Eves of the Outbreak

by Lilith Assisi

  Now if only I had a stinking microbiologist survivor, we might be able to figure more of this out.

  It made me think of Rabies, and how the virus traveled along neurons so time to clinical sign varied based on how far away from the brain the bite was, or how fast one’s adrenalin got it moving through their system.

  Like I had mentioned before, there weren’t that many undead wandering the campus when it all started.

  Now, one week later, was a bit of a different story.

  I was out on another campus sweep. This time Percy had joined River and I. I was also accompanied by Frank Thompson, a math professor who liked to run Spartan races on the weekend, Tracy Gelpi, my star first year surgical resident, David Wormuth, an accounting student who had been in the Army and served in Afghanistan before the outbreak, and Bari Williams, an engineering student who had a black belt in jusitsu. All of us had volunteered for the mission, and all of us felt we had something to bring to the table when it came to surviving.

  The mission was simple: find more survivors and supplies, specifically weapons. We also wanted to bring some cars up to the veterinary hospital if possible, to have in the event of needing a quick escape.

  The landscape before us made me realize how important the finding of weapons was going to be.

  It was a much different campus than six or seven days ago. There were fewer and fewer survivors. The occasional figure wandering about had a ninety percent chance of being a zombie. If it was a survivor, they had at least a fifty percent of having been bitten.

  Directly to the west of the veterinary school were student resident halls, and that was where most of the hoards were drawn. It meant we had to exit out of the northeast part of the hospital building, and keep a wide berth to get to other areas of campus worth exploring.

  Sadly those hoards by the residencies meant there were probably lots of survivors holed up there. The zombies seemed to have lots of continued interest there, but we weren’t in a situation where we were equipped to tackle any group over a dozen zombies. I had seen one group so large that I couldn’t count how many zombies were in it over fifth.

  Our veterinary school site had been relatively ignored by the zombies, probably due to its lack of windows in the hospital areas we were holed up in. I counted our blessings that we could still go out on runs like this without drawing too much attention, but even that was unlikely to last. Each daily trip required the slaughter of more zombies lingering outside the doors before we had a clear path to head elsewhere.

  Today we were heading to the Northwestern Avenue Parking Garage, which was a little further out than anywhere we had explored thus far.

  “Shhh,” said Bari. For a second I thought she was shushing me, but then remembered she couldn’t hear my inner monologue.

  She was shushing all of us though. She peered around into the parking lot she kept her other hand up facing us. She changed her finger to a three.

  I felt relief, though not as much as a lower number would have provided. She could see an obvious three zombies in the parking lot. There could be more obscured by cars, but we weren’t outnumbered at least.

  I was holding River and Percy’s collars while she stood at attention. I like to think that River knew what she was getting herself in to as well. Percy on the other hand was a new addition to our mission, and I was worried about him being on this trip. But he had started howling when River and I tried to leave, and those staying back at the hospital had threatened to throw him out on his own while we were gone if he didn’t stop howling. He seemed quietest and most content when he was with the two of us, so I took him along and hoped he wouldn’t get hurt.

  Bari turned back around. She wore her curly black hair in as tight a bun as she could, but without hair gel you could tell it was starting to frizzle and pop out from the hair tie. She had a fierce face, and always seemed like she was all about business.

  David was the same having been in combat before. It was like he put his game face on and went all matter of professional kick ass when he went on missions.

  Frank and Tracy were another story. They both had no combat or fighting experience. They and I were similar in that manner. Still we were all in great shape, making us quick runners, and strong when we had to be in the field. We also seemed to have a knack for strategy.

  My personal superpower these days? The one advantage I had was the ability to turn my brain off. It was a talent that had helped me in my career at one point. With the ability to perform euthanasias, and frequent need for them in veterinary medicine for various reasons, I was great at turning my compassion off and detaching myself from victims. I sometimes felt cold or heartless, but I knew that was not the real case. I would go out of my way to rescue survivors or offer them shelter at our hospital whenever I could. But I could also be ruthless and efficient when it came to killing zombies.

  I thought of the iron crowbar and trusty baseball bat on my back. I had upgraded to the iron bar in most situations, but had made myself a strap that attached both to my back for easy access when needed.

  Bari nodded at me and the dogs. I let River’s collar go first, scratching her ear quickly before she took off around the corner. I let Percival’s go as well and he darted off after his buddy. I said a silent prayer that I wasn’t sending him to his death.

  A couple seconds later I heard River’s recognizable bark, followed by a deeper bark that must have been Percy. Bari was turned back around looking around the corner. The barking increased and Bari hushed an urgent “Go!” as we all took off in the direction of the dogs.

  I already had the iron bar in my hand.

  I smiled with satisfaction at the sight before me: Percy and River had herded two zombies into each other, and they were tripping and bumping in to themselves as they swung awkwardly at the dogs. Percy had fallen right in to place, barking and jumping at the zombies but staying far enough out of reach. The zombies were too preoccupied to see us approach.

