Dead Air (Book One of The Dead Series)

by Schafer, Jon

  Entering his office, he glanced out the window to check the view. The sun hadn't risen yet and the lights of Clearwater spread out before him, sloping down the bluff and ending in the darkness that was the Gulf of Mexico. Further away near the horizon, he could make out the navigation lights of a freighter wending its way south toward the pass into Tampa Bay.

  The best revenge is living well.

  As a station manager, Steve was used to working in offices that would make a janitor’s closet seem spacious, so when he came here to KLAM music radio, he expected more of the same. He was pleasantly surprised to find the station situated in a suite on the twelfth floor of the Garnett Bank Building in downtown Clearwater. He was even more surprised when he was shown his office. Four hundred square feet of area furnished with a full size desk, two couches, a separate computer workstation and a view that most people would kill for. After years of drudgery, he had arrived.

  Booting up his computer, he logged onto the New York news service the station subscribed to and checked for any interesting stories that he could forward to the monitor in the studio. Meat and Wood might need something to fill in with after they got Jonny G killed. More of the usual greeted his inquiry. War, more war, flooding and famine.

  As he was about to log off, a headline caught his attention. Steve scanned the article quickly, then went back and read it all the way through twice before leaning back in his chair and thinking, not your usual way of going postal.

  The news brief stated that a patient in a Little Rock Arkansas hospital had gone crazy, killing a doctor and critically injuring another before security guards killed him. In the course of his rampage, he had also injured four others.

  What caught Steve’s eye though wasn't that the man had attacked the medical staff, this happened much more than people knew, it was the manner in which he attacked them.

  He bit them.

  Although disturbing, the story gave Steve an idea. Halloween was coming soon and the station needed some kind of gig for the event. They were already doing a remote from Universal Studios, but as usual, all the local radio stations would be at the amusement park doing the same thing. Even though KLAM was within spitting distance from Orlando with all its haunted houses and scary Halloween crap, it was almost getting passé covering the same thing every year. Though this was Steve's first Halloween in Florida, it seemed that no matter where he worked it was the same old thing. Go to a haunted house and broadcast live.

  Boooring.

  Maybe a broadcast from a morgue where the dead come back to life and attack the living, Steve thought. Try to do a War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells’ type broadcast and scare the shit out of everyone in Pinellas County.

  With this in mind, he composed an e-mail with the news clip attached and sent it to Meat down in the studio. The man might be number one with a bullet on his shit list but he was still the most creative DJ when it came to producing and broadcasting live shows.

  The reply came back immediately. ‘That sounds cool. Let me think about it and get back to you.’

  You do that, Steve thought to himself. Think hard too, because your continued, gainful employment might just depend on what you come up with.

  Steve pulled up an advertising spreadsheet but found it hard to concentrate as his mind kept drifting back to the story out of Little Rock.

  How would that feel? How would you kill someone by biting him? It would have to be on the neck like some kind of vampire or something, he decided. Just bite down and rip out the jugular vein or maybe just clamp onto their windpipe and crush it.

  Steve clicked his teeth together a few times as he imagined what it would be like. The taste, the texture of the skin, the feel of flesh ripping.

  Shuddering at the thought, he admonished himself to quit freaking himself out and turned his attention back to the spreadsheet on his monitor. The work was boring and he was tired from being up all night so his concentration waned. His mind kept returning to thoughts of people biting each other.

  Just too weird, he thought.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Little Rock, Arkansas:

  Suzy Wong, the nurse that Darryl Turp had bitten on the finger, had been ready to go off shift and on vacation when the attack happened. After fleeing the room, she waited impatiently for the security guards to restrain the crazy man so she could give her statement and be on her way. She had been in similar situations where a patient attacked staff and knew that the process of police reports and witness accounts would take hours to go through. She resigned herself to this fate and was trying to calculate how long she would be delayed, when word reached her that the patient had died.

  Shaking her head in disgust, she told herself, no way are you getting caught up in a death inquest, girl. This is your first vacation in eighteen months and nothing is going to ruin it. Finding an unoccupied room, Suzy cleaned and bandaged the bite on her finger before slipping away unnoticed in all the confusion still raging on the floor.

  She was concerned about infection but assured herself that she had a very resilient immune system and should have nothing to worry about. Besides, the bite was minor. It had happened when she was trying to pull the patients head away from Doctor Rahjib and the crazy man had snapped at her with his teeth. Suzy had no doubt that if he had connected he would have taken her finger off at the second joint, but she was young and her reflexes were good, so instead he only raked his teeth over her little finger, taking off a layer of skin.

  Once in the nurse’s locker room, Suzy changed quickly and then made her way through the maze of hallways leading to the loading dock at the side of the hospital, thus avoiding the police and news media already swarming the lobby. Safely in her car, she took the long way around the hospital toward the exit, even waiting patiently for a Sheriff’s car to enter the parking lot before making a right turn toward the freeway.

