CHAPTER II
Sarah and Ann were best friends. Sarah was also Mike's long-time girlfriend. She stayed by him while he was overseas and watched Major during that course of time. Caring and supportive, she also agreed that us two, brothers, live together to make up for lost time due to what happened when Mike was away. I couldn’t argue with that. After all, Mike and I had a lot of catching up to do.
I asked Ann, “What happened?”
“I don’t know.” She responded. “The hospital called and told me she arrived early this morning.”
Mike said, “They didn’t say what the problem was?”
“I didn’t understand the term they used... jaundice?” she answered. “She asked for us to be there, and that she was being sedated to help ease the pain.”
We made it to the hospital. I got a good look at the scene while we waited behind two cars at the check point that was being conducted by two cops in rain gear and black leather gloves; the younger one holding a stop sign and the older one waving a flashlight. The parking lot was nearly full to the capacity with about twenty Warwick City police officers present in riot gear; shields and guns. Others wore protective masks like the power company employees, but they all wore those O.J. leather gloves cops wear before patting you down or whooping your ass; they were checking cars and signaling traffic inside the parking lot. White tents were set up in grass areas, occupied by doctors in white protective body suits and masks. Some of the ill and their loved ones rushed into the hospital, some being escorted by officers in riot gear. I saw one man regurgitate on the side of a car before collapsing back into the driver’s seat of his van, and then being delicately handled on a gurney by two guys in white protective suits. They hauled him off into one of the many white tents.
“This looks bad.” I said.
“Fuck yea.” Mike said, pointing toward a group of people surrounding something on the ground. “Wonder what’s going on there?”
“God, I hope Sarah is alright.” Ann dropped her head and laid it to rest in the palm of her hand.
I continued to observe the crowd. “I hope she didn’t catch what they got.”
Mike looked back at me and cleared his throat in a way that let me know to keep my mouth shut. That was just something he did to grab my attention, like the time our mother caught me grabbing cookies out the jar when we were younger. We weren’t supposed to have any without permission. Mike got away with it, but when I tried my hand, mom stopped me. And as I was about to say, Mike got some cookies, Mike stuck his head around the corner and slid his index finger across his throat. It wasn’t the same as him clearing his throat, but it damn sure reminded me of that moment. But what did I do wrong this time? It beats the hell out of me.
“What?” I asked.
He turned back around in his seat.
We moved up in line.
I looked back over to the crowd. They were spreading apart and two more men in protective whites rushed over and appeared to be examining whatever it was. They waved their hands around, and then flagged a couple more men over with a gurney, accompanied by two officers in riot gear.
“Hey, check it out.” I said. “Something’s going on.”
The men in the whites spread out with a white sheet and covered whatever it was on the ground. The few stragglers that witnessed the incident cried in the arms of each other, others threw their hands over their mouths. One teenage girl rushed into the hospital. Then, the men in whites rushed back underneath the white tent they came from with the body underneath the sheet on the gurney.
“Someone died.” Ann solemnly said, before she looked over to Mike.
Mike looked ahead. The cars were moving.
"Anyone enter the hospital is considered at risk and won't be allowed to leave without a screening.” the older officer at the check point, waving his flashlight informed us. “Anyone hurt or injured?" he directed his question to Ann.
He waved his flashlight in each of our faces and then through the car; I took it he was looking at our pupils. I was blinded for a second, and when he finally removed the light, I looked back into the parking lot to see what else was going on.
"No." Ann responded. "We're here to see a close friend."
"Listen, I wouldn't advise it, but there was nothing official made about keeping visitors out. If you kids are going to risk it, you need to wear protective masks and cover all body parts to reduce the risk of infection as much as possible. They say whatever this thing is is highly contagious if you come in contact with someone infected. Cloth sleeves and latex gloves are available at the hospital entrance for safety."
Mike asked, "What's the problem?" as if the power company guy didn’t already tell us.
The officer answered, "Mosquitos. Go on pass or turn around," and signaled for the next car to move forward.
We crept through the overcrowded parking lot where the officers directed us into a space far from the main entrance; we parked and got out the car. The officers didn’t talk at all, more like they just moved their arms and waved their flashlights in the direction they wanted us to move until we made it to the revolving doors of the main entrance. It made me feel like they really didn’t want to catch whatever it was that floated around in the atmosphere, maybe they knew a little more than they were actually delivering to the public.
Hospitals are normally cold places; the temperature in this hospital was warm due to the over-crowded capacity. Soft cries and worried faces dampened the hospital’s already gloomy feel. Hospital staff shuffled through the crowd of people standing in the way; the sounds of their equipment blaring from all angles. The estranged woman at the information desk was shouting, upset at the fact neither the security guard nor the receptionist behind the desk was unable to locate her husband. The screaming infant child who was being rocked by his tween sibling wasn’t the half of it; I wondered where their parents were. Two unruly middle-aged patients, wearing hospital gowns and hooked up to IV's, argued with a male nurse about moving into another room, they were in the center of the main corridor. We had to pass by them to reach the elevator; their voices surpassed everyone else’s. The hospital was on the verge of complete pandemonium, and I didn’t want to be anywhere around it when shit hit the fan.
