Road to Grissom: Part three of the Aftermath series

by Duncan McArdle

  “I don’t miss being apart from my daughter”, John began, “But I miss the people there, Andrew, Sonja and Lester, they were important to me”.

  “When are they coming over?”, Danny asked.

  “Sooner the better”, John replied, “But I don’t think Sonja and Lester are in a rush. They built that place up from a group of helpless old ladies to a self-sufficient survivalist paradise. I wouldn’t want to leave either”.

  “What about Andrew?”, Danny said, continuing with his line of questioning.

  “Andrew’s smart, too smart to think he can leave without the place falling apart, but too smart to think he’ll survive forever if he stays”, John replied, “I don’t know what he’s planning on doing, but I hope to god he gets over here soon, we could do with him”.

  “We’re doing alright as we are aren’t we?”, Danny asked, “What makes you think we need more people?”.

  John smirked. The idea of forever increasing the population of Downtown Chicago was a flawed one. The more people that came in, the harder they were to look after, and the worse any breach would become. But he also knew that the problems the camp faced right now were bad ones, and that every ounce of power – both in the forms of arms and brains – would be a welcome addition.

  “Right now, we’re out looking for a group of assholes that killed one of our own”, John began, “We’re keeping tabs on a super-herd that might change direction and head for us at any second, and we have literally zero idea what’s going to happen long term”.

  Danny remained silent, somewhat taken aback by the negative outlook John appeared to have.

  “If we live beyond this whole mess – and I don’t mean survive, I mean live – then we need things to change a whole lot”, John continued, “We need to get rid of these problems, to expand our borders, to set up more places like ours. We need to re-civilise what’s left of the world”.

  “And how do we do that?”, Danny asked.

  “I don’t know”, John replied, “But I’m trying to figure it out”.

  * * *

  The group continued on for several more blocks of silent and slow-paced travel. At every corner, each and every passenger looked at least somewhat fearfully to each side, waiting for the moment that the Lincoln appeared from around a corner, or another horde barged into view. But the drive remained uneventful, and not a single word needed to be spoken, right up until they reached the final block on their current route.

  “Take a right onto this next street”, Devon eventually announced, breaking the monotony and signalling the final stage of their trip towards the local hospital, “We’re only a couple blocks out”.

  “Got it”, Danny confirmed, initiating the turn into the adjacent street and preparing himself mentally for the upcoming stop-off. “Looks clear”, he added upon completing the manoeuvre.

  “Looks can be deceiving”, John stated, “Keep an eye out”.

  With that, the group got back into a position they had pioneered earlier that day. John leant out of the left-hand window, rifle pointed in the direction of the approaching hospital, and Devon sat on the right-hand windowsill, his own rifle rested on the vehicle’s rooftop and pointing in the same direction. Danny kept the car at a slow pace – no doubt once more making use of its cruise control – and the group cautiously approached their target.

  Sitting just under two blocks away, the hospital was a typically large series of connected buildings, each a different shape and size and each combining to make a premises that would take weeks to fully clear out. It was incredibly unlikely that anybody would have gone to the trouble of emptying out such a difficult spot, and even less likely that John would be able to do the same with just three people, but this was nevertheless an important option to check off their list of potential bases.

  Much like with the nearby stadium – though nobody in this group knew it – one side of the street was significantly more traffic-heavy than the other. That said, the rows of cars didn’t start until just a single block from the hospital, and appeared to be parked in a fairly organised manner, a very different sight to some parts of the city. Had John been alone, this might have caused him some concern, especially given the likelihood that such a situation might have arisen due to the property still being inhabited, but luckily, Devon was on sight to explain.

  “This place was evacuated pretty early”, he said, dipping his head into the vehicle while he spoke in order to keep his voice from travelling too far. “Patients got moved to places outside the city, they closed the emergency department real early once they realised they couldn’t do anything to help. Eventually people stopped coming by”.

  “So whose are the cars?”, John asked, himself also leaning inside in order to hear.

  “My guess would be whoever was left inside at the end”, Devon replied.

  “That’s a lot of people”, Danny jumped in nervously, taking note of the fact that such a high volume of abandoned vehicles on show – before they’d even seen the car-park – almost certainly meant a horde-worth of biters were inside, or at least had been.

  “Maybe”, John said, “We’ll soon find out”.

  With that, the car once more returned to silence, full and undivided attention required by every single person there. Soon thereafter Danny skilfully navigated the final crossroad, slowing to perform the usual side-to-side checks before quickly darting across and then slowing back down, and then entered into the final approach towards the large complex of buildings that made up the hospital running along the left-hand side of the street.

  “Pull us up to the curb opposite the main entrance”, John ordered, to which Danny quickly began to comply, “Let’s make sure everything looks alright, then get inside quick, I don’t want us hanging around out here in the open”.

