Irene drew her hands up to the sides of her head and she covered her ears, trembling in disbelief, and she cried out, “What’s going on!” She looked over at the monitor and saw that a slight pulse was now showing up. “How can she be doing this…just a few seconds ago she was dead, and now she’s come back!”
Michael sensed that Irene was losing it and he embraced her, lifting her off of her feet and turning her away from the spectacle.
“Wait a minute, look,” Roberts said as he pointed at the monitor. “There’s a slight pulse. She’s not dead.”
Massimov cautiously stepped up beside the gurney, but not close enough to where he could be attacked. He looked down at the writhing, thrashing woman. “Quickly, we need to make sure she can’t get out of her restraints and we need to get her up to the quarantine floor.” The receptionist, terrified at what she had heard taking place, sheepishly walked into the examination room to see what all the yelling and screaming was about.
Pavlov pushed past Massimov and rushed over to Serik. Roberts, following Pavlov, walked up behind them and looked down at the ghastly wound. “We need to get this man secured,” he said.
Pavlov looked at Roberts and nodded. After what had just happened, he knew that it was necessary to secure Serik.
Mamani darted out into the hallway and yelled, “Guard, get over here and help us out!”
The guard had just finished “convincing” the dead woman’s husband to sit on the sidewalk outside of the hospital and was already on his way back towards the examination room when he heard Mamani calling for him.
“What the hell is all that nonsense in there?” the guard asked.
“Just hurry up!” Mamani turned and trotted back to the group of doctors and wounded. The guard followed with his rifle in his right hand. As he saw the struggling woman, he stopped and pointed at her.
“What’s wrong with her?” the guard asked.
“Help us secure her wrists and ankles to the gurney,” Pavlov said. Pavlov then turned to Serik and put his hand on the wounded man’s shoulder. He saw that Serik had already packed and bandaged his own wound. “We need to get you secured…just in case.”
“Secured?” Serik asked. The pain was making him wince, and a burning sensation was making its way up his arm and into his neck. “Shouldn’t you treat my wound and suture it up first?”
“Yes,” Pavlov sighed. “We will take care of your injury, but first we must make sure you are secure. We don’t know what we’re dealing with right now and you saw what happened with Anna and the dead woman. We just can’t take any chances. We’ll put you on another gurney and strap you down. Okay?”
“If you say so,” Serik said, his tone uncertain.
Pavlov turned to the guard. “We need another gurney in here. There is one more in Examination Room Three.”
“But didn’t you want me to help you with the woman?”
“Just get the damned gurney!” Pavlov barked.
The angry outburst startled the guard and he sprinted over to Room Three. He was even more startled when he saw Anna in the room, strapped down to her own gurney. She was screaming and thrashing about. Cautiously, and while eyeing Anna, the guard slung his rifle, grabbed the gurney and wheeled it back down to Room One.
“Okay Serik, just lay down and we’ll take care of you,” Pavlov gently said. The screams of the reanimated woman were drowning out Pavlov’s words.
Serik, still clutching his arm, positioned himself against the gurney and he leaned back. Pavlov and the guard helped Serik ease onto the hard plastic bed. He placed his arms down by his sides and Pavlov secured the safety straps over his upper torso and thighs. He then wheeled Serik down the hall and placed him into the room with Anna.
The guard, who was still gaping at the vomit covered woman, again asked, “What’s wrong with that woman?”
“Just help us get her hands and legs,” Mamani ordered.
Roberts stood in silence as he watched Massimov, Mamani and the guard add more restraints to the screaming woman. A smirk broke out across his face and Michael saw it.
“What the hell are you smiling at?” Michael asked.
“The sons of bitches. They actually did it!”
“They did what?” Irene asked in a choked up voice. “What in the world are you talking about?”
“We never could get it right, could never get it to work out the way we wanted it, but I guess they did. We knew it! We knew they were onto something, but we didn’t know that they had actually done it!” Roberts almost appeared to be talking to himself instead of answering Irene. He had a trance-like expression in his eyes as he watched the Kazakhs work to further secure the woman.
