Parish

by Nicole Murphy

  As she turned the corner and began walking to the nearest nurses station a hail of gunfire could be heard two floors below her. She stopped, frozen as she looked to the ground. The gunfire was accompanied with screaming. After a few moments the screaming and the gunfire all ceased. The heavy doors leading to the stairway flew open and a half dozen soldiers poured out onto the ground, all panting and sweating. A female looked at Emily as she pulled herself from atop the pile.

  “We lost the bottom floors. We need to stop all the elevators and barricade all entrances onto this floor ma’am.” The woman searched the doctors’ face, but Emily did not respond. “Ma’am? Ma’am?”

  “What’s this now?” An elderly doctor, who had worked at the hospital for more than forty years shambled over to the soldiers who had made it to their feet.

  “Who are you?” The female soldier questioned the old man.

  “I’m Doctor Miller, the Chief of Staff. Would you care to tell me what on god’s green earth was all of that hullabaloo a moment ago?” He pursed his lips and squinted his eyes at the woman.

  “The first two floors are overrun with the growlers, we need to shut down the elevators and block all the entrances.” The woman repeated herself with a tad bit of an attitude, obviously irritated at having to repeat herself.

  “Ah, I see.” Dr. Miller nodded slowly as he rubbed his hand on his chin. “Well, go on and do what you need to! You sure won’t get much help from me, I’m seventy-eight years old! Oh no, I’m no use when it comes to what you need to do.” He turned to Emily. “Come, Dr. DeLasalle, come with me darlin’”. Emily allowed herself to be led away by the elderly man.

  “Burt, this is terrible.” Emily muttered as Dr. Miller helped ease her into one of the chairs in his office.

  “Yes, that it is, it sure is my dear. Terrible, absolutely one hundred and ten percent terrible with a side of horrendous.” Burt nodded as he walked around his desk and began to rifle around in one of the desk drawers. After a moment he pulled a large unopened bottle of whiskey and sat it on the desk. “Care for a drink? Calm the nerves?”

  “I don’t usually drink, Burt.” Emily laughed at the absurdity of the situation.

  “Ah, neither do I but I think that a night like tonight calls for a small drink.” Burt reached behind him where a glass water decanter sat and plucked up two glasses. “It isn’t everyday one has to stab ones own patients in the head to kill them before they can be cannibalized, yes?”

  “Oh, god Burt, that sums it up disturbingly well.” Emily leaned forward and took the full glass he offered her. She sipped it gingerly, grimacing as it burned her throat.

  “I have always had a way with words. How else do you think I’ve managed to have seven wives over the years? I do not believe it was my boyish good looks.” He raised his glass to toast Emily. “Although perhaps it was more to do with my bank account.”

  “I have a husband.” Emily stated as she took another, longer sip of the amber liquid. This time she relished the fiery feeling alight in her throat.

  “I recall, and children too, no?” Burt poured more whiskey in his glass.

  “Three kids. I have twins, a boy and a girl they’re sixteen now and there’s my little one Jamie, he’s six.” Emily dropped her head and allowed the tears to flow. “I’m so afraid I’ll never see them again.”

  “Psh, of course you will!” Burt made a raspberry noise with his lips. “Once they get a handle on things you’ll go home and there they’ll be. Now me on the other hand, I have twelve children and they’re scattered everywhere. Twelve children and twenty-two grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Can you believe that? I don’t look a day over forty.” Burt laughed heartily. “I don’t know where they are. Not a one of them gives two shits about me. I will say my house is very interesting at holidays, they gather around and fight over who gets what when I die.”

  “That’s horrible, Burt!” Emily exclaimed.

  “The joke’s on them, I left them each a dollar and the rest goes to charity!” Burt chuckled so hard he rolled off his chair and clamoring to catch himself he half fell onto the floor, his torso kept upright by his grip on the desk. Emily began to laugh as she watched her friend and colleague. Suddenly a rapping at the door interrupted their moment of reprise and it opened, Artemis walked in.

