Survive

by Ashley Shannon

“We think that the infections spread when they bite you. It is being transmitted through body fluids, at least that is what we assume is happening. We really can’t be certain at this point in time.” Her answer didn’t sound as rehearsed this time. That made Kimber push more.

  “How did they become infected?”

  Jean sighed again, bending down to start looking at Kimber’s legs. “We aren’t sure. The site of infection was at the college with a bunch of students visiting from Dyersville. That’s about…” Jean continued to drone on but Kimber wasn’t listening anymore. She didn’t need this nurse who was poking and prodding her to tell her where Dyersville was. Kimber had spent most of her life in that tiny town.

  “What are they going to do about it? To keep it from spreading?” Jean continued to go over Kimber’s legs, let her fingers run over a bruise to make sure there wasn’t a cut or abrasion where the virus could have come into contact with Kimber’s blood.

  “Honestly, I don’t know. Many of the students they think were infected returned to Dyersville, risking the entire town being exposed to an infection. They might quarantine the town, I suppose, but that is only me guessing. I haven’t heard anything about what is going to happen there. I know that some army personnel were sent there, but that is it. Do you know people there?”

  Drew shook her head, this time not waiting for Kimber to refer to her about what she should or shouldn’t say. If Dyersville was ground zero for this terrible disease, telling anyone they had just left there was most definitely going to get them locked up in a clean room, made to leave, or worse. Who knew what they were doing with the people that had been infected.

  “No, I was just wondering.” Jean’s hand traveled to her upper thigh. Kimber’s leg muscles tensed up. Her hand left her side and she reached for Drew, who willingly wrapped her hand around Kimber’s outstretched one. The two held hands and stood in silence as nurse Jean finished examining them both. Just as she was finishing up with Drew’s examine, a blonde woman poked her head in the door.

  “The guy next door has a bite on his ankle. It looks pretty bad. He was trying to hide it, kept his socks on which at first I didn’t think about. But then he started to turn pale like they get. It's only a matter of time…” Her words drifted away and she looked at the two young girls. Whatever she had to say, she wasn’t about to say it in front of them. Fear crept into Kimber and her palms began to sweat. She took her hand from Drew’s and wiped it on the paper gown before looping her fingers back where they were.

  “What’s the patient’s name? We should probably send the squad into deal with it.”

  The blonde woman looked down at her clipboard. “Issac… Sales.” She said.

  Drew squeezed Kimber’s hand, urging her to have no reaction. She stared into her ex-girlfriend’s eyes, willing her to be silent. The two of them stood, gazing at each other. Kimber’s heart began to race, not unlike the first time she caught Drew’s eyes in the hallway. They were such a brilliant blue. She had gotten lost in them so many times since then, wanting to look into them for hours on end.

  “Okay, I’ll go talk to them about it.”

  “You can tell them we’re all clear in here,” Jean said, pulling her rubber gloves at the fingertips and then discarding them in a trashcan.

  “Does that mean we’re okay?” Drew asked, finally tearing her eyes away from Kimber’s gaze.

  “Yes, You’ll wait to hear until they move you to a holding place.” Jean began to head to the door, but Kimber stopped her.

  “My brother and our friends, we were separated from them. They brought us up here but took them downstairs. Do you know when we’ll see them again?”

  Jean’s lips pursed together. She must have bad news, her face going back to looking tired when only moments again she looked glad that the two of them were fine.

  “They must have had blood on them or looked like they were high risk. They have been put into a holding cell to sit and see if they turn.”

  “That’s crazy, none of them were bitten or scratched. They can’t just leave them in there with people who are infected. What if they get infected by the people you locked them up with?” Kimber's voice began to get louder and she couldn’t regulate it. She didn’t want to yell at this woman, she was sure it wasn’t her fault, but something had to be done. They couldn’t just leave them down there to die.

  “It's the safest option right now. There are guards down there so that others aren’t infected, but if they already were… we can’t let them in somewhere with people we know aren’t. It's just the safest plan right now. I promise.”