“Are you fucking delusional?” Michael stepped in front of Roberts. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
Roberts broke from his trance and looked into Michael’s eyes. He looked around to make sure no one else could hear what he was saying. “The Russians. We knew that they were working on it too, and now it looks like they beat us to the punch.”
“Look man.” Michael was breathing excitedly, still shocked. He could feel his anger boiling over. “I know everyone else around us is speaking a different language, but for Christ’s sake, speak English. What are you trying to tell us?”
“Please, Major, tell us what’s going on here,” Irene pleaded. “What are you talking about?”
Roberts slowly raised his chin, looking up at the ceiling as if he was looking up at an unseen being.
“Reanimation,” he whispered.
“What the hell is that?” asked Irene. “And what the hell is wrong with you? You act like you are stoned.”
“Will you keep your damn voice down?” Roberts scolded. “Do you want to get us killed? If this is reanimation, we can’t let anyone know that we have any idea on what’s going on. If you want to make it back home, just keep your fucking mouths shut for Christ’s sake.”
“Look, I don’t know what’s going on, but let’s just get the fuck out of here. Okay?” Michael said. “We can talk about this later on in safer conditions.”
Massimov saw the Americans huddled in a group and he immediately became suspicious. He decided to walk over to them. “We need to get this woman over to a better equipped facility, maybe even Astana, so we can examine her more thoroughly,” he said. “There is a helipad on the roof. We can call for a copter to transport us there, but we need to hurry.”
Mamani walked over to Massimov and pointed at Serik and Anna’s room. “What about them? And what about the ones upstairs?”
“We only have room for one patient,” he replied.
“Then call for a bigger helicopter,” returned Mamani. “We can’t leave them here. They are too important to just leave behind.”
“Once we get to where we are going, we will send back another team to gather up the others, and any new cases, but for right now, we need to focus on this one patient.”
Pavlov returned from the examination room during the exchange between Massimov and Mamani. “What are we going to do now?” he asked.
“Doctor Massimov wants to take this woman over to another facility and return for the others at another time. I myself think that that we should take as many as we can…there is no telling when we will be able to come back, or if we will ever be able to come back here.” The grim tone in her voice struck at Pavlov.
“Well, you do what you need to do,” Pavlov said as he eyed Massimov, but I am staying here at my hospital with my staff. We will take care of the patients until you come back.”
“You need to come with us,” Mamani pleaded with Pavlov. “Things might get bad here.”
“I know, but this is my hospital, and these are my people. I have a duty here. We’ll be fine until you come back. If you come back.” Pavlov looked into Mamani’s eyes and grinned…sadly.
***
“Help me, I’ve been attacked!” yelled a woman as she stumbled through the automatic doors of the emergency room lobby entrance. She shuffled her
way towards the reception desk as she clutched at her right forearm. “Some son of a whore bit me! Look!” She raised her right hand to show the receptionist an ugly bite on her palm.
“Doctor Pavlov, we have another bite!” screamed the red-headed receptionist. She stood up and quickly stepped back from the wounded woman. She had witnessed what had transpired with the first bite victim and she didn’t want to be anywhere near this bleeding woman. “Just sit right there mam,” she said as she pointed at the chairs in the waiting room. “Someone will be with you shortly.” A growing crescendo of police and ambulance sirens could be heard in the distance outside and the receptionist was growing nervous and frightened. Something terrible was going on in the city.
Pavlov, two orderlies, and another black-clad guard quickly raced into the room. The orderlies were carrying a canvas stretcher. They placed it on the ground and then grabbed onto the woman, quickly and roughly taking her down to the ground.
“What the hell are you doing?” The woman tried to resist, but before she could mount any type of defense, the orderlies were securing her wrists and ankles to the stretcher. “What’s going on here? I need help!”
“Take her to Examination Room Three with Serik and Anna,” ordered the doctor. Pavlov looked back at the receptionist. He could tell that she was frightened and he tried to calm her. “You did good, now, if anyone comes in who has been bitten, or if they are acting strange, let us know and make sure you stay away from them. Okay?”
