Undead Advantage, a Zombie Chronicles Novel

by Mark Clodi

  "Uh, ten four on the plan Big Momma. Home base says things are fine, wishing us luck and not to take any chances."

  "That's 'hot mamma', Teddy Bear. H-O-T. Not B-I-G. Okay tell Jen and Charlie to sit down." Putting the cb mic down she yelled out the back window of the truck to Juan and Mary, "Guys siddown! I am gonna lose 'em now, okay?" After she saw them settle in for a higher speed, Mary increased the speed of the truck to beyond walking pace and took the lead. The street remained clear enough to navigate, but there were still wrecks and the odd zombie now and then to contend with as she drove back to the hospital.

  Chapter 12

  After a brief five minute drive Terry was back to the hospital again, leaving the horde behind and out of sight. They pulled up to the emergency room and found a few stragglers wandering around, Terry backed the pickup in front of the ambulance, while Juan and Mary shot the remaining slow zombies that they could see. Jack pulled up alongside the other truck and Charlie hopped out of the back.

  "Jack says, Jen, Terry and him will wait outside, the three of us will go in on a quick recon mission to see what we can find. He also said to try and grab one of the ambulances as it probably has most of what we need already. I didn't work for this hospital, but I know how most hospital's work, the ambulances are run by private companies, which means we need to find one with supplies in it if possible, because the hospital does not re-supply the units. Got it?"

  Juan looked at Mary, they both shrugged, obviously not really getting it, but Juan said, "Si." anyway and they moved on.

  Sighing Charlie said, "Okay, don't worry about it, just follow my lead. Let's see if we can find the keys to one or both of the ambulances here."

  They searched the bodies on the ground and came up with quite a few sets of keys, eventually they found one set on one of the paramedics that fit the newest looking ambulance. Unfortunately Charlie said it was mostly empty of supplies and the other one was not in much better shape. During their time in the ambulance bay Jen and Jack had to put down another half dozen zombies, the noise seemed to be drawing more of the slow zombies back towards the bay and out of the emergency room through the automatic doors.

  "Shit. This might not be such a good idea." said Charlie.

  Juan looked around and said, "Sì. We need to at least look inside though, go up a floor or two and see how bad it is, maybe with ten men, er, people, we could clean the place out, but we should take a quick look now so we know better what to expect." Something about the place seemed to draw Juan in, he shook his head to try and make the feeling go away.

  Nodding, Charlie replied, "Agreed. Lets shelve the idea of taking an ambulance with us. I got my walkie-talkie, you got yours? Good! Lets head in nice and slow.", yelling over to Jack while he approached the automatic doors he said, "Let us know if too many of them start showing up so we can get out of here!"

  Jack replied on the walkie-talkie, "Sure thing, try and be back in less than fifteen minutes, I don't want to risk getting too low on ammo."

  Nodding, Juan followed Charlie into the ER, with Mary bringing up the rear. They were using the civilian entrance, which consisted of a double set of automatic doors, once inside the first set it closed behind them and they could see into the ER proper. There were still a dozen zombies in the waiting room. Charlie nodded to himself and raised his rifle pointing it towards the closest one as they all stepped into the room. From the side a faster zombie jumped Charlie before any of them could even get off a shot, the zombie was not interested in biting him, only in knocking him over. Immediately after knocking the man down he turned on Juan. This zombie was young, his frame was lanky and his clothing was blood stained. He had a feral grin and as he jumped towards Juan he spat out, "Die meat!"

  Juan didn't even try to get his gun up in time, he jumped forward into the room and the zombie missed knocking him over. However the youth quickly recovered and slammed into Mary, who was not so quick as Juan at dodging, knocking her down to one side of the automatic doors. The zombie got hung up on Mary's gun though, and was unable to turn in time to react to Juan, who had turned around and pointed his shotgun at the teen. Only his fear of hitting Mary stayed Juan's trigger finger. The zombie, busy recovering, did not look up until his face was almost at the level of the shotgun pointed less than three feet away. Sizing up the situation the zombie ducked back down and rolled off of Mary. Surprised by this Juan did not take advantage of the momentary window to shoot and the zombie was able to roll Mary's body over his, using it as a shield.

