Survivors in a Dead World

by Gary M. Chesla

  “Let’s get dressed, I’m getting chilly,” Ricki said.

  After they were dressed, Ricki leaned back into his seat.

  “How about keeping watch for a while,” I’m still tired and am going to try to get some sleep,” Ricki said. “It should be light enough in another hour for us to see our way through those things. Hell by then those things will have probably wandered off someplace else.”

  “Sure thing,” Denny yawned.

  Ten minutes later they were both snoring, sound asleep.

  Chapter 14

  “How’s John this morning?” Bob asked.

  “About the same,” Doc replied, “I’m encouraged by the fact he is still alive but he looks like hell. His skin is gray and his eyes are a glassy milky white color. I honestly don’t think he will recover. His body has changed so much I think it will be only a matter of time. I don’t see how anyone can come back from where he is right now.”

  “Maybe we should let him go,” Bob said. “If you don’t think he can recover maybe we should do him a favor and end his suffering. He has to be going through hell.”

  “Honestly I’ve thought about it,” Doc said thoughtfully, “but I want to give him every opportunity to recover. I have only ever seen one person recover after being bitten. When I realized how the condition spread, I saw a guy get bitten in front of McGee where I worked. I had the paramedics bring him into the emergency room and I amputated his arm. He recovered without showing any of the signs that John is displaying. On the others that I tried to save, they went through the normal progression and died within hours. John’s condition is confusing. He is changing but has remained alive somehow.”

  “Any ideas why?” Bob asked.

  “The only thing I can attribute this to is that maybe I removed John’s finger before the full infection made it into his system,” Doc replied. “But apparently enough got into the system to cause the changes we see. My feeling is that it will continue to multiply and will eventually be terminal. But since I have never seen anything like this before, I am just taking a wait and see approach.”

  “Just keep an eye on him,” Bob said.

  “I have him restrained and I check on his progress every hour,” Doc answered. “As long as no one sticks their finger in his mouth we should be fine.”

  “I can’t imagine John doing that,” Bob said.

  “As part of my experiment I had removed the eyes from the creature,” Doc sighed, “John assumed the creature couldn’t see him and got careless.”

  “Talking about your experiments,” Bob added, “have you discovered anything useful?”

  “Nothing extraordinary,” Doc replied, “All I have managed to do is to confirm that the creatures locate us by a combination of their senses. I believe the movement attracts their attention then the sense of smell confirms what they are seeing is a living creature. I of course cannot be certain, but I believe sight and smell are the two main ways that they locate us and then attack.

  After disabling the creature’s sight, they could still locate and identify me but it took them much longer to do so. After I disabled both their sense of sight and smell they were not able to identify me. They could hear me and were curious about the sounds, but they never seemed to be able to determine what I was and soon lost interest. I even touched them but again they quickly seemed to lose interest. Like I said nothing earth shattering but I have to think if we are going to be able find something we can use to our advantage, it will have something to do with their sense of sight and smell.”

  “I guess it is at least something that is good to know,” Bob said.

  “If we were only dealing with a few of the dead it would be useful, but again if we were only dealing with a few of them we wouldn’t need this information, just a good solid club,” the doctor laughed. “The problem is in dealing with hundreds at one time, so far this knowledge doesn’t give us anything practical that we can actually do. We can’t paint all of their eyes and shove something into their noses, it’s just impossible. It could work and give us time to slip by them, but it’s just not possible.”

  “I guess it would be like saying if I had wings I could fly,” Bob smiled, “It’s not going to happen.”

  “But I feel it is the key to what I am looking for,” Doc replied, “Remember the Rubik’s Cube?”

  Bob laughed, “I never had any luck with those things.”

  “You look at it and the answer it right in front of your face,” Doc said, “if you know how to look at it. I think there is a solution right in front of me but I’m not looking at it the right way.”

  “Good morning boys,” Carrie said as she walked up on the roof where Bob and Doc were talking, “What are you two talking about or maybe I don’t want to know.”

  “Probably not,” Bob laughed, “I know how self-conscious you are about, you know.”

  Carrie’s jaw dropped.

  The doctor laughed, “Miss Jenkins, I believe Bob is just saying that to rile you up.”

  Bob grinned, “I don’t have to say anything to get Red riled up. Most of the time all I have to do is look at her.”

  “Pervert,” Carrie said giving Bob an ornery look.

  “Really Miss Jenkins,” Doc said. “Profanity coming from such an attractive woman does not become you.”

  Carrie smiled. She was going to tell the doctor that she was glad there was at least one gentleman in the group but then she remembered the doctor examining her the other morning and decided to be polite and just smile.

  “Sorry Red,” Bob smiled, “Sometimes I just can’t help myself.”

  “Honestly Miss Jenkins, we were just discussing my experiment,” the Doc said.

  “I don’t know if I’d be of much help with your experiments Doc,” Carrie said. “Biology and science was never my thing. I think I was only able to pass biology in college because I smiled at the professor every time he looked at me.”

