I quickly outstripped the horde and headed back towards Charlie. He waved me past him and I took a breather as we watched the progress of the woman. The line of houses she was on took her on a curving path towards the canal and if she could get ahead of the horde, she stood a good chance of living. I glanced over the bridge and waved to Tommy, who brought the boat around.
“We have a survivor and she should be showing up downriver about two hundred yards. I’ll be down in a sec and we can go get her.”
“What about Charlie?” Tommy hollered about the growing din of the undead.
Charlie poked his head over the side. “Right here, dickhead. Go get the girl with John and swing back towards the other side of the bridge, I’ll see you there.”
Tommy waved. “Go swim, loser,” he joked. I just shook rolled my eyes at the two of them, as I climbed over the guardrail and slid down to the banks of the canal. The zombie horde that had chased me was advancing on the road, and Charlie was going to keep them distracted while we picked up the woman. As I jumped aboard the boat, I heard Charlie’s rifle crack as he sent a hot .223 round into the head of a nearby Z.
Tommy moved the boat farther ahead, then cut the power down to keep us relatively motionless in the water as the current gently tried to push us back. I could see the woman still on the roofs, jumping from one to the other and gaining ground on her pursuers. She had about four homes to go before she would have to abandon the houses and make a sprint for the canal. I heard Charlie’s rifle crack again and I saw several ghouls break off their pursuit to head in his direction. Push came to shove, Charlie could jump off the bridge. It was only about a thirty foot drop into twenty-foot deep water, so he would be okay if we could keep him from sinking with all his gear.
Tommy watched the woman closely, trying to time his approach to the bank as she got closer. When she reached the last house, she slipped down to the gutter and hung for a second. Dropping to the ground, she raced past a tangle of children’s toys and jumped the fence that circled the yard. Zombies came pouring through the houses in their attempt to get to her and I took the liberty of shooting two of them that were faster than the others. The woman scrambled to the edge of the canal and leaped on board the boat as soon as it was in range. I directed her to a chair in the front while Tommy spun the wheel and headed to the bridge to pick up Charlie who was standing on the far bank of the canal, his rifle trained on the bridge.
When Charlie was safely aboard, Tommy swung the boat back north and moved away from the hordes of zombies that stared at us helplessly from the shores and bridge. I moved up to where the woman was seated and handed her a bottle of water.
“Welcome aboard. My name is John Talon and these are my friends, Charlie James and Tommy Carter. Who might you be?”
The woman took a long drink of water and then eyed me warily. “I’m Angela Brooks. Thanks for your help. I figured I was done for sure that time.” Angela had dark hair, bright blue eyes, and a homespun face that was handsome rather than pretty. She had smudges of dirt on her face and looked like she hadn’t seen a good meal in days, but she seemed healthy enough. She was wearing a dark blue hoodie and faded jeans. Her backpack looked like it was from a junior high. Her weapon was a Glock 9mm, the handle protruding from a holster on her belt.
I nodded. “Glad to help. God knows there’s few enough of us left these days. Before we get to know each other better, I need you to hand over your weapon.” I held out my left hand, keeping my right hand near my SIG. Charlie shifted his grip on his rifle so it was across his lap, but the muzzle was pointed in Angela’s direction
“Why do you want my gun?” Angela said, her eyes narrowing.
“Honestly? I don’t know you and until I do, I’m not having you armed on this boat. I’ve gone through too much to have everything I’ve fought for lost because I turned my back on someone with a personal agenda. I’ve been shot at by females before and I would rather not repeat the performance. Now please hand over your weapon.”
“And if I refuse?” Angela said, shifting in her chair.
Charlie stood up and held his rifle casually, the muzzle now directly pointed at the woman. The look on his face clearly said he would kill without hesitation if the wrong move was made.
“We put you on the bank of the canal immediately and say our goodbyes and good lucks. If you take a shot at us, we’ll kill you. We’d rather not.” My smile didn’t reach my eyes. I had no patience for this sort of thing.