  Meanwhile Charlie had gotten to his feet and was firing his rifle at the dozen or so approaching slow zombies, "Shit! Juan, Shit! I shoulda took a shotgun!"

  Five shots later and he dropped the rifle and pulled out his handgun. Juan was trying to maneuver around to get a shot at the zombie on the ground who continued taunting him, "What's a matter meat? Afraid to hit your girlfriend?" The zombie kept jerking a protesting Mary around making a shot all but impossible for him. Despite her flailing limbs Mary was unable to get free of the zombie either. As Juan watched and tried to figure out a way to save Mary he saw one of the zombies legs was usually sticking out well away from the girl's, still pointing his gun at the things face he lowered the gun a fraction of an inch and fired. The smart zombie's scream almost drowned out Charlie behind him, who yelled, "I am out! Help me Juan there are three more!"

  Turning Juan sighted the first one just before he grabbed Charlie, who was trying to reload his pistol and pick up his rifle at the same time and doing neither action very well. Behind him Juan could hear the zombie yelling, "You bitch! You filthy bitch!" and then Mary started screaming. Juan had to move aside to get a shot on the second and third zombie, telling Charlie in a strangely calm voice, "Get behind me, help Mary!"

  Letting his rifle go Charlie did just that, without any further obstacles in his way Juan was able to shoot both zombies, though he had to put two bullets into one of them. Turning back to Mary he saw the zombie in hand to hand combat with Charlie and Mary. The girl was on her hands and knees trying to punch the zombie, while Charlie pistol whipped it repeatedly. The zombie's leg looked almost intact, as he watched, it actually looked like it was healing before his eyes, as did the blows Charlie was raining down on him. When Charlie saw Juan was up with his shotgun he pushed the zombie away from him, calling for Mary to push too. Both of them shoved the zombie backward and it stumbled about ten feet into the waiting room and almost fell over a half eaten corpse of an old lady in a floral print dress. Juan said, "Gotcha, pendejo!" and pulled the trigger, an audible click filled the silence, then several things happened at once, the zombie realizing Juan was out turned and took off down the hallway towards a set of double doors at the end, Mary scrambled backwards for her rifle and Charlie yelled "No!" and tried to reload his pistol.

  Juan reached into his pocked and plucked a shell out of it to load into his gun, he had the shell chambered by the time the zombie was to the door, his shot and Mary's rang out simultaneously, the zombie was propelled forward into the doors by the dual hits, unfortunately neither of them scored a head shot. Mary's second shot hit the things hand as it pulled the door, then it got it opened and slithered out of sight.

  "Fuck!" yelled Charlie, still fumbling with his pistol.

  Gently Juan reached over and took the pistol from him, released the clip and handed it to back to him. Turning to Mary he asked her, "Are you alright?"

  She shook her head from side to side and said, "No, check my back, that bastard bit me didn't he?"

  Turning half around to show Juan her back she grimaced in pain as her fingers automatically reloaded her gun, much as Juan's hands were busy reloading his. Juan and Charlie both saw the blood coming from Mary's back, her clothing hid the wound from their sight.

  Charlie, shoved his pistol back into Juan's startled hand and grabbed Mary up, "Come on! We gotta disinfect the wound right now! Cover us Juan!"

  So saying he hustled Mary into one of the rooms which lined the hall the zombie had gone dow
n, lucky for them it was empty. He shoved Mary face down onto the gurney that was there while Juan took up a position by the door and finished loading Charlie's pistol. Finding what he needed Charlie went back to Mary and ripped the back of her shirt open, exposing two bloody wounds close to her spine, one near her shoulder the other, bleeding profusely, was more on her neck. He began pouring disinfectant into the wounds, causing Mary to howl, "Ow! Oh God it hurts! Stop it Chaaarleeeeee!"

  Charlie did not stop, when the bottle he had ran out he went and got another, pausing only to slip on a pair of latex gloves and grab some gauze he returned to Mary's side and started probing her wounds, while pouring more disinfectant on her. Juan reloaded Charlie's pistol and set it down on a metal tray and stepped out of the room to grab Mary and Charlie's rifles. When he got back he loaded them as Mary whimpered and Charlie scrambled around for more gauze. Sitting the rifles by the side of the doorway he pulled up his Walkie-Talkie and said, "Jack?"

