The Zombie Chro [99] - Undead Advantage, a Zombie Chronicles Novel

by Mark Clodi

  Juan put his fork down, “That ain’t good breakfast news Jack.”

  “Sorry Juan, Nanci. Sorry, wasn’t thinking there. She hasn’t turned or anything, just ain’t looking too good.” Juan resumed eating, slowly.

  “Hey I stopped by the ER entrance too and looked out before coming back here, the zombies are getting restless again.” said Jack.

  Jack, Charlie and Nanci shared a look and Juan noticed it. “What?” he asked, “C’mon, what?”

  “We-ell”, started Charlie.

  “No, let me”, interrupted Jack, “Juan, how many zombies tried to get through in the last couple hours you were out there by yourself?”

  “Uh, none, they had all quieted down, which is why everyone went off to bed, they were just in the lobby if I need them though. Why?”

  “You left and the zombies started in again.” said Jack.

  “So? Could be the sun coming up or them noticing the movement, or maybe somebody made some noise. Could be anything really.”

  “Yeah, I suppose it could. Let's explore that though, the anything could include you and that is what I want, no need, to talk to you about.”

  Shrugging Juan said, “So. Talk.”

  “I, no, we, think it is you. The zombies don’t seem to want to attack you and from what Charlie says something happened when you killed that super zombie yesterday, and, well, we don’t know what else to say.”

  “I don’t think it is me.” replied Juan.

  “Okay, so we have to convince you too, so we could try something, right? You wouldn’t care?” asked Jack.

  “Depends on what you wanted to try I guess.”

  “How about you get close to a zombie and see what happens, see if it goes for you. Not unarmed or anything, I mean you keep your gun out and pointed at its head and we’ll be there, but something happened and I think the zombies don’t want you anymore, not for food anyway. Also we let Charlie check you out, you know, physically.”

  Puzzled Juan, asked, “Why? I didn’t get bit or anything, they hardly touched me as it was.”

  “Yeah, yeah, we know Charlie was there, Mary was there, they said the same things, but we should still check anyway.”

  Sighing Juan said, “If it will make you feel better, I guess. Look Jack, Nanci, Charlie, something did happened, I felt strange, sort of, not like superman or anything, just weird for a little while, the feeling went away, I got nothing now. Nothing unusual anyway.”

  “Well, let us all check on that, okay?”

  After he finished eating they headed back to the ER into one of the two rooms the group had elected to keep empty for emergencies, the rest of the rooms were occupied with men and women ready to spring to the defense if they were needed. Snores came out of several of the open doorways. Turning the lights on in the empty room Charlie gestured for Juan to hop up on the gurney. He checked Juan’s pulse, listened to his heart and all but had him strip naked to look for scratches, bruises and injuries. He found nothing, all four of them were silent for a very long time, before Juan said, “What? You didn’t find anything, that is good right?”

  Nanci said, “Juan when you came back with Hank yesterday at the club, the car was a mess, you had bruises, you had some cuts from the glass. They are not there anymore.”

  Juan thought about it, he didn’t recall getting cut up or injured in the last couple of days, he had been living pretty rough and could remember the doc putting hydrogen peroxide on some cuts he hadn’t noticed after they had arrived at the Mike’s Club. Look himself over he didn’t see any cuts, scraps or even half healed scabs where he thought there had been minor wounds. Nothing. He stared at them for a moment. Then said, “Well maybe…” he shook his head, then said, “Madre de Dios, what does this mean?”

  No one answered him right away, then Jack spoke, “Keep your mind open partner, lets go see how our zombie friends like you?”

  Still shaking his head Juan followed the three to the ER exit and went towards the cars acting as a wall. The zombies were definitely more active now, they had started pressing around the cars trying to get in at the three humans defending the area.

  Jack pointed to one side of the cars, “You move over there Juan and the rest of us will get over on this side, don't do anything if you don't have to, okay, this is a test. Then again don't let them get too close either.”

