Zoe, Undead

by J. R. Knoll

  Even with everything done, they both stayed by the girl's bedside, just staring down at her, and they both privately prayed that she would find her way back.

  A young soldier knocked on the open door to draw their attention and reported, "The colonel wants to see you both in the conference room immediately."

  They glanced at each other, then turned and followed the private out, and Rachel ordered the nurse who was on stand-by, "Let us know as soon as there is any change in her condition."

  The conference room was quiet and everyone was already in their place. There with the colonel was the Lieutenant, both corporals, Alfred Knox, Morgan, and Josh.

  Doctor Kavorski pulled his colleague's chair out for her, then he sat beside her and folded his hands on the table.

  Rachel settled herself and looked to the colonel, and from his expression as he stared down at the papers before him, he did not have good news.

  Colonel Halstead was quiet for another long moment, then he looked to the people who stared at him and simply said, "They've found us."

  Tension instantly gripped the room.

  "They're breaching barricades on two sides," he continued. "We expect them to assault the hospital within the hour. We've studied this scenario for a month and the conclusion is always the same. They'll end up surrounding the building and we'll end up with no way in or out, no way to get supplies or send missions out to find survivors. Eventually, they'll find a way to breech the hospital itself. The outlook of our ammo holding out over an extended siege is doubtful. We are about to find ourselves in a world of hurt here, people." He looked to Knox, to Josh. "Any suggestions?"

  "How about fighting our way out?" Alfred advised. "We could make it through one side at least."

  "Already looking into that," the colonel confirmed, "but we'll have to get the Stryker and the other vehicles away before we get surrounded. I already have teams ready to board them and they'll make strikes against the mobs once they're away, but that's only a temporary solution. The team at the power plant has been notified and I've given them orders to stay put for now. They have one Stryker and a Hummer already there, so we'll call them in for hit and run strikes as needed."

  Doctor Caswell bowed her head and rubbed her eyes. "We are so close to stopping this thing."

  "How's Princess?" the colonel asked with a solemn tone.

  "We don't know yet," she replied. "She hasn't regained consciousness. We took samples of brain and spinal fluid as well as blood and other tissue to check on the status of the virus. Her blood is still infected but the tests on her cranial spinal fluid are either inconclusive or not complete."

  Halstead nodded and looked to the table. "Okay, people. We're about to find ourselves on red alert here and we'd better think about what we're going to do about it. I want food stores taken to the top floor and everyone who isn't going to fight moved to the top two floors. I also want all of the ammo and weapons we can muster moved to floor five. Disable the elevators and lets be ready to barricade or otherwise cover the stairs. We need to set up for an extended siege and hope that someone sends us some kind of reinforcements before we give out here." He looked around the room and asked, "Does everyone know what they're supposed to do?"

  Alfred spoke up again. "I still have some supplies in the RV. Me and the boy can go out and get what we need and bring them inside here if you need."

  The colonel looked to Corporal Anderson and ordered, "Assemble a detail to help them out."

  "Yes, Sir," the corporal complied.

  "I don't want to move Zoe yet," Rachel informed. "If there's even the slightest chance of her recovering then I think we should give it to her."

  "I'll have a detail down there to assist you," the colonel assured, "but if things go badly and that floor gets overrun then you will fall back to the upper floors, understood?"

  She nodded and assured, "Agreed, Colonel."

  Alfred asked, "Did your men see any of them mad-dogs comin' this way?"

  "Afraid so," the Colonel confirmed.

  Doctor Kavorski informed, "We did find out what is causing that particular anomaly." When attention focused on him, he went on, "It seems that they occur as a result of a human victim being bitten by an infected dog. Usually, as the result of a dog attack, we don't expect the human victim to survive, but apparently there were those who got away from their attackers and survived long enough for the virus to turn them, but it did so as if it was turning a canine, and that is where the behavior seems to come from. You see, any virus needs living host cells to reproduce, and as with this virus it borrows some elements of the host's DNA to that end. In this case, it passes on the canine DNA to the human host and we have what you are calling the mad-dog zombies."

  "Very enlightening," the colonel commended dryly. "So when we see them we'll throw a stick and hope they'll chase it."

  "Not likely," the Doctor corrected. "You'll have to think of them more as animals with rabies."

  "So," Josh guessed, "just put them down like we have been."

  "Let's save the discussion for another time," Colonel Halstead ordered, "and get ready to receive these sons of bitches when they hit us. We're likely to be faced with a fighting retreat all the way to the fifth floor, and from there it will be stand our ground or we all die. Let's get with the program, boys and girls."

  CHAPTER 14

  Before evening fell, the zombies had already surrounded the hospital. All teams fought gallantly, but the glass doors of the first floor succumbed quickly. Fire teams in the vehicles that were parked out front did what damage they could, but from there it was a fighting retreat away from the hospital to draw off as many as they could, but only a few hundred pursued them. This mob was the biggest yet and it seemed that every zombie in the city was converging on the hospital, their biggest remaining source of food. At last count, over four hundred people had sought refuge and now occupied the top two floors of the six story hospital, and those who were directed to fight did so with great vigor and aggression against an enemy that now numbered over ten thousand.

