The Fall of Society

by Thonas Rand

  Ardent took the shotgun barrel out of Alan’s face and unloaded it, but only one shell came out of the weapon. “One shell, that’s all you got?”

  “One’s enough,” Alan said.

  Ardent slid the empty shotgun on the floor to Alan’s feet; he reached into his bag, pulled out a box of shotgun shells and tossed it to Alan. “Now you have more; use them wisely. Because if you ever point a gun at me again, I won’t stop my friends from cutting you in half.”

  Alan looked at the box of buckshot in his hand. “Thanks.”

  “I’d like to take a look from the roof, can we get up there?” Ardent asked.

  “Yeah, let’s go,” Anthony said.

  Anthony headed to the stairs and Tom followed him, Ardent and the others put their duffel bags down, but kept their weapons and their backpacks. Derek took a seat on a reception area chair. “Go on, I’ll watch our stuff.”

  Ardent and everyone but Derek followed Anthony and Tom into the stairwell to go up. The doctor went on his own way. Alan picked up his shotgun and headed back downstairs to the basement. Donnie just stood there and eyed Derek, who looked back at him. Joe went into their room, while Maggie and Corina stayed by the door as they watched Derek. For a grown man that was holding an automatic weapon, he felt uncomfortable with so many eyes on him. “Well, this is awkward,” Derek stated with a forced smile.

  The little girl looked at Derek. “Mommy, something smells bad,” she said.

  Derek laughed and pointed at Donnie.

  The little girl smiled and laughed.

  Donnie didn’t.

  In the stairwell landing of the first floor, before they went up, Ardent and his group noticed that the emergency exit that led to the back of the building was barricaded with tables, desks, and chairs that made it impassable. “Are all the exits blocked like this?” Ardent asked.

  “Yeah, it’s to keep out any of the dead if they manage to get inside.” Tom answered. “The only open exit to the back of the building is the one in the main corridor.”

  The emergency lights that were in place on every floor landing gave them some light as they ascended, the lights weren’t the brightest, but it was better than nothing.

  “You have power?” Bear asked.

  “Not very much; the hospital is equipped with solar panels,” Tom said. “We only use lights in key places, like this. Everything else is off, especially the outside lights.”

  As they went up, Bear opened the door to each floor they passed to have a look. All they saw were deserted floors, equipment overturned, papers scattered, but luckily, no bodies or blood.

  “We were lucky, the dead never got in here,” Tom said.

  “How’d you get stuck here?” Milla asked.

  “I came to get my brother, but by the time I got here, the city went to shit and we couldn’t get out, so we dug in.”

  “You work here, kid?” Lauren asked Anthony.

  Anthony was a little uncomfortable with the question. “No.”

  “Oh.”

  “Is that what happened with Joe, he and his wife came to get their daughter and got stuck, too?” Bear asked.

  “Yeah,” Anthony said. “But Joe came with his daughter to get his wife.”

  “Really?”

  “She was in here for attempted suicide or something like that,” Anthony said.

  “And what were you in for?” Lauren asked.

  “That’s none of your business,” Tom told her.

  “I’m just asking,” she said.

  “No, it’s okay,” Anthony said. “I was in here for a nervous breakdown, but I’m better now.”

  They passed the eighth floor and kept going up.

  “So what happened to the rest of the patients in this place?” Ardent wanted to know.

  “A lot of them were checked-in voluntarily, so they just left when everything started breaking down,” Anthony explained. “The others, the real disturbed patients, were evacuated to another facility.”

  “What facility?” Milla asked.

  “I don’t know the name, but it’s somewhere in the Midwest where they keep the real crazy ones,” Anthony said.

  “They had patients like that here?” Bear asked.

  “Oh yeah, some of the worst psychotics in the West Coast were locked up in this place in the north wing,” Anthony told him.

  “That’s great,” Bear said uneasily.

  “What’s the doctor’s story?” Lauren wanted to know.

