Dead, but Not for Long (20 page)

One wound in particular caught Eric’s eye. A piece of Miguel’s skull was
missing from his left eye socket to his ear, exposing a patch of brain. A red
line traversed the ridges and valleys of the exposed cerebellum from one end of
the missing chunk of skull to the other. The evidence was undeniable. Eric had
missed. The shot had been enough to knock Miguel unconscious, but not enough to
kill him before the disease could take over his body. That explained how he’d
managed to make his way back home, Eric thought. He was glad that it had
happened at night, and he hoped that the boy hadn’t gotten a close look at his
father before escaping his grasp. If he had, the image would not be easily forgotten.

Eric wrapped what was left of Miguel inside the blanket. The trek across the living room floor was a breeze after struggling to
get the body up the stairs.

Putting a small flashlight between his teeth to
light the way, Eric dragged the body across a barren field and into a patch of
forest, trying to get far enough away that the kids wouldn’t find it. He
thought about burying it, but the darkness of the night proved to be a bit
frightening. It was eerily quiet. No crickets chirped, no frogs croaked. There
was only the gentle sound of a light wind whistling through the trees.

The near silence was suddenly interrupted by the sound of leaves being crushed underfoot. The steps were slow and lumbering.
Eric quickly backed up, turning to run. He paused momentarily to catch his
bearings, forgetting from which direction he had come. A moan rose up out of
the dark. Eric stopped panting long enough to try to pinpoint the origin,
somewhere off to his right. The sound came again and this time it was louder and it seemed to be in front of
him. When he heard it again on his right, Eric realized that there was
more than one of them. He turned to the left when he heard twigs snapping in
that direction, followed by a low, guttural groan. His only chance was to run
and the only path that seemed to be free was behind him. He spun around and ran,
ignoring the pounding of his heart. It wasn’t long before his lungs were
screaming with pain as he tried to locate the house in the dark. Eric scrambled
blindly through the brush. As the forest opened up, he suddenly found himself
in a field. He put on more speed, hoping he was heading in the right direction.
For just a moment, the moon peeked out, lighting the area. Eric could finally
see where he was going and the house wasn’t far ahead, but the moonlight also
silhouetted a large, dark form in his path. Eric was going too fast to stop,
his body propelling him toward the monstrosity. The collision was inevitable.

~*~

“Dudes!” Snake yelled at his men. “Anyone know about phone lines?”

He was tired of having to travel from floor to
floor every time he needed to find someone and, from what he’d heard, so was
everybody else. They needed to have a faster way to communicate since the land
lines seemed to be completely out.

The men talked amongst themselves for a minute
until a tall skinny man in a bandana said, “Yeah, boss, Spencer was working on
the lines on the shelter. He’s some kind of an audio-visual dude. I think he’s
helping out on the third floor.”

Snake glared at the man in silence.

“What, Boss?” the biker asked nervously.

“Spencer? I’ve got a dude riding with me named Spencer?”

“Uh, yeah, Boss,” the man replied sheepishly.

“Why doesn’t he have a nickname? You go find . . .
Sparky, yeah, we’ll call him Sparky. You go find Sparky and tell him that I
want him to tie every phone together in this hospital. We don’t need any lines
going out. They’re useless anyway. I want to be able to reach any floor, or
room, from the ER, and vice versa. Also, I want two men watching that parking
lot at all times. If we have visitors, I want to know. Get with the staff on the
fifth floor and pick the room that gives you the best point of observation.
Make sure you take plenty of ammo. You may have to give any newcomers some cover.”

~*~

The hospital grew quiet that night as the survivors fell asleep wherever they could find a bed. Some were lucky enough to
find an unused patient room while others settled for gurneys in the hallways.
The only sounds were the distant moaning of the undead, heard through an open
window here and there, and the quiet tread of the bikers on duty throughout the
night. The guards were ever vigilant, knowing that anybody could be hiding a bite.

