stefan on the bicep lying on his back on the road with a soldier standing over the body with smoke coming from the barrel of the rifle.
Stefan was lying face down on the road with a pool of blood around him. Stefan’s eyes were wide and empty staring in their direction. The car that had hit him was stopped and the two people who were inside were now being zip tied also. “Let’s go!” The soldier said who was holding him at gunpoint and motioned towards the parking exit. Outside there was a camo flatbed truck with some people already in it. Rob stepped up into the truck bed looking around at the half dozen people already up there. They were all sitting zip tied at the wrists also seemed like regular normal people. Rob looked over at Stefan whose body was left in the middle of the street like it was some piece of roadkill. The soldier next to him must have sensed his despair and shouted to one of the other soldiers in the street.
When The Dead Rise (Book 1): The Outbreak Page 12