  There was another zombie a row over that was heading towards us. David and Frank broke off to head towards him. I naturally went towards my dogs, which everyone knew I would. I was very protective of River on all missions, and everyone knew my habit of taking care of any zombies threatening my dog. Now I had two dogs to worry about, making my determination even stronger as I swung the iron bar and took out the first. I lifted it to take on number two. This second male zombie was coming towards my face when the top of his head suddenly collapsed.

  His body fell to the pavement, revealing Bari standing behind him as she pulled her aluminum pipe out of his head.

  “Thanks,” I said to her.

  “I couldn’t let you have all the fun,” she smiled back.

  I know my talent was turning off my brain and staying detached, but I didn’t necessarily enjoy that I was good at that. I often wondered whether or not Bari had a part of her brain that she was turning on. She seemed to thrive in this environment.

  The dogs had stopped barking and were wagging their tails excitedly. I bent down to give Percy a big scratch, telling him he was such a good dog. River already knew she had done good, but being this was Percy’s first trip out I wanted to really reinforce it. I stood back up and got them both a treat from my pocket.

  By then we had all regrouped together. Tracy and Frank were bending down to pet the dogs.

  “Good job with the canines,” David nodded to me.

  “Don’t thank me, thank them,” I told him.

  I think David only liked River as a tool, and it looked like Percy was going to be seen that way by him too. He just continued looking around the campus to see what other zombies the barking had attracted. There was bound to be some.

  I was pleased that David hadn’t had to take his rifle out. He had picked up the rifle and a couple other firearms in the first days of the outbreak. (I actually suspect they were his, and that he had them illegally, but he claims he got them from an abandoned police car). He always brought a gun or two on our missions, but I had convinc
ed him not to take them out in order to try to avoid making excess noise that would attract more zombies.

  “Alright, let’s start checking out cars. I’ll stand guard if you guys want to search all the ones here for supplies or a functioning vehicle,” David instructed. As he said it, he did take his rifle off his back and started walking towards the end of the parking lot. I shook my head and headed off in the opposite direction, wanting to get the dogs and I away from his hot head.

  We started sweeping vehicles, each of us grabbing a row and starting up the row. The routine was to first check the doors, and if it was opened to pop the trunk, glove compartment and all other possible compartments to search for supplies. If there were keys we would check and see if the car would start, but would turn it back off and leave the front door open to identify the car when we came back around. If the car doors were locked, which was more often than not, we would search through the windows for any supplies that looked worth breaking a window for, and if we spotted any we would alert the group that we would be smashing. Once the window was broke we could collect the supplies in the duffel bag that each of us carried.

  We had done our first parking lot sweep in the Visitor’s Parking Garage two days ago and it had gone well. We were mostly collecting clothes, blankets, flashlights, and other equipment that people had stored in their cars. We did find one pistol and had stocked up on tire irons as well. This parking lot was a little further from the hospital and had taken us over an hour to get to with the couple groups of zombies we had to dispatch along the way, despite it being less than a half mile in distance away.

  I took the row at the farthest end of the lot and started peering through the windows of the first car, a Jetta. The lot was only about a third full, and there was the occasional car that had been left abandoned in an odd spot or in the middle of the lane. The Jetta didn’t seem to have anything in it of significance, its doors locked, so I headed up to the next car.

  The next car was an older Honda, and the driver’s side door was unlocked. A quick sweep of the car and I had found a bag of clothes as well as a pillow, and blanket in the back trunk. Maybe it had been someone planning to go on a trip, or someone visiting their child in college? I felt a little bit sorry for them as I assumed they were probably dead. I left the materials in the trunk as the car had started, meaning we would try to take it back with us when we left.

  River and Percy were sniffing and circling the next car when I got to it, an aged Dodge Caravan. The car was a dark blue and the windows were tinted. I was excited to get to this car as when River was interested in a car it almost always meant there was food in it. I had to get up very close to the back door in order to peer through the glass, but a moment later was yelping as I stumbled backward.

  A pair of eyes had stared back at me. And they hadn’t looked dead, or worse, undead.

  Chapter 22

  I gripped my crowbar tighter but felt comforted by the fact that Percy was now standing in front of the door, wagging his tail vigorously. I moved slowly back towards the door and peered through. There was a girl staring back at me. She looked to be about fourteen or fifteen, but I was terrible at guessing the age of children. She was wrapped up in a blanket and shivering.

  “Hi there,” I said through the glass. No response.

  “You ok?” I asked.

  The girl shook her head.

  “Can I open the door?”

  She nodded.

  “Are you scared of dogs?”

  Another shake of the head.

  “Good, cause I’ve got two right here that are probably going to jump right in to say hello when I open this door.” I tried smiling at her. She was awfully quiet, but then again I would probably have been too. She had just been in a parking lot crawling with zombies.

  I tried to open the sliding door, but it was locked.