  Pleased with her foresight at having packed her car that morning before coming to work, she stopped only once to gas up and buy a large coffee before hitting the road. Checking her watch as she returned to her vehicle, she saw that she was actually ahead of her schedule. The incident with the patient had let her get a head start on her vacation.

  Excitement, and the virus, coursed through her body as she thought about her upcoming days off. She was on her way to a family reunion in Nashville and was thrilled at the prospect of seeing her relatives again. It seemed incredible to her, but she hadn't seen some of them in decades, only keeping in touch with them through phone calls, pictures and the occasional e-mail. This year though, she vowed to reacquaint herself with all of them. Her entire family would be flying in from all over the country, some from as far away as San Francisco. There was even rumor that her great aunt was making the trip from Hong Kong.

  This was impressive to Suzy who had never traveled any further away from her parents’ home in Nashville than Little Rock, first to go to school and now to live and work. She could only imagine the stories her aunt would have. The woman traveled the world working as a restaurant critic and could brag that she had been to every major capitol in the world. Suzy decided that it would fulfill a lifetime dream of her own to be able to wander around without a care in the world, eating strange foods and seeing new sights.

  As the virus coursed undetected through her body, Suzy didn't realize that she was closer to her wish than she thought.

  ***

  Darryl Turp had bitten Nurse Karen Washowitz on the arm as she tried to pull Doctor Rahjib away from the madman, taking a small chunk of flesh from her wrist, which he then ingested. After fleeing the room, Karen had gone downstairs to the E.R. to have her wound treated and receive a tetanus booster and antibiotics. She had been bitten by a patient once before and knew her chances of infection were high. After all, the human mouth was a breeding ground for germs and bacteria.

  The Chief of Hospital Administration, Ned Thornton, had been summoned, and being worried about liability, actually arrived at the hospital before most of the police officers respon
ding to the call. Wanting to limit the hospital’s exposure to a potential lawsuit, he sat with Karen while she gave her statement to the police. When she was done, and Ned was satisfied that the hospital could not be held liable for the incident, he patted Karen on her good arm and told her to go home and get some rest. This sounded good to her as she was pulling a double shift and had been working since early that morning. Showing concern for Karen, and hedging his bets against any possible litigation, Ned didn't want to let her drive herself so he called a cab for her and paid the driver in advance, assuring the nurse that an orderly would drop her car off later at her residence.

  When Karen arrived at her house, she noticed that it was already three in the morning. Time flies when you're having fun, she thought sarcastically. Letting herself in the door quietly so as not to disturb her husband or four children, she looked up the stairs that led to the master bedroom before deciding that they would be too much to try to surmount. She settled onto the couch in the living room, then pulled the afghan off its backrest on top of her and was instantly asleep.

  Through bad diet and too many double shifts at the hospital, Karen's immune system was worn down and weak, so she didn't last long. At the same time that Steve Wendell was telling Mary to put on ‘In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida’, the long version, Karen Washowitz died. By the time Steve flipped Mary the bird and left the studio, Karen had been reanimated into a walking corpse and was staggering up the stairs to see her husband and children. She wanted to let them know in her own special way that it was time to get up so she could eat.

  Three of them survived the bloody attack to spread the virus and propagate the new species.

  ***

  The Little Rock police questioned the two security guards for hours. When they were satisfied with the story the two men told, Ned Thornton took over. First, he separated the men and spoke to them one at a time, going over their statements at length and looking for any discrepancies. Once finished with the security personnel, Ned privately reviewed all the other witness statements from medical staff and patients. It was very early in the morning when he finished, but he was satisfied with the results. He concluded that everyone had behaved in a most professional manner and that the actions of the two security guards were justified. In fact, Ned had even decided to make the rent-a-cops the heroes of the regrettable incident when he made his statement to the press.

  Calling the two men back into his office to let them know his findings, and to inform them to hold off talking to the press until after he did, Ned waited until they had seated themselves before speaking. He had just gotten to the part in his prepared speech about making them famous as the saviors of the hospital staff when the guard seated on the right suddenly rolled his eyes up into his head and started convulsing.

  "He’s having a seizure," Ned exclaimed the obvious as he reached for his phone.

  He pulled out a list of extensions to find the number for the emergency room and looked back up to see that the convulsing man had fallen out of sight beyond his desk and now the second man had also started to spasm. The rapid way in which the seizures had struck both men at almost the same time made Ned think that there was some contaminant in the air. Taking a small breath, he held it as he punched in the numbers for the E.R.

  A voice answered in a bored voice, "Emergency Room."

  Ned described what was happening as he took shallow breaths. When he was finished, he hung up and was about to evacuate his office, when from across his desk the first security guard slowly and unsteadily rose into view.

  Concern in his voice, Ned asked, "Are you all right?" He moved around his desk to lend a steadying hand, and said, "You need to sit down and take it easy. I called for help and they're on the way."

