Surviving The Ravenous

by King, Christine

  Lara came into the room, a shotgun in her hands. “Anyone else?” she asked sweetly.

  Seeing the gun and their fallen friend, the druggies all ran for the kitchen. Spinning around, I saw the hole the shotgun had left in the girl’s chest at such close quarters; it had ripped her apart; I could see that she was obviously dead, but I wasn’t sorry. With the noise of the shotgun still vibrating in my ears, I bent down and quickly grabbed Jason under his arms; with Lance’s help, we dragged him out the door and down the passageway. Lara followed us, walking backward with her gun raised; the teenagers didn’t dare come out into the passageway with her covering us. I was glad to see Jason was still breathing, but his wound looked deep and pretty nasty.

  As we dragged him back to the truck, Mark saw us coming and raced to meet us.

  “What the hell happened?” he yelled, seeing Jason covered in blood and unconscious. I passed his weight over to Mark and he helped Lance get him in the back of the truck. “Let’s move,” I said, climbing in the back. Lara went to get in with me, but I stopped her, “No get in the front in case they come out, you will have a better shot.” Quickly she jumped in the front with Lance and shutting the truck doors we sped away. I cleaned up Jason’s head. It was a wide gash needing super glue to hold it together. It was lucky we had packed some. I bandaged over the glue, being careful not to disturb the other bandage covering the head wound I’d given him before. I felt guilty thinking back to the way I’d hit him with my bow but now wasn’t the time; I needed to make sure he was ok. I felt his pulse and put my head on his chest to hear his heart. It all seemed ok, but I wasn’t a doctor and without medicines, even a paper cut could kill you if it got infected. Maybe he just needs to rest, I thought hopefully. We explained everything to Mark, and he was as shocked as us that there were survivors in the house. I was secretly shocked that they had reminded me so much of the ravenous, so out of it. Was that all that was left of humanity? Some drugged-up teenagers, who wanted to party and have sex until the ravenous caught up with them?

  I sat watching Jason breathe; he had really tried to protect me. I could venture a guess that Jason’s highest dangers were concussion, brain damage, or infection. I just hoped he would be back to his usual brash self soon; I thought that we should try to get something in case of an infection, Mark too was in danger, that bite wound was nasty, medicines could benefit us all and I decided I would discuss it with Mark the next time we stopped. I felt Jason’s pulse again and prayed that he would develop nothing worse than a scar. Brain damage was something we could do nothing about, and concussion could lead to so many problems.

  I felt the adrenalin that had been pumping through my body begin to wear off and I was unexpectedly tired. I lay down shakily with my head on Jason’s chest and fell asleep.

  When I awoke the truck wasn’t moving and I felt something heavy on my shoulder. Raising myself up, I realised it was Jason’s arm draped across me. He was still unconscious, so I lifted it gently and placed it on his chest. The others were not in the front seat and the back doors were open wide. It was stormy outside, and the rain was pelting the inside of the truck through the open doors. I could hear a noise in the distance, it sounded like a helicopter and was getting closer. I climbed out into the driving rain; shielding my face with my arm I looked around me, I could see green fields and yellow flowers. The helicopter was landing a little way ahead, its rotators still whizzing around. Stumbling unsteadily towards it, the rain made my clothes heavy, and I felt as though I was dragging my feet through syrup. I looked down and saw the path under me was indeed thick with wet mud and it caked my shoes. The black and silver helicopter wasn’t far away, and I could hear the radio crackling and see the outline of the pilot. Someone was seated in the rear with their back to me. I dragged myself closer and saw there was a dog in the back as well, it was barking excitedly. The person in the back put a hand on the dog’s head as if to calm it and as they turned to face me I saw it was Mark and he seemed to have what looked like a soldier in the seat at the front. I tried to run towards him, calling out his name, I felt my heart racing and I was sweating with the exertion. ‘Help,’ I thought, ‘At long last’. I waved and shouted, and Mark turned to face me, but seeing his eyes stopped me in my tracks. They were pearly white, and his smiling face looked vacant. He grabbed the struggling dog and bit into its neck. Blood splattered the window of the helicopter. The animal yelped in pain and started to growl, but Mark turned away and bent over. Suddenly the dog was silent. I felt my chest tighten and for a moment I couldn’t breathe, I fell to my knees as tears filled my eyes. How had Mark turned ravenous? Somehow, I needed to warn the pilot, I tried to crawl closer to the front of the helicopter, mud squished between my fingers and I could smell the dirt beneath me. The pilot came into view I could see the army jacket, she had removed her helmet and I could see her long curly hair flowing as she turned, I stared into the helicopter and Mary Jane stared back at me, I felt ecstatic for a moment, she wasn’t dead, I’d made a mistake. Then I saw her eyes were milky, and she had that vacant smile on her lips. I fell to my knees and heard her say, “Where are you?”

