Doune shrugged. “I don’t know why not. He won’t feel a thing, I’m sure. And I may learn more doing this while he’s still active.”
There was a knock on the door. Wolf peeked in.
“Snake said you needed a guard, Doc?”
“Jack wants someone watching the room as long as my patient is still active,” Doune said. “It’s just a precaution. He isn’t going anywhere.”
He picked up a scalpel and quickly made an incision over the top of his patient’s head, ear to ear. He peeled the scalp back next, causing Lindsey to turn away and gag.
Setting aside his scalpel, Doune picked up a saw.
“You may want to step back for this part,” he told the others. “Sometimes the chips fly.”
A Plexiglas room divider had been set up and the three spectators moved behind it. Doune started the saw, explaining to them that it was a special vibrating saw that would cut through bone but would not cut through flesh.
Lindsey watched as the doctor prepared the skull saw for action. Recalling how Jack had warned her of the doctor’s unethical tendencies, she was afraid that he was crossing the line. Harold was clearly still alive, or at least seemed that way, and Dr. Doune was preparing to dissect his brain.
“Wait!” Lindsey shouted. “If that man isn’t clinically dead, I can’t let you do that. I mean tissue samples are one thing, but carving on a patient’s brain; it’s just not ethical.”
Autumn rolled her eyes and breathed a sigh.
Doune shot the therapist a look, but he turned off the saw.
“I carve on patient’s brains all the time. It’s what I do.”
“Sure, but they’re under anesthesia,” she replied.
“The brain has no pain receptors,” Doune stated. “I have done many surgeries on patients while they have been awake. It helps me to avoid disrupting the areas that control speech, for one thing. They are given sedation for the opening then I wake them to do the actual surgery on the brain. Harold doesn’t seem to feel any pain, so I don’t think he’ll need to be sedated for the opening.”
“It just seems wrong,” she said.
“Come here, Lindsey,” he said, taking her hand once she approached. He placed it at Winston’s neck then placed it on the man’s chest. “There is no heartbeat.”
He held her hand close to Harold’s nose, enjoying seeing her flinch when the doctor tried to bite. Of course he couldn’t do it, but that didn’t stop him from trying. “No breath. He isn’t breathing and his heart is not beating. His brain acts as though it is alive, but it probably isn’t.”
Lindsey was visibly agitated as she pulled her hand away.
“You’re telling me that, with all this equipment, you can’t do a brain scan or EKG or something to see if he’s brain dead? There’s got to be something in this hospital that could determine whether or not his brain is working instead of just sawing through it like some kind of Nazi scientist.”
“Yes, I can perform tests and I plan to do so, but the equipment I will need is on the fifth floor. I’m not so sure that the intensive-care patients would care to have Harold up there. Not only that, but I want to see what the brain looks like, now, in the early stages and I want to watch it as it changes. It would take too long to hook him up to the equipment, though I can always do that later, if not to Harold, then to another of the infected.”
Wolf had stepped closer, the saw having kept his interest.
“Lady,” he said, “the guy has no heartbeat. He’s not breathing. He’s clinically dead. If he were the only one in the world like that, scientists from all over the place would be lining up to study him. As it is, there’s probably half a million just like him outside our door with one purpose; to kill us and eat us. This is self-defense. Every time someone turns, they become the enemy. They can’t be reasoned with. There are too many to take prisoner. It’s kill them before they kill us. If the doc can find something out in the process, so be it.”
“Well said,” Doune told the man. He turned his attention back to the saw and flipped it on again before beginning the cut.
The observers returned to their spots behind the divider as the saw started to grind through the skull. The smell almost made Lindsey gag. Turning, she covered her mouth and walked to the farthest corner of the room and tried not to vomit. Autumn, on the other hand, watched with excitement as Dr. Doune removed the top of the skull to expose the brain.
The patient had made no indication that he felt pain or was aware of what was being done. His only interest had been in constantly trying to get to Doune while his skull was being opened.
“You can come back now,” the surgeon said as he put the saw away.
“Awesome!” Autumn commented while positioning herself for a better view.
Doune stepped aside so that the girl could get closer.
“This is the cerebrum that you are seeing,” he said, not knowing how much she knew about the brain. “The cerebellum and the brain stem are below where you can’t see, but we’ll get to those eventually.”
He took a scalpel and used it to point out the frontal lobe, the motor cortex, sensory cortex and parietal lobe, explaining the functions of each part of the brain.
Autumn helped to make the samples as Doune took them, and she drank in everything the doctor said. She had once had a book on human anatomy that had showed a different cross section of the human body every time the page was turned. She had been so fascinated by the book that she used to read it at night when her parents thought she was sleeping. After their passing, the book was lost as she was shuffled from one foster home to another. She was now thrilled to see the real thing.
“Where is the part of the brain that works things like hunger? Bet that’s still working.”
“Actually,” Doune said, “it’s the brain stem that controls most of the basic body functions like hunger, thirst, body temperature and breathing. The cerebellum controls more complex actions like walking, talking and balance.
