by Mark Kramer
“There’s no way we’re getting past that,” I said, I knew the entrance to the tunnel was just around the corner from where the ten creatures stood. We had to make a decision. And fast.
That’s when Billy dropped to the floor. My initial thought was that he slipped again. But I looked down and saw Doctor Haas on top of him.
Chapter Eleven
He was on Billy’s back and was screaming as he ripped his shirt open, wanting to bare flesh before taking a bite.
Billy was trying to turn over, but the doctor’s weight was too much for him (Billy was about 120lbs compared to Haas’ 200lbs.)
It all happened so fast that me and Melvin didn’t have time to react. I had no choice but to use the revolver on Haas. I pointed the gun at his head and was about to pull the trigger, but then I realized that the bullet could possibly exit Haas’ and hit Billy.
I hesitated.
The infected people from either side were closing in.
Melvin said, “Hurry!”
As Haas’ moved his mouth to Billy’s bony shoulder, I grabbed Haas by his hair, pulled his head back a few inches, and fired a bullet through his temple. There was a little explosion on the other side of his head and bits of flesh and brain mixed with blood shot out like a volcano eruption.
He dropped dead on top of Billy.
Billy rushed to shove Haas’ body off.
I turned to Melvin. We were in trouble. He was busy swinging his mop handle at the crowd of ten that had closed in on his side.
I picked up the mop that Haas wouldn’t be using anymore, and one of the infected patients from the other side, the smaller group, grabbed my wrist.
Billy was swinging his broom like a madman, trying to help Melvin.
I shoved off the patient. Had the gun in my right hand and the mop in my left, fighting to stay alive. Out of the five patients that I was fighting off, three of them were men and the other two, women. But with those stale yellow eyes and distorted screams, they were all the same to me.
Between Melvin and Billy swinging at their group, they were able to kill two. But they were growing more tired by the second. “We gotta go back,” said Melvin, breathing heavy. “Back the way we came.”
“Come on, you crazy fuckers,” said Billy. “Medication time.” He whacked another on top of their head and the creature dropped. “This heavy duty broom’s gonna fuck the crazy right out your head.”
I swung the mop at one of the infected men. Dropped him. Before I could pull it back to swing again, one of the women grabbed the mop handle and wouldn’t let go.
I didn’t want to tug, because it would’ve pulled her right on me. I raised the gun and fired a shot in her forehead. The force of the bullet jolted her carcass back into two of the creatures.
Melvin screamed.
Billy shouted, “Stanton, they getting him.”
I stole a quick glance behind me ― not wanting to let the group I was fighting off get close to me ― and saw an infected attendant and patient clutching on Melvin’s T-shirt. Billy was doing his best to defend themselves, but had the rest of the group screaming and clawing to get their hands on him.
Melvin was swinging like a wild man, but another two grabbed hold of him, one wrapped their arms around his waist, and the other pulled his hair.
I knew I had to act fast, or Melvin would be dead. I shot the one closest to me from my small group, he fell beside the dead woman. I heard Melvin shriek, then heard flesh being torn.
Please, God. Please, don’t let them do this to my friend.
I didn’t want to turn around. I was afraid to see what awaited me.
I forced myself to turn. For a second, I could swear that my eyes were closed, afraid to see the sight.
I looked. Billy was fighting off a few trying to reach him while trying to beat off the four that were on Melvin.
My gaze drifted to Melvin; he was still standing, screaming, as the first two who grabbed him were biting his forearms, tearing off mouthful size chunks of flesh. The creature that had him by the hair moved in and took a small bite from the back of his neck.
Melvin’s mouth opened as wide as it could, and he let out a painful cry. Both his arms had blood pouring from the bite wounds and running down to his hands.
I screamed and fired the last three bullets of the revolver into the heads of the three who were feasting on him. The one who had him by the waist was pulling up his shirt and about to sink his teeth into his back.
I threw the empty gun at one of them, then swung the mop and hit the creature holding Melvin’s waist. His grip loosened a bit, and I pulled Melvin toward me.