Angela considered the proposition and with a resigned sigh handed over the weapon. I looked at it, ejected the magazine and shook my head at the two rounds left. I asked if Angela had any more magazines or bullets and she shook her head. I passed the gun to Charlie, who field stripped it at the little table on the boat and started cleaning it.
I sat down across from Angela. “Now, what brings you to that little piece of hell?”
Angela seemed to deflate and leaning back in her chair, told me how she was working downtown as a nutritionist for a health club when the world ended. She and a friend named Dana had managed to escape the city when the Upheaval had started and had stayed in the woods that were across the canal for the last three months. Before that, they had been on the run, hiding where they could, looting what they could find for food and supplies during the winter. She and her friend had hooked up with some other survivors, but their shelter had been overrun, and she and Dana barely escaped with their lives. The rest of the group had been torn apart. I nodded. It was not an unfamiliar scenario.
Angela and her friend had headed south and taken shelter in the woods. The zombies didn’t seem to want to cross the river or the canal, so it seemed like they would have been safe for a while. Then during the winter, her friend got sick and died from pneumonia. Angela buried her friend and resolved to go on when the weather was good enough for travel. She was doing a supply run in the subdivision when the zombies woke up and came after her. That’s when we showed up.
When she finished, I started explaining who we were and where we came from. I told her about Leport and the community we had built there. Her eyes widened when she found out we had nearly four hundred people living there. I told her about the other communities we had contact with and how we were managing to take back what we had lost. Her eyes drifted for a minute and I knew she was reliving some memory from her past. We all did that from time to time.
When I finished, I had a question for her. “If you’re interested, you’re welcome to join the community. We can give you a place to stay, friends to make, and a chance at life. We could use a nutritionist to help with the kids and our limited food supply. Interested?”
Angela’s eyes misted, then she buried her head in her hands and sobbed. I got up and left her to sort things out for herself. I had seen this before from survivors who suddenly found themselves safe, able to relax and not worry that the bump in the night was going to try and eat them.
I sat down by Charlie as he finished putting the Glock back together. “Will she join us?” he asked, casting a glance her way.
“Probably,” I said. “She’s seen a lot and we’ve only scratched the surface of her story, but it will take a while to come out. I’m just stunned anyone is alive out here.”
Charlie nodded and handed the Glock back to me as well as a fully loaded magazine. I took both and headed back to the front. Angela seemed to have composed herself and looked up at me with red eyes.
“Sorry,” she said. “I haven’t been that emotional for a while. I guess the shock of suddenly being offered a chance to live after nearly dying for so long catches up to you.”
I waved it off. “Happened to a lot more people than you think.” I handed her weapon back and the full magazine. “Charlie cleaned it and loaded the magazine for you. You’re good to go.”
“You’re trusting me with my gun? What if I shoot you and try to take this boat?” Angela asked, inserting the magazine and chambering a round before returning it to its holster.
“It’s been
tried before. I take a lot of killing and you’d be dead before you got the gun out of the holster.”
“You’re pretty sure of yourself.”
I shrugged. “Goes with the territory. My girlfriend thinks it makes me cute.”
Angela rolled her eyes and turned towards the canal. We were making good time and passed quite a few communities and industrial parks. We saw zombies nearly everywhere and in each community I saw the telltale white flags fluttering uselessly in the morning breeze. When we passed the train depot, with it’s thousands of train cars, I started to pay close attention. My side trip was getting close and I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss it. I hadn’t told Tommy and Charlie about it yet and was likely going to get some fierce opposition, but I didn’t care. I needed to do this.
23
Around a small bend in the canal, I saw what I was looking for. It was a ten story, modern-looking building with a curved design that arched towards the canal. Two round lower buildings connected to it. The whole thing was white facing with black steel and deep blue tinted windows. It was a striking building completed within the last ten years.
Fitzgerald Hospital had been a world leader in cardio care and doctors from all over the world came to hone their skills and learn the latest techniques for treating heart disease. Now it was a haven for the dead, one of the centers of the Upheaval. It was where I needed to go.