  She climbed out of the pilot’s seat, but it sounded more like Lara’s voice. As I looked into her happy face, I felt an urge to give in, maybe it was better to be dead or a ravenous. I didn’t care anymore. The helicopter’s radio crackled, and Mary Jane moved towards me through the rain with her mouth open.

  I woke up with a start, the truck wasn’t moving; in the gloomy back of the van, my mind raced, realising it had all been a dream. I felt relief that the helicopter and its occupants had not been real, but I could still hear a radio crackling. My hand went instinctively to the walky-talky on my belt but as I held it up, it had been turned off. Perhaps I’d caught it in my sleep. I felt something heavy on my shoulder. It reminded me of my dream and my throat tightened. Indeed, it was Jason’s arm draped across me. Moving him slightly I could feel how hot his skin felt, I checked his bandage and saw the angry cut had swelled, pus seeped from the edges. I was still worried he might have a concussion and the fever he was running probably meant infection; I redressed his yellowing wound and sprayed it with more antiseptic. I checked his eyes but as I pulled opened a lid; he groaned a little; I was torn between waking him and letting him rest and heal. I decided to find the others before I tried anything else and looked around at the closed truck doors. I knew I had to go outside, but not knowing what awaited me made it feel almost impossible to move. I had to stop thinking and just man up; I listened for a moment with my ear against the wall of the truck but couldn’t hear much of anything. Holding up my crossbow, I unlocked the truck’s doors.

  Chapter 4 – Medical supplies

  I gingerly pushed open one of the van’s heavy back door a crack and listened for any sounds. The wind was blowing through the trees, rustling the leaves noisily. I crouched there for a minute in the darkness, my ear to the chink in the door, listening for anything that could spell bad news but also enjoying the peacefulness of the moment.

  Once I was sure it was all quiet I slowly I swung the door wide, the sudden dazzling sunlight made me blink a few times, and I squinted out into the brightness trying to get my bearings. Most of the snow was gone now, and the day felt very warm, I could see no movement, outside the van looked like a parking lot which suggested we had stopped somewhere intentionally rather than broken down or worse.

  I checked behind me for a moment and could see Jason lying on his side bathed in the sunshine, I could just make out his chest rising and falling. Turning back, I climbed down and looked around me, there was an avenue of trees nearby and the ground beneath me seemed to be hard black tarmac.

  As I closed the truck’s doors we had stopped in front of a large grey building, it loomed into sight behind the truck; walking around to see it properly I saw a sign near the truck saying ‘Ambulances only’.

  ‘A hospital’ I thought to myself with relief. They must have stopped to try to get help for Jason.

 
Keeping an eye out for movement, I made my way carefully around to the large automatic doors and cautiously sidled towards them, approaching them quickly I kept my pace brisk and headed straight for the closest glass door; I managed to walk right into them, smacking my nose and chin on the glass. Rubbing my face, I chuckled quietly to myself in embarrassment. Why had I expected them to open? When would I get used to a world without electricity?

  I look around and could see that most of the glass was missing from the lower panes in the doors, so I crouched down and ducked through the entrance.

  Once inside, the corridor stretched ahead silent, gloomy, and still; I noticed a reception area off to the right and headed over to it. Walking around the grey front desk, the first thing I saw was yellowing bones, flesh still hung on them in places. The air smelt rotten and everything looked dried out; I realised the full horror when I saw a pair of shoes strewn on the ground below the desk, it finally dawned on me that this used to be a person, probably the receptionist working a late shift and falling prey to the gas or the ravenous. Feeling a little sick I looked around at the phone, it was off the hook and the dusty paperwork, splattered with blood, was fanned across the floor and desk. With a heavy heart, I turned from the grisly sight and headed into the hospital.

  The waiting room was ahead of me, it was lit up in stripes from the sunlight pouring in through the small windows high up in the walls; the beams cut across the murkiness as disturbed dust motes danced around, swirling in patterns delighted to be airborne. Here as well there was evidence of people, clothes, and bags, torn and bloody; a few bones were strewn about and I wondered if they had been dead or alive when the ravenous had finished them off. The white walls had smears of brown dried blood on them, as did the seats and the floor. I held up my crossbow and clumsily unsheathed the knife strapped to my waist; if there were ravenous here, I wanted to be ready for them. I crept through the doorway, passing ghastly sights and half seen visions of mutilated and partially eaten corpses lying on the floor or thrown across the chairs. I felt my stomach heave a little, and I tried to breathe through my mouth as the smell of rotting flesh was starting to overwhelm me.

