Phil handed him his gear, along with Selina’s pack and her sword, which she had prepared for them late last night. Selina climbed in after him. He caught her and helped her to find a seat beside him.
“Anyone else?” Alex asked.
“I’m in,” said Alexis as she stepped into the boat without a second thought. She looked a bit more haggard than everyone was used to seeing her. She still wore a very tight shirt that accentuated her breasts and a very short pair of shorts that exposed her shapely legs. But she also wore a bandana over her normally immaculate hair, and a pair of work boots covered her feet instead of the usual stylish leather boots. As she carefully climbed into the boat, Alex was relieved that no water seeped in through seams.
“And so am I,” said Bryan, stepping onto the boat gingerly. His button down shirt was soiled with dirt as was his jeans and sneakers, but his spirits seemed high as he immediately plopped down beside Alexis. He carried his mace gingerly in one hand and a backpack was slung over his shoulder.
“I think we’re at capacity then,” Alex said with a chuckle.
‘You’ll be needin’ these,” Kelly said as he stepped up beside the boat and handed Alex and Selina the oars.
Nick suddenly appeared from behind Kelly and knelt low to stare at Alex. “Remember, the hospital first. We need IV bags and as many meds as you can get your hands on.”
“You got it,” Alex said with a nod.
“And take this,” Nick said, handing Alex a folded towel, which Alex grabbed and looked at peculiarly. “Open it.”
Alex unfolded the towel to find one of the sticks of dynamite inside the folds, tucked neatly in a zip-lock bag. “Just in case,” Nick said. “Only use it as a last resort.”
“Obviously,” Alex agreed. He fished inside his pack and found his Glock along with the silencer. He checked his quiver and bow and made sure there were extra clips and his first aid kit in the pack. He placed the towel inside the pack, too. “Ready?”
The group waved goodbye to them and shoved the boat off. Once they exited the moat, Alex and Selina placed the oars into the water and began to row in unison. They were clumsy at first, but a few moments later, they were working in tandem to guide the boat up the river.
Alex took note that the undead were certainly out in droves still, even finding some along the riverbank. It was an odd thing to watch as one of them, upon seeing the boat, wandered right into the river and disappeared in the water a few minutes later.
They kept moving upriver for a long while until the riverbank was clear of the undead and guided the boat toward the riverbank at that juncture. They saw a few abandoned vehicles all gathered up, too. They had actually gone in a northerly direction for the most part, following the river’s gait, and the gas station and the shopping centers they visited were to the east.
As they came up to the bank of the river, they pulled the boat up and behind a copse of trees and shrubbery, along with the oars. Alex took out his bow and stepped a few feet back, nocked an arrow and launched one into the tree.
“That’s our mark.” He proceeded to cut a few low hanging branches and placed them over the boat. Moments later, he had it covered enough to where he was satisfied. “We ready?”
“Yeah,” Bryan said, holding his mace and testing its weight again. He also removed a huge knife that was in a scabbard around his shin and handed it to Alexis. “Just in case.” She nodded to him as Selina was waving her sword around, too, running a few drills and familiarizing herself with her weapon once again.
Alex felt bad that they had to leave Shadow at the castle, but he could not risk bringing the wolf along for so many reasons. He still felt bad about it no matter how he rationalized it.
“It’s okay, I'm sure he misses you too,” Selina said, resting a hand on his shoulder in a comforting manner. It was amazing to him that she could read him so well already and knew where his emotions were guiding him just by reading his expression.
“Thanks.”
“Now let’s find us a car,” she said, slapping him on his rear end.
They crept up from the riverbank to the highway quite easily. When they arrived to the side of the road, there were a few abandoned vehicles pulled off the side. There were also three zombies wandering about, and as soon as they made it to the road, the trio of undead began heading their way. Alex nocked his bow and let them get closer.
He waited until they were twenty paces and fired the first, content to see that his skills with the bow had not diminished.
Like riding a bike.
