“Hey! Put that one down,” the soldier said pointing at Stefan. For a minute Rob swore he could hear Stefan muttering as one of his friends arms twitched but the amount of blood around his body said that was impossible. Maybe he was shock or maybe this was the start of the infection, he thought. Rob sat down in the bed of the truck not saying a word then turned to look again at his friend as a soldier stood above Stefan and fired two more shots. He then watched as the soldiers got a couple more people into the truck. The engine started up with a growl and the truck moved slowly down the road.
As they moved away from the lifeless body of his good friend, he couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed with sadness and helplessness. The truck turned a corner then stopped in front of the hospital. He could make out some kind of cordon that was set up around the hospitals front entrance. He had seen this before in training videos of disease quarantines. Only instead of doctors and nurses around the perimeter there was soldiers and police officers. This was even more confusing to him as this was a hospital and the people going there needed help. Yet all of these men and women standing around the outside perimeter had guns drawn. People sitting in the truck bed began to stand up to try and get a look at what was going on. It seemed like a standstill with everyone's attention directed towards the hospital that was emanating an eerie silence.
The police and soldiers had crude barricades up and were standing on point with nothing coming from the hospital. It was crazy as only a little time earlier when they had arrived at the front ER entrance was alive and busy as ever. Now it was quiet seeming like a graveyard with even the screams he had heard while trying to get out now stopped. The ER itself was a large glass windowed lobby well-lit from the inside.
He could only see a few bodies moving around inside yet he knew when Stefan and he had entered earlier there had been dozens of patients.
“What do you think they’re waiting for?” Brandi asked from across the truck bed. He shook his head without taking his eyes off the hospital.
“I don’t know but I don’t think it’ll be good for anyone who’s still in there” he said quietly.
A bull horned made a loud ear-piercing high-pitched noise as it was turned on then crackled as a man's voice came across it.
“DO NOT MOVE ANY FURTHER! TURN AROUND AND GO BACK INTO THE HOSPITAL! MORE MEDICAL AID WILL BE ARRIVING SHORTLY! PLEASE BE PATIENT!” The voice said authoritatively.
Rob began to stand up looking around to see if he could see where the voice talking was coming from. He couldn’t see so he looked towards the hospital to try and see who these commands were being directed at. Squinting, he could woman in a hospital gown walking across the grass coming from the hospital’s large tower. They were quite a bit away from the tower, so she was hard to make out with all the lights being on around the entrance of the hospital. The woman was stumbling slowly across the grass then another person came into view behind her then another. The voice came across the bull horn again. “ PLEASE! THIS IS YOUR LAST AND ONLY WARNING! THIS AREA IS UNDER QUARANTINE! ANYONE WHO TRIES TO LEAVE WILL BE MET WITH LETHAL FORCE!” The man on the bullhorn cautioned.
The people coming towards them didn’t seem to hear or acknowledge the warning at all. One of the soldiers aiming at the hospital looked round towards the truck.
“Sir?” The solder shouted.
Obviously, this was a threat or an order that the soldiers weren’t sure if they were to follow.
A soldier walked towards the barriers and had a bull horn in his hand, but he couldn’t see the man's face. He wanted to see it as this was obviously who was in charge right now. The number of people coming from the hospital was growing as now he could make out at least eight shapes in the distance. “FIRE AT WILL!” the man shouted only this time the bull horn remained at his side.
A chorus of shots rang out, filling the air with muzzle flashes as both the soldiers and the police officers manning the barricade let loose with gun fire.
The truck bed started to fill with sobs and shrieks of objection, but he just sat there fixated by what was unfolding before him. Shot after shot was being fired towards the people coming from the hospital. These people didn’t seem to care or be bothered by the hot lead being thrown their way.
The truck bed was slapped twice by a soldier walking past. Brandi almost fell over the side trying to get the soldiers' attention. “What the fuck’s happening?” Brandi asked and the soldier stopped looked at the people in the truck bed.
“You don’t need to worry about that, miss! Your safe and we’re getting you guys out of here to a safe distance where you’ll be released.” the soldier said.
Rob swallowed as his throat was dry and looked over at the soldier who seemed uneasily calm despite the crescendo of gunfire going on. Brandi stepped back and sat back down then burst into tears.
“Seriously, man, let us go, what are you going to do with us? Why are we zip tied?” Rob asked the soldier. The soldier walked towards the truck bed looking him dead in the eyes.
“I already told you, we’re taking you to a safe distance where you’ll be released. You’re restrained for your own safety. We can’t risk you getting infected and unfortunately we had to draw the line and the line was this barricade” The soldier finished gesturing at the makeshift barricade of police cars and Hummers set up.
“So that’s it? Everyone in there is “infected” to you?” Rob spat.
The soldier gave a half smile with pursed lips. “Trust me, you’ll thank me later,” the soldier said.
“I doubt that,” he said back bitterly.
The soldier slapped the truck bed again. “Come on! Get these folks out of here!” the soldier ordered. The truck revved up then took off down Mill Plain which was a straight road that led from the hospital straight to downtown. It passed a lot of freeway access points and big neighborhoods, so he wondered where this “safe perimeter” was.
