Dead, but Not for Long

by Kinney, Matthew

  “That’s too bad,” Wilson said. “It was fortunate that he had access to a hospital.”

  Jack and Wilson descended the stairway to the fifth floor and walked down the hall to a small conference room. Four soldiers followed.

  As they entered the room, Snake came in behind them and introductions were made.

  Bob said, “I hope you don’t mind if I ask you to lay your weapons on the table. Just a policy we have.”

  Jack laid his pistol on the table and motioned for Snake to do the same with his rifle. Jack noticed right away that it wasn’t the weapon that Snake normally used. It looked like junk. He wished he could have swapped his pistol out for something else as well, but they probably already knew what weapon he carried.

  “Just a precaution,” the Major said.

  Snake started to protest, but Jack motioned for him to comply and Snake relented. The soldiers quickly scooped them up. The Major leaned back in his chair and folded his hands behind his head.

  “Give us a little privacy,” Bob said to his men as he waved them off. Three of the soldiers walked outside the room and shut the door. The one that stayed moved to the wall behind Jack, facing Wilson.

  “I’m sure Lt. Reynolds filled you in on what’s happening here,” Bob started.

  “Well, he told us you’d be evacuating us to other locations, but he was pretty tight-lipped about the details,” Snake said.

  “You’ll be going to our large shelter down the river from Dubuque, Iowa, for now,” Wilson said. “It’s not too close to the city or any other populated area, and it’s surrounded by farm land, so there will be plenty of food. River’s right there, too, for water. It’s an ideal location.”

  “For now?” Jack asked.

  “Right,” Wilson continued. “We’ll look at long-term placement after you get there and everything gets sorted out. We have shelters all over the country but we’re broken up into regions. The Dubuque shelter is in the middle of a region, so you could end up in Illinois, Wisconsin or Iowa.”

  “Who decides where we go?” Jack asked.

  “We have people at Dubuque that make those decisions, but they do their best to keep families together.”

  Jack raised an eyebrow at the comment. “Do their best? You mean families could be separated?”

  Wilson began backpedaling, explaining that there had been a few mix-ups which had been straightened out.

  “And we don’t get any say in where we go?” Snake asked.

  “Well, now, that would get pretty chaotic, wouldn’t it?” Wilson asked. “You’ve got to understand, this is a massive operation and it’s difficult to take care of all these people as it is. We’re doing our best, but sometimes things do get a little hectic. Besides, we like to place people where they’re needed based on their skills. It wouldn’t make much sense to have two mechanics or two doctors in one location and none in another.”

  Jack frowned. Wilson’s comment made some sense but at the same time it bothered him that the refugees weren’t given more say in the matter.

  “What exactly did Reynolds tell you?” Wilson asked, leaning forward in his chair. A look passed between him and the soldier who stood at the back of the room.

  “Not much,” Snake said. “He encouraged us all to go to the shelters. Guess he didn’t see a problem with leaving the patients to die, though.”

  “He did ask Snake about our weapons,” Jack added. “He said that you might be able to get us some more. We seem to be in short supply and we’ve just about exhausted our ammo on our supply runs.”

  “Now, that’s not really true, is it?” Wilson asked with a grin. “I think you have all sorts of weapons and ammo. My men will be collecting all of it.”

  “One of the newcomers has a really great bat,” Snake replied, grinning right back.

  “Gentlemen,” Bob started. “I know what Reynolds told you. He told you to hide the other guns. Unfortunately, his copilot overheard and told us. Now, he doesn’t know that we know, and I’d like to keep it that way. He’s an excellent pilot but it seems that he’s let this woman, Lindsey, affect his judgment. I guess that he thought he was helping her, somehow, but it’s making our job that much harder.”

  Snake quickly thought back to the conversation on the roof. The copilot had been watching them, but the chopper had been running the whole time and there was no way he could have heard anything.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Jack asked with false indignation.

  “He never said anything of the sort,” Snake added, looking baffled. “We mostly just talked about the bedridden patients and what we could do about them.”