  “Can you unlock this and let me in?” I asked her with a smile.

  She slowly lifted the blanket off herself and revealed a younger little boy under the blanket. I tried to hide my look of shock but it was hard. I am sure she saw some of it, but I tried to go back to the non-threatening smile as quickly as I could. The girl reached the door, but peered through down towards the dogs before opening it. Once she saw Percy’s wagging body and River’s wagging stub she looked back at me and unlocked the door.

  I slid open the door and let the dogs jump in to say hello first.

  The girl seemed unable to hide a smile as Percy started licking her face. Meanwhile River was sniffing the boy under the blanket who was slowly waking up. He too started to smile, but as his eyes opened and he took in the scene before him he jumped up with a gasp, pulling back towards his sister.

  “Hi there. Sorry to have scared you. I’m Diana, and these are my dogs River and Percy,” I told them as I nodded towards each dog.

  I held my hand out towards them. The girl took it after a moment of hesitation, but the boy seemed too scared to. Meanwhile Percy was now sniffing him expectantly, as if the fact that he was not petting him was an oddity that had to be solved.

  “I’m Samantha, and this is my brother Ian,” she told me.

  “Nice to meet you Samantha, or do you prefer Sam?” I asked.

  “Sam,” she said with a smile.

  “How did you get here?” I asked.

  “We came here to try to find my dad. He’s a professor in the speech department. Mom and dad both didn’t come home from work four days ago. But we’ve walked to dad’s school before and thought that was closer and easier to get to than mom’s work. We never made it to his building, we had to hide in here to avoid the dead people.” She said it with such calm, like it was so matter of fact. Our world had changed too much in less than a week.

  “Hey! Di! What’s going on?!” Frank must have reached the end of his row and saw me chatting with the kids. Before I knew it, the whole group had come to the van, and Ian looked even more frightened than before. I introduced the group to both of them then continued quizzing them.

  “How old are you both?”

  “I’m thirteen, and my brother is eight,” Sam told me.

  “Were you injured? Were you bitten?!” David asked in a gruff way. I shouldn’t have been surprised, he didn’t know how to interact with animals or kids.

  “No,” Sam shook her head as she said it.

  The group took on the interrogations from there, but we left that parking lot with four new vehicles full of supplies as well as two new members to our group. Our group was still growing, but not as quickly as it had in the first couple days.

  Chapter 23

  Back at the hospital the kids were outsiders, the only ones under twenty, but several of the students and professors had friends and relatives with children so they naturally seemed to take over their care. Some of them had even been parents themselves, though this new world stripped that from them in the harshest way possible.

  I went back to my office. My office, along with several of the other offices, had been part of the hospital that we had been able to protect and maintain. They had mostly been converted to sleeping quarters since they had carpets on the floors. There were also a couple cots we had found in the overnight resident room, which we had used to make the sleeping quarters more comfortable. It was still daytime so I was hoping that one of the two cots in my office would be open.

  I was in luck. Marge smiled at me as I walked in. She was in the one cot, but the other was still completely open.

  River was already hopping in to the cot with Marge as I plopped down on the open one. I hadn’t even noticed that she and Percy had followed me here, but I shouldn’t have been surprised.

  “Good run?” she asked.

  “Yup. Not only full of cars and supplies, but two new kids too. A thirteen year old girl and an eight year old boy,” I told her.

  I winced as I saw the look of pain cross her face. I had forgotten that she had lost her eight-year-old boy that first day. She was one of those grieving parents. She left alongside Katy
that first day to go find their families, but Marge had returned half a day later empty handed. She didn’t say a word for two days, and when she did she had left out the more gruesome details. Even with her vague description, all of us had an eidetic idea of what her zombie husband eating her son must have looked like. I couldn’t blame her, none of us needed to know the details, and she probably wanted to wipe it from her memory more than anything. Sadly that’s the type of image that’s gonna stick, gonna be etched on the inside of your eyelids for a long time.

  “Sorry Marge,” I said.

  “It’s ok. It’s not your fault. In fact, I should be thanking you for saving those kids. I’ll let you get some rest. I’ll go greet the new kids on the block,” she smiled at me as she got up and headed towards the door.

  “You don’t have to go,” I protested.

  “No I don’t, but you deserve some peace and quiet. I’ll bring some food in for the kids.” I knew this time the kids meant the dogs, my constant companions.

  “Thanks,” I said as I turned over in the bed and pulled the covers up to my neck. I felt a weight suddenly pressed on my back and realized River must have jumped in to the cot. I smiled as I felt her paws walk across me and she let out a distinctive umph as she rested along my side.

  I couldn’t’ smile long, suddenly a wet tongue licked up my unsuspecting face and startled me forward. Laughing, I pushed Percy away and got him to settle along the side of the bed, reassuring him with ear rubs. I tried to smile and think about how perfect and comfortable things felt with my dogs on either side of me, hoping that maybe this feeling of contentment would block out the nightmares this time.