Keith finished his last rounds at midnight then
made his way up to the fifth floor to check in with Amelia, who would be
handling the night shift. He briefed her then went to the empty patient room
that she had just vacated. He would be back on duty at six a.m. but they would
all be working long days until the crisis was over.

As he looked out the window of the room, he began
to wonder if there would ever be an end to the plague. He could see an orange
glow as parts of the city burned and he wondered just how far the fires would
spread. The city was in chaos, with wrecked cars everywhere, sometimes piled up
on top of each other. Shadows could be seen moving on the street through the
smoky haze, but they belonged to nothing alive. Two streets over, an ambulance
sat abandoned with doors open and emergency lights flashing.

Keith had hoped to see the military step in and
take charge of the city, but there had been no sign of that happening. One of
the bikers had tried to get information on the internet but it was only working
sporadically and what they could find on the TV was vague and conflicting. It
wasn’t just Lansing, either. The announcer had made it clear that other cities
had suffered outbreaks as well. Acapulco and Veracruz, Mexico had been hit as
well as Salt Lake City, but the biggest occurrences were in Central America and
Colombia. Viewers had been warned to stay away from anybody that appeared to be
infected, and those that were in one of the hot spots were told to stay inside
and lock their doors or make their way to a shelter. Twice, a news report had
been cut off in the middle just when it was starting to get interesting.

Keith didn’t like it. It stank of censorship. He
took one last look at the dying city before turning away and collapsing onto
the bed. He had another long day ahead of him in a few hours.

~*~

The cow was just as surprised as Eric was,
stumbling as Eric’s large body slammed into it. It ended up falling over onto
its side as Eric tumbled over the frightened animal and onto the ground. As the
bovine beast got to its feet and trotted off, Eric brushed himself off and
returned to the house, embarrassed, but glad that his escapade had no human
witnesses. Locking the doors behind him, he descended the stairs to the
basement and walked down the hall to the rec room.

“We need to get some rest,” he told the children.
“We’ve got to get your mom to a hospital tomorrow.”

Jon frowned. “They were saying on TV that most of the hospitals are closed.”

“I know of one that’s still open,” Eric smiled.

The boy wrinkled his nose and looked at Eric. “You smell like cattle.”

Eric’s smile disappeared. “Go to sleep.”

~*^*~

Keith woke with a start when he felt a hand on his
back. He rolled over quickly, ready to swing, but it was just Amelia.

“Damn, you scared the shit out of me,” he said,
sitting up. “Anything new?”

“We just lost another patient,” she replied,
speaking rapidly as she always did. “The electricity is going on and off. It
was off too long and,” she snapped her fingers, “that was it.”

The woman was a tiny bundle of energy. Keith
watched her buzzing around the room as he tried to wake up and he wondered how
she could be so lively this early in the day.

“Someone on life support?” Keith asked, rubbing his eyes.

“Yes, up here on the fifth floor,” she said,
stepping over to look out the window at the undead below. “Maybe he’s lucky. He
doesn’t have to see all this terrible stuff that is happening.”

“I have the feeling we’re going to be losing more
patients if this keeps up,” Keith said, standing up and stretching.

“Probably,” Amelia said, stepping away from the
window. “I’m going to the fourth floor for a while to help out in Pediatrics.”

“All right. I’ll be fine on the third floor. I’ve got Marla to help me.”

They both laughed then Keith headed off to do his rounds.

~*~

The rumbling in Snake’s stomach reminded him that
he had skipped breakfast. He had been helping to keep the dead back while
several of the bikers dug the trench for the footing of the wall. The decision
had been made to move forward with it once it had become obvious that no help
was coming anytime soon. The crowd of infected outside the hospital was
increasing by the hour, making it critical to get the wall up quickly. The
digging was hard work but it was made more difficult by the hordes of dead that
seemed to be drawn by the noise of the shovels. Someone had finally come up
with the idea of using a wall of cars as a buffer around the work area. It
helped but it wasn’t enough and one of the bikers suggested trying to lure the
dead to the back of the building. Some of the older children and teenagers were
put to work, yelling out the back windows. This worked well, though it also
seemed to draw even more attention to the building than there had been before.
Snake hoped that wouldn’t be a problem later, but if it allowed them to finish
the wall, it just might be worth it.

