“I agree,” Matthew said. “Do we have everything we need? I emptied my pack so I can fill it with whatever we find in there.”
“I’m not too eager to discover what’s in there,” Carl said under his breath.
“Let’s head out, then,” Matthew said brightly, trying to display some confidence to inspire the others. He pulled his baseball bat from the back of the vehicle and tucked his knife into his pocket.
Matthew was the first out of the car, followed by the two friends, who reluctantly followed. Nevertheless, they stood right beside Matthew, ready for battle.
By now, it took very little communication to make kills. Matthew thought back to the early days where he bumbled around whoever was near, trying to figure out who was going to stab the zombie and who was going to run. Matthew, Carl, and Sergio were beginning to run like a well-oiled machine, fighting individually but as a cohesive unit.
The zombies wasted no time in investigating the newcomers. Instantly, they realized that something was amiss and swarmed the three soldiers. Matthew led the defense with a swift swing at the first zombie’s head, cracking the skull with a satisfying whack. The creature toppled to the ground, causing the other zombies to climb over their fallen comrade.
Sergio and Carl batted down advancing zombies in unison, grinning at each other as their opponents landed on the ground.
“Okay, now we’re warmed up,” Carl cheered.
The trio fought with great zeal, working out all of their frustrations and stresses on the approaching monsters. It was easier to back at the source of their pain than to deal with the pain itself. The zombies were their enemies, no doubt, but they were also proxies for the horrors of the world. Matthew thought about the inequality he saw on the streets as they drove and swung with all of their might, as if smashing the zombies outside the hospital could provide any relief to the people who struggled to protect their block. This motivation helped, and he battered down five within minutes, finishing each kill with a slice to the neck.
“Damn, we’re good at this.” Carl smiled after the first wave of zombies fell at their feet. The stragglers from the outer edges of the fence were beginning to notice that the others had perished, prompting them to go in for scraps.
“Yeah, we’re basically a zombie hit-squad,” Sergio answered, pulling his bat from a body cavity. He shook the slime off and raised it back over his shoulder. “If only there was a career for people who are good at fighting strategically.”
Matthew cracked a smile. The thought of returning to the military after the zombie epidemic was absurd. He wasn’t even sure he could return to cooking. At this point, he’d be happy to stay at home for the foreseeable future.
“Let’s spread out,” Matthew said, gesturing at the stragglers. “These guys look pretty weak, so it shouldn’t take much effort to round them up and finish them off.”
“Okay,” Carl said hesitantly. He took off in a light jog toward the fence where one zombie stood, staring intensely at the humans.
Matthew took off in the other direction, quickly silencing the monsters that tried to attack. As he stabbed a zombie through the eye, he noticed that it was wearing blood-soaked scrubs. He wondered if the blood came before or after it turned.
About an hour and a half after they arrived at the hospital, the three put their finishing touches on their job, ensuring that no creature could come back to life and sneak up on them. Each corpse was given a stiff kick in the ribs and a slash in the neck, just in case. When this part of the process was finished, they gathered at the vehicle to catch their breath.
“This is only the beginning,” Carl said mournfully. “We still have to deal with whatever is on the inside.”
“Then give me a minute,” Sergio said, chugging a bottle of water. He wiped a thin layer of sweat from his forehead and squatted by one of the massive tires. “There’s a gate over there. We should close it before any more of these bastards get through. I don’t want to kill any more than we absolutely have to right now.”
“Good call,” Carl said, slowly making his way toward the gate.
“What if we have to leave in a hurry?” Matthew asked nervously.
“It’ll be fine,” Carl replied as he started to slide the big metal door along the track. “Besides, if we effectively kill all the zombies inside, then we won’t have to worry about leaving in a hurry.”
Carl fastened the latch but left the padlock open. Small flakes of rusty metal floated to the ground, creating a scraping sound that made Matthew’s jaw clench.
“We should be safer now,” Carl said, joining the other two. “But that means that we need to do a decent job of cleaning out the inside of this place. Otherwise, we’re just going to be trapping the beasts inside.”