  Juan took up a position in front of a zombie that was clambering over one of the trucks, the zombie turned his head up and looked at him, or through him, and just slowed down, the effect was immediate and everyone noticed it. On the other side the group of five people was agitating the zombies even more, the monsters made haste in their efforts to get past the vehicles before any of their brethren. Of course fast is relative and the group was easily able to cut down any who led the pack. Meanwhile Juan's zombie just stopped in the bed of the truck. On his knees the middled aged man with bald head and green pants just waited, looking at Juan. Juan looked at him. A staring contest of sorts came about, the others put five zombies down while 'farmer green' just stood staring with Juan. Jack called out from where he was, “Hey Juan, maybe get closer to him and see what he does?”

  Juan stepped forward, the zombie did not move, but he did cock his head sideways, as if looking at Juan for the first time. His head remained at that odd angle when Juan took two steps back. The zombie stayed in the truck bed. Juan started talking to the zombie, “Go away, leave us alone, get out of here.”

  The zombie rolled over the other side of the truck's pickup bed wall and started shambling away. Charlie let out a whoop of delight, “He is a zombie whisperer!” This brought a laugh from the others.

  “Hey man, try it from there on the ones coming over the car on this side.” called Jack.

  Juan turned towards the zombies and said “Go away! Don't ever come back!”

  Most of the zombies reversed course, one, just looked at Juan and hissed angrily in his direction. While it was distracted, Nanci took a step up and clubbed it with a round house swing that connected to the back of the thing's head. Juan took up a more central position along the wall and the zombies on the other side stopped actively coming towards the ER, they resumed their listless wandering and milling about.

  The doors to the ER slide open and Ted came out followed by Sanchez and Thompson. Ted said, “Good morning.” curtly and he and his men made their way out to the Humvee, killing a few zombies that were milling about as they went.

  “Uh, good morning, ah Ted?” said Jack, “What are you doing?”

  “We are going to take the fifty caliber machine gun and set it up on the roof, we will get a good field of fire from there, practically unbeatable, plus we'll take the radio, I am not sure I want to turn it on, but if I do it will get better reception up there than down here surround by the hospital’s walls.”

  Jack moved forward to grab a box of ammo from one of the men, “So are you staying then? Need a hand to lug this stuff up to the roof?”

  “Staying?” Ted paused, then nodded, “We aren't going anywhere, we decided that last night. We were just too dog tired to move the gun and stuff then. If you want to help us, I would appreciate it, plus I want someone else to learn how to fire the fifty and to take a look at our rifles, just in case we can get more guns sent down here. So if you and a couple other guys want to help us, sure. Choose who you want to learn the guns.”

  “I can stay here, and watch the ER, take the other guys, alright?” said Juan. Nanci immediately chipped in that she would be staying down with Juan too, in case he got tired.

  Agreeing Charlie organized Jack and the other three relief guards into pairs with the military men and they set off, each pair carrying a part of the gun, a box or two of ammo, or some other boxes and crates that Ted pointed out. During the process of unloading Juan just thought 'Stay Away' as hard as he could out at the zombies, it seemed to work and Ted noticed.

  “Why're they acting like this? Normally they attack when we get this close, they are just milling about.” />
  Charlie answered, “We don't know, Juan was out here this morning and he said they have been acting weird all night. Part of me is paranoid about it, like something is holding them back, trying to get a force up here before it attacks. So, like, we better move this gun up to the roof quick, huh?”

  Nodding agreement, Ted hustled them along faster. Soon Juan and Nanci were left alone in front of the ER, every once in awhile people would come through, bring them coffee or ask if they needed a break. Juan politely refused. Jack and Charlie came back through with Sanchez and Thompson, to get another few boxes of equipment and to warn Juan and Nanci that they were going to fire off a few rounds of the machine gun and probably take a few shots with the soldier's AR-3 rifles as well. As they left Juan and Nanci watched the sky turn from light blue to pink in the pre-dawn light.

