“It’ll be okay. Why don’t you head back upstairs and wait? I’ll be done with this shortly,” Paul said.
“I’m not going anywhere, I got you back. I’m sorry I lost it there for a second but I’m alright now,” Nick said.
He pulled his pistol out from behind his back and prepared himself to help clear the bar. Nick had learned just like Paul that you never go anywhere in this new world without a weapon.
“Alright then let’s do this,” Paul said.
The thought of trying to talk Nick out of it had crossed his mind but he knew Nick needed to do it. Nick had lost people too and Nick needed to learn to fight if he was going to survive. If Nick was going to fight and learn to survive then Paul wanted to be there by his side to help him and protect him. The two men stood behind the door and locked eyes as they got ready to open the door. Each man took a deep breath and Paul nodded at Nick and Nick nodded back, they knew it was now or never.
The door swung open as Paul kicked it and stepped into the bar as his AR15 lit up the room. Nick was right behind him and he was firing off round after round in synch with Paul. The two of them were now standing shoulder to shoulder and continued firing into the crowd of undead. The undead were making their way towards the two men. They were also falling one by one as the bullets found their targets and exploded threw their skulls. Nick had fired off his last round and stood there watching Paul continue to drop zombie after zombie. Paul was in a zone and was unaware that Nick had stopped firing. He just kept firing and Nick was standing in awe of him as he went to work on the undead.
The moment was shattered as the room filled with what sounded like an explosion and the two men were blinded with a bright flash of light that filled the room. Paul was knocked back by the blast and blinding light, as he fell back he caught the edge of a table with the back of his head. Everything quickly went dark as the world around him faded to black.
Seventeen
Paul had no idea where he was when he woke up but he knew he wasn’t at the bar anymore. He looked around the room as he sat up in the military style cot that he had woken up in. The room seemed to be an improvised hospital that was constructed in a large room that looked like the banquet hall of a hotel. There were people that must have been doctors walking around checking on other people who were also laid out on cots through out the room. There were people hooked up to ivs and others with bandages wrapped around various body parts.
Paul began to get up from the cot but sat back down as his head swirled and he became dizzy. He reached his hand up and felt a bandage wrapped around his head and ran his hand around it to the back of his head. He found a spot on the back that felt tender to the touch.
He tried to stand again and was able to find his footing and he stood there for a moment as he let the dizziness pass.
“Be careful, you had a nice size gash on the back of your head and I’m pretty sure you have a concussion. You may want to sit back down,” said a young redhead woman.
She was wearing a white lab coat and was busy stitching up another guys arm as she spoke to Paul. She was slender with fire red hair that hung down to her shoulders, she had soft features with no make up and the brightest green eyes Paul had ever seen.
“I’m guessing you’re the doctor,” Paul said as he sat back down on the cot.
“Yea, my name is Sarah but you can call me the doctor if you want,” she said with a smile.
“Well Dr. Sarah, could you help me by first telling me where I am and how I got here,” Paul said.
“It’s nice to meet you too and you’re welcome for the five stitches I put in the back of your head,” she said as she continued to work on the other man’s arm.
“I’m sorry if I’m being rude. My name is Paul and thanks for fixing me up. Now that we got the pleasantries out of the way could you please tell me where I am?” Paul said with a sarcastic smile.
“You don’t have to be rude,” Sarah responded.
Paul rubbed his head again trying to clear the cobwebs and calm down before he spoke again “I’m sorry, the last thing I remember was I was killing a bunch of those monsters. Then there was a bright flash and I woke up here. I don’t mean to be rude, I’m just not a big fan of waking up and not knowing what the hell is going on or where I am.”
“You’re in the Philips Hotel, we’ve set up a make shift shelter here. Some of the soldiers found you after they cleared the bar and they brought you back here. That was three days ago,” Sarah said as she finished up the man’s arm and then turned to face Paul.
He could barely believe what he was hearing and he spoke again “holy crap, I was out for three days. What happen to my friend? Is he here too? His name is Nick; he was at the bar with me.”
Sarah turned her attention to the man she had just stitched up and said something to him but Paul couldn’t hear what she said. She got up from his cot and began to walk away before answering Paul’s question.
Paul was irritated by this and spoke louder “I asked you a question, where is my friend?”
Sarah stopped and stared down at the ground with her back to Paul. She slowly turned to face him and she took a breath before she spoke “I’m sorry, you were the only person they brought back with them. I’m guessing your friend didn’t make it. I’m truly sorry.”
“Who’s in charge around here?” Paul asked as he got to his feet again.
The dizziness came and went again but he felt a little more solid on his feet this time.
“You need to slow down and get back in bed. If you have a concussion then it’s not good for you to be running around,” Sarah said.
“I’m fine. I need to talk to whoever is in charge,” Paul said.
“His name is Donaldson. He stays in room 214,” Sarah said.