  Devon and Danny both gave quiet acknowledgements, each of them still scanning in every direction, right up until the final crunch of movement from the tires signalled that they’d reached their destination.

  For a few moments, all anybody did was look around. Waiting and watching for any sign of movement, or worse still life, anything that might give them a reason to just keep moving past. But nothing stirred, so after a significant delay, Danny killed the engine, and all three men slowly disembarked from the vehicle, rifles raised and ready to fire. Nobody was in the mood to take chances.

  “Everybody ready?”, John asked once they had all reconvened on the left of the Ford, a series of nods soon answering his question. “Good, now let’s get inside”.

  Chapter 14: Dust

  From inside the main entrance doors, the world looked predictably dark. Dust lingered in the air, movement was scarce, and noise levels were at an all-time low. Such a lack of activity was of course more than common nowadays, but that didn’t make it any less unusual, especially when this particular location had once been a bustling hospital, a true hive of activity. Now the biggest excitement came when a particularly large wind blew by, or even rarer, a car drove past.

  Over by the main doors, a thin sliver of light ran along the ground, signifying the one point of entry the outside world still had in now that the windows were opaquely coated with dirt. This single line ran strong right the way across the hallway floor, seemingly drawing a line into the area that might guide newcomers through the building, provided of course there was enough light outside to actually create the line.

  But today, at a point approaching late afternoon and thus a time where sunlight might soon become a much rarer commodity, that single line of light suddenly began to break up and flicker. Shadows were cast along its various parts, moving from side to side and growing wider by the moment, accompanied soon enough by the faint sound of footsteps, themselves also growing as time went by.

  Soon enough the shadows stabilised and the noises died down, returning the hospital to its silent self once more. But this return to peace was short lived, and was soon interrupted by the loud banging of at least two large feet against the central area of the entrance
doors, a concentration of force placed very specifically, and carried out very successfully. Each of the main doors leading into the entrance area immediately swung violently open, and three silhouettes soon came into view.

  The sudden presence of such a large amount of sunlight would have almost certainly been blinding to any creature that had been holed up in the dark building for more than a few days. But John felt it was a fair bet that nothing had chosen an abandoned, once overrun medical facility that would have been raided many hundreds of times by now, as their new home. Or at least, not anything that was living anyway.

  From the outside, things were at least a little easier to see. Although large plumes of dust had shot up into the already thick, stale air, the overwhelming presence of exterior light made short work of the darkened interior, and illuminated just about each and every corner for the group to see. It took just a few seconds for their eyes to adjust – much less time than it would have taken them had they been going from inside to outside – and so they were soon able to begin that all important analysis that was a precursor to every trip into unfamiliar territory.

  John led the pack as per usual, holding his rifle high and resting his cheek on its stock, his right eye drawing a kill line along the barrel, and his right elbow tucked tightly into his side in order to provide firing stability. He doubted very much that there would be anything inside, and even more so that there might be anything that presented any real danger, but that didn’t mean he was willing to take the risk. Within a few seconds, John had completed a quick visual swoop of the visible area, and so began the charge inside.

  Moving swiftly along the entrance hallway, John looked into each of the partly glass-fronted doors that lined both sides of the immediate area, each of them another kind of examination room once used for consultations and vaccine shots. Each and every one looked as if it had been quickly evacuated, with forms still strewn out across desks and coats still hung up on the corners of filing cabinets or the backs of doors. The doors were closed and thus obscuring a full view inside, but on the bright side, John had yet to spot any occupants of the initial rooms.

  Continuing forwards, he soon arrived at the oval shaped desk at the end of the corridor, itself signalling the start of the waiting area, a much larger space that made for a significantly more difficult spot to analyse quickly. With its large surface area and numerous obstacles, John had to stop and retrace his steps slightly once he realised just what he was walking into, allowing himself more time to give it a proper inspection.

  Strafing from side to side, John counted well over thirty chairs, as well as numerous coffee tables, magazine stands, a set of toilets and countless personal belongings, left behind in what John was sure had been a mad rush to exit the building. Adding to all of this though – and causing John the most amount of concern – was the fact that the light provided by the open entrance doors only just barely stretched this far back into the building, meaning things were starting to get dark.

  “Clear”, John tentatively whispered, certain nothing obvious was present, but less certain they were safe, “Let’s get these windows cleared, but keep your eyes peeled”, he ordered.

  Silently obeying, Devon switched to his sidearm and progressed further into the waiting area, peeling off to the left in the direction of the nearest row of large floor to ceiling window panes, and pointing his much nimbler pistol downwards at each new pile of miscellaneous items he spotted on the ground as he did. After all, any one of those black lumps could turn out to be something much, much more deadly.

  Danny meanwhile opted to stay with John, knowing he felt much less confident in his own ability to clear a room. It was a decision he knew John wouldn’t mind, but one he also knew he would soon need to stop making; the camp needed more men like John and Devon, and less men like Danny. Cautiously he followed behind John, who himself was veering off to the right-hand side of the lobby, himself heading for the opposite set of grimy windows.