  “Sorry to disturb you, but there sure are a lot of people out here and I need to know from an expert whose turned and who’s just sick.” His hand never let go of the doorknob.

  “I’ll go with you, Artemis. Burt you need to lay down and take a nap.” She looked over her shoulder and spotted Burt laying under his desk snoring softly.

  “It’s gettin’ real bad out here ma’am. You stick near me, ya hear? If we have to run, you are better off running with me than alone, okay?” Artemis asked. Emily swallowed hard.

  “Alright.” She nodded and followed him a few doors down and into another room where she could hear the thrashing patient before laying eyes on him.

  CHAPTER THREE

  “What’s that sound?” Emily asked as splashed water on her face.

  “We’ve lost the hospital!” Artemis yelled over his shoulder as he peered out of the window down to the parking lot below. “Look!”

  Emily ran to the window and pressed her palms against the glass to brace herself as she looked in the direction he was pointing. A steady stream of the dead poured out of the entrance. Some wore bloody scrubs others were dressed in tattered filthy hospital gowns. The growling en masse sounded like thunder in the distance. They were overrunning the soldiers who were posted outside. A few men in fatigues were making a stand spraying the hoard with a barrage of hot bullets. Bodies were falling, crashing onto the concrete simultaneously being trampled by their fellow undead comrades. It only took a few moments before those who were shooting into the crowd fell to the zombies.

  “Sweet mother of god, Artemis, we have to get out of here!” Emily whispered. She wanted to pull her attention away from the massacre but it held her, gripped her attention as fear induced adrenaline pulsed through her.

  “I agree.” Artemis replied, turning and looking around. “We need to arm ourselves and protect any skin that’s exposed. You see it out there, you can’t go out there like that.”

  Emily looked down at her blood stained white scrubs and lab coat. Biting her lip she began looking around, quickly moving down the hall looking from side to side for anything that could offer her the slightest protection.

  “There’s nothing!” Emily cried out running her hand over her hair in frustration.

  “Don’t panic. Let’s just think for a minute.” Artemis lifted a finger and rubbed his upper lip as he thought. Suddenly he struck the top of his helmet. “I got it! Look, we just got to get some of those clothes that the police were wearing, you know the riot gear.”

  “Where are we going to find riot gear?” Emily furrowed her brow. “A lot of those men are dead now, and no doubt out there biting the flesh off those why swore to protect.”

  “We have to find the ones who died in here, the ones we put out of their misery.” He nodded as he spoke. “Do you remember if any of them were brought to this floor?”

  “This is the pediatric ward.” Emily jogged to the nearest nurses’ station looking for the clipboards. “If any were brought here they would have been documented. The nurses were trying their best to keep with protocol until they couldn’t stand it anymore.” Artemis grabbed a clipboard and began looking over it.

  “Ah, yeah look!” He thrust the clipboard into Emily’s’ hands. Her eyes scanned the document.

  “Room 3492.” Her eyes lifted from the paper and met his. “He should still be there, the orderly’s were the first to bolt.”

  “Let’s go.” Artemis took a step back to allow her to lead the way. They sprinted down the corridor hanging a hard right. Room 3492 was five doors down on the right. Emily thrust the door open and entered, Artemis quick on her heels. “Yeah, there he is.”

  “Will you help me?�
�� Emily asked as she approached the corpse. He followed to the other side of the bed and they both began to work quickly pulling the remaining gear from the body. His lifeless eyes were open and colorless. He had been shot right after turning and brains were leaking out of the exit wound on the back of his skull. Emily tried to avoid touching the blood and brain matter as she worked to pull the vest free. After several moments they had the gear removed and thrown on the floor. Emily began to pick up the pieces of the riot gear and put them on. “Do you see his helmet?”

  “Yeah, it’s over here on the floor.” Artemis walked over to the farthest wall and picked it up.

  “Do you think this will protect me?” Emily asked, searching his face for honesty.

  “Does it look like it protected him?” Artemis motioned to the dead man.

  “No.” She froze.

