Dead, but Not for Long (23 page)

Lindsey gasped. “That’s horrible,” she said after a
moment. “What did you do?”

“I shot them both in the head,” he said, glancing
away. “They were both friends of mine.”

“Lieutenant Reynolds, I’m so sorry,” she said.

“Lee,” he said, “and it’s all right. Well, not all
right, but it’s all part of our new world, I guess. It’s something we have to
get used to.”

“I can’t even imagine dealing with that,” she said. “We
lost a lot of patients and employees, too, but nobody that I was close to.”

“That part is difficult. And now it’s hard for any
of us to sleep. It still bothers me that my buddy was killed in the bed next to
mine and I never heard a thing until it was over. Seems like there would have
been a struggle, but if there was, I never heard it. And since I slept through
that, it makes me nervous about sleeping at all.”

“Don’t you have a quarantine to keep this from happening?” she asked.

“Only for survivors that we bring in to the base.
Quarantine is waived for us. There are so many of us out there,” he nodded
toward the city, “all day long. We’d have to quarantine the whole group and
that’s kind of pointless. We have guards posted now, but it’s still hard to sleep.”

“I don’t think I’d be able to sleep, either,”
Lindsey said, shuddering at the thought. She shared a room with Autumn and they
always moved something heavy in front of the door at night.

Reynolds glanced at the helicopter again and shook his head.

“Speaking of sleep,” Lindsey said, “it looks like
your copilot is grabbing a nap while he can.”

Reynolds grinned. “He’s amazing. He can sleep
anywhere. I just keep drinking coffee and do my best to stay alert.”

“Would you like a cup?” Lindsey asked. “We’ve got
some in the cafeteria. Food, too, if you’re hungry.”

“Real food?” he asked, his eyes lighting up. “I’ve
been eating nothing but MREs lately.”

She looked confused for a moment then said, “Oh,
those dried meals in the packages.”

“Right, Meals Ready to Eat,” he said.

“You dropped off a bunch of those for us, but we’re
waiting until our perishable food runs out before digging into them.”

“They’re not all that bad. I’m just tired of them.”

“Well, we have a new cook, Theresa, and she seems to
be doing very well, so far,” Lindsey told him. “Snake and his guys were doing
most of the cooking, but one of our patients was a woman who had worked in a
school cafeteria. She was in surgery getting pins put into her broken leg when
the outbreak happened. She offered to take over the management of the kitchen,
and she’s doing a terrific job, though she’s in a wheelchair for the time
being.”

“It’ll probably help take her mind off of her
recovery and it’s a definite plus for those she’s feeding, too,” he said. “Sounds
like a win-win to me.”

“I agree,” Lindsey said. “I’m always happy when we
can find jobs that people enjoy doing.”

“Snake was handling the kitchen before? He seems to be a busy guy,” Lee said.

“Yes and now that he’s off kitchen duty, it’s giving
him more time to help Jack out with security. Things are starting to fall into
place. We’ve gone from having a handful of people handling everything to having
about 80% of the residents working. Between the survivors who have trickled in,
the recovered patients and the visitors who were present at the time, we’ve got
quite a workforce.”

“You’re doing better than most others,” Lee said. “You’re
the only group of survivors that hasn’t asked to be evacuated yet.”

That surprised Lindsey and she was curious to learn
more about the others. She was about to ask when Reynolds spoke first.

“You know, maybe I’ll take you up on your offer of a
meal. I skipped breakfast today and I wouldn’t mind a bit to eat. I don’t even
care if it’s out of a can.”

“How about homemade lasagna?” Lindsey asked. “That’s
what Theresa posted on the whiteboard outside the cafeteria today. She figured
it was something she could keep warm so people could eat whenever they find
time. It’s hard to get everybody to sit down at a meal together, as you can imagine.”

“Lasagna?” Reynolds asked, eyes growing wide. “I
think you just said the magic word. I love lasagna.”

“You’re not the only one. This morning I kept seeing
the bikers wandering over to the kitchen area, just to catch a whiff of the
sauce while it was cooking. I have the feeling it’s going to go fast.”

Lee walked over and said something to the copilot, who nodded and went back to sleep.

