“We will take two teams of three and clear this place out. Me, you, and Chris will take this floor and the second while Amos, Jamie, and Balboa will take the third and fourth. Reason being, I wanna give Balboa the SINCGARS and see if he can get to the roof. I know that the Coast Guard is famous for making rescues in hurricanes, but I’d rather not risk it right now. If I can just get him to wire up the SINCGARS to an antenna on the roof then at least we will be able to try comms,” Joe said, checking the chamber on his FNP 9mm as he did. They were nearly out of ammo for the M4’s and AR-15’s but still had plenty of pistol ammo. It was not an ideal way to take for room clearing, but it would have to do.
Joe walked over to the zombified security officer and loosed the pistol belt and revolver – a Smith and Wesson model 686 .357 magnum – and checked the two speedloaders. The chamber was full, none of the rounds expended, as well were the speedloaders. Eighteen more rounds, Joe thought as he spun the cylinder and placed it back in the holster. He carried the .357 on his left hip, backwards due to it being a right-handed holster – and his 9mm on his right hip. He approached the rest of the group and stood with his arms crossed. Balboa, Jamie, Chris and Amos all looked up at the Wyatt Earp-looking character standing in front of them.
Chris got up first and crinkled another can of Red Bull, tossing it to the side after he had finished. “You don’t even have to ask, dude. Let’s fucking do this!” Chris said comically.
Balboa, Amos, and Jamie all got their considerable girth up as well, standing in front of Joe, weapons at the ready. All the men took notice at Joe.
“Time to clock in, boys.”
CHAPTER 14
Joe, Curtis, and Chris moved slowly along the staircase that led from the lobby to the second floor. The staircase ended at a landing that overlooked from a balcony onto the lobby below. From the balcony Balboa, Amos, and Jamie left and headed towards the staircase that led to the floors above. Joe, Curtis, and Chris scanned the area on the balcony and looked down on the rest of the group as they watched from below. There were no immediate threats on the balcony or near the staircase. Joe stopped Balboa before he split and explained his plan.
“Okay, you will clear from here up. You guys take care of the third and fourth floors, we will do the lobby floor and this one. Once we get the whole place clear, I will get up on the roof with you and help with getting us hooked to an antenna. Once we do that, we will see if anybody is listening out there.”
“Sounds good, brother,” Balboa said and offered a fist-bump. “Be careful down there.”
Joe returned the gesture. “You guys too. Watch your ass up there.”
With that, the group split up and continued their task. Joe, Curtis, and Chris moved along one of the hallway as Balboa, Amos, and Jamie moved opposite of them towards the staircase. The second floor was mostly offices. The director of nursing, the chief of staff, and the hospital administrator all had lush digs on the floor. The three men each cleared an office, as they were side-by-side, and moved on. The three offices cleared had nothing of interest or use aside from useless awards and “Employee of the Year” plaques that adorned the walls, along with degrees and certificates that were no longer relevant.
Joe, Curtis, and Chris all met back up near the end of the balcony and exchanged shrugging of shoulders as none had found anything worth talking about. They proceeded down the staircase to the ground level, which was actually the second floor according to the placards on the elevators. The ER comprised the entire first floor with little else. Joe was not able to ascertain how big the ER was, but was guessing on it having at least ten beds or so. He and Curtis trotted down from the second floor balcony and went to clearing the ground level, with Chris watching and guarding the rear. At the bottom of the staircase was an opening to their right; it was a hallway that led to the rest of the floor. Signs on the wall indicated that Cardiology, Lab, Radiology, CT Scanner, and more offices. Again, it was not much of any interest, but it needed to be cleared out in the event that there were more undead roaming the hallways of Monroe County Hospital.
