Dead, but Not for Long (45 page)

“It could go either way,” the doctor said to Snake
quietly, once they were out of the room. “Under normal circumstances, I’d say
he’s got a good chance of making it, but we just might not have the resources
to take care of him if he gets worse. This hospital normally transfers a lot of
its cardiac patients to Mercy, but that’s obviously not an option here.”

“Then what do we do?” Snake asked.

“There’s not much we can do,” Chan said. “I’m
doing my best with what I have to work with. Once I leave, I’ll turn the
patient over to the other doctors. He’s responsive right now, so we’re happy
about that. And your friend, Wolf, gave him his Nitroglycerine tablet, so that’s
a big help.”

“Thanks, Doc,” Snake said. He stepped inside the
room to talk to Smiley for a while, but when Smiley fell asleep, Snake returned
to the Crow’s Nest. He could see that the truck was gone from the parking lot.

“Is everybody back?” he asked those at the window.

“Not yet.”

Snake frowned. “I told them to do it fast. It’s
been a good twenty minutes. Where did they put the truck?”

One of the men pointed to the street perpendicular
to the west wing of the building. Snake could see the truck but there was no
sign of the men. It looked like the streets were full of the undead.

“I’m going to the roof to take a look. I should be able to see
better from there,” he said. He left with a couple of his men following. He walked
to the end of the west wing then looked over the edge of the roof. When he caught
sight of the men, Snake sucked in a breath. Two of them were standing on
cars. The other three were on the ground, but safe for the moment as the
vehicles surrounding them were providing a temporary barricade against the infected.
The dead were thick around the group, grasping and clawing to try to get closer,
while the two on the cars fought with a pike and crowbar to keep them back.

“Not good,” Snake said. He turned to the two bikers who
had followed him up to the roof. “We need to try to lure the dead toward
the back of the building. Make some noise and see if you can get them moving
away from where those guys are trapped.”

The two bikers hurried off while Snake waved to
get the attention of the men below. One of them finally looked up, waving
frantically when he saw Snake. Snake held up his radio and the other biker
shrugged sheepishly, apparently having forgotten to take a radio along.
Sighing, Snake pushed both of his hands down in a signal to tell them that they
should get down. After a moment, the man nodded and said something to the other
biker who was standing on a car. They both jumped down to where the other three
were, temporarily out of sight.

Snake radioed down to Wolf to tell him what he was
doing. “Maybe you could get some people yelling out the back windows, too,” he
suggested. “And have someone ready to open the gate.”

“Will do, Boss,” Wolf said. “Where exactly are
they?”

Snake gave their location to Wolf, who said he’d
be watching for them. Within moments, voices could be heard from the back of
the hospital as several people started yelling. A few of the dead turned then
slowly began to move away from the trapped men.

Snake hadn’t seen any weapons other than the pike
and crow bar, so he wasn’t sure if they had guns. When one of the men looked up
again, Snake pointed at him then held up his rifle. The biker nodded and held up a shotgun.

“Okay, they’ve got at least one gun,” Snake said
into the radio. “Let’s hope that’s not all they have.”

“Remember, we’ve only got a couple down here, Boss,” Wolf reminded him. “Just the ones we were going to hide inside.”

“It’ll have to do,” Snake said, knowing there was nothing he could do about it.

Soon most of the mob began to move toward the back of the building, having already forgotten about the trapped men.
Snake picked up his radio again.

“Wolf, the guys in the Crow’s Nest can’t see
anything along the outside of the wall. We’ll need some shooters up close to
hold off the dead while Mouse and the boys make a run for the gate. I don’t
want anybody in danger of falling, though.”

“Gotcha, Boss,” Wolf said. He turned and relayed the message to Jack, who thought about it for a moment.

“I’ve got some cabinets inside that we could bring out.
They’d be just about the right height to stand on but we’ll need a few people to carry them,” Jack said.

Wolf called four men over and sent them with Jack, who led them inside to a conference room.

