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CODE Z: An Undead Hospital Anthology

Page 21

by Brown, Eric S. ; Besser, Rebecca; Wraight, Anastasia; Rosamilia, Armand; Ibarra, Bowie V. ; Christie, Peggy; Mahan, Jeremy L. ; Sinclair, Pembroke; Snow, Rebecca


  The zombie started to move again and Niles feared the worse.

  He started to kick his legs, pushing himself back, but where was he going to go? A corner? Against a wall?

  The zombie planted its feet and stood up, growling and hissing. It leaned forward a little bit and part of its skull fell off and splashed into the yellow goo. The injuries were obvious of some kind of accident and it was odd to think that maybe an hour ago this creature was a regular breathing human.

  “Oh my, oh my,” Niles whispered.

  He waited for the zombie to come, hoping to defend himself with his knife.

  As the zombie took its third step a piece of wood came out through its forehead so fast and with such force that Niles face was hit with blood from across the room. The piece of wood turned a few times and then slid back out. The zombie fell, showing a smiling Rambo standing with a broken broom handle.

  “What the hell?” Niles asked.

  “I just saved your life,” Rambo said pointing the broom. “Now go clean up, don’t let that shit touch your blood. If it mixes, you’ll become one of them.”

  Rambo turned and walked away.

  “Hey,” Niles called out.

  Rambo turned.

  “I’m sorry for doubting you…”

  “Just don’t let that shit touch your blood.”

  * * *

  Niles felt like Frankenstein, the clichéd version, walking down the hall. His arms were stretched out, his face forced into a stone like position, and his legs moving one by one, stiff.

  Damn Rambo, he thought.

  The son of a bitch could preach on lunch break about aliens until he’s blue in the face and nothing happens. He could talk about how there’s really more land in the world but it’s hidden, used by world governments for special projects. But of all things, of all damn things that could happen in this world… zombies.

  And he was right about it.

  The air.

  The air from the outside.

  Infecting everything.

  But the blood too.

  Or that’s what Rambo said.

  The yellow ooze smelled horrible. The stench kept rising right up Niles nose. He wanted to cough, sneeze, hell, maybe even cry at that moment, but he couldn’t. Sure, the odds of Rambo being right about two things were as likely as… zombies running around a hospital, which was all that Niles could think of.

  “Oh shit,” he whispered and pressed the button on the elevator.

  The ride was quiet, except for the second and first floors.

  He could hear noise. Lots of it. Scratching sounds. Growling sounds. The worst, screams.

  When the elevator door opened, Niles stood there for a few seconds scanning the musty smelling hall.

  No noise.

  No zombies.

  “Zombies,” he whispered shaking his head.

  He stepped from the elevator and checked the hall again. There was no doubt in his mind, it was clear. They must have came in through the first floor.

  “Ambulances,” Niles said. “Goddammit. The ambulances. The hospital had been sealed off, sure, with its air filtration, but not from outside air when the door opened. Sure it could be filtered but how long would that take? And if the air was… bad... how long did it take to harm people?

  Too many questions to try and answer.

  Niles caught himself walking slow as he thought. When he snapped from his thoughts he remembered his clothing and body had been soaked in the yellow ooze. He picked up his pace and made it into his office.

  The office where the morning had begun.

  Where he had first met Ronny…

  “Damn, Ronny,” Niles said.

  He looked up and thought about the kid. He made a mental note once he changed to go get the kid and bring him down in the basement to wait it out.

  Wait it out.

  That was the sensible thing to do. Somebody would fix this soon. Right?

  In the back storage closet Niles kept three changes of clothes. He had a junk set, one that he kept to change into in case there was a sewage problem. The second set was something resembling what he wore now, blue jeans, a black t-shirt. The only difference was his current outfit dripped the bloody ooze. The final change of clothing was a nice set of clothes, a polo shirt, khakis, and brown shoes. Just in case one of the nurses wanted dinner after a long shift.

  He had already mentally decided on the second outfit when he grabbed the door handle. He had been used to it being a little hard to open and very rarely did he get into a fight with the door like Ronny did that morning.

