by Jack Wallen
“God, you were good last night.” Sally’s voice was sultry, but threatened to break out in laughter, and then she popped out of bed and padded across the floor. “I’m going to find a shower. Care to join me?” She turned back, winked, and broke out into a gale of laughter.
“How can I say no?” I said as I pulled myself out of the bed. “I’ll be there in a moment. Save me some hot water!” I added.
We had all agreed not to shower or use the bathroom in Sally’s room, for numerous reasons. We found a larger room on the floor above us that had a single stall shower and suitably appointed bathrooms. It gave us the privacy we so desperately needed, just a brief moment to get away from the rest of the group and remind ourselves we were still alive. A hot shower at the right moment was the perfect salvation.
I decided to give Sally a moment to herself before I went up. I had a long day ahead of me and needed to hit the ground sprinting as soon as I could.
“How is she doing?” I sneaked up behind Jean who was again tending over the motionless Susan.
“Typical behavior and vitals for an induced coma.” Jean looked my way and saw the flash of concern that threatened to spike both my temperature and blood pressure simultaneously. “She’s fine, Bethany. There have been no changes. We can revive her at any time.”
The doctor’s words were of some comfort. It is hard to be consoled when someone you are charged to care for has to be transformed into a living corpse in order to be kept alive.
“Hey! Any chance you could let me loose so I could use the bathroom? If you don’t it’s going to get ugly over here,” Zander pled. I had to admit that his face was beginning to look as sincere as any face could, given the circumstances. “I swear to you, I’m just some schmuck trying to stay alive.”
I slowly made my way over to the chair holding Zander hostage. “Then tell me what Echo Bravo means.” I made sure plenty of controlled rage made itself known in my tone of voice. A moment was shared between two people digging deep into the wells of one another to find some fleck of truth.
“Echo Bravo was my location.”
The shared moment extended as I waited for Zander to finish his thought. He picked it up quickly.
“There are four of us. Alpha-Charlie, Echo-Bravo, Delta-Kilo, Hotel-Romeo, each of us in a sector of the city. We are attempting to locate safe-houses. My location, this hospital, is Echo-Bravo. I need to communicate with the others to let them know I’m alive or they will consider this location infected.”
His words seemed honest enough. Something, however, made me want to second guess the man. Something about his eyes left me unsure. But I can’t condemn a man on a gut feeling. Not now, not when we need every available body we have. Besides, what could the man really do with a bullet through his thigh?
“Fine. I’ll let you go. But one wrong move and I swear you’ll have matching thigh wounds.” I pulled out a knife and began to cut the ties holding the man to the chair.
“Thank you. I would hug you, but I’d lose valuable time and probably piss myself. If you’ll excuse me…” And with that, Zander grabbed a set of crutches and ambled out the door towards the restroom.
“I hope that was the right thing to do,” I whispered.
“It was the human thing to do.” Jean reached over and gave my shoulder a father-like, comforting pat.
“I think I’m going to join Sally in the shower,” I said before I realized how my words could be twisted into meaning something altogether different. I turned to Jean, expecting him to have turned into a puddle of testosterone-infused tea on the floor. He hadn’t. In fact, he had already busied himself again with Susan’s vitals and charts.
So, off I went, in search of a hot shower. I grabbed a towel from the pile we had collected and left the room.
There is so much to be done. You would think that after the apocalypse, a loss of responsibility might follow. It is actually quite the opposite. The very act of survival takes work, will, and courage. The lazy have no place in this new world order, other than at the bottom of the food chain.
I reached the end of the hall and stretched my hand out to the door handle. I pushed down on the handle and, as soon as the slightest of cracks allowed the stale air of the stairwell to escape into the hallway, a harrowing shriek rushed out to assault my ears. The shriek was not that of monster, but that of victim. It was Sally, it had to be.
With the door jerked open, and without thinking, I took off up the stairs. Something was terribly, terribly wrong.
The steps flew by two and three at a time. In seconds I was on the landing of the next floor, ready to fling open the door, and hope like hell the scene wasn’t as grim as my imagination would have it be.
When the door opened, I was met with what I can only describe as a nightmare.
“Help me!” Sally was on the floor, fighting off five moaners who were tearing and clawing to get at her head. Sally was writhing and throwing punches as best she could.
Fighting the urge to vomit, I scanned the room for something to use as a weapon, but found nothing. Finally I picked up a chair, ran up to the mass, and brought the chair down on the head of the highest zombie. The chair may as well have bounced off.
Sally screamed again, only this time it wasn’t fear, it was pain. The scream was then followed by a sickening crunching sound that could only mean one thing. When Sally’s screams were silenced, I knew…she was dead.
Sally’s dead.
A piercing scream flew out of my mouth towards the pile of feasting monsters. My brain was commanding my feet to turn and run, but they were not paying attention. For some strange reason it seemed my responsibility to remain standing, frozen in some morbid effigy to my dead friend. The moaners would finish with her soon and would be after the next living flesh – mine. I had to run.