There were a couple of tall cabinets that were
about two feet lower than the wall and the men quickly took them outside. It took
a few minutes, but they were able to get one in place near the gate. The other
cabinet was moved to the adjoining wall, and it provided a view of the men’s hiding
spot. A couple of the men helped Gunner and Wolf to climb up then stayed to hold the cabinets steady. The
rest of the bikers and Lindsey waited with their weapons in case they needed to go outside the walls.

When Snake thought the time was right, he spoke to
Wolf on the radio. “Be ready. I’m giving them the signal.”

“Get that gate ready!” he heard Wolf yell.

When Snake saw them unhook the latch, he motioned
for the men to go. The first one stood and slid over a car. He grabbed the
shotgun that was shoved into his hands, and he began to run as the second man climbed over the car.

“Come on,” Snake said, urging them on, though they
could not hear him. He was relieved to see the first one hit the gate and make
it through easily. By the time the second one was almost there, attention was
turning back their way. Snake considered having the others hold off and wait
for another window of opportunity, but the men weren’t looking up. The other
three followed in a group, stopping to take some shots with their guns along the way.

“No, no, no,” Snake said, silently urging them to
look up. “No time for that, Boys. Run for the gate.”

More and more of the infected began to turn their
way, and from his place on the roof, Snake could see a mass of movement coming
around the corner of the building. The men were going to be pinned if they didn’t move quickly.

Still shooting, they edged toward the gate but the dead were coming from that direction, too, cutting them off.

Jack turned and spoke quickly to two of the bikers who ran back into the building.

The people who were manning the gate finally had to pull it closed again to keep the horde from coming through.

Moose and Jack climbed up and joined Wolf and Gunner on the cabinets, since they were the only other ones with guns.

The men were only twenty feet or so from the gate, but there was no way they were getting through it.
Snake could see the men looking one way, then the other, knowing that they were going to be overwhelmed very shortly.

They turned and started to run the other way.

“Wait!” Wolf yelled to them.

The two bikers who had gone inside had just come back out with a ladder and they
quickly put it over the wall, close to where the men were. The first man was up
in a flash, but that left Mouse and one other biker on the ground with the horde quickly closing in.

“Go!” Mouse yelled to the other man, who spun
around and grabbed the ladder, moving up it so quickly that he almost knocked
it over. In a barrage of gunfire, Mouse finally got onto the ladder. It looked
like he was home free until the ladder began to tilt backward. Wolf reached out
to grab it and time seemed to stand still for a long moment as the ladder stood
almost upright, just out of his grasp. The old biker leaned a little farther,
putting himself at risk of a fall, but his fingers finally caught the top of
the ladder and he was able to pull it toward himself. Others reached out to help, doing
their best to keep it upright as Mouse tried desperately to get his ankle free
from the clutches of one of the ghouls. A shot rang out and the zombie fell,
allowing the man to finally get over the wall.

“Thank you, God,” Snake whispered, closing his eyes for a moment in silent prayer.

~*~

“Anybody bit?” Wolf asked.

They all said no, but Wolf asked to see Mouse’s ankle, just to be certain that he hadn’t been infected. There were no apparent
bites or scratches, much to his relief.

“So what happened?” he asked. “This should have been a simple job, moving the truck out there.”

“Yeah, it should’ve,” said one of the bikers who had been trapped with the group. He glared at Mouse, who looked away.

“Mouse?” Wolf asked, frowning.

“Well, I saw something in this car that I just couldn’t leave there. I figured it would only take a minute to get it out,
but the car was locked. The window was rolled down a little but not quite enough for me to get my arm through and unlock it.”

“So he broke the window,” the other man said, “very loudly.”

Mouse said, “Wolf, if you would have been in my place, man, you would have done the same thing.”

Wolf just shook his head. It wouldn’t do any good to lecture the other biker, because Snake had done it many times.
Mouse would never change. Wolf was definitely going to talk to Snake about keeping him off the supply runs in the future, though.

“So what was this thing that you had to have, huh, Mouse? What was so important that five guys almost died for it?”