Then we could hear a woman’s voice screaming, Help me!, coming from down the hall, around the corner. I could picture her trapped, in her nurses’ station, surrounded by a band of flesh craving maniacs. I wished we could’ve helped, but there was nothing we could do. There was no way we would be able to get to her without risking our lives further.
“Let’s go, Billy.” I shouted. “Back out the goddamn door.”
Billy was doing a good job of fighting them; he had another two dead on the floor.
The three behind us, from the smaller group, had moved in, and one of them grabbed my hand. He pulled my hand up and toward his mouth. I froze as I saw this happening; I looked into his eyes as he opened his mouth. Then I snapped out of it and pulled my hand away.
I rushed back as fast as I could, my left arm wrapped around Melvin’s waist, and my right arm gripping the mop. I went through the door first, back into the stairwell, then Billy followed, fighting off the rest of the creatures as he walked through.
“We’re leaving out the front,” I said. “It’s the only way.”
“No,” Melvin cried. “We’re not going to make it that way. Front door’s down that hallway.”
I didn’t care what he said at the moment. I knew there was no other way. The tunnel was the safest route for us, but they had the path blocked off. If we didn’t leave now, then we would be trapped in N-3.
We took a few steps up the staircase, heard screams, looked up, and saw the infected people from the second floor coming down the stairs, toward us.
Then we heard the door slam open and saw the group coming through from the first floor.
We were surrounded.
Chapter Twelve
Some of them began showing signs of moving slower as they walked toward us. I wasn’t sure why? One of them loss their balance and fell down the stairs, landing right at Billy’s feet.
Billy didn’t give the man in the denim overalls a chance; he stomped the end of the broom into his head. The crack in his skull echoed throughout the stairwell. Billy exhaled through his mouth, his lips flapping together, and said, “The rest a yall should make it that easy. Just fall right here,” tapping the broom on the floor, “so I can bonk them retarded brains a yours.”
As they moved closer, Billy inched back further and further, pushing me and Melvin against the corner wall.
Now the lights began to flicker. Every second that they flicked off, all we could see were the terrifying yellow eyes inching closer.
The hospital generated its own electricity from an electrical substation right off Southampton Road and, whenever it rained heavy and the creek overflowed, the hospital would lose its power for minutes to hours at a time.
One of them darted out and ran to Billy. He swung the broom and hit him in the neck. The infected patient dropped, but was alive (if that’s what you want to call “alive”.)
“The bastards got us boxed in,” said Billy. “You ready to get your asshole eaten out?”
My eyes widened as the yellow eyes circled us. Think fast. Think fast, I thought.
I heard the wind howl outside, and the rain beginning to slap against the window behind me. I turned and gazed at the storm. I raised the mop and smashed it through the window, glass shattering everywhere. I hit it again and again, until the broken window was big enough for us to fit through.
I dropped the mo
p on the sill, then pulled myself up. “Billy, out here,” I said. He looked at me and backed up as he stood guard while I grabbed Melvin’s bloody hand and pulled him up and over.
The steady thick raindrops were hitting us both. Melvin looked down and saw the distance to the ground outside was about ten feet. He hesitated. I shouted, “Jump. We don’t have time.”
He leaped, but weak, and fell to the front steps of the entrance to N-3. I heard the soles of his boots thumping against the cement below. I stole a quick glance and saw him lying in a fetal position with his hands holding his knee, wincing in pain, and blood from his wounds mixing with rain on the cement.
My attention was on Billy now. He was cornered, up against the wall. The two groups of lunatics were forming into one, about five feet from him now.
I leaned forward, grabbed my mop from the window sill, “Billy, get your skinny butt up here,” and started swinging at the heads moving in on Billy. He tossed his broom out the window, they reached out their bloody hands, he began pulling himself up, an attendant wrapped his thick fingers around Billy’s ankle and tugged on him, Billy was turning red as he struggled to rise and not fall.
