The Zombie Principle

by David R Vosburgh

  “Anyone seen Mr. Boone?” asked Captain Morris.

  “Not since he jumped out of the truck and started shooting at some rednecks a couple of hours ago,” Nick answered.

  “My kids really need to go to the bathroom Captain,” Kim said.

  “That’s actually why I’ve come. The immediate area has been secured. Corporal Levine will escort you to the lodge across the street so that you can take care of any business. So, anyone who needs to go or just wants to stretch their legs, please follow the corporal.”

  Stephen and Nick jumped quickly out of the truck, happy to escape the suffocating confines. Stephen helped Lucy down as Nick grabbed ahold of Danielle and gently lifted her up and put her on the ground. Jason did not need any help as he jumped out of the truck and landed hard on the ground nearly finishing with a somersault. After getting back up he returned to the truck and retrieved his golf club. Kim was helped down by both Nick and Stephen.

  “Thank you gentlemen,” Kim said with a smile.

  Stephen looked back inside and saw Dave still sitting on the bench. He was staring straight ahead; face pale, wringing his hands.

  “Let’s go Dave, come and get some fresh air,” Stephen said.

  Dave turned his head and looked at him with his sunken eyes and said nothing for minute.

  “Naw, go ahead I’m fine. I’ll stay here … it’s safer,” Dave finally said.

  Stephen was going to say something when Lucy grabbed hold of his arm and shook her head.

  “Okay … see you in a few,” Stephen said.

  Danielle pulled on Kim’s shirtsleeve and said. “Mom … let’s go.”

  Corporal Levine motioned for everyone to move and said, “Follow me folks.”

  Stephen and Nick followed from behind and exchanged glances. They were both worried about Dave. He has steadily gotten worse since they lost Emma at the Target outside D.C.

  Major Bradley had led his men down Screaming Eagle Boulevard until they came to the proverbial fork in the road. Straight ahead was an old Apache attack helicopter poised majestically on a platform with a sign welcoming them to Fort Campbell, home of the 101st Airborne Division; the Screaming Eagles.

  Moving his left hand back and forth he signaled his men to take the left fork and continue moving. He was sure they were near the hospital. They had yet to run into any infected. That was the good news. The bad news was they had yet to run into anyone from the base. His uneasiness was growing.

  As they moved down the boulevard another few hundred yards passing by the RF Sink Library, the Major stopped in his tracks. The hospital was on the other side of the library, he definitely remembered that. The last time he was here he visited an old buddy of his that had been wounded in Korea. His friend had asked him to get a particular book from the library for him while he was stuck in the hospital.

  The Major repositioned his men in a single file as they crossed the sidewalk and took up position on the left side of the library. He could now see the hospital across Joel Drive. He moved slowly past the large windows of the library. The first two had their blinds drawn tight and he could not see inside. The third window, however, had its blinds raised revealing the library’s interior.

  The Major crouched down and instructed his men to do the same. As he passed underneath the third window he straightened up just enough to peer inside. What he saw froze him in his tracks. He was unable to move. The only thing more disturbing than what he was looking at was what was looking at him.

  Dr. Sanderson’s group had continued following Indiana Avenue, traveling southeast. They passed by a couple of more housing developments with more infected wandering around the grounds. They passed a large athletic field that had infected roving the outfield. It looked to the Doctor like a bizarre intramural softball game.

  They hugged the east side of the road and had, to this point, managed to avoid any direct contact with infected. Gunner was instructing his men with hand signals as he did not want to bring any undue attention to the group. It seemed to him that noise was more likely to attract them than motion.

  Twenty minutes later they had arrived at the intersection of Screaming Eagle Boulevard and Indiana Avenue. Gunner held up the group as he consulted the GPS tracker. They were close; a couple hundred yards away. The signal had moved only slightly since it had been acquired but was now still.

  On the corner directly in front of them was a moderately sized one story building. A sign on the front window indicated it was the Baldanado Indoor Pool. Gunner figured it would provide adequate cover as they cut across heading south. He anticipated that their prize awaited them on the other side of the pool building’s parking lot.

  They moved alongside the building in a tight formation with Gunner in front; Mikael, the Doctor, and Stefan in the center and Ludvig bringing up the rear. As they reached the end of the pool building, Gunner looked past the parking lot to a large three story building. It had a smaller building in front of it and a small parking lot could be seen off to the side. It was readily apparent that this must be a hospital or medical center of some kind.

  The other thing of note was that the hospital, if that’s what it was, was surrounded by an army of infected. The parking lot, the small building in front, as well as the main entrance had infected everywhere. It was the most disturbing sight Gunner had ever seen. He was about to move away from the building to get a better look and take shelter behind some trees off to the right when movement from an adjacent building caught his attention.

  Looking to his left he saw several men dressed in army fatigues and brandishing weapons, move quickly from behind a brick building fifty yards to their left. They appeared to be moving around to the other side of the hospital. Gunner immediately assumed these were the men that Captain Bannon alerted him to shortly after they landed.

