Containment_A Zombie Novel

by B. A. Hippsley

  What struck Anne the most was the way in which the picket fences and lawns were well kept, while the window and doorframes were often rotten. It reminded her of the stories her Grandmother had told her about Krakow during the war. The way, in which people swept the doorsteps, even though the street had been half destroyed by German dive bombers. She said it was an attempt to retain normality and retain some small dignity.

  The blaring sound of Peter Firth’s horn shook her from her contemplations. The lights had changed to green and he was in a hurry to get to Barney’s Bar on Second Street. Firth had a number of business interests in the town that made him a regular income, all far from legal. As he recognised her, he slowly drove past in his brand new Cherokee four-by-four Jeep. Anne caught sight of his lecherous gaze and it sickened her. In her late thirties, she was an attractive woman and she knew it. Although Firth was handsome in a rugged type of way, he thought far too much of himself. His wife, Mary, had recently given birth to their second child. She was already walking about with a black eye and cut lip. Last year he’d beaten her so badly she’d been admitted to hospital and he’d been arrested. Sheriff Eastman had been forced to drop the charges at Mary’s insistence. The man was a pig.

  Averting her eyes, Anne turned left off Main Street and headed towards the health center. Anne liked ‘her town’ and enjoyed the work she did there. She also liked the way in which the town had welcomed her when she’d moved there. After her husband had died it had made her feel good to be valued and needed again. Driving past Brockman's TV and computer shop, a small group of people caught her attention. They were all staring worriedly at the blank rows of TV screens.

  ****

  As Anne drove through the gates into the health center grounds, she checked her cell phone. Still no signal. The whole town was in a communications blackout and people were starting to worry. Leaving the car, she walked across the parking lot towards the health center, eager for the cool air conditioning. Even the shade from the roadside trees in the town gave little protection from the hot Montana sun. The air was so still and hot it generated a shimmering, hazy effect in the middle distance.

  The health center was new; the newest building in the whole town, built when the town still had money. Although minute compared to the city hospital she’d worked at, it suited her well. Next to the Wal-Mart store and the High School it was the town’s biggest employer.

  As she entered through the metal and glass automatic doors, she stepped into the cool foyer of the health center. A long high wooden desk dominated the reception area. The walls were a clean bright cream and the smell of antiseptic filled the air. Coming out to greet her was the familiar form of Nurse Elle-May Wellman.

  “Morning Doctor Lenski, what ya make of this blackout thing?”

  “Are we still offline here?” Anne deliberately ignored Elle-May’s question.

  “Yeah, even the phones are still off.”

  “What about emergency calls, how are we dealing with them?”

  “Well Deputy Bodiene dropped some CB radios off for us to use and the EMT crews can still use their radios in the ambulances, so that’s okay there, but nobody’s going to be able to call us without a CB.”

  Anne tried her cell phone one more time but was not surprised to find that it was still dead. She turned to Elle-May.

  “Can this day get any freakier, do you think?”

  ****

  Sitting in her surgery, Anne checked over her patient list; not one soul had turned up. She guessed that in situations like this people discovered they didn’t need the doctor after all. A loud rapid knocking on her door disrupted her musings.

  “Yes come in.”

  It was Elle-May and she was in a hurry.

  “Doctor, we got a situation. Eddy Joe called in and said there’s been a multiple shooting up at Hinckle Point. Jedree said Brad Eastman and Bill Merka are up there.”

  Anne felt a slight flush of panic that briefly knotted her stomach, but she shrugged it off – this was an emergency.

  “Elle-May, get the crash team ready. Looks like we need to earn our pay after all.”

  ****

  Looking out of the main doors, Anne was the first to see the ambulance followed by Jedree Bodiene’s squad car. There were no wailing sirens or any sense of urgency. Eddy Joe had already radioed ahead and told them that the three shooting victims had been pronounced dead at the crime scene. However, a sole female had needed sedation. Eddy Joe hadn’t identified the victims. Anne’s immediate priority was the female but she desperately wanted to know about Brad.