  “Yeah, a lot of good that is going to do my brother when some disgusting infected monster tears into him because he looked like he was high risk.” Kimber used her fingers to put air quotes around what the nurse had told her. It clearly was not up to her, but Kimber didn’t mind shooting the messenger anyway.

  “Kimber, stop,” Drew said quietly, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. “They’ll be okay, Eli and Nolan will take care of Emmy and Rion. They will all be fine. I promise.”

  Kimber turned on Drew, her head whipping around fast, “Yeah, but we both know that your promises aren’t any good.” She snapped, her voice low and filled with anger. Drew let her hand fall from Kimber’s shoulder. She didn’t have anything to say, no witty comeback, no words of encouragement. Kimber was right and Drew knew it. There was no defense. The tiny ethnic girl shouldn’t have said what she did, and she didn’t truly mean it. Kimber was just anxious and afraid for her friends and mostly her brother. No one knew where her mother was or if she was even alive. Eli was all she had and she had to do everything she could to protect him.

  “Will you take us to him?”

  “That’s crazy, why would you want to risk it?” Jean asked, holding her clipboard to her chest.

  “Because he’s my brother. I have to stay with him. He is all I have.”

  Jean looked said, but her lips turned into a weak, tiny smile. “I’ll see what I can do. Wait here.”

  Kimber watched the nurse leave before climbing on the exam table. The paper robe she was given to wear crinkled against her skin as she sat down. Drew’s robe did the same as she sat in a chair beside the door to wait. They sat waiting in silence. Kimber looked around the room at the few pictures line along the wall. Drew stared at her shoes, fiddling with the laces, trying to distract herself.

  “Is that really what you think?” Drew asked after a few minutes. Her fingers had twisted her laces into a knot she was so nervous.

  “Sometimes, maybe, I don’t know.” Was all Kimber could say before the nurse came back in.

  “Get dressed, I can get you down there.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  For what seemed like an eternity, everyone was quiet after the gun went off. Eli held the gun directly at the infected woman, but she remained motionless. He wasn’t sure if he trusted that she was actually dead or not, so he continued to point the weapon at her lifeless body, but turned his attention to the guard.

  “We need to get out of here.”

  The shellshocked guard looked from Eli, who held his firearm, to the dead woman on the floor. A pool of blood was beginning to gather under her head on the cement floor of the basement. Her clothes were covered in the red sticky substance as well. They had been new clothes, name brand, clothes of someone who cared about their appearance and how they were perceived. Now it didn’t matter what name was attached to the front or stitched on the tag, it didn’t save her from her fate.

  “You… you can’t.” Stammered the guard.

  “You can’t hold us here.” Nolan piped up, coming to Eli’s aid. Eli turned and looked at Nolan, surprised he was going to stick his neck out for anyone, let alone him.

  “My orders are to keep you here and see who is infected. If people turn, then I am to put them down as quickly and quietly as possible. Then call for back up.” The last sentence seemed to only just then register with the guard. He fiddled with a radio attached to hi
s belt loop. It fell to the floor, making a clatter that sounded like plastic breaking. The guard bent down to retrieve his radio and follow through with his orders.

  “Stop.”

  The sternness in Eli’s voice surprised even him. He moved his gun from the dead woman to the guard. “Don’t call for back up.”

  “I-I-I-I have to.” The young guard, who couldn’t have been much older than Eli, began to stammer worse seeing the slick, black barrel of a gun being pointed directly at him.

  “No, you don’t. And you shouldn’t.” Nolan said, his voice quiet and intense.

  “I don’t know how many of these people plan to stay locked down here with people who could be infected, but we’re not. I am not risking my life or the lives of my friends when we know we aren’t infected. We can’t just sit here and wait for others to turn.”

  “Once someone is infected they turn into a being that is not responsible for their actions. Their mind is taken over by the virus and focuses them towards their one objective, to kill and feed. They must be eliminated before they infect any other human beings.” The guard sounded like he was quoting someone else. He didn’t stutter or stammer out the words. He had to have memorized the answer, assuming he would be asked it in the future.

  “So it’s a virus doing this?” Nolan asked.

  Apparently, that was the only answer the guard had memorized because it took him a full thirty seconds to stumble through his next answer. “They don’t know, they think so. No one knows. They can’t be sure.”