  Quickly, I moved to the room beyond. It seemed to be a cafeteria; it smelt of rotten food and old coffee, which was a welcome relief. I saw dried blood on the serving counter and decided that I did not want to go behind it to see more carnage. Glancing around I spotted the sign for the toilets and wondered if I dare use them, squatting in fields and behind trees was not the most ladylike of things, I longed to use a clean white toilet but the thought of what I might find was too depressing and the worry that I had not found the others yet made me think that this was no time for luxury breaks.

  I crossed the room, my eyes scanning for the slightest movement, and headed towards the door that I assumed would lead to the wards. As I put my hand out to push it open, I heard a noise behind me and pivoted with my bow raised and heart racing to see a shaggy looking dog emerge from behind the counter.

  I was in shock for a moment at the sight of a living animal; it was a crossbreed of some sort and it stood looking at me with its head cocked to one side. I felt myself beginning to crouch down, and I instinctively held out a hand towards the creature. The dog sniffed the air a little and then began to growl, I stopped moving and tried to calm the animal with soothing tones. “You’re a good boy” I whispered, still keeping my hand extended. I began to worry that the mongrel could be infected like the ravenous. “Good dog, I won’t hurt you.” The dog looked confused at the sound of my voice and backed off a little, he whimpered then sniffed towards me again and began to bark menacingly, suddenly I heard answering barks coming from other parts of the hospital. One dog I could deal with even if it turned out to be ravenous, but a pack could be a serious problem.