What I saw next stole my breath. Moaners and screamers normally only need the living human brain. But these didn’t stop there. As soon as they had her head scooped out they started attacking the flesh of her limbs. One on each leg, one on each arm, and one unmercifully devouring her torso. They were completely consuming her. Blood was pouring over their mouths as they pulled at sinew and muscle. The bones of her arms and legs were cracking under the pressure of their hands and mouths. My thoughts were misfiring. This couldn’t be right, zombies hunger for the brain and the brain alone. Everything about this was wrong.
Tears were pouring down my cheeks. My brain had gone numb. I really had no idea what to do. It wasn’t until the first of the zombies stood and glanced my way, that my feet finally decided to follow the commands of my brain and I took off for the door.
The stairs again flew by two and three at a time. Before my feet hit the landing I realized I had no way of locking the doors.
“Fuck!” I pulled the door to our floor open and scanned the area for something to keep the zombies from getting through to our floor.
“Help! Jean! Gunther!” Every ounce of weight I had was being held against the door. There was no way one hundred and fifteen pounds would hold back a pack of hungry zombies. “Hurry! Help!”
“Bethany, what is it?” Jean came running to me as fast as he could.
“They got Sally.”
“Who?” Gunther was right behind Jean.
“Zombies. Moaners. Five of them. You have to help me hold this door. There are no locks and those fuckers are on their way.” My voice was hysterical.
“There are electronic locks at the nurses’ station. They were installed in case of emergencies.”
“Yeah, I think this would qualify. Hurry, Jean, I can’t hold this much longer!” I yelled.
Fortunately Gunther joined me, which added enough weight to keep the door from bouncing open.
A buzzing sound announced the mechanism’s engagement. Immediately the door stopped jumping out of the door jam. As soon as I felt the slack on the door I crumpled to the floor. There was no use holding my tears back now.
“What happened?” Zander joined us in the hall. �
�Bethany, what was that all about? Are you okay?”
“No, I’m not okay. I just saw five moaners tearing Sally to pieces and eating her goddamn flesh! And if the cannibalism weren’t enough - ”
“Wait, cannibalism? I thought they only went for the brain?” Jean chimed in.
And that is exactly what I had thought, but what I saw defied everything we had seen to this point. Trying to describe the scene to them was nearly impossible. No words could truly paint the picture permanently stamped on my mind’s eye.
Five zombies literally drawing and quartering Sally, pulling with intent and malice. With each tug another bone or tendon would snap and eventually the limb would pull away from the torso. Finally when the flesh and bone had completely given out, and her body was torn into pieces and devoured, the zombies dropped to their knees and started chewing through the flesh, ripping at the tendons, and chewing through meat and bone. There seemed no desire to silence the noise that Jacob believed incited their rage. It was just…feeding. These zombies were starved and Sally was their feast.
We are now nothing but meat for the beasts.
I wanted a drink. No, I wanted a lot of drinks. I wanted to scream until I was so exhausted I passed out for a week. Zander caught on and wrapped his arms around me. His attempt to comfort me was in vain; there was no comfort to be found. There was no relief from the infinite suffering, no release from the sorrow. The only escape we had was death, and even that was no longer a sure thing.
“The door is holding. The only way those monsters are getting through those doors is if they can figure out how to bypass the system. Even if the electricity goes out, this hospital has enough generator power to last a month,” Jean reassured me.
I hadn’t even thought about the loss of power. At some point the electricity is going to go out. I doubt there is anyone left to manage the power plants of the world. Had we gone nuclear or solar this might not be an issue, but our antiquated power supply would eventually run out which would leave us all in a world of shit.
But that was something to worry about at another time. At the moment I felt caught inside a bubble of shock and fear.
“Jesus, Bethany, you’re shaking.” Jean helped me to a chair and insisted I sit. He wrapped a blanket around my arms, which brought me some superficial comfort.
“Rest for a while,” Jean said, inserting a pillow between my head and the chair.
“Bethany, can you describe the moaners?” Zander knelt beside the chair and put his hand on my knee.
“Zander, she needs to rest.”
“I’m sorry Jean, it’s just that…”
“I don’t really care. The woman needs to shut down for a moment. You can question her when she wakes. Now, please, give her some peace.” Jean helped Zander up and, like a father, shooed him away.
My eyes were heavy. My heart, heavier.
Blog Entry 12/9/2015 3:46 PM
From some distant place, something had me awake. I’m not sure if it was the last vestige of a lingering nightmare, or some distant sound, but there I was, wide awake in absolute darkness. Instead of just lying in my makeshift bed I opted to give the hallways a roam, see if any spirits were floating about.
The door to the room swung open silently and I slipped out into the cooler air of the hallway. For some strange reason, I have this desire to see the outside world…from the safety of our little walled in fortress. The nearest window to the great outdoors offers a perfect panoramic view of the front side of the hospital. Outside everything seemed so peaceful. If my ability to fantasize hadn’t been so completely corrupted, I could easily pretend the apocalypse hadn’t struck and the world wasn’t grabbing its ankles, begging for mercy. Instead, all that I could do was look on and hope for a reprise at a normal life.