  As Ned Thornton laid his hand on the dead man's shoulder, the former security guard and father of three looked around vacantly as if to get his bearings. Focusing on Ned, two thin, ropy strands of saliva seeped from the corners of his mouth. Whipping its head around, it sank its teeth into the side of Ned's hand, severing two of his fingers.

  In shock, Ned looked at his mangled hand with disbelief. Did I just see that? He asked himself. A sudden rush of pain cleared his mind, and he screamed in agony. Instantly, he figured out the situation. The guard looked and acted exactly like the patient who had killed Doctor Rahjib. It must be some kind of infection that was being transmitted through the bites, he thought, but wouldn’t live long enough to share his theory.

  Backing away, he looked around for some way to escape the monster standing between him and the exit, his mind switching between thoughts of self-preservation, and how to warn the rest of the people in the hospital about the contamination. As he looked longingly at the door to the office, gauging his chances of making it to safety, it flew open to reveal two interns with medical bags in hand. Ned opened his mouth to shout out a warning, but it was choked off by fear as he saw the second guard struggle to his feet and stagger toward the newcomers. Distracted by the arrival of the responders, Ned never saw the first guard coming toward him with mouth wide open.

  Once again, in the short span of a few hours, chaos reigned at the hospital. By the time it was all over, twenty-two more people had been infected.

  ***

  Suzy Wong lasted until after lunch. She had felt slightly feverish all morning but passed it off as not getting any sleep. When she had arrived at her parent's house in Nashville the night before, her great aunt, who was suffering from jet lag, met her at the door. After exchanging hugs they stayed up talking for hours while Aunt Koni regaled Suzy with stories of some of the places she had visited recently and what she had seen there.

  When the rest of the family woke, they ate a leisurely breakfast together and then packed up to go to the pavilion that they had rented by the river for the reunion. In all, seventy people showed up for the first day of what was supposed to be a three-day get together.

  After Suzy died and came back, she managed to infect seventeen of them. The first of these being her aunt before the woman managed to break free of Suzy's gnashing teeth and throw herself into a nearby duck pond. Four of Suzy's brothers finally managed to restrain her by physically forcing her face down into the ground and sitting on her. No one died as a result of the savage attack but needless to say, the rest of the reunion was cancelled. Some of the attendees stayed in Nashville, however most of them, Aunt Koni included, caught the first flight home, taking with them an unwanted souvenir.

  Aunt Koni spread the infection to the west coast of the United States where it would flourish with a rapidity that astounded health care workers. Others carried it shorter distances but with no less impact. From initial infection to death the times varied, but the one constant with the disease was its mortality rate.

  100 percent.

  But then again, it wasn't a complete death.

  Within a day of the virus spreading nationwide, the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta was alerted and tried to take control of the situation. Some of its scientists went to work on isolating the disease to try and find a cure while others worked to halt the spread of what was now termed the HWNW virus. With the swift spread of the new sickness, due to its high communicability rate, they were overwhelmed within three days. They urged the President to take decisive action, such as nationwide martial law, but he deferred to the elected officials in the states reporting outbreaks. The election was coming up and one of the key issues was the interference of the federal government in state’s rights to govern themselves. Not wanting to be run out of office, or let his opinion polls drop any more than they already had, the President left the management of the crisis to individual governors, though he did pledge the help of FEMA.

  In Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, California and New York City, the situation deteriorated so quickly that the National Guard was called out to restore order and to suppress the infected individuals from further spreading the disease. Quarantine areas were set-aside for anyone who showed signs of infection, but the people showing up to them
, or being forced into them, were few.

  Those who had been bitten were hesitant to go, as they could not bring themselves to believe that something as simple as a bite or a scrape that had come in contact with infected body fluid could cause them to go crazy. Instead, they hunkered down in their homes and tried to treat themselves. In the end it was always the same for these unfortunate individuals and those around them: death and reanimation.

  Followed shortly by the biting and eating of friends, relatives and strangers.

  The lack of voluntary commitment to quarantine was also hindered by the fact that the mainstream media was downplaying the crisis or not reporting on it at all. No one knew the severity of the virus except those who were trying to find a cure and those who were dealing with exterminating the walking dead.

  Despite this hindrance by the media, word still got out via the Internet. Although most of these reports were honest and the public needed to be informed, this sword cut both ways as individuals reported in blogs and on their web pages that the quarantine areas were death traps. If you were found to be infected, it meant only one thing, death. It was reported that those people who were newly contaminated were held in containment areas until they died and reanimated and were then destroyed by use of electrical shock or a bullet to the back of the head. And if you were too far along in the progression of the disease, you were simply shot in the head. Those socially conscious people, who saw the reports and didn't want to spread the virus, turned themselves to whatever fate awaited them, but most did not. Thus, the sickness spread exponentially.