When The Dead Rise (Book 1): The Outbreak

by Fraser, D. K.

  “I gave Betty some valium; she was a little upset about last night so she might not seem herself.” Travis handed the chart back “I also gave her a dose of cold medicine, she’s seemed fairly healthy this week so I want to keep it that way” Travis turned his attention to his computer and Jake knew this meant Travis didn’t want to talk about anything so he took the chart and headed down the hallway. It was very noticeable how silent this wing was from the rest of the facility, the thick walls and soundproof windows; all so these residents remained calm and whatever mental thing they had going on didn’t get fired up by noises or distractions from the outside.

  Ms. Long’s room was at the end of the hall and lately she was asking the same questions.

  “Do you have today's paper?” and “Is Charlotte here to get me?” someone asked about who Charlotte was thinking it was a family member, but it had turned out Charlotte was a friend of Ms. Long’s in high school and would pick her up so the two could go out driving around together. He thought it sweet that at such a pivotal point in her life she could only think of a happier time as it turned out she hadn’t seen Charlotte in over 40 years. He was startled as he was walking down the hall a door beside him opened. A gaunt face peered out.

  “Geez, David!” he said more to himself quietly than to David.

  David’s eyes were all milky and cloudy.

  “You okay, buddy?” he asked but this was a rhetorical question as David had severe Alzheimer's and only cared and talked about a few things.

  “Foooood?” David mumbled as he opened the door and shuffled out not lifting his feet off the ground. He looked down at David’s feet that were red and trailing blood as he shuffled out into the hall. This often happened if David removed his socks and none of the aids had noticed.

  David would shuffle his feet not lifting them then they would blister and bleed from being scraped. “ David look at your feet! C’mon let’s get some socks on you” He said guiding him back into the room. Then from inside the room a gruff voice called out

  “Get that geriatric mother fucker out this room, I’m sick of his jokes and him asking me for food!” the voice belonged to Mr. Jones an elderly African American man in a wheelchair who reminded the staff of Samuel L. Jackson. As Jake walked in with David, he could see Mr. Jones was tinkering with something on his bed.

  He liked Mr. Jones, he was old and ornery, always giving the nurses shit and trying to with Frank to flirt with the females. He had short grey hair and grey stubble that covered his face.

  “Easy now, Mr. Jones, I’ll get his socks on him and let him watch some TV out in the dining room,” Jake said, sitting David down on his bed. He looked above Mr. Jones's bed at a photo which was of a much younger Mr. Jones in a navy uniform. He always imagined Mr. Jones to be a badass in his younger days. David stared at the picture too then back to Jake and asked “How...how many seconds are in...a year?” His speech was slow and slurred.

  It was the same joke David told everyone every day, Jake laughed at it every day and people had told him he would get sick of it eventually, but he hadn’t yet.

  “I dunno, Dave, how many?” before David could answer, Mr. Jones threw what he was tinkering with across the room and into the wall, startling both Jake and David.

  “There’s twelve! Twelve fuckin’ seconds in a year! The same joke every fuckin’ day you stupid shit! Go fuck yourself!” Mr. Jones shouted as he wheeled himself out of the room and into the hallway. Jake turned to David who just stared up at him unfazed, “There’s…Twelve seconds... January second…. February second…” David said chuckling to himself pleased with his joke probably like the first time he had ever told it. It wasn’t like Mr. Jones to be so angry so he must have known about Frank. Jake stepped out of the room to see where Mr. Jones had wheeled himself to. Mr. Jones was reaching up from his chair to turn on the TV at the end of the hall, cursing under his breath.

  The entrance doors to hall 3 opened with Benny and Michelle laughing as they came bouncing in. Benny nodded “You stealing my guys?” Benny asked holding up a chart. Both David and Mr. Jones were usually on Benny’s route.

  “I was taking David back in to get socks and Jonesy flipped out,” he told Benny.

  Benny let out a deep laugh “Yeah I guess he’s getting moved.” Benny told him that over the past few days Mr. Jones had been having more and more outbursts, so Travis had requested a room change. As Benny took over attending to David, Jake headed down to Mrs. Long’s room.

  As he passed by Mr. Moore’s room, he looked in but there was yellow caution tape put across the doorway to deter residents from wandering in. He entered Ms. Long’s room and caution tape had also been put across her bathroom door too. Both Mr. Moore and Ms. Long’s had a bathroom they shared between the rooms. Ms. Long was bed ridden but other residents could wonder in and threw to Mr. Moore’s room.

  He looked at Ms. Long as she lay in bed silent. Usually she was awake this time of day, but he looked at the chart and was aware she was sick. He checked her vitals, noting she looked very clammy and sweaty. He looked at her wrists, noticing her veins seemed to be a purple color and were raised; it was on both wrists with some faintly on her neck starting to appear. As he was checking over her chart Benny slammed his hand on the door to the room startling him

  “C’mon fucker, let’s go get lunch” Benny said then disappeared down the hallway. He finished up his notes on his chart and took it to Travis as he left hall 3. He hoped Ms. Long would be feeling better and awake when he rechecked her in the afternoon.

