All of my stuff was packed into my car when everyone came down to the garage. Most came down with small backpacks with food and small weapons. Matt and Nicole were the second most prepared. That is compared to me. Matt had an old rifle draped across his shoulder. In his hands was a large duffle bag. Nicole also had a duffle bag in her hands. Yet her weapon was just a baseball bat.
Sarah and Freddie each had a bag but did not really have a weapon. I expected as much. Not that they were unprepared but that they chose to rush without packing. I looked at the group and grinned. “Follow me.” I turned and could hear their footsteps, following me. It was a strange orchestra that boomed throughout the main garage, through the doors into the other garage where three sleeping trucks waited to be woken up. I stopped right in front of them and turned towards the group. A smile lit up my face.
“Today we will begin our move.” I start off in a very drill sergeant voice. “You will all need to leave your vehicles here. For transportation, we will be taking these.” I pointed to the powerful creatures behind me. “If there is anything in your car that you need now, is the time to take it.” I turned and began pacing in a slow melodic step that clicked from heel to toe. “In each truck is a GPS system as well as a queen sized mattress. Every truck has a full tank of gas and moves at 25 miles per gallon.” I looked intently at my vagabond unit. “The address of our next stop is in all of our GPS.” Everyone is looking at me. “What questions are there?” A silence fills the room. Everyone looks at each other, then me.
Finally Nicole steps forward, her hair dangled delicately in curly ribbons that seemed to shine underneath the florescent light. “Where are we going?” Wow, I gave this whole impressive speech and totally forgot to say where we were going. This being a leader thing is not going to well.
I stutter, I know where we are going but the place just escaped my mind. Their eyes lock on to mine and droplets of sweat begin to bubble on my forehead. “The Doonsfield Animal Hospital
“Sam, why are we going there?” Freddie called out from the bunch.
“We need food” I start of regaining my composure “and we need medicine”
“But why not go to a human hospital for medicine that was made for, you know humans” Freddie was relentless, ignorant but relentless.
“I agree with Sam” Matt comes into the conversation. He saved my butt because I honestly had no organized thought to explain why I wouldn’t “The hospital is a breeding ground for the infected. By going there we will encounter too many to fight off. Besides most dog medicines are just a lower dosage than human medicine.” He explained everything I wanted to say perfectly. It was not safe to go to a hospital. Hospitals were given a bad rap during the Infection. It all started with first batch of the Infected. As most people would they went to the hospital. The doctors tried to help the first batch. Honestly they did. They tried drugs, Adrenaline shots, and brain surgery. Yet the infected still turned. Then they went after the doctors. From there it was all down hill. The doctors were authorized to kill. If someone came in suffering from the symptoms the doctors would say that they were going to help them. Then they would take that person to the back and without second thought the doctor would shoot the victim from point blank, like a dog. The doctors killed without a second thought. The worst of all was Doctor Scott Weinberger. He was the first doctor that killed a victim of the infected. It was after him that all the doctors began the process. It was easy to say that people were outraged. Doctors would be hunted down. They were beaten. Strung up by their heels and burned. Humanity went after doctors with a sick sadistic mob mentality. Soon the government assigned police officers to doctors. The one doctor who was treated the worst was Dr. Weinberger. A man whose wife was killed at a hospital got drunk and burned down the doctor’s house. Most of his family made it out. His daughter died though. Since then no one has seen the doctor or his family.
“Sam, where are you going to be?” Sarah got my attention pulling me out of the darkness of thoughts. I looked at her and smiled. I had no idea what she was talking about. She looked confused “Sam, where are you going to be?” she repeated loudly and slowly exemplifying each syllable as she spoke.
“Oh, right,” I laugh at myself “I will be taking my car still.” The group all look at me. Their eyes almost stab at me. “So if you need anything get it now.” With that everyone is off flying towards their cars. “Meet back in five minutes” I mumble to myself.
I look down at my feet, not because they are pretty. My mud soaked sneakers are not pretty. I look down because Casey Erik and Kayleigh are still standing there, watching me. I have no desire to look at them. Not because they are not pretty. We are all pretty. If I make eye contact that leaves room for conversation and to be honest, I don’t want that.
“Sammy?” Kayleigh calls to me. I don’t want to look up. “Sammy?” she is poking my arm her fingernail jabbing into my skin leaving small lines along the flesh. “Sammy!” She shouts into my eardrum knocking me of balance. I glare at her my eyes breathing fire. She smiles and all of my anger fades to gray. In one instant my body feels limp, weak, on the verge of collapse. “You did it Sam!” she says with joy emanating from her face. “You have this amazing potential, just use it,” she continues “you just need to unlock your gift and all the possibilities are yours to grab.” I hate this mushy stuff, but as I know I should; I allow a sliver of a smile touch my lips.