  Bob started to laugh.

  “Oh shut up Bob,” Carrie blushed figuring she knew what he had to be thinking.

  “You mean you didn’t call him a pervert because he kept looking at you?” Bob smiled.

  “I guess I deserved that,” Carrie said.

  “Sorry Red, I was just teasing you. I didn’t mean it that way,” Bob said. “The Doc was just saying he thought he was close to coming up with an idea that might help us if only he could look at the data in a different way. I was about to tell him if he wanted a completely unique view, he should run it by you.”

  Carrie looked at Bob and smirked, “I’ll assume that was a compliment or as close to as a compliment as you are capable of giving.”

  The doctor laughed.

  “Of course it was Red,” Bob smiled. “Let me see how I can frame the doctor’s dilemma for you. OK I got it. Red, if you were surrounded by a bunch of guys that you didn’t want to see you or smell you, what would you do?”

  Carrie laughed then she started to giggle.

  “It wasn’t a joke Red,” Bob said, “It was a serious question.”

  “I’m not laughing at the question,” Carrie replied. “I’m laughing because that actually happened to me and I don’t think my solution would help the Doc.”

  Bob looked at Doc and laughed, “I think you are about to get a view of your problem from a point of view that you or I would have never thought about.”

  “Please go on Miss Jenkins, “I am anxious to hear what you did.”

  Carrie continued to laugh, “OK, here goes. Remember I said this wouldn’t be of much help. Trust me there was nothing scientific about what I did.”

  “Please continue,” the doctor said. “I am curious and who knows, it might help.”

  “OK here goes,” Carrie smiled. “It was right after everything started going bad. It was the last day I was at the station. The power was out, nothing worked. Everything was a mad house. The others were all packing up and leaving. I was trying to wait out the mess on the parkway. Cars were running into each other and wrecks were pi
led up everywhere. Traffic was at a standstill, there was no way I could drive home so I waited. People were running around, pulling each other out of their cars and fighting. I heard several gunshots and decided to just stay in my office until things settled down.

  Everyone else was gone. Everyone panicked and just ran. They left the doors open, they were knocking everything off of the desks, the floors were an obstacle course.

  I think we all understood we would not be coming back to the station or at least not anytime soon. After what we all saw going on the day before, I was surprised to see that anyone had even showed up for work that day.

  But I was just sitting at my desk, looking out the windows at what was going on out on the parkway when I saw four creepy looking guys running towards the station.

  I watched them coming through the parking lot. They spent about twenty minutes in the parking lot. I swear they smashed the windows out of every one of the station’s vans parked out there. They dragged the cameras and computers out of the vans and smashed them on the concrete.

  When they were done with the vans they came into the station.

  Then they started smashing up the station. When the noise started to get close to my office, I decided to sneak out of the building before they found me. I knew what would happen if they found me.

  I snuck out the side of the building and must have made more noise than I thought and the next thing I knew they started running in my direction.

  I ran out behind the building and towards an equipment shed that sat out back surrounded by tall hedges. I meant to go around the hedges and try to get out through the BP parking lot behind the station where I always bought gas for my car, but I ran around the wrong hedges and found myself cornered behind the shed. I tried to crawl through the hedges but they were too thick.

  I thought they had me.”

  “Go on,” the doctor urged, looking interested in what Carrie was saying.

  “I could hear them getting closer and knew I only had a few minutes before it was party time,” Carrie smirked, “Then I saw I wasn’t the only one behind the shed. I looked down and saw a very uncomfortable skunk.”

  Bob laughed, “I see the whole situation stunk.”

  “Not yet,” Carrie said, “But it did real soon. I looked at the skunk and it looked at me.”

  “I can guess what happened next,” Bob laughed.

  “It wasn’t what you thought,” Carrie giggled. “The poor skunk didn’t know which way to go. I knew I had to do something fast, so I kicked it.”

  “You kicked the skunk,” Doc said more as a statement and not as a question as he looked in deep thought.

  “Yea, I kicked it a good one,” Carrie laughed. “I felt bad that I had kicked it but I didn’t have a choice. I don’t think I hurt it but it sure got pissed and sprayed the hell out of me. I figured that those guys wouldn’t come behind the shed if they thought there was a pissed off skunk behind the shed. And if that didn’t work, I didn’t think they would be too interested in me if I smelled like hell. Either way I hoped it would discourage them from what they would do to me if they found me. The next thing I knew I heard those guys running in the opposite direction of the shed. I managed to get rid of those creeps but it took a week to get that smell off me.”

  “Amazing,” the Doc said as he turned and started towards the stairwell. “That’s it. It’s so simple I should have thought of it myself.”

  “Hey Doc,” Bob called out to get the doctors attention before he would disappear down the stairs. “We’re leaving here in a few minutes. I was going to take Tom with us unless you have any objections.”

  “That’s fine,” the doctor called back over his shoulder. “Good luck, but if you will excuse me I have to try something.”