  Gunner turned to his men and was about to issue instructions when he noticed the Doctor looking upward toward the hospital. He started absentmindedly walking forward out into the open, never taking his eyes off the roof of the hospital. Gunner followed the Doctor’s gaze and saw he was staring at several zombies standing on the roof. With all the infected surrounding the building on the ground, Gunner had never looked up at the roof.

  He let the Doctor take a few more steps forward before reaching out and grabbing him firmly by the arm.

  “Doctor?” Gunner said. There was no reply. He said it again.

  Dr. Sanderson turned his head slightly and looked at Gunner. His mouth opened and he said, “Number 5,” as gunshots rang out on the far side of the hospital.

  Major Bradley was looking in on the reading area of the library. Long wooden tables with small reading lamps and wooden chairs covered grey carpeting. The problem was no one was reading. The wooden table closest to the window had the sprawled body of a woman. She was partially devoured and two infected were standing over her feeding.

  Even more disturbing, if possible, was the infected male standing in front of the window staring directly at the Major. It leapt forward and lunged at him. The only thing keeping the creature off the Major was the glass window separating the two. It was only a matter of time, however, before it smashed through the window. Its aggressive actions also seemed to be drawing the attention of several other infected in the library.

  Not wanting to open fire unless necessary, the Major led his troops out into the open, through the library parking lot and across Joel Drive. They crossed the street and ended up at the entrance to the small staff parking lot of the hospital.

  The Major had wanted to move away from the immediate threat of the library so quickly that he had not noticed the hundreds, maybe several hundreds, of infected in front of the hospital. When he finally came to a stop at the edge of the parking lot, he had a moment to evaluate their situation. It was bleak. They were seriously outnumbered and their arrival had attracted attention.

  He quickly decided they would move left, around the building and see if the backside was as infested. If they could not get into the h
ospital, they would head back to the convoy.

  Moving swiftly, the Major led his soldiers over a grass median and past an outdoor generator. They turned the corner and saw a small clump of trees just ahead. Moving out from behind the trees were more infected. There was no way they were going to make it around them and trying to go through them would be difficult at best. He decided retreat was their best move.

  They turned around heading back from where they came only to find that a few infected had followed them. They were trapped. They had no alternative. The Major gave the order to open fire; and open fire they did.

  Corporal Levine led the civilians into the reception lobby of a two story lodge. It was actually a separate building from the where the rooms were located. In order to access the rooms, you would have to leave this building and drive, or walk, to your room.

  The lobby was appropriately decorated. There was a sitting area with comfortable looking chairs and a couple of wooden coffee tables. The walls were decorated with framed pictures of helicopters and old soldiers. The reception area was a simple desk with a computer and a large aerial photograph of the base behind it.

  The restroom was located off to the left of the reception desk and down a short hallway. It was a universal restroom. After the corporal cleared the restroom it was decided the girls could go first. Jason decided to stay with the boys.

  “What grade are you in Jason?” Nick asked a minute later trying to keep things as normal as possible.

  “I’m in fifth grade,” Jason answered. “I’m going into the junior high next year … or at least I was,” he added.

  Stephen was going to add something when the bathroom door opened and Kim, Lucy, and Danielle came out.

  “All yours boys,” Kim said.

  “Try not to make a mess,” Danielle added looking at Jason.

  Stephen let loose with the first smile in a long time. Jason and Nick followed him into the bathroom as Jason said, “Girls, huh.”

  They finished quickly and exited the restroom to find Corporal Levine waiting for them. The girls had apparently left the lobby and were already outside. The corporal instructed them to exit the building.

  They emerged into a fading sky as the last rays of sunlight covered the large open field in front of them. Stephen stopped for a second as everyone went ahead of him. His large frame had cramped up pretty good while sitting in the truck. He began to stretch and bend, using the axe as a counter weight, trying to work out the kinks. He stood back up and looked around.

  He noticed some people coming out of the visitor’s center at the far end of the grassy field. Looking closely, he saw they were not wearing the army fatigues of the soldiers. Closer inspection revealed that they had the familiar awkward gait of the infected. Looking over at the rest of his group it appeared no one else had seen them. He started to get a very bad feeling when he felt a cold hand on his right shoulder.

  Chapter 28

  The Storm

  The Major, along with McCutchen and Diaz, opened fire as they returned from where they had come. Sanchez, Sinclair, and Stevens covered their retreat as they mowed down the infected coming out from the trees. Stray bullets and those that passed through the skulls of their intended targets ploughed into tree bark causing wood chips to rain down on the zombies.

  As they turned the corner of the building and faced the entrance to the hospital, undead that had been attracted by the noise of gunfire started making their way toward the Major. Looking back, he saw that Sanchez and company had bought them some time by eliminating most of the zombies approaching from the rear.