He watched in satisfaction as the arrow struck true, dropping the first. He nocked a second arrow and fired it, this one finding the onrushing zombie’s eye, dropping it to the asphalt, too.
The third one made into their ranks where Bryan and Selina stood. It rushed toward Selina and so she was the one to act as Bryan stepped back. She didn’t even step back, but simply swung the sword in a downward chop, splitting that one’s head in two. Its baseball cap, along with its skull, separated easily, stopping the creature’s momentum straight away. It fell to the side as Selina asked Alex to spin around for her. He felt her fishing in his pack and when he turned to face her again, she had removed the towel and wiped the gore from her face, spitting and cursing under her breath.
“I’ll have to do that different next time,” she mentioned casually, as Bryan and Alexis were smiling, amused by her sense of humor.
“So, let’s see what kind of vehicles we’ve got to work with,” Alex said, moving to the first one. After an hour passed of testing and inspecting vehicles, they finally came across a gold painted Ford Explorer that was in decent shape with good treads on the tires, had the keys in side, and had a little over half a tank of gas. Alex turned the key and it started up. “This one it is.”
The four of them piled into the vehicle and Alex pulled away, heading west on the highway toward the hospital. They passed several more zombies, usually in small groups that chased after them relentlessly until they were out of sight. They also drove through several accident sites that they had to drive around or, in one case, had to get out and push vehicles off to the side in order to get by them.
They were doing so at yet another vehicular barricade when a zombie emerged from one of the vehicles and had Alex not acted quickly, would have taken a huge chunk out of Bryan’s arm.
They rode for about an hour all told, and when the hospital was in sight, they did not like what they saw in the distance.
“Hand me my pack,” Alex said to Selina, who grabbed the backpack, unzipped it and held it out for him. Alex pulled the SUV over and found the binoculars in the backpack. As he placed them over his eyes, in the detailed view, he tallied countless of the undead wandering around the fenced in area of the hospital grounds and parking lot. “Not lookin’ great.”
“I can’t let her die, Alex!” Selina said sharply, regarding Hannah, staring back at him intensely.
“There’s gotta be pharmacy’s around here, or even the supermarket, that have IV bags and meds, right?!” Alex asked incredulously, as he stared back to Bryan and Alexis in the rear view mirror.
“Well, there are pharmacies of course, but we’ve checked out most of ‘em, cleared out what little was left in ‘em, too. Which wasn’t much. Ya gotta understand that when the dead started to walk the earth and the chaos started, people raided pharmacy’s first,” Bryan explained, removing a cigarette and lighting it. “Needless to say, the hospital is chock full o’ goodies, an’ you can see why, right?” he grinned madly at Alex in that moment before blowing out a lung-full of smoke.
“Shit. Well, what is there left for us to do but go on a suicide mission to get the medical supplies?” Alex asked, hopeful that someone would have an alternative answer. Silence ensued. “Let’s park this thing off the side of the road here and get a little closer on foot. Maybe we’ll find a way in that isn’t straight through that front gate.”
“There’s always another way in, right?” asked Alexis, removing her
bandana and slapping it against her leg to remove some soot, then wiped her face with it. She slowly tied it on, looking back to Alex and the others for an answer.
“I have no idea. But, I hope there is,” Alex admitted. “Let’s stick to the tree line there,” he added, gesturing to the row of trees that ran along the western side of the hospital and all the way around the back before stopping.
“Good idea, might give us a different vantage point to scope things out,” Bryan said. He removed his pack of cigarettes and shook the box and then looked inside. “Shit. Only two left.” He dumped one out into his hand and then put it back. “Save’em for later. Let’s roll.”
Bryan strode off, followed by Alexis. Selina stared at Alex for a long moment as he removed supplies from his pack, tucking the pistol away in this belt. She then hugged and kissed him before slapping him on his ass, indicating for him to follow them. “Let’s kill us some jokers, Lancelot,” she teased as Alex followed, hiding his smile from her.