Matthew looked around the fence line. It would certainly keep out the average human, but he wasn’t sure if it would be nearly as effective with the undead. He had heard stories of zombies so desperate for human flesh that they scaled the sides of buildings and hoisted themselves into trees. He didn’t want to be locked in a cage with no way out. But if the other two were right in their assertions, then it was a fine plan. He hoped they were right.
“I think I’m as rested up as I’m ever going to be,” Sergio said, chucking his empty bottle into the Jeep. “How about you guys?”
“Why not?” Carl said, visibly shaken. “The sooner we do this, the sooner we can go home.”
Matthew stomped his feet on the ground, dislodging the slimy gore from the bottoms of his shoes. He wiped his knife on a zombie’s tattered shirt before tucking it back into his belt loop. Leading the troops, he strode toward the door and gripped the metal door handle, his nerves buzzing. With a nod, he opened the door, completely unsure of what dangers lurked in the dark.
4
Matthew braced himself for an ambush, but the only assault that came was to his nose. The three pulled their shirts over the lower half of their faces and staggered back as the hot blast of air hit them in full force.
Sergio retched. “I can hardly breathe,” he groaned. “How is the smell this much worse than anywhere else?”
“Maybe everywhere else we’ve been has better air flow than this place,” Carl answered, his voice flat from his pinched nostrils. “I think someone just shut the doors and left whatever is in here to rot.”
“Dead bodies,” Sergio corrected. “I think we know exactly what’s in here. I’m still waiting for the creepy dead bodies to pop up out of nowhere,” he said, his torso drooping toward the floor. It was as if he saw the overwhelming stench as a thick cloud of smoke, and the lower he got to the floor, the less of a chance he would have to suffer the effects of inhaling it.
“I know why,” Matthew choked out. He pointed down the dim corridor toward a vertical gate. Someone must have had the foresight to add an extra layer of protection behind whatever was in the hospital and the outside world. Or, it could have been the opposite—to keep the monsters out. Either way, it kept the soldiers from being ambushed on the spot.
Matthew walked up to the gate and lightly rattled the metal caging. The edges lifted a centimeter or two, but the middle was securely fastened into the floor.
“Locked,” he said, looking back at the other two.
“Let me take a stab at it,” Sergio said, pulling a Swiss Army knife from a small pocket on his pants. He knelt down and jiggled the lock, trying to get it to spring open.
Carl crossed his arms and bounced nervously as his friend worked to pick the lock. He shifted his weight back and forth from one leg to the other while his head swiveled in search of zombies.
“You okay?” Matthew asked softly, not wanting to embarrass or patronize the young soldier.
“Yeah, fine,” he said shortly. “I’ve just never really liked these places.”
“From what happened at the beginning of the outbreak,” Matthew responded knowingly.
“Yeah, I guess,” Carl muttered. “It goes back further than that. I’ve been creeped out by hospitals
since I was a kid, I suppose. I saw my parents on gurneys in a hospital. Usually, they cover them with a sheet or a bag so that kind of thing doesn’t happen. But I guess they were busy working on Pip and that little detail was looked over. No kid should have to see their parents bloody and battered.”
“No, they shouldn’t,” Matthew replied. “That’s really awful. I’m sorry.”
Carl nodded. “I had to stay in that hospital with Pip for quite a while. My grandparents were scrambling to make arrangements, so I spent a lot of time walking back and forth past the room where I saw their bodies. I couldn’t un-see it by that point. Pip had it hard enough as it was, so I never told her that particular detail. Thankfully, she was drugged up enough that she could get a little rest.”
Matthew didn’t know what else to say. He felt terrible for putting Carl in a position where all these memories came back to life, cutting open old wounds.
“Then, I had to be there when my grandparents passed a few years later,” he added. “It was too much for Pip to be there, losing another family member, so I took her place both times. Luckily, I was allowed to leave so I could be there when it happened. It was only partially about being there for my temporary caretakers in their last minutes—I also had to watch Pip to make sure she didn’t do something to land her in the hospital either.”