  “Elle-May, take this woman to the treatment room, I won’t be long.”

  As Anne went to open the first of the dark green plastic body bags, Bodiene stepped sharply up and stopped her.

  “Sorry Doc, contents non-viewable. Sheriff Eastman’s orders.”

  That answered her unspoken question and a sense of relief flowed over her.

  “Uh-uh, me doctor, him cop, remember?”

  “Whoa there Doc! The Boss said don’t touch until he speaks to you himself.”

  Anne could tell that Bodiene was serious and she decided to let it go.

  “Who are they Jed?”

  “Don’t know Doc, most likely to be drugged out vagrants I expect, not sure. Be glad it ain't Brad or Bill though.”

  Sam Cortez, the morgue attendant, opened the steel morgue shutters for the EMT crew and silently wheeled the three bodies in.

  ****

  Anne had just completed her examination. Rose Gane sat on the edge of her bed in the treatment room, rocking herself gently back and forth. Although she’d replaced her bloodstained clothes with a hospital gown, her short dark hair was still matted with dried blood. The girl was in a deep state of shock but other than that, she hadn’t suffered any injuries except minor scratches to her legs. Bodiene looked over at Anne.“Doc, you think she’s gonna be able to talk to us?”

  Anne shook her head; the truth was she had no idea. People in this state of shock could be silent for days, sometimes even weeks. Anne was aware that her patient had already been sedated at the scene; this would soon start to wear off. There was a knock at the door and Nurse Garcia popped her head around the door.

  “Elle-May said I should come sit with her a while, Doctor Lenski.”

  “Okay, Maria I’ve finished for the time being. I think Elle-May must be telepathic or something, thank you. Keep an eye on her and any change just page me; I’m only in my room. Jedree, you want to come with me a minute?”

  “Reckon I best stay here Doc, just in case she speaks, I don’t want to miss nothing.”

  “We’ll only be outside; I don’t want to talk in front of the patient, that’s all.”

  “Umm, yeah okay then but I don’t want to stray too far from the door.”

  Anne and Bodiene stood in the cool shaded corridor, just out of earshot of the treatment room.

  “Jedree, what’s with the body bag thing? It sounds weird!”

  “Eh, what you say there Doc?”

  She shook her head; she’d need a more direct line.

  “Why can’t I touch the bodies? It’s my health center!”

  “Cause the Sheriff says they’re dangerous.”

  “Why are they dangerous? They’re dead.”

  “He reckons they all got some kind of contamination thing going on there.”

  Contamination? What were they dealing with? Jedree wasn’t the smartest, but he’d been a peace officer a long time and clearly this had unsettled him. She needed to talk to Brad if she wanted to proceed with this.

  “What happened Jedree; do you know who shot whom?”

  “This guy, maybe a crack head, just shot them three and then Brad arrested him. He’s down town right now in fact… that’s all I know Doc.”

  Elle-May cut their conversation short.

  “Hello Jedree. Sorry to interrupt here, but Sheriff Eastman’s on the radio for you.”

  Elle-May smiled at Bodiene and then walked off with Anne
to the main reception, where the radio was kept. It had been some time since Anne had used a two-way radio set but she quickly remembered her military training. She’d been in the US Army reserve during Operation Restoration. It was strange how something like a radio brought back the memories of her late husband, Paul. They’d served together as army doctors. Soon after, they’d returned to their civilian jobs and married. She felt a strange feeling of reassurance at hearing Brad’s voice over the radio.

  “Hello Anne, its Brad here, is everything alright with you over there?”

  “Yes, what happened up there this morning, you okay?”

  “I’ll tell you when I come over later, but the important thing is I don’t want those bodies touched.”

  She detected a level of concern in his voice but she wanted to know more about the new arrivals at the morgue. If there was any risk of contamination, as the town’s doctor, she would demand that he tell her.

