Dead Friends Series (Book 2): Dead Friends Running

by Carlisle, Natalie

  No one came rushing at us, but a bunch of heads and guns turned in our direction as soon as we stepped out of the woods and onto the pavement.

  32

  “Hold it right there!” A cop shouted at us, he was in the center of the triangular gathering of Troopers merging toward us. I barely spared him a glance though. My eyes immediately caught on a taxi cab flipped over on its side. Personally, I was shocked I hadn’t seen it from the woods, but the police vehicles must have been blocking it.

  I immediately thought of Jason’s accident, but this was worse. Much worse. A person hung half out the shattered windshield, as if he was pulled out. His entire face was gone.

  I blinked. Yes. Still gone.

  Stomach bile instantly rose to the back of my throat as the realization hit me that the driver had been eaten.

  Again, I thought of Jason.

  But this time, as the person who ate his flesh.

  “Not another step!” The officer yelled again, as I flinched at my own imagination. “Stay back!”

  Missy grabbed at my arm again, this time linking hers within mine as she’s done so often when she got scared.

  “We aren’t moving,” Lewis quickly retaliated, his voice cracking slightly. “We are stopping.”

  The officer furthest from us suddenly spoke up. “Lew? Lew Hedges, is that you?”

  Lewis turned his head as my eyes dropped to the ground, taking in the littering of sharp glass and crimson stains that a few officer’s still knelt down on behind these guys. They didn’t even glance at us. They were too busy scribbling in small spiral notebooks and taking pictures. A pair of legs stuck out past their bodies, brown sneakers exposed, still perfectly knotted shoelaces. I drew my eyes past them, trying to follow the length of the body, still feeling sick. The person lying motionless on the ground had dark tan skin, defined arm muscles, and from the appearance of the busted up hand, was definitely male.

  I couldn’t see a face though. Some broad shoulder, extra wide officer blocked the upper portion of the body.

  I tried stretching my neck, still nothing. Honestly, I wondered if that guy even had a face left to see.

  “Yeah, it is you,” the guy continued, his voice changing to a more friendly tone. I peered over at him once again, in time to see him motioning for the cops to lower their weapons. “What the hell are you doing out here?”

  “Oh thank God, it’s you Paul,” Lewis quickly answered. “We need your help. Look—” he mistakenly took a step in the officer’s direction and once again all but Paul aimed their guns at us.

  “Oh, shit. Sorry.” He quickly threw his hands up. “I forgot. Not moving.”

  The guy that Lew knew, once again motioned for them to lower their weapons. He wasn’t anything spectacular to look at. Average height. Average weight. Average looks. I couldn’t note one memorable feature. Paul was the type of guy that would blend into a crowd and I’d never even notice him if he wasn’t talking. “It’s okay guys, I know him.”

  “Paul’s an old childhood friend,” Lew quickly whispered through the side of his mouth to us, but I could gather that much information on my own.

  “Trooper Rugger,” the officer in the middle warned. “Don’t get too close. We do not know if they are—”

  “Infected?” Lewis cut in, earning him a really hard look. “No. But that’s why we need your help. A friend of ours is and—actually,” Lew turned once again toward Paul. Talk about cutting right to the point. “It’s Jason. Jason Ollie and no one can find him. That’s why we are out here. Last time he was spotted was in these woods. Can you or some of you help us?”

  Paul made a face. “They found Ollie a couple hours ago actually. He was unconscious in the woods near the base of the mountain, looks like he was trying to make it to the main highway when he collapsed.”

  “Wait? You found Jason?” I blurted, my heart suddenly spiking. Had I heard him correctly?

  That earned me a conspicuous glance from Lew’s friend. “Yeah, that’s what I just said. Took him straight to the hospital, that’s the last I heard though.”

  I exhaled, feeling the weight of worry coming off my shoulders. “Can you take me there? Someone? Anyone?” I felt Missy’s grip tighten on my arm, but I ignored it.

