“Well, let us just say rank dos not have much to do with anything anymore.” Nicholas shrugged as he dropped my hand and answered me. He began to say something else, but Wall interrupted him.
“We’ll get to that in time. First I want to show you something.”
Wall reached over and took my shoulder, leading me over to the window. It was then that I noticed a small door in the boarding. He stepped up and slid it to the side, then stepped back and waved me forward. I looked from him to the small opening questioningly, and then moved to place my eye to the hole. My one eye widened and a gasp tore itself from my chest at what I saw.
I was looking south, that much I realized. There was a building directly across from the window, and I recognized it almost instantly. The real name eluded me, but most from my home town just referred to it as the “800” building. I glanced to the left and could see the Polyclinic across the street from it. Well, let me rephrase that. I could see the ruins of both of those buildings. The 800 building seemed structurally sound, just damaged by a fire or something of that sort. The Polyclinic, on the other hand, was destroyed. Pieces of rubble were scattered all around it, some still smoldering from some recent catastrophe.
What drew my attention the most, though, were the people. Thousands of them were outside the hospital, some milling about, others simply standing statue-still, staring at the hospital. Twilight was approaching, and due to the failing light, I couldn’t focus my eyes well enough to see any of them clearly. I knew something was wrong though, for I could hear low moans and strange noises wafting up to my ears.
Then, there was the undeniable smell of death also.
“What the fuck?” I asked, still staring out the peep hole.
“Indeed.” That was the response I got, Dr. Mc Layton’s voice the one issuing the statement.
When I turned away from the window, I saw that the doctor had entered the room, along with the young twins that I had had the unfortunate run-in with earlier. Another man, dressed all in black, and fairly clean cut for the situation, stood in the doorway, leaning on the doorjamb and smoking a cigarette. Upon seeing that, my cravings for a smoke hit hard, and I pushed past and walked up to him.
“Eddy,” I introduced myself and put my hand forward to shake his. “And I hate to ask, but can I get one of those from you?”
“Sure.” He said, and laughed. He pulled out a pack and shook one out into my hand. “Hey Wall, can you believe this? The worlds ending, and all he wants is a smoke.”
“To each his own,” the big man said. “You want to sit down Eddy? We all really need to talk.”
I moved over and took a seat on a crate next to the largest desk in the room. Wall and the Mc Layton sat across from me, while the twins sat on the floor. Nicholas took a position looking out the window, and the new mystery man stayed by the door, watching us all.
“So what’s this “big news” you’re so intent on telling me about.” I asked Wall, settling back and taking a long draw off the cigarette. “I’m guessing it’s about why Danville looks like a war zone, and hopefully explaining why I seem to be stuck in this place and can’t get back to my family.”
Wall sighed one more, then placed his hands on the desk and began speaking.
12.
“Back in July,” Wall began, pulling a bottle of whisky out of a drawer, “there was an accident at the Newport Chemical Depot.”
“An accident hell, it was pure sabotage.” The stranger said sarcastically. Wall ignored him.
“There was an explosion, and something very bad happened.
“Everyone in this area knows that the depot was used to house the countries, possibly the worlds, worst chemical and biological weapons. What most didn’t realize was that the government was still running experiments at the facility.”
I started to ask a question, but he simply waved his hand, than continued.
“These experiments were led by a renowned bio-chemist. His job was to create a way to subdue a countries populace without killing them.
“Imagine, Eddy. We could have fought whole wars without firing a single shot. The enemy would have just sat down and allowed us to take control. No resistance of any kind.
“And the man succeeded.”
“So what happened?” I asked as the big man paused for a moment.
“The government got greedy.” Mc Layton replied.
“Correct,” Wall nodded his head. “I was stationed at Newport, nothing but a lowly guard. I spent my days in a small shack, making sure no civilian came onto the property. I had heard rumors of what was going on inside, but after being there for almost six years; I could count the times I had been inside the facility on one hand. The last time is something I will never forget.
“I had been on duty for only a couple of hours when a general call came over the radio for all soldiers to report to the center grounds for a briefing. Hundreds of us were there, milling about and talking, wondering what was going on. Then a man walked up to the dais in front of us and began speaking.
“It was Secretary of Defense Hagel. I was excited at first, he was the closest thing to a celebrity I had ever been around. But the more he talked, the more appalled I became at his words.
“He told us that President Obama wanted to make this a military state. For our own protection, of course, but that he was worried the transition would not be easy. So to facilitate the change, the government had developed a serum to make the populace docile. We were going to be tasked with loading the substance onto trucks tomorrow so it could be taken to locations throughout the U.S. They were going to put it into the water supply. The plan was that the citizens would just roll over and hand their weapons to the military, that you all would just be happy for the take over.
“They couldn’t have been more wrong.
“I wasn’t there when the accident happened though. After the briefing, I went back to my post, but the more I thought about what was going to happen, the sicker I got. I eventually decided that I could not be any part of it, and that I had to get back to my family, who lived right here in Danville. I abandoned my post, finding some nice farmer along the road who was nice enough to bring me into town.”
