Escape From Metro City

by Mandel, Richard

  "Lisa ... !"

  "Easy there, Cy," Lisa said. "Sorry. Didn't mean to make you mad."

  Cy gave her a look, calmed himself, and then forced a smile. "I'm sorry too, Lisa. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that." He stepped back and let out a big sigh. "It's just this whole setup, you know? It's creeping me out, and that business with the story of the Raven Mocker isn't helping."

  Lisa nodded. "Yeah, I guess I was laying it on a bit thick there."

  Cy nodded. "Apology accepted. Anyway, it looks like there's nothing for it. We're going to have to blow out one of these panels to get in."

  Awk! Awk! Awk!

  Both Cy and Lisa whipped around, their assault rifles up and aimed at the raven perched on the telephone pole. A split second later another noise rippled through the area. It was not unlike the stirring of larges piles of leaves in the autumn wind, save it wasn't leaves that were stirring. It was bodies. Almost every body in the area in front of and around the pair was staring to stir. The ones that were intact or mostly so, the ones that were not so intact, and even isolated partial bodies which still had a head on them. In fact, the only thing organic that wasn't moving were isolated limbs, but what if the virus had the power to re-animate them too? It was very slow at first, both the noise and the motion, but it began to pick up speed as the formerly dead denizens in this place began to re-animate and rise back to their feet, resurrected by the virus as bloodthirsty zombies.

  "Oh, shit!" Lisa gasped, bringing her weapon to bear.

  Cy hadn't bothered with exclamations. He had instead quickly traded his assault rifle for his China Lake. "Stand back!" he commanded, as he quickly back-pedaled and brought it to bear on one of the damaged glass panels by the locked front doors. Lisa followed a half-beat later, dodging to one side and getting clear as he stopped and let loose with the China Lake. The glass panel at which he had been aiming instantly disappeared inside an explosion which then sprayed millions of tiny glass shards in all directions. So did the glass in the locked door on one side of his target and the panel next to it on the other. It was accompanied by a mini-shock wave and a very loud explosive roar that both swept by the pair and startled every newly revived zombie within reach. The raven immediately took off from its perch, silently sailing away into the darkened sky.

  By this time every newly revived zombie in the area had recovered from the shock of the explosion. They turned as one and focused on the two humans in front of the hospital front doors. Cy and Lisa didn't wait for them to attack. They immediately ran through the opening and into the front lobby of the Metro City Medical Center as fast as they could. They were inside their goal at last, but how were they going to stop the zombies from following them in? More importantly, how were they going to get back out again and escape the Outbreak for good?

  Chapter 3

  Another Survivor

  Lisa and Cy ran into the front lobby of the Metro City Medical Center to find the same mess inside that there had been outside, save that there were neither bodies nor zombies. There was still plenty of evidence that they had been there, judging from the overturned furniture and various objects liberally scattered around, as well as a fairly copious amount of bloodstains large and small. Some of the furniture was bunched around the inner doors, as if to suggest that there had been a barricade of sorts there at one time, but it was in ruins now if that was what it had been. Aside from those forms of Outbreak-caused chaos, it was fairly typical for the front lobby of any large hospital. There was a central information desk, waiting areas to both sides, and one set of check-in counters running the length of the back and on either side of the double doors to the hospital's main hallway. These also doubled as fire doors per safety codes and were made of solid steel. The pair ran to these at once and tried them. Both were locked and pinned in place.

  Cy turned to Lisa. "You find a way in," he said hurriedly. "I'll hold them at the front as long as I can."

  "Gotcha," Lisa replied. They shared the briefest of looks and then Cy was gone, turning on his heel and scurrying back toward the opening they had blown to get in. His tough Army boots crackled on a liberal spread of broken glass as he ran up to and positioned himself directly in front of the broken glass panels on the side of the front entrance. Almost at once he began to fire, his M-16A1 barking away, and almost at once there were the sounds of zombie wails and blood-gurgling moans.