“As long as I make it quick, it shouldn’t be a
problem,” Reynolds told Lindsey. “We haven’t had a break yet today, so I’ll
take mine now.” He nodded toward the helicopter. “He’s just going to sleep.”

Lindsey took Lee down to the kitchen where one of
the bikers was pulling a giant pan out the oven as a woman in a wheelchair
watched.

“You’re just in time,” said Theresa. She was a
stocky woman in her mid-forties, her long brown hair tied up in a bun.

“Grab a couple of plates and help yourselves. No
salad to go with it, unfortunately, but we did fix some canned green beans.”

“Thanks,” Lee said. “How did you break your leg?”

“Skydiving,” she said, motioning for the biker to put the lasagna on one of the counters.

Lee glanced at Lindsey, who shrugged.

“Seriously?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said. “It’s not like I’m a newbie,
either. It was my thirty-third jump. I just landed badly for some reason and
that was all she wrote.”

“Wow,” Lee said, shaking his head.

“Get yourselves some food,” Theresa said, nodding
toward the doorway. “I hear the bikers out there. Won’t be much left once they get to it.”

Lindsey and Reynolds thanked her and dished up their
food, finding some coffee to go along with it. They took a couple of seats at a
table in the cafeteria and Lindsey couldn’t help but notice the stares. In the
new, changed world, strangers could be trouble. It bothered her, but it was
something else she’d have to get used to.

As they ate, they talked about their pasts since it
was easier than talking about the present. The time passed quickly and when
they were done with their meals, Lindsey finally asked the question that had
been stuck in her head for the last day.

“You said that the survivors who had been bitten
were separated from the others,” she started. “What do you do with someone that’s
been bitten? We’ve only had one of those cases since the initial outbreak here.”

“How did you handle it?” Lee asked, holding his cup
out for a refill when one of the teens on lunch duty walked by with a coffee pot.

Lindsey noticed how effortlessly he had avoided her question and she wondered why he had done it.

“The nurse waited until the man reanimated then shot him.”

“Wow, tough nurse,” Reynolds said, raising an eyebrow.

“It was Keith. He was in the military,” she said.

“Keith? The big guy? He’s a nurse? I’d laugh but he’d
probably squash me,” he stated. He stalled for a few more moments as he looked
into his coffee.

“The ones who have bites are taken to our temporary
base,” he finally said, his eyes dark and haunted. He kept his voice down as he
spoke. “We have to keep them cuffed in the back of the helicopter during the
ride, in case they change mid-flight. At the base, we take them to an area that
we call the compound. They’re kept as comfortable as possible until they die
and they are not given the opportunity to reanimate.”

His eyes grew distant for a moment and he told her
about having to pull a child from the arms of her parents so that she could be
taken to the compound to die.

“I don’t think it’s something that I’m ever going to forget,” he said.

There was silence for a moment as he was lost in his
thoughts and Lindsey wasn’t quite sure what to say.

“Do they always die?” she finally asked. They were
no longer getting any news reports, and what they had heard before the blackout was inconsistent.

“Always,” the Lieutenant said. “There is a 100%
fatality rate for the infected so far.”

He glanced at his watch and told her that he had to go.

“I really enjoyed sharing this meal with you,
Lindsey,” he said, offering her a smile. “I just hope I didn’t depress you with
our less than cheerful conversation.”

“It’s fine,” she said, returning the smile. “I was the
one that started it, anyway. I guess we’ll all have to get used to the serious,
grim conversations since I’m sure there will be plenty of them. In fact, I have
more questions if you have time one of these days.”

“Lunch again tomorrow, maybe?” he asked with a smile.

“That sounds great,” she said, standing. “I look forward to it.”

“I’d better run,” he said. “I’ll see you again
tomorrow, God willing. We’re going after a large group of survivors on the west side of town.”

“Good luck,” she told him, knowing that every rescue
operation was fraught with danger. “And if all goes well, you can always have
another of Theresa’s magnificent home-cooked meals.”

“That’s just the incentive I need,” he said, waving as he turned to leave.

Lindsey watched him walk away, hoping that his
mission the next day would go well. She made a mental note to ask Snake and his
buddies to keep the pilot and the others at the base in their prayers. They needed all the help they could get.

