Dead, but Not for Long

by Kinney, Matthew

  “Have either of you been bitten?” he asked.

  “No,” the woman replied.

  Keith guessed that she was about his age, late twenties, maybe. Her long, light brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail and though she wore a set of oversized scrubs, Keith could tell that she was in excellent shape. He was relieved, since the odds of completing their task would be higher with people who could run fast and wouldn’t be a burden. He glanced at the child, not quite so sure about her. She was thin and pale and while she didn’t exactly look like an invalid, she didn’t seem to be in top shape, either. Hopefully she was healthy enough to run.

  “I’m Lindsey,” the woman said. “I’m a physical therapist and I was putting Autumn through her routine when a man went berserk and started tearing people apart out in the hall. I locked the doors and we hid in the equipment closet. Did you catch the guy?”

  Jack hesitated, realizing that the woman and girl couldn’t see anything from where they’d been hiding. They probably didn’t realize the full extent of the crisis. It was also unlikely that they’d heard the announcement that Keith had made over the intercom.

  “You’d better prepare yourselves,” he said. “There seems to be an epidemic.”

  “He’s right,” Keith added. “Whatever caused the man you saw to go crazy, it’s contagious and it’s spreading fast. Most of this floor and the whole bottom floor are totally overrun by people like that.”

  “We’re trying to clear the floor so we can get meds to the patients upstairs,” Jack added. “I’m Jack, by the way, and this is Keith.”

  Keith nodded then explained the plan to them as quickly as he could. “How do you feel about being bait while we sneak back out to lock them in here?”

  Jack noticed that the little girl called Autumn had wandered off and was staring at something. He turned to see what had caught her attention. A mass of bodies was pressed against the glass wall, biting and scratching at the barrier. Most were missing various body parts and the wall was smeared with blood and mucus. Jack figured the girl, who was no more than nine or ten, was probably in a state of shock. He knew that a traumatic event like this could scar a person for life. He directed her attention away from the wall and knelt down next to her.

  “Honey, this may seem scary, but think of it like a movie. Those are just actors out there and it’s not real.”

  Autumn looked at his name tag and addressed him matter-of-factly.

  “Jack, actors don’t rip people’s arms out of their sockets and eat them. Zombies do.”

  Keith and Lindsey walked over in time to catch the girl’s comment. When Lindsey got a glimpse of the window, she gasped in shock.

  Turning to Keith, Autumn said, “If you need bait, I’m game.”

  Jack mumbled, “They grow up way too fast.”

  “You know,” Keith added, “Jack said that there might be an opening for a new security guard. I think you’d do better than the old one.”

  He turned his head when he heard a loud thud against the glass.

  “I’m not sure how long that glass will hold,” Jack said, “so we’d better do this now.”

  “If you two want to go into that room,” Keith nodded toward the Physical Therapy room, “I’ll go unlock the hall door and let our ‘friends’ in here.”

  He spotted a heavy metal bar from a set of barbells and hefted it in his hands. Deciding that it would be a handy weapon, he brought it along with him.

  “That door is going to open real fast,” Jack warned him. “Be careful. I don’t want there to be one less of us and one more of them.”

  “I’m with you on that one but if something happens,” Keith said, nodding toward Jack’s gun, “I don’t want to become one of them.”

  Jack nodded and secured himself, Lindsey and Autumn in the Physical Therapy room, readying his pistol.

  Keith walked over to the door that led to the hall, knowing that as soon as he opened it, the mass of infected would be pushing through.

  “Three, two, one,” The lock clicked and Keith turned to run, but had to dodge the weight machines as the ghouls swarmed into the room behind him. For a moment, one of them managed to grab onto one of his braids but he was able to shake the hand free and get into the other room, bolting the door.

  “Maybe it’s time to shave my head,” he said, trying to calm his pounding heart, “or start wearing a hat.”

  “They would be in for a surprise if they tried that with me!” Autumn pulled off her beanie, revealing a bald head.

