From their vantage point, they could see back up the street from where they had come, the most likely route the two men would take to reunite with the rest of them. Meghan alternated between holding the radio to her ear or to her mouth, with which she would plead for any response. None was forthcoming.
Dr. Caldwell, meanwhile, had gone up to the top tier and was using the binoculars to get a better view. It didn’t look good. There were still hundreds of the things moving up the street in the direction that the two men had traveled. They weren’t moving as fast as the others who were originally on their heels. They were probably just chasing the group that was chasing Neil and Jerry. They weren’t nearly as animated or as alert, though they were every bit as frightening.
He decided that it would probably be wise to do some looking all around them and maybe even check out their next step. He looked around at the top tier of the parking deck. There was no roof and no cars, so it was more or less a one block by one block open-air parking lot.
He’d only been up here once before. It was Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, and he was pretty certain that everyone had decided to come to the Fifth Avenue Mall for whatever big sale at which his wife was also determined to be. They grabbed one of three remaining parking spots in the whole garage. It was cold and slushy and earlier than he wanted to be awake. He was miserable that day and complained almost the whole time.
He could remember that day like it had just happened. He remembered the petty resentment that he felt toward his wife for making him come. He was suddenly ashamed of himself and longing for his wife. He walked over to what he thought had been the spot in which he had parked that morning. He stood there and remembered his wife and the life they’d had together. It wasn’t perfect but it was good. They shared more laughter than tears, but they shared it all. No longer optimistic about her prospects for survival, he thought about her last moments. It was agonizing for him to think that she likely had to suffer so much and was alone in doing so. He said quietly to the wind, “Oh honey. I’m so sorry.” He could feel the grief begin to wrap its rough, hot hands around his heart, but then he heard, “Sorry for what?”
He pivoted around, expecting to see his wife, and instead saw Emma, who was walking toward him. He shook his head and said, the pain forcing a slight crack into his voice, “I was talking to...thinking about...remembering...my wife.”
She paused for a moment, not sure whether he wanted the company or not. Despite her feelings for him, she didn’t want to impose herself or be a nuisance. She had actually come up to the top at Meghan’s urging because it didn’t make any sense for any of them to wander off alone. She’d eagerly complied with Meghan’s request, and even went so far as to try and convince herself that she was going after the doctor because it was sensible, and not because she wanted to be in his company all the time.
She suddenly felt like an interloper, as if she had interrupted a private conversation between a married couple. She was all set to turn on her heels and walk away when he looked up at her. “Memory is the weirdest thing,” he said, “and it sneaks up on you when you least expect it.” He wanted to say more but he just cracked a difficult but seemingly reassuring smile for both of them.
She could sense that he was still hurting and wanting to say more. What could she possibly say that would bring any solace? It was especially difficult for her given that she was more and more convinced that she wanted to be the one for which he held special, random memories. She was becoming the “other woman”. It didn’t matter that his wife was likely amongst the ranks of the undead currently wandering the city.
“Meghan thought it would be a good idea if I...if you weren’t...I can just go back down if you want to be alone.”
“No, no. It’s fine. I just wanted to check out where we’re going to be heading and see if I might be able to catch a glimpse of Neil and Jerry.”
“D’you think they’re going to make it?”
With the toe of his shoe Dr. Caldwell fiddled with a small pile of sand. While he made lines in the fine grains, he said, “If you’re asking me if I think they have a chance of getting back to us, I’m not sure. There are an awful lot of those things down there. Neil is pretty smart and Jerry is good too, there are just so damned many of them. I guess I don’t know that there would be a whole lot of value in waiting for them for too long. I don’t think it would be wise to mention this around Meghan. Is she going to be able to make it?”
Emma shook her head doubtfully. “I don’t know. Maybe. She’s seeming pretty desperate right now.”
“Is there anything any of us can do?”
“Yeah. Can you make all of this go away and have things go back to normal again?”
Again appreciating her humor, the doctor smiled. “Sure. And then I can solve the mystery of cold fusion and the gift of immortality.”
She smiled at him. “Meghan will keep up. She has to. What choice does she or any of us have? Now how is our next move looking? Gift of immortality?”
Chapter 34
Heading directly north from the parking garage was a street that became a bridge connecting downtown Anchorage with its neighbor, Elmendorf Air Force Base, part of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. Midway across the bridge was what appeared to be a pair of military Humvees that had attempted to hold back the surge and had met the same fate as every other roadblock.
Leading up to the two-vehicle barricade, Dr. Caldwell could see a swath of discarded clothing, luggage, children’s toys, and the odds and ends of a populace on the run for its life. He’d seen similar sights during his tour in the Middle East; refugees fleeing the fighting in search of a peaceful stretch of real estate where there wasn’t shooting and dying all around. The sad truth that Dr. Caldwell suspected and even accepted was that in this conflict there was no such place. The dying and suffering was a self-perpetuating mess that never stopped pursuing these refugees. They could count themselves lucky if it didn’t precede them to where they were running and was waiting for their arrival.