There were so many around him, I wasn’t sure who to hit first. “This lil’ critter’s got a hold.” said Billy. I looked and saw the attendant trying to pull him down. I screamed as I whacked the thick wooden mop handle on the side of the attendant’s head. His grip was broken, and Billy pulled himself up so hard that he didn’t stop once he was on the sill; he went right out the window. Damn kid was so light on his feet.
I gazed at the sick people. They were staring at me, reaching up, with their hands brushing against my pants. I looked out the window, the hard rain blinding me for a moment, wiped my face and saw Billy half on Melvin who was still holding his knee.
I tossed the mop to the ground below and jumped out, doing my best to avoid hitting Melvin and Billy. Landed beside them, right on my ass.
I got to my feet. My eyes inspected the parking lot that surrounded the therapy building. There were two cars parked here, the rest were gone; any staff who were lucky enough to escape must’ve driven away. Hopefully, they went for help.
The building and its parking lot were enclosed in a black wrought iron gate, a little over six feet high, that wrapped around the building. There was an opening in the gate, about a hundred feet in front of us.
I noticed an attendant, to the right of us, near the corner of the building, moving our way. The noise of the window shattering probably caught his attention. His white shirt was torn down the center and there was a gaping hole in his stomach; looked as if his intestines had been removed. The blood was still running out of his wound and down his front.
Scattered throughout the parking lot were another five of these infected creatures, wandering, like they had no place to go. I couldn’t see further than the gate; the rain was too hard, and it was too dark to see if there were any outside the gate.
But the two cars were nearby, both parked within a few spaces of each other and maybe fifteen feet or so from the opening of the gate.
Billy was getting to his feet as I said to Melvin, “You feel good enough to walk?”
He shook his head, “I feel weak, but I got a job to finish, see? I ain’t ready to die.”
I stared at him. We saw it happen a few times already. I knew what would happen to Melvin. I wondered if he knew and was just lying to himself and hoping that he wouldn’t become one of them, or if he really believed their bites didn’t infect him the way it did the others.
But there was no way I would hurt Melvin. He was my friend. I was going to do anything possible to make sure he would live to see this nightmare come to an end.
We helped Melvin to his feet.
“Let’s check those cars for keys,” I said. “If nothing, we’ll have to go on foot to N-5.”
Me and Billy stood on either side of Melvin, threw his arms around our shoulders and moved to the cars before the mutilated attendant could reach us. We carried the mop and broom in our hands.
We got to the first car, no keys. Melvin groaned seeing this, not wanting to hike the hundred or so yards to N-5.
As we moved to the second car, we attracted the attention of two of the infected in the parking lot. The mutilated attendant was also moving in, about twenty feet away from us.
Billy smashed the window of the driver’s door of the second car. Again, no keys. Melvin cursed, then I could feel his arm, around my shoulder, twitch.
“Keep your cool, feller,” said Billy. “We gonna walk. I’ll give you a piggyback ride if you feel you can’t make the hike.”
“I’ll be fine. I just hate rain. That’s all.”
We moved toward the opening in the gate. That’s when the entrance doors to N-3 opened and the mob of creatures that surrounded us in the stairwell came flooding out, spilling down the stairs and moving toward us.
We heard the noise and looked back at them. “Shit,” I said and looked at Billy. “Grab his legs, we gotta bolt.”
The three of us were outside the gate now as the mob continued moving closer. I ran to the gate and closed it. From what I could see, there was no lock, so I left it shut and just hoped it would hold them off for some time.
“Let’s cut across the field,” said Billy. “It’ll save us half the time than if we took the road.”
“Yeah, but who knows what’s in that field,” I said.
“We need to take that chance, partner.” Billy motioned to Melvin, saying, “This mess here ain’t gonna make it if we gonna take the road.”
I gazed at Melvin. Billy was right, Melvin looked really weak and pale. Christ, I knew he wasn’t going to make it. Probably wouldn’t even last to N-5 if we did take the field. But he was my friend, and this was a chance I had to take. “Fine,” I said. “Let’s move it, across the field. Keep your eyes peeled.”