  "Ten four, Juan, go ahead." came the reply.

  "There were a lot of them in the ER, we came in gunning for them, but a fast zombie hit Charlie from the side, tried to knock us all over, but I got out of the way, he knocked Mary over and then used her body to shield himself from me. He bit Mary in the fight."

  There was a long pause, then "She okay otherwise? What is your status now?"

  "She got bit a couple of times, that is her crying in the background, Charlie is trying to disinfect the wound. Me and Charlie are banged up but okay. I am watching the door. The fast zombie got away Jack. Make sure it doesn't come around at you."

  "Get her cleaned up, then back out, we need more people to clear this place. Got it?"

  "Ten four." Juan replied.

  Charlie was busy probing the wounds with more cotton while he poured on even more disinfectant. Mary was quieter now, but winced at times when Charlie probed too hard. After watching for another minute or so Juan said, "Charlie? Charlie!"

  Looking up Juan could see tears on Charlie's cheeks, he angrily replied, "What."

  "We gotta blow, is it as clean as you can do?"

  "Gimme another minute okay? Another minute of this stuff then I will stitch her a little and apply a bandage to try and control the bleeding."

  "A minute? You got about that, look we can put you both in the same truck if we need to. Any of this stuff worth taking, anything the doc said we might need?"

  "No, not really. The club has disinfectant and gauze and even latex gloves, no we need medicines and stitching, we can take that out of here. We should have gotten to a supply closet, still could if Jack lets us."

  A new voice came from the hallway, "Mee-eeat! I can smell you there, I still taste the woman, delicious!"

  Chapter 13

  Making 'what the fuck' faces at each other Juan turned his attention back to the hallway, the door at the end was propped over a little, Juan could make out an arm on the floor holding it from shutting completely. He took careful aim at the side of the door and when the voice started again he fired. The voice started laughing and said, "I am not that dumb, you are mine, you stupid, little Mexican, I will feast on your guts and when you die I am gonna feed them to you too. You will be my slave!"

  Looking at the walls Juan could tell they were made of drywall, he slowly lowered the shotgun and picked up Mary's thirty ought six, saying to Charlie, "You got her ready to go yet?"

  Juan silently estimated where a person would stand at beyond the door while the zombie rambled on about making Juan eat his girlfriend and then would tell him everything about where they came from. Juan was squeezing the trigger when the voice taunted, "You will be mine too. You know I can make any zombies I create do whatever I want them to do? That is the way it works. You don't even know who you are messing with, in a way you are lucky I am here, you at least had a chance. My master went to deal with that DJ, otherwise you would already be dead!"

  "Master? So you are just another fucking punk then?" shouted Juan.

  A heavy fist pounded on the right hand side of the door, denting it through both layers of metal, and giving Juan the side of the door his adversary stood on.

  "Punk! I'll show you punk when I am feeding you your own di-"

  Juan's shot rang out projected where the thought the things head would be at through the drywall of the hallway. Everything fell silent.

  Charlie whispered, "Did you get him?"

  Shrugging, Juan replied "I gotta go see, get your gun and watch me from here."

  Charlie told Mary to stay where she was, he had her in a wheel chair, but he did push her around with her head pointed towards the room's door. He handed her his pistol off the stainless steel tray, so she could cover him while he covered Juan.

  Juan crept down the hallway, through the propped open doorway he heard a shuffling sound, the other side of the doorway was not dark, it was well lit and cheery, peeking through the door by pulling is slightly open Juan was able to see a set of feet kicking out frantically on the floor. He did not see any other zombies in the hallway beyond, he slowly eased open the door the rest of the way open and looked at the youthful zombie in front of him. He saw that the thirty ought six bullet had come through the wall and hit the zombie in the back of the head at the base of the skull, but just a little off center. The zombie was trying to move his arms and legs, but seemed unable to control his movements, his skull, Juan noticed was healing. It was not healing as fast as his leg had earlier. Pointing Mary's rifle at the zombie's head Juan said softly, "You were saying?"

  The zombie muffled a few garbled words out, Juan said with a heavy Hispanic accent, "I couldn't understand you. I'm just a 'stupid little Mexican' so maybe you need to speak slower, my English, is no so good señor."