I hear everybody return to the room. They begin packing the clothes and supplies into their new trucks. Each one moves with haste like ants working in an organized row of chaos. I turn and there is everyone. My ragtag gang of survivors stand before prepared for the future, something I fear. Everyone takes their place in their trucks and turn the key. The three engines roared to life filling the room with a sound that bounced off of the gray cement. Casey and Erik pulled open the large garage door releasing the trucks into the bright white sun. Just like that they were gone.
I stood there alone with Kayleigh, Erik and Casey.
“Thank you guys so much” I start off. “Are you sure you don’t want to join us?”
“Sam, that is your plan” Casey earnestly says “This is ours.” He looks up at me. “This is where we shall stay.”
“You need to catch up to your group Sam” Kayleigh reminds me. “Go.” I begin to walk towards my car. Leila, Cleo, and Babe are all sitting waiting for me. “Don’t forget to call us Sam!” Kayleigh is mothering me. I still blame hormones.
“Yes, mommy.” I snicker. She turns bright red and Erik jabs me in the arm. He seems more embarrassed than she is. I laugh and get into the car, turn the key and I follow my group into the beautiful sun.
The sky is blue and there is not a cloud to damper this day. The undead wander along the streets looking for meals. I weave through the bodies trying to catch the group moving in the distance. They seem to be getting closer to me. As I begin to pull up I realize that they have stopped to wait for me. I take my place at the front of the pack. We drive hastily through the side streets until finally we hit route 9. It was nothing like the side streets which sit empty of everything. Route 9 was a graveyard of cars. All of which were void of life. Doors that have torn open and broken glass litter the ground. Blood and dead bodies splatter windshields and mirrors.
We need to tread lightly through this area. We do not have the equipment to fix these trucks. I slow down to a near snails crawl as I slide my car through the debris. I can clearly see the facial expression of every dead body that lie in their final resting place. It makes me sick physically nauseous, not because these are dead bodies but it is the fact that all of the corpses share the same expression, fear. They all shared the fear that death brought to them. Fear that just like that their lives became a pointless waste and there was nothing that anyone could do.
I watch the trucks rumble in my rear view mirror. In the distance we can see the giant blue and white sign shining in the sky. “Doonsfield Animal Hospital
I stop my car in the back of the parking lot. I sit in the car thinking. Around me the footsteps of the infected clap heavily on the ground. My phone becomes a blaze of thumbs and keyboards. “Sarah and Nicole take point on top of the trucks, with rifles. Sean Freddie Matt and I will head in.” Send. Within minutes there was a wave of movement from the trucks. Sarah and Nicole are dutifully standing atop the vehicles. Matt, Sean, and Freddie are now outside my window. I open up the door and pop the trunk. A gun shot goes off behind us and we all jump a little bit. Sarah took the first shot. I can not see what she was aiming at or if she hit it but there was no time to worry. I pull out my war hammers and that was it.
“Sam don’t you want your scythe?” Freddie looks at my project. He caresses it like he wants to use it.
“I have something special for this.” I smile slyly.
“Well could I use-“Freddie begins. I send him a look that shuts him up immediately. Sean and I are the only ones with real weapons. Matt has a baseball bat and pistol. Freddie is unarmed. I think we have some stuff inside so Freddie will be fine.
We all moved towards the fence. Behind us another gunshot rings out. All of us cringe at the sound then keep moving. The gate unhinges easily opening up into a field of cement and grass. I close and lock the gate behind me. The large yard is empty of all life. There is a stump in the corner from where a small tree used to stand. Behind us another gunshot but this one seems closer. I turn and see Sarah firing into the distance. The large pink door to the inside is locked. Next to it is what I am really looking for. A small three foot aluminum pipe with an iron end sits next to the door. It was once a pooper scooper. Yet while I worked there it became one of my projects to pass the time. I took the end and flattened it creating an axe like figure, which I sharpened when the hospital was closed on Sundays.
I pick it up and it wraps around my fingers in the familiar quality that it once held. Freddie looks at it.
“I will use this” He smiles as he holds up an old wooden pole with a small iron butt. The wood seems warped and rotted through time, but who was I to stop Freddie… the leader right. Why would I want to stop Freddie?
“Okay guys,” I begin this little huddle to make sure the Infected don’t hear our plan “We don’t have enough ammo to be firing bullets all willy-nilly. So try to save your bullets” My unit turns and faces the door. It is locked with an electronic keypad on its left. The metallic pad surrounded black plastic numbers. I push in my old business code and a familiar buzz pops out. Sean pulls the door open hard.
A gun shot goes off from real close. We all open our eyes and lying on the ground in a pool of rusty brown blood is an infected. The creature that is now twitching on the ground in a puddle of its own rust was once my friend. Her baby blue scrubs have red blood on them, her blood. She was bitten on the back of her shoulder by another infected. My guess is that the other two suffered from the same fate. I walk in and the booming orchestra of barking blinds my ears. All of the doors are locked. My guess is that she was the last one. I look around the hallway creating the mental image of what happened in my eyes.