* * *
Jamie eased his way into the stairwell. Unable to take the elevator, they had decided to clear them first and then make their way into the halls and patient areas. Jamie led with his rifle and flashlight, spraying the dark walls with light as he looked up and around to his left. Raising the rifle, he looked up the staircase onto the next landing. There were no zombies in the stairwell, but as they approached the landing for the third floor, he could hear them. There were muffled grunts and other unintelligible sounds emanating from near the doorway. There was no beating of fists against the door, a good sign. The undead that were present would at least not impede them going onto the floor and clearing out the area. Amos and Balboa followed, with Balboa still toting the SINCGARS radio. He was not sure how useful it would be from this height, but at least they had gotten the weather warning by getting it higher up. With any luck, they would be able to get a better line-of-sight on something else, if indeed something else was out there.
Jamie stepped up the stairs to the landing and switched off his light. He checked the door, which was unlocked. He slowly opened the door and peered down the hallway. There were several zombies in the hallway, five at least that Jamie could see. Two of the undead were standing still, their backs turned to Jamie, motionless. Jamie opened the door further, revealing a small amount of light that came from the end of the hallway. Another hall led from the window to the right and around the corner. The other three zombies that he could see were near the window where the light came from, drawn to the light and sound of the impending hurricane outside. The zombies silhouetted against the window and the incessant rain outside reminded him of how bad it was soon going to get outside. No one had any idea how the hurricane woulda affect the undead. They were barely able to hold themselves up most of the time, and introducing a gale-force wind would have an interesting – albeit unknown – effect. Jamie turned back to Amos and Balboa, holding up his hand and mouthing the word five to his companions. Both men nodded in acknowledgement.
All three men crept out into the hallway slowly and carefully. Jamie raised his rifle to take out the two closest zombies. He wrapped his finger around the trigger and began to squeeze.
“Pssst. Jamie, I wouldn’t do that just yet,” Balboa whispered, placing a hand on Jamie’s shoulder.
Jamie turned his head without lowering the rifle. “And why’s that.”
“Cause it doesn’t really matter if you hit or miss, you gonna blow out that window, and frankly, I wanna sleep in a comfortable, dry bed tonight.”
Jamie nodded and then whistled unexpectedly to the undead that were in the hallway. Amos and Balboa both shot him wide-eyed looks of hatred. Jamie did not glance back, only taking a few steps to his right and getting a different angle on the zombies in front of him. The two to his left turned slowly and attempted to turn around to the sound. The first one took a hasty step to his right, falling up against the wall. The creature continued to lean on the wall, sliding down the hallway and leaving a trail of pus and blood on the tan-colored wall. Jamie braced himself up against the wall to his right and aimed down on the sliding zombie and fired two well-placed shots to its cranium. The brains of the creature splattered against the wall, sticking to the surface of it and slowly dribbling down. The three creatures at the end of the hallway took notice and did the same, turning to meet their future food source. Jamie fired a half-dozen accurate shots to the zombie’s knees, felling them immediately. With no support to hold them up, they fell in near unison to the ground. Balboa sat the SINCGARS down and drew his sidearm, a Beretta M9 from the Reserve Unit, and took out the second zombie as it turned to make a run at the men. Jamie nonchalantly walked down to the end of the hallway and dispatched the remaining three.
“No muss, no fuss,” Jamie said, grinning.
Amos and balboa both relaxed and chuckled as well. They continued the search along the rest of the floor and rooms, finding nothing in
the process. They finished the third floor and moved onto the fourth. Again, they found nothing other than the patients that were in the hospital’s ICU. There were five beds in the ICU that were inhabited by zombies on life support – a horrible contradiction and gross oxymoron of “living dead” - tugging at tubes and long derelict IV lines. Each one of the patients were mercifully put down, stopping the undead from leaving the ICU, which they were obviously unable to do anyway.
The three men went back to the stairwell and made their way to the roof. After shooting off the lock on the door, they had access to the top of the hospital finally. Jamie went out onto the roof first, followed by Balboa and Amos. Balboa left the SINCGARS in the stairwell to keep it away from the rain and wind that were starting to pound away at the small Alabama town. The three men had an excellent view of the surrounding area from the top of the hospital. The trees across the road bent and swayed with the gusting winds as the men searched around.