Mouse slowly reached inside his vest and pulled out a small, gray kitten. He held it cupped in his hands.

“It must’ve been coming in and out through that crack in the window, ’cuz it didn’t have no food or water. I couldn’t leave the poor little guy out there.”

Wolf opened his mouth to reply, but then he reached out a rough hand and ran it over the tiny kitten.

“He’s sure a cute little thing,” he said. “Well, I guess if Snake and Jack don’t mind you can probably keep him.
I’m sure he won’t eat a whole lot.”

“I’d better go see if Theresa has anything for him,” Mouse said, hurrying off.

The sound of a helicopter filled the air and Lindsey let out a long breath as she glanced up at the sky.
It was going to be difficult to say goodbye to some of her friends, many of whom had become almost like family to her.
After much thought, she had finally made up her mind.

Wombat saw her looking up toward the sky, where the first of the helicopters was now visible.

“I’d better get up there,” she said to him.

“I guess you made your decision,” he said.

“Yes, I did,” she said, “and it wasn’t an easy
one.”

Wolf called over to ask Wombat a question and he
turned to answer. When he turned back, Lindsey was gone.

~*~

Chuck hadn’t heard anything from the eighth floor
in some time, and he finally decided to take the risk of calling down to them.
He held his breath as he waited for a reply, but there was none. A slow smile
broke over his face as he realized that he was the only living person in the
building. To celebrate, he pulled out his best bottle of champagne and opened
it, paying no heed to the early hour. Digging through his CD collection, he
contemplated for a few moments before settling on Wagner’s “Flight of the
Valkyries.” Turning up the music as loud as he could stand it, he went to the
window with the bottle and a glass. He poured himself some champagne and watched the city burn.

The music boomed from the wall speakers behind him
and seemed to shake the building as Chuck sipped the bubbly liquid. When
another group of jets began to fly overhead, he realized that the building
actually was shaking. He didn’t even know that it had been hit until it began
to collapse around him. The champagne bottle and glass both slipped from his
fingers at the same time, shattering upon the floor. Chuck stumbled as he tried
to keep his footing then the floor shifted beneath him and he began to fall.

He should have died. It was just a fluke that the
building fell the way it did, the floors collapsing slowly on one another to
slow the fall. Sheer luck kept him from being crushed by the roof and the
collapsing outer walls. When the rubble settled, Chuck found himself trapped but
still alive. A thick wall of dust filled the air making his eyes useless, but
the moans around him assured him that he was not alone.

~*^*~

Most of the bikers stayed in the parking lot to
help burn the bodies. When the door opened, Wolf turned to see Eric approaching
him, sword in hand.

“I hear you’ve got a swarm in the parking lot. I’m
ready to kick some zombie butt.”

Wolf looked at Eric and shook his head. “Amazing
how you always seem to show up after the action. Since you’re here, you can
help the guys clean up.”

He figured it was safe to let Eric work with the
others since there were no open windows on the first floor to tempt the bikers.
They walked inside and Wolf pointed to a pile of pikes and other weapons lying on the floor. One
by one, the bikers grabbed a weapon, carefully wiped any residue from it, and
dipped it into a tub of bleach and water.

“I’d better check on Cheri,” Eric said, turning to
leave. Wolf’s firm grip guided him back.

“Cheri’s recovering just fine,” Wolf said, “and
you don’t want to go messing that up by bothering her, do you?”

He walked back outside without waiting for a reply.

Gunner smiled and handed Eric a pair of rubber gloves and a towel.

~*~

Helga had been glad to see Snake return, but she
had not been pleased to see the woman with him again. She wondered how serious
they were since they seemed to be spending a lot of time together. As she
helped the others to clean the weapons, she glanced over at the group who was
waiting to leave with the helicopters. With so many going, she was sure there
would be plenty of rooms available, and she wanted one of them. It had been
difficult to sleep when she was on her own. Even when she had been able to find
places that had seemed fairly secure, she had always awakened at the slightest
noise. With a room of her own, she could barricade the door at night for extra protection.