Deadrise

by Steven R. Gardner

This is it! You’re dead! You are fucking dead!

  He tightened his grip on his rifle, preparing to fire the second anything stepped through the door. But whomever it was passed by and the sound of footsteps faded. Jennifer held them down another full minute before nodding for them to rise.

  David took a quick peek out the door, glancing all around. The soldier’s body was lying in the road a few yards to the left, clear streets ahead and to the right. With the coast clear they both stepped out onto the sidewalk. More dead bodies were scattered behind the first in a ragged line stretching perhaps fifty feet. Screams, less than one hundred feet away echoed through the rows of barracks followed by the chatter of several M-16’s…Another grenade explosion.

  “There are some of those superzombies loose in the base.” David said. “There’s no other explanation.”

  “But how did they get in?” Jennifer asked. “Every inch of perimeter on this base is covered.”

  “Obviously not.” David said.

  Superzombies in the base! Where the hell are Matt and my sister?

  “We have to find a way of contacting the others.”

  “I told you Jenkins is a platoon Sergeant. I’m sure they have radioed him back by now.” Jennifer wished she felt as confident as she sounded.

  “I have to go get Zack from the hospital.” David said.

  “What are you talking about?” Jennifer asked.

  “As soon as they get back we are going to get the hell out of here. If the base really is getting overrun with zombies we won’t have another chance to get him out of there.”

  “Are you crazy? What if we run into one of those things? Bullets can’t stop it!” she was aghast at the prospect of running into a superzombie. “And your friend is hurt. How are you going to move him?”

  “Zack can walk if he has to. If he’s too weak I’ll get him a wheel chair. But I’m going to get him out of that hospital.” The look in her eye told him she was not leaving the barracks. And he couldn’t blame her. She had family here to protect. And so did he. But Zack had taken those bullets trying to save David and his family. Another pang of loss stabbed at his heart as he thought of his father. No, he could not leave Zack there.

  “If they show up while I’m gone tell them where I went. And watch out for my mom.”

  “Be careful.” Jennifer said, squeezing his hand.

  “You too.” he said. He cast another quick look around before bolting west, across the street and down the sidewalk towards the hospital. He made the two blocks to the hospital in record time seeing no one the entire way. The battle sounded fierce as ever from the perimeter with the tank blasts coming every couple seconds now. Behind him he could still hear gunfire and the occasional grenade explosion as soldiers encountered the superzombies.

  As he ran up to the main entrance of the hospital he saw four dead soldiers lying out front. The brick wall behind them was scarred from gunfire, and the main glass doors were shattered. He glanced down at the soldiers as he passed between them. Their bodies were riddled with bullet holes and fresh blood was splattered about in pools everywhere. But not a single one of them had been shot in the head, which meant these soldiers would be rising as zombies very soon. David took a deep breath to prepare himself for what he had to do, and very quickly put a bullet through each corpses brain. The main lobby was a mess. Another half dozen dead soldiers were strewn about as well as several white clad nurses and other hospital staff. All appeared to have been killed by gunfire. Papers were scattered across the lobby, and bullet holes pockmarked the main desk. He caught movement behind the desk and he watched silently as the snooty ass receptionist from earlier pulled herself to her feet. Only now she was one of the walking dead. Bullet holes dotted her body and her once white uniform was now covered with still wet blood. David put a bullet through her skull. Other corpses in the lobby began stirring to life. David ran across the lobby to the main elevators as two of the zombies, a soldier and a nurse, climbed to their feet.

  Early risers.

  David pushed the button to go up and turned to face the approaching zombies. He took aim and blasted the nurse, catching her in the throat. She was blown off her feet from the impact but instantly began climbing back to her feet. He mentally cursed himself for his bad aim and targeted the soldier. This time his aim was true and the zombie collapsed to the floor. More of the zombies were climbing to their feet now. David turned to the button and pushed it several times.

