by T. L. Frost
Sally nodded again and Carter turned the handle. The door suddenly pushed against him, a loud moan coming from behind it. Off balance, Carter took a step back as a zombie pushed into the room. It stumbled forward as the door opened and Carter kicked its legs away, sending it crashing to the floor. Without a pause he closed the door again, a quick glimpse showing no other zombies coming yet. He spun, tyre iron raised, hoping Sally didn’t panic or scream. She didn’t. Instead she was pushing the thin metal pole into the zombie’s eye socket as it flailed its arms and legs weekly. She was gritting her teeth as she put all of her weight into it. Pushing the makeshift weapon deep into the creature’s brain, silencing it. Carter lowered his own weapon as Sally pulled the metal pole clear, blood and brains dripping from it as she took a deep breath.
“That’s my girl.” Said Carter with a grin.
Sally smiled shyly back and wiped the gore from her weapon on the now still zombie’s clothes.
“You ready?” Asked Carter as he reached for the door handle again.
“Yeah, let’s get out of here.”
Opening the door again, he checked the corridor, more zombies were starting to fill it but they were mostly at the far end, where the doors to the patients’ wing were wide open.
“We go left then move fast.” Said Carter “Don’t stop for anything. Head for the kitchen.”
He pushed the door wide open and stepped out, to his left a zombie had its back to him. Swinging the tyre iron, he caught it with a solid blow to the side of its head, sending it crashing into the wall and falling. Carter rushed past, glancing back to see Sally close behind, dodging a wildly grasping hand from the fallen zombie. They raced down the corridor, turning to the right as moans and screams suddenly filled the space behind them. A set of double doors led to the entrance and kitchen areas and Carter wasted no time, crashing into them to send them flying open, but they didn’t open. They rattled loudly as he pushed against them.
“They’re locked!” Said Carter, turning and looking around.
Running feet could be heard from the direction they had come.
“They can’t be!” Said Sally as she tried the doors herself “They’re never locked!”
“Well they are now.” Said Carter as he grabbed her arm and pulled her back down the corridor.
Another turn and they were rushing past offices. Large glass fronts looking out towards the corridor, all empty. At the end was a closed door with the grand title ‘Hospital Administrator’ painted on it. Bureaucracy at its finest thought Carter sarcastically as he tried the handle. It was unlocked and empty like the other offices, but had no window looking out onto the hospital’s interior.
“This will do.” Said Carter, pushing the large desk to block the door.
Sally helped him and together they man-handled some filing cabinets alongside it, pushing the last one in place just as the door shook with a loud bang on the other side. A scream followed and the sounds of more running feet. Another bang, shaking the filing cabinets.
“They know we…” Began Sally.
Carter raised a finger to his lips for silence and Sally stopped talking, a look of fear on her face as the impacts on the door and screams continued. Both of them pushed against the desk, keeping it in place as the door rattled loudly, scraping and crashing on the other side. Sally looked around wildly but there was no other way out. A high, narrow window filled with meshed safety glass the only other option, but no way to break through it. She looked at Carter and he was grinning at her, almost totally calm and relaxed as he leaned against the hasty barrier. Sally couldn’t help herself and grinned back, the panic subsiding as they waited together for whatever might happen. Eventually the crashes against the door and the screaming stopped. Moaning and the shuffling of feet could still be heard as the zombies outside of the office continued their search. A small window above the door allowed Carter to climb carefully up onto the desk and get a glimpse of shadows moving, but it was getting dark now.
“We’ll wait it out in here until morning.” Whispered Carter “You get some rest, I’ll keep watch.”
Sally nodded, exhaustion sapping any argument and she managed an improvised bed against one of the walls. Carter watched her as the light failed. A glimmer of moonlight through the room’s narrow window was soon the only thing keeping away the blackness. Soon that disappeared too. Carter sat down, his back against the desk.