Rob looked at Brandi and her eyes that were swollen with tears. The nurses were all huddled together and the other people in the back of the truck looked terrified. He turned and looked back to see the men and women at the barrier still firing away. The “infected” from the hospital were still making their way to the barrier. It was a sight Rob knew he’d never forget.
Alice
Alice felt the two men’s’ arms around her helping her up onto a stool. Her vision started to come back into focus again. Benny was in front of looking into her eyes. “Alice! Alice! Can you see me?” Benny was saying to her. She nodded and went to touch the gash on her head, but Marcus stopped her by slapping her hand.
“Nope I don’t want you touching that, you look like you’ve been through hell so not sure I want it getting infected,” Marcus told her. She could see him pouring something onto a cotton ball. “What are you doing?” she asked.
“I’m cleaning that nasty cut,” Marcus told her. She looked at Benny who was grimacing at her head. The expressions Benny was making let her know it must have been bad.
“Sorry, I wasn’t sure where to go but knew you guys had medical training,” she told them.
She could see Benny looking her over and she knew she should say something.
“I was in a car crash,” she said. They both gave her funny looks, so she shrugged her shoulders. “What?” She asked.
“Um, why didn’t you go to the hospital?” Benny asked.
“The radio went down before I crashed and there’s some kind of virus that’s probably got the hospital swamped so I didn’t want to add to their burden with my little cut.” She told them, rolling her eyes. Benny was looking over at Marcus and that’s when she remembered the expression Marcus had when he saw her at the door.
“What’s going on? There’s something you guys aren’t telling me” She could feel it now that they were keeping something from her.
“I killed your dog!” Marcus blurted out.
Her heart sank as since her kids had gone off to college that dog had been her roommate and best friend. That’s when the anger
filled her.
“You fucking what?!” she yelled, jumping from the stool swinging a fist at Marcus. She felt her feet lift off the ground as Benny wrapped his arms around her and lifted her up so she couldn’t get to Marcus. The scared man had backed himself into the kitchen sink knocking over dishes.
“It’s not what you think! I had to! He was attacked wasn’t going to make it!” Marcus explained. It took a few minutes to register but she could feel her heart slow down.
“I’m good,” she let Benny know.
Benny put her down gently, “Marcus did you a favor,” Benny said.
“What do you mean attacked?” she asked but she had a feeling what the answer would be.
“One of those things…an infected person, it was eating Max, I…I…froze and Benny saved me but Max he was whimpering, his insides were all strewn across the grass…so…I put him down,” Marcus had tears in his eyes. She thought as much, that it has been because of one of these things…these infected. She’d known these two men for years and knew Marcus didn’t have a malicious bone in his body.
“I’m sorry Marcus, I know you wouldn’t hurt Max on purpose I just haven’t been thinking right. It’s been a rough night,” she apologized. “What happened to the guy who attacked Max?” she asked looking at Benny.
She could tell the Native American was nervous as he was biting his lip. She was good at reading people as it was part of her job. “I…um…I put him down, but you have to understand Alice, these aren't people…not anymore” Benny said trying to justify himself, but he didn’t need to.
Alice had seen so much tonight she knew something was up. “It’s okay I’ve seen them tonight too. And put one down myself,” she said sadly.
“So, you definitely had a rough night,” Marcus said with a half-smile.
“Yeah you could say that, seems like the whole world’s gone crazy,” she said with a fake chuckle. Even though she meant it partly as a joke she knew she was right. The way things were going down it definitely looked that way.
“They’re definitely not people, that’s for sure” Marcus said in a sad tone.
“I heard there was a virus but didn’t think it would be anything like this,” she said.
“Benny said FEMA showed up at the old folk’s home and took charge…” Marcus said handing her a water.
“Thanks” she said taking it and cracking it open. She was thirsty and wasn’t sure if it was due to shock or if she had been infected with whatever these cannibalistic crack heads had. She knew she was just being paranoid, well, at least she hoped she was just paranoid.
“I think we all need one of these,” Benny said pulling a bottle of vodka and some shot glasses from a cupboard.
“Really? Do you think now’s the time Benny?” Marcus argued.
She could feel a little tension as Benny glared at Marcus. “Tell me we’ve all not had a day? A fuckin’ bitch of a fucking day!” Benny said loudly.
“I’ll take one…maybe two.” Alice nodded.
“Fine! I’ll take one, too, I guess” Marcus said squinting his face. They took a shot then another then Alice stood up as she knew it was all getting too much.
“Be right back, need to use the restroom,” she told them. She didn’t really need the bathroom but wanted some space. Alice could feel it swelling up inside her and needed some privacy just for a few minutes to compose herself. Once inside she locked the door then sank to the floor crying. Max was all she had, and her kids were miles away and despite how tough an act she always put on what had happened tonight had finally wore her down. Wiping away the tears with her grimy sleeve she knew she was tough. She always had been, not just at work but at home as a single mom raising two kids and all that life had thrown at her.