“Damn,” Matthew muttered under his breath. He wondered if Sergio knew all the dirty details about Pip’s life. If he did, then he was clearly a strong person—Matthew couldn’t imagine taking on a new relationship with so much baggage. Matthew needed to be with someone who could take care of him from time to time. He had too much on his mind to even consider a project. Everything else in his life was so complicated that he cherished every simple and easy relationship he had.
“Doesn’t this place creep you out at all?” Carl asked, looking for some validation.
“Of course it does.” Matthew snorted. “It’s dark, it smells terrible, and it’s probably full of zombies and other horrifying things. This is the definition of creepy.”
One corner of Carl’s lips turned up. “Okay, I’m glad it’s not just me.”
“Got it,” Sergio cheered from the gate. He tucked his utility knife back into its pocket and held the gate in place. “Are we ready? I’m not certain, but I think I heard something coming from one of those rooms down there. I think it was on the left side, maybe three or four down.”
“Good spot,” Matthew said, ready to take the lead. “I’ll keep an eye out for it. Do the two of you want to take a side of the hall and clear the rooms? I stay up front and get anything that tries to jump us.”
“I’ve got your back,” Sergio said. “I’ll take the right side.”
“I’ve got the left,” Carl said firmly.
Matthew nodded. He was dreading this fight, but at least he had capable men on each side of him.
Walking forward, Matthew realized that Sergio’s prediction was an understatement. There wasn’t just activity in that room, but in all the rooms. As the men’s feet stamped across the tile floor, it summoned the beasts lurking within the hospital rooms.
Low growls seemed to come from all directions at once. Matthew spun around, looking for the source of the din. The creatures emerged, dressed in scrubs and lab coats. Hospital employees, who were likely turned by the patients they tried to save, were on the prowl, having caught the scent of fresh meat. Matthew swung at the first one he saw, causing it to topple to the ground before it could even grab at him.
These zombies looked fairly weak, as if they had not yet had a kill. They licked their lips and gnashed their teeth, but they didn’t have the strength needed to tear down the soldiers. They fell to the ground by the bunch, unable to keep up with the knife-wielding men.
Carl was starting to loosen up, realizing that he had power over the monsters. He worked methodically, shaking out the bad memories he had for medical centers. After all, this research hospital was nothing like the general hospital where he had spent so many agonizing hours. If he didn’t think about it too much, his surroundings were no different from the office building or the warehouses where his crew had once rested.
A small, feeble-looking employee approached the group from the front. Carl had just finished off his last target and decided to take the initiative with the newcomer. He reached out and grabbed the creature’s lab coat, giving him some extra leverage to stab it with his knife. Carl triumphantly plunged the knife into the zombie’s chest cavity, twisting the blade as he pulled it out.
Meanwhile, a large figure rushed him, grabbing him from behind before Carl could even understand what was going on. Thinking quickly, Sergio pulled out his gun and fired in one smooth motion.
The sound of the gunshot pulled Matthew from his reality. Suddenly, he found himself dropping to the ground on his hands and knees to avoid getting hit by rogue bullets. In the process, he was nearly bitten by the last of the wave of zombies. Snapping back to reality, he pulled its legs out from underneath it and stabbed its balding skull.
Then, Matthew jumped back up to his feet before anyone could see that he had hit the ground. The other two stood in stunned silence. The burly instigator lay on its back, a perfectly round hole evenly between the eyebrows.
“I’m sorry,” Sergio said quickly. “It was going to get you and there was nothing else for me to do. Are you okay?”
Carl looked himself over quickly before nodding his head. “Yeah, I think so.”
There was no time to feel any relief. The gunshot had only triggered something bigger. Any creature within the four walls of the building was awakened by the sound. Sergio had rung the dinner bell for the feast.
