Generation Dead - 07
Page 20
Both Anderson and the doctor looked confused. “But she’s already here!” the doctor’s voice cracked as he slammed his fist down on the stretcher.
The soldier gripped the doctor’s arm and pushed the stretcher back the way it had come. “Put her back in the damn ambulance and take her home!” At this point, the absurdity of the situation seemed to leave the other soldier who noticed that the entire debacle was being filmed. His hand quickly shot out and attempted to grab the lens of the camera.
“Give me that friggin’ thing!” he shouted, but Anderson quickly pushed him away with a well-rehearsed move and put a good five feet between the camera and the soldier.
Turning to his cameraman, Anderson acted as if he were going to add some comment or remark, but his eyes widened and he simply shouted, “Run!”
The few seconds of footage that followed were filled with shouting voices and shaky scenes of the floor tiles and pounding vomit soaked shoes, but right before Anderson and his cameraman pushed through a set of double doors, the camera swung back up and briefly caught a shot of the soldiers and doctor. It appeared that the elderly woman had awakened and was attacking the soldier that had pushed the stretcher. The doctor and other soldier were struggling to pull her off, but she seemed to be attached to the hand and arm that had grasped the stretcher.
“My God,” Cooper gasped as the camera zoomed in, “Was she biting him?” Then the screen went black. After a few moments the feed returned to an even more distressed Cooper, now slumped at his news desk.
“When it was realized that we were there, we were contacted by the CDC and told not to air the footage,” he weakly shook his head, “They sent someone to the CNN offices to recover it, but my journalistic integrity would not allow them to bury this story, so I copied it.” His eyes began to glisten. “I really don’t know what I just showed you folks, but I feel like you had the right to know what’s taking place out there.” He shrugged, almost apologetically. A loud bang was heard from somewhere off set and Anderson looked towards what was sounding like rushing feet and shouting.
A defiant look flared in Cooper’s eyes. “I’m not sure what is going on America, but I’ll do my best to continue to bring you the truth,” he swallowed hard and appeared to be at a loss. The shouting was getting louder and an obvious argument was erupting somewhere in the studio. After an uncomfortably long pause, Anderson pinched his brow and continued, “For the first time in my life, I am at a loss for words, so I will sign off tonight with a quote from another famous journalist Edward R. Murrow, ‘Good night and good luck.”
The screen went black once again, but this time Cooper did not return. The loud pitched whine of dead air and Technicolor bars were all that could be found on any channel.
The staff in the office of the Montville Regional School Complex missed most of the story as they struggled to assist two paramedics with loading the body of Bev onto a stretcher. They were told she apparently had just suffered a massive heart attack.
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