by Thomas Baker
He gave himself a moment to turn around, seeing the group look at one another with shrugged shoulders and upturned palms. The sounds of the truck's engines got closer.
"Don't break the ice!" Gus suddenly shouted, nearly knocking Linda off the snowmobile as he scampered to his feet. "In this case break the damn ice!" He yelled again, taking aim at the front of the herd and firing at the ice.
Hannah and Linda caught on and joined Gus at firing at the ice, water spouts popping up rapidly. There was a big splash of water as the middle of the herd collapsed through the ice into the water, pulling some of their dead friends with them, others falling at the change in pace and terrain. A few of the remaining zombies stood still looking conflicted about the noise of their fellow brethren sloshing in the frosty water and the living people who put them there.
JT finished pressing his luck. He had to imagine the whole lake's icy surface was unstable at this point. JT slid his way back to the shore, a huge smile across the face of his mobile's chauffeur. The rest of the group hurried back to their vehicles.
"JT you slick son of a bitch! Here I thought you were just gonna cash in and head home!" Gus said to him as the snowmobile took off.
"Gus, I'm just glad they played that game back in your old folks' home." JT retorted.
With an ornery grin Gus gave him a long thumbs up as the vehicles zoomed along their way, destination unknown.
The big neon sign laid dormant, its gaudiness dead. Even though there were signs the settlement had some form of electrical power, it wasn't wasted on such extravagance it seemed. Waste like thatwas for the old world. JT and Hannah passed under it, entering the casino with their two escorts.
The town was quite a sight. It had a wall of junk around it, like a barrier, set in it was a gate. Hannah felt a sense of crushing foreboding as she once again entered a settlement full of people. There weapons were taken and the snowmobile men escorted Gus and Linda off, along with Amber and Byron, stating they were taking them to a clinic.
It only set her a little at ease when everyone and everything they passed after meeting their new escorts seemed more like a regular small town. Everything seemed normal, like from before the Outbreak. People seemed to be happily going about their business, children played out in the streets and front lawns. Albright's church also had an appearance like this at first.
Hannah's apprehension grew as they entered the old casino. The two escorts, weapons in hand, didn't say a word to them. They passed the silent slot machines and game tables to the staircase in the back. It was a small casino, only three floors. Hannah and JT took the stairs to the first.
At the top they took the long hallway down to the room at the end. One escort knocked on the big door. A man wearing small frame glasses opened the door. He was only a little taller than Hannah. His black hair was mostly gone, only little wisps remained on both sides of his head, shot through with grey. He wore nice business casual clothes and had the air of a more refined civility to him than most of the survivors they had met.
"Come in," he said, in a voice that instantly made Hannah think of the Sopranos.
The room was expansive. Hannah guessed before the Outbreak this was the top suite in the casino's hotel. A large window dominated the living area, with a view of snow-capped mountains that was breathtaking. Everything from the couches and countertops to the carpeted floor was spotless.
"Bobby, Joe. You guys can wait outside," the man said with a wave of his hand.
The two men left, closing the door behind them. Casino man took a seat casually over by the window and waved his hand again at the couch. Hannah looked at it like it would bite her, then reluctantly sat down. JT stood over her, his hands crossed over his chest, a sour look on his face. Hannah wondered if this guy was maybe the casino's supervisor or owner before the Outbreak. If so, he has been riding it out in style.
"Suit yourself pal," the man said, crossing his legs. "I heard one of my guys found you and your group on the run from some cadavers. Oh sorry, pardon me. Where are my manners? My name's is Dr. Childs. And you two are?"
"Hannah," she said, speaking just above a whisper.
"JT," he spit out from his clenched jaw.
"You two don't look too happy to be here. Don't worry, we won't hurt you."
"I've heard that before," JT said sarcastically.
Hannah spoke up. "Let me just get to the point Dr. Childs. We have no interest in being here. We want nothing to do with your settlement. We didn't ask for any help. We want our weapons back and shown the way out." The volume of her voice rose as she spoke. She reined it back under control before she yelled at the man.