Chapter 6
The group was halfway through the tree line, at the corner of the side and back of the hospital, when a sound came from behind Alex. He spun to see a zombie charging straight for Alexis and did not have time to nock an arrow. He instead removed his Glock, quickly flipped the safety and shot the thing in the head. It fell to the side, landing in a pile of twigs and leaves.
The silencer did the job as nothing else stirred or came for them. Alexis was covered in gore, as the creature was a foot from her when Alex shot it.
Alexis, still in shock, took in a few rounds of deep breaths before she turned to regard Alex. She made to move toward him, to possibly say something to him, but before she could make it to him, Alex saw Selina toss that same towel at her, catching her in the face.
“Might wanna clean that blood and gore off your face, hon,” she said sharply.
Alex shrugged, rolled his eyes, and shook his head in disbelief at the cattiness. It took everything he had to stifle a chuckle at the exchange. Bryan hadn’t even seen what had happened, as he was many paces ahead of them, creeping quietly through the thickets. He suddenly appeared before them now after hearing the shot and stood in front of Alexis.
“What the hell happened?!” Bryan asked, looking from Alex to Selina and then back to Alexis, inspecting her and watching her clean her face with a towel.
“It’s all good. Your girlfriend’s fine,” Selina said harshly.
“Are you okay?” Bryan asked Alexis concernedly, his hands on her shoulders while Alexis wiped her face repeatedly with that same towel. She continued to flip over and fold it in the hopes of finding a clean spot it seemed to Alex, but she did not fare so well.
“Where were you?!” she whispered to him a little too loudly. Selina strode right over to Alex and pulled him away from the discussion.
“What the hell? We don’t have time for—“
“It’s a woman thing. Let it go, Lancelot, she’ll be done in a minute,” Selina said with a silly grin as she jammed her sword into the ground and crouched, using it for balance. Alex watched as Bryan reached into his own pack and removed a plastic hard-shell case and handed something to Alexis.
The pair waited a few moments until Bryan and Alexis finished their discussion. Eventually, a gloomy Bryan joined Selina and Alex, leaving Alexis alone. It appeared to Alex as if she was possibly sulking, but he couldn’t really tell for sure. She had something in her hand that he couldn’t really make out.
“Everything all right with you two?” Selina asked, making it to her feet again and yanking her sword free.
“Yep. All good.”
“Can she handle that weapon?” Alex asked, recognizing that what Alexis held in her hand was a pistol.
“Yeah, it’s a Beretta I had tucked away. Just want her to be safe,” Bryan said, staring up at Alex, who stared back worriedly.
“Don’t worry, I showed her the safety…and its factory with a suppressor; I never fired the damn thing. Found it a while back still in the case in the back of an abandoned vehicle. Never used it and don’t worry, it won’t make any noise,” he added as he slapped Alex on the shoulder and winked.
“I generally don’t think it’s a great idea to give someone a deadly weapon, especially if they haven’t even been trained with one yet,” Alex countered.
“Man, she said she’s fired one before at a range back in the day. Besides, we’re not exactly in a situation where we can train her properly, are we?”
“Back in the day?” Alex echoed incredulously.
“C’mon, man. I don’t have the ammo for her to go practice, nor do any of us have the time to show her everything right now! This ain’t exactly the perfect scenario, I know. But—“
“I get it. It’s not an ideal situation. Just sayin’, I don’t like it. She’s gonna get herself hurt or worse. I can just see it coming.”
“Duly noted, I’ll let the record stand that you disapprove.”
“Wonderful,” Alex said, his words dripping with sarcasm as he tossed his arms in the air resignedly. Selina remained silent the whole time, either not having an opinion, or not wanting to get involved with the argument.
“Guys, I can hear you,” Alexis said, cocking her head to the side and non-too pleased at the discussion that was taking place. “I’ve handled a gun before.”
Selina whispered something under her breath and then looked away, rolling her eyes. Alex let that go and stared at Bryan and then Alexis. “Fair enough. Like you said, we can’t stand around here arguing all day. We’ve got a job to do.”