He glanced at Autumn and said, “It’s odd. Once the person changes, like Harold, here, they still seem to have hunger but not thirst. They don’t seem to breathe and their bodies are cold. So the critical question is - if one part of the brain is affected, why wouldn’t all functions be affected if they are controlled by that area of the brain? Why can they still walk but not talk? There are so many questions to try to answer.”
Lindsey, feeling embarrassed at her reaction, wandered back to the operating table and stole a glance at the exposed brain.
“When can I put him on the treadmill?” she joked.
“That might not be a bad idea,” Doune said. “We could clock him and see just how fast he can walk. We’d just need someone standing in front to act as the carrot.”
He began to poke at different parts of the brain.
“Amazing,” he said. “The brain looks normal, at a glance. I see no signs of deterioration, but if you look at his flesh, it’s already turning gray. So what is allowing the brain to keep working? Any thoughts?”
A knock on the door interrupted the conversation. All eyes were on Marla as she entered the room.
“Keith told me that you moved Dr. Winston down here,” she explained.
“Yes, but he’s . . .” Doune paused as he watched the woman grab the wrist of the zombie once called Harold.
Marla stared at her watch. A few seconds later, she scribbled something on a chart and pulled out a stethoscope and blood pressure cuff. It was a bit of a struggle for her to get it on the zombie’s restrained arm. The room was silent as Marla ignored Harold’s futile attempts to bite her and continued with her duties. A minute later, she scribbled again on her pad and left the room, smiling at Dr. Doune as she left.
Nick wondered if the alleged nurse was always so calm when finding out that a patient had no blood pressure. He looked at Autumn and shook his head. “We should place a bet on how long that one is going to survive.”
“I don’t know,” Autumn replied. “She’s so dumb, they mig
ht just mistake her for one of them, and leave her alone.”
The comment earned a smile from Doune before he went back to prodding at Harold’s brain.
~*^*~
~27~
It wasn’t even daylight yet when Lindsey woke the next morning. Her eyes opened and she quickly scanned the room, wondering what had disturbed her sleep. When she saw that Autumn’s bed was empty, she sat up, turning to look at the clock on her nightstand.
“Autumn?” she called, seeing a light under the bathroom door.
“Yep, I’m up,” the girl said, coming back into the room and flipping on the lights.
“I see that, but why?” Lindsey asked, closing her eyes against the bright light. “Do you have any idea how early it is?”
“Sure, 4:00,” Autumn said, putting on her socks. “Theresa will be starting breakfast soon and I guarantee you that Dr. Doune will be starting his experiments today without us if we don’t get down there.”
Lindsey groaned, lying back on the bed for a moment. She hadn’t been able to drag Autumn away from the lab until almost midnight, and four hours was not enough sleep for her. She briefly considered going back to sleep but she knew that Autumn would be bouncing off the walls if she had to wait any longer. Or she’d just go down to the lab alone and Lindsey didn’t feel comfortable with that.
“Okay, you win,” she said with a yawn. She grabbed her clothes and went into the bathroom to change.
After a quick breakfast, they went to the lab and found Dr. Doune there. His unkempt appearance suggested that he might have worked through the night. When Lindsey asked him, he verified it.
“I’m almost done with Harold then I’ll get some sleep,” he said. “I didn’t like the idea of leaving him here for several hours while he’s still active.”
Autumn seemed disappointed that she had missed a lot of the testing, but Lindsey had to agree with Doune that it would have been dangerous to leave a zombie alone and active. Regardless, she didn’t want to be around when he finished off his patient. She had never liked Winston but he was still someone that she had known. It wasn’t quite like killing the nameless zombies that the snipers were picking off in the parking lot.
“I think I’m going to go get some air,” she said.
She wasn’t sure about leaving Autumn there without her, but the girl seemed spellbound by the dissection. After making them both promise that Autumn would not get close enough to put herself in any danger, Lindsey paused to have a quick chat with the guard outside the door.
“The doctor hasn’t slept all night, so I’m just a little worried that he might not be as careful as he should be. I just don’t want Autumn getting hurt.”
The guard promised to keep a close watch and Lindsey thanked him before taking the stairs up to the roof for some semi-fresh air.
She was surprised to find Snake there and when she realized that he was praying, she turned to leave, not wanting to interrupt his quiet time.
“You’re up early,” his voice said, stopping her.
“Yes, thanks to my overly eager roommate,” she laughed. “She’s already down there helping Doune.”
“Ah, to be young again and have that kind of enthusiasm,” Snake said.
They both heard the unmistakable sound of a helicopter.
“Speaking of early,” Lindsey said, when she recognized it as the one Lee piloted.
Within a few minutes the helicopter had landed on the roof.
Lindsey smiled when Reynolds got out but the smile dropped off her face as she saw the grim look he wore.
“I’ve got good news and bad news,” he told them. “The bad news is that I don’t have any supplies or survivors to drop off today. They’re shutting us down.”
“What do you mean, shutting you down?” Lindsey asked, alarmed for a myriad of reasons.
“They need us elsewhere. I don’t know if you’ve been following the news, but we’ve got big outbreaks in Corpus Christi, Galveston and Long Beach. They’re particularly worried about Long Beach. If this spreads to Los Angeles, it’s all over.”