Paul stood there staring at her for a second before he spoke again; she could tell by the look on his face that something was bothering him.
“His name wouldn’t happen to be David Donaldson,” Paul asked.
“Yea that’s him. I take it you know him,” Sarah replied. He shook his head and sat back down on the cot with his head in his hands.
“We have a history; we served together in the Middle East, he was my C.O.” Paul said as he sat there staring at the ground and tried to figure out his next move.
“Your co?” she asked.
He looked up to meet her gaze and said “sorry, it means commanding officer.”
“Oh,” she said.
“I guess that’s a good thing then, right? At least we have a leader running this place and he’s a friend of yours. That should make you happy to know someone who’s still alive,” Sarah said with a smile. Her smile quickly went as she noticed her words weren’t cheering him up.
“I never said he was my friend. I just said I knew him,” Paul said with coldness in his voice that made Sarah take a step back.
“Well I have patients I need to check on. Take care of yourself Paul,” Sarah said and then walked away.
“Thank you again Doctor. I’m sorry I was being rude,” Paul said to her back as she walked away.
He looked around the cot and glanced around the room but as far as he could tell his weapons were gone. His next stop would be room 214 to talk to David and figure out what was going on.
The hallway outside the banquet room was nice and Paul knew this place was one of the nicer hotels in town. He had heard of the Philips Hotel before but had never actually been inside of it. There was art that looked expensive lining the hallway walls and the floor was a light colored marble. He wandered the halls until he came out into a large open room; he knew it had to be the lobby of the hotel.
The front doors were covered with sheets plywood and the chairs and couches that use to fill the lobby area were now pushed up against the doors. Paul knew that most hotel rooms numbered their rooms by the floor they were on, so he figured 214 would be on the second floor. There was a staircase off to his left side that led upstairs so that was where he was headed next.
&nb
sp; The second floor was a lot like the first hallway Paul had found himself in; there was art on the walls and marble floors. He found the room numbers down the right side of the hallway were all even numbered rooms and the numbers went up the further down the hall they were. So he headed down the hall that seemed to go on forever. As he approached room 214 he noticed that there was a man with an M4 rifle posted outside the room. The closer he got to the room the more he was able to make out the man’s face. He knew the man standing in front of the door, the man in front of the door was now looking at him.
“Paul is that you?” the man asked.
“Yea it’s me. It’s good to see you Marcus,” Paul said as he walked up and gave Marcus a hug.
Marcus was a large muscular African American man who stood about three inches taller than Paul. He had a shaved head and brown eyes and he was one of the nicest guys Paul had ever known.
“It’s so great to see you buddy. I’m glad you’re okay,” Marcus said.
“It’s been too long my friend,” Paul said.
“Yea I don’t think we’ve talked since everything went down in that village in Afghanistan,” Marcus said.
Paul wasn’t sure what to say so he decided to move on without getting into that subject.
“Well I’m glad you’re alright and it is great to see you but I need to get in there and talk to David,” Paul said.
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea. He knows you’re here but I’m not sure if he’s down with a reunion,” Marcus replied.
“I need to talk to him. I need to find out what’s going on,” Paul said.
“Wait here. I’ll ask him but I can’t make any promises,” Marcus said and then turned and opened the door.
Paul stood in the hall for what have must have been five minutes, he could hear two men talking in the room but it was hard to make out what they were saying. The sound of someone walking towards the door was followed by Marcus opening the door. He motioned for Paul to come in. Paul entered the room and looked around.
The room was a large suite that had been converted to a base of operations. The living room of the suite had large dry erase boards with maps and plans taped to them. There was a large desk off to the side of the room; David was sitting in a leather chair behind the desk.
David was a middle aged man with a bald head and a mustache that was greyer than Paul had remembered it being. He was fairly fit for an older man and even though he wasn’t that tall he had an aura about him that commanded respect.
Paul walked over to the desk and stood in front of it and said “I would salute but I’m not actually in the Army anymore.”
“That’s okay I’m not either,” David said.
“Please have a seat,” David added.
Paul sat down in one of the two leather chairs positioned in front of the desk. David stared at Paul for a moment before he spoke again “so what can I help you with Paul? And I hope this isn’t about what happened in Afghanistan, I’m hoping we can move past that now.”
“You mean when you ordered us to wipeout an entire village full of people?” Paul said with a snarl in his voice.
This was the first time in a long time that Paul had said it out loud and it brought back with it a flood of emotions.
“I had my orders and you had yours. You were a soldier and your job was to follow those orders,” David responded with anger in his voice.
“We weren’t murderers and you know that, we don’t kill innocent people! There were women and children in that village! I couldn’t follow that order and you shouldn’t have either,” Paul said loudly.
“Yea you let me know you couldn’t follow that order when you broke my jaw,” David said as his voice grew louder also.
The two men locked eyes and stared at each other and they both seemed to be waiting for the other one to make a move.