  The crash of the machine gun shattered the quiet morning and made Nanci jump about six inches, though Juan barely stirred at the noise. The gun stopped for a few minutes then another series of shots rang out. Juan didn't know what they were aiming at, apparently the gun was not facing towards the ER. It would make more sense to put it around on the other side of the building to over look the highway which was far more likely to bring zombies to the hospital than the scrub covered hills that the ER faced.

  The rifle fire sounded far less intimidating than the machine gun and went on for a shorter period of time. Just after sun rise Charlie and the three other original day guards were back to grab more ammunition for the guns, they were loaded up and heading back into the building when Juan heard Jack's voice yelling from the roof, five stories above, he was screaming and at first they could not understand what he was saying, then they understood him to be yelling for Juan and Charlie to come up to the roof right away. He yelled harder when they did not move right away. As he was yelling a flash of light brighter than anything any of them had ever seen before back lit Jack's body, it was like someone had set off the largest photo flash ever invented behind the man. A few seconds later they all heard a distant rumbling, like a stampede of cattle, the sound was from the other side of the hospital and washed by the ER leaving behind a weird echoing that bounced off the scrub hills back at them.

  Chapter 22

  By dawn most of the people involved in the racket out in the parking lot of the Mike's Club a few hours before had calmed down and gone back to bed. Kevin was sleeping, after Doc had looked his shoulder over and pronounced him a lucky son of a bitch. He had cleaned the wound and stitched it up as best he could, then bandaged it and forced some pain killers down Kevin's throat with orders for him to get some sleep. Doc even warranted that Kevin rated one of the few mattresses to sleep on.

  'Funny thing', Doc thought, 'when I first showed up the mattresses looked like enough for a small army, turns out that eighteen mattresses aren't nearly enough. Ah well, soon enough we will all be used to sleeping on the floor.'

  Doc went by and checked again on Hank, who was doing far better than Doc would have ever thought possible. Broken ribs do not heal up, yet Hank was managing, getting himself to the bathroom, running around in the middle of the night while people were shooting each other, never complaining. Doc edged over to him and touched his forehead, checking for a fever, nothing. As Hank lay in the lazy boy that had become his home, Doc peeled back the bandages on his wounds slowly.

  “You know that hurts more when you do it slow doc.” Hank said, startling Doc.

  “Sorry, I thought you were asleep.” Hank gave him a look indicating that he had been, “Sorry. I just got done with Kevin, I thought I should check you out before I went to get a couple more hours of sleep myself.” replied Doc quietly.

  “What? It is morning out, no sleeping for us now.” Hank said, pointing to the doors of the Mike's Club where the dawn light was clearly visible.

  Nodding, Doc said, “You are probably right, but I am tired and need to get a little rest, the last few days have been pretty hard.” Doc continued working on the band aid around Hank's ribs, not quite removing it, but pulling it up and shining a flashlight down into the crevice created between Hank's skin and the bandage. The bruising was very mild, almost gone in fact. As he worked his way over toward back he had to have Hank roll over. “Sorry Hank, I know this is a pain in the ass, but if there is an infection I want to nip it early, we don't have the means to deal with full scale sepsis.” Behind the doctor the doors to the Mike's club flashed brilliantly, lighting the entire building briefly. Both Hank and the Doc looked around, thinking that someone had just taken a picture of them, when they saw no one nearby they looked to the door where people were scrambling around outside. Then a wave of sound hit them, rumbling through the ground, through the building and waking everyone from the smallest child to the oldest adult among them from their slumber, save one. Kevin would always regret the fact that he was blissfully unconscious and asleep when what remained of the government started fighting back in earnest and dropped a nuclear bomb on North East Denver.

  Chapter 23

  Dave threw another rock at the zombie kid, it was a heavy stone, and it hit the kid on the forehead and bounced off high into the air, coming down on the parapet of the roof before spinning on the edge and then falling off into the alley below. The kid's head looked dented and Dave laughed at the trickle of black blood that started to slowly ooze from the wound.