  “Look, Ma’am,” the officer in the middle scorned. “I don’t know who you are, but if you can’t tell, there’s a lot we are dealing with here. So if there isn’t a major medical emergency you need our assistance with right now, then you’ll have to find your own transportation and let us get back to work.”

  Missy’s grip tightened painfully.

  “Ow. What?” I snapped, instantly glaring at her.

  Her face was draining of color as she lifted her free hand, pointing her finger forward.

  I stared at her dumbfounded. Please tell me she didn’t just realize the guy’s face was missing.

  Mentally shaking my head, I followed her gesture and that stomach bile that was burning at the back of my throat, came straight up. I just barely spun, before I started projectile vomiting from the sight.

  She wasn’t pointing at the taxi driver.

  The cop that was blocking the body had moved, stood up in the past few seconds, and we now had a clear shot at the upper torso and face of the second dead guy.

  And there was a face.

  There just wasn’t a neck.

  Or much of a torso.

  I coughed, the acidic bile scorching my tonsils as I continued to heave. My eyes burning from the taste, the smell, and the images now burned permanently into my brain.

  The entire upper stomach was concaved, ripped open and unconsumed intestines were yanked out, coiling outward, already starting to rot in the summer heat if the flies were any indication. Discarded meaty drippings of half-devoured flesh and organs splattered the fabric of his bright orange shirt that oddly from the shoulders to the sternum was still intact.

  But that wasn’t the worst of it. The worst was the brown, lifeless familiar eyes staring directly at us and his wide open mouth, stuck forever in a frozen scream.

  Jacob.

  The half-devoured man before our feet was Jacob.

  Our friend.

  I heaved again.

  “Crap, Dee,” Lewis stammered jumping away from me and my vomit pile. “Is it your hypo thing again?” He didn’t wait for a response. “Guys, quick, her sugar is dropping.” And just like that, he was slinging his backpack across his chest, unzipping it. “I have food.”

  At the mention of food, I started shaking my head back and forth, choking on the rise of more puke. I thought of eating, then thought of someone eating Jacob, and my legs gave out, turning gelatinous, under my weight. I teetered, and the cop that was moments before basically yelling at me, came rushing forward to catch me.

  “No,” I managed, as I regained my balance thanks to the officer. “It’s not my sugar. It’s. . . it’s…” I swallowed down more vomit. I couldn’t get the words out. I didn’t even want to think about it.

  So I did what Missy did. I raised my hand and pointed, and officially understood why she hadn’t said a word from the moment she recognized him.

  She couldn’t.

  “I know,” Lewis suddenly said, pausing with his hand in his backpack. He sounded almost consoling. “It’s bad.”

  I shook my head again, and put more emphasis on pointing by flicking my wrist in the direction too.

  From the corner of my eye I saw first confusion flicker across his face, then disgust, then recognition, then a whole string of curses followed.

  “Oh, shit. Fuck.” His fist went to his mouth, and he cringed. “Fuck. Goddamn it. Please tell me that’s not Jacob Romero.”

  His childhood friend Paul walked up to him, grim-faced. “Yeah, man. It’s him. ”

  The officer that was holding me up shouted over his shoulder. “Christ, Geffer cover up that body already before they all get sick.”

  “Hey, hey is she okay?” I heard simultaneously as the broad-shouldered guy yelled, “
Yes sir.”

  The other officer with them, a young guy, no more than twenty, was staring at Missy with concern, and I quickly shifted my eyes toward her, remembering in that instant she and Jacob had more than platonic feelings toward each other. It wasn’t out in the open really, but they had been texting almost daily since he went to Spain. Ohmigod, my poor best friend. I couldn’t even imagine her thought process.

  Her face was ghostly white now—a gray, sickly, white color than lacked life. She stood there, her head bobbing, dropping, her eyes rolling, she rocked slowly—and then, just like that she collapsed.

  The young officer sprinted forward, catching her slack, fainting body. Tumbling to his knees, he fumbled but managed to support her head before it nailed the pavement.

  He was half-kneeling, half-sprawled beneath her, holding her at an awkward angle, worry and sweat on his face.