  He decided that there was no possible way that there was anyone alive in the hospital much less a group of dedicated research scientists working overtime to produce a cure. They needed to head back to the convoy. He pressed his comm link and was about to inform Captain Morris of his intentions when he looked across the parking lot, past the administration building, and spotted a group of people huddled between a row of trees and the pool building. He guessed these might be the people from the plane he had seen land.

  Letting up on the comm link he changed out the magazine in his handgun and pulled back on the chamber. He turned to his men and pointed in the direction of the strangers.

  “Over there,” the Major said.

  His men saw the group across the street and nodded.

  “We need to find out what they are doing here and what, if anything, they know. We’ll cut across the parking lot and move to the other side of the street.”

  Sergeant Sanchez led the way blasting through the oncoming zombies with his M16A2. He was doing his best to comply with the Major’s order of ammunition conservation but it was difficult given the growing number of infected in the area. He had brought the extra ammo the Major had asked for but he was not sure if they had enough to deal with the problem at hand.

  The others followed Sanchez’s lead in a tight formation and fired only when necessary. They had to watch were they stepped as they were forced to maneuver over decapitated zombies and avoid slipping on puddles of the blackened fluid that oozed from them.

  As they reached the end of the parking lot and were about to cross the street, Private Stevens felt something grab his left leg. As he spun around and looked down he lost his balance and fell backwards and landed hard on the ground. Quickly lifting his head up and sitting, he saw an infected woman with most of her lower jaw and the left side of her face missing. Somehow she was still crawling forward and was about to place her other hand on his leg.

  Regaining his composure he leveled his sidearm at what remained of the zombie’s head and fired. The advancing zombie crumbled to the ground releasing its grip on Stevens’ leg. Before he could steady himself to try and get up, he felt two strong hands reaching under each arm and lift him up.

  After Major Bradley and Private Sinclair had gotten Stevens to his feet, they continued on across the street ending up in the library parking lot. As they regrouped, checked their ammo replenishing as necessary, the Major attempted to visually reacquire the strangers he had seen a moment ago.

  They were still in the same place as before. The Major had to decide the best way to play this. He could approach them with guns drawn and demand they drop their weapons and insist they tell him who they are and why they are here. But given the current state of affairs he doubted they would comply; he sure as hell would not. He decided a more tactful approach would be best.

  Moving along Joel Avenue they closed the gap between the two groups. The Major now had a better look at the strangers. There were five of them. One of them was the size of a tank and armed. Three others were also armed and covered in body armor, staring at the Major and his group as they approached.

  The Major immediately recognized them as guns for hire or mercenaries of some kind. All except the final member of the group. He was a middle aged man with glasses and physically much smaller than the others. He also appeared to be unarmed which made the Major think he may be crazy.

  As The Major and his men were about ten yards from the large man in the slacks and short cropped blonde hair, he instructed them to stop. Major Bradley lowered his weapon slightly and visibly released his finger from the trigger. Taking one additional step forward, he stared at the man he assumed was in charge.

  “My name is Major Charles Bradley, United States Army, and with whom am I speaking?”

  The enormous man with the blonde hair and the stone face stared at the Major but said nothing. His associates tightened the grips on their assault rifles and pointed them in the Major’s direction. He took one additional step forward and lowered his weapon even further. He knew his men behind him had their weapons trained on the strangers and would not hesitate to unload on them if necessary.

  A prolonged standoff would do no one any good. If the Major was correct and they were guns for hire, it could be a good thing. They typically were focused on their present assignment. The one that would get them paid. Anything else was irrelevant and right now the Major a
nd his group were irrelevant.

  The infected across the street would soon be making their way over and then all bets were off. He was about to repeat his request when the older man with the glasses stepped between the blonde giant, whose gaze was still locked on the Major, and another of the mercenaries.

  “Perhaps I can help clear things up Major. My name is Dr. Lemuel Sanderson and these are my associates,” he said motioning to the men behind him.

  “We have been searching for one of my patients for the last several days. One that I believe holds the key to solving this whole mess.”

  “I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news Doctor,” the Major interrupted, “but if your patient is in that hospital, they’re dead … or worse.”

  “Actually, he’s not in the hospital … he’s on top of it,” the Doctor said pointing to the roof of the hospital.

  Major Bradley looked up to where the Doctor was pointing. On the roof stood the silhouette of a man against the backdrop of the setting sun. At first the Major thought his original analysis of the Doctor was correct; he was crazy. But as he continued to stare, something struck him as unusual. The man on the roof was obviously infected, he could see that from here, but he was not roaming the roof aimlessly like the other infected in the area. As a matter of fact it almost looked as if he was staring back at him.

  “We could use your help Major,” Dr. Sanderson added. “I don’t mean to be abrupt, but we don’t have much time.”

  Major Bradley looked at the Doctor and saw that he was serious. The Major was not convinced that he was completely sane, but he was right about one thing; they did not have much time. And there was something … different about that infected man on the roof.

  The other thing that concerned him was the humongous mercenary still watching his every move. But if capturing this … patient was his job; then helping him accomplish his mission would allow the Major and his men to remain irrelevant and maybe just put an end to this madness.