  Jack said, “Lt. Reynolds said you were going to reinforce us, not take our guns away. How the hell are we supposed to defend ourselves?”

  “Look,” Wilson sighed. “I don’t like the idea of disarming people in the middle of a crisis, but my superiors have a certain number of guns they want on that chopper or they’ll come back and get them personally. I’m going to be honest with you. They don’t give a shit whether you live or die. They just want your guns.”

  “Well, they got our guns,” Snake said, “both of ‘em.”

  There was a knock at the door and the remaining soldier went to answer it, speaking briefly with someone in the hallway. He closed the door again and whispered to Wilson, who nodded.

  “My men found a third weapon, a rifle that was being used down the hall.”

  “In the observation room?” Snake said. “Our sniper takes out any of the dead that get too close. You’re taking his rifle away, too? You’re crippling us, here!”

  “Give us a minute,” the major said to the remaining soldier, who nodded and left the room. Once the door was closed, Wilson leaned forward, elbows on the table in front of him as he continued in a hushed tone.

  “I’ll try to send someone back with more weapons later, but if I don’t come back with something there’ll be hell to pay.”

  “I can go get the bat for you,” Snake suggested.

  “I wouldn’t trust me either,” the Major replied. “But, unfortunately, you’re not going to have a choice. My men are already searching the hospital. If we find your weapons, we’ll have to take everyone in. The sick will be left to die and nobody wants that. Now, where are the guns?”

  “Man, I don’t know what your copilot was smoking,” Snake chimed in, “but what you see is what you got.”

  The Major smiled. “All right.”

  He keyed his radio and the soldiers walked back in, this time with Autumn.

  “Kids are brutally honest,” Bob whispered to Snake.

  “Young lady,” Bob spoke in a forceful, but non-threatening manner. “I’m Major Wilson with the U.S. Army, and I need your help. We need to know if these people have any guns and where they might be. We’re here to protect you now but we need to be sure that no accidents happen. Can you help us?”

  “They’ve got guns,” Autumn replied. “I’ve seen them. I think they hid them or something.”

  “Good,” the Major smiled smugly as he looked at Snake then at Jack. “Do you have any idea how many there were?”

  “Sure do. Three. The motorcycle guy had one and the security man had another one,” Autumn answered. “And, I think one guy shoots out the window with one, too.”

  Bob’s smile turned into a frown. He stood and glared at the two men for a moment before storming out of the room. Snake wiped a bead of sweat from his brow, and Jack made a mental note to recommend to Dr. Doune that Autumn be given a raise.

  When the soldiers were safely out of earshot, Autumn whispered into Jack’s ear, “Sometimes it pays to be nosy. You owe me big time.”

  “Yes, I do,” Jack replied. He turned to Snake. “Just where did you hide the guns?”

  “Most of ‘em are in the truck. We kept a dozen or so out and those are under Helga’s bed,” Snake said.

  “In the ER?” Jack asked.

  Snake shook his head. “She wanted a room upstairs. I happened to run
across it when I was looking for a place to stash the weapons. I pity them if they stumble into her room. It ain’t going to be pretty.”

  “I’ll bet it won’t be,” Jack laughed. He stood and added, “I’m heading up to the roof to see how everything is going.”

  “I’ll join you,” Snake said.

  ~*^*~

  ~43~

  When Lindsey returned to the roof, she was shocked to see two of the bikers restraining Keith while he yelled at Lee and another pilot.

  “What’s going on?” she asked, running over.

  Keith pulled his arms free and turned on his heel, moving for the door.

  Once he was gone, one of the bikers said, “He went off on Reynolds. I don’t know if he would have hurt him or not but he took a swing at Moose yesterday, so we didn’t want to take the chance.”

  Lee sighed. “He was angry and I can’t say that I blame him but I had nothing to do with the bombing. And,” Lee said, nodding toward the other pilot, “Jerry is with the Coast Guard. He’s just here to help, so there was no reason to start something with him, either.”