  “Guess they need medical attention now,” he urged, calling for assistance in the next breath.

  Paul slapped Lewis on the shoulder, in a comforting double pat, and rushed past me to her. I insisted to the officer that I was fine and struggled to find my own balance so he could help with Missy too.

  He continued to hold me about ten seconds then when Missy wasn’t pulling through right away, he let go, dropping down beside her along with Paul.

  The young officer shimmied out from under Missy’s body with Paul’s assistance and together they lowered her head gently to the ground, propping her legs up. They brought their fingers to her neck, checking for a pulse.

  She still wasn’t responding.

  My heart started racing again, this time because of my best friend and being unable to do anything for her. I was used to fainting. I fainted constantly because of my hypoglycemia, but in all the years I’ve known her Missy’s never fainted.

  And that terrified me, seeing her lying there now, void of all color, silent, unmoving.

  “She still has a pulse,” the young officer confirmed, glancing at his watch. “Weak. Forty. Forty-five beats if that.”

  “Come on, Melissa,” Lewis suddenly blurted, pushing his way forward. “Wake up.”

  Paul held out his hand. “Stay back, Lew. We got this.”

  I started counting the seconds passing. There were a lot of seconds. Did they really have this?

  My heart was thumping in my ears now. Come on. Missy. Come on. I was silently joining Lewis in his chant.

  The guy in charge suddenly grasped his radio and started quickly speaking into it. “Unit five to Dispatch. Medic requested immediately. Civilian unconscious. Female. Teenager. Please Copy.”

  And just like that I knew this was a lot more serious than just fainting.

  Static sounded. “Dispatch to Unit Five. Medic is on its way. Copy.”

  He dropped his hand back down. “Ambulance is on the way. Hopefully doesn’t take too long to get here. Check her pulse again. She should be responding by now.”

  Before I knew it, I was grabbing at Lewis’ arm the way Missy had just clung to me moments before.

  He clapped his hand over my good hand. “It’s going to be okay.” His words did not give me any reassurance.

  Just then the officer in charge gave me an uncomfortable onceover, then his eyes dropped back to Missy. His entire expression changed. “Rugger, Horris, step away from the girl.”

  “What?” They gasped in unison, their eyes widening. The young officer still had his hand pressed gently against her neck, holding his wrist out in front of him. He had just begun checking her pulse seconds prior.

  “We have been foolish. Step away from her now. Do not make any further contact with her. That’s an order.”

  “Are you out of your damn mind?” Trooper Horris retorted. “This girl needs help. It’s our job to help her.”

  “You will not speak back to me that way. That is your last warning. For all we know this girl has contacted the virus and as your commanding officer, I order you to step away from her body.”

  He stared directly up at him, jaw set, eyes narrowing. “I will not step away from her. Even if she has the virus, you damn well know, we can’t contact it just through touch.”

  He lowered his eyes, shutting up instantly, when she suddenly moaned.

  “Ma’am? Ma’am, are you alright?”

  “I already told you,” Lewis cut in, “We aren’t infected. There’s no possible way we could be. We haven’t even had any physical contact with the infected.”

  That was a really good time for me to keep my mouth shut. I thought of last night.

  “Then how do you explain their appearance? And whose blood is on her shirt?” He said, gesturing toward me. I was still linked to Lewis’ arm. “What happened to her arm? How do you even know about the virus relapsing? The public hasn’t been notified yet.”

  I looked down at the dried bloody hand print on my shirt. I had forgotten it was there. It was Jason’s hand print, from when his arms were wrapped around me on the quad. What if all along he wasn’t injured by the nail? Maybe he only thought he was. Maybe somehow Buck had actually scratched him. Maybe that’s how he contacted the virus and was sick now?

  No. No that couldn’t be. I saw that cut with my own eyes. It was too deep and precise to be from Buck. The infected might be able to eat people, but they didn’t have talons for fingernails. One thing was for certain, if my boyfriend has the virus, it wasn’t contacted while I was near him.

  I still refrained from telling the officer that it belonged to Jason though, considering we just told them before Jason was infected.