  The zombie looked up at him in rage and what Juan saw next would have his hair raising up on the back of his neck for the rest of his life whenever he thought of it, the zombies eyes glowed. Even in the brightly lit corridor, the zombies eyes were brighter, worse the thing started to rise up off the floor, not using its hands or legs at all, it was just floating upwards, at least that is how he would tell the story later, when he finally talk about it. Fear startled him into movement and Juan swung the end of the rifle around like bat, crushing in the top of the zombie's skull and ending its second life. A feeling of euphoria cascaded through Juan's body and he felt a pull towards the stairs. Barely reigning himself in he made a quick check of the hallways in all directions then waved at Charlie and called out softly, "It looks all clear now. You get Mary out to the truck I am gonna run through a few places and see if I can find any more of them deeper inside." After saying this Juan ducked through the door and disappeared.

  "No! Come back Juan!" shouted Charlie. Juan disappeared into the building. Juan opted to take the stairs upwards, not sure what he was looking for or even what he was doing. A strange urge had come into him and he was almost to the second floor when his walkie-talkie sputtered to life.

  "Juan! Its Jack. Charlie came out of the ER screaming for help, that you ran off, what the hell are you doing?"

  Slowly Juan pulled the walkie-talkie to his lips and said, "I am doing what has to be done, we gotta know Jack, we gotta have a better idea. Give me five minutes, it'll take Charlie that long to get Mary squared away, okay?"

  "No goddamn it! We can come back again later with more men!"

  "I think it is empty Jack, I think there are not any of them in the building, the fast zombie pushed them all into the ER, I think. Just let me check."

  "Fuck no! We can check later! Goddamn it Juan! Get back here!"

  He was not sure why he wanted to see what else was in the hospital, but he felt compelled to continue. On the second floor he saw several signs directing him to various parts of the building, looking up he grimaced, one word stuck out at him and he knew he had to go there.

  "Jack, stop, listen!" after Jack stopped talking, Juan continued, "Stop and listen to me. I know why I gotta go, I know now I gotta go check something out. The second floor seems cleared
of them okay?"

  "What do you gotta check all alone? Just wait, I will catch up. I can catch up with you and we can go together." The man pleaded, "Goddamnit Juan if something happens to you Hank will kill me! And he would have to stand in line behind Nanci! Just wait for me where you are."

  "I'm on the second floor; go through the doors to your left towards the elevators. I am heading toward the maternity ward. Okay amigo?"

  "Aw, Juan, no man, no! You know they eat everything, don't do this Juan!" Jack's voice pleaded with him.

  Juan put the walkie-talkie back on his belt and turned the volume way down so he would not have to listen to Jack as he pushed his way through several sets of doors between him and his goal.

  He moved along swiftly, but as quietly as he could, Juan had a suspicion, he could not tell where it came from, but he had a gut feeling that the babies were still alive. He made his way around the last corner to the maternity ward and saw a lone zombie standing outside of a traditional baby viewing area, the zombie turned towards Juan and his eyes started glowing a faint orange, easier to see here under purely florescent lighting. Juan felt something stirring inside him, an urge to run, lay down, sleep, run, flashing through his mind in quick succession. His anger grew as he forced himself forward, a primal scream tore itself from his throat and he hip fired the thirty ought six at the beast in front of him, striking it in the shoulder. The wound, unsurprisingly, healed almost instantly, as did the second one Juan put in its guts. The second wound however tore its way out through the thing's spinal column and it lurched sideway for a second, during which time Juan felt the compelling presence in his mind abate completely. Using his anger to keep the thing out of his head he propelled himself down the hall towards it. The zombie should have been twitching helplessly on the ground, instead it held itself upright, Juan knew this was not possible.

  Juan made as if he were going to swing the rifle as a baseball bat, barrel end out, as he did so the zombie grabbed the barrel and jerked it out of Juan's hands. Which was fine with Juan, in fact he did not even resist the thing grabbing the rifle away from him. The zombie's over zealous pull turned it around like a top from a lack of resistance, slamming the end of the rifle into the metal support of the window, breaking both the glass and a chunk off of the wooden butt. Juan, meanwhile, pulled the pistol from his belt, brought it up and fired three shots point blank into the back of the thing's head.