He couldn’t see to the far side of the bridge to the security checkpoint, but he suspected that it would just be the same as everywhere else. He was fostering the lingering, perhaps teasing, sense of hope that the military training, organizational capabilities, and armament of the security forces of the joint military bases would have somehow enabled them to be successful where everyone else had failed so miserably. That hope was already fading. Seeing the abandoned Humvees and the disarray all around and behind them didn’t help matters. Was there hope for any of them anymore? It was becoming ever more difficult for him to hold at bay his pessimism regarding that question.
During the Gulf War, he’d seen and heard that sense of ever impending doom with soldiers engaged in the day-to-day meat grinder that the conflict had become during his deployment. Some of the men just seemed to come to terms with the fact, in their minds, that the battles and the killing and the death would never end. In fact, most of the men, once true combat exhaustion had set upon their nerves and their emotions, accepted the fact that death was inevitable and usually waiting around the next corner or on the next patrol. The numbness to which combat fatigue led was both a blessing and a curse. And Dr. Caldwell understood that all too well. Yet, there he was, with the proverbial Novocain dulling his senses and his judgment.
He fought back his doubts, at the very least for the moment, because he was preparing himself to go deal with Meghan. They couldn’t afford to wait much longer. It had been some time since Neil and Jerry had led the horde away, and it was becoming less and less likely that either of the two men were going to re-emerge. As much as it pained Dr. Caldwell to think it and even accept it, it was a reality that they couldn’t ignore.
He and Emma made their way back across the top floor of the parking deck. They stood there for a few more minutes, hoping for any sign at all that the two men were still alive. There hadn’t been any gunshots in quite some time and the mob of creatures down the street had moved out of sight.
A few stragglers, primarily undead beasts whose bodies had been mangled enough in dying as to impact their mobility, were still lingering in the now largely empty street. They seemed lost and confused, like sheep that had been separated from the flock.
“I think we should go talk to Meghan,” he said to his companion.
From behind both of them, Meghan, who was walking up the ramped driveway, asked, “Talk to me about what?” She was still holding the radio, which was singing its static-filled tune, firmly in her right hand. At every slight interruption in the empty atmospheric white noise, Meghan’s eyes would not too subtly cast themselves down toward the device and then look back up hopefully.
Dr. Caldwell looked into her eyes and was about to speak when Meghan interrupted him. “Don’t even suggest that we’re leaving him. None of us would have ever made it this far without him. We owe him some time.”
“I know how hard this is to hear, Meghan, but we have to deal with reality. We both know that we can’t stay here indefinitely. We have to face the facts. I don’t like it any more than you do.”
“Then give him more time. He’s still out there. He can make it back. We wouldn’t be here without him. How far do you think...?” The tears welling up in her eyes and the heated pain in her chest robbed her of voice. She crumpled down against the concrete wall and let the powerlessness and the desperation take her. She hung her head and let her eyes be raging storm clouds to the pavement below her. She forced out, “We can’t. He can’t.”
Dr. Caldwell found in his reserves of past training the capacity to remain calm and reassuring. He said as soothingly and honestly as possible, “We can’t let his sacrifice be meaningless. We have to keep moving. Even Neil would agree with that. Wouldn’t he?”
Not looking up at him, Meghan shook her head. Dr. Caldwell, though, could tell that she wasn’t denying it; she was merely struggling with accepting it. She managed to say, “Not him. Not him too. I don’t think I can take it.”
“Maybe we can help each other, because I’m having a hard time too,” Dr. Caldwell admitted.
“You? Why?”
“With Neil gone, who do you think everyone is going to expect to have all the answers and ideas that are supposed to keep us alive? And I don’t think I’m nearly as qualified for the job as Neil, or even Jerry. And hell, I was an officer in the military. I commanded troops in the field. Well, not really. I was a surgeon, but I was in command. In this situation I’m totally out of my league, but that doesn’t matter because everyone is going to look to me regardless. What kind of weight do you think that puts on my shoulders? Christ, if I thought we could wait here for those two, do you think I’d be in a hurry to bug out? We just have to think and do what’s best for the group...for all of us...for those two kids. We have to think like Neil.
“The next step in Neil’s plan was to get across the bridge and onto Elmendorf. Maybe we should stick to Neil’s plan.”
All at once, Meghan stopped sobbing. She sniffled a couple times and took a deep, calming breath. “Doc, would you look one last time please?”
Without betraying the sense that he was just doing it to placate her, Dr. Caldwell agreed. “Of course. I do think we owe them and us that. Wish me luck.”
Emma leaned down and rubbed Meghan’s shoulders and back. This led to a warm sympathetic hug and more tears. She said into Meghan’s ear, “C’mon, we can get through this if we work together. I know it hurts honey.”
“I can’t believe this is happening...again,” Meghan sobbed, “These damned zekes are really putting a harsh on my love life.” She let a painful laugh escape, followed by a couple more sniffles.
Without taking the binoculars from his eyes, Dr. Caldwell leaned forward as if to get a more focused look and said calmly, “I think I see them.”