“But Doctor Pavlov, when can I go home? I hear the sirens out there and it sounds bad. I’ve tried calling home from the desk phone, and no one answers. The cell phones aren’t even working.”
“Just help us out for a bit more and then you can go home,” Pavlov pleaded.
The young receptionist looked frightened and she had a slight tremble in her hands. “You promise?” she asked in a shaky voice.
“Yes my dear, Anargul, I promise.”
Just then, a frantic voice crackled over the intercom. It was the hospital dispatcher. “We’ve got an ambulance inbound with a victim suffering from what appear to be human bites.”
“Jesus, what’s going on out there?” Pavlov asked. He turned to the orderlies and the guard, looking down at the woman on the stretcher. “Hurry now, get her to the back.”
“Where are you taking me!” demanded the woman. The orderlies lifted her up and whisked her away as she screamed in protest.
Pavlov darted back to the nurse’s station, listening to the sirens as they continued to wail in the distance. There was a chubby man sitting at a terminal behind the dispatch console and Pavlov slapped the back of his monitor. “Contact the incoming ambulance and make sure that the crew secures that patient to the gurney. Also, start calling back all staff who are on-call…see if we can get them in here. And for God’s sake, see if any of the other hospitals are experiencing the same thing we are experiencing.” He had forgotten that Anargul had just told him that the phones were not working. Hurriedly, the doctor then went back into Examination Room Three.
“What’s going on, Doctor Pavlov?” the dispatcher asked as he stood up. “Please tell me what’s going on here?” With no reply from the doctor, the dispatcher pulled off his head-set and headed for the exit.
“Let me out of here!” the newly-arrived woman screamed when she saw Pavlov’s head poke into the room. Next to her was Serik and Anna. Anna was still thrashing and struggling against her restraints, shrieking and wailing.
“How are you doing, Serik?” Pavlov asked.
“It kind of hurts, but I’m okay. I just wish you didn’t think that it was necessary to have me tied up like this. Also, I don’t like being near Anna. She’s not saying anything, just screaming…like she is pissed or something. She acts like if she could get off of the gurney, she would kill me. I don’t think I need to be in here. I don’t feel sick like she is. I feel kind of strange…maybe a little light headed, but that’s about it.”
“I know, I know.” Pavlov looked down at the white tile floor. He wished that he could have been able to tell him something more reassuring. “But you saw what happened to the first lady, and now Anna. We have to take these precautions until we know what’s going on with you.”
“I still think the monitor was malfunctioning,” Serik said. “There’s no way someone could come back from the dead. There’s no way at all.”
“Hopefully Massimov and the Americans can figure out what’s going on. They just took that lady up to the lab…maybe they can figure out what’s causing this. I’m sure there’s some explanation for all of this.”
“But what is that going to do for me right now?
“I don’t know.”
“Come back from the dead?” asked the woman with the bite to her palm. She began to struggle and trash at her restraints. She raised her head and looked over at Pavlov. “What are you talking about? Did someone just die in here? Why do you have us tied up like this?” She continued to violently fight against her bonds. “Get me out of here!”
“Please calm down, ma’am,” Pavlov said. “We’re not sure what’s going on right now. We think maybe there is a strain of rabies going around, but we’re just not sure.”
“Well if that’s what you think, why don’t you start treating me instead of keeping me tied up like some kind of prisoner?”
“You’re not a prisoner, it’s just that there is something going on right now that we can’t explain and—”
A loud pained shriek from the reception area sent Pavlov running towards the commotion. As he ran into the lobby, he was stunned to see a man grabbing the young receptionist by her long red hair. “Hey, what are you doing!” he screamed.
The attacker, a mid-twenties man with a small frame and dirtied, dark hair, yanked the receptionist’s head down and he began to viciously bang it on the desk. He then raised her head up and smashed it into the computer monitor. After pulling her bloodied face away from the shattered screen, the man shoved his fingers inside of her mouth, grabbing her cheek between his index finger and thumb. He yanked his hand up in a sudden and violent motion, tearing Anargul’s cheek wide open.