One of the unruly patients exclaimed, "The guys in there throwing up blood and crying! And won't stop—"
The other one followed, just as rude. "I'm not sick enough to be in a room with a guy like that! He’s at the end of his road."
People who heard the commotion stared to listen. Some left their chairs and went into the hallways toward their loved ones, seeing that the unruliness of the men was causing a ruckus, luring in additional security and medical staff.
We continued toward the elevator; the two patients continued to argue with the male nurse.
We made it to the elevator. The door opened. We stepped on, and just as the door closed, I heard one of the unruly patients begin to scream, "He just got here this morning—" Then, he paused to take a breath before he continued, "And I see his face just fucking—”
The elevator door closed and I couldn't make out the rest of his muffled rant.
We all looked at each other without saying a word, but in my mind I was thinking of what followed after the profanity. Then, when I was just about to speak, the bell rung on the fourth floor, and it seemed as if the three of us let out a sigh of relief almost simultaneously.
Then, the door opened and all that changed instantly. The floor was crowded to the point you had to push and shove the way out of the elevator. We made a left and were immediately approached by a shivering female nurse, her golden brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, her dark blue scrubs creased in the center. She had called Ann by name.
"We have to hurry." the nurse eagerly advised, grabbing Ann by the hand and walk-racing thru the crowd, "We haven't got much time. The hospital is about to be shut down to the visitors. Go see Sarah and I'll explain when I help get you guys outta here."
I couldn't wait to fi
nd out what the nurse had to say, and considering Sarah is Mike's girlfriend, and Ann is Sarah's best friend, I'd get the details while they went inside. I actually wanted to make a pass at the nurse too.
The nurse was anxious to fill me in; she was frightened and very discreet, but told me what I wanted to know a few doors down from Sarah’s room. She rushed to explain herself, as if the apocalypse had come – which I didn’t see coming. She spoke swift, "The World Health Organization sent a team here to investigate the deaths of three citizens who are downstairs in the morgue as we speak.”
“The guy on the news said it was only one.”
“A lot has changed since this morning. They say the same situation is happening in various parts of the globe. They're sending RV's into the city delivering a vaccine to everyone in it. The entire city is about to go under quarantine, pest control will be spraying pesticides. They say this is an outbreak of the Aedes Aegypti Mosquito, and health teams have to find and destroy the breeding place... which can be anywhere."
"I heard something like that. Where do they come from?" I said, looking into her beautiful light-brown eyes.
I wondered if she knew I was actually holding a conversation just to hit on her, for the most part. I really wasn’t concerned about the virus or whatever it was. I rarely caught a cold, never had the measles, small pocks, chicken pocks, or the flu.
"They originated in Africa but now they’re in the tropics. It's like they migrated here."
"You can’t be serious. Mosquitoes are really the cause of everyone getting sick and dying within days of catching it?"
"When the WHO arrived, a meeting was held for staff and briefly informed of what was to take place. They're pitching tents at the other area hospitals; they’ve determined the causes of death to be Yellow Fever or Malaria."
“Well did anyone catch a mosquito?”
“Not here, in various regions, yes. The symptoms of the patients here are alike.”
“So, is that what happened to Sarah?”
“I’m afraid Sarah won’t—”
Just then the power went out and the generators kicked in.
“Hey, what’s your—”
She grabbed me thoroughly enough to stop the blood circulation in my arm and said, "That's the signal!" her eyes large with the moist shine of tears forming, "We only have five minutes to get out."
“And what happens after five minutes?”
“We won’t be able to leave… Let’s get to Ann and your brother.”
As we made it to the room, Mike and Ann were making their way out. The nurse stormed down the wing, her hips swayed as if she was trying hard not to break out in a frantic jog as she pushed toward the emergency stairs.
“How is she?” I asked Mike.
Mike had a troubled appearance on his face; it was wrinkled, and his eyes were glassy. He was quiet, yet you could see the muscles in his jaws clenching as if his heart were to be seen beating thru the rear of his jawbone. The last time I remember him doing such a thing was when he returned home and I tried explaining what happened exactly to our family; he wanted to rip someone’s head off and shit down their throat. Now, he was peeping into every room door that was open—for what reason I don’t know— and before we could all go in the stairwell, without notice, he had entered a room.
Ann bolted into the stairwell.
The nurse panicked, “We don’t have time.” She told me, holding the emergency exit door open.
Instead of being rude and saying the first thing that came to mind, I just went in the room after him.
The room felt like an icebox. The sound of a heart monitor ahead of me slowly beeped, followed by the low, painful moans of the patient who lay in the hospital bed told me that whoever was hooked up was not going to make it much longer. Mike’s stood with his back to me, at the foot of the sick bed – obstructing my view of its occupant.
I crept my way toward Mike, hearing the sobs from snot being thrown back into his nose, and the question of the whereabouts of, Major, nervously seeping from his mouth.
“Have you?” he said to whoever lay on the bed.
The patient moaned.