  Nolan felt bad for the kid. He shouldn’t have a gun or be in charge of anyone or anything. Some people just weren’t made for this kind of thing, and clearly this kid was made for a comfy life of video games and pizza pockets, not the end of the world filled with zombie warfare. Unless zombies were coming at him from the safety of a screen while he sat on a couch with his buddies, this guy was not killing them.

  “Do they call them zombies?”

  The guard looked up at him, the light catching his blonde hair, making him look even younger. “No, but that is totally what they are, right? I mean these things are straight out of Left 4 Dead. It's exactly like the game… only…” His voices stopped.

  “Only what?” Nolan pushed.

  “They’re harder to shoot. It's harder to look someone in the eye, someone who you saw alive as a person only a few minutes ago, and shoot them in the head.” Nolan noticed a sadness in the guard’s gray eyes. It was something he’d seen before, in his own eyes in the mirror some mornings. Something in him softened towards the guard.

  “What’s your name man?”

  “Luke.”

  Nolan reached out a hand and offered it to Luke. He pulled him to his feet and then turned to Eli. “He’s not going to call anyone man, let’s just get out of here.” Eli nodded.

  “Luke, how can we get out of here?”

  His eyebrows crinkled as he thought about it. His hand went under his chin and he was lost in thought.

  “You could get out with an escort, up through the stairs and then out the doors, but you would have to have a good reason for leaving. If we got stopped and they asked why you were being escorted, you would have to have a full proof reason for leaving. I haven’t seen them let anyone leave. If you’re not infected you stay upstairs and if you’re infected…”

  “Okay,” Nolan said, a small smug smile on his face. “We just need a fool proof excuse for why a bunch of seemingly healthy people want to leave the only safe place around. This should be easy.”

  The crowd around them, up to now who had been watching the drama unfold, had turned to their own groups to come up with a decision. Eli was sure some of them would stay, but he also knew that some would want to leave as well. He didn’t know how they were going to get out and in a way he felt responsible for them. He couldn’t just leave with his friends and let the rest of them stay there to be infected. No one knew if there were others in the room that could turn at any second.

  “What about a distraction?” Rion said. Eli hadn’t noticed in the commotion that she had managed to pull herself up and waddle over to him. Emmy’s hand was tight in Rion’s as they both stood close to him.

  “A distraction?” Eli didn’t see what she was getting at.

  “Yeah, there has to be a back entrance to this place, maybe through the emergency room or something? If we can just distract the guards away from that area, then anyone that wants to leave can go out that way.”

  “It’s not a bad idea.” Nolan sounded on board, but the details had to be worked out.

  “Luke, do you know if there is a door they don’t guard, or that maybe isn’t guarded as much?”

  Luke didn’t answer. His skin had gone pale. Eli had just assumed he was nervous about going against the other guards, but this was different. Luke crumpled to the ground, his arms and limbs betraying him and letting him fall flat to the concrete. Then a woman began screaming. The sound cooled Eli’s blood and in an instant, he knew what was happening.

  More people we’re turning.

  They didn’t have time to work out a plan of action that would work. They didn’t even have time to work out a way to help the other people. It was now or never, and Eli wasn’t going to wait around to see if it was going to be never. He pointed the gun downward and unloaded a shot directly into Luke’s head, hoping it would put him out of his misery. He didn’t want Luke to turn if he didn’t have to. Eli placed the gun in the waist band of his jeans.

  “Towards the door, let's go.” Eli began moving Rion and Emmy towards the door, but Nolan bent down next to Luke and wasn’t moving. “NOLAN!” Eli shouted, doing his best to guard the girls against the crowd that was now running towards the only exit.

  “We’re gonna need the key,” Nolan said, holding up a set of keys he took from Luke’s motionless body. Eli grinned, thankful for the first time that Nolan was with them. He hadn’t even thought about the key. Even in their panic, the crowd around knew that Eli and his friends were the only people who could open the door. They let the kids through, knowing they were the only hope.