“Guard, guard, get in here!” Pavlov screamed. The shocked doctor grabbed a decorative copper planter from the lobby and he held it like a club as he approached the crazed man. “Hey, get away from her you bastard!”
The man tossed Anargul aside as she crashed down onto the floor in a bloody heap. He then turned to Pavlov and started to shriek and scream in a raspy voice. He broke into a run at him and opened his arms wide. The doctor began to backtrack and he tried to bring the heavy planter up to defend himself. He quickly second-guessed his act of bravery as the lunatic bore down on him. Pavlov closed his eyes and awaited the attack.
The room was filled with the deafening crack of automatic rifle fire. Another black-garbed guard (he had come from the other end of the hospital to investigate all the shouting and screaming) had his rifle up in his shoulder and he was blasting the charging man. The bullets chewed up the wall and shattered the glass window behind the rushing man. Pavlov opened his eyes just in time to see the attacker crash down onto the floor, his body ripped to shreds from the bullets. The doctor dropped the planter and turned to run back towards the guard. From somewhere down the street a large explosion rocked the hospital. A staccato of gunfire followed.
“Where’s Alexei, the other guard?” the armed man asked.
“He escorted another patient upstairs with the Americans.”
“Escorted?”
“Never mind, it will take too long to explain. We’re in danger down here. We need to find shelter. People are going crazy on the streets and are attacking everyone.”
Caught by surprise at Pavlov’s words, the guard stopped for a moment to process what he had just heard. The sound of a nearby explosion brought the man back to his senses. “Then hurry and gather your staff, quickly! We can try to barricade ourselves somewhere on the second or third floors. Maybe we can get out with the Americans.”
At that time, a woman came stumbling through the lobby entrance. She had a large piece of flesh missing from the right side of her neck and her left hand had been chewed savagely. She stopped at the desk and then began to twist and turn as she looked around the room. When she saw Pavlov and the guard, she let out a phlegm-filled scream and charged at them.
The guard cranked off another burst, catching her in the thigh and upper chest. The woman twirled with the blast and fell face down. Blood splashed out from her wounds and pooled around her crumpled torso.
“Hurry, doctor!” The guard looked down to his ammo pouch for a magazine. As he fumbled with the snap on the pouch, he didn’t see that the man who he had just shot was now slowly getting back up on his feet.
Pavlov could not believe what he was seeing. The dead man was now on his feet, stumbling towards the guard.
“Watch out!” Pavlov screamed.
The guard looked up and saw the man standing there, staring at him with a blank expression in his pasty white eyes. Terrified, the guard brought his rifle up to his waist and squeezed the trigger. The bullets tore through the man’s hips and abdomen, but the reanimated corpse continued to stagger and stumble towards the astonished sentinel. He was dragging his left leg and his foot was twisted in a grotesque manner. As he neared the dumbfounded guard, he grabbed onto his tunic, knocking him back over one of the lobby chairs. The infected carrier then came down on top of him, his mouth agape in a wicked snarl.
The guard struggled to bring his rifle up between him and his attacker, but before he could do anything, the man was biting down across his throat. Terrified, the guard let out a gurgling scream as he kicked and flailed about. His screams stopped when the assailant pulled away, clenching the guard’s windpipe in his jaws. In one last desperate attempt at survival, the mortally wounded man rose to his feet and stumbled towards Examination Room Three. He used his hands to support himself against the wall. Bloody palm prints marked his doomed journey.
As he stumbled through the doorway, he crashed down to the floor and rolled onto his back. Blood gushed out of his wound and as he clutched at his throat, he noticed that Serik, the complaining lady and Anna were all now shrieking and howling as they fought against their restraints. Serik was actually able to topple over his gurney and he landed on the floor right next to the guard. The dying man was face to face with Serik as the infected orderly gnashed his teeth and hissed at him.
A Glimpse Of Decay (Book 1): Red Storm) Page 11
