The Last Alive

by H. L. Wampler

  So weird.

  I walked past them and to the stairs without a single one attacking. They were much more sluggish than the undead outside, not that any undead was particularly fast. It’s really quite easy to out run them, but when they’re in a pack you’re shit out of luck.

  “Nathan?” I called up somewhat quietly hoping maybe he was in the stairwell.

  No Nathan. I heard a moaning from somewhere above me, but I had to forge on. I had to find out where Nathan was.

  What if that was Nathan?

  Chapter Fifteen

  Where the Hell is Nathan!

  I slowly climbed the stairs heading for the second floor. The door had been ripped off the hinges and lay mangled against the wall. I poked my head into the darkened hallway but saw nothing. Digging through my pockets, I found the ridiculously small flashlight my mom always made me carry around.

  “Thank you, Mother,” I muttered to myself thankful for her overprotectiveness for once.

  I smacked it a few times until a dull stream of light lit up the square in front of me.

  “You have to be kidding! What the hell is this? The Tonka toy of flashlights?” I groaned.

  “Shh, you’re going to draw them out,” Taz whispered as loudly as he dared.

  I looked over at him and rolled my eyes. We stayed as close to the wall as possible and tried to see as much into the darkness. The floor seemed to be silent. I heard a sickening crunch under my shoe as I took a step. I did not want to look, but I shined the flashlight at the floor. I closed my eyes and gingerly picked up my foot. Someone’s skull went with my foot.

  “Oh my God.” I shook my foot like a dog trying to scratch a flea.

  “Emma, shut up.”

  “Taz, calm down.”

  The head flew off and rolled down the floor. I stared in disgust as it bounced off a wall and spun. My jaw dropped when the eye sockets seemed to look at me. I had become accustomed to a lot of things in the past four years, but that was a first for me. I stood and waited for anything to come lumbering around the corner. There had to some of the undead on the floor.

  “Nathan?” I called out.

  No response.

  I walked a little further down the hall and heard it; a light scratching which was becoming more intensified as I got closer. To the left the hall ended abruptly. To the right was a door. It was shut, and someone did a shitty job boarding it up. I could see the window broken and hands extending out. Some were green, others grey, and a few had no skin on them.

  “Well, I know where he’s not.” I turned and headed back for the door.

  The moaning in the stairwell was growing louder as we climbed to the third floor. I pushed on the door, but it would not budge. Using my tiny flashlight, I shined it through the window to see that a beam had fallen from the ceiling and blocked the door off. There were undead on the other side. They ambled about while some stood in a corner swaying back and forth.

  Have they been stuck in the hospital all this time?

  We continued our ascent. The fourth-floor door was intact and unlocked. An undead stood in an alcove by an elevator that was long out of use. I shined the flash light on it and noticed he had a housekeeper uniform on. The shirt was ripped and the pants were tight at the waist. He looked as though his decaying body was bloating and about to explode.

  Are they dying? Is this what happens when they don’t eat for a long period of time?

  He turned his head toward me, and I nearly vomited. The skin was falling from his head. Bits and pieces of green flesh stuck to it, but most was nothing but bone. He started to stumble toward me, but he was even less coordinated than an undead that had eaten. I took a few steps to the side and watched as he fell over. The thing rocked back and forth trying to get back up, but it couldn’t. I knelt next to the unfortunate soul, a tear sliding down my cheek.

  “I am so sorry this has happened to you,” I whispered, pulling the knife out of my boot. In a swift motion, I stabbed him in the head.

  The body stopped moving and there was barely any of the black goo pooling at the surface.

  “What is happening to all of them in here,” Taz mumbled.

  I shrugged and walked down the hallway of the unit. It looked so similar to the one Becca was on when everything happened. Everything was a mess. There was equipment overturned, rooms look like they had been ransacked, but the worst was the blood stains everywhere. That floor had been hit hard when there were still a lot of patients and staff on it. I looked behind the nurses’ station only to find a few skeletons and papers. I continued along the hallway for any signs of anything. The moaning behind me got louder and louder, I turned to see an entire herd of undead lumbering after me. They were just as gross as the one I had just put down, but these ones were still moving. Rather quickly. I picked up the pace and ran, glancing behind me to make sure Taz was still there. I hit the door at the end of the hall thankful it still opened. I took the stairs two at a time to the fifth floor. We paused outside the hallway, peeking in and saw it was filled with undead.

  “Okay on to the sixth floor I guess. I really hope Nathan isn’t in there.”

  The last time I had been on the unit Becca died and the world as I knew it changed. I took a deep breath and slowly pushed open the door. The rooms were empty; even Becca’s. Her bed was still overturned, but she was gone. The bathroom that Nathan and I had hid in was destroyed. I leaned against the wall outside of the room and rubbed my temples. The day my sister became a zombie was a horrific day. I lost a piece of me when she turned. The world was thrown into an apocalypse and everybody lost everything. Some lost more than others.

  I pulled myself away from the room and continued along the deserted unit. I stopped near the kitchen area. The door was still in one piece and if I remembered correctly it locked from the inside. I heard something moving around on the other side. I pressed my ear to the wood and listened. It was something big.