  “Not sure, he was here when Anthony and me came back after trying to leave town,” said Tom. “Said he came to get his work files from his office, but didn’t leave fast enough and got stuck here, like the rest of us. I told him that I was gonna lock the place down and he stayed.”

  “What about the janitor and the engineer?” Ardent asked.

  “I don’t know anything about Donnie, he didn’t work in my wing,” Anthony said. “But Alan is a drunk, and I’m pretty sure that he lives in the basement and was passed out in a drunken stupor when the dead people started eating everyone.”

  They got to the twelfth floor roof access door.

  Since they were in the stairwell for a few minutes, their eyes had to adjust to the sunlight outside, what little there was. They spread out over the roof to look at the views, and they were all bad. They saw the solar panels, about six large ones, at the other end of the roof. There was paint all over the floor in the form of distress calls and S.O.S. in big black letters to inform any aircraft of their situation.

  “Try not to get too close to the edges; if they see you, they’ll just get more riled up,” Anthony said.

  “They’re about as riled up as they can get,” Milla added.

  Lauren saw the sniper rifle resting near the edge of the front of the building. “Nice rifle.”

  “It is,” Anthony told her. “It’s mine.”

  “So it was you that shot all those dead ones out in the street?” she asked.

  “Yeah, if they get too close, I take them out, and their rotting smell masks ours.”

  “Smart,” she said. “You’re a great shot.”

  “Thanks,” he responded. “It’s also great therapy. Like I said; I’m much better now.” He smiled, and Lauren smiled back; she understood perfectly.

  They looked down at the front of the hospital and the street was full of the raging corpses, possibly five thousand, maybe more. The dead mob didn’t know where their food went, so they weren’t trying to get into the hospital; some stormed into the other buildings around them and others ran off in all directions. The hospital’s stone wall was more than sufficient to keep them out. On both sides of the hospital were storage buildings with no windows that were right up against the wall, offering even more protection.

  The only other exposed area was the back of the hospital, the employee parking lot and the loading dock, which had the same stone wall, but there weren’t that many of the undead outside, mainly because the mental facility was nestled right against a manmade waterway that led to the ocean. Not too far away was the 405 freeway that crossed over the channel. The abandoned cars on it were ash covered burial chambers.

  Ardent grabbed a pair of binoculars out of his backpack and scanned the west.

  “Do you see it?” Bear asked him.

  “Yeah,” Ardent said as he continued to look.

  “What are you looking at?” Tom asked.

  “The Long Beach naval shipyard,” Bear told him. “Do you see anything that we can use?” Bear asked Ardent.

  “No, it’s too far away to tell,” Ardent said and then he scanned the waterway behind the hospital.

  “This water channel leads to the shipyard, right, Tom?” Ardent asked.

  “Yeah, it does, why?”

  “Is it a clean path or is it obstructed by dams or anything like that?”

  “As far as I know, it’s clear. Why?”

  Ardent pointed down at the back of the hospital to something in particular in the loading dock area.

  “Is t
hat boat down there seaworthy?” Ardent asked.

  Back down on the ground floor, the group came out of the two sets of double doors, just like the front entrance, to get outside in the back. There were about a dozen dust-caked cars and trucks in the parking lot and parked by the loading dock, and forgotten for years now was a thirty-six foot boat covered with a couple tattered blue tarps. It was more of a barge than an actual boat. It had a flat bottom and the two propellers of the outboard motors were visible. They pulled off the tarps and dust stung the air and they saw what the boat looked like underneath. It was old; the only thing older was the rust-coated trailer that it sat on. It had a small wheelhouse, and the rest of it was an open area for cargo and a couple seats for passengers.

  “They used this boat for receiving supplies from the harbor and every once in a while, they used it for patient transfers.” Anthony explained. “But that was a long time ago; I think this thing’s been sitting here for ten years.”

  Ardent and Bear looked the boat over, checking the hull for any holes or cracks.

  “Looks okay, so far,” Bear observed.

  “Yeah, same here,” Ardent said. “What about the engines?”