  “Listen Brad, why are the bodies dangerous, what’s wrong with them?”

  “Anne I can’t say on an open channel, but don’t have any contact with them. Wait till I get there.”

  “I have to examine them, it will make no difference if you’re here or not, I need to know what we’ve got here. Now I’m going to do it with or without your say so.”

  “Listen Anne, my suspect said they were contaminated and dangerous. I’ve seen them in action and I think he’s right. If need be, I’ll get Jed to arrest you. I mean that Anne.”

  If they were that dangerous, then she needed to carry out tests to see what was wrong with them. He had to realise that it was just as dangerous to keep this in the dark.

  “Brad if this is some kind of communicable disease and I’m not saying that it is, we need to know what we’re dealing with here. The longer we delay, the greater the risk to us all. I know you’re worried but you got to let me find out what’s wrong with them.”

  Eastman’s reply seemed to take forever but eventually he said. “Okay…you win but under one big condition: if you’re gonna do it, you dress like a God damn condom, I mean full protection.”

  “I will be careful. When can you come over?”

  “Later, I got to interview this creep first. You just take care with those things. See you later. Out.”

  ‘Things’ what an odd term he’d used.

  “I want to look at the bodies. Elle-May can you man the fort for a while?”

  “Yeah, the place is like a morgue in any case, off you go and have some fun, honey.”

  ****

  Anne stood in the morgue, covered head to foot in protective clothing. She had no idea of what to expect. A defective strip light flickered over the three examination tables, casting shadows of the dead around the room. She decided it was best to use the portable theatre lights. The three bodies were still covered in the green plastic body bags they’d arrived in.

  Under normal circumstances the attendant would have already removed the bags. However, because of Brad’s instructions they’d been left bagged. Only one had been identified. This was Mark Lebel, a tourist from Houston and definitely not a local, Bodiene had said. The other two were completely unknown, with no I.D. She decided to examine Lebel first. It always felt somehow better to work on someone who had a name. It seemed to allow her to empathise with the dead. Anne began to open the bag and realised just how nervous she was, although it was probably all the hype created by the talk of a mysterious contamination. She’d spent hours in this room examining the dead, but though she could not identify why, she now felt very uneasy. It reminded her of the type of feeling experienced in her Gran’s old cellar.

  Opening the bag, she cursed her clumsiness in tearing her latex glove on the bag zipper. Pulling the zip down slowly, she glimpsed the extent of the injuries. It took her a few moments to completely remove the bag and the clothing from the body. Surveying the wounds, it looked as though a large animal had attacked the man, possibly a mountain lion or similar. There were large cavities torn out of the abdomen and his right hand had been severed, leaving a nasty jagged wound.

  The next most obvious wound was a bullet hole through the right eye. She judged by the wound, particularly the exit wound, that it had been from a large calibre weapon. More than likely a Magnum, with almost certainly a heavy loaded round to cause this damage. This was evident by almost twice the damage to the back of the head that she’d have expected. Anne found this particularly interesting; Jedree had said that the ‘crack head’, as he’d called him, had shot all three with, she assumed, the same weapon. Brad used a heavy load in his pistol, which was also a magnum. Had Jedree got it wrong? Had Brad shot this man? What were the odds of two similar weapons using the same type of ammunition being involved in the same incident? If this guy had been dead at the time the animals had attacked him, why had he been shot in the head?

  On closer inspection, it was clear that the other wounds had been inflicted not by a large animal but several smaller ones. Lebel’s limbs also bore a number of small bite marks. The bite radiuses of these injuries were certainly not consistent with a large animal. Anne noticed a white object in one of the leg wounds and as she removed it, she discovered that it was a tooth. To her surprise it was a human crown. Could this have come from the man himself? She carefully checked his teeth – all were intact. The awful discovery hit her like a sledgehammer. The bite wounds were not animal but human. The creature that had caused the damage was undoubtedly human. Her mind reeled under the implications of the gruesome find. The stories of crazy backwoods people murdering strangers were all made up, weren’t they?

