When The Dead Rise (Book 1): The Outbreak

by Fraser, D. K.

Being a police officer was mostly a thankless job. People were always seeing you as the “bad guy”, the “imperial stormtrooper” for the government. Alice hadn’t been thanked many times in her four years of being a cop. Something about this girl and tonight it meant something. She had definitely never been thanked for shooting someone in the head before, that’s for sure.

  There was a bright flash from out the left side of the car. The boy in the back let out a “whoa!” They all looked out the car to see what it was. There were flames from a neighborhood licking up in the air. Alice’s heart missed a beat. That was the direction of her neighborhood. It was also roughly where her precinct was.

  She looked back at the kids, “We’re taking a detour,” she told them, turning the cruiser sharply. Putting her foot down and changing gears, the car raced down some side streets. She was going way too fast she knew that. The cruiser was lifting off the ground every time they hit a speed bump. She was looking up above the houses to try and judge where the flames were coming from, trying to map out in her head just how close it was to her home. She was so fixated with the flames she didn’t hear both the kids in the back warn her before it was too late.

  A truck slammed into the side of the cruiser. The car was filled with the sound of screams and crunching, twisting metal. The cruiser was sent rolling off the road and into a small field. Alice’s head bounced off the dashboard and the cage behind her. She closed her eyes and her teeth. The girl’s screams were the last thing she heard as everything went black.

  Stefan

  Stefan stepped out of the ambulance as Alice’s car took off. Rob, his partner stepped out the back of the ambulance. They had been EMT partners for three years now. Rob was looking at him, “You ever going to ask her?” Rob asked. Stefan shrugged his shoulders as he knelt down beside the body bag. Rob chuckled “Stefan Lear! I have known you for just over three years and never known you to be this shy” Rob said laughing. He was about to let out a laugh himself when he got a whiff from the body. Alice had told him the guy was dead but hadn’t said for how long.

  By the foul smell he got as he unzipped the bag it seemed like it had been a good few days.

  “Wow… this is definitely the nastiest thing I’ve seen this week,” he said.

  “Holy shit,” Rob said.

  As he shone a light on the dead man’s face, Rob knelt beside him. “Hey, you think this could be the virus?” Rob asked. This thought had crossed his mind, too. They’d gotten emails this week about a potential super virus. The emails were pretty vague but included advanced necrosis which would account for the smell. The emails stated that it could be very contagious. That anyone exhibiting symptoms of extreme anger or outbursts should be isolated. Those were for people admitted to the hospital. There was only one email about if encountering a deceased person who would be infected.

  He looked at Rob. “Well if it is this mysterious virus we’ve been hearing about, then we need to get him to Southwest and isolated for transport,” he said zipping the bag up.

  “That also means Alice and those kids she had in her car need to be isolated and quarantined, too” Rob replied.

  “With the radio down, we should head to Southwest now and catch up with her before those kids leave” He said nodding towards the gurney. He would need Rob’s assistance lifting the body onto it. Rob was a big guy towering at six foot five. The man was nothing but sheer hulking muscle. Everything he wore he looked like he would tear through if he flexed. They both grabbed an end and lifted the body bag onto the stretcher. After it was loaded in the back, they both got into the front. Stefan turned the key looking at the body in the rearview mirror. He was hoping Alice was fine and not infected.

  “So, you going to ask her when we get there?” Rob asked, looking at him with widening his eyes.

  “If she’s not infected then yeah course I will… just to shut you up.” He laughed and Rob chuckled with him. As they drove towards the hospital cars were speeding past them. Something was definitely in the air. He remembered watching the news today when he was at home. The protests in Portland were turning ugly. Taking Alice to Portland for a date was probably a bad idea.