  An undead?

  I grabbed the door knob and jiggled it a bit, but it was locked.

  “Oh shit,” I heard come from the other side.

  “Nathan?” I called.

  “Um, yeah?”

  “Are you fucking kidding me? Open this damned door now!”

  “Emma?” He unlocked the door and pulled me in.

  “What the hell are you doing?” I asked him.

  “I got stuck here.”

  “No shit. Why did you come?”

  “We need more medical supplies.” He took a swig of water.

  “So you came alone? What are you drinking?”

  “Nobody else would come with me and it’s water. Want some?” he asked.

  “I’ll pass on the four year old water.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “You have been gone for four days. Four fucking days! I went through Oakland looking for you! I blew up a police car just to get into this smelly death trap! Why didn’t you tell me you were leaving the city?”

  “Well, you found me.” He smiled his lop-sided grin.

  “I hate you,” I muttered.

  “No you don’t.” He wrapped his arms around me.

  “Don’t touch me. I’m mad at you.”

  “No you’re not. You’re relieved to see me.”

  I sighed heavily and stared into his magnificent blue eyes. The blue eyes I thought I’d never see again. I held onto his arms and pulled him in close.

  “If you do anything like this again you won’t have to worry about an Undead eating your brains because I will fucking kill you myself.” I leaned into him and pressed my lips to his.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The Loss of One to Save a Few

  I stormed off down the hall. Tears stung my eyes and threatened to spill over. I knew it was Becca’s fault, somewhat, that the world was going to shit. She didn’t do it on purpose, but none-the-less she was patient zero. Her body mutated whatever it is she contracted into the zombie virus.

  “Emma? Are you alright?”

  “I’m fine, Nathan.”

 
; “No you’re not.” He put one of his hands on my shoulder.

  I took a deep breath in and slowly exhaled. “Of course I am.”

  “Scott is getting to you.”

  “That ape doesn’t bother me,” I lied.

  “You look like you’re about to cry.”

  “I’m fine. I just want out of this death trap.” I blinked a few times until the tears that were brimming subsided.

  “It isn’t your fault.”

  “What?” I furrowed my brows at the man.

  “Everything that’s happening isn’t your fault.”

  “I know. Why would you say that?” I asked.

  “I thought you were upset because….”

  “Are you serious? I don’t care what that dick has to say about anything. I know this isn’t my fault. It’s not Becca’s either. She’s dead for fuck’s sake.” I stopped walking and looked at him. “Do you blame her? Or me?”

  “Of course not,” he replied defensively.

  “Uh guys,” Scott said from behind us.

  “What?” I asked.

  “We may want to go a little faster.”

  “Why?”

  “Run!” he shouted, pushing past us.

  I looked down the hall and saw nothing but a sea of undead beings lumbering toward us. It looked as though they were trying to run, but they weren’t all that coordinated. Nathan and I ran to catch up to Scott. A few feet away Scott had stopped. Ahead of us was another mass of the zombies. They all were quickly converging on us. It seemed hopeless. There was no way that we were going to make it out of this little predicament. I closed my eyes and bit my lip. If I was going to be eaten, I sure as hell did not want to watch it.

  “This is why I told you to get the weapons,” Scott yelled.

  “Yeah, yeah,” I mumbled, my eyes still closed.

  “What the hell are you doing?” he asked.

  “Not watching them eat me!”

  “Oh for the love of God, woman! Open your fucking eyes and swing!” He ran ahead smashing one of the walking corpses in the head with his chair leg.

  It fell to the ground twitching.

  “How are we going to fight through all of them?”

  “We don’t have to fight through all of them. Just this bunch here.” Scott motioned to the smaller group ahead of us.

  “Yeah, and that is a lot of zombies.” I swung at one of them as it lunged, or fell, at me.

  I smashed it in the top of the head as hard as I could and watched as the black goo spilled onto the floor.

  “That is going to ruin my shoes.”

  “You can get a new pair later.” Nathan smashed his way through.

  I winced as I swung again and again. We were making our way through the hoard rather quickly. My heart slammed against my chest as we neared the back of the group.

  “Doors! There are doors!” Scott shouted.

  “Oh thank God,” I cried, swinging at another of the zombies. It looked like he may have been a doctor. His dark blue scrubs were stained with something. I could only guess blood, but was it blood from doing surgery or from eating his patients?

  Scott’s face fell as he pushed on the door.

  “What’s wrong?” Nathan slammed the chair leg into a dead nurse.

  “It’s locked,” he croaked.

  “Not possible!” Nathan shouted. “These are the side doors, they are always unlocked during the day.”

  “Well they aren’t right now.”

  “No! No! No!” I screamed, slamming into the door. “It. Cannot. Be. Locked.”

  “Well, it is.”

  “So what now?” Nathan broke the skull of a woman in a hospital gown.

  “Up.” Scott looked toward the ceiling before knocking down a security guard who was missing half of his neck.

  “The panels! We can move the panels!” I exclaimed.

  Nathan grabbed me around the waist and hoisted up. Scott grabbed his arm to stop him.

  “What are you doing?”