Wall fell quiet. Darkness had fallen over his face, and I saw tears form in his eyes. With a shuddering breath he wiped his face clean. Mc Layton placed her hand on his shoulder.
“It’s all right mate,” she said quietly. “Give yerself a minute.”
“Wait,” I said, slightly perplexed. “I remember hearing about the explosion at the depot. I vaguely remember my daughter showing me a news reel about it also. The reporter said she had proof that we were all in danger. That the accident released something bad.”
“Yeah,” Wall said after a moment. “It did. I saw that same news cast. The military shot the reporter and the soldier that was her source. But I’m getting a little ahead of myself.
“When the explosion happened, something unfortold happened. The serum the bio-chemist engineered bonded on a molecular level with other chemical and biological agents housed there. These included, but were defiantly not limited to, VX, Ebola, and Smallpox. The combined substance became something new. Something far worse than anything anyone had ever imagined.
“I was at my mother’s house when the marines finally found me, mere days after the explosion. I was sure that I was going to be taken into custody, but I wasn’t. They just stuck a gun into my hands and ordered me to follow them.
“I was taken back to Newport, but the situation had changed. I was informed that the explosion had taken the lives of one hundred people. The bad part was that they didn’t stay dead.”
My jaw dropped open. I couldn’t think of anything to say for a few moments, so I just stared at Wall.
“That was my reaction when I first heard.” He continued. “Then I saw them. Soldiers, some of them friends of mine, could be seen through the fence, milling about. Most looked like they were just drunk, kind of stumbling around aimlessly. But then there were th
e others. They were the ones that made this nightmare reality for me.”
“Hold on a fucking second!” I blurted out. “Are you telling me that those people out there are dead?”
“Well,” the man in the doorway said, “Dead in the sense that they died. Then they got up and started walking around again.”
I started laughing hysterically then. This had to be a dream. None of this could be real.
“So you are all telling me that the world has been overrun by what, zombies?” The sound of the statement sounded ludicrous coming out of my mouth, and I was still chuckling as I looked at each person in the room.
No one else was laughing.
“Yes I am.” Wall stated.
“Aye mate.” Mc Layton said.
“Wish we weren’t.” the twins said together.
I fainted.
13.
When I woke, it was just me and the strange man in the room. I sat up slowly, my head swimming with the thought that my kids were right. The world was actually being destroyed by a zombie apocalypse.
“Want a drink man?” the guy asked me.
“Yes I do, badly, and thank you.”
I reached out and took hold of the glass. The whiskey inside of it burned my throat as it went down. I winced and shook my head, but held the glass out for more. With a chuckle, the man took it and refilled it. He handed me another cigarette when he passed the glass back. I lit it and downed the second drink as quick as the first.
“Better?” he asked me.
“No.” I replied, shaking my head. “I’m not dreaming, am I?”
“Wish that you were.” He said. “Wish we all were.”
I tried to get my head wrapped around all the information Wall had given me. I couldn’t believe it. It seemed like yesterday I was out looking for my dog, and now I’ve woken up into a nightmare of a world. And where was my family in all this? Were they even safe? Then something else dawned on me.
“What’s your name man?” I asked the guy sitting across from me.
“Wondered how long it would take you to ask. It’s Alec. I’d tell you my last name, but they don’t seem to matter anymore.”
“What do you mean?” I queried.
He answered with nothing more than a slight tilt of his head and a raised eyebrow. He poured himself a drink, and then downed it as quick as I had. He gave a little cough, than sat back.
“Not to subtle is it?” he asked, pointing towards the bottle. “It does the trick though.
“Now I’m sure you have plenty of questions, and while I can’t promise you all the answers you seek, I promise I’ll do my best.”
I thought a moment, for many came to mind, but only one was dominate.
“How do I get out of here?”
Alec looked at me, surprise in his face. It was obvious that that was not the question he was suspecting. He sat thinking for a moment, like he was deciding on his words carefully, and when he spoke next, he spoke slowly.
“Getting out of the hospital will be difficult for many reasons. First off, there’s Wall and his “soldiers”. Nothing more than armed thugs for the most part, save for a couple of them, including Wall himself. They’ve been instructed to allow no one off of the floor unless under strict orders from Wall or Doc Mc Layton themselves.
“Second, there’s the dead. They’ve completely overrun the ground floor, and are starting to make their way upwards. And the slow ones are the least of your problems. You remember seeing any just standing stone-still when you looked outside?”
“Yeah I did, why?” I asked him.
“Those we call the ravenous. They’ll stand like that for hours, sometimes days, without moving. But then one will catch wind of you, and trust when I say their sense of smell is just as good as any bloodhound ever alive. That’s when they’ll attack. We aren’t to sure how or why they came to be, but they are fast. Trust that they are much faster than they ever were in life, and as mean as a pit-bull on your pants leg. But the worst part is their roar. Others can hear that sound for miles, both dead and ravenous. That roar brings more, and that’s when you’re pretty much fucked.”
