“That’s enough,” said Edwards. “Get three more samples before it’s too late.”
Alissa switched out the vials, being careful to place the first one against the notebook so it did not roll off the countertop. Each vial took longer to fill than the last. She could feel his pulse racing at one hundred and fifteen beats per minute, and his breathing had become fast and shallow. Alissa checked her watch. She had been here for almost twenty minutes.
With the last vial filled with as much blood as she could draw, Alissa slid the needle out of his vein and removed the vial. “What now?”
Edwards had dozed off. Alissa shook his chest.
Edwards’ eyes opened. His gaze darted around the room, unfocused. “Where am I?”
“We’re in the pathology lab.”
He lowered his head. “Do I know you?”
“You asked me to draw blood from you.”
“That’s… right.”
“Snap out of it.” Alissa tapped him on each cheek. “You have to tell me what to do with these vials.”
“Vials?”
“Of blood.”
Edwards started to doze off.
“Snap out of it.” Alissa slapped him across the cheek, this time much harder.
“What?”
“What do you want me to do with the blood samples?”
“You finished taking them?”
“Yes.” She pointed to the four vials on the countertop.
The doctor forced himself to break through the confusion. “Put two in the freezer.”
Alissa carried two of the vials to the refrigerator, opened the freezer door, and placed them into the tray where she had originally found them.
“What do you want me to do with the last two?”
“Take… with… you.”
“What do I do with them?”
“You’ll… know… when….” Edwards’ words trailed off as the loss of blood finally took its toll. The doctor’s body went limp and collapsed off the chair, hitting the floor with a loud thud.
Alissa cringed, waiting for the sound of running deaders approaching. The corridor remained silent. Only then did she realize she had been holding her breath the last few seconds.
Searching through the lockers, Alissa found two lab coats that she draped over Edwards’ head and torso, providing him what little dignity she could. Rummaging through the last few, she came across a large, over-the-shoulder leather bag. She dumped the contents onto the counter and placed the rolled-up gauze, tape, penicillin, and scissors in the bag. She kept the spare ammunition in her pocket for easy access. Inside one of the cabinets she discovered a transportation container for the blood samples—a tube four inches in diameter and eight inches in length. Removing the top, she placed the two vials into the holes carved into the foam rubber interior, slid the cover back on, and added it to the other items in the bag. Moving over to the door, Alissa peered through the glass but did not see anything in the corridor. Hefting the bag over her left shoulder and holding the Glock in her right, she exited the lab.
Alissa raced down the corridor, heading for the second floor of the front lobby and the ramp to the garage. With luck, she would be safe in a few minutes.
A knocking on the right startled Alissa. She jumped back against the wall and aimed the Glock, quickly lowering it when she realized the source posed no threat.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” she muttered.
Chapter Seven
“Can you help us?”
The question came from her friend Marjorie, one of the older nurses. Marjorie stood on the other side of the viewing window of the nursery. Alissa pointed to the entrance to the Labor and Delivery Department twenty feet down the corridor. She waited for Marjorie to make it there and usher her inside. Marjorie closed and locked the door behind her. Spinning around, she gave Alissa a hug.
“I’m so glad someone else is alive.”
Alissa patted her back in a gesture of support. “How much do you know about what’s going on downstairs?”
Marjorie broke the hug and stepped back. “Something bad happened in the ER and we’ve been told to shelter in place until someone comes for us. What do you know about it?”
“Not much more than you do,” Alissa lied.
“You’re covered in blood and holding a gun. Now do you want to be honest?”
“Sorry.” Alissa sighed. “I didn’t want to scare you.”
“Everyone up here is already terrified.”
“Something broke out in the ER forty-five minutes ago. I don’t know if it’s a virus or what, but it causes anyone infected to go violently insane and attack those around them. The first floor of the hospital has become a bloodbath.”
“When will the police be here?”
“They’re already here, and they’ve been turned. I tried calling for help, but all the landlines are down. My cell phone is in my car.”
“It won’t work. We have ours. Circuits are busy.” Marjorie studied the bag Alissa held over her shoulder. “You’re trying to get out of the hospital, aren’t you?”
“Do you blame me?”
“Can you take the babies with you?”
The question caught Alissa off guard. “You realize how dangerous it is out there?”
“Is it any safer in here waiting for whatever’s going on to reach us?”
Alissa couldn’t argue that point. “How many babies are there?”
“Four.”
“I can’t carry four babies at once.”
“We’ll go with you. Only one of the mothers is still bed-ridden, but we can wheel her out in a chair.”
“No!”
Marjorie became angry. “You won’t help us?”
“It’s not that I don’t want to. Those things are fast. We’ll never get the mothers past them. They’ll be torn to shreds.”
“You’re right.” The anger drained from Marjorie. She walked away from Alissa, stopping in front of the reception desk. She then kicked it so hard her foot shattered the wooden façade. “Shit!”
Alissa rushed over and pulled Marjorie back from the desk. “Keep it down. They’re attracted to noise.”
“Sorry.” Marjorie’s eyes welled up. “I can’t leave everyone here to die.”