  There were two side doors on the left side of the hospital lobby. Lisa didn't bother with these, since they were clearly marked as being restrooms. There was a service entrance to the right, presumably for hospital staff only, but it was as solidly sealed as the main hallway fire doors. That left the area behind the check-in counters. Since she was already on the right side of the lobby (as she had come in), Lisa promptly slung her assault rifle back over her shoulder, ran up to the counter, and did a two-handed cowboy's fence vault to get to the staff area. She landed firmly on her feet and had her weapon back around and at the ready in a flash. It was the same as out on the lobby proper. Plenty of scattered debris and overturned furniture, but no bodies or zombies. The staff entrance was to her right, and three quick steps later she had her hand on the door handle. The lock was on her side and she unlocked it, but opening the door revealed the back side of a soda machine. It had apparently been pushed in place to block the doorway. It was both too big and heavy for her to move by herself without considerable effort, and there wasn't enough time for that.

  Lisa cursed even as the chatter from Cy's assault rifle continued. "Hurry up, Lisa!" she heard him call. "There's more of them coming in from every which way!"

  With only one option left to try, Lisa re-slung her weapon and vaulted back over the counter. She ran across the lobby to its left side check-in area, vaulted the counter, and tried its staff door. She threw it open and brandished her weapon, half-expecting to find it blocked as had been the other, but she was instead greeted by a empty hallway and total silence. "I found a way in!" she promptly cried out.

  "Be right there!" Cy called. He let off a few more bursts from his assault rifle, then turned tail and ran back into the lobby. He saw Lisa standing behind the check-in counter on the left holding open the door back there. He crossed the lobby at full speed, quickly scrambled over the counter, and was through the door with Lisa while the first of the zombies began to pour in through the lobby opening. Lisa slammed the door shut behind him, then looked about quickly. She saw what she was seeking and pointed it out to Cy. "That soda machine!" she cried. "The staff used one to block the other door! Let's use it to block this one!"

  It took both of them to push the heavy soda machine in front of the door. By that time they could hear plenty of zombies beyond in the lobby, and at least two had made it over the counter. Less than a half-minute after they had pushed it into place, the door opened from the lobby side. There was a frustrated screech, followed by the sound of fists pounding on the back of the soda machine. It rocked slightly but stayed in place.

  Lisa looked at Cy. "That's not going to hold if more of them get back there," she stated. She then waved down the hallway "Down the hall and pin the fire doors behind us."

  "Sounds like a plan to me," Cy replied.

  Together the two of them ran down the hospital side hallway. As soon as they got to the fire doors, they dashed by and then turned and shut them. They set the pins and turned the locks, and that was that. They were safe ... for now.

  Once they had the fire doors secured, Lisa and Cy took a few minutes to catch their breath. The sounds of the lobby zombies remained distant, and there was no crashing sound to let them know that they had successfully topped the soda machine blocking their way.

  Cy drew in a deep breath, let it back out slowly, and then resumed normal breathing again. He looked over at Lisa. "Well, we made it," he stated.

  Lisa looked back at him, and then her face broke into a broad grin. "Yeah. We did, didn't we?" She began to laugh.

  "We sure did," Cy said, returning her grin with one of his o
wn. He too began to laugh.

  They laughed for almost a full minute or so. After it was over, Lisa's face resumed a sober expression. "The real problem's going to be getting back out again," she observed.

  "We got in, we can get back out," Cy said confidently.

  Lisa looked at him, and then nodded. "Yeah. So we did, and so we will."

  They did nothing but look at each other for a few beats, and then Cy brought up his weapon. "Let's get going. The sooner we get our business done in here, get out, and get back on our way out of town again, the better." He then looked down one end of the hallway and then the other. "Which way?" he asked.

  "That way," Lisa said pointing to their left. "The main hallway junction is down there. We want to go left once we get there. Going right will take us straight to the lobby fire doors."

  "No thanks," Cy said. "To the left it is, then."