  “She had her third round of chemo months ago, but for some reason, her hair hasn’t grown back,” the physical therapist explained. “The doctors are pretty sure she’s beaten it this time, but you can see why being on death’s door is nothing new to her.”

  Jack was amazed. “I think if we get out of this, I’ll appreciate being alive a little bit more.”

  Keith was impressed with the girl and he had to agree with Jack. There wouldn’t be much he’d be taking for granted if they got out of the crisis alive.

  The sound of moans soon filled the adjoining room.

  “All right, Lindsey,” he said, “we’ll need you and Autumn to draw as many of those things toward that window as possible.”

  He pointed to the half window between the two rooms. It started about waist high and went to the ceiling of the room. “The more of them that we can get into the exercise room, the better. I don’t think they can open a door, but I’d feel better if you lock it behind us when we leave. Jack and I will circle back around and lock them in. Hopefully most of them will be trapped inside. After that, I’m sure we’ll still have some cleaning up to do on the floor.”

  There were still several of the infected in the hall, clawing at the window, but most were turning to follow the others into the exercise room.

  “Can I ask a stupid question?” Autumn interrupted. “You’re rounding up these zombies so you can get medicine to the people on the other floors?” She continued before anyone could speak. “I know you can’t get it all and doesn’t some of that stuff have to be refrigerated? I doubt you have a fridge big enough upstairs.”

  Jack took a breath to reply, but she cut him off. “What’s going to happen when you need more meds and they finally break that window? Are you going to do another zombie roundup? Why not just get rid of them now?”

  “Just how do you propose to do that?” Jack tried not to sound too sarcastic.

  “We’re extremely short on ammunition,” Keith explained.

  “You led them into here, why can’t you lead them out there?” She pointed to the wall.

  “Outside?” Keith asked.

  “The fire exit,” she explained, rolling her eyes. “It’s right outside that door you’re going to be going through.

  Keith didn’t spend much time on the second floor except to go to his locker, but the layout was the same for the whole building. There were five floors with two wings. The stairs and elevators were located at the intersection of the wings, along with a nurses’ station or information desk on each floor. There was a fire escape at both ends of the hospital. Since the physical therapy room was at the end of the hall, it was only a few feet from the door that led to the fire escape.

  This time Jack took her seriously. “Okay, what’s your plan?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, shrugging her shoulders, “you’re the security guy, why do I have to think of everything?”

  Jack made a choking gesture as she turned away. He turned to Keith. “Well, do we stay with plan A or go with girl wonder here?”

  “Since we don’t know how long the doors and windows will hold, I’m all for getting the ones that have been infected out of the building completely. The second floor would be the lowest level of the fire escape, with just a ladder that can be pulled down to the ground, right?”

  “Right,” Jack said. “It’s kept pulled up when it’s not being used.”

  “I’ll bet if we could take off the railing at the end of the fire escape
, they’d walk right off the edge. I’m not sure it’s enough of a fall to kill them but at least they’d be out of here.”

  “I agree,” Lindsey said. “Chances are this glass won’t hold until the next round. We can’t all go out there. Jack and Keith, since you have the weapons, why don’t you get Autumn out of here while I act as bait? I’m in pretty decent shape. I could get them to follow me out onto the fire escape. If we do like Keith suggested and disable the drop, I could climb to the next floor before they reach the door. They sure don’t look smart enough to climb and they sure as hell aren’t fast enough to catch me. They should all fall off like lemmings, I hope.”

  Jack thought about it. “Worse comes to worst, they’ll hang back in the physical therapy and exercise rooms, and we’re back where we started. But I think you’re right. I think they’ll tumble and hopefully some of them will land head first. Maybe we’ll put some of the poor things out of their misery.”

  Keith said, “Any thoughts on tearing out that railing, Jack?”