I told Tommy to pull over to the building. He headed that way and asked me why.
“I’m taking a side trip.” I said.
“What is this place?” he persisted.
“A hospital.”
Tommy was speechless for a moment, then he recovered his voice. “Are you fucking insane? Hospitals are loaded with the dead! That’s where a lot of the shit started and spread. You want to go to one?” He was incredulous, which put him on par with Angela and Charlie, neither of whom could speak.
“I know it doesn’t make sense, but lately I have been feeling that unless I find out exactly what happened to Ellie, I can never go forward with Sarah. It will be a wedge of guilt that won’t ever go away,” I said.
Tommy shook his head. “You’re not thinking this one through, hoss. You go in there, you will probably not come out, and if you do find Ellie, she may be a zombie. You gonna be able to pull the trigger on her? I’ve seen too many people hesitate when a loved one comes close and they end up dead because of it.”
“I can’t ask you to understand, Tommy. I don’t understand it myself. It’s like something is pulling me here, wanting me here. I can’t call this one off. If you don’t want to head over, fine. I’ll swim if I have to, but I’m going.”
Tommy looked at me for a long moment, then shook his head. “If we hadn’t just pulled off a night raid and gotten out with our skins intact, I’d say swim for it. But you know I won’t just leave you, brother. So I’m in. Here we go.” Charlie shook his head at me, then topped off his rifle magazine. Angela just looked at me like I was growing a second set of ears.
We pulled up to the hospital landing. Few people actually knew it was there. The canal had been accessed during the construction of the new wing as an experimental route to the facility’s sister hospital, which specialized in children’s care and cancer treatment. Ellie told me that a boat from Fitzgerald Hospital could reach Mercy General a full thirty minutes ahead of an ambulance leaving at the same time. Ellie had estimated they had saved probably about 200 lives a year using the hospital ferry.
Tommy cut the motor and we drifted to the little dock. I jumped off and secured the boat, scanning the area as I did so. The ferry boat was long gone, likely taken by someone fleeing the hospital. Bits of debris littered the dock and long black smears painted a grim mural on the ramp leading to the hospital doors, gaping open like a forbidden portal.
I stepped back aboard the boat and traded rifles with Tommy. I didn’t need a heavy battle rifle for indoor fighting and his AR carbine would work well. In addition, Charlie and I could share ammo as needed.
“You sure you want me to stay with the boat?” Tommy asked, looking tentatively at the dark opening. “More firepower might be a good idea.”
“Yes, I need you to stay with the boat,” I said. “We may need to move fast out of here and having the boat already running would be seconds we don’t have to spare.
“Besides, someone needs to bring the news to Sarah and Rebecca if Charlie and I get killed,” I said casually, adjusting the spare magazines on my vest.
I stepped off the boat with Charlie beside me. I glanced back to see Angela sitting there with her mouth open.
“Three hours, no more. If we don’t find anything, we’ll be out sooner. Any more and something found us.” I moved up the ramp, Charlie behind me. I smiled when I heard Angela say, “Is he always like that?” to which I heard Tommy say, “Let me tell you about those two…”
The rest was lost as I moved to the doorway. I could see an overturned gurney just inside the door with a disemboweled corpse still attached to it. It used to be an old woman, but her skull had been cracked open and large chunk of missing brain explaining why she hadn’t returned. Sunlight filtered through the windows at the end of the hallway, but it was still very dark in places. The small reception desk by the entrance was abandoned, the computer overturned and the chair knocked sideways, as if whoever had worked there had been dragged over the counter. Dark streaks on the surface indicated this was likely the case. The hallway was a mess with bodies lying about, body parts strewn in corners and brownish streaks and handprints all over the walls. The ceiling even had sprays of dark on them, clear evidence of arteries being ripped open to bloody the area.