  The defenders of the first floor retreated to the stairwell and barricaded the doors as best they could before retreating to the next level to make another stand. It took the zombies some time, but they finally broke through in two stairwells and relentlessly climbed up after those who still lived, those they meant to eat. Ammunition would not hold out long and everyone knew it, and the San Antonio Zombie Response Team was ready for that eventuality. Though they still fought with rifles, pistols and shotguns, they all had machetes, crow bars and a variety of knives hanging from their belts to await their turn. Other ZRT fighters were also brandishing improvised hand to hand weapons from anything they could find, and Morgan had a crossbow hanging on her back with a quiver of a dozen bolts that she would use as soon as her ammunition was exhausted.

  In the ICU, Doctor Kavorski and Rachel continued to work with the samples taken from the still lifeless zombie girl who lay strapped to her bed.

  With the sounds of the battle drawing closer from seemingly all sides, Doctor Caswell sat at the nurse's station, which they had fashioned into a makeshift lab, and peered into a microscope, slowly turning the knob to bring her subject into focus.

  Doctor Kavorski strode in at a hurried pace and slammed a handful of papers down, shaking his head as he barked, "The virus is still in her blood! I don't understand! With all of the heat she was subjected to it should have died!"

  Rachel continued to stare into the microscope and said calmly back, "It's acting differently in her tissues now. I'm not sure if the heat weakened it or what happened exactly." She pulled away from the microscope and looked to the bank of heart monitors that was integrated into the desk. Only one was on, one that showed more of a wave than a heartbeat. "Her heart even seems a little stronger, and her brain spiked activity twice. She's still in there. Now we just have to figure out how to get her awake."

  "I doubt we'll have time to make that happen," he grumbled. Looking up to an approaching s
oldier, he asked, "How does it look?"

  "Not good," the soldier replied. "We're pulling back. You two are going to have to come with us."

  "I'm staying with her," Doctor Caswell insisted.

  "Not an option, Ma'am," the soldier informed. My orders are to get you and your team to the top floor."

  "We can't just leave her," Rachel insisted. Rising from her chair, she stormed around the desk and past the men, and right into Zoe's room.

  At the girl's bedside, she grasped her arm, clenching her teeth as she observed, "She's warmer than she was." Turning to the door as Kavorski and the soldier entered, she said, "We have to take her with us, then. We can't just leave her."

  Doctor Kavorski approached and took her shoulders. "Rachel, it's over! We have to go! We've obtained all of the information from her we can."

  Rachel pulled away and looked back down to the girl. She unbuckled Zoe's wrist and held it with her fingers to look for a pulse, and she clenched her jaw when she did not find what she was looking for.

  Gunfire erupted down the hall and they all looked toward the door.

  "That's it!" the soldier barked. "We're going. Now! Grab your reports and let's go!"

  Looking down to the girl, Rachel gently stroked her hair, then reluctantly turned and strode out of the door.

  Escorted by three ZRT soldiers, two armed with M-4's and the third a shotgun, the two doctors hurried along toward the last secure stairwell. Kavorski carried a folder full of papers and a notebook while Doctor Caswell carried a plastic box that was filled with vials of samples taken from Zoe.

  They all turned to the corridor on the right, two soldiers in front and one bringing up the rear. Halfway down this corridor was where the elevators were, and the door to the stairwell. With the elevators all in the basement and power to them turned off, the stairs were the only option to get to higher floors.

  Nearly to the elevators, the two soldiers in the front stopped, and one raised his fist to signal those behind to do the same.

  They could see the elevators, and the door right beside them that was marked as access to the stairwell, and that door opened.

  A zombie pushed his way out and stopped, then was pushed forward by another. Another emerged after that one, then another. They were a mix of genders and sizes and races, and they were beginning to fill the hallway ahead. A strangled moan escaped one, a deeper moan escaped another. One of them cried out as if startled. They all moved with jerky motions and many seemed to be having difficulty holding their heads up.

  "Slowly back away," one of the soldiers up front ordered.

  All five people retreated with steps that were as quiet as they could make them.

  One of the zombies looked their way and lowered his head, and his brow, and his lips slid away from yellow stained teeth as a moan escaped him. He started toward them, walking like he was drunk, and this alerted others who turned and saw them, and followed. A louder moan sounded from one of the others and still more turned on the people who backed away from them. More still emerged from the stairwell and turned immediately to pursue the only source of food they could see.

  The first soldier reached for his radio and raised it to his mouth, loudly saying into it, "MD escort to central command. Center stairwell is breached. We're taking them to the west stairwell."

  "Negative!" the radio answered. "West stairwell has been overrun. Get to the stairs at the south garage. That one appears to be holding, but hurry! They're calling for help from that area already!"

  "Roger that," the soldier complied. Looking over his shoulder, he ordered, "South stairs, double time!"

  They all turned and ran, and the zombies pursued.

  "We don't have enough ammo for a sustained defense!" one of the soldiers barked.

  "I know," the first confirmed. "We just need to get…" He stopped.

  They all stopped.

  More zombies were blocking their path.