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They had been on the move for weeks now. Peterson’s family had not made it. He had insisted on going to look for them and Carter had been unable to refuse. Having no family or close friends himself, he had wanted to get away from the city as fast as possible, but Peterson refused. It had taken days to get there, the streets eerily quiet in places and a bloody nightmare in others. Carter had been tempted to let him go but reckoned his odds might be better with Peterson as backup, so he had agreed. What they had found made him glad he had no family.
They had entered through the rear door of Peterson’s house, keeping to the back streets and avoiding everyone they saw, living or dead, not that there were many living anymore. The house was quiet, screams and moans could be heard outside in the distance though, so Carter urged his partner to be quick, thinking maybe it would have been better to go it alone than to come to those streets. Houses meant people, which meant zombies. He kept a lookout at the back door as Peterson walked through to the living room. All around the kitchen were water bottles, empty food cans, other litter. Maybe they were ok thought Carter. A crash interrupted his thoughts and he stepped through to the living room to find Peterson standing over the body of a twitching zombie, its legs kicking out feebly as Peterson raised the heavy steel bar he was carrying to smash it again into the back of the creature’s head. It looked like it had been feeding. In the centre of the room was another bloody corpse, guts torn out, limbs with large chunks bitten from them. Blood was everywhere apart from the victim’s face, a pretty blonde woman whose features were frozen into a mask of terror. Carter recognised her, Peterson’s wife.
“I’m sorry.” Said Carter placing a hand on Peterson’s shoulder as he fell to his knees by his wife’s body.
“She didn’t deserve this.” Said Peterson, fighting back tears as he spoke “If only I had gotten here sooner, I should have…”
“Bullshit.” Said Carter.
Peterson looked at him, sorrow mixing with anger and frustration.
“What did you…?”
“I said bullshit.” Said Carter again “You came as quickly as you could, this wasn’t your fault, it’s the fault of this fucked up world.”
Peterson turned back to his dead wife, tears flowing freely down his cheeks now.
“Say your goodbyes quick.” Said Carter “We can’t be here after dark, it’s too dangerous.”
Peterson seemed to sag, then he straightened and stood, turning to Carter, jaw clenched.
“I find my daughter then we leave.”
Carter nodded and started packing some food in the kitchen as Peterson headed upstairs, quietly calling for his daughter.
“It’s ok now sweetheart.” He said as he checked the rooms “Daddy is here, the monster is gone now. Becca? Where are you sweetheart?”
Carter heard him moving around and talking softly until another door opened and everything went quiet.
“Oh Becca…” Said Peterson faintly.
Muffled snarling and moaning could be heard and Carter stood ready but nothing happened. After a few more minutes Peterson came back downstairs and sat at the dining table. Carter said nothing, waiting. Eventually Peterson looked up.
“My daughter, little Becca…” He said, then stopped, looking down at the table, his fists clenched “I couldn’t do it. She’s…gone, I know that, but still it’s too…” He choked up again.
Carter looked at Peterson, he was a wreck, he would be no help at all getting out of there. Drawing a long knife he had sheathed at his waist, Carter walked through the house to the stairway. He felt Peters
on’s eyes on him as he started up and felt glad again that he had no family. Most of the rooms were empty apart from the master bedroom. Carter heard the muffled moans coming from within and when he pushed the door open, he saw Peterson’s daughter, tied to the bed, a gag muffling the moans as her grey, lifeless eyes stared at him with hatred. There were no bite marks visible and Carter guessed she had been taken by the disease. Stepping next to the bed, he switched his hold on the knife, holding it blade down, the handle tight in both hands. The creature struggled against the ropes binding it, trying to get at Carter, teeth biting against the gag. Just a kid thought Carter, such a damn shame. He plunged the knife down hard, straight through an eye socket, the soft tissue offering little resistance. The zombie stopped dead immediately and looked even smaller than before. Carter released the knife, leaving it where it was and went to re-join Peterson. As he left he glanced back at the gruesome scene, shaking his head a little.