“So they’re diverting you to the west coast?” Lindsey asked, fear gripping her at the thought of Lee being sent into a battle worse than the one they had in Lansing. “Don’t they already have people there?”
“I’m not sure where they’re sending me yet. I just know that Lansing is not one of their greatest concerns anymore.”
He looked at Lindsey with sadness in his eyes and she had to look away.
“You said there was good news?” Snake asked.
“The good news is that we can evacuate the hospital tomorrow, with the help of the Coast Guard. We’ll be using a couple of their Blackhawks.”
“Those are helicopters?” Lindsey asked.
“Yes. They use them on the Great Lakes for water rescues and are willing to help us out.”
“Where will we go?” Lindsey asked, finally finding a bright spot in Lee’s news.
“We’ve got some shelters set up in several rural locations,” he told her. “The biggest one is in Iowa, but I’m not sure where you’ll be going. You’ll be shuttled to our base first and then once you spend your time in quarantine, you’ll be taken by bus to one of the rural shelters.”
“Are you talking about a tent city or a place with buildings?” she asked.
“Farm land that’s surrounded by strong fences with razor wire. The refugees will be sleeping in tents, but some of the shelters have a few buildings, too.”
“What about our bedridden patients? Do you have a hospital?” she asked.
“No. I’m sorry but most of the shelters don’t even have electricity at the moment. We have some medical personnel but they’re doing all they can to patch up the wounded.”
“We can’t leave our patients to die,” Lindsey said, her hopes crumbling again.
“I’ve been trying to think of a solution but haven’t come up with anything,” Reynolds admitted, glancing back at the helicopter. His copilot was watching but couldn’t hear them.
“Listen, you need to get as many people out of here as you can. They have plans for this place and it’s not going to be pretty.”
“The hospital?” Lindsey asked.
“Lansing,” he said. “They’re planning on bombing parts of the city. If you don’t leave now, you might not get out with the quarantine and all.”
“They’re going to quarantine the whole city?” Snake asked.
“They already did it a while back. I guess nobody’s tried to get out?”
Lindsey just shook her head, a sick feeling beginning to settle in her stomach over what she was hearing. “Are we in danger of being bombed? We’ve got over a dozen bedridden patients that can’t leave. I’m sure that some of us will be staying to help them.”
“The hospital will be all right. We’ve been marking buildings with survivors in them. I told them that you would add a highly visible “H” for hospital, as well. You’ve got some paint, I hope?”
Snake nodded. “I saw some in the tool shed.”
“Make it large and dark so it stands out. They’ll leave this building alone and won’t touch the ones directly around it.”
“How are we supposed to get around the city after it’s been bombed?” Snake asked.
“It’s going to get messy,” Lee admitted. “I have no idea how many roads will be navigable and how many stores will be left intact. Scavenging supplies is going to become more difficult.”
“Bad enough that we have to fight the walking dead every time we go out, now we have to worry about the roads not being passable and buildings collapsing on us?” Snake said, his usual good mood gone.
“I know. Believe me, I talked until I was blue in the face and they wouldn’t listen. The best I could do was to get them to postpone hitting this area for a while. They won’t touch anything in this part of town until dawn tomorrow, but then you’ll need to keep everybody inside.”
“So we’ll need to do a big supply run today,” Snake said. �
��What areas will be safe? We need to find a medical supply store and a gun shop and I’m not sure how close those will be.”
He named the streets, which were all familiar to Lindsey.
“That’s a pretty big area, at least,” she said. “Hopefully we can find everything we need.”
Reynolds hesitated and took a deep breath. “Snake, do you have enough firepower up here? How many guns do you have?”
Snake thought about it and was about to give out a number, when Reynolds interrupted him.
“Jack’s got a handgun and we’ve seen two high powered rifles. That’s going to be your answer when you’re asked. That’s what’s in our report.”
Snake thought he detected a hint of trepidation in Lee’s words.
“Listen to me,” the pilot said, lowering his voice. “They’re going to seize every weapon they find here. Bring up the guns that I mentioned and hide the rest. Hide them well. But you never heard this from me.”
Lee gave another quick glance toward his partner, who was still sitting in the helicopter.
“What would possess them to do something that stupid?” Snake said.
“Ask them,” Lee replied. “It doesn’t make any sense. They’ll expect some argument. Act surprised. Get pissed off, just don’t get carried away. They’ll give you some bullshit story, but I don’t even know what the real reason is behind this.”
Lindsey glanced over to see the copilot watching them with a frown.
“But I didn’t tell you anything. I just asked about the guns for my report. They can be very persuasive so don’t trust anyone.”
“What time will the evacuation take place?” Snake asked.
“Tomorrow morning, early,” Reynolds said. “It’ll probably be shortly after sunrise.”
“We’ll have everybody ready that wants to go,” Snake said, thanking the pilot before leaving to find Jack and update him.
Lee turned to speak to Lindsey alone after Snake left to talk to Jack.
“Lindsey, I did everything I could to change their minds,” he assured her. “I hope you’ll come with us tomorrow. I might even be able to work it out so that you can come to the base with me. I’ll tell them that we’re together.”
Dead, but Not for Long Page 23