It was David that broke the silence and spoke again “let’s calm down before this gets out of hand. Just know you’re lucky I only had you kicked out of the Army instead of having you thrown in prison for assaulting me.”
Paul grinned a little after David finished his statement and responded “well just know you’re lucky I only broke your jaw.”
“You don’t get it do you? You saw those people in that village; they were just like those things we’re dealing with now. That village was compromised; we had to contain the situation. They were all dead already,” David said softly as he seemed to travel back to that night.
“There were still people we could have saved; you didn’t even let us try. You had them bomb that village out of existence, kicked me out and covered it up like nothing ever happened. You really believe what you did was right?” Paul replied.
David had a somber look on his face and he seemed to hesitate before he spoke again “I did what I was told and I followed orders. Regardless of how I felt about the situation I did my job, you should have too.”
“I would have walked into hell with you and not thought twice about it but what happen there was wrong. I wasn’t going to help murder an entire village,” Paul said with his voice now calm and under control.
“There were circumstances I couldn’t tell you about that night. Things I’ve never told anyone because they were need to know and you didn’t need to know. I wish I could have told you but I couldn’t,” David said as he met Paul’s eyes.
Paul could see the regret in his eyes and he knew David was being genuine with what he was saying.
“So tell me now,” Paul said.
David seemed to drift off in thought again as he stared at Paul. It was another minute that the men sat in silence. Paul figured he wasn’t going to get the answers he was looking for so he was about to speak again but was interrupted by David.
“Marcus could you leave us alone for a minute?” David asked as he spoke to Marcus who was still standing behind Paul.
“Yes sir, I’ll be in the hall if you need me,” Marcus said and walked away.
David turned his attention back to Paul “what I’m about to tell you is top secret and only a handful of people have ever known what really happened in that village.”
“Well seeing as the world has ended I guess your secret will be safe with me,” Paul said with a serious look on his face.
“You have no idea how true that statement is,” David responded.
“Which part? The part about the end of the world or your secret being safe with me?” Paul asked.
“The world is done, this isn’t just happening here. It’s happening everywhere, it really is the end of the world. It spread too fast,” David said as he stared off into the distance as his mind raced to keep up with what he was saying.
“What the hell happened?” Paul asked.
“It started in that village in Afghanistan; our government was testing out a new super virus they had developed. It was suppose to look like a bad flu but they knew it would be lethal. They didn’t realize that after they died those sons of bitches would get back up. The virus had spread too quickly after they started getting back up, all it took was one bite and you were done. That’s why we had to level the village. We had to keep it from spreading,” David said.
Paul sat there staring at him as he struggled to take in what he just heard “first off I just want to say that’s fucked up. How could our government do something like that? And not that it would make it any better but didn’t they test it before they gave it to humans?”
“Yea they tested it on rats but all it did was kill them. For some reason it reacted differently with humans,” David said.
“What the hell man?” Paul said in disbelief.
“That’s not even the worst part,” David said. Paul didn’t speak; he just sat there staring at David.
“After we leveled the village everything was covered up. The big brass and people at the top were told the mission was a success and they were going to move on with phase two,” David said.
Paul hesitated to ask but he knew he had to ask, “what was phase t
wo?”
“Phase two is what you see outside, we did this. The world ended because of us,” David said as he stared down at his desk and a look of shame covered his face.
“I’m trying to follow what you’re saying but I can’t seem to understand it. You mean to tell me that our own government released this hell on us?” Paul asked as he stared across the desk at David.
“They didn’t know it would happen the way it did. It was meant to be a population control thing, they figured if they thinned out the herd then maybe it would be easier to get the economy back on track. They started by giving out free flu shots to the homeless but really they were pumping them full of that super virus. They did this all over the country in all the major cities. By the time they realized what was happening it was too late. They had given out thousands if not millions of shots,” David said softly and Paul could tell it hurt him more with every word he spoke.
The two men sat there in silence for a few minutes and neither one of them were sure what to say next. They sat there in silence for a while longer until Paul spoke “if they started it here then how did it spread to other countries?”
“The world is a much smaller place these days. It didn’t take long for people to freak out and get on planes to other countries. They figured they could get away and be safe. It took a couple days before the airports were finally shutdown. By then there was no telling how many people had been infected before they boarded planes. It was chaos everywhere in those first few days. Hell, it took a few days before our own government figured out what was happening and by then it was to late,” David said.
“So who’s running things now? Who do you get your orders from?” Paul asked.
“There’s nobody running things now. Our government has fallen along with most of the rest of the worlds governments. There’s no one coming to save the day, we’re on our own. Most of the military disbanded after the first couple of days when they realized things were getting out of control. I can’t say I really blame them; people had their own families to protect. Some of us got together and now here we are in this hotel just trying to survive. We take in who we can but we’re running out of room quick,” David said.
Love, Revenge and Zombies Page 14