"I see," Dr. Childs said, shifting his eyes between Hannah and JT. "Can I at least give you the grand tour? We don't need anyone right now but hey, it would be inhumane to at least not offer you a safehaven."
Hannah's stomach clenched, and a chill ran down her spine at Dr. Child's words. She sprang up. "We want out now!"
"Woah, woah. I don't know what happened to you but it looks like it wasn't a good time. What about you, JT? You two were brought here because my men were told you were the leaders of your group. You agree with your lady friend?"
Hannah saw JT look over into Dr. Child's kitchen. There was a line of bottles, ranging from gin to scotch to tequila along one counter. Hannah felt her stomach clinch.
"I don't see any harm in staying one night first. Making a plan," JT licked his lips. "I agree with Hannah. We're not looking to join another group of survivors."
Hannah scowled at JT, flabbergasted. She wanted to do no such thing. She would have an earful for him later. She pierced Dr. Childs with a scathing look.
Dr. Child's went on, ignoring her silent protest. "I will give you an abbreviated tour on the way to shelter. Then you can be on your merry way. I'm not sure I'd want such...negative emotions brought into the town, anyway. That okay?"
Hannah unclenched fists she didn't even realize she had made. She took a deep breath, attempting to blow away the horror and the guilt threatening to overwhelm her. She nodded.
"Nothing funny out of you," JT said, still standing like a statue, arms crossed.
"Same to you, pal. These people, they take my safety seriously. Being the only doctor around since the Outbreak, I'm an important person around here. The most important a lot of them would say."
Dr. Childs stood up, crossing the room to the door. He grabbed a stylish parka from the hooks by the door and shrugged it on. He opened the door and waved them through.
"Our friends Gus and Linda. They are coming with us," Hannah demanded as she walked past Childs.
"Of course. No need for hostility. We will swing by our clinic,by no means can we call it a hospital, and pick them up. I had heard the older man you were with was hurt. I'll give him a once over before you leave, if he doesn't mind."
JT took Hannah's hand. Hannah squeezed it as hard as she could then let go. JT you can go screw yourself and the bottle your dreaming about. Yeah, so far it seemed like this Dr. Childs was okay and they would be let go unharmed. She had been through too much to fully trust him. There could still be a trap somewhere along the way.
Dr. Childs led the way, followed by JT and Hannah, walking side by side and in the back trailed the two bodyguards, Bobby and Joe. Their pistols were now in the belts around their waists, but their hands never strayed too far from them. Hannah wondered if at one time one or both of them were policemen or security of some sort.
Hannah blinked as they exited the casino. The sun's glare was harsh off of the snowpack. It temporarily blinded her after the gloom of being inside.
"I'd guess we're the most self-sufficient town you will find in this area," Childs continued on. "Possibly even the United States. I don't know where you came from, but it sounds to melike you have done some hard traveling. Yet here you are. You haven't died yet. You're survivors."
"I don't believe anywhere is safe," Hannah said sullenly.
"I think you will beg to differ, once you see
our joint."
"How did you get here?" JT asked. "You don't sound like you're from Colorado."
"Ha, you got that right. I'm New Jersey, born and raised." Dr. Childs said, as they continued down the snow-covered street, following in the footsteps of the others who had came this way. "I was vacationing with my wife, Glenda, when the Outbreak happened. We were down in Colorado Springs, doing the tourist bit. My wife enjoys skiing and shopping. I enjoy sipping umbrella drinks by the pool. That you can do anywhere. I liked to keep my wife happy, and this is where she wanted to be. Then bam, the world goes to fuck. I'm just a family physician, not a pathologist or infectious disease specialist. Still, I can't wrap my head around what appears to be a virus with a one hundred percent infection rate and an incubation period of minutes."
"Is your wife here?" Hannah asked, curious in spite of wanting nothing to do with these people.
