by White, A. L.
“Good to see you finally awake again,” a voice addressed Bob as he pushed the Lads off of him the best he could.
There was the little girl. Seeing she was ok warmed his heart and eased the tension in his shoulders.
She squeezed her way in between Zeus and Perseus and gave him a long hug. Then she backed up, smiled and walked away. “Bob is up.” That bought others out.
Two more figures came down the tiny hallway. He recognized them both; Lori and the woman he’d just met. He returned their smiles with a somewhat painful one of his own.
“How is the young fella doing?”
The older woman, Bob couldn’t remember her name, responded, “Not very good I am afraid.”
Bob thought how bad his leg looked and he knew there wasn’t anything in the first aid supplies that could do much with an injury that severe.
Lori somehow got the Lads to leave the area and to sit down by Virginia in the front of the RV. She reached out and held Bob’s hand. It made him feel like he was dying—and they were about to deliver the bad news. Still, he did feel good having the two girls around. For a while there he had thought that the last thing he would see would be those damn ugly bastards and the cab of his truck. It wasn’t exactly the kind of end he had imagined for himself.
“While you were out, Virginia and I moved all the supplies from the back of the truck into the trailer and on top of the RV,” Lori informed him.
“Not a bad idea. We don’t want to ditch the truck if that was what you were thinking.”
She took that as an insult but did her best to hide it from Bob. “I know,” she replied.
Julie interjected herself into the conversation. “I need to take Jack into the medical wing of the building, if we can. There is nothing I can do for him, or you, out here. In there we can find medical and surgical supplies.”
“You know your way around in there?”
“Yeah, used to work there.”
“Have any idea what we might run into in there?” From Julie’s reaction Bob could tell she did not like thinking about it. He let that go, for the moment. “How are you planning on getting us all in there?”
Julie leaned against the cabinet opposite Bob. “The med wing was segregated from the rest. If it isn’t already closed, it can be closed off from the rest of the building easily. I think they thought that would be the only area that could allow a breach.”
“That where you were when all hell broke loose?”
She nodded. “I am the only survivor as far as I know from this facility,” she replied her eyes dropping to the floor.
“If you’re the only survivor, we can assume that it’s not closed off now.”
Lori agreed with Bob, it had to be somehow opened to the rest of the facility or survivors should have holed up in there.
“We need what is in there to keep you and Jack alive. You may have had a heart attack this morning and you both need your wounds cleaned and dressed followed by antibiotics.”
They could both see Bob was in pain and that his mind was going over everything Julie had just said. Finally, he looked up with a growing look of concern. “It will have to be done in three steps just to be safe.” He waited for either of them to say something, when neither did he continued, “You two take the truck and drive around the building at a safe enough distance so you can see if anything comes out after you. Make sure you’ve got enough distance to have time to get the Hell out of there, but close enough so you can find a safe place to move the truck and RV close to us when we go in. By safe, I mean if the shit hits the fan we can get to them with little or no problems.”
That’s the first step; once you’ve found that safe spot you will drive back here just as you drove in, going nice and slow not attracting any attention to you. Step two we will, very cautiously, move the RV and truck to the safe spot. That’s the easy part; step three is going to take everything you have in you to pull it off.”
“Step three is?” Lori asked impatiently.
Bob took a long shallow breath before he went on. “For obvious reasons the young fella and I are going to be sidelined. You three will have to go in with the Lads and…”
“Virginia will have to stay here in the RV with you!” Lori demanded.
Julie agreed wholeheartedly. “I have seen what can happen in that building; it’s no place for a little girl!”
“Maybe, maybe not. I have seen how she handles herself and that bow. You need her and the Lads in there. I ain’t happy to say it but there it is. You need a third person watching your back and the fella and I, we aren’t able to be it.”
As much as she would prefer her baby sister to stay in the RV and safe, Lori could not deny that Virginia did manage to keep her cool remarkably well despite the dangers. She had done well when they went out looking for their brother. Lori closed her eyes not wanting to think about him. Virginia was just a kid and Lori didn’t want to make her face what was out there—but Virginia hadn’t frozen up when they were getting the RV, and if not for her, Lori knew she and Bob would be dead. The other woman, Julie, Lori didn’t know what to think about her. She at least knew Virginia was damn good shot with her crossbow.
“He is right, we need Virginia with us,” was all she could bring herself to say as she turned away from them and walked the length of the RV
“The Lads will lead the way and keep you as safe as they can. If they don’t want to enter a room or area, you don’t want to either. You understand what I am saying miss?”
Julie shook her head and replied, “We need to get started, Jack doesn’t have much time.” She pulled out a pistol and held the butt toward Bob. “Can you show me how to shoot this?”
Bob laughed and then smiled at her. “Not today—you want to be as quiet as church mice while you’re in there. Let the Lads and the girls with their bows take care of anything that comes up. You fire this here pistol and you will send a lunch invitation to every zombie that hears it.”