  Nick

  Nick came out the shower feeling refreshed and ready to so some prep work on his presentation. It was still early, almost six o’clock, he figured he would run through his presentation on his laptop then head out for something to eat, then do some last-minute changes if any were needed before calling it a night. He put on some comfortable jeans and an olive-green shirt. He rolled up the sleeves as he walked over to the desk and opened his laptop, but it was dead. He grabbed the charger plugging one end into the laptop then looked for the outlet on the wall.

  The other cables from the TV and lamp went down behind the desk so he got down and crawled under it. He was under the desk and his phone started to ring, it was a tight squeeze under there, so he reached his arm out and groped around on the desk above him for the phone, he felt it with his fingers and pulled it down answering it,

  “Hi honey!” he said to his wife on the other end, but he was met with a child’s voice.

  “Hi, daddy!!!” squealed the voice on the other end, it was his daughter. His eyes lit up and heart began to melt. This was the first time away from his little Princess and she was his world, hearing her voice, it seemed like had been a lot more than a few hours since he had seen her.

  The way the economy was going he knew if he wanted a secure future for her, he had to make more money and she was a big motivator as to why he had come to Seattle to pitch this idea that a lot of people had thought him crazy for. The cart he owned was doing great, but he needed to expand.

  “Hi, Baby! How are you? You and mommy doing okay?” he asked, trying to hide his concern and guilt for leaving the two women in his life at home by themselves for the first time. The concern was that they lived right outside of Portland and there was going to be protests and even though they wouldn’t be near the protests he was always thinking the worst. This is why he was always preparing for “the big one” so that even small things like protests that could turn into riots or a small power outage that could turn into a blackout lasting a few days his family would be ready.

  “We’re fine, daddy” he could hear the sadness in her voice, “I miss you already, I’m being brave and protecting mommy like you said” Hearing the confidence in her voice made him proud.

  “Good! That’s daddy's big girl” he replied back. Deep down he knew they would be fine, he had thought out every scenario in his head, he was anal like that. His wife laughed at him that he took his EDC bag with him everywhere he went in case
he got stranded and had to make it home on foot to them. He would even google how long it would take to walk there. Ever since he had read the home survivalist book series it was always in the back of his head

  What if shit hit the fan?

  So, he had instructed his wife and baby girl what to do if anything ever happened. He knew his wife enjoyed all the training they did together, shooting guns, setting up traps in the garden, prepping bug out bags and first aid kits and prepping supplies.

  Nick smiled to himself, his little girl was sounding all grown up “I miss you too, pumpkin, but it’s important daddy does this and I’ll be straight back” he slid out from the desk and rested his back against the bed looking at the spaghetti junction of wires under the desk.

  “You promise, daddy?” she asked, and he could tell she was missing him a lot.

  “Baby, I promise I’ll be on the first train as soon as I’m done, the day after tomorrow. Can I talk to mommy?” he asked.

  As he heard her pass the phone to her mom, he was distracted by a smashing of glass sound from outside and a long scream, he jumped as a body flew past the window with shards of glass then another. He dropped the phone and rushed to the window, just before he got to the window the screaming stopped and he looked out to see two bodies smashed on the concrete sidewalk below and a circle of people forming around them. He tried to look up, but he couldn’t see straight up, some fabric and papers fluttered down. He stumbled backwards and picked up the phone on the desk by the bed to call the front desk, but it was busy. He could hear his wife from his cell phone on the ground

  “Nick? Nick? Hello? Are you there?” he picked it up, still in shock and trying to calm himself but pacing from the bed to the window and back again.

  “Hey babe it’s me!” he said with a labored breath from what he had just seen trying not to panic.

  “Nick, are you okay? What’s wrong? You sound frantic!” Nick wasn’t sure what to say he still couldn’t believe what he just saw

  “Yeah, I’m fine honey, I just...I just saw an accident outside of my window” he pushed his face against the glass to see what was happening.

  “Seriously?” she asked sounding stunned, “What happened? Is anyone hurt” she asked.

  Nick nodded to himself.

  His wife had warned him about Seattle and how this would be bad timing that there had been a lot on the news about police brutality and possible protests in every major city. He knew of course with protests came the people who exploited them and instigated more violence.

  “I’m not sure honey, I think people are waiting for the ambulances, it just happened as I was talking to Amber,” he told her trying not to let her know the severity of the situation.

  “Oh my gosh, well I’m sure they’ll be fine, honey, we miss you,” she said in her soft soothing voice then added, “I’ll let you go, honey, but give us a call later when everything’s settled, okay?”

  Nick wiped the sweat from his forehead, he wasn’t sure if he was clammy due to this crazy heat or from what he’d just seen. “Okay honey, I love you.” he could hear Amber in the background saying bye and that she loved him.

  “Speak to you later honey,” she said, hanging up after they both exchanged goodbyes.