  Uncovered, the male bodies gave off such a strong odour that it was almost overpowering. Apart from the gunshot wounds, neither body had any visible damage. However, it was almost impossible for Anne to tell because of the high level of decay. The first of the bodies had been shot through the chest; there was a second gunshot to the left eye, which had exited through the back of the head. The second body had been shot through the back of the head and the left arm, almost severing the elbow. It was obvious to her that the same Magnum type bullets had also caused these wounds.

  Both bodies displayed a puzzling level of decomposition. They seemed to be in an advanced stage of decay and yet they were still full of fluid, with no evidence of rigor mortis. As she made her first incision, the smell of putrifying flesh filled her nostrils and made her gasp for air. She backed away, holding the back of her hand to her mouth, the foul odour stinging her nostrils. She’d never experienced such an incredible deathly stench in all her professional career. After several minutes of work and with the ribcage now broken, she had a clear view of the exposed internal organs, or rather what was left of them. Each of the organs resembled a shrivelled piece of rotting fruit. What struck Anne the most was the state of internal decay; even the bone structure had advanced to an abnormal level. It was obvious that something was very wrong with these bodies.

  ****

  Anne sat drinking a cup of black coffee in her office. She put the cup down and massaged her throbbing temples. After the examination she’d taken blood and tissue samples and sent them to Conrad Brown in the lab. She hadn’t the faintest idea what was wrong with the bodies. This was the sort of situation that required expert advice. However, with communications still out that was impossible. She was completely on her own and she felt vulnerable. The findings had raised more questions than they’d answered.

  The discovery of cannibalism was bad enough, but the other two bodies just didn’t add up. It looked to her as if both males had been alive when they’d been shot, but that was impossible given the condition of the bodies. She’d have to wait for the toxicology report from Conrad before her next move. To her surprise the telephone on her desk started to ring. Could be that the blackout had come to an end. She hoped so.

  “Hello.”

  It was Elle-May.

  “Brad Eastman just called; he’s coming over now.”

  “Oh thanks, send him up when he gets here will you? Are the
phones working now?”

  “No, not the outside lines. Vince Langley from the Telephone Company connected them in here, like a kinda intercom. We can use them here, but we can’t ring out.”

  Anne could hardly wait to see Brad Eastman’s friendly face. It surprised her how a simple thing like being able to use the phone again lifted the mood and made her feel less isolated.

  ****

  Sheriff Eastman made his way to Anne Lenski’s office through the near deserted health center. The lack of patients in the building created a very strange if not unnerving feeling. He wanted to see if the Gane girl could be questioned, but first he needed to check on Anne. He realised that maybe he’d sounded harsh earlier. He wondered what reaction he’d get as he tapped on her office door.

  “Come in!”

  “Hello, do I need a white flag?”

  Dr Lenski shook her head and got up from her seat to greet him. “No but only if you remember that I call the shots with the medical matters, Sheriff Eastman.”

  ‘Sheriff Eastman’ that wasn’t exactly what he’d expected. He detected a tone in her voice that reminded him of his old High School teacher or even worse, his mother. With a wave of her hand she motioned him to a chair and eventually smiled at him.

  “Did you do the tests on the bodies yet?”

  “Brad, what happened up there this morning?”

  Although he knew that this question was coming, he still felt unable to talk about the troubling events, even to her. Shifting awkwardly in his seat and tapping his chin with his fore finger he began.

  “It looks as if the two hikers were attacked by some vagrants or something … then … this guy shot them.”

  “The same guy you’ve got in jail? Brad what happened to those vagrants?”

  “You got ‘em here Anne, remember?”

  “No, I mean the two that attacked the hikers, where are their bodies?”

  The look of bemusement on Anne’s face surprised Eastman, why had she asked such a dumb thing; he’d already said those two had been shot, where did she think they were?