“Hey guys, come here and give me a hand. I need to get this off here,” Balboa said, motioning to the antenna.
“Imma go take a look around and see what’s up and get us a good view of the surrounding area. I’ll keep an eye out,” Jamie said and walked to the edge to get a better look.
Amos came over to the antenna cluster and assisted Balboa in tearing some of the wire away from the base of it. Balboa looked over the set of wires leading out of it, grabbed one of the connectors at the base of a radio antenna, and looked it over.
“Hot damn! I think I can work with this one! Get me some slack from that other line of cable over there, Amos, and I will see if we can call long distance for once,” Balboa said, grinning.
Amos did as he was asked and climbed around the group of antennas and grabbed a handful of loose wire from one of the other antennas. “Toss me a knife, brother.”
Balboa reached onto his belt, procured a Gerber multi-tool, and tossed it to Amos. He clipped the wire and reached it to Balboa who gestured for the multi-tool and began work on connecting the two ends. Amos grinned, ever so slightly, and watched Balboa as he worked. He looked over to Jamie who was looking through the scope on his rifle repeatedly, as if he was trying to see something in the distance, or could not believe what he was seeing.
“You okay over there, hoss?” Amos’ deep voice cut through the gusting wind and sting of rain.
Jamie lifted his rifle from the resting spot on the edge of the roof. Balboa and Amos went back through the access door with the cable and was attempting to hook up the radio when Jamie came busting through the doorway. Both men startled and looked to him, guns raised.
“Damn, you scared the shit out of…” Amos started to say and was interrupted.
“We got a problem.”
CHAPTER 15
Joe and Curtis finished scanning the area on the floor that they were residing in, effectively the first floor, even though it was technically the second floor of the hospital. They spotted six more zombies in the area throughout the floor, and dispatched them accordingly. After they had finished the clearing out of the area, they headed back to the main living area that they had set up. Dakota was snoozing soundly on a sofa with Buffey and Ashleigh watching over him. Joe and Curtis made their way over to where he was sleeping and took up real estate on chairs near them.
Joe sat and immediately tapped his foot nervously. He had not has this much caffeine in quite a while, and it was taking its toll on him already. Curtis was seated next to him and bent over, tying his boots. “Nervous?” He said with a grin.
Joe continued his incessant tapping. “No, just haven’t had a Monster in a while; its kinda kickin’ my ass,” Joe said with a smile. “I don’t think I should have chugged the whole thing…”
Jamie and Amos came bounding down the staircase towards the lobby, much faster than their large bodies should have been coming. Jamie double-jumped the steps; flying down the staircase with Amos in tow behind him. Joe shot up from his seat and damn near drew down on the two men that were going most likely faster than they ever had before.
“What the hell are ya’ll doin’? It looks like ya’ll are runnin’ from your…”
“We got Marines out on the street, looks like your Lieutenant friend! They have Lucy tied up and gagged! And there is at least a thousand zombies bearing down on us! I’d say we’ve got about ten minutes before the zombies get here!” Jamie hollered out exasperatedly.
Joe froze in place. Had Lucy been taken against her will? Was she a willing captive? On the other hand, was it all just a ploy to get them all captured? He did not know whether to scratch his watch or wind his ass, and stood motionless. He snapped to after a few short seconds.
“Where is Balboa?”
“He’s on the roof still trying to get the radio working. He’s got a hookup to one of the antennas up there and thinks he can get a signal with it,” Jamie said, attempting to catch his breath.