Memories of the man on the tracks flowed into my mind. He must have been on of them, one of the ravenous. I was lucky to be alive after the brief run in I had with it. I could imagine what a world full of them creatures would be like.
“Then, of course, there’s the last part.” Alec said a strange smile on his lips.
“And what’s that?” I asked, helping myself to another of his cigarettes.
“You’re the last.” He said bluntly.
“Excuse me?” I coughed out, for the comment had taken me by quite a bit of surprise.
“Well, you see,” Alec began, “you are special. I was here when you were brought in, and been here ever since. You’re unique, Eddy, in the sense that we haven’t had to kill you yet. We may not ever have to also, much to your relief probably.”
“What do you mean Alec? I don’t remember being brought in, much less what truly happened to get me here to begin with.”
“Let me start slowly for you.” Alec leaned back against the wall. “See, the virus, or whatever it is, is transmitted two ways. One is by bite. If the dead or the ravenous bite you and you die from it, but are unfortunate enough to not be completely eaten, you come back as a dead-head. Time is different depending on person, but it seems that the faster a person’s metabolism, the faster they come back.
“The second is exclusive to the ravenous. See, something about how the virus, for lack of a better word, reacts to the person to create one, also makes them vomit. I mean a lot. Occasionally, once they have hold of their prey, they begin to puke up this blackish ichor on them. If the person is unlucky enough to get some of that in their eyes, or mouth, or some open wound, then they become one of the ravenous. Now that transformation takes only seconds, no matter whom you are.
“The ravenous know once you are infected also. They sense it somehow, and the moment you are, they release you and go looking for their next meal.”
He gave me a moment to process all that information before beginning again.
“I was here with my wife and son when you were brought in. Hell had already erupted on the streets, and at that point I thought that it was just some sort of riot. My wife had gotten bit by a guy that had broken into our house the night before, and that morning, she was delirious and running an extreme fever. So I brought her here.
“I wish now that I hadn’t.
“The Emergency room was packed. There were so many people that some were sitting on the floors and in the halls. The doctors were running around like crazy, and there were already police and military here also. They took my wife to a room, but refused to allow me to go back also. I was sitting by the doors when you came in.
“At the time I didn’t know what was covering you, but now I know it was the ravenous vomit. There was plenty of blood also. A couple of hunters had drug you in, one coming himself anyways from a bite. They said they had found you unconscious in a drainage pipe not to far from here, and it appeared that you had fallen through the top of it. There was a group of dead trying to break through the grate at the pipe’s end. They killed the dead-heads, and one of them just happened to noticed you inside by chance. You had a large chunk of metal lodged into the left side of your face, which you know the result of.
“But regardless, you were stable. This was lucky for you. They checked you over right there, and then sent you up here I’m guessing so you could have the metal dislodged. Shortly after, chaos erupted in the E.R.., and a few of us barely escaped.
“Other than that, you see the result.”
“I don’t understand,” I said to him, “what exactly happened. How did all of you end up stuck up here?”
The story Alec had told me seemed to be hard for him, and my usually inquisitive mind decided that it was probably a good idea not to ask him anymore about his family. I still needed answers though, and I needed to know if he could help me g
et out of here. I had to find my family.
I had to get home.
“We came up here a few at a time. “ Alec continued after a few moments. “There were a few of us here already. The twins, Tim and Sam, were here visiting their mom. She had been here ever since she had gotten hit by a drunk driver while walking home from work. Wall got stationed here when the outbreak first started, and Doc worked here. Most of the others were either already in the hospital somewhere, or came here later, before the dead swarmed the place.
“So why, if I may ask, are you so intent to get out of here?”
“My family,” I answered, short, straight to the point.
Alec lowered his head and said nothing more for a few moments. When he did again, there was a conviction in his voice and a fire in his eyes I had yet ever seen in the man.
“Show me on the map where they were.”
Alec led me over to the largest desk in the room, which in turn was covered in papers. Folded up surveyors’ maps, smaller ones printed off the internet, and multiple hand-written notes. He rummaged through it all for a moment, and finally pulled out a large map of Vermillion County. The map had several marks on it; large red “x”s and smaller red dots littered the area. I looked at it for only a second, getting my bearings on directions, and placed the tip of my finger down on it, almost on top of one of the red marks.
“What does this mean?” I asked Alec. He looked and then began to speak.
“The big crosses are places that we have been to, areas we have looked for supplies, etc. The dots are other buildings, houses, shed, etc. that we have encountered dead at. Why?”
“That is a nursing home called Colonial Manor.” I explained to him, once more pointing to the large red X. “My home is right across the street from it.”
He pulled the map closer to him, studying it intently for a few moments. Finally he seemed to see what he wanted, for he nodded and straightened up. He looked at me, and reached his hand out, placing it on my shoulder.
My Apocalypse (Book 1): The Fall Page 4