  “Most of my tools are downstairs, but I found this little Henry Homeowner crescent wrench in one of the drawers. It’s worth a shot.” Jack stuck the small adjustable wrench back into his pocket.

  “We need to clear the hall first and lock in as many as possible,” Keith said. “Looks like most of them are in the next room now, so shall we give it a shot?”

  “Let’s do it,” Jack said.

  Jack went first, slipping out into the hallway. He nodded to Keith that it was clear then Keith joined him, closing the door quietly. Lindsey locked it from behind then told Autumn to help her listen for it in case the two men had to come back in a hurry.

  “Shall we go play bait now?” she asked Autumn, smiling to hide her nervousness.

  “I guess it’s show time,” Autumn replied.

  They walked over toward the window but not close enough to get grabbed in case something broke through.

  As the two females kept the attention of the zombies focused on them, Keith and Jack snuck back down the hall, having to duck below the level of the hall window to keep from being seen from the equipment room. When they reached the door, the last of the infected had already walked in and the door had swung shut.

  “Nice,” Keith said. “We should lock it, just in case.”

  Jack held his keys up in the air. “Now which one . . . just kidding.”

  Keith was not amused.

  Jack quickly locked the door and moments later the pounding began.

  “If we live through this, I think you owe me a beer for that one,” Keith told him.

  “Beer?” Jack made a face. “Maybe whiskey, that way I can join you.”

  “That was almost too easy,” Keith said as they started to walk away. Seconds later, two of the infected came around the corner from the other wing.

  “Guess I spoke too soon.”

  Jack had to use two rounds but he made his shots count.

  They had to kill a couple of crawlers on the way back but were able to do it using the heavy metal bar that Keith had brought.

  “Now, let’s see what we can do about that railing,” Jack said, propping open the fire exit door. “And let’s hope those windows and doors hold until we’re done.

  While Jack got started on the railing, Keith knocked on the door, letting Lindsey know it was safe to open it.

  “The exercise room is full and that window won’t hold for long,” Keith said. “So let’s keep this door open in case you two have to get out fast.”

  “Good idea,” Lindsey said, eying the window nervously.

  Jack struggled with the bolts, which had obviously been there for decades, rusting in the rain and snow. He grunted as he cranked as hard as he could on one particularly stubborn fastener. The wrench snapped in two before the bolt even started to budge. About that time, a crack appeared in the window and Lindsey had to stifle a scream.

  “Please hurry. They cracked the window,” she said, sticking her head out the door.

  Keith glanced inside to assess the damage then went back out onto the fire escape. “Let me see if I can loosen it.”

  When Jack stepped away, Keith gave it a hard kick. Instead of loosening the bolts, the whole rail broke free and crashed to the ground below with a loud clang. Keith hadn’t expected it, and when the rail fell, he followed it, momentum carrying him toward the edge.

  He fought to maintain his balance as he looked down upon a sea of the infected, then he felt a hand grab his arm. Jack pulled him back, which was not an easy task.

  Keith stepped away from the edge. “Thanks, man, I thought I was a goner for a minute there,” he said.

  “I was going to say, careful with that railing. It’s rusted,” Jack quipped.

  “Thanks for the warning. Now we just need to make sure they walk off the edge,” Keith said. “I wonder if they’ll do it or if they’ll just go back inside.”

  “Maybe if one of us hangs out the library window,” Lindsey suggested, pointing to the room on the other side of the fire escape.

  “That might work,” Keith agreed. It would be risky since it was on the same floor as the infected and it would be possible to become trapped inside the room with no other exit besides the window.

  “All right, let’s finish this,” Keith said. They discussed the details of the plan for a few minutes to make sure everybody knew what they were supposed to do.

  ~*~

  For a moment, Eric held his breath, not making a sound as he wondered if he had really heard what he thought he had heard. His mother’s scream broke the silence. Eric took his portly body as fast as he could up the stairs. As he opened the door at the top, the screaming stopped. He found that several of the creatures had entered the room through the shattered front window and were feasting on his mother. Rage welled up inside him as he ran at the group and grabbed two of them by the backs of their tattered shirts and threw them on the ground. Looking down, he could see that his mother was dead.