“Great, then we’re in agreement.” Bryan stared at Alex for a long minute, though Alex said nothing more. “Well, even more interestingly, I have something else to show you guys,” he said, waving them to follow him along the tree line again. As they made their way around the back of the building, Bryan stopped and pointed to something in the distance. “There, along the far fence. It’s close to the exit.”
Alex held the binoculars to his eyes and grinned. “An ambulance.”
“Yeah, an ambulance,” Bryan repeated, smiling and lighting up one of his last cigarettes. “There’s gotta be everything we need in that thing!”
“Assuming nothing was taken already,” Selina suggested.
“C’mon, man! Look at that parking lot. Nothing was taken from anywhere inside that fuckin’ place.”
“I think I'm in agreement with that,” Alex said, looking back to a shrugging Selina who nodded.
“Probably right,” she admitted, before looking curiously to Bryan “But how we gonna get it?”
“Okay, hear me out,” he began explaining as everyone moved in to listen.
***
“Alex thought the plan was not bad as he and Selina waited in the brush. Bryan and Alexis stood from their circle, everyone in agreement and began to make their way south again toward the road.
“Bryan,” Alex called to him softly, stopping him in his tracks. He turned back and looked questioningly at Alex. “You’re gonna need these,” he said, dangling and shaking the keys in his hand and smiling at the fuzzy-haired man who came back to him.
“Thanks, jack-ass,” Bryan teased.
As Bryan got up to rejoin Alexis, they heard a gun go off again. They collectively regarded Alexis, her own pistol out in front of her pointed toward the brush, and they all raced to her side to join her.
Lying on the ground, bleeding from a gunshot wound, was a buck. It was dying, but not dead. In its death thralls, its head was jerking back and forth.
“Goddammit,” Alex said under his breath. He strode purposefully over to Alexis, grabbed the gun from her shaking hand and benevolently placed a slug in the dying animal’s brain. It ceased moving immediately. Wordlessly, he strode right back over to her and handed her the gun back, then rejoined Selina.
“I…I’m so sorry!” Alexis said in a tizzy. “I didn’t mean to—“
“Hey, shit happens,” Bryan said, trying to comfort the woman.
“I thought it was one of th
em again,” she said, tears streaming down her cheeks, making clean streaks down her soiled cheeks.
“I understand,” he said, hugging her tightly and looking back toward them. Alex shrugged and gestured for him to take his time, using open palms held out before him and nodding. Bryan recognized the gesture and allowed her to weep uncontrollably for a few minutes before holding her out at arm’s length for inspection.
“Hey, we have a job to do, so are you okay? You ready?” he asked her. She nodded and the two of them walked off, Bryan looking back at Alex briefly over his shoulder before heading off.
“Shit, I hope they don’t fuck this up,” Alex said.
“C’mon, man. You never made a mistake?” Selina asked him in an analyzing tone.
“Of course I have. We all have. I'm not judging her, just hoping that she can work through it. An’ quick, ya know,” he said, holding her scrutinizing gaze for a moment until she softened, then smirked and nodded at him. “Our whole plan depends on it!”
“They’ll be fine. C’mon, they did it before once. Don’t you have faith?”
“I do,” Alex lied, thinking that in this very moment, he did not trust that they would execute the plan well as he stared after them, watching them disappear around the corner.
The next five minutes were excruciating, as Alex and Selina exited the tree line and fell to their hands and knees, crawling ever so slowly toward the back gate. Inside that gate was the ambulance they desperately needed. Or rather, they were willing to risk life and limb in the hopes that it would have the supplies they needed.
Alex was not very concerned about the keys not being in it—IF—they were able to make it to the vehicle without dying. Ambulances had the keys in them most of the time as the EMT’s were usually in a hurry. The real question was, is there a zombie inside the vehicle?
“There’s a pretty good chance that someone is inside that rig,” Alex said aloud what he was thinking. “Or some-thing, rather.”
Wake the Dead 2 (Wake The Dead Series) Page 6