  “She’s lighter than us. If we go first, she won’t make it,” Nathan said.

  “Survival of the fittest, Nathan.”

  “You’re kidding right?”

  He shrugged his shoulders while beating a few more zombies. Nathan shook his head and shoved me into the ceiling of the hallway.

  “Nathan, come on,” I cried reaching for him.

  “Just open the door.”

  “What if I can’t?” I sobbed.

  “Then we’ll crawl through the ceiling and be there with you.” He tried to reassure me even though his eyes were red rimmed.

  “You’re lying to me. Do not lie to me!” I cried.

  “Stop your blubbering and get to that door!”

  I slid back a few feet and moved one of the panels. Carefully I lowered myself into the vestibule. I pushed on the door, but it wouldn’t budge. I knew it wouldn’t.

  “Open the door,” Scott screamed at me.

  “It’s locked!” I shouted back at him, tears falling down my cheeks.

  I smacked at the thick glass. I couldn’t watch anything happen to Nathan. I refused to watch something happen to him.

  “Nathan! God dammit! Open! Fuck!” I pounded furiously at the glass. “Nathan!”

  “Go.” Tears ran down his cheeks.

  “I can’t leave you! Please, Nathan, just crawl through the ceiling. Please.”

  “Both of us won’t make it, Emma. Just go. One of us will be there with you.” He nodded his head for me to leave.

  “Please,” I begged. “I need you! Don’t do this!”

  “Go.”

  I watched as Scott knocked a few of the zombies back and launched himself toward the open hole. He held onto the beam and began to pull up as Nathan continued killing zombies. Scott kicked his legs, struggling to pull himself into the ceiling. He was taking up more and more time. It didn’t matter though. I knew that there was no way both would make it. The last one left would be the sacrifice for the other two. Someone was going to die.

  “No!” I screamed.

  Scott was going to sacrifice Nathan so he could survive.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Escaping the Hospital…Again

  “You can be as mad as you want.” Nathan wrapped his arms around me.

  “Mad does not even begin to explain how I feel right now, Nathan.”

  “You didn’t have to come get me.”

  “You’re stuck in a kitchen drinking four-year-old water. Someone had to come save your ass and look one of those things ripped my jacket.”

  “You were bit?” He examined the shoulder of my coat.

  “Yes, but it didn’t sink its teeth into me,” I said.

  “You’re lucky.” He held onto me again.

  “Not as lucky as you,” I mumbled.

  “Want to leave?” he asked.

  “Yeah, we have to go out the side door though, or get to it somehow.”

  “Why?”

  “Meaghan and Liz are out there.”

  “What?” He cocked his head to the side and arched his eyebrows. “Did you bring the whole squad with you?”

  I chuckled and nodded. “They’re waiting in the vestibule with my new furry friend.”

  “Again, what?”

  “Meaghan got scare scared and Liz didn’t want to leave her alone. We had a rough time getting out here, so they’re waiting in the vestibule at the side door,” I repeated.

  “What furry friend?” he asked.

  “She found a damn kitten. She decided to keep it.” Taz shook his head at me.

  “You found a kitten?”

  “Yes. It’s really cute.”

  He closed his eyes and shook his head.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Only you could leave the comforts of our fort and find a kitten.”

  “Yes, because a fortified city is oh so comfortable.” I rolled my eyes.

  “I don’t think we’re leaving here for a bit.” Taz peeked out the window.

  “Why?”<
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  “There are a bunch of them gathering outside the door.”

  “Why do we always get stuck here?” I asked.

  “I was fine.”

  “Four. Year. Old. Water.” I looked out the window at the growing crowd.

  Taz was right. The once empty hall was filling up with zombies rather quickly. They pawed at the window and door trying to get in. Many of them had the odd looking green skin and swelling as a few of the others I had seen on the way up. They were acting odder than most of the undead I had run across.

  “What is wrong with them?” I watched them lumber around. Two bumped into one another and moaned. Their heads lolled to one side and back again.

  “They’re starving.” He climbed on a counter and pushed up on tiles.

  “Starving?” Taz questioned.

  “How often do you think people are crazy enough to wander into ground zero?” He arched his eyebrows at me.

  “I suppose there aren’t many psychotic doctors on suicide missions,” I said. “What are you doing?”

  “Seeing if we can get out of here.”

  “I’m not going back into any ceilings. I’m sick of this place and ceilings.”

  “How else do you plan on getting out?” he asked, pushing on of the tiles to the side.

  I sighed heavily and dropped my head. “Fine.”

  He pulled himself up into the darkness and crawled along the way toward the end of the unit.

  “Don’t go all the way down.”

  “Why?”

  “About half way, turn to the right.”

  “Why?”

  “We’ll be at the stairwell. It was pretty deserted when I came up,” I told him.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Positive.”

  “I don’t know,” he protested.

  “Stop arguing and do it,” I commanded.

  “Doc, just do what she does. You know how bossy she is,” Taz slung his AR-15 on his back and followed close behind.

  Taz pulled up one of the tiles and turned to the right. I followed him until he pulled up a few more, making sure Nathan was right behind. He stuck his head down and stayed there for a few minutes.