When she walked out of the bathroom the two guys were still sitting at the table. Benny looked at her, “You okay?” he asked getting up from his stool.
She’d cleaned her face, but it must have still been obvious she’d been crying.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” she told them reassuring herself as well as them. Sitting back down on the stool she couldn’t help but let out a laugh.
Marcus already had more shots poured. Benny sat back down, and they didn’t ask but for some reason she started talking, reciting her day and didn’t know why.
“I slept all day,” she began. “I had my usual pre-shift meeting but there were a lot of my colleagues missing, some were over in Portland, but others just didn’t show up…I figured running late,” she said then took the shot. It burned as it went down but was definitely helping the pain both physical and emotional.
“We were all told that the call volume had been a lot higher and they we were to just to deal with the load as best we could.” She got angry as she said this. It hadn’t seemed at the time, but her superiors must have had some kind of idea of what was going on.
“My first call of the night was dealing with an attempted home invasion by a man who seemed crazy then a group of kids were attacking a man…or something but he definitely didn’t seem human” She said her shot glass towards Marcus nodding at the bottle.
Marcus was looking worried and staring at her head.
“Maybe a bad idea with the shots if that’s a concussion and with the situation right now...” Marcus began saying apologetically. Benny grabbed the bottle and she noticed the glare Benny was giving Marcus.
“Are you kidding me! I’ve seen zombie movies. Those are fucking zombies out there, shit’s got real and hit the fan real hard!” Benny blurted out to Marcus as he poured more shots.
She could feel the tension between these two but wasn’t sure exactly what it was.
“What about your work? Did they give you any more info about the virus? Other than what’s on the news?” Marcus asked. She felt a bit embarrassed as she didn’t really pay attention to the news. It was all pretty much bullshit political agenda, she thought, but now wished she had.
“Umm, no, I just got up then went straight to work. Why? Is there info on what's going on?” she asked.
Marcus shook his head “It’s been getting worse all day and night; the news has been telling people to avoid travel and to follow the instructions of emergency services and law enforcement in their area” Marcus said meekly. She could feel disappointment of the last part of what he had said. She was a cop and knowing less of what was happening then he mustn't have been very reassuring.
“Cell service went off around ten,” Benny chimed in sliding another shot over to her.
“When I woke up my radio was smashed but I knew before then something was up with the signal, there was no reply from my precinct which meant there was no one there,” she said.
“There was an explosion over near the police precinct on Mill Plain, maybe a transmitter or tower went out,” Marcus said.
Alice shook her head knowing that wouldn’t happen. “Nah, ever since Katrina, Homeland Security put things into place so that our communications went through satellites and used wireless technology so we wouldn’t have to rely on things like those in extreme disaster situations,” she said and could feel how dire this must have sounded about the situation.
Benny got up. “I think we should try to get some rest, one of us stay on watch at a time,” Benny said as he walked towards the window and looked out towards the street. “The gunshots and noises have calmed down a bit and when it gets light, it’ll be easier to see what’s going on and figure things out from there,” Benny said, looking at her then to Marcus.
She knew that sounded easier said than it was as she had so much going through her head.
Marcus got up and walked out of the room. She didn’t want to go home and be alone but didn’t want to ask to stay. A sigh of relief came over her when Marcus came back into the room with some blankets and a pillow. “Thank you” she told him. Marcus nodded then looked over at Benny who was still looking outside.
“Benny, Alice can have the couch. Do you want me to keep watch first?” Marcus asked.
Benny didn’t even turn around “Nah, I got it, you go get some rest,” Benny said.
Alice got herself situated and all comfy curled up on the guys’ couch. Sleep wasn’t coming easy though between the pounding of her head and what was racing through her mind. The vodka had definitely dulled the pain a bit. She squeezed her eyes tight at the thought of her dog being eaten by one of these crazies and her having shot someone. She was a mess, but she knew she had to pull it together.
She thought back to how things had been so normal that day. She replayed it over in her head, hoping it would make sense. The roads had seemed a little busier than usual, there was the increased volume of calls that they had been warned about. It started to make a little sense to her now. It hadn’t just been tonight; it had been building up for days. All the increased reports of violent acts and police shootings all around the country. If officers had been in the situation Alice had been in tonight, she totally understood why they would shoot these people. Virus or not, these guys felt no pain and were just plain crazy. She could feel herself relaxing and nodding off then was snapped out of it by a blood curdling scream coming from what sounded like a female outside.
Benny
The high-pitched scream came from right outside and chilled him to the bone. Benny had been sipping a coffee to try keep himself awake. He had been dozing off, staring out the kitchen window at the moon in the sky outside. The last hour or so had been quiet and with what he’d been through, Benny could feel his body wanting to turn off. That’s when the scream had come from the front of the house and it made him jump, instantly awakening his mind and body. The coffee cup fell into the sink as he turned and ran for the front door.
“Benny!” Marcus shouted throwing a hatchet from halfway down the stairs.
When The Dead Rise (Book 1): The Outbreak Page 13