  The Doc disappeared down the steps.

  “Sorry Bob,” Carrie said.

  “Sorry for what?” Bob asked.

  “If we come back here later today and this place smells like a mad skunk, I’m going back over to Allegheny General for a few days,” Carrie laughed.

  “Don’t worry Red,” Bob smiled, “I don’t think the Doc will be able to find a skunk anywhere in the hospital.”

  “He’ll probably send Ken and Jim out to find him one,” Carrie grinned. “He looked real determined.”

  “I’ll go find Tom,” Bob said. “Make sure we have a few good clubs in the helicopter. We are going to leave as soon as I get back. I’m anxious to see if that helicopter at Allegheny General will work. It sure would be nice.”

  “What do we do if it doesn’t?” Carrie asked.

  “If I can’t get it running then we are going to pull everything off of it that we might be able to use for our chopper,” Bob replied, “but think positive Red. I have a good feeling about today.”

  “Will do Captain,” Carrie gave a fake salute.

  “Good girl,” Bob smiled.

  “Watch it Mister,” Carrie said.

  “I do Red,” Bob grinned, “Every chance I get.”

  “Pervert,” Carrie laughed.

  The Doc went excitedly down the steps and started down the hallway towards the room where his two creatures were restrained.

  He stopped in front of John’s door as he heard the helicopter take off.

  “Creative young lady,” Doc thought, “very creative, indeed.”

  The Doc stopped and listened at John’s door. It was quiet inside.

  He decided to check on John before testing the theory that was running through his mind. It was a unique approach to his problem but it was also a solution that could work and be simple enough that they could actually do it.

  The resource that he needed for his experiment was plentiful, unfortunately it was very plentiful. What he had in mind would also be very simple to do if his experiment worked as he thought it would.

  The doctor opened John’s door.

  John was lying still on the bed. The restraints were still tightly securing him to the bed.

  The Doc walked up beside the bed and looked down at John.

  John’s eyes snapped open and he looked at the doctor.

  “How are you doing John?” Doc asked.

  The doctor waited for John’s gruff and strained voice to reply.

  John didn’t look much different than when he had looked in on him a short time ago.

  Doc didn’t know how much longer John was going to be able to survive in this condition. It was painful to see him like this, but letting John continue on in this condition was the only thing the doctor could do and would do as long as there was any possibility that John could recover.

  Every time Doc looked at John he had to fight the urge to release him from this torment and suffering. If it would have been some guy that had stumbled into the hospital off the street, the doctor would have ended his suffering days ago. He could only allow such suffering to continue because John was his friend and even then only because John had clung to life for such an unusually long period of time after the accident. He wanted John to have every chance to pull through this if he could.

  The doctor looked down at John. The glassy milky white eyes looked at the doctor. There was no sign of recognition. There hadn’t been before either. Those eyes, like in the dead, relayed no emotions, they just stared.

  John slowly opened his mouth, but what came out of John’s mouth today made chills run down the doctor’s spine.

  John had lost his battle against the infection.

  He must have died and turned sometime in the last hour, since the doctor had checked on John the last time.

  “I’m sorry John,” the doctor said.

  John let out an eerie low groan, that familiar sound that the dead always made.

  John began to frantically jerk his arms and legs against the restraints that held him to the bed.

  His mouth began to open and close rapidly, making the familiar snapping sounds of the dead when they sensed a feast was at hand.

  The Doc left John’s room and went to the room where he had
been doing his experiments. He went over to the table where he had the materials he had gathered.

  Doc picked up a syringe and began to fill it with the sulfuric acid he had found in one of the doctor’s offices.

  One injection through the ear or one of the eyes and it should quickly destroy John’s brain and end John’s ordeal.

  It seemed like a much more civilized way to kill John’s body than smashing in his head with a hammer. After all John had suffered, it was the most dignified end that he could give John.

  He felt after the months they had spent together here at the hospital, that he owed John that much, a little dignity.

  The doctor held the syringe up to his face and looked at it.

  Yes, this is how he would put his friend to rest.

  But as he looked at the two dead creatures moving around on the tables in front of him, he realized he needed John for one quick experiment first.

  John still had eyes and a nose. The creatures in front of him would not be suitable for the experiment he had in mind. Using John would be more convenient than having the guys search the hospital and capture another of the dead for the experiment.

  John was already strapped to the bed. The experiment would not take long and he would not mutilate his body like he had the two creatures in front of him. The doctor was sure John would agree with him.

  Miss Jenkin’s solution to her problem gave the doctor the different approach he had overlooked in dealing with his dilemma. Transferring his problem to Miss Jenkins situation gave him what he had been missing. He had been trying to discover what he could do to the dead with the knowledge he had obtained from his experiments.

  Miss Jenkins had a different approach. It was simple and completely the opposite of what the doctor had been thinking. Instead of directing her thoughts to what she could do to the men chasing after her to keep them away from her, she directed her actions towards herself.

  She couldn’t change the men so she changed herself.