  Nolan fiddled with a few keys before finding the right one and pushing the door open. Eli helped Rion climb the stairs and Nolan did the same for Emmy. Others were pushing past them, but they moved as quickly as they could. Eli would have thought that Nolan would leave him with the girls, abandoning them all to save himself, but he didn’t. Instead, he scooped Emmy up in his arms and carried her up the stairs. There was a noticeable limp in Nolan’s steps. Blood stained his pants. In all the commotion of putting together a plan Eli had forgotten that Nolan had been shot.

  “You can do this.” He said to Rion, “You’re doing great.” Sweat dripped down her face and Rion moved her swollen feet as quickly as she could. She smiled but didn’t seem convinced. More people pushed past them, getting rougher as they moved closer to the exit. The people who had waited for them to open the door and save their lives turned into something different now. It was every man for themselves. Eli was angered by that. They didn’t have to do anything for those people, yet they were trying to come up with a plan to get everyone out. He shook the anger from his mind and focused on Rion. She had slowed way down, but there were only a few steps left.

  Screams broke out in the crowd below them. Eli imagined that more were turning and beginning to feed. He urged them all to move faster. He wished he could pick Rion up as Nolan had with Emmy, but he couldn’t. She would have to do this herself and Eli would have to protect her. The door to the entryway was in sight. Just ten more steps and they could look for Drew and Kimber and get out of here. Eli turned to look at Nolan beside him, but when he did, he wasn’t there. Rion had noticed too.

  “Emmy? Where are they?” She asked Eli. He looked around, wondering if they had moved on ahead of them. No, Nolan had been keeping pace with them, they were staying together, helping Rion. Then they had to be behind them. Eli whipped around and surveyed the stairs. He couldn’t make out Nolan in the moving crowd, but that didn�
�t mean he hadn’t fallen or been pushed down.

  A little girl screamed.

  Rion’s worst nightmare flashed in front of her eyes. She clutched onto Eli. “That is Emmy. I can hear her. She’s screaming.”

  Eli put both hands on Rion’s face. “Stay here. Don’t move.” Eli bounded down the steps towards the sound of Emmy’s shrieks. He was like a salmon swimming upstream, fighting his way into a current, clearly going the wrong way. People got in his way, but he pushed them away with all his might. He had to get to Emmy and Nolan.

  The little girl with the silky blonde hair was still beside Nolan when Eli found them. A man was pulling an infected off of Nolan, who had been wrestling it away from Emmy. Thankfully, it wasn’t Luke, but it was a man, who was strong and had arms the size of Eli’s leg. His hands reached for the gun that he had placed in the waistband of his jeans. It felt like old hat now, pulling the trigger and shooting another infected. It dropped instantly, which surprised Eli each time. The man helped pull Nolan up to his feet.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m good. It got me by the ankle, there was no way I wasn’t going down.” Nolan picked Emmy up again and began to move back up the stairs. Eli followed up behind them. He cast one last look over his shoulder and saw more infected moving their way. They were multiplying at a rate much faster than he would have ever expected. How were people getting bit and turning this quickly? It didn’t make any sense to him. Without another thought, Eli began to unload the gun. He let out three shots, taking down three infected. Going for a fourth, the gun clicked. Empty. Eli dropped the gun to the floor and ran up the steps to catch up with his group. Rion was grateful to have Emmy back with them, but there was no time to celebrate.

  “We have to move. Through the door, NOW!”

  They burst through the door, the last ones to make it out of the basement alive and uninfected.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Kimber and Drew both scrambled to get dressed as quickly as they could. The nurse looked out the door to make sure the hallway was clear and then led the girls out of the exam room. Patients were lined up against the walls in the hallway. The air didn’t smell like a typical hospital anymore. The sterile smell Kimber had always associated with hospitals was gone, replaced by the smell that comes from a crowd of people. The musty, sweaty, and almost suffocatingly thick air hung in the hallway. Three guards walked by dress in uniform. Kimber grabbed Drew’s hand as they walked past it. Drew looked at her, a calm expression on her face and in her eyes. She was silently reassuring Kimber that they were going to be okay. Kimber half expected the guards to stop them, to ask where they were going, but no one bothered them. The nurse turned a corner and lead them to the stairwell.