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When he woke some hours later, the first hints of morning light were showing, the total blackness giving way to barely perceptible shadows. The corridor on the other side of the blocked door was quiet and Carter stretched, easing joints protesting at the uncomfortable night’s sleep. Movement in the shadows showed Sally was awake too. Moving slowly in the dim but growing light, she sat beside him.
“What now?” She whispered.
“We’ll wait until it’s lighter then see how many are out there.”
Sally nodded, her hair dishevelled and splashed with drying clots of blood, clothes also spattered with dark red and brown stains. She was still tired, both of them had slept lightly, jerking awake at the slightest sound and fatigue was showing in their faces. Even so, Carter thought she looked great and grinned at her as the sun slowly rose.
“What are you grinning at?” Asked Sally as she tried to comb through her hair with her fingers, to little effect.
“Was just thinking how lucky I am right now.”
Sally blushed a little, a small smile on her lips as she gave up trying to tidy her hair. When it was light enough Carter stood on the desk again, checking the corridor outside through the small meshed window above the door. Finally satisfied, he climbed quietly down again to a questioning look from Sally.
“A lot of them have moved on.” He said “Looks like something else got their attention.”
“What about getting out that way?” Said Sally nodding to the room’s high, narrow window.
Carter shook his head “It’s sealed, looks like the whole building has air-con. We start smashing through that and this barricade won’t last long. There are too many of those things out there in the corridors.”
“So we have to fight past them?” Asked Sally looking uncertain.
“A few for sure.” Said Carter “But we’re not going further into the hospital, I’m betting the other doors will be locked too. Looks like most of the zombies have gone that way anyway. We go back.”
“The way we came? But the zombies…”
“Like I said, looks like most have passed by, drawn by something. We go back the way we came. There’s a window already broken in the patients’ wing.”
Sally thought for a second and swallowed hard. Carter knew it was a lot to ask but there was no other choice he could see. Sally nodded.
“Let’s go then, if I think about it too long I might not have the nerve to go back out there.” She said.
Carter kissed her, hard. “Stay close.”
They moved the desk and filing cabinets as quietly as possible and then Carter opened the door a little. Moans and shuffling feet could be heard to the left, in the direction of the hospital’s main entrance but to the right it seemed pretty quiet. Risking a look out into the corridor it looked empty, no movement to the right, to the left signs of drying blood and gore on the corridor walls before it turned a corner, out of sight. Carter nodded to Sally and they both headed out at a fast walk, looking for danger. They passed Carter’s room and all was still ok. The doors to the patients’ wing were wide open, no damage. Sally saw it too, they had been unlocked. Carter gritted his teeth and led the way into the wing filled with beds. The smell was bad. Body parts and old, dried blood was everywhere. A lot of people had died badly. One of them was still there. A man, restrained in one of the beds. He had large chunks torn and bitten from him, the bed was soaked with more congealed, crusted blood. The head of the man turned to face them as they entered, grey, lifeless eyes staring. Carter rushed forward as the zombie opened its mouth, the scream on its lips. Swinging the tyre iron as he got close, the scream stopped before it began, the zombie’s head exploding with the force of the blow from the heavy iron weapon. Carter hit it twice more, just to be certain.
“I think I may be sick.” Said Sally behind him.
“No time for that.” Replied Carter, pointing with his weapon “Out of that window now, I’ll be right behind you.”
Sally landed heavily on the grass outside of the window and rolled away as Carter pushed himself through. They sat there for a while, the sun rising slowly in their faces, relief washing through them both.
“Let’s move.” Said Carter, standing and taking Sally’s hand.
They made it around the building quickly, coming to the car park and the mini-bus. They got in and Carter started it up.
“What about Rob?” Asked Sally “He’s one of us, we can’t leave him with… them.”
Carter was about to protest, they were safe and the best thing would be to get out of there, but he hesitated, the pleading look in Sally’s eyes getting through to him. Fuck it, he thought, got to at least try to find him.
“You stay here.” Said Carter.
“I can help, I’ll…”
“You stay here.” Carter repeated firmly “You’re exhausted. I’ll look for Rob.”
Sally nodded and sat back drained “Be careful.” She said.