  “Stupid little fuck, didn't dodge that one, did you?” Dave laughed again and reached for another rock from the top of the flat roof they were on. He had moved about three blocks away from the Mike's Club, the new plan was to ambush people trying to get to the club and to that effect he had parked his motorcycle in the middle of the street. On the seat of his bike he put that piece of shit, plastic fucking gun. He figured if the bike was not enough of a reason for people to stop, the gun might draw attention. It was just after dawn and business was dead. He plunked another stone off of the kid's head, aiming for the eye, he hit it, Dave had to admit that his accuracy throwing things had gone way up since 'passing on'. The rock was not large enough this time to do more than bruise the eye lid, it did not even draw blood. Still the kid slowly raised his hands to his face and held one over his eye while holding the other out towards Dave, as if trying to block any more incoming missiles.

  Dave didn't know how old the kid was. Three? Eight? He hadn't been around kids much, who knew they could be this damned fun? Dave reached down and grabbed a handful of pebbles and threw them half-heartedly at the zombie kid, just to see what it would do. The kid flung his hand around ineffectively and let out a kind of moan.

  “First thing kid, is I am gonna get you some food, once you are smart we are gonna start rounding up others, probably little ones, like you, I get a whole pack of you and we go after any hold outs we can find. I got a plan, a good plan to get into Mike's, and you are gonna help me do it. Holy...”

  Only halfway through his planned speech Dave was interrupted by the flash of a nuclear blast many miles away, it caught the corner of his eye and drew his attention in as it grew. Dave quickly made himself look away and threw himself over the kid, knocking him down as well. He was not sure if he could go blind anymore, but nothing would be worse than being a blind zombie looking for food.

  'The funny thing', Dave thought, 'is that I have never seen a nuclear blast before, yet I know what that was a nuclear bomb.' Thinking about it more Dave was curious as to why was the bomb dropped there? The bomb, as near as Dave could tell went off North of downtown Denver. He saw the light silhouetted by the large buildings. What was in that area to bomb? The airport? Going to the airport had not even occurred to Dave, maybe there were a lot of living out there and hence, enough zombies to make dropping a bomb worth it. Still a lot of people would die too and that did not seem like something the government would do. Or maybe it did. Now he had to think, how was this going to change his plans? 'Probably not at all', he thought, 'unless they drop more bombs, make the place a glass plain or something.' Dave sat up, pulling zombie boy with him. Dave looked the k
id over, checking his eyes particularly carefully. “Can you still see you little fuck? Answer me!”

  The boy nodded slowly, really slowly. “Goddamned retarded zombie, just what I need. We got to get you some food, I sure hope the gun trap works cause I can't stand having such an r-tard follow me around.” Pushing the kid away, Dave looked over to the ballooning mushroom cloud.

  “Huh, you know you seen pictures in books and the film of the bombs and they just don't do it justice. No wonder all those peace-niks of the fifties wanted to ban these things. Look at how high the smoke goes. Shit.” Dave sat back on his well worn denim jeans and looked at the cloud for awhile. “It just goes so high, it is beautiful, just beautiful.” he whispered to himself.

  Chapter 24

  “Let's go!” Juan yelled to Charlie, pulling Nanci along with them. They ran into the ER and Charlie yelled at some of the 'backup' men and women to go cover the entrance, something bad had just happened on the roof.

  Running to the end of the hall Charlie hit the elevator button and one of the doors opened immediately, they hopped in and Charlie hit the top floor button and the elevator started to rise. Then, abruptly, the lights went out and the ride stopped.

  “Shit!” Charlie screamed. “I hate elevators! Why didn't we think about that? A bomb goes off on the roof and of course the electricity is going to go out.”

  “I hope Jack it alright.” said Nanci, then she went into a litany of prayer in Spanish. Shrugging Juan joined her after she had completed two verses.

  Charlie looked at them, “What? What are you saying, I am not getting all the words, speak English.”

  Juan stopped, “Prayer Charlie, that's all, asking God to look out for Jack. Doesn't the hospital have automatic generators to power up when the grid goes off? Like if they were in surgery or something?”