  Arriving at his destination first, Devon gave one final inspection to the floor immediately around his windows – as well as a quick scan back across the area in general – before finally feeling comfortable enough to holster his weapon. Grabbing a pair of leftover jackets from a nearby chair, Devon wrapped the garments around each of his hands and then stepped up onto a cabinet in front. Now rising up high enough to reach the ceiling, Devon threw both hands towards the top of the window and began scrubbing hard against the months of miscellaneous dirt that had built up.

  Back on the other side of the room, John was opting for much the same tactic, albeit with slightly more caution. Without holstering his own pistol – which he too had switched to from the much bulkier M16 rifle – John had jumped up onto a chair proper against the window and began his own cleaning regime, this time with the help of a thick woollen jumper left strewn across the floor below.

  John’s desire to maintain a high level of security through the continued holding of his sidearm was outweighed only by his decision to keep Danny on guard. The younger man had been instructed – through a well-rehearsed series of hand gestures – to keep an eye on both the hallway the group had entered via, and the as-yet unexplored restrooms found behind the main counter in the centre of the room. If the undead were in there, John imagined that by now they would have heard something, but that didn’t mean he was willing to rely on such an assumption.

  Before long, light began to slowly slip in through the now disturbed layers of dirt from each side of the room, starting from Devon’s side and joined soon after from John’s at a slightly slower rate. More and more dust filled the air, but by this point the difference was barely noticeable, and so both men continued on until a good foot or so of grime had been cleared from the uppermost points on each set of windows, allowing enough light in to illuminate the room, but not enough to allow anybody outside to look in.

  Now comfortable with the amount of light, John signalled for Danny to head back and close the doors, twisting his gesturing hand to signal a locking motion, an instruction Danny once again understood without the need for a spoken word. Quickly he hurried off in the direction of the hallway, disappearing down it towards the entrance, while John remained in the waiting area with Devon to perform another sweep.

  The main and most immediate area for concern was the reception desk. Its large wooden frame made for a decent hiding spot for either living or dead, and was the sort of place John himself might have camped out overnight if ever he was forced to stay out during a scavenge back at the start. If someone was indeed hiding out in this place, he imaged that was where he was going to find them.

  Signalling for Devon to approach in parallel, John gripped his Ruger with both hands and began pacing towards the large wooden oval. Keeping his pistol raised to eye level, and simultaneously raising his gaze as much as possible so as to expose as much of the desks innards as he could, John came within a few steps – at which point he’d still yet to spot anything – before gesturing for Devon to stop, and then holding up three fingers.

  Knowing what was expected, Devon held position, himself also raising up his pistol, and then leant back onto his right leg, ready to pounce. Two fingers. Devon took a deep breath, his eyes scanning the area around the desk in case of any last second surprises. One finger. Devon launched off his back leg, surging forwards in unison with John, both men surging towards the countertop with immense pace, all but diving over the top of it gun-barrels first, covering it from each side with military style precision.

  But unsurprisingly, all of that had been for nothing. Inside the oval was little more than three office chairs – one of which had been tipped on its side – and a large pile of papers, as well as a spilled box of staples and numerous dirty mugs, at least one of which had since grown some kind of green and blue substance inside. Clearly nobody had called this spot home since the start, but John continued to believe that that gave them no reason to become complacent.

  At that moment, the slightest click in the distance signalle
d that Danny had completed his own task, something John verified with a quick confirmative glance over to the hallway that the younger man was now making his way back along. Now secured in the area with light to utilise and a higher – albeit not certain – chance of being alone, John began assessing the best way to go about sweeping through the rest of the building.

  The main hallway was lined with eight different rooms, each less than ten square metres, but representing eight individual threats nonetheless. John had so far seen no evidence that anything – living or dead – had called this place home once the initial evacuation had taken place, no doubt due to this not being a part of the hospital that housed any valuable medicines or equipment. But he wanted to make sure they covered each room all the same. Making your way through a large labyrinth of buildings such as this one was ill advised at the best of times, so making sure the route you came in on is definitively clear was somewhat of an essential.

  Signalling for Devon to stand guard at the reception desk – a position that presented the rare and very beneficial opportunity of having a barrier on all sides – John led Danny back down to the beginning of the hallway, peering once again into each of the rooms as he passed them by. Silently he gestured for Danny to stand to the side of the door and place his hand on the handle, held out three fingers, and prayed the doors had been left unlocked.

  Three. Two. One. He counted down the numbers quickly before swinging the door open and stepping quickly back, re-arming himself with his own pistol and then following into the room close behind John, who was already most of the way in. Feverishly both men inspected the room in its entirety, from the half-open filing cabinets to the underside of its desk, and even into the trash can placed at the far corner of the room. But quickly it became clear that the observation room was clear, and that was no bad thing.