  “Ma’am…Ma’am it’s okay, you just fainted,” Trooper Horris stated calmly. His face was bent over her, his attention focused on Missy’s face. “Don’t try to get up, an ambulance is on the way.”

  My best friend moaned a couple more times, blinking slowly. At the sight of her making any movement at all, my racing heart plummeted, my fingers falling from Lewis’ arm simultaneously.

  “Answer me,” the officer in charge said.

  “They look this way because they have been searching the woods all day looking for her boyfriend who they never found, never made contact with,” Lewis retaliated. “They are dehydrated, hungry, exhausted. We all are. And their symptoms just now are warranted. For crying out loud, that’s our friend half-eaten over there.”

  I winced at the rise in his voice, and the visuals his words recalled.

  “Jacob was on his way home from Spain to help us find Jason. That’s why he was in that damn taxi cab in the first place.”

  I let that sink in a moment. Jason’s phone call had gotten Jacob killed. If my boyfriend pulled through this, he’d never forgive himself. For the first time ever, I hoped he wouldn’t, but only because I knew how hard he’d take it. In the same breath I chastised myself for even having that passing thought. I’d never want Jason to die.

  God, I hated myself for even having that thought. Right now my boyfriend was unconscious at a hospital, and the truth was he might very well die.

  Missy finally began opening her eyes. My stomach knotted at the thought of Jason, but I felt relieved to see consciousness returning to my best friend.

  “Ma’am, I’m just going to check your pulse once more. Just stay still.” Trooper Horris took her wrist, but Paul took her arm.

  “I got it.” And just like that, Paul had disobeyed their commanding officer’s order too as he kneeled right beside Missy again. She fidgeted when Paul touched her skin. “It’s okay. I’m just checking your pulse.”

  She didn’t fight him. But I got the impression it’s because she just didn’t have the energy yet too. She looked so out of it.

  The faintest sounds of upcoming sirens filled the silence of his counts.

  The officer in charge blew out a breath as soon as Paul reported that her pulse was up to fifty-three. He didn’t show any change of emotion. “Since you two have deliberately disobeyed me, I am sending you both to the hospital with them. You will report to the floor for contagious diseases, inform them of y
our possible contact with the virus, and be tested and quarantined twenty-four hours before returning to patrol. There is no room for argument.”

  He started to turn, stepping away from us, only to pause almost immediately when Lewis suddenly blurted, “Are you going to quarantine yourself too then? After all, you made contact with the girls too.”

  That earned Lewis a really hard glare. Luckily for Lewis, the arrival of the ambulance broke the tension between all of them and it wasn’t long before we were being transported away from Jacob’s body indefinitely, on route to the hospital where my boyfriend and best friend could hopefully get the medical care they needed to get better again.

  I had a thousand questions racing through my mind, but all I focused on was holding my best friend’s hand, because she wanted me to.

  33

  The medics rolled Missy out of the ambulance down a ramp, breaking my grip with her. They wasted no time hurrying her across the pavement, straight through the automatic emergency room doors. Lewis and I followed on foot behind them, as per their instructions. I saw flashing lights of the ambulance reflecting in the glass as the doors opened for us.

  Trooper Horris and Trooper Rugger were still sitting in their cop car, parked right up beside the curb in front of the building. The engine was still running.

  It was only a matter of time before they joined us.

  Once we stepped inside the hospital, I hesitated. There were people waiting for us. Not the kind of people sitting slumped over, coughing, bleeding, or sleeping in the waiting room chairs desperate for medical attention, but people in white gowns, gloves and paper masks ready to escort us to a different floor.

  The contagious disease floor, as the officer called it.

  I knew these gowns.

  Yesterday I was wearing one so I could be in the same room as Spencer.

  Spencer. Oh. God. Was he even still alive?

  I couldn’t wait to use a phone to find out. I was anxious to make the call, terrified to know the answer, but I needed to know as his best friend.

  But would they even allow me to make a phone call?

  How long would I be quarantined this time?