  “He was upset about the bombing?” Lindsey asked, not sure what was going on.

  “His wife was in one of the buildings that was targeted yesterday.”

  “Oh, no,” she said, glancing back to the door where Keith had gone. “How could something like that happen? He said there were a dozen others waiting with her. How did that many people go unnoticed?”

  “I don’t know,” Lee said. “Accidents happen, but that was a pretty serious mistake.”

  Lindsey glanced out across the city and wondered just how many other mistakes there had been.

  “Have they been going into the buildings to determine whether or not they’re overrun?” she asked.

  “I have no idea,” Lee said. “All I do is pick up any survivors we find.”

  “Poor Keith. That’s just horrible,” she said. After a moment, she looked back at Lee. “I’m sorry he took it out on you, though. It wasn’t your fault.”

  “I don’t think he cares,” Lee said. “He thought we were going to rescue his wife and instead we blew up her building. That’s how he sees it.”

  “Is he sure that her building was destroyed?”

  “He asked me and I was able to confirm it with a call to the base. It was totally demolished. When I verified it, he just kind of blew up.”

  “Wow,” Lindsey said. “I heard that he got drunk last night and went on some kind of a zombie-killing rampage, but I had no idea why he did it. This explains a lot.”

  The bikers walked away, leaving Lindsey and Lee to speak privately while the Coast Guard pilot helped get a group of people into the helicopter.

  Lee searched Lindsey’s eyes for a moment and then said, “You’re not going to the shelter, are you?”

  “No,” she said, looking down at her feet. “I’m sorry, Lee.”

  “Are you sure?” he asked, reaching down to take her hand. “Why stay here?”

  “There are people that need me here,” she said. “Autumn doesn’t want to go. I think I’d have to pry her away from the lab, kicking and screaming. I’m not as valuable as one of the doctors, but I keep busy here and I like that. I have the feeling that if I go to one of those shelters, I’ll just be another body to feed. Here, I have a purpose.”

  She told him about going along on the supply run and the rescue that morning.

  “It felt so good to be doing something to help,” she said.

  Reynolds frowned. “Lindsey, you’re taking an enormous risk going out into the city. It’s going to be hard enough to know I won’t see you again, but to know you’re out there fighting the infected is going to make it even worse.”

  “Well, isn’t that what you do?” she asked quietly. “I worry about you all the time, Lee.”

  “True, but I’m in a helicopter,” he said.

  “Which is supposed to be very dangerous, as I understand it,” she pointed out.

  He started to protest then had to laugh.

  “You got me on that one. I guess I’m not being fair, but I’m just not ready to let you go. I had hoped you’d go with me. The last few days have been incredible, and I was hoping you felt the same way.”

  “I do,” she admitted, a lump in her throat. “I have enjoyed every moment we’ve been together, but I feel that it would be selfish for me to go right now when I can help here. I just hope if you ever come back this way, you’ll stop and see me. Maybe by that time, I’ll be ready to go.”

  “I promise I’ll do my best,” he said, but the look in his eyes told her that he knew that it wasn’t likely that they’d see each other again.

  “Gotta run,” he said, when the pilot called over to let him know they were ready. “I’ll be back soon. We’ll have to make a lot of trips to get everybody moved.”

  After the helicopter lifted up into the sky, the other one took its place.

  ~*~

  Dr. Chan was updating the other doctors on Smiley’s condition.

  “His friend said that he gave him one of his Nitro tablets sublingually,” he said. “The bottle was supposed to be in his pocket but I couldn’t find it.”

  “We’ll look for it,” Dr. Sharma said. “You’d better run or they’ll leave you here.”

  An announcement had just been made over the intercom that everybody else that planned to leave needed to get to the roof at once.

  Dr. Chan glanced at his watch and nodded. “All right,” he said, shaking hands with the other two doctors. “The best of luck to both of you. Hopefully we’ll all meet up again someday when this chaos is behind us.”

  “It’s been great working with you,” Dr. Martinez said.

  “Thanks for everything,” Dr. Sharma added. “I’ve learned a lot from you.”