  But the zombie blood ruined it all.

  Niles grabbed the handle and pulled. The handle turned and clicked open but his hand slid off. The door opened just enough for him to catch his grip and pull the door open. When he braced himself, he smiled.

  “Caught it!” he yelled.

  A scene from two hours ago played in his mind. The mess. The wet mess in the drain. His right foot hit the mess and he slid again. As he went forward reaction overpowered his brain. His hand went out for the inside handle, the broken one, and he screamed. He curled his hand, hoping to miss it, but the forearm hit, tearing open from wrist to elbow.

  Niles hit the ground and his head smacked with an echoing thud. He didn’t hear the thud, he was out cold.

  * * *

  When Niles came to, he found himself curled up and shaking. He looked at his arm and saw the blood, everywhere. He couldn’t even see the cut, nor could he move his fingers. Then he saw the yellow liquid mixing with his blood on the floor, creating a thick orange concoction.

  “Blood,” Niles said. “The blood. My blood.”

  He looked again at his forearm and watched as the yellow zombie blood ran into the wound. He told his mind to move. Stand up and shake his arm. Wash it out. Wash the damn cut out! Get that blood out of there.

  “Move,” Niles said. “Come on, move…”

  He couldn’t.

  His body soon ached.

  The yellow blood mixing with his blood soon began to puss, but only for a few minutes before it stopped. Everything stopped. Niles blood stopped pumping. As did his heart. His mind shut down. His eyes glazed and then faded away like an old picture rotting.

  A few minutes after that, Niles sat up, only it wasn’t Niles.

  It would be a matter of hours before the hospital was overrun. From there, the world.

  About the Contributors

  Armand Rosamilia is a New Jersey boy currently living in sunny Florida, where he reads way too many horror books, listens to way too much Heavy Metal music, and lives and dies on the Boston Red Sox. You can find all of his releases and what's coming up at http://armandrosamilia.wordpress.com

  Anastasia Wraight is an editor and writer based out of Central Texas. She has been indulging a passion for horror from a very young age, sneaking home R.L. Stine young adult books to read under the covers at night. She likes to explore, in both her writing and her reading, the many facets of horror as an emotion, delving into the depths of what truly hurts and scares us.

  Rebecca Besser, author of the zombie novella Undead Drive-Thru, is a wife, mother, editor, and full time writer. She writes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for various age groups and genres. Her work has appeared in magazines, anthologies, and eletronic mediums (ezines/ebooks). To learn more about her, visit her website:

  www.rebeccabesser.com or check her out on Facebook under: Author/Editor Rebecca Besser

  Jim Bronyaur is the author of The Devil's Weekend, among many other horror and thriller novels available. He's been published over 40 times, including winning Best Horror Short Story 2010. Visit his site at www.JimBronyau.com. Follow him on Twitter @JimBronyaur

  Rebecca Snow lives in Virginia with her husband and an armload of felines. Her short fiction has been published in a number of small press anthologies. She never flushes applesauce down the toilet. You can find her online at cemeteryflower.blog.com and on Twitter @cemeteryflower.

  Pembroke
Sinclair has had several stories published in various places. She writes an eclectic mix of stories ranging from western to science fiction to fantasy. Her stories have been published in various places, including Static Movement,chuckhawks.com, The Cynic Online Magazine, Sonar 4 Publications, Golden Visions Magazine, and Residential Aliens. Her first novel, Coming from Nowhere, is now available at eTreasures Publishing and Amazon.com. Her story, Sohei, was named one of the Best Stories of 2008 by The Cynic Online Magazine. If you would like to contact Pembroke, she can be reached at pembrokesinclair at hotmail dot com or

  pembrokesinclair.blogspot.com

  Jeremy Mahan got the taste for apocalyptic fiction after reading ‘The Stand’ by Stephen King. His addiction to zombie fiction started thanks to Max Brooks’ ‘The Zombie Survival Guide’. After that, there was no hope, because he soon found ‘Autumn’ by David Moody. Now it is zombie books, comics, movies and video games. His personal collection of horror/zombie/post-apocalyptic books is a point of personal pride. Jeremy lives in Western Washington with his Chiweenie, Wichita, who was named after a character from the movie ‘Zombieland’, one of his top 5 favorite zombie flicks! You can find more about Jeremy at www.facebook.com/jeremy.mahan1.