  Two others stopped feeding and turned their attention on Eric, while the two on the ground slowly stood back up. Eric backed up toward the basement door, cursing all the way. He could now see that the two he had thrown to the ground were covered in tattoos and had their pants down below their waists. Anger rushed through him.

  He slipped back behind the door and sat at the top of the stairwell. His mind moved back to another time, to a time when he had still been engaged to Cheri.

  They had been at the parking lot of their favorite restaurant, circling to find a parking space. They had spotted a couple heading to their car and had waited patiently for them to exit the space. As Eric was pulling into the spot, a car had sped down the row and squeezed into the coveted space, clipping Eric’s car on the bumper. Cheri had gotten out and confronted them.

  “Excuse me, but we were waiting for that spot,” she had said politely.

  Two young men, probably about 18 or so, had jumped from the car. There had hardly been a spot on their bodies that hadn’t had a tattoo. They had worn tank tops and their pants had been oversized and had sat below their hips. The driver had let go with a flurry of profanity that would have made the entire U.S. Navy blush. His partner had taunted her with sexual references, each one referring to what he could do to her body. Eric had stood frozen.

  “Eric?” she had asked. “Are you going to say something?”

  Eric hadn’t said a word. Cheri had gotten into the car, the two teens still taunting her, and had said, “Take me home.”

  Eric had complied. On the way home he had explained to her that he was trained to kill.

  “If I had intervened,” he had argued, “those kids would have ended up dead.”

  She hadn’t believed him. It had been the turning point, she had said later. It had been when she had lost all respect for him. Unwilling to take the blame upon himself, Eric had blamed the punks in the parking lot for destroying his relationship with Cheri. Now they, or someone just like them, had killed his mother.

  “Mom,” he sob
bed into his hands, “why did you have to go near the window?”

  Rubbing the tears from his eyes, he couldn’t help but wonder if she had finished the laundry yet.

  As Eric sat on the top step, he realized that fate had granted him a chance to regain his honor. He ran downstairs to his closet shelf, grabbed a long box, and opened it. Inside, nestled on a bed of blue Styrofoam, lay a long sword with Japanese markings. He liked to tell everyone that it was a Samurai sword, but in reality he had gotten it at the local swap meet for $20 and had added the Japanese markings himself. If one were to understand the language, they would read, “Do not submerse in water due to risk of electric shock” as Eric had copied the lettering from an appliance box.

  He’d sharpened it countless times but had used it only once on a defenseless cardboard box. He felt the blade and it was as sharp as he remembered. Heading for the stairs, he turned back to his prisoner.

  “This is for you, Cheri, and for Mom.”

  His hatred temporarily quelling his cowardly nature, Eric unlocked the door and peered through the crack. The creatures had lost interest in pursuing him, as there was fresh meat in the room, which they were again gathered at and fighting over.

  Eric dispatched the first one as he brought the sword directly down the middle of its head. Unfortunately, the weapon became stuck. He stepped on the corpse’s head and wiggled the sword out, just in time to see that he had caught the interest of the other zombies. He stopped the next one with a quick jab through the eye socket. This worked so efficiently that he exterminated the rest of them in the same manner within a matter of seconds. With the living room cleared, he surveyed what was left of his mother, which wasn’t much. He dragged her remains toward the stairway, hurrying when he saw movement at the window.

  ~*~

  Jack went up to the third floor with Autumn and opened the fire escape door for Lindsey. The plan was for her to lead the infected out onto the fire escape then run up to the next floor. The tricky part would be making sure they followed her outside but not up the stairs. That’s where Keith would come in. He would hang out the library window and lure them toward him, hopefully getting them to step off the fire escape. They all realized just how many things could go wrong, but they had been unable to come up with a better plan.