Carter grinned and turned off the engine. Reaching into the glove box, he took out the stun gun, pocketing it, then he headed for the main entrance. I must be nuts, he thought, I hardly know the guy.
Chapter 5
The entrance was locked up tight. Carter checked all of the doors, rattling them loudly but none of them opened. Carl’s surprised face could be seen inside for a second before he disappeared again.
“Asshole.” Said Carter with a growl as he moved away.
Spotting a heavy paving stone, marking the edge of a path, he worked it loose with his hands. Lifting it high and pointing a corner at one of the doors’ glass panels, he threw it with all of his strength, his reward a loud shattering sound as the panel broke into hundreds of small pieces. Carter stepped through and listened. Moans and some screaming in the distance, from the direction of the patients’ wing. Moving past the doors leading that way, he could see they were locked, a hasty barricade thrown up against them. On the other side more screams sounded and Carter could see the bloody smears on the small glass windows set into the doors. Moans of anger came from the large group of zombies on the other side. Moving past Carter headed for the kitchen, two birds with one stone he thought, check for Rob and grab some supplies. Rob wasn’t there but Carl was. Carter grinned, it wasn’t a friendly sight.
“How did you…” Began Carl.
“Get out alive?” Asked Carter angrily “You look surprised to see me still breathing asshole!”
“The zombies escaped and we thought you were all dead.” Said Carl, keeping a table between himself and Carter.
“Escaped? Bullshit, you let them out, you and that asshole doctor.”
“We didn’t… I had nothing to do with it.” Said Carl “It was Matthews’ idea!”
Carter pointed at Carl’s belt where the keys to the hospital were fastened.
“Maybe it was his idea, but I bet you unlocked the doors.”
Carter grabbed a knife laying on the table, waving it towards Carter.
“Just get out! Nobody wants you here!” Yelled Carl.
Carter reacted instantly, gr
abbing the table edge and throwing it up hard towards Carl who covered his face as the table hit him. The knife lashed out wildly but Carter was ready for it. He struck down hard with the tyre iron and Carl’s forearm broke with a satisfying snap. Carl dropped the knife and fell to the floor, holding his arm in shock at the pain. His mouth opening and closing as if trying to speak. Carter stepped forward and landed a solid kick to his chin, knocking him flat instantly. Taking a bag he threw some supplies into it then grabbed the keys from Carl’s belt. As he was leaving he took another look at the locked doors, the zombies on the other side still pushing against them, he couldn’t see any sign of Rob but guessed he was in there, pity thought Carter, he seemed like an ok guy.
“What have you done?!” Came the angry voice of Doctor Matthews.
Carter turned, Matthews was on the other side of the hospital entrance lobby. He looked furious.
“I knew you would cause nothing but trouble!” He screamed “Walking around here as if you owned the place, I should have refused to treat you! Now look what you have done, those creatures have overrun the hospital!”
“Thanks to you and your friend Carl.” Said Carter, his voice surprisingly calm.
Matthews looked around.
“He won’t be coming any time soon.” Growled Carter.
“What have you done to him?” Said Matthews taking a step back “Carl!” He shouted.
“Is Rob in there?” Asked Carter, nodding towards the door where the zombies were now hammering at the glass with their fists, cracks appearing.
Matthews looked at the doors then stumbled over his words.
“I have… no idea, he could be anywhere.” Said Matthews, his eyes shifting nervously.
Carter had seen people lying often enough to spot the signs and Matthews wasn’t very good at it. That was all the proof Carter needed. It wouldn’t convince a Jury maybe, but there were no Juries any more, no judges, no laws.
“You asshole.” Said Carter.
He pulled the stun gun from his pocket and fired. The wires shooting out as the barbed projectiles punched into Matthews’ chest. Carter held the trigger down and Matthews fell backwards, writhing and jerking as the electric shocks ran through his body. Dropping the gun, Carter took the hospital keys and unlocked the doors holding back the zombies, the hasty barricade blocking them giving him just enough time to run for the mini-bus.