  “Come on! Come on!” he shouted at the elevator doors. Three more zombies stepped out of a hallway from across the lobby… Hospital workers. But they were too far away for him to worry about right now. He turned his attention back to those near the main entrance. Over ten zombies now stood on their feet, including the nurse he had already shot. David took aim on her once again, hitting her squarely between the eyes this time. Carefully he aimed and dropped another, and another. The elevator gave a loud DING behind him and he heard the doors slide open. He turned to see a bloody soldier stagger out of the elevator arms extended towards him…David screamed and raised his gun to shoot.

  “Wait!” croaked the soldier, falling beside him. “Help me. Please.” He raised a bloody hand up to David’s face. The zombies were less than thirty feet from him. David grabbed the solider by the arm and dragged him back into the elevator. He quickly pushed the button for the second floor. Just as the doors were closing the nearest zombie reached the elevator, thrusting its arm in between the doors. They rebounded, sliding fully open again. The zombie took a step into the elevator before David shot it point blank range in the face with his M-16. The zombie flew backwards out of the elevator but two more were right behind it. David began pulling the trigger quickly, hitting the zombies in the throat and chest. They were sent stumbling into the ones behind them and the elevator doors closed and the carriage began to rise.

  “Don’t go up there. Don’t go up there!” the wounded soldier gasped weakly. David pushed the stop button and the elevator came to a halt between the first and second floor. “Sit me up.” He sounded as if he were choking on his own blood. He was reminded of Zack’s ordeal the other night. As David sat him up he felt the soldiers skin was very cool to the touch. His face was pale and his eyes were droopy. He was losing blood very fast. Already a large pool had begun to collect beneath him.

  “What happened here?” David asked.

  “Some of those things…we tried to stop them…we tried.” he broke into a fit of coughing, bloody spittle flying from his lips and his eyes drooped and he began to fade into unconsciousness.

  “How many zombies are there?” David asked. “Wake up!” He shook him and the soldier gave a cry of pain and his eyes opened. “How many are there?” He asked again.

  “Shooting the patients,” the soldier said, not even listening to David. “We tried to stop them. We trie-” he gave a final gasp of pain before his eyes closed and his head slumped to the side.

  He was dead.

  “Shit!” There were superzombies loose inside shooting the patients. That meant there were going to be zombies all through this hospital. Zack may already be dead but David couldn’t leave until he knew for sure. “Shit!” he exclaimed again. He took aim and shot the dead soldier in the head, the M-16 deafening in the confines of the elevator.

  Taking another deep breath he knelt down and searched the body, turning up a 9mm automatic pistol and three extra clips. He checked the safety on the automatic and tucked it into his belt and the clips in his back pocket. He continued searching the body and turned up two more clips for the M-16. He quickly reloaded the M-16 with a fresh clip then disengaged the stop button and the elevator began rising toward the second floor…

  Chapter 15

  Saturday, June 23, 2001

  Fort Douglas

  Salt Lake City, UT

  2:35 PM

  Zack had not been afraid until he heard the first shots fired from inside the hospital. He quickly rang for a nurse, looking at the three other patients who occupied the r
oom with him. All of them had been brought in sometime yesterday while Zack had drifted in and out of consciousness. From what little Zack had picked up in his morphine induced stupor these were soldiers injured in a battle with zombies somewhere on the Northwestern perimeter. Maybe even the same battle Matt had been involved. After five minutes a nurse still hadn’t come. Biting back the pain in his side and the itching need to cough Zack slowly climbed out of his bed. The tile floor was cold against his bare feet and a soft breeze wafted through his open backed gown causing him to shiver. The shivers caused fresh pain to burn in his side and he silently curse whatever fool had taken his clothes. Zack peered out the window, which gave a view of the main road sloping down the hill towards the base entrance. He could see several soldiers running east up the hill, rifles at ready. The sounds of the battle at the perimeter were loud as ever with tank cannon blasting every few seconds and the popping of gunfire a continuous background noise.