“Hey, don’t you worry ‘bout that. The Kid’s always prepared for any cunt dog queers that try and sneak up on him.”
Again, we threw Melvin’s arms over our shoulders and began to move ahead, across the dark field. All we could see were the lights of N-5’s parking lot in the distance, probably about a hundred yards away.
Around us was nothing but darkness and heavy rain. The ground below us had become very muddy and was making our trek sluggish and backbreaking; more than once, our feet would sink a few inches in the mud, and we’d have to stop and free ourselves.
The sound of the crashing rain was loud, but we could still hear faint moans and shrieks behind us.
“Looks like the cavalry came this way,” said Billy, motioning to the ground below us.
My eyes went down and saw trails of footprints and handprints, even body-prints. I’d imagine there was blood at one point, but the hard rain washed it away.
We were in the middle of the field now, closer to N-5. I turned back to see the mob pressed against the wrought iron gate, doing all they could to try and get through.
Facing N-5 now, we drudged forward. Then, the lights went out. Everything everywhere was black.
Melvin moaned and screamed as he said, “What? God, what’s going on?”
“It’s fine, pal,” I said, trying to relax him. “The power got cut off. Calm down, we’re still walking.”
“No, no, they’ll get us in the dark, see? They’ll find us. And eat us.”
Billy interrupted, saying, “Pipe down. You keep ballin’ like that and they will find us. Just keep them chapped lips puckered. We movin’ along. Soon we be safe again.”
“Listen to him, Melvin,” I said.
We walked in the dark. I was nervous. It was just so goddamn dark. I tell you, if I’d’ve put my hand in front of my own face I wouldn’t be able to see it. I mean, it was BLACK.
Then the goose bumps shot up on my arms as I heard the wheels of the gate screeching. I could only imagine what was going on at that moment. The screams and moans grew louder, like the bastards were excited.
A minute later, Bill
y fell. His face hit the mud. Still holding Melvin, he brought him down, and Melvin took me along for the ride.
We were lying in the mud now, moving fast, trying to get up. “What the hell was that, Billy?” I said.
“I hit some’um on the ground,” he said.
I reached back, trying to feel what tripped him. It was a body. As my hands wandered, trying to figure out who or what it was, it said, “Heellpp…Please…Let them…No…”
“It’s a chick,” said Billy. “You all right there, darlin’?” She screamed again. “Calm down now. We got’cha. Ain’t no one gonna hurt ya.”
“No, she could be one of them,” said Melvin. “Leave her and let’s get going before it’s too late.”
“She ain’t sick,” said Billy.
“And how in the heck would you know?” Melvin shouted.
Billy shouted right back, “’Cause, by now she’d be treatin’ us like a goddamn T-bone steak.”
The lights flickered again and were back on.
I looked at Billy and Melvin, then at the woman on the ground; she didn’t appear to have been bitten, but was covered in mud and was semiconscious. Then I turned back and, with the light from N-3’s parking lot reaching the edge of the field, I could see the silhouettes of the figures heading our way.
The nervous feeling came back again. I turned to Billy and said, “Grab her, I’ll get him.”
“My pleasure,” Billy said and lifted the woman off the ground and began carrying her across the field.
I walked with Melvin, but we were a few feet behind Billy, moving slow. My right arm was around his waist, and my left arm was carrying the mop and broom. We were near the edge of the field now and almost at N-5.
The creatures were a good hundred yards behind us.
With the rain hitting my eyes, I squinted at the woman in Billy’s skinny arms. From the looks of her filthy uniform I could tell she was a nurse. The rain was crashing against her face and was washing some of the mud away. She was very attractive, even with all that gunk covering her beauty. I couldn’t help myself; I kept staring at her golden blonde hair. No matter that mud was soaked in it; it still had a way of shining through. It was like a light at the end of a tunnel, a way out, reassuring me that everything was going to turn out all right for us. All of us.