Curious, I peered over Mike’s shoulder to see the hideous proof of what was yet to come of those who became tainted with the infection. I saw what I had hoped not to; the expression of a sick and dying, dehydrated man drenched in sweat with blotches of blood tatted through his hospital bed sheet, his eyes sunken to a deathly weak and yellow. His skin was yellowish, his teeth were blood-stained, rotten and brittle, and his lips cracking and blue. His silhouetting facial features were purple and black, bruised with peeling rashes. His words were uncertain, but it sounded like he uttered, "Ah-ead (All dead)" or “Amen (Ah-men).” Then, his weak eyes closed and the heart monitor flat lined.
We were standing around the sickness all that morning. If the virus had been an airborne chemical agent we would have soon been on our way to shake hands with our maker too, but being that it wasn’t, I was thankful I still had my good health; at least, what was left of it after the alcohol consumption.
I asked Mike, “Who was he?”
Mike answered, "Looks like Fisher. He was on the ship with me."
I grabbed Mike by the shoulder and said, "We got to leave." raising my voice a notch to say, "Now! Before we're trapped in here! Say goodbye and let’s move."
Mike wiped at his nose and we turned to leave.
At the door I heard a raspy, low tone that sounded like a deep inhale, only more exaggerated into an inward yell; low, but on the rise. A foul, dead stench arose with it. We turned around to see Fisher, standing, but hunched over, his hospital gown covered in blood. Blood trailed from his eyes as if they were teardrops – blood red in darkness – like what the old man pushing the cart spoke of.
“You ready to get out of here now, aren’t you?” I said.
Fisher’s mouth was bloody. His breathing pattern sped up incredibly; I could tell by the way his shoulders raised and lowered. The heart monitor still flat lined, Fisher cryptically moved toward us. And I knew at that instant we would not return home.
Mike cocked his head to the side.
I was lost. I never seen anything like it before, and I was pretty damn sure Mike seen a lot of fucked up shit, but never someone flat line and come back a raging monster still leaking fresh blood.
Fisher executed a deep roar that was convincing enough for us to both take steps out the room with our backs turned to the door and keeping all eyes on him.
I continued to stand there to see what the damn thing was going to do. I could see the hair on Mike's neck stand up.
Fisher took one large step in our direction as if he was attempting to leap, but was too weak and dropped to the floor, two hands – his finger nails filled with drying blood. He was on one knee; his other leg stretched outward and to the side, his thickened toes scraping at the hospital tile as he continued to moan. His head lowered to the ground. He snarled, and then leaped toward Mike.
Fisher grabbed Mike by the throat and opened his enlarged mouth across Mike’s face as if he attempted to bite it off. In a panic, I instantaneously acted and shoved at Fisher to release Mike from his grip.
Fisher went to bite my arm and Mike grabbed him by the throat with one hand. Mike then used his other hand to brace himself with my body, keeping me separated from Fisher.
Fisher was strong and relentless, resisting giving in and backing off. Then, he turned and grabbed me by the shoulder like he was unsure of who was going to be a better meal.
Ann and the nurse yelled at the top of their lungs. Their deafening screams might have been the only thing that saved our life at the time. When they yelled, Fisher's attention was diverted to them, and he immediately let Mike and I go, backed up, and cowered at the head of the bed.
Mike and I made it out of the room, grabbing the screaming nurse and Ann with us, slamming the door shut as we headed into the stairwell, slamming that door shut as well. Then, ran down the empty and cold stairs, and
came out in the silent basement garage area intending on making it back to Ann’s car – on the far side of the parking area.
The smell of the rain was mixed with a nostril-flaring decayed smelling stench. Mike still had not spoken a word, and the girls were franticly running thru the garage, ten steps ahead of us and toward the ground level parking lot. We made it to the garage entrance to harken the overwhelming sounds of a gun battle and screams of sheer terror coming from the Hospital's main parking area. From the edge of the garage I witnessed people running in fear, dead bodies lying in the street, and a few groups of blood-stained patients that we could only see from behind, huddling over what appeared to be citizens of Warwick City, devouring their flesh in a grotesque, cannibalistic onslaught, pulling innocent people apart with their bare hands, while others scurried through in their vehicles in a desperate attempt to escape the battlefield property. I could not see any white tents from my angle, but I was sure the bloody and sick patients came from that direction.
We were all baffled at what we were witnessing. Probably on different levels of shock, watching people getting slaughtered by our neighbors and not being able to do jack shit about it.
“This isn’t happening. This can’t be happening.” the nurse cried. Her tears dropped like water from a leaky faucet. She was trembling like she’d just took an ice bath, and the whining sound she made was becoming irritating – high pitched and out of sync – like the voices in an old karate flick.
I snapped back to reality. Someone had to think expeditiously, and I was surprised it wasn't Mike.
"Where's ya car?" I asked the nurse who became lost for words.
She just pointed a shaky finger in the direction of blood-drenched patients that were attacking and feasting on citizens. "I'm not going back in there." she whimpered swiftly thru her chattering teeth, referring to the hospital with a short-lived obsessive shaking of the head.
They Came With The Storm (The Effacing) Page 2