  As they arrived at Southwest there was a line at drop off. There were three other EMT crews taking people in. “Wow it’s busy tonight” Rob said. They both stared at the people being walked in by the other EMT”s. Luckily, they were headed to the side entrance to take the body in. Once they dropped off the body, they could find Alice. Finding out what was going on with the radios would be next. Stefan looked in through the huge glass windows of the ER lobby as they drove past. “Holy shit it’s packed in there!” he said. EMT’s bringing people into the ER was normal but the packed ER lobby was a first. They drove round to the side loading doors where a hospital security guard was at the door with a nurse. They slowed to a stop and rolled the window down.

  “We got a deceased one, possibly infected with the new virus we got the emails about.” Stefan told the nurse. The security officer stepped towards them undoing the stud on his holster. Rob leaned over towards the window.

  “It’s okay chief…he’s dead.” Rob said sarcastically.

  The guard just stared at them. “Were either of you bit or hurt?” The guard asked. Stefan could feel the tension.

  “There something we need to know?” he asked the officer.

  The nurse looked in and shone a flashlight into both their eyes. “Things have changed.” the nurse said, turning the flashlight off. Stefan was intrigued and wanted to know more. “The radios went down so we weren’t updated on any changes of procedure” He told the men.

  Getting out of the ambulance, he walked round to the rear where Rob opened the doors. He couldn’t help noticing and Rob had noticed, too. The guard was standing at the door to the hospital and hadn’t taken his hand off his gun the whole time. “There something wrong?” Rob asked the nurse.

  The nurse was a small, frail, red headed guy with glasses and looked like a Weasley. “Umm, no, just precautions. We…we’ve been asked to make a hundred percent sure they’re dead before taking them into the hospital” The nurse stammered timidly.

  Rob let out a howling laugh. “A hundred percent dead??? How much fucking deader can someone be?” Rob said laughing. Neither the nurse nor the security guard were laughing.

  “Okay, what’s going on?” He asked looking at the nurse.

  “Head inside and you’ll be briefed by your superior, but we’re not allowed to give out any information,” the guard said.

  He bit his lip and nodded then looked over at Rob who shook his head in annoyance. “You two take this one in then, we’ll go get briefed then be back out,” Rob said angrily.

  Tossing the ambulance keys to the nurse he looked over at the guard. “What if he’s not... 100% dead?” Stefan curiously asked.

  The nurse looked round at the guard obviously anxious to hear the answer, too.

  “I’d have to shoot him in the head,” The guard said in a low dull tone.

  Stefan nodded somberly then turned and headed with Rob in the direction of the ER entrance.

  “What the fuck you think’s going on?” Rob asked.

  “Not sure but with the radios down and how busy it is tonight I’m starting to get a bad feeling,” he said. Rob nodded then they both paused for a second in awe. The line of people waiting to register at the ER check in desk was out the door. He couldn’t believe it and gave people quick once overs as he passed them on his way in. They all seemed to have gashes or large wounds.

  Once inside he waved to the girls at the check in desk who were clearly overwhelmed. He stopped to survey the scene in the ER lobby. There was a janitor handing out masks to everyone after they checked in. Every seat was taken with some chairs having more than one person squeezed on. There was old people sweating profusely with rags on their heads. Young people holding fabric or clothing over wounds. The air smelled like a mix of copper pennies and disinfectant. This couldn’t all be from the super virus he thought, or c
ould it? If the virus was the cause of maybe half of these admissions, then they were going to be in for a very rough time.

  “Stefan! Head through!” Brandi, one of the admission nurses shouted to him. The large double doors leading into the hospital from the ER waiting room buzzed open. Brandi met them as they walked through, and the two heavy doors closed behind them. He could still hear coughing and groans coming from the lobby.

  The admission nurse Brandi had a huge crush on Rob. “Hey” Brandi said, blushing.

  “Busy night tonight, huh,” Rob said putting his hands on his hips like a catalog pose. Rob may have the looks and muscle but lacked charisma. Every time Rob did something cringe worthy like this Stefan couldn’t help but try not to laugh out loud. He noticed Brandi was starting to blush like some high school girl.