"She umm, she didn't make it. I was in my hotel room. She was out looking at antiques or some such shit. I had the radio on. The emergency broadcast broke in. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. So I turned on the TV. Saw the photos and videos of the devastation in New York, Washington D.C., Los Angeles. I called Glenda's cell, couldn't get through. I was about to go out the door when I looked out the window. Down from my suite on the sixth floor, I could see I was already too late."
Dr. Childs stopped for a moment. Hannah thought he was taking a moment to help keep his composure. She softened just a little then. Not much, she still kept her eye on the two bodyguards as they walked. There was still no way she trusted any of them.
Childs continued on. "Colorado Springs had turned into a massacre. It was a bloodbath in the Hilton parking lot, it looked like a war zone. From high up I couldn't tell who were the people and who were the zombies. All I could see was they were tearing each other apart. I barricaded the door and stayed inside until hunger drove me out. This was, I don't know how many days later. I scrounged up some food and hid back in my hole. It was summer until I ran into any other living people. They had come down from the mountains. When they found out I was a doctor, they went nuts. You would think they had just won the Powerball or something. I came up here with them and I've been here ever since."
"So you didn't start this place?" Hannah asked.
"No, but I've been in charge ever since I got here. Before me it was Henry Evans. He's an engineer. He helped erect the walls, blasted a cave in the mountainside where we have food stored. Got some electricity going even. We get along okay but I can tell he wasn't happy about being replaced as the top dog. Wasn't my idea though. Just about everyone here said having a doctor around was the more important thing."
They stopped outside a building proclaiming itself as the number one stop for ski supplies.
"This is the clinic. We'll check on your friends, I'll give you all the abbreviated tour and then if you still want, you can be on your way."
They went inside. A surprising blast of warmth hit them as the door opened. A roaring fireplace stood in the middle of the store. Shoved against both walls were racks of winter gear. Mostly stripped bare, the walls still held skis, poles, or boots here or there. Their footsteps tapped along the hardwood floor as they made their way to the back.
"The fireplace feels great right?" Dr. Childs said with a smile. "It was the top reason I picked this place to set up. Even in the summer, at this altitude, it can be chilly. Couldn't have been vacationing in the Bahamas when shit when down, huh?"
Behind what used to be check-out counters, huge red curtains ran from ceiling to floor. Childs parted them, revealing a big open concrete space. Whatever store inventory there had been was emptied outto make room for beds and medical equipment.
There were six beds. People occupied two. One of them was Gus. Linda sat next to him, reading through a magazine. She stood and smiled when she saw them.
"Just like a real doctor's office, I found a year old magazine to thumb through," Linda said, chuckling.
"Gus, here you are lying around in bed again. Too much of this and I'm going to think you enjoy being pampered," JT said, chiding his friend.
"Well, don't you have a bedside manner like catching my pecker in my zipper. Why are we even friends again?" Gus gave back.
"He popped a stitch in all the excitement," Linda said. "It was an easy fix with all the supplies they have here. Gus cried like a baby."
Gus gave Linda an over the top stare. "Well, no more Mr. Nice Gus for you either!"
"Hi, I'm Dr. Childs." He extended his hand out to Linda, then Gus.
"Linda."
"Gus."
After handshakes he asked. "Linda, are you a doctor, too?"
"No, I'm a nurse," she said, sounding like a professional. "It's nice to meet you, doctor."
"Excellent," Dr. Childs said, rubbing his hands together. "I could use a good assistant, if you stayed. Sometimes my hours here are longer than I had back at my practice."
Linda looked to Hannah and JT and then gave a noncommittal, "Um, sure."
Dr. Childs fully turned to Gus. "Gus, I have been practicing medicine for twenty years. Would you mind if I gave you an examine, before you go?"
"Sure doc, as long as you don't ask me to turn my head and cough."
Dr. Childs frowned, then went to gather up a stethoscope, blood pressure cuff, and a penlight. He snapped on some gloves and came back over. He did the standard checks on Gus's hearts, lungs and then looked at the gash in Gus's side. He felt around it, asking Gus for feedback on how the pain was.