“Under the circumstances, you’re all safer here—”
“What if we take out only the babies?”
Alissa stared at Marjorie.
“I’m serious. There’s a shuttle van parked out front. If we could make it to—”
“Those things are all over the parking lot. You’ll never get that far.”
“Is the parking garage open?”
Alissa nodded. “That’s where I’m heading.”
“Good. I have an SUV on the third level. We can escape in that.”
“Why are you so adamant about taking the kids out into this carnage?”
Marjorie inhaled deeply to steady her nerves. “The mothers are freaking out. They want their kids in a safe location. Now they’re freaking out my nurses. If I don’t do something, they’ll probably walk out of here with their babies.”
“And into a slaughterhouse.”
“I know.” Marjorie swallowed hard, fighting back anger and frustration. “What else can I do? Help us get to the garage and I won’t bother you after that. I promise.”
Everything in Alissa’s gut told her this would end badly. “Is there any way I can talk you out of this?”
Marjorie shook her head.
“Give me a minute to scout out the situation and I’ll be back.”
Marjorie held her wrist. “Promise you won’t leave us?”
“If I do, you’ll wind up doing something stupid.” Alissa handed Marjorie her bag with the medical supplies. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
Leaving Labor and Delivery, Alissa made her way down the corridor to the entrance to the second-floor lobby. Approaching from an angle so she could not be seen, she peered through the window. At least a hundred deaders shunted arou
nd the main lobby, with another half dozen on the second-floor landing. The feeding frenzy had died down and now the deaders milled about. She would never slip past this horde and get to the garage, let alone four nurses laden-down with screaming infants. She needed to figure out a way to distract these things. An idea came to mind. It was a long shot and probably wouldn’t work, but she had nothing else.
Once back at Labor and Delivery, Marjorie let her in. Three other nurses stood in the lobby, two of them holding a pair of babies.
“Do you have a battery-operated radio in here?”
Marjorie shook her head.
“What about a cell phone, especially one with an alarm or music on it?”
“I might have one.” One of the nurses, a young woman with auburn hair, handed one of the babies to Marjorie, reached into the pocket of her scrubs, and withdrew a cellphone. “What do you need?”
“Something loud and obnoxious.”
“I got just the thing.” With her free hand, the woman unlocked her cell phone, scrolled through several apps, and handed the phone to Alissa. “It’s an emergency alarm. Press the red button and everything within a mile radius will hear it.”
“What’s your name?”
“Carrie.”
“Carrie, this is perfect.” Alissa stepped around the receptionist desk, rolled the chair into the lobby, and stopped. “Okay, this is what we’re going to do. You stay here by the exit. I’ll create a distraction. Once I give you the signal, head for the second-floor lobby and take the connecting walkway into the garage.”
“What about those things?” asked Marjorie.
“When I checked a few minutes ago, there weren’t any in the garage. Head for your cars and haul ass out of here. Clear?”
Three of the nurses agreed. The fourth said, “I’ll lock things up after you and take care of the mothers.”
The four of them made their goodbyes until Alissa interrupted them. “We don’t have time for this. Be ready to go in less than a minute.”
Stepping back into the corridor with the chair, Alissa moved over to the elevator and pressed the call button. She would set the alarm, send the car back down to the first floor, and make a break via the lobby as—
A ping announced the arrival of the elevator. As the doors slid open, Alissa reached down to press the alarm button. A snarl distracted her. Fuck, she had forgotten this was the elevator where the deaders attacked the elderly woman in the wheelchair and the male nurse. Five deaders were inside, four of them mobile. They lunged.
Alissa shoved the desk chair against the pack and pushed, knocking three of them back inside the elevator. They tumbled over the elderly woman and her wheelchair, momentarily not a threat. The fourth deader, the male nurse, had not been in the path of the chair and attacked from the left. She lodged her left arm under its chin and shoved it back against the wall, holding its head in place so it couldn’t bite her. With her right hand, she felt for the Glock. Her hand brushed against the grip, knocking it out of the waistband of her scrubs. She tried to reach out with her foot and draw it closer, pushing it farther away in the process.
“Move!”
Carrie came up on their left, gripping a coat rack like a battering ram. Alissa jumped back and crouched to the right a moment before Carrie drove the rack into the deader nurse’s head, knocking it over. Standing above it, she repeatedly slammed the base of the coat rack against its skull. On the third hit, the bones crack. On the sixth, the head exploded, spewing blood and brain matter down the corridor.
A snarl from behind made the two women spin around. The other three deaders had climbed to their feet and were exiting the elevator. Carrie lowered the coat rack and charged, catching a deader dressed in a soiled business suit under its chin and propelling it back into the car.
“Hurry up and finish what you have to do.”
Alissa did not need to be told twice. She pressed the alarm button. A deafening noise echoed through the hospital, causing her to wince. It would attract every deader in the building. Tossing the phone into the elevator, she leaned in and searched for the first-floor button. The deader in the business suit reached out, grabbing her arm. Being at an awkward angle, Alissa could not break its grip. It lowered its mouth. Before it could bite, Carrie slammed the coat rack into its face, shattering several of its teeth. When the deader let go of Alissa, she pressed the button for the first floor and jumped back. Carrie followed. The elevator doors began to close.