  The intersection of which Lisa spoke came up fairly quickly. They turned left, and soon enough were approaching the next intersection. It was for another main hallway, judging by the fact that it was as large as the one they were now in and ran crossways to theirs. Cy guessed it was the one used as the main access for both wings on this floor. There was a large nurse's station tucked into one of the hallway corners, a small waiting area in another, and a nice assortment of wall signs pointing visitors to the various sections of each part of the hospital on this level. There were also the bodies, or rather what was left of them. These were the first that Lisa and Cy had seen upon entering the hospital, and the way they had been savaged was enough to turn the stomach of most normal people. There were the mutilated remains of two women and one man in the bloody tatters of hospital staff garb in and around the nurse's station, and there was a group of four up against the walls in the waiting area. They had probably been a family, and two of them had been children. If that horrible sight wasn't bad enough, the odor was incredible. That hallway intersection smelled like an open-air butcher's shop on a very hot summer day. Lisa sucked in her breath while Cy tightly gripped his assault rifle, swallowing hard in an effort not to gag. "Oh God," Lisa half-whispered. "I didn't need to see this. It's just like what I saw when I found my brother. Oh God ...." She fought hard to keep her face an emotionless mask.

  Lisa felt a hand touch her arm. She turned to see Cy's hand, the one that had been gripping his rifle's stock as tightly as she had her own weapon's. "Hey, you gonna be all right?" he asked.

  Lisa nodded. "Yeah. Thanks, Cy." He watched as she set herself, and her features hardened back into the resolute and determined young woman who had rescued him earlier that day. After a beat, she spoke. "I just hope they don't revive."

  "Where is everybody, anyway?" Cy wondered aloud. He looked down the closest hallway to theirs. "I mean, you'd think there would be a lot of people in here, or zombies, or whatever now."

  Lisa too was looking around again, trying to avoid any further looks at the cannibalized corpses in the waiting area. "Yeah. It's kind of like outside, you know?"

  "Well if it is, then our coming in might be the trigger to bring everyone back from wherever they are," Cy said uneasily. He flexed his fingers on his assault rifle. "Keep on your guard."

  Both Lisa and Cy almost jumped out of their skins when one of the phones at the nurse's station began to ring. They did a classic double take. They looked at each other, then at the phone, then at each other again. The phone kept ringing. Lisa gave it a sideways look, then returned her gaze to Cy. He shrugged his shoulders. Lisa nodded, and then walked over to the nurse's station. She let go of her assault rifle's stock, picked up the phone left-handed, and held it up to her left ear. "Hello?" she said into the mouthpiece.

  "You ARE real!" a female voice exclaimed loudly. "I thought I was dreaming! Please come rescue me! I'm trapped up here!"

  "Whoa, whoa, wait a minute," Lisa said. She motioned for Cy to come over so he could hear the call. Cy obliged, looked over the phone for a moment, and then found and hit its speaker button. Lisa then set down the receiver on the desk instead of cradling it, since doing that might have ended the call. "Okay, we've got you on speaker and we're listening. Who are you?"

  "Mercy Parks!" The woman's voice was quite loud and rather agitated. "I'm one of the senior nurses here. The zombies are everywhere, and I can't get back out again! I'm the only one left! You've got to get me out of here!"

  "Where are you?" Cy asked.

  "I'm barricaded inside the security office on the center section of the fifth floor. They can't get in, but I can't get out either because there's too many of them!"

  "Now we know where all the zombies are," Lisa noted quietly. She then spoke to the phone. "How'd you know we were here?"

  "I heard your car and I saw you come in. I've been following you on the security cameras ever since you made it inside. Look up and to your left." They did, and both of them saw a CCTV camera mounted high on one hallway wall near the ceiling pointing at them. They saw its lens zoom out and back in, and then the voice sounded again. "Did you see that?"

  "Yes we did," Cy said. "Miss Parks, how many zombies are up there with you?"

  "A whole bunch! I don't know! I just know there's too many of them to open the door again! I know they'll kill me, just like they killed John! They got John! I heard him die, and they'll kill me next if I open the door!! Ohhhh, Jooohhhhhnnnnn ... !!!"

  "Sounds pretty upset," Lisa said.

  "Can you blame her?" Cy responded.

  Lisa shook her head. "No, not after what I've been through." She then looked up at Cy and forced a smile. "Correction. What we've been through."