"You are in reasonably good health. Lungs could be a little clearer. I gather you used to be a smoker, right?"
Gus nodded. "That was a tough bitch to bust, but I gave it up many, many moons ago."
"The stab wound must have been nasty. It is healing nicely, all things considered. I see no signs of secondary infection. Try not to do anything strenuous the next few days."
"Good to know," Gus said, pulling his shirt back down. "Now are you going to bill my insurance? I don't know where I've put my card, but it was BlueCross BlueShield."
"I don't give away many freebies, but that one was on the house," Dr. Childs said, putting his equipment away.
"I'm free to go, doc?"
"Yes."
"First Gus, the doctor here is going to give us the time-share pitch on why we should buy a lovely condo here," JT said.
"He was?" Linda scratched her head. "Then he can start by telling me about the zombie out back in the cage."
"What?!" Hannah fumbled for her weapon, forgetting they were still unarmed. Just when she started to think maybe this place was on the up and up.
"I stepped out for a quick breath of fresh air after finishing with Gus and there it was on the dock," Linda said.
"Now, now, calm down," Dr. Childs said soothingly, raising his hands up in the air. "It's no secret I keep the specimen back behind the building. You can see it, if you like."
"Count me out, I've seen enough of those for five lifetimes," Gus said.
"I've seen it already." Linda sat back down.
Hannah didn't know why she agreed. She should have cared less than zero about seeing it. They were leaving no matter what, anyway. She guessed it was just some morbid curiosity that made her nod her head yes. Maybe she wanted to hear what excuse the doctor could come up with.
Dr. Childs walked them out the back door. In a corner where the building jutted out a little, there was a large dog crate. It looked large enough for something like a German Shepard. There was no dog inside; it was a zombie. It use to be a toddler. It looked no bigger than a four-year-old to Hannah. Its right arm was gone all the way upto the shoulder. The bone of the shoulder socket stuck out around ragged grey and black flesh. It had silvery duct tape wound around its mouth. It looked towards them with empty white eyes as they approached. Hannah felt the urge to puke. In all the times she had seen the zombies, this was the first time abominations came to her mind to describe what she was looking at.
"Dude, disgusting," JT said, g
oing pale.
Hannah could guess why. It had to be the same reason she turned her head quickly away. Seeing a zombie in a cage reminded her too much of what happened to Tyrone. She tried to keep the thought away, but it rushed to the top. Not for the first time she wondered if the undead walked around with there souls trapped, unable to ascend to Heaven. She shivered, and it wasn't because she was cold.
"We have a small patrol group. They go out once a week, gather supplies and have a look around. They captured it on one of their rounds. They thought maybe I could study it. I guess they thought maybe I could find a cure or vaccine." Dr. Childs' smile was condescending. Like he thought those people were simpletons. Hannah disliked him for that.
"Like I said diseases aren't my specialty, but I have been doing observational studies. One interesting theory I am charting now is even though the dead bodies are animated by the virus, the bodies are still decaying. I theorize eventually the body will rot away to such a state that the victims will actuallydie. There will be no brain tissue left. Then the virus too will die. It does seem the virus somehow retards the decaying process by some unknown degree. I am excited to see where testing leads, as limited as I am here."
"I'm done," Hannah said, holding her looping stomach. "Let's go, JT."
"Fine." Dr. Childs turned away. "Walk with me and we'll stop by the guardhouse. You'll get your weapons and supplies back and you will be free to stay or go."
"Sounds good," Hannah said, peeking at the zombie one more time. It was like looking at a horrific accident. She couldn't turn away until the metal door shut, blocking her view.
Back inside, Linda and Gus were sitting close to one another, chatting. Hannah turned her mind from the disturbing thing she just saw and the feelings it brought up. It was like walking through thick syrup but she needed to distract herself. She focused on how happy she was to hear Gus was healing well. On how happy Gus and Linda were together.
Gus got up from the bed. Linda helped Gus bundled up for the cold. Hannah realized with a pang that Linda had supplanted her in caring for Gus. What a weird thing to be jealous of.