  “You’ll be alright, we just need to get to one of the vehicles outside.” He took a deep breath. “As long as we make it to one of those we can get out of here those things are tough, ain’t no zombie gonna get us in there and we can run over a whole pile of them if we need to. It’s much better than trying to take a car.”

  “Or my minivan.” Emily chuckled sadly.

  “I think we’re beyond a minivan at this point.” Artemis smiled. “After you get that stuff on we should grab a few things. It’s gonna be hard to get back in here, so grab medical supplies and stuff. You’re a doc you know what’s essential. While you do that I’ll try to grab water and stuff. I don’t know how long it’s gonna take for us to find your family, or if your house will be safe once we do. We may have to grab your kids and husband and beat it out of the city.”

  “You’re going to help me that much? You don’t have any loved ones out there?” Emily swallowed hard.

  “Naw, I ain’t got no one. I want to help you, doc. Plus I think we’d make a hell of a team, you know, a soldier and a doc?” He shrugged.

  “Thank you.” She reached out and put her hand on his forearm.

  “Don’t mention it. Now let’s go get the supplies and get out of here while we still can.” He jerked his head towards the door. Emily made her way out of the room and guided him to where they kept the medical supplies.

  “Dad?” Wren whispered as she tip toed over to where Jack slept on the couch. He startled as she gently shook him, causing him to jump, sitting up alert.

  “What is it?” He asked forcing himself to keep his voice low.

  “I heard something outside, and it’s getting louder.” Wren replied, fear was painted over her face.

  “Okay, you stay here. I’m going to go upstairs and check it out. Don’t move and don’t make any sound. If Wade or Jamie wake up, keep them quiet.” Jack reached out and squeezed her shoulder reassuringly before standing up and making his way to the stairs. He crept us as silently as he could and made his way into Jamie’s bedroom which faced out to the street. Stepping over the tiny cars and plastic army men that were thrown about all over the carpet that was now gray instead of its original white now that it belonged to a small child. Jack made it to the window and pulled back the superhero curtains to look out to the street.

  His mouth went dry as he watched a seemingly never ending wave of the dead walking down his street. They were moaning and growling, the sound grew louder the closer the got. He dropped to his knees to hide himself better, only allowing his eyes to peer over the window sill. They were cops, firefighters, women in pajamas, children, men in suits and an old man wearing an adult diaper and nothing else. Jack swallowed hard as he watched a woman who looked like she had been out on the town, dressed in a red sequined cocktail dress stumbled onto his lawn. She wore one heel, the other foot was bare. Her right arm was gone below the elbow. He forced his eyes closed as he saw the mangled muscle hanging from the jagged bone like ground hamburger. Standing up he made his way back downstairs.

  “Hey, we need to stay very, very quiet.” He whispered as he sat down next to Wren who was retying her boot. “There look to be at least a thousand of those things walking down the street. We don’t want them to hear us, then they’ll try to get in. It’s best to let them just go on past.”

  “Okay.” Wren nodded as she turned her attention to their front door. She rubbed the palms of her hands on the tops of her thighs, drying them on the coarse denim of her blue jeans. Jamie sighed in his sleep and turned to face the back of the couch. Wren and Jack froze as they watched him, poised to jump up to silence him if need be, but he never woke from his slumber.

  “I sure hope your mom is ok.” Jack whispered.

  “She is.” Wren turned and replied to her Dad before holding a finger to her lips, reminding him it was a bad idea to make any noise.

  They sat in silence for several minutes until they heard strange scrapping noises coming from outside. It sounded like someone was dragging sticks across the siding of their house. Wade sat up, blinking to clear the sleep from his eyes. Jamie didn’t stir.

  “What is that?” Wade asked as he rubbed his face.

  “It’s zombies. I think they’re just walking past. It’s ok.” Jack said trying to keep his voice calm to reassure his children. He gripped his Beretta and moved to the front door, pressing his ear to the wood. He looked back to the teenagers whose attention was glued on him, he nodded. As he began to move away from the door he heard a scream coming from outside, right in front of their house.