I pulled a marble from my pocket after checking with Charlie to make sure he was ready. We were in a good position. No hallways led to either left or right and no doors were any closer than twenty feet. Our backs were to the bright opening of the canal, so we had a decent amount of light to see. I threw the marble down the hall, listening to it bounce loudly on the tile floor, clacking along the hallway before smacking loudly against the window on the far end. I waited for a full twenty seconds, then watched as several dark shapes slid from doorways and hallways in response to the noise. A low, hungry moan began from the nearest one, echoed in chorus by the crowd behind. I could see movement near the floor as additional Z’s dragged themselves forward.
“Mine,” Charlie said, moving his rifle around to his back and pulling out his tomahawk. I hung back, but kept my carbine trained on the advancing ghouls.
Charlie stepped around a stain on the floor and advanced on the zombie. It was wearing hospital scrubs and raised a rotting arm towards Charlie. Its face was skeletal with large holes showing dark bone underneath. Black stains streaked its clothing and its left arm dangled uselessly. A large chunk was bitten out of its neck, I imagined this might be one of the first zombies in this area.
With a meaty smack, Charlie crushed the zombie’s skull. His tomahawk easily broke through the head and exited out the other side. Charlie nearly over swung and had to check himself as the corpse fell to the side.
“Damn,” he said, looking down at the body. “These older ones are barely holding themselves together.”
“Good,” I said, pulling out my pickaxe and adjusting my rifle so it hung down my back. “This should be better than I had hoped. If they’re that delicate, then we can save some ammo.” I moved ahead of Charlie and popped a crawler in the noggin, stepping around its grabbing, skeletal hands. I was amazed at how easy it was to penetrate the skull. It seemed the oldest zombies were decaying to the point where they were increasingly fragile. Anywhere they hit their head could literally kill them. For some reason, this seemed to make them a little less scary.
My reflections were interrupted by the advance of the rest of the zombies. Charlie and I were busy for the next few minutes, letting them come to us and putting them down. I had an awkward moment when a crawler and walker came at the same time. I wound up hitting the walker and stomping the crawler on the
head.
“Hey, a twofer,” Charlie said as he slammed a zombie against the wall, crushing its skull and leaving a brain smear as it slid down.
“It’s a gift,” I said as I nailed a zombie with a baseball swing, picking off another that crowded close with the backswing. Black splatter covered the hallway and Charlie and I were hemmed in by a small hedge of now-motionless dead.
“Déjà vu,” I said, remembering Coal City as I swung at what used to be a hospital security guard. His large gut was a gaping maw of shredded flesh and hunks had been bitten out of his arms and legs.
“It seems like all we do is hunt zombies and kill zombies,” Charlie said, knocking down an elderly man. “We never do anything fun anymore.”
“What are you talking about? I’m taking you on a cruise, aren’t I?” I said, knocking a nearby corpse over a crawler.
“It’s not the same. We’re still killing zombies,” Charlie said petulantly.
“What do you want, then?”
“You wouldn’t care if I told you.”
“Try me.”
Charlie sighed. “I just want to do something that lets me know I’m special to you, that’s all.” He batted his eyes at me, something I never thought he could do.
I couldn’t help myself and burst out laughing. Charlie joined me after a second and we both finished the last zombie.
“Don’t tell me Rebecca is already giving you that nonsense.” I said, wiping off my stained pick.
“Must be a female thing. The world ends and I still have to entertain her. Simply surviving is just not enough, I guess. Next thing you know, she and Sarah will start a book club or something and we’ll have to go find books for the town.” Charlie wiped off his ‘hawk.
“God help us.”
I moved forward, keeping an eye on the hallway as I climbed over the corpse pile. I didn’t expect to see anything more in the immediate vicinity, since our little fight would have attracted every zombie within earshot. Coming up to a janitor’s closet, I stopped and tried the door. It was locked, so I spent a minute breaking it open. Charlie looked at me, then kept his eyes on the hallway. We could hear shuffling sounds coming from the cross hall, but nothing was coming into sight yet.
Taking It Back Page 19