And stopped halfway.
“What the—” Alissa’s sentence trailed off. The elderly deader attempted to crawl through the gap, biting at Carrie’s legs. The elevator kept closing on the deader, sliding back, and closing again. Alissa heard deaders banging on the elevator doors on the first floor and at the door to the second-floor lobby, attracted by the alarm. This cluster fuck would get them all killed.
Carrie prodded at the other three with the coat rack but could not keep them at bay much longer. “Move that bitch before I get bitten.”
Alissa grasped the elderly deader by the back of its gown and yanked, trying to pull it out into the corridor so the elevator would close. The living dead thing moved about a foot and stopped. Its leg had become entangled in the wheelchair. Alissa rocked its bulk back and forth while simultaneously yanking, hoping to break it lose. All the while, the elderly deader moved its head from side to side, its mouth snapping at her hands.
“Shit!” yelled Carrie as she stepped back. The top of the coat rack snapped off, gouging the face of a deader in a policeman’s uniform. A deader in homeless clothes came after her, only to get the broken end of the coat rack jabbed into its eye socket. Carrie twirled it around for a moment until the deader went limp, the weight of its body pulling it off the rack and onto the wheelchair, which freed the elderly deader’s leg. Alissa fell backwards, yanking the elderly deader into the corridor. The elevator doors finally closed and the car descended to the first floor. Alissa did not hear the elevator open or the feeding frenzy as the deaders rushed in to devour the alarm. She was too busy fighting for her life.
Once free of the wheelchair, the deader scrambled after Alissa. It clutched her right leg and pulled itself onto her. Alissa kicked it in the face with her left foot, slowing topping it but not breaking the grip. She kept on kicking, ripping off its nose and caving in the upper jaw, but still not stopping it. Its attack ceased only when Carrie spun the coat rack and plunged the broken end into the deader’s skull. The thing shuddered for a moment, the snarl becoming a gurgle, and then collapsed onto Alissa’s legs. She shoved the carcass out of the way and jumped to her feet, shaking from fear.
Carrie came over to comfort Alissa. “Are you okay? Did it bite you?”
“I’m fine. Thanks for saving my life.”
“Let’s get moving while we have a chance.”
Both women ran back into the Labor and Delivery lobby. Alissa picked up her bag, only then stopping to catch her breath.
“What now?” asked Marjorie.
Alissa held up a finger, asking for a second. Once she could inhale, she replied, “I’ll head down to the second-floor lobby and check it out. I’ll signal you when the coast is clear, then you all make a break for your cars. Understood?”
Marjorie and the other two nurses carrying babies responded in the affirmative, although the fear in their eyes belied their outward confidence. Alissa could relate. At this moment, it would not take much to send any of them over the edge.
Exiting Labor and Delivery, Alissa rushed down the corridor, hugging the opposite wall so nothing on the other side of the lobby door could spot her. Reaching it, she leaned to one side and peered through the pane. Every deader in the main lobby swarmed toward the corridor off the ER, chasing the alarm. Most from the second floor joined the others, rushing down the stairs and escalators to follow the feeding frenzy, leaving behind a single deader in a tattered EMT uniform that limped on the side of its right foot, the ankle obviously broken. Escaping should be simple. She turned around. Carrie wai
ted by the entrance to Labor and Delivery. Alissa lifted her arm and motioned for the others to join her. Carrie stepped aside and began ushering the nurses carrying the infants into the corridor.
Alissa heard a distinct sound, one that sickened her stomach with the realization of what would happen next.
The elevator pinged as it reached the second floor.
With all the deaders rushing in to get at the alarm, one must have inadvertently pressed the UP button. Carrie shoved Marjorie back into Labor and Delivery. The elevator opened. Knowing she would never make it to safety in time, Carrie attempted to close and lock the door from the outside as ten deaders flowed out. The first three dove onto Carrie, one clutching her head and shoulder and sinking its teeth into her neck, the other two tackling her around the waist. They fell against the door, pushing it open. The remaining deaders snarled and rushed into the unit. Alissa started down the corridor to save the others, but the terrified screams of the nurses, the crying infants, and the feral sounds coming from the living dead told her it was already too late.
Pushing through into the second-floor lobby, Alissa dropped to her knees and puked.
Chapter Eight
Alissa retched until nothing came out, then dry heaved. Her throat felt on fire. She spit out the last of the vomitus and wiped the back of her hand across her mouth. Only then did she realize she still held the Glock. Alissa stared at it. It would be so easy to end this nightmare. Quick and simple. No more suffering. No more watching others being slaughtered. No more desperate attempts to survive against the odds.
Alissa slid the barrel between her lips and placed it against the roof of her mouth when a growl came from her right. The limping EMT deader staggered toward her, its arms outstretched, its gore-filled mouth already gaping in anticipation of its next meal.
Nurse Alissa (Book 1): Nurse Alissa vs. the Zombies Page 4