  The engines were covered as well and they pulled the covers off to discover that the engines had been taken apart and left that way—pieces fell all over the ground.

  “Not exactly seaworthy,” Bear said.

  “No, but we can fix them,” Ardent said.

  Bear looked at all the pieces. “Really?”

  “We have to try.”

  “Okay.”

  Ardent looked to Tom. “Do you think anyone will mind if we borrow this boat?”

  “I don’t think anyone will care, maybe Alan, but he’s harmless,” Tom asked. “What exactly are you guys thinking here?”

  “You know that you can’t stay here forever, right?” Ardent told him.

  “Yeah, maybe.”

  “No maybe, sooner or later, you’re either gonna run out of food or those things will get in,” Ardent told him.

  “So what’s your point?” Tom asked.

  “Before we came here, we were on our way to the naval shipyard to look for a boat to use and get out of here,” Ardent said.

  “And go where?” Tom inquired.

  “Anywhere but here,” Bear said. “The cities are death traps.”

  “We have a place to go to,” Ardent said.

  “Where?” Tom asked.

  Ardent glanced at Lauren—“We’ll discuss that with all of you at dinnertime tonight.” Lauren said.

  “Alright,” Tom answered.

  Ardent and Bear began to gather the boat engine parts and sort them out.

  “We’re gonna need tools to fix the motors,” Bear said.

  “Alan has a machine shop in the basement,” Anthony said.

  “Let’s go pay the man a visit,” Ardent said.

  “I’ll show you the way,” Anthony led them.

  Ardent, Bear, and Lauren went with him, while Tom and Milla stayed.

  “I know a shower is out of the question, but would you happen to have anything that Derek can wash up with?” Milla asked Tom.

  “He is a little on the ripe side, isn’t he?” Tom said.

  “Yeah, a wee bit.”

  “Come on, I think I have something in my truck.

  “Cool, thank you.”

  She followed him into the hospital.

  As Anthony walked with Ardent, Bear, and Lauren, he noticed the makeshift armor that they were wearing. “What’s with the black plastic armor?” he asked Lauren.

  “It’s PVC pipe,” she told him.

  “What?”

  “You know, plumbing pipe.”

  “Oh yeah, where’d you get it from?”

  “We put it together ourselves.”

  “It’s not the best protection from bullets,” Anthony observed.

  “It’s not for bullets, it’s for those dead things; it gives us added protection, because if you get just one scratch or a bite, you’re done.”

  “Never thought of that.”

  “Does Alan have any in his shop?” she asked.

  “I think so, why?”

  “Because my right forearm piece is cracked,” she said and showed it to him.

  “I’m sure we can fix that up.”

  Alan was in his machine shop that had plenty of tools, materials and machines for taking care of the hospital. He had earphones on that were connected to an iPod as he was loading his shotgun with the shells that Ardent gave him, he finished loading the tube and racked the action of the pump, chambering a shell, and then he loaded one more into the tube. Now he was happy, he smiled a little, but just for a moment as Ardent and the group approached.

  Ardent had another box of shotgun shells in his hand.

  “Hey, Alan, the guys need to borrow some of your tools,” Anthony said.

  He turned the iPod off. “Oh yeah, what for?”

  “We’re gonna fix the outboard motors on that barge in the back,” Ardent answered.

  “You all gonna go fishing or something?” he said.

  “Something like that,” Bear said.

  “Shit, that thing’s been rusting out there since Clinton was president. It can’t be fixed.”

  Ardent placed the box of shells on his countertop. “Then I’m sure you won’t mind if we try?”

  Alan looked at the box of shells and took them. “Go ahead, take what you need.”

  “Thanks,” Ardent said.

  Ardent and Bear looked around his shop and gathered tools.

  “Just make sure that you bring everything back when you’re done,” Alan instructed.

  “Not a problem,” Bear said.

  “Do you have any PVC pipe so I can fix my forearm guard?” Lauren asked Alan.

  Alan looked her up and down, which didn’t bother her at all. “Sure, little lady,” he said seductively. “Right over there, in the back.”