  Peggy Christie has been writing horror fiction since 1999. Her work has appeared in several websites, magazines, and anthologies, including Necrotic Tissue, The New Flesh, Black Ink Horror, Elements of Horror, and Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes. Her short story, “Why Be Normal?”, opened the anthology Reckless Abandon from Catalyst Press which premiered at the Horrorfind Convention in 2002. She also has her own webpage. Check it out at

  themonkeyisin.com.

  Peggy loves survival horror video games and chocolate (not necessarily in that order) and lives in Michigan with her husband, Robert, and their dogs, Roscoe P. Coltrane and Dozer.

  Jonathan Wood is an English ’indie’ pulp horror writer and ex UK lawyer, now residing in Sweden. Jonathan’s debut horror short The Crow Man attracted attention on the horror site HorrorSchool.com. Jonathan’s subsequent stories, The Return of Dale Corby, Fast Food and The Day The Drifter Came to Town were well received and his zombie short Pretend Girlfriend will appear in the Soul Survivors Volume One anthology from Knightswatch Press.

  Jonathan is currently working on a zombie novella and other projects.

  You can discover more about Jonathan and communicate with him via

  http://www.jonathanwoodhorrorauthor.blogspot.com

  Shawn M. Riddle is from the Northern Virginia area, just outside WashingtonD.C. He currently works in Construction Quality Control. He has several short stories currently in publication with KnightWatch Press and three other publishers. He is also editing several anthologies for KnightWatch Press including “Soul Survivors- Hometown Tales” Volumes One and Two, “The Blue, The Grey, and The Scarlet”, and “Vampyres- A History Written in Blood”. He runs a fan group for author David Moody on Facebook and can be found there as Shawn ‘Festering Corpse' Riddle.

  Bowie Ibarra is a writer of zombie horror and action/adventure stories living in Texas. You can learn more about Bowie's written works and network with him: http://www.zombiebloodfights.com

  Eric S Brown is the author of numerous books including the Bigfoot War series, How the West Went to Hell, Last Stand in a Dead Land, War of the Worlds Plus Blood Guts and Zombies, and Season of Rot to name only a few. His short fiction has been published hundreds of times in the small press and beyond. He lives in North Carolina where he continues to write tales of blazing guns, hungry corpses, and the things that lurk in the woods.

  Born and raised in Pretoria, South Africa, Monique Snyman has always been intrigued with the dark realities that stems from life. She has worked her way up from nothing to become a successful young writer, merely to bring joy to those who would find pleasure in the sick and twisted thoughts that often plague her mind. Her first novel, Charming Incantations: Enticed is due to be released soon and has already been intriguing people since its initial draft. Monique’s currently studying for her degree in B.A. Languages with Specialisation in Creative Writing at the University of South Africa and has an obsession for fluffy and pink objects.

  When Steve Gierman isn't finding inspiration to write horror stories and other works of fiction, he can be found pursuing other interests, in such diverse areas as baseball, music and film. Steve currently resides in the thriving village of Oak Lawn, Illinois, only blocks away from a Level 1 trauma center.

  About the Editor

  Lyle Perez-Tinics is the creator of www.UndeadintheHead.com a website dedicated to zombie books and the authors. He is the owner and Editor-in-Chief of Rainstorm Press (www.RainstormPress.com) and The Mad Formatter (www.TheMadFormatter.com) a book interior design business. He has stories in many anthologies and is currently working on two novels, Existing Dead and Rising from the Tempest. He is the mastermind behind The Undead That Saved Christmas charity anthology series. He also writes middle grade chapter books under his pen name, Benny Alano. www.BennyAlano.com

  Twitter - @LylePerez @RainstormPress @UndeadintheHead

  www.Facebook.com/RainstormPress

  www.Facebook.com/UndeadintheHead

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