Chapter 35
When Jerry and Neil had been separated from the rest of the group with both a proverbial and literal city’s worth of zombies fast on their heels, Neil was afraid his nightmare was going to finally catch him and drag him into the darkness. There were moments when he didn’t see how the two of them were going to make it out of the predicament alive.
They ran north on E Street, which tilted slightly downward toward the Hilton Hotel. The front windows and large glass doors of the luxury hotel were shattered and blanketed the floor with a million little prisms. Jerry led them into the hotel and beckoned Neil to follow.
“If we can get them into the hallways, maybe their numbers will slow them down. We can put a little distance between us and them.”
Neil nodded and said as he struggled for breath, “Yeah, but we can’t lose them entirely. We need them to follow us so that they don’t follow the others.”
Jerry nodded and took a right in the lobby. In the hotel, the walls amplified the ghouls’ groaning. Jerry ran up some stairs, down a hallway, and then back down some other stairs. Some of the walls were ashen black like the coals in the bottom of a barbecue grill. Other walls, especially down a particularly cluttered hallway, were fouled with smeared rust colored handprints. Down this corridor, some of the guestroom doors had been forced from their frames and were lying uselessly on the floor. Left to his own devices, Neil was convinced that the maze into which they were running deeper and deeper would merely swallow him into its seemingly endless depths. He felt like a Dickensian child who inadvertently wandered into a Nineteenth Century manor’s shrub maze and was lost forever. As it was, Neil was thankful that his partner knew his way around, but was a little worried that they might be heading toward a dead end.
Jerry, seemingly sensing Neil’s reservations, said as he ran, “I used to work here before I went to school for nursing. I did room service for a bit and then maintenance. Got to know the place inside and out.”
Neil nodded again and felt much better about their prospects. Soon, they were back out on the street. The streets all angled down, pointing toward the industrial park, which got its name—Ship Creek—from the fish-rich waterway that cut down its middle. The area was home to the main depot for the Alaska Railroad, a fairly new hotel, and several support businesses for the Alaska tourism industry. On the far northern edge of the area was the once bustling port of Anchorage, and above it all was a bridge that connected Anchorage to the Government Hill area and the main gates of Elmendorf Air Force Base.
They rounded a fence and ran through a large staging yard with several box vans still awaiting cargo that would never be loaded. Using one of the vans as a stepped vaulting aid, Neil and Jerry lifted themselves over the ten-foot high chain link security fence into an adjoining parking lot. The mass of zombies packed into the yard were cornered and fairly well tethered into place by their own single-mindedness. They reached and clawed through the hundreds of fence openings, trying futilely to close the distance between themselves and their prey.
Of course, there were still hundreds more of the ghouls to offer chase, so any sense of satisfaction was fleeting and gone as soon as it appeared.
“Hell, about another ten yards like that,” Jerry quipped, “and we’d have them all locked up.”
Neil tried to laugh, but was finding it more and more difficult to take in enough air to be able to breathe let alone laugh. His legs too were starting to feel weak and rubbery. Exercise had not been a priority for him before this cataclysm and now he was regretting it. Maybe that would have made a good selling point for the Alaska Club: “Come work out and stay in shape. You never know when you might be chased by zombies.” Regardless, he was starting to worry their pace was unsustainable. If they got caught out of steam and out in the open…if they were overwhelmed…. They needed a different plan.
“Jerry, I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up,” he huffed. He looked over his shoulder and was somewhat comfortable with the distance that was growing between themselves and the band of followers behind them. Most of the creatures were moving at a slower, shuffling pace, but they never slowed and never tired. Neil was reminded of the pursuit scene from Butch Cassid
y and the Sundance Kid and Paul Newman’s line, “Don’t these guys ever give up?”
The younger Jerry knew that Neil was right and was feeling the burn himself. His breathing too was becoming shallower and shallower as they continued. He pointed to another long building and suggested that they head for it, hoping to perhaps lose their pursuers and maybe even catch their breath for a few moments.
They ran from pavement to grass and back to pavement. Upon hitting the pavement for the second time, Neil’s feet were momentarily confused by the surface changes and sent him sprawling to the ground. His right hand hit hard, opening a nice road rash on his palm and wrist. He banged his right knee on the hard ground too, sending a desperate message of pain through his nerves to his brain. He got himself up but the pain made walking difficult and running all but impossible. He limped forward, looking over his shoulder at the horrible mass that was getting closer to him with each step. He could feel the impact point on his knee throb. He forced himself to keep moving forward and motioned to Jerry to get himself to safety. Jerry, of course, ignored him and instead got his shoulder under Neil’s right arm and hand and then helped Neil. They were moving much slower than they had been previously but were still staying ahead of the relentlessly pursuing predators.
At the building, they went around back and found an open loading bay. Luckily, the bay was up high to accommodate loading and unloading cargo and pallets from trucks. The stairs leading up the bay were fairly well blocked by a stack of boxes that had fallen on its side. From the bay’s loading platform, Jerry heaved over some empty heavy wooden pallets and further blocked the stairs. He realized that the front of the building held many windows, but if the things continued their mindless pursuit and just followed them to the back then perhaps they would have enough time to move to the other end of an internal hallway without being detected. Perhaps.
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