  “Yeah it’s nuts! We’re waiting on the National Guard to get here,” Brandi said not taking her eyes from Rob. Rob must have been just as surprised by this as he was as the model pose dropped.

  “The national guard?” Rob asked.

  Brandi nodded looking at him. “All of the radios are down and there’s been a national emergency declared,” Brandi said.

  “Do you know what exactly it is they’re coming here for?” Rob asked.

  Brandi shook her head and looked just as confused as they were.

  “Hopefully they’ll help us deal with the overflow in urgent care as we’ve been told not to let anyone leave,” Brandi said, looking puzzled.

  This was really strange but made sense, he thought. If there was a new super virus going around then they should be here, not out infecting other people. The fact it had happened so suddenly was what scared him. There had been vague emails about symptoms for about a week now. Nothing to suggest an outbreak like this or the severity of the virus.

  “We’ve also just been told to tell any units that come in to stay here, too, until they get here,” Brandi said.

  “Figures,” Rob said, “our radios aren’t working maybe they have better ones and can give us more info on this virus before we go back out,” Rob said, sounding positive.

  He knew what Rob was saying made sense but until the National Guard got here, he wanted to find out as much as he could about this virus. The security guard at the side doors seemed to have newer information.

  “Hey if we’re stuck here for a bit maybe you can ask Alice out on that date,” Rob said with a huge shit eating grin.

  “You’re trying to get a date, Stefan? Is she here?” Brandi asked, smiling.

  “Yeah, she’s a cop but brought in two kids, probably a little bit before we arrived,” he began before Rob cut in.

  “Yeah, we have to get some more info from her about the body we brought in and since she won’t be leaving either this is perfect!” Rob said clapping his big hands together.

  “Could you find out what room they’re in?” he asked Brandi.

  “Sure, but I haven’t seen any cops, not in the last couple of hours,” Brandi told them.

  This wasn’t a good sign he thought to himself as Brandi disappeared into the admission office. He peered around the corner to see her skimming through the admissions on the computer. He looked up at the large plexiglass windows that separated the admission nurses from the patients. The place was packed and the line of people waiting to give the nurses their info had only gotten bigger.

  “What was the name?” Brandi asked.

  “Her first names Alice, last is Hayward, but it would have been two kids she was checking in,” he said.

  Brandi was staring at the screen shaking her head. “Nope she’s not here,” Brandi said. Suddenly a gurgling noise came from the line of people waiting. The admission nurses let out gasps jumping out of their seats. A small child at the front of the line began vomiting blood. Blood was getting splattered all over the plexiglass with some coming through the slot that people slid their ID and information through. People began screaming and shouting as the ER lobby erupted into chaos.

  Alice

  Alice’s eyes fluttered as the pounding in her head got louder and louder. She tried to assess the situation by looking around. The car was on its side, she was being held in place by the seat belt. She tried to focus but her vision was groggy. Her face was wet and throbbed.

  Trying to move around was hard as she ached all over. The last thing she remembered was hearing the kids in the back scream. Her head was touching the door window which was against the ground. She lifted it from a sticky pool of what must have been dried blood.

  She tried to look out through where the windshield had been. Her vision cleared up a bit when she narrowed her eyes. The car seemed to be in a field. There was a truck in the field, too, with a crumpled in front end. There was smoke coming from the front of the truck. Taking a guess, Alice decided this was what had hit them at the intersection. She tried to turn her neck to see in the cage behind her. The grogginess quickly snapped away as she saw the girl in the back. The girl was covered in blood and eating the boy! The boy had a huge chunk of glass going in his left eye socket.

  Either the crunching of broken glass or Alice’s labored breaths got the girls attention. The girl threw herself against the cage separating the front and back of the car. Bloody fingers poked through the mesh cage. The girls blood stained teeth were grinding on the cage as the girl tried to bite her way through. The girls eyes were all milky white and vacant. The same soulless gaunt look she had seen twice tonight already.