  I backed quickly out of the room through the door behind me, shutting it as I went; the dog ran forward, still barking like mad. Scanning quickly around the room I had just entered, I tried to be sure there was nothing about to jump out on me. The new room was set up like a ward, I could make out hospital beds and strange machinery in the gloom, on the other side of the door I suddenly heard the dog throw himself against the wooden panels with a lot of force; he scratched at it and jump up. As I backed away, I saw the handle move, and I realised with a start that he was trying to open the door, I grabbed a chair from beside the nearest bed and jammed it under the handle. I knew his noise would bring the rest of the dogs to this location and it was impossible to tell from the barking if it was just a few dogs or a huge pack. The noise was getting louder, and I looked around the room for somewhere to hide, but I was sure that most dogs could easily be capable of sniffing me out. I needed to get out of here and fast; the door ahead seemed to lead to another corridor, so I ran through and tried the doors that were dotted along the walls. The first two were locked and wouldn’t budge, but the next one opened into a little cupboard filled with toilet tissue and bottles of detergent. I grabbed a bottle of the strong-smelling cleaning fluid and poured some along the bottom of the door, then I squeezed in and pulled the door as close to closed as it would go. I breathed in and eased it towards me a little more. I could just see out of the crack between the door and the frame, I tried not to breathe and kept as still as I could. A few seconds later something ran past the crack towards the door I had just come through, then into view came a large pack of dogs they moved so quickly that I almost gasped. They were a mix of breeds and colours, some looked wild whilst others looked like lapdogs in collars and ragged coats. They ran straight past the cupboard and towards their barking companion. I sent up a silent prayer that they had all gone past and opened the door a little; the passageway looked empty and I could hear them in the room at the end trying to get through to the dog on the other side of the door. I wondered how long the chair I had stuck under the handle would hold, but I could imagine that a pack of animals snapping at it and jumping at the door would soon dislodge it. Holding my breath from fear, I quickly darted forward and shut the door leading to the corridor. The dogs turned at the sound, snarling they surged forward and began to leap at the closed door. I could see the flimsy door shaking as they flung themselves against it and I knew that it probably wouldn’t last that long. I raced away towards the other end of the passage and shouldered my way through the next set of doors. They were swing doors so I knew they would be no good at stopping the dogs. I pushed a bed against them and piled some of the machinery on top. The next door was also a pair of swing doors, so I dragged some boxes and more machinery in the way. I had no idea if the pack was even following me, the barking had stopped but I thought I could hear claws scrabbling on the polished floors. I grabbed a towel from the top of one of the machines and rubbed my face with it. The sweat was pouring off of me, I threw the towel in the opposite direction to the way I was running, I hoped if they were able to follow my scent that it might put them off for a while. I ran to the closest flight of steps and leaped up the first four or more to try to stop them sniffing out my route, on the stairs was a broken black radio I recognised it straight away as Lara’s, it had pink hearts painted across the rubberised outer shell, Lara had done it with nail varnish at one of the truck stops. I picked up a few of the broken pieces and looked at them with a feeling of dread. It meant she had come this way, but I hoped it didn’t mean that the pack had overpowered her; there was no blood, so I clung to that hope. Continuing upwards at the top of the stairs was a maze of corridors, I began to run down the first one in front of me, but a noise ahead stopped me in my tracks. I listened intently, it was scratching; holding my knife at the ready I carefully turned the corner looking all around for the source of the noise, there at the end of yet another whitewashed passage was about ten of the dogs. I quietly stepped back around the corner and tried not to breathe heavily. The dogs didn’t come rushing down towards me and they didn’t start barking so I crouched down and with fear filling my mind I peeked around the corner. The dogs were far too busy to have noticed me; they were tryin
g to eat their way through a door at the other end of the passageway. They were all seriously intent on getting into the room beyond and for a moment I wondered what could have got them so frenzied, the door had a hole in it already and they were almost ripping out their teeth trying to make it bigger. A movement caught my eye as the nozzle of a gun sneaked out of the hole and one of the dogs suddenly went flying back with a loud bang and a squeal. I heard a voice say, “Got one” and realised it was Lara. I pulled my head back round the corner and felt myself shaking; my friends were trapped in there. They could be hurt; they must have barricaded themselves in after the dogs chased them. I had to help them to escape; I crouched against the wall thinking about the hospital layout as the constant growling and scratching continued. I couldn’t go back the same way because of the pack downstairs, I quietly got to my feet and began down the corridor opposite. The sign above said, ‘Fire Exit’, it stopped at a doorway with a heavy bar on it and a green fire exit sign. I lifted the bar making as little noise as possible, then I swung the door wide and wedged it open with the head of one of my crossbow bolts. Moving silently, I looked down the narrow flight of stairs below me to see if there was any movement. I listened intently for a few minutes and even gave a little cough which echoed down the staircase, but I heard nothing coming up so headed down slowly keeping my weapon at the ready. At the bottom the door to the outside opened easily and although it had a warning on it that it was alarmed this was now silent with no electricity to feed it. I quickly scanned outside the door and saw what I needed straight away, the first ambulance I tried had the doors locked and the next one had a corpse inside. I could see it through the glass, it looked like a man in a hospital uniform, he was slumped onto the steering wheel, carefully I pulled at the door, as it opened the corpse began to slide towards me I felt the bile rise in my throat. I reached in and held him up, his rotting flesh gave way under my hand; the smell hit me in a rush, and I had to stop breathing for a moment before I threw up. I looked back at the building behind me and thought of my friends; taking a deep breath, I turned back to the corpse. After a few tugs he fell out of the driver’s seat and on to the gravel by my feet, I climbed over his body trying not to look at it and got into the front seat. Turning the ignition key, I felt the vehicle splutter into life, it lurched forward a little and I felt my heart pounding in apprehension, but the handbrake was on, so it didn’t go anywhere. I began to search for the button I needed, the first one I pushed made the windscreen wipers move, then the next one made its headlights come on, I cursed a bit and kept pressing each button in turn. Suddenly I found what I was looking for; the siren came on with a deafening sound, I jumped as it began and felt my pulse race again. Leaping over the dead driver I jumped down and dashed back towards the building, I didn’t want to go back up the narrow emergency stairway as I hoped the dog’s upstairs would use that. I also couldn’t go towards the front of the building as I expected the rest of the pack to come that way. There was only one option, I had to head to the back of the hospital and hope there was another way in; I raced to the rear of the building, my crossbow thumping into my back as I ran. Barking started coming from the direction of the ambulance, the dogs were arriving, and I imagined they were tearing apart the ambulance and its long dead occupant. Ahead of me I could see a steel coloured door with a small glass panel at the top, it looked like a staff entrance set back in the brick work of the hospital. It was just what I needed and as I ran to it images of Lara’s and the others faces flashed through my mind, they would be amazed when I turned up outside their barricaded door. I pulled the slim grey handle and almost cried out when it wouldn’t open, I tugged and pushed a few times then panting heavily I bent down to see what kind of lock was holding it closed. It seemed to be a chunky bolt lock with a scanning panel, I realised with a sinking feeling that I had actually seen a pass key on the corpse of the ambulance driver. Hospital staff wore them on wrist bands, and I had noticed his when he fell out, but I hadn’t thought of taking it. I cursed myself and my stupidity and stared dumbly at the shiny panel, it reflected my face distorted and coloured blue in its metal surface, and I could see the trees and sky reflected from behind me. I got out my knife and scratched at the panel, I’d seen people disable them in movies, but I had no idea what to do. Suddenly something moved in the reflection and I spun around raising my knife ready, expecting a rush of growling dogs, the reality was probably worse. Twenty or so ravenous were heading my way, they weren’t running as the noise of the ambulance was attracting them, but they seemed a little confused as well. I flattened myself against the door and tried to hide in the darkened recess around the entrance. The ravenous were getting closer and I couldn’t think what to do or if there was any way I could escape without alerting them to my presence.