~*^*~

For the next two days, Lt. Reynolds and his copilot
continued to show up with survivors and supplies. Eric always tried to be there
when the helicopters arrived so that he could “talk shop” for a while, as he
put it. The pilots tolerated it, but it was clear that they were growing
annoyed with him. Jack always tried his best to find something for the guard to
do, but Eric often managed to sneak away to the roof when he heard the helicopters coming in.

The newcomers were smoothly integrated into life at the hospital though space was starting to be a problem.

Lt. Reynolds ate and talked with Lindsey both days
while his copilot caught up on sleep. They had grown close in a short time,
finding it easy to talk to each other. After lunch the second day, Lindsey
walked the Lieutenant up to the roof when it was time for him to go. Halfway
there, he took her hand and gave her a smile, which she returned. She tried to
ignore the rapid beating of her heart, telling herself that she was acting like
a teenager. When they reached the roof, he turned to her and gave her a
tentative kiss. She didn’t stop him so he did it again, holding her a little
closer. After a few moments, she pulled away with a sigh.

“Lee, there’s something I have to ask you,” she said. “I noticed that you wear a ring.”

“Yes,” he said, lifting his left hand to look at it. “I was married and my wife died.”

Lindsey blinked, surprised.

Lee saw the look on her face and shook his head.

“No, not because of this,” he motioned to the city
around them. “She died of cancer two years ago. I like to think I’m over it
now, but I haven’t been able to take my ring off yet, so maybe I’m not.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I can’t even imagine how
difficult it would be to lose a spouse.”

“It was,” he replied, running a hand over his short
dark hair. “My friends didn’t get that part, and they kept trying to find
someone for me. I finally gave in and started dating a few months ago. It just
felt so fake, like I was playing a role. I dated three different women
and it was the same with all of them. I’d be sitting there eating dinner with
one of them, forcing a smile, struggling to find something to talk about and
wishing I were somewhere else.”

“Do you wish you were somewhere else now?” she asked with a slight smile.

“No, I don’t,” he admitted. “I’ve truly enjoyed
these last few days. I’d ask if I could take you on a real date but I don’t see
that happening. I guess we’ll have to make do with our lunches together.”

“I think that’s the best we can do in our current
situation,” she admitted, giving his hand a light squeeze.

“Reynolds? You ready to roll?” the copilot called over to him.

“Just a second,” Lee replied. He turned his attention back to Lindsey.

“Every time I leave, I wonder if I’ll see you again,”
he said. “I know we haven’t known each other long, but I think about you a lot.”

“I think about you a lot, too,” she admitted. “And
you’ll see me again. We’ll both be fine.”

“Well, I have something to look forward to each day
now,” he said, kissing her again. “I’ll see you again tomorrow, probably around
the same time.”

“I’ll be here,” she said with a smile, letting go of
his hand as he turned to walk away. She watched as he took off. When he circled the building and waved
at her, she waved back. Even after the helicopter was no more than a speck in the sky, she stayed on the
roof, not ready to go back inside just yet.

There were a dozen iron patio chairs on the roof,
built to withstand a strong wind. Lindsey wandered over to one of them and sat
down to look over the city. The smell was putrid and the moaning of the undead
was disconcerting, as always, but her mind was elsewhere. For the first time in
a couple years, she had found someone that she was genuinely interested in, and
it happened to be in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. Talk about lousy
timing, she thought. Odds were high that one or both of them wouldn’t survive
long, unless something changed, and she had little hope for that. She knew that
the smart thing to do would be to distance herself from Lee and not allow any
more feelings to develop between them. It would be best for both of them. He
didn’t need to be distracted by thoughts of her during the day and neither of
them needed to lose someone close. In this new world it might be best not to
form close ties, though it was probably too late for that. She’d already grown
to like him and for that matter, those at the hospital had become like family
to her. She had plenty of close ties now. She watched buildings burning in the
distance and listened to a few scattered screams throughout the city. Maybe
this truly would be the end of mankind, but Lindsey decided that if it was, she
was going to savor every remaining moment she had. If she and Lee could only
see each other for an hour a day, she would enjoy that time. She stayed outside
another hour before finally going back inside to check on Autumn.