Bob got up with some struggle and obvious pain. He made his way through the RV to Jack, leaning down and whispering something in his ear. Lori and Julie didn’t know what Bob had said but whatever it was got him sitting up on his own. They helped him set up at a small table, able to keep a watch on the area behind the RV. Bob then set himself up in the passenger seat up front where he could keep an eye on the entrance the ladies would be using to enter the building.
Virginia gave Bob a long goodbye hug and took the Lads out to the truck where all three climbed into the bed. Lori started to say something and then decided not to continue. She almost believed that if she said goodbye something bad would happen. Julie must have felt the same way because she just walked out behind Lori without a word to Bob or Jack.
The first two steps had gone relatively smoothly aside from the heavy presence of tension. They had found the dock where ambulances delivered the live specimens to the medical wing. It was surrounded by a fence with the gate still intact. There was enough room to fit both the truck and RV inside the enclosure, even if Bob was likely to think it was a little too tight a fit. There wasn’t a lot of room to maneuver around the vehicles, but it seemed safe.
Lori thought she was on edge while scouting and moving to the enclosure. She hadn’t had time to think about going into the building. After Bob insisted on having his AR15 and all the ammo they could stack within reach brought to him, Lori felt the real weight of the tension bear down on her. She could see it in Julie as well; her movements and facial expression were that of a person moving forward to certain death. Virginia wasn’t fazed at all. Ever since the world had changed her little sister—the little girl, had been replaced by this “new” Virginia. There wasn’t time to think about it; they had to go inside of that place, and it looked scarier by the minute.
Virginia opened the door of the RV. “Zeus, Perseus, lead!”
The large dogs scrambled out the door and smelled all around the vehicles. Only when Virginia saw them sit in front of the RV did she say nod to Lori and J
ulie.
“Let’s go, its time.” She said, then climbed out of the RV, moving toward the dogs. Lori and Julie paused for a minute, as if they were trying to find a reason not to go, or maybe remind themselves of why they had to.
“Good luck and be safe. Don’t worry too much about the little one. The Lads will take care of her and you.”
Bob’s words didn’t help much but they did get them moving. Slowly they made their way to the dogs and joined Virginia. They all moved forward to the door with the Lads leading a few feet ahead. Zeus constantly sniffed the air for traces of danger, then looked back to see where Virginia was.
At the door, Julie opened it a crack and peeked in. Satisfied that there were no signs of movement, she pulled it all the way open and stepped tentatively inside. Perseus stepped in front of her, blocking her with his body and pushing backwards. Zeus came between them and the door and stared in, looking like he was going to pounce on something any minute. He then went through the doorway and Perseus followed.
Everything looked in place, nothing like the section where Julie had fought for her life not so long ago. Zeus and Perseus seemed to take particular interest in a section of the floor, concentrating their attention and sniffing efforts. As Julie drew closer to the dogs she noticed they were sniffing what appeared to be dried spots of blood. The spots were few and scattered at first but she could see they became larger and more clustered together further down the hall. Shreds of viscera and a severed arm lay against the wall not much beyond their position.
Julie motioned up a corridor that went off to the west and began to move toward it. Virginia grabbed her arm, halting her, and snapped a finger. Hearing the sounds, the Lads switched directions and headed down the corridor. The women cautiously followed. After a few minutes it became obvious why Julie wanted to go that way. At the end of the hallways was a large set of double metal doors that were wide open. Julie pointed and whispered, “That’s the only way to get from this wing to the other wings. We should close the doors if we can.”
Lori and Virginia nodded yes and moved toward the doors. There were half eaten corpses blocking the left door, and the right was soaked in blood. The Lads were paying no attention to the bodies, a sign Lori and Virginia took to mean they were really dead and of no danger. Virginia went to the right door and started pulling it closed while Julie and Lori went to the left side. They tried to pull the door shut without shifting the corpses at its base. It did not move. Virginia shot the two women an impatient look.
Lori bent down and reluctantly took hold of the first body, pausing to see if there was any reaction from the Lads. Seeing none, she continued, fighting back the urge to vomit from the smell and sounds the body made as she dragged it across the floor. Once everything was cleared, she and Julie pulled the door to meet up with the other. At the very end the door seemed to stick, and Julie’s face went pale.
“What is it?” Lori asked.
Julie’s mind was all over the place. It was an old building and some of the old doors needed to be slammed to be shut. Bob had urged them to make no noise, “be quiet as church mice,” he’d said. In her rush to make sure that nothing could get in there from the rest of the building, they hadn't searched the rest of the wing. If they slammed the door and something was in there it would surely be drawn to the sound-possibly blocking off their route back to the outside. She stepped back and raised her hands to her face; it was too much to deal with.
Lori moved to her and patted her on the shoulder, repeating, “What is it Julie?”
Virginia didn’t like what she saw and stepped up to the right door, calmly looking it over. When she had seen enough and made her decision, she motioned up the hall to the dogs. They took their place on the opposite side of Lori and Julie, keeping a watchful eye on the hallway behind them. Virginia opened the door about a foot and then put all eighty-five pounds of her body behind one hard push on the metal door. With a thunderous smack it closed and latched.
Julie and Lori looked as if someone had just handed them a death sentence. Virginia seemed unfazed. She moved up to the Lads and loaded her crossbow with an arrow. “Zeus, Perseus, find.”