  Nick threw his cellphone on the desk and ran his hands through his hair. He could hear sirens from outside. He walked over and looked out at the chaos below. He could see the crowd circled around the bodies. Some of them were looking up towards where he was and at whatever was above him. He was disgusted by how many people he could see with cell phones out. He put his hand on the window, the glass felt thick, He wasn’t sure what had happened to make it break and these poor people fall but he needed to shake it off.

  He stepped out of his room and into the hallway, it was quiet and he couldn’t hear a thing as he walked towards the elevators, He took it down to the ground floor and as the doors opened he was on the ground floor and the chatter of people hit him. The lobby was packed with groups of people standing around all chattering and looking out at the crowds of people that were surrounding the bodies.

  There was no sign of police or paramedics and Nick looked around at the shocked looks on everyone’s faces. Then a hotel staff member stepped out from behind a small info desk. “Please! Again, everyone we need to clear the area! There is nothing to see outside, please go back to your room or about your business!” the small man shouted to the whole lobby; Nick guessed he hadn’t been the only one with the idea to come to the lobby to try to find out what had happened.

  He took the man’s advice and turned to head back to the elevator. He got into the first one that opened. A group got in with him and there was an awkward silence. There were three Asian men and a girl. She was pale white, and her eyes were watery, one of the men an older Asian man with a flowing moustache held her and kissed her head muttering something Nick didn’t understand. The other two Asian men dressed in slacks and dress shirts just stared at each other, then started to shout quickly at one another, Nick didn’t speak whatever language they were speaking but could tell by the tones and facial expressions and hands waving they weren’t happy with each other.

  Nick stared closely at one of the men’s white shirts, he could see red spray all on one side and the hand furthest from Nick was bandaged with red dots where the blood was starting to seep through. He glanced up and caught the older man looking at him, so he turned his attention to the floor display screen above the doors as it beeped, it was his floor. Walking out he turned, and he could see the look of concern in the older man’s face as he held onto the young girl and looked at the two men still bickering with one another.

  Nick turned and headed for his room feeling bad for the people going up in the elevator, he wasn’t sure what had happened somewhere above him, but he didn’t want to be anyone headed up that way. He definitely hadn’t gotten any answers or were any calmer from going down to the lobby. His head was still mush and he couldn’t think straight. He entered his room and walked over to the window, looking out the crowds were still down there but now there was some flashing lights. “’Bout time” he thought to himself as he shut the curtains. He wiped his head and there was a greasy film on it. He had just showered before this had all happened but headed into the bathroom and turned on the shower as hot as it could go, steaming up the room.

  Whenever Nick needed a minute to think or center himself, he always took a bath or a hot shower as it seemed to calm his mind and settle him. He stepped in and the searing hot water hitting his back hurt but took his mind away from the racing thoughts that were going on in his head. The nervousness of his meeting tomorrow, what he had seen, his anxiety about being away from his wife and Amber at home, all of that started to melt away as he put his head against the wall and closed his eyes.

  Jake

  Jake walked into the dining room with Benny and Michelle to see everyone gathered around the 60-inch TV with a few residents watching, too. They made his way over to see what had grabbed everyone’s attention. The news was on and there was an aerial view of rioting in a city then it changed to other views of the same thing happening in different places. Every couple of seconds, it would change to a different city. As the views changed, the city and state names appeared with them. There was information also being put up on the screen about symptoms , and if anyone had them to go to their nearest clinic or hospital. He was confused as to what protests and riots about police violence had to do with the symptoms of this super flu going around. From the symptoms he was reading on the screen this super flu seemed more like rabies than influenza.

  Benny was talking to one of the other nurses then turned to Jake “They said a few minutes ago that Oregon as well as some other states have declared a state of emergency!”

  As he pulled out his cell phone, he heard one of the other nurses say out loud to no one in particular what he had been thinking.

  “What the fuck does this virus have to do with police brutality and protests?”

  He w
alked away from the group so he could hear his wife, her phone rang, she picked up sending a wave of relief came over him

  “ Babe! Honey, I think you should head home,” he told her.

  His brow furrowed, he could hear the boys in the background, and she replied, “I left work about forty-five minutes ago honey, I got a call from the school asking me to pick the boys up, are you on your way home?” she asked

  “Headed home?” He was getting confused, “Why? What's wrong?” he asked.

  She explained after getting the message from the school that other workers who had kids at other schools had been asked to pick up their children, too. Then while on the way in traffic the radio had been advising everyone to stay where they were, remain indoors and to not travel unless absolutely necessary.

  “I’ll get off as soon as I can honey and be home, I love you,” he told her.

  Benny was looking at him as he hung up the phone.

  “Everything okay?” Benny asked him, he gave a nod then saw a few people turn to the doorway as Karen walked in.

  “Thank you all for coming,” she began, “this is a staff meeting only so I would like all residents to give us some privacy,” Karen said authoritatively as she gestured to the door behind her.