  “Thanks,” she said and went with Anthony to go look.

  Ardent and Bear got all the tools they needed. “This should do it,” Ardent said, and he left with Bear.

  “You’re welcome,” Alan said after they left.

  Then Lauren and Anthony came back, Lauren had a piece of white PVC pipe that was the right size for her forearm, but it needed to be cut. “Can I use some of your tools to cut this?” she asked Alan.

  He grabbed a measuring tape. “Let me see your arm.” She let him measure her forearm, and he rubbed his wrist against her breast on purpose. “Sorry,” he said, to which Lauren rolled her eyes in annoyance. “Give it here,” he said and grabbed the new piece. He measured the pipe, marked it with a pen, and then secured the length of pipe in a vice. He cut a section of it off and made it the right length. Then he adjusted the piece in the vice and proceeded to cut the piece in half. He took one of the halves and locked it in the vice, took a hand drill, and drilled four holes on each end of it. He was done.

  He unwound the vice and handed her the piece. “There ya go,” he said.

  “Alan, can you help me make some armor?” Anthony asked.

  “Sure, kid.”

  “Cool!” Anthony said and went back to get some piping.

  Alan and Lauren were alone. She undid the wire that held the forearm plates of her arm and removed the damaged one, then laced in the new one. It fit perfectly, but it was white and needed to be painted black, like the rest.

  “Do you have any black paint?” she asked.

  Alan opened a nearby drawer and handed her a can of black spray-paint. “There’s still some in there.”

  Lauren sprayed the white piece of pipe quickly then she gave him the can back. “Thanks.” she said and turned to leave.

  “That’s all I get, just a thanks?” Alan said.

  Lauren turned back. “What do you want, more shotgun shells? I don’t have any.”

  He eyed her ample breasts. “Oh, I don’t know, you’re a pretty girl, I’m a good looking guy—“ She held her laughter. “—An
d it’s the end of the world n’ all, maybe we could have some fun together?”

  “That’s not even a nice try.” She turned to leave.

  Alan reached for her by the shoulder to stop her, he didn’t grab her, he just touched her—Lauren spun around and put her .45 pistol under his chin.

  Alan took his hand off her and became very still.

  “How about I give you a bullet right out of the barrel? Huh?” she said with hard eyes.

  “Whoa! Come on now, I was only kidding.” Alan pleaded.

  Anthony peered from around the corner and saw the situation; he smiled and went back to picking pipe for his armor.

  “When things use to be ‘normal,’ girls had to take shit like this from creeps like you, but not anymore.” she said and then cocked the pistol’s hammer with her thumb.

  “Okay, I’m sorry!”

  Lauren eased-up a little and took the pistol out from under his chin, but she kept it pointed right in his face. She looked at him with eyes that were solid as rocks and he looked into the blackness of her pistol barrel with eyes of fear. He looked in her eyes and knew what he saw—she would shoot him; there was no doubt of that.

  Lauren looked at him for another moment that seemed like an eternity to Alan and then she tapped his forehead with her barrel. “Sure you are,” she said and walked away.

  Alan released the breath his was holding from relief and then he heard Anthony trying to hold his laughter in the back. “Laugh it up, straightjacket boy,” he said to Anthony.

  “Hey, that’s not funny, they never made me wear one of those.”

  “Yeah, well, they should’ve.”

  “Ha-ha,” Anthony said sarcastically.

  “Did you find all the piping for your toy armor?”

  “It’s not ‘toy’ armor, Alan, it’s protection against bites from those dead suckers.”

  Alan thought about the concept for a moment…“Hey, kid, bring enough pipe for the both of us.”

  In the hospital reception area, Ardent and Bear were with Derek, who was still watching over their stuff—“So they have a boat here?” Derek said to them.

  “Yeah,” Bear answered.

  “And they’re gonna let us take it?” Derek asked.

  “If we can get it running, yes, but its engines are pretty banged up, so we’ll see,” Ardent said.