“I think we should retreat,” Sergio said as heavy footsteps pounded down the halls. “Let’s cut our losses and get the hell out of here.”
“Are you sure?” Matthew asked hesitantly. It sounded like a lot more were coming, but they hadn’t made visual confirmation that they were coming en masse.
“We should fight,” Carl said breathlessly. “We came this far. If we leave now, it was all for nothing.”
“If we don’t leave when it’s time, we’ll get ourselves killed,” Sergio responded.
“No, I think he’s right,” Matthew said as the first of the zombies came into view. “Let’s give it our best shot. We’ve sealed the place up, so it’s not like we’re going to fight zombies off the street. We’ll work on whatever comes up. If it’s too much, we can run and pull the gate back down.”
“We said we would get the equipment so the girls could find a cure for this thing.” Carl grimaced. “I want to keep our promise.”
Sergio sighed as the mob neared. “Well, you know I’ve got your back, no matter how insane things seem. If you want to kick some zombie ass, then I’m going to be right behind you, ripping these bastards to shreds.”
“We just have to throw ourselves in,” Matthew said, bracing for impact. “Be careful and keep an eye out for one another. We can do this.”
Matthew locked eyes with the first zombie to approach their group. As it stumbled down the hall, Matthew swore that there was something familiar about the being that he nearly froze in his tracks as he tried to figure out what it was. The groans and hisses were mind-numbing, but Matthew steadily marched forward. A strange sensation filled the pit of his stomach and there was no time to figure out why. He was feeling particularly agitated by the incomer as it sneered and hissed at Matthew, as if it was taunting him.
Then, something clicked in Matthew’s mind as he raised his baseball bat to strike at the zombies. The zombie in question was so familiar to him that he was shocked that he didn’t realize it immediately. It had dark, shaggy hair that was missing patches, and it wore jeans and a baggy sweatshirt. It was almost identical to the creature that ambushed the restaurant and killed his wife—and it appeared to be laughing at him. He knew that the police had shot the beast dead, but somehow, its doppelganger had come to life and taken its place in the hospital just to taunt Matthew.
>
Rage boiled inside him. Now, he truly felt like he could get payback for what happened to Rebecca. All other zombies had been a representation of the beast that took her life. Now, he was about to come hand to hand with the real thing. He would have his revenge.
The rest of the world faded out as Matthew took his backswing, a grin spreading on his maniacal face. Finally, there would be justice. Whether this was his wife’s killer was of little consequence to Matthew. It would have to do.
5
During his second deployment, Matthew was awakened one night by a strange sound. Fearing that a wounded animal was outside their barracks, he turned on his flashlight and went to investigate the source of the mysterious howling noise.
He had made it no more than five steps out of his bunk when a fellow soldier reached for his shoulder in the dark.
“Go back to bed,” the older man told Matthew.
“I heard a weird sound,” Matthew said. He listened for a moment before gesturing toward the door. “Did you hear that? It sounds like crying or screaming, or something like that. I think something or someone is seriously hurt.”
“It’s none of your business, Swift. Now, go back to bed before I have to report you for disobeying orders.”
Matthew lowered his dark brows. It was normal for higher-ups to give orders that Matthew didn’t understand or agree with, but another to deliberately ignore some poor creature’s anguish. Whatever it was, it was clearly hurting and in need of help.
But Matthew’s hands were tied. He didn’t want to earn the reputation of someone who didn’t obey commands, nor did he want to get on the officer’s bad side. So, he slinked back to bed, worrying about the thing outside. Once he tucked himself between the scratchy sheets, he understood why he wasn’t meant to get involved.
The door burst open and a guy around Matthew’s age came barging in through the door to the bunks. Matthew had seen him around but didn’t know him well. The soldier kept to himself, and Matthew wasn’t the kind to go out of his way to introduce himself. The guy ripped down the rows of bunks, swinging his fists at the air, cursing up a string of profanities so rude that Matthew even blushed.
Last Man Standing (Book 2): Zombie Annihilation Page 3