  “What’s going on?” The man in the bed beside Zack’s was awake. One of his legs was up in a sling, both his arms and face bandaged. And he was in better condition than the other two soldiers in the room. Both of them were on breathing machines and had a dozen tubes and wires running into them. The heart monitors attached to each one beeped in a steady rhythm.

  “I don’t know.” Zack said. “I rang for the nurse. She should be along any time now.”

  “I can hear tanks firing.” The man said, trying to raise his head.

  “They’re shooting zombies outside the perimeter.”

  Why am I talking to this guy? I have no idea what the hell is going on!

  More gunfire sounded from somewhere inside the hospital, definitely on his floor. He could hear screaming from somewhere beyond his closed door. Gunfire in the hospital could mean only one thing. There were zombies loose inside. Zack pinched the crimper in his IV line and pulled the tube from the IV in his hand. It had been several minutes now and the nurse still hadn’t come along. He considered pulling the IV from his vein as well but he had no way to stop the bleeding.

  “What the hell is going on?” the man in the bed asked, his voice as frightened as it was angry.

  “I don’t know.” Zack said, trying to stay calm. There was no point screaming at that poor bastard.

  More gunfire… More screams; these ones definitely closer than the last. He had to get the hell out of this hospital and find the others. And he very well couldn’t do it in this gown. There was a closet at the foot of his bed, and inside he was surprised to find his Levis, shoes and socks. His shirt had been cut off him in the nightmare surgery center in the parking lot. Zack cringed at the memory of that ordeal. He sat on one of the chairs and slowly pulled his pants on.

  Damn how his left side ached! It was a deep, hot, pulsing ache that caused his body to hunch to that side. And breathing was a study in concentration. Every ragged breath burned like teargas, and sent a maddening itch straight through his chest and into his throat that made him need to cough constantly. But the doctor had told him to cough as little as possible for the next few days. It would help to give his wounded lung a chance to heal. He remained sitting to put on his socks and shoes.

  He heard an explosion somewhere on his wing and felt the tremor in his bones. More gunfire…more screams of fear and pain, these just outside his door. He expected someone to open his door and hurry into his room but who ever was screaming ran past his closed door, their screams fading.

  “What the fuck is going on?” the wounded soldiers voice was pure terror now.

  “I’m going to go see.” Zack said. He silently cursed the fool who had taken his gun. Zack opened his door a crack and peeked out. The nursing station was fifty feet down the hall from his room and between here and there he could see the bodies of three dead nurses, a soldier, and a patient clad in a white gown. Blood was still pooling around their bodies from the many gunshot wounds that laced their bodies. There were several rooms between Zack’s and the nursing station and the two at the far end were open. A soldier clad in full combat gear suddenly stepped out from the room on the left, M-16 with grenade launcher held ready to fire. Zack was about to call to him when he suddenly noticed that the soldiers face was skeletal, and its flesh looked like wrinkled old leather where patches of yellowed bone actually were showing through. It could only be one of those superzombies that David had told him about.

  Zack held his breath. Never had the urge to cough been so great. He dared not close the door for fear of attracting the attention of the creature. It was open less than two inches. He prayed the creature would not see him that far down the hall. But it didn’t even look in his direction. It stopped at the next door it came to and opened it and went in. Zack heard screams of terror from the patients inside. A single three round burst sounded…Seconds later another…Then another. There were no more screams coming from the room. The zombie was methodically going from room to room executing the patients. Zack was speechless. The superzombie walked out of the room and opened the door right across the hall. Gunfire erupted from within the room and Zack saw several bullets chew into the zombie’s combat armor. He even saw at least two bullets strike it right in the face causing its head to snap back violently. But instead of dropping dead the superzombie calmly took a step back and raised its gun. Bullets continued to pepper it chest and face. The helmet was sent flying from its head. It reached one bony hand down and fired the grenade launcher into the room. There was a loud explosion and smoke and debris came churning out of the room. The zombie waited three seconds before stepped into the room to no return fire. Zack heard it fire three round bursts before it stepped out of the room and began up the hallway to the closed door. It would be to Zack’s room in just a few minutes. Zack watched it step into the next room.