  “Please! Save me!” It was a man’s voice. Jack grimaced as he recognized the voice. It was Dennis from three houses down. “Oh, god Jack are you in there? For the love of god don’t let these things eat me!”

  “Is that Mr. Foster?” Wade asked, his voice low.

  “Yeah.” Jack replied. “We can’t help him. He’s on his own, we have to protect ourselves.”

  “Dad?” Wren looked to her father with large blue pleading eyes. Jack shook his head.

  “Plug your ears so you don’t have to hear it.” He looked apologetic. There were too many out there for him to try to help. If there were one or two, he may have tried to save Dennis.

  “No! NO! Oh, AHHHH!” Dennis’ scream pierced through the night, blasting out over the growling and gurgling. Wren jammed her fingers into her ears to block out the sickening slurping sound and screams of their neighbor being devoured right outside their house. Wade moved to sit next to his twin, placing his hands over hers to help her block out the noise. She turned her face to her brothers’ shoulder.

  Jack sat on the floor, his back against the front door. His arms rested on his bent knees, his head drooped forward in defeat. He felt helpless. It was taking everything he had to protect himself and children, and for a brief moment he allowed himself to consider the idea that perhaps Emily had fallen with the hospital and that there were no more National Guard to help her get to them. Perhaps one of the corpses that were wandering down his street was his wife, dragging her cold dead body home to her family. Perhaps she was coming to turn them. He grabbed a hold of himself mentally and pulled himself away from those thoughts. If he gave up, even in thought, it could mean the death of his kids. He steeled himself.

  “Maybe we should all move upstairs, block this door the best we can and just watch for your mother out of one of the windows upstairs. I would feel a lot better if we put a bit more distance between us and them.” Jack looked to Wade as he stood up. “Help me, quietly, drag the dining room table in here to brace against this door. Wren, pick Jamie up and take him to his bed for me.” Wren blindly obeyed.

  “Ok.” Wade let go of Wrens hands and stood up, following his dad into the dining room. They pulled the heavy oak table from the adjacent room. “Dad we can’t nail it to anything, that would be like ringing the dinner bell.”

  “Yeah.” Jack thought for a moment. “Okay, help me grab whatever we can to pile in front of the door.”

  “Like the couch and stuff?” Wade asked.

  “Yeah that will work.” Jack nodded as the both moved to either end of the couch. They moved as one and placed the couch aga
inst the table to add weight.

  “This will be okay I think. Come on, we’ll watch for your mom together.” He pointed to the stairs and they went up to join the other two in Jamie’s room.

  When they entered Wren was lying beside her little brother, holding him in her arms. He was awake but appeared to be falling back asleep.

  “It’s okay, you get some sleep honey.” He managed a weak smile for Wren who forced her eyes to close.

  “Dad, there are so many.” Wade was sneakily peering out from the side of the window to the street below.

  “I know, son, I know.” Jack replied as he moved to look out with him.

  “Do you think they’ll keep moving? Maybe if we wait long enough they’ll all leave?” Wade looked to his dad, hope filling his eyes.

  “I don’t know. We’re not staying, we’re just going to wait for your mom. I don’t want to be here if the military decides the only way to combat this is to drop a bomb on the city.”

  “They wouldn’t do that. What about all of the survivors?” Wade looked back to the street.

  “I don’t think they are too concerned with the handful of people that managed to survive the initial buffet.” Jack shook his head. “I would like to know where everyone went though, when the news broke.”

  “Do you think they went to the designated FEMA areas?” Wade scrunched his face.

  “They may have.” Jack nodded.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “Do you have everything, Doc?” Artemis asked as Emily secured her bag. She had located a backpack beneath one of the desks, and filled it with everything she could find that she thought could have potential use.

  “Well, I don’t have everything but I have everything that’s going to fit in here.” She stood up and threw the back pack on.

  “One last thing.” Artemis handed her a long knife. “I don’t have another gun, just this one, but if one gets too close to you don’t let it bite you for God’s sake, just use that and stab them in the head.”