  "Maybe she can help us with that transfusion you want," Cy suggested.

  "Transfusion?" came the voice over the speaker. The use of the medical term seemed to provide a lifeline of sanity for the woman on the other end, because the sound of her crying stopped almost at once. "Who needs a transfusion, and why?" she asked, and in a more clear and stable tone than before.

  "Lisa does," Cy answered. "I was immunized against the virus before the Army sent me in, and she needs some of my blood to keep from turning."

  "Is she infected?"

  "No, and I don't know why," Lisa responded, "but if I don't get that transfusion, I could still be."

  "All right," came the voice over the speaker again. "I'll help you if you promise to get me out of here."

  "Be there as soon as we can," Cy said. "How do we get to the security office from where we are now, and in a way that avoids as many zombies as possible?"

  "Go to the intersection and turn right as if you're going to the east wing. As soon as you get to the elevators - they'll be on your left, but they're not working - take the stairwell and go all the way up to the fifth floor. You'll have to start shooting as soon as you come out because the hallways up here are full of zombies, but once you get clear take the first hallway to your left, towards the east wing again. The security office door is at the end of the hall. You can't miss it. I'll let you in as soon as you get here, and if you can keep it clear of zombies."

  Both Lisa and Cy nodded. "Got it," Cy said, as he picked up the receiver from the desk. "We're going to let you go now, Ms. Parks, but we're on our way."

  "Thank you!"

  Cy hung up the phone. He looked at Lisa with a wry smile. "Well, here we go," he said, as he hefted his assault rifle.

  "Let's rock," Lisa responded with a grin, as she hefted her own. With that the pair were on the move. They left the nurse's station, took the hallway to the right, and made their way towards the stairwell door at a quick trot, weapons in walking carries all the way.

  It proved quite the fight for Lisa and Cy in getting to the nurse trapped in the security office on the hospital's fifth floor. They didn't have any problem getting into the stairwell, nor going up it, but as soon as they popped open the fifth floor stairwell door they found a hallway full of zombies. The nurse's warning about them proved fortunate, because the pair came out of the stairwells with weapons up and ready to fire. They started fir
ing as soon as the zombies turned in their direction, and they continued until they made it to the security office door. It was slow going, though. New zombies would appear from side rooms or intersecting hallways, and a whole pack of them tried to ambush the pair of humans from behind as they came up the other end of the main hallway. Lisa and Cy didn't have any more trouble dealing with them than they had the rest; however, the sheer number of zombies they had to kill made a rather serious dent in their individual ammo supplies.

  What made things more difficult this time around was the fact that some of the zombies were former hospital security guards, and they were wearing body armor. They weren't any more or less fearsome than the others, but that body armor made them harder to kill. The pair had to resort to either head shots or capping them at the knees and then doing a head shot as they fell. "Hey," Lisa called as she was downing her share of the hospital zombies, "maybe we should snag some of this body armor, eh?"

  "Contaminated," Cy called back, taking out out his own share of their undead foes. "I'd rather have a nice clean set."

  "Oh, yeah," Lisa replied with a grin, and then turned back to more zombie killing.

  It was the same as it had been back at the National Guard Armory, save for the numbers. That was the biggest threat the zombies posed, as both Lisa and Cy realized. They weren't very fast and they were fairly easy to kill. All it took was one to three well-placed shots, depending on where you shot them. It was their sheer numbers that proved daunting, and which frequently limited the ability to place their shots well. Both Lisa and Cy used far more ammo than they would have liked because of the mass of their foes. They eventually had to resort to their pistols in order to conserve assault rifle ammo, but by then the ranks of their foes had thinned considerably. Another ten to fifteen minutes worth of dodging and firing later, and it was over. The last zombie went down and stayed down, and after that the way to the security office was clear.

  Cy found himself holding his breath as he stood braced in a two-handed pistol firing stance behind an overturned gurney, with Lisa beside him in a similar pose. He let his breath out and looked at her, and she looked back. "Good God," he uttered aloud, in a low tone of frustrated relief.