  It’s now or never!

  Zack opened his door and stepped out into the hall. Instead of going away from the zombie he moved as quickly as his weak legs would carry him towards the nursing station. If he could only make it to one of the open rooms the zombie had already entered before it stepped back into the hallway he should be safe. The ache in his side was a molten ball of fire now, expanding into his back and stomach, cramping his guts. His knees buckled and he nearly collapsed to the floor.

  STAY ON YOUR FEET!

  He kept his balance, halfway to safety. As he passed the corpses on the floor he noticed that none of them had been shot in the head. He heard the zombie open fire in the room. Please let there be four patients in there! Hoping for others to die so that he may live… He felt ashamed as soon as he thought it. His breath was ragged, a great ball of mucous rattling in his throat. He was going to cough!

  Hold it you son of a bitch! Hold it!

  He was past the room as the third burst of gunfire came from with in. He ducked into the room he had first seen the zombie emerge from, collapsing to the ground as a searing cough exploded from his lungs. The single cough became a fit of them, with Zack spitting thick bloody gobs of mucous between each one. After what seemed an eternity the coughs stopped, and Zack lay there paralyzed with pain, gasping for air. His wound had broken open and his side was wet with hot blood.

  You’re dead! The zombie heard you and is going to come back and shoot you!

  That was enough to give him the strength to pull himself to his knees. He heard footsteps in the doorway behind him, and turned to see the superzombie step into view. This is it. Zack told himself as the zombie raised the M-16 to aim at his chest.

  The creature’s attention was suddenly diverted towards the nursing station. It spun, trying to bring its rifle to bear when another M-16 sounded on full automatic and bullets began to riddle its chest and face…

  After the close call down below David had set his M-16 to full automatic in the elevator. He exited the elevator and looked down the hall, seeing the scattered bodies of hospital staff and soldiers lying about. He turned the corner to the west wing and saw the superzombie taking aim at someone in one of the rooms.

  I’m too late! I
’m too late! The zombies had reached Zack’s wing and were executing the patients. Without thinking David took aim and fired. His clip ran dry in a few seconds and his bullets had little effect on the superzombie. David threw himself behind the nurse’s station as the superzombie returned fire. Three dead nurses lay on the floor behind the station counter.

  David’s hands were shaking as he reloaded. Without looking he poked the gun around the desk and emptied the clip down the hallway. The zombie returned fire, the bullets splintering the station counter. David crawled through the nurse’s station, brushing aside a few chairs and two portable oxygen machines before exiting to the south wing and staying down behind the counter. He would be out of sight when the zombie came around the corner from the west wing. He reloaded again. It was his final clip. Half empty at that. He cursed himself the fool for wasting his bullets so quickly. He flipped the M-16 back to three round burst mode…

  Zack couldn’t believe his fortune when the zombie began walking back towards the nurse’s station. He crawled to the doorway just as wild gunfire ricocheted past the room down the hallway. He heard the zombie fire back. Zack peeked out the room. The zombie was near the nurse’s station now, completely ignoring him. A dead soldier lay ten feet up the hall from where Zack knelt in the doorway. His M-16 entangled in his dead arms.

  You wait you die!

  Zack crawled to the soldier’s body and began pulling the M-16 free. The super zombie had reached the nurses station and fired a burst around the corner. It still hadn’t noticed him. Zack had to roll the dead soldier onto his back to get the gun free. Zack checked the magazine. Empty. But there were two more clips in pouches on the soldier’s web gear. He loaded a fresh magazine into the gun while keeping one eye on the super zombie. It stepped into the nurse’s station and out of his view.

  You’re not getting away that easy you son of a bitch!

  Zack was going to kill it. He owed it to whoever had saved his life as well as to those patients that had died while he had fled for his life. He pulled himself to his feet with a groan of pain and began to stumble down the hallway…