The infected were able to crawl over the cars but
it took them a while, and the guards were usually able to push them back or
kill them as they came over. When the first twenty foot section of trench was
finished, Moose mixed the concrete using a small mixer that they’d picked up
with the other supplies. He poured out that section while the others continued
digging. When it was poured to the desired level, he set the first row of block
slightly into the concrete, making sure the block was level and square. A
vertical rebar protruded from the footing every so often for added support. He
continued this routine each time a twenty foot section was finished.

Several more trips were made to the home improvement store until they had enough
materials to finish both walls. The only thing they were missing was a gate.

When the entire trench was finally poured, and the
first course was set, most of the men went inside to eat breakfast, leaving
Snake and a handful of guards outside to keep the dead from climbing over and
disturbing the new concrete. After a little more than an hour, Moose figured
that the concrete was hard enough to handle some weight. They added a few more
bodies to the burning pile they’d started earlier then went inside.

“I need more duct tape,” Moose told Snake.

“I already gave you everything I could find,” Snake said. “What are you using it all for?”

Moose held up his hands to show fingers that were individually wrapped in duct tape.

“Okay,” Snake said, waiting for an explanation.

“Got used to doing it this way,” Moose said. “It’s cheaper than buying gloves all the time.
Cinder block is rough on the hands.”

Snake laughed and said, “I’ll have one of the boys check Doune’s lab. Seems like I remember
seeing some in there.”

Snake headed in the direction of the cafeteria, knowing that there were always leftovers in the fridge. His journey was
interrupted when he heard several shrieks coming from a waiting room. Snake
shot into the room, fully expecting another confrontation with a creature that
had somehow slipped past the quarantine. Instead, he found a crowd of children
gathered around a member of his crew that he recognized as “Monkey,” who was
living up to his moniker by flipping through the air, almost effortlessly.

Monkey had sometimes entertained children with his acrobatic skills when the
group had visited the local homeless shelters. He had been an accomplished
gymnast as a teenager, and his given name had even been mentioned among Olympic
hopefuls, until drugs and alcohol had turned his life in a darker direction.

When Snake had found him, Monkey had been homeless and destitute. Snake had
introduced him to a Higher Power, which had turned his life around and had
given him the motivation to turn his back on his destructive lifestyle. In
time, Monkey had joined Snake’s posse, dedicating his new life to helping others.

Snake watched as Monkey jumped into the air and
twisted his wiry frame as he flipped backwards and landed perfectly on his
feet. The children roared in approval and clapped as Monkey finished with a
bow. His smile disappeared when he caught Snake’s eyes.

“Sorry, boss. I know I’m supposed to be working
but I thought the kids needed a little break.”

Monkey started to walk away to continue his chores
but Snake put a hand on his shoulder.

“I’ve got a better job for you. Entertain the kids.”

The smile returned to Monkey’s face as he moved back to the center of the room.

“Who wants to see a double front flip?”

Several hands shot into the air and for a time life seemed normal.

~*~

When morning came, Eric loaded some essentials
into his compact police car. He wasn’t sure how he was going to get all four of
them in the smashed sedan, but he had no choice. He squeezed the children and
the still-catatonic Cheri into the car and drove. There was no sign of zombies
until they entered the freeway and then sightings were sporadic.

“Eric?” Marie asked. “Can you roll up the windows? I’m cold.”

She was right, Eric thought. The heat wave was
over and the early morning was actually almost chilly, made worse by air
blowing into the broken windows of the car. Glancing at the windows, Eric had
another concern. The trip into town was sure to hold some close encounters.

“Kids,” Eric said as something caught his
attention on the side of the road, “have you ever ridden in a fire truck?”