  Dr. Chan smiled and turned to hurry out the door. When he arrived on the roof, the last of the evacuees were preparing to leave. He hurried over to Snake and told him that there was nothing to report yet but that Dr. Sharma and Dr. Martinez were both with the patient.

  Snake thanked him and watched as the doctor got on the helicopter. Several other bikers had also come up to say goodbye as well as many of the other residents that were staying.

  ~*~

  Snake and Jack were seeing the others off when Major Wilson finally arrived on the roof. Wilson looked annoyed and Jack took this to mean that they hadn’t found the weapons. When the Major spotted them, he stormed over to where they were standing, but he had a gleam in his eye that Jack didn’t like. Eric followed closely behind him.

  “Uh oh, do you think your buddy told him about the weapons?” Snake asked quietly.

  “I hope not,” Jack said, though it wouldn’t have shocked him.

  Wilson came to a stop in front of them. “I know you’ve got the weapons hidden and you can plan on us coming back to find them.”

  “Where would we hide weapons?” Jack asked, throwing up his arms. “You said your men searched the building.”

  Wilson ignored the comment and continued with a smirk, “In the meantime, I need something to take back with me to keep the brass happy. I hope this isn’t a problem for you but we’re taking your pilot.” He nodded toward Eric and added, “You don’t have anything to fly anyway and we need him.”

  “I’m good with that,” Snake said.

  “No problem at all,” Jack added.

  When Wilson’s eyes narrowed at the quick replies, Snake added, “Well, I guess you won after all.”

  “But,” Eric started to interrupt.

  “No, Eric, really, it’s fine,” Jack said. “It’s for the good of the community, I mean, the new one; the shelter where you’re going.”

  “What about Cheri?” he asked, torn between his obsession for her and his need to feel important.

  “She’ll be fine here,” Jack said.

  “Maybe she should come with me so I can keep an eye on her,” Eric suggested.

  “No!” Snake and Jack said in unison.

  �
�She needs medical treatment,” Snake added quickly. “And Dr. Sharma’s made a lot of progress with her.”

  “Can I at least say goodbye?” Eric asked.

  “Son, we need to get going,” Wilson said. “I’m sorry about leaving your fiancé behind.”

  He patted Eric on the arm and walked to the helicopter with him. Once Eric was onboard, Jack and Snake high-fived each other then turned to watch as the helicopter got ready to take off.

  Wilson, stuck his head out and said, “Reynolds! Let’s roll!”

  “I’ve got to go now,” Lee told Lindsey, taking a moment to kiss her. She hugged him hard before they parted, and she watched him run over to the helicopter that he was copiloting. Lindsey waved at him as he walked away, sad to see him go, but knowing she had made the right decision.

  As Reynolds passed Snake and Jack, he quietly said, “Don’t worry too much about Wilson’s threats. I think it’s a bluff and I doubt he’ll be back, but you might want to be prepared to hide the weapons again, just in case.”

  “Thanks for everything,” Jack said.

  ~*~

  “We’re losing him,” Dr. Sharma said, getting ready once again to use the paddles on Smiley. The generator went out and Dr. Martinez quickly lit a lantern.

  “We’ll have to do CPR,” he said, hurrying over to start compressions.

  “Shall I try to get Dr. Chan?” Dr. Sharma asked. “Maybe the helicopter hasn’t left yet.”

  “What’s he going to do?” Martinez asked. “He can’t control the generator.”

  Dr. Sharma noticed something under the bed and reached down to pick it up. It was Smiley’s Nitroglycerine bottle. The label was worn and hard to read but she could see by the date that it was years old.

  “Look at this,” she said, showing the bottle to the other doctor.

  “Well, that sure doesn’t help,” Martinez said, continuing the compressions.

  The lights flickered and came on for a moment, but then went out again. It happened two more times and then the lights stayed out. After twenty minutes of CPR, Dr. Martinez called the time of death.

  “Damn it,” Martinez said. “We should’ve been able to save him.”