Joe handed Jamie his rifle and motioned to switch rifles with him. “Get back up on the roof with my rifle; the ACOG has a better zoom and your red dot has none. Keep us covered from up there and get Balboa to get someone, fucking anyone on that radio!” Joe said and grabbed Jamie’s rifle. “Amos, Chris, and Curtis - you’re with me. You guys keep me covered from a safe distance, but do not let them see you. You guys will also keep the zombies off me if they happen to show, which I'm sure they will.” He turned to Buffey and continued. “Buffey, Ashleigh, get the kids and get to the roof with Balboa and Jamie. If something happens to us then you guys at least can hide out up there until the coast is clear. If that happens, just stay low and don’t get caught,” Joe fired off and looked back to Jamie. “We really need that radio up and running. Get help one way or another if you can. If not, then it has been a pleasure working with all of you. I love you guys. Now go!”
Joe checked Jamie’s rifle. It had one full magazine in it and Joe only had two more full ones left. He threw his LBV back on and stuffed the two magazines into the pouches. Curtis, Chris, and Amos got their rifles ready as well, also down to their last two full magazines. Jamie started to speak, stopped himself, nodded to Joe, and took off back up the steps to the rooftop. Buffey stood, startled, unable to speak.
“Just go! Go and get out of this shithole and make sure the kids have a better life than this one,” Joe said and stormed towards the door. Rickey stopped him in his tracks by running up behind him and grabbed his legs.
“Don’t go daddy! Please don’t go! I don’t want to lose you!” Rickey screamed, sobbing as he did.
Joe turned and grabbed his son, hugging him tight. The last week of his life, he had not had much time to take care of his only son and he felt guilty that he was not able to be there for him now. Joe’s eyes welled up and he choked back a sob of his own as he held Rickey tight. The only thing that mattered to him for a brief few moments was that even though his wife may not want to be with or around him anymore that his son still did and it meant the world to him. The horrors of life that they had both endured melted away for a brief few seconds as Joe did not hear or see anything other than the love of his son. Joe loosed his grip on Rickey and held him in front of him. Words could not describe what he wanted to say to his son at what might be the last time he ever saw him. The only words he could manage to say were the ones in his heart.
“I love you, Rickey. Go and grow up to be the man I know you can be,” Joe said through watery eyes and a lumpy throat.
“I love you too, daddy.”
Jamie ushered Rickey towards the staircase and looked back to Joe. “Jamie, if you get a clear shot on any of ‘em, take ‘em out. I know it’s gonna be a crapshoot with the wind, but if you get it - take it,” Joe said as he looked back.
Jamie again nodded silently and began herding the remainder of the group up the stairs. Joe was right, however. A shot from the rooftop was not going to be easy, even without the hurricane bearing down on them, and with a gale-force wind, it was going to be damn near impossible. Jamie pondered the facts and his heart race
d as he escorted the rest of the group up the stairs and down the long hallway to the stairwell.
Joe bolted up and jogged towards the door. He was now a man on a mission, and that mission was to save the ones he loved from the horrors of the undead as well as the living. They may have been afraid of the zombie menace that lurked around every corner and pervaded every nightmare for the last few days, but he was damned if they were going to fear the living that were supposed to be the ones helping them, not trying to cause dissent among the human race. There were too few people left on Earth to be fighting amongst one another.
Joe grabbed and flung the sliding door open once again and stepped outside with Curtis and Chris in tow behind. Curtis and Chris both felt that it was a moot point to go after Lucy; both of them pretty much had the same feeling about the subject. That feeling was that they should have killed her when they had the chance and now it seemed as if Joe was going to unnecessary risks to save someone that, in their minds, did not need saving. She was an expendable asset that just needed to be expended.
As soon as Joe stepped through the doorway he was immediately met with the sideways, stinging, rain and hurricane-force winds that were continuing to bear down on them in the small corner of Alabama. Joe had no idea what exactly he was going to say to Lieutenant Wyatt, but at this point it had better be something spectacular. He still was not sure why he was going to try to save Lucy, moreover, why he was risking his own life to save hers. It was just his nature; saving lives had been in his blood for most of his adult life, and it was not going to change now. There was someone in need of help, and by God, he was going to give it to them.
Six Feet From Hell: Books 1 - 3 Page 37