Just as I was about to leave my vantage point I spotted what at first looked like a couple of moaners, aimlessly walking the streets. That assumption was laid to rest quickly when I realized the couple had a purpose to their walk; they were searching for something. They were alive and needed help.
The sight instantly took me back to Sally. I didn’t want her to die without some dignity…without some purpose. My brain harkened back to the quarter-drawing.
When I turned to leave my view, Zander was standing behind me, ready to take down his prey.
“Zander!” I screeched, my voice a bit louder than necessary.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. I heard you get up and leave the room and wanted to make sure everything was okay.
I turned and pointed down to the couple. “They need our help.”
Zander gazed through the glass. “Are you sure they aren’t zombies?”
Just as I was about to start what most likely would have been a laborious argument with Zander, muffled cries of help could be heard. It was clear the cries were coming from the couple on the street.
“Oh shit.” Zander wasted no time checking every window that faced the street, until he found one that would open. “Up here!” he yelled.
Watching from the original window, I saw the couple spot Zander and wave up.
“Go to the front door!” Zander told them.
Satisfied they’d heard the instructions, Zander shut the window and we both took off toward the elevators. Before I made it too far, I felt the glare of eyeballs on the back of my head. Jean spoke before I could turn.
“You’re attracting unwanted attention.”
“I’m not letting anyone else die, not if I can help it,” I said before I took off after Zander.
I know I mentioned earlier that elevators gave me the creeps. Now that we had a gang of moaners trapped in a stairwell, the elevators weren’t sounding so bad.
Zander had already hailed a car to the floor and was impatiently tapping the down button. When the car dinged we stepped inside and waited for the doors to close.
“I hope this isn’t a mistake, Bethany,” Zander said, his voice carrying enough nervous energy to supply the entire building with power for a week.
“I don’t care if it is. I’m not letting anyone else be devoured by those monsters.” I meant every word. I have had enough people die on my watch. That ends now.
The elevator chimed, having reached its destination. The doors slowly eased open and I shot out, making a beeline to the front door.
The couple was pounding on the glass of the middle door. When they saw me heading their way they immediately upped the stakes of their urgency and added pleas for help to the hammering of their fists.
Before unlocking and opening the door, I took a good look around the front of the building. I wasn’t about to endanger everyone and everything for two complete strangers. I’m not a total idiot. When I did finally unlock the door, the two strangers squeezed through before the door could fully open. A brisk wind picked up and held the door from closing for just the right amount of time.
“Shit! Bethany, shut the door!” Zander pointed out the obvious screaming heading straight for the hospital.
“I can’t!” No matter how hard I tried, the wind somehow managed to pick up enough that it had slammed the door up against the building, wedging it open. “Help me!” I cried out.
The horrific screams of the zombie echoed through the hallway behind us in a surround sound from Hell that gave everyone in the room a serious case of we’re going to die.
“It’s stuck! The fucking door is stuck!” Zander was frantically yanking at the door that refused to budge.
The scream was drawing dangerously close.
“Zander! Run!” I grabbed the man’s arm and pulled him away from the front door. We all took off running, away from the entryway. It amazed me how fast Gunther was able to move with a wounded leg. His time in the Army certainly must have toughened him up beyond standard-issue man.
“Get in the elevator!” I yelled.
We all managed to reach the elevator before the undead banshee caught us.
“Which floor?” Zander cried out.
“Who gives a fuc
k? Just hit a button!”
The screamer was nearly on us as the elevator doors began their slow hiss to closing. Just as it looked like we were going to become a zombie buffet, the doors closed, sealing the zombie out.
“Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!” I cried, not caring if there was any shame in peeing my pants out of fear.
“We have to get that front door shut or this place will be crawling with screamers.” Zander was trying to add a layer of logic and reason to insanity.
“How are we going to do that?” I questioned.
The strangers were standing in the elevator, doe-eyed and slack-jawed. Fear had a nasty grip on their hearts.
“I don’t know. I don’t know!” Zander shouted, frustrated.
The elevator dinged, the doors opened, and a distant roaring was heard.
“Fuck, that noise is too much. What do we do?” Zander added to his shameless fear as he held the elevator doors open and we all stepped out of the car.
“We have to get back to Susan first.”
“We’re on the wrong damned floor.” Zander pulled his head back in to the car. “What’s that smell?” He looked at me, concern lining his brow.
As soon as it dawned on me the grave mistake we made, we heard the sound of the moaners on the floor.
“Shit! Back in the elevator!”
I rushed everyone back into the car and started tapping the correct button. Zander had taken us to the floor Sally was killed on, the floor the zombies still had access to. Fortunately the doors to the elevator car closed well before any of the undead could try to jack our ride.
“Fuck, could this get any –”
“Don’t say it. The answer is yes…most certainly yes.” I stopped Zander from jinxing us any further.
When the elevator chimed its arrival we all stepped out of the elevator, assuming we were finally out of harm’s way. But when I saw our newest female member with a look of complete horror on her face, pointing toward the stairwell door, I knew that thought couldn’t be further from the truth.