  Raising his weapon, the first soldier informed, "Looks like we're fighting our way through." He fired in short bursts and two of the dozen zombies ahead of them fell. The other soldier also aimed and fired, and together they slowly advanced in half steps.

  The soldier behind them turned and looked behind him, then he raised his weapon and fired into the mob behind them that was closing on them with alarming speed. "We need to go!" he shouted between shots.

  With the dozen zombies ahead of them down, they all resumed their flight toward the elevators near the south garage, only to be confronted by a few others. The soldiers in front aimed and engaged them, advancing in those half steps again, but this only gave the mob behind them time to catch up again.

  Firing into the mob behind, the soldier bringing up the rear retreated at the same half step pace the others advanced with, and the doctors found themselves caught in the center.

  A magazine was emptied and fell to the floor, replaced by another. Someone else emptied and replaced the spent magazine in a couple of seconds.

  "We need to get these doctors to safety," the first soldier shouted. "That is our top priority!"

  "I'm out!" the soldier behind them declared. He threw his weapon into the mob and reached for his sidearm, aiming carefully and firing with a good eye right into the heads of those zombies that were closest.

  "You have to hold!" the first soldier ordered.

  When his weapon made an empty click, the soldier behind looked over his shoulder to see the front was almost clear, then he holstered his empty weapon and drew his knife. "Doctor," he yelled over the gunfire. "Can you really cure this epidemic?"

  "We're sure we can," Doctor Kavorski assured, hugging the papers to him as he slowly advanced behind the soldiers before him.

  "Make sure you do," the soldier behind them ordered. "Make this all worthwhile." With that, he yelled and charged the crowd of zombies behind the group, and he slammed into them with a furious purpose, slashing his knife, punching, kicking, doing as much damage as he could, and he stopped their advance.

  In a moment, one of the zombies got a hand on him, then another clutched him, and another. He yelled again as he was drug into the mass of undead horror, and as he continued to fight them, the first of many screams exploded from him as the zombies began their grisly meal, as they began to eat him alive, but many zombies paid dearly for this meal and the whole mob stopped.

  This sacrifice bought time for the four survivors who fled toward the southern stairs, and when they had almost arrived they found themselves confronting yet another group of zombies. Both soldiers fired their rifles into the mob of almost twenty zombies, but after a few loud cracks from the muzzles, both weapons made empty clicks. The soldiers dropped them and each reached for his sidearm, and in a second both had their weapons leveled on the dozen that remained. Both automatic pistols belched fire and lead and zombie after zombie dropped.

  When the last one fell, the first soldier withdrew his magazine and looked to it, then to his comrade and he informed. "I have four left."

  The other soldier did the same, shaking his head as he grumbled, "Five."

  "Nine rounds between us," the first said absently.

  Moans from ahead drew everyone's attention.

  "They've already breached the stairs," the first soldier reported. "Everybody back."

  "There are more behind us!" Rachel cried.

  "We won't take that hallway," the first soldier informed. "Let's head toward the west side and see what we find."

  "That's back toward ICU," Doctor Kavorski pointed out, "and we heard them from the other side."

  "I don't see any other options," the second soldier advised. "We stay in one place too long and they'll find us."

  "Let's go," the first ordered.

  They fled back the way they had come, taking a different corridor that veered to the left. Somewhere, there had to be stairs or a window or some way out!

  The ICU blurred by and they found themselves fleeing toward the west side of the hospital where the critical rooms were located, a
nd hopefully a clear stairway.

  "Elevator's ahead," the first soldier barked as they trotted at a cautious place to that end. Looking to the doctors, he ordered, "You two hang back. We'll check it out."

  The two doctors stopped and watched the soldiers take aim with their side arms and stalk toward a turn ahead.

  "This is a nightmare," Doctor Caswell breathed as she watched their only protection grow further and further away.

  The two soldiers disappeared around a corner.

  "Just stay calm," Doctor Kavorski ordered. "We'll get there."

  Gunfire erupted again, this time in front of them, the unmistakable pops of the handguns. There were the sounds of a struggle. One of the men yelled, then the other. The sounds grew more and more distant…

  A door closed hard, then silence.

  The two doctors huddled closely together, staring wide eyed down the corridor.

  "They got them!" Rachel whispered. "We're alone out here!"

  Kavorski looked around them, then he motioned behind with his head and whispered back, "This way. Just stay quiet and let's move as quickly as we can."

  They retreated back toward the ICU, but stopped suddenly as they heard a moan from ahead, the moan of a young woman.

  "Back," Kavorski ordered in a whisper.

  They backed away, then turned and strode the other way, only to stop again when there was a moan from in front of them, and the shuffling of approaching footsteps.

  "Oh, God!" Rachel breathed. "We're cornered!"

  "Back," Doctor Kavorski said in a low voice.

  Another zombie appeared ahead of them, turning in from the next hallway. Another was with him, and another behind that one. All three of them had the doctors in their sights, and all three lumbered toward them.

  Looking behind them, they saw a shadow fall over the doorway of one of the rooms. The moans of the zombies before them drew their attention to the first three that were only about ten feet away now, and they backed up.