The dogs were off sniffing inside every open door in front of them. Only when they moved to the next door in line did Virginia move forward.
When they were nearly at the end, the hair on the back of Zeus stood up and he hunched down, releasing a low growl. Perseus moved up beside him and mimicked. There was no question that something was in the main hall.
Virginia moved up and fired an arrow, striking a zombie in the eye. Then a second and third.
She glanced back at Lori. “A little help please,” she asked with an eerie calm, as though she was asking Lori to go for a walk with her.
Lori stepped up, still safely behind the dogs, and began picking her targets. When the last one that they could see fell motionless Virginia repeated her command to the dogs to go and find. Both went their own way into the hall and returned in a few minutes giving the all clear.
Julie made her way past them and went to the medical lab and paused at the door. Zeus crooked his head looking at her and then got up and trotted into the room. It was safe for them to enter.
“Let’s get them in here so I can get started.”
Chapter 8
They brought Jack in first and Julie went right to work on his leg. She cut his pant leg out of her way and started to clean the wound properly for the first time, pouring peroxide directly into it. She didn’t notice any signs of infection. Gripping both ends at the break, she forced the bone back together. Grabbing the splint she had prepared, she placed it carefully on the leg, rendering it immovable. She then picked up a threaded curved needle she had prepped and stitched the wound closed, placing a thick gauze bandage over it. She affixed the wrapping with tape.
Bob was next. He laid in the hospital bed next over from Jack, his eyes wide as saucers. Watching Julie work had left him speechless until she made her way to his bed, pulling the stethoscope from around her neck. Bob waved her off and looked away from her as if not seeing her meant she wasn’t there. Julie ignored him, and placed the cold end inside his flannel shirt, listening to his heart.
“Nothing wrong with me, young lady. I am old and a little tired is all.”
Julie was concentrating on his heartbeat and ignoring him. In ordinary circumstances she would have moved Bob to the intensive care unit and kept him there for observation. What she wouldn’t give for the tests she once would have been able to run. All she really had at that moment were the symptoms she could see—or get Bob to admit to. She was certain he wasn’t being forthcoming about them all.
“Any dizziness?”
“No more than usual. I get winded easily and then dizzy.”
“Have you felt overly fatigued?” Julie asked, “Weak?”
“Well, I am three days older than dirt and took on a bunch of dead creatures, stabbing myself in the leg in the process.”
Julie smiled at him. “Bob, I am not the enemy and we need you. I need to know what I am treating if I am going to be able to help you stick around a little longer.”
Behind her she heard the dogs panting. She turned and found the lads and Virginia standing there. Julie smiled and started to give a report on her patients when she noticed Virginia pointing to the windows. Her gaze followed Virginia’s direction and she saw what had captured the little girl’s attention. She wondered how she failed to notice before.
There, at the window, were the makings of a large herd of zombies; dozens of dead decaying eyes staring blankly back at her. Julie turned back to say something, but the lads and Virginia were gone. She thought to go after them, but she needed to tend to Bob and rest—and the zombies were outside. Closing her eyes for a few seconds, she was startled by Lori’s voice and jumped, causing the herd outside to move closer to the windows.
“Can they move?” Lori asked as she came into the surgical room.
“They shouldn’t be moved for a day or two.”
“You have seen that, right?”
“Yes, Virginia brought them to my attention. We are safe in here thank God.”
Lori shook her head violently and replied, “Here is not the problem. Follow me, please.”
Julie followed her to the door that led to the enclosure holding the truck and RV. Lori paused before pulling the door opened and said, “Get yourself ready for what you are about to see. No screams, no sudden movements, and for heaven’s sake don’t wig out on me.”
She pushed the door open slowly and let Julie take in the reality of their situation.
The enclosure was surrounded by what had to be hundreds of them—maybe more than a thousand. The cyclone fence was bulging inward in some places, groaning under the mass weight pushing forward.
Julie wanted to scream and find another place to hide until it all went away. There was no hiding for her there, only death, and she knew that as sure as Lori did. It took every bit of will power to keep up a calm demeanor, to not scream, and most of all not find a way to just end her life right then and there.
“Beep, beep!” Virginia said from behind them just loud enough to be heard. Once again she had assessed the situation and acted while the others were staring death in the face filled with indecision. She had Bob in a wheelchair waiting to go through the doorway.
Lori smiled at her and took over the pushing. “Get the other one you two and let’s get out of here.”
Julie and Virginia went back to get Jack while Lori slowly got to the door of the RV and helped Bob up. He was a little stronger and that was a good thing for them both. Ordinarily there was no way she could get him up into the RV by herself. She focused on Bob and the job at hand, not letting herself see, or even think of, the mass death trying to get her. It worked. She had Bob sitting at the table with a big smile just in time to help the others get Jack inside. That was a little harder.
Jack was drugged up and the leg didn’t bend with the splint on but the three somehow muscled him up and to the bed in the back. They all sat looking at each other for a few minutes but not seeing anyone. Exhaustion was starting to run its course. Bob broke up the self-pity party.