  Alice had no clue how long she’s been out. The seatbelt release wasn’t working so she reached over to pull open the glovebox. Its contents all spilled out onto her. It was so much harder trying to do things suspended sideways. Add to that the throbbing all over her body and the crazed cannibal trying to gnash her way through a steel mesh barrier.

  She looked for the seatbelt cutter that was on the multi tool. It was kept stowed away in the glove box for just this kind of accident. Slicing through the belt, she fell hard against the door which was now the floor.

  She elbowed the cage hard, “Shut up!” she snarled to the girl who was growling and hissing. Alice pushed on her shoulder radio but found nothing. She reached over for the cruiser’s radio. The frustration inside her was building. The radio was busted into pieces probably thanks to the crash. She decided to climb out through the broken windshield. The inside of the car was stuffy and humid. Once outside the car the cool night air hit her. This gave her a little bit of comfort and relief.

  Once outside the car she stood up and stretched. It was still dark, but the sky was dotted with red glows. The smell of smoke was thick and heavy in the air. Holding her head as it throbbed, she walked towards the truck. She could feel where the gash was on her head. Blood was still trickling down her head. Suddenly she stopped in her tracks and stared at the truck driver. Despite what she’d seen this evening she still couldn’t believe her eyes. Was she concussed? Was she delirious? She looked at the driver in disbelief or more, what was left of him.

  The drivers head was halfway through the windshield glass. Skin torn from his face and hanging. The front of his skull was exposed and bloody, revealing deep eye sockets with milk white eyes. There was smashed bloody teeth and dangling tissue.

  Alice pulled out her gun as she slowly started to walk toward the truck again.

  Hey!” she shouted. As she expected, the driver reacted like a blind animal caught in a trap. All riled up, the head poking through the glass began moving. Side to side it was thrashing against the glass. She could see the arms flailing inside the truck through the spider webbed glass.

  She turned looking towards her patrol car lying on its side. The girl was still in the back banging the cage like an animal. That’s when she realized…these weren’t people anymore. She aimed the gun at the truck drivers head. Her hands were shaking as she was about to squeeze the trigger, but she lowered her gun. Her head was throbbing, and she wasn’t a hundred percent sure this was the right thing to do right now or not.

  She looked up at where
the flames had been that had distracted her before the crash.

  They weren’t there anymore but the smell of burning was. Judging by where the glow had been before she wasn’t far. It was about five to six blocks away and pretty close to her house.

  Alice hobbled out of the field and looked down the road in either direction. No cars, so she crossed the road, still holding her head. Heading the direction of home sounded like a good idea. She stopped and turned around to take one final look at the scene behind her. The sight of a smoking truck with some kind of demon stuck in the windshield. A police cruiser on its side with some kind of cracked out cannibal in the back. Any other day this would be nuts and a major crime scene. From the way tonight had been however this looked like a nightmare. One Alice hoped she would wake up soon.

  Alice had been walking for a few blocks at a pretty slow pace. Her right leg was hurting pretty bad from the crash. The blood had finally stopped dripping down from her forehead.

  There hadn’t seen a single person in sight while she’d been walking. Plenty of houses she had passed had lights on but no signs of activity. She’d tried her cell phone, but it was all cracked, not even turning on. A door creaked open as she passed a gate leading up to a house. An elderly bearded man came out with a shotgun raised. She put her arms up and looked him in the eyes. Slowly the man lowered his gun.

  “S-sorry” he stuttered “I didn’t realize you were a cop and those things don’t put their hands up, but you were walking like one,” The man said in a scared tone. Then he gave a whistle and a thumbs up to a house across the street. Alice turned and looked over at a garage attached to the house. Squinting, she could see a man lying on top with a rifle trained on her.

  This confused her even more. “What the fucks going on?” she asked.

  The man's eyes widened as he looked at her in disbelief, “Are you serious?” he asked.

  Before she could give a smart ass reply he continued. “Some disease, the news says, making people go crazy and act like maniacs,” he said.