She was working with my boss and “Mr. Pit-bull” when odds are my boss was bitten. After she turned, my boss went after my friend. By the trail of blood that drips throughout the back hall, I guess that as soon as my friend was bitten she ran back here to the kennel, with her blood dripping through the halls. She wanted to protect the animals. She always wanted to protect the animals. By the way it was spread out it looked like she went and locked herself in the hall as well as keeping the animals away from her. She had isolated herself so that she could protect the hospital.
Such a noble and heroic act.
Stupid.
Trying to save everything will get you killed. Protect yourself and protect what you love, nothing else matters. I moved to the locked door that leads into the main building. It seemed jammed. I pulled on it hard but there was nothing. Freddie Came and tried with me. The door still held fast.
Smash!
The sharp edge of the war hammer flew into the door handle. I could hear the locks break. I take another hard swing and the door begins to creak open. We walked out into the main hallway. The walls here were a light green with cheap paintings of dogs and cats spread throughout them. The tacky upbeat feel was meant for tours so we could convince people that we are not part of some large corporation. The floor was like a brown paint splattered with red dots of blood. The halls were empty devoid of all movement or life. The sound of ravage eating skims down the hallway from the staff lounge, like a hungry animal going to work on a fresh kill. We all found ourselves standing waiting for what will inevitably come. A booming sound of heavy steps flash down the hall until, it finally appeared. This large monstrosity of an Infected, lumbers around the corner. My boss, a large lady with long flowing blonde hair now tangled into knots and pulls. Her glasses lay half on with shattered lenses and frames. Fat rolls down her sides showing a bite mark on her side, covered with dirt and food.
Blood flows from her body destroying the cliché design of her dark blue scrubs with puppies and kittens. The tattered mess that was once a human stands idle with a blank expression behind large glassy eyes surrounded by bright red rings. It ran towards us flopping and blundering with outstretched arms. Freddie ran to meet it, swinging his old decrepit stick hard against the creature’s cheek. The wood splinters send shards flying across the hall. It did not phase this large infected, flabby face absorbed most of the impact. Freddie did not break her jaw; he did not knock her over. This Infected just took the blow and kept moving. Freddie panicked and swung again with the broken piece. It still did not do anything to stop this beast. He backed up as this creature came closer and closer towards him. My body began to rush with adrenaline and I ran towards this large zombie.
“Freddie duck” I shout swinging my home grown battle axe into the creature’s neck. Blood sprays out of the wound covering the wall discoloring the paint. Even then the creature is still moving towards me. The strike did not seem to affect the creature at all. My body is telling me to run but my mind says to fight. I pull at the blade but it does not budge. Franticly I pull on the aluminum shaft until finally the hinge bends and snaps.
I look at the aluminum pole that now sits in my hand. The blade is still embedded in the Infected’s thick neck. The monster grabs me; I swing at the creatures face. I hear the cheek crack and swing it again; another crack of the bones. I look at the pole which has become bent out of shape. There is no point holding onto it. I drop it and begin to back up slowly from this creature.
Suddenly a gunshot pops off from behind me. I open my eyes and sitting in the center of this monstrosity’s forehead. I pull out a war-hammer and strike the gunshot wound, smashing the skull wide open. The decapitated body stumbles and falls backwards hitting the ground hard splashing a puddle of blood across the hall.
Sean is standing at the opposite end with his pistol out locked in position. His face exudes cocky victory. His teeth sparkle with his eyes.
“What happened, Sam? Have you forgotten how to kill that quickly?” He was not talking about the Infected that that covered the walls behind me; he was not that cocky. He was talking about Ryan; he was still upset about our lost friend. There was no point in me responding to him. “Sam, you seemed to have no problem killing Ryan.” He begins walking towards me with a slow and deliberate pace. “He was not even an Infected and you had no problem…”
I had no patience for Sean, not now. His little vengeance monologue was nothing but counter productive. His rage had totally blinded him from small infected behind him. Its short spiky black hair waivered as rusty brown blood dripped from his mouth down his chin and stubbly facial hair onto his blood soaked scrubs. It crept slowly behind Sean ready to pounce onto his back. Without words I pointed my pistol at Sean. His eyes widened, was I going to shoot him no. Did it look like I was; of course. With a bang the bullet fired out of the barrel sending a small stream of smoke sliding out of the barrel. It flew just beyond Sean and hit the Infected knocking it backwards.
Thud! Matt’s bat finished the job crushing the skull of the Infected. Silence filled the building. No one seemed like they wanted to be the first one to speak. The tension of death was almost palpable like I could just grab it. Even the dogs stopped barking.
“Matt, text the girls to come inside” I began to walk towards the back door to unlock it. Sean just stood there flabbergasted, in one moment our eyes caught each other. I could see my reflection in his eyes. My face seemed cold, there seemed to be no emotion flowing from my face. This was the first time I saw myself, honestly saw myself. Kayleigh was right. I had changed. Now I am lying to myself trying to be this strong military leader and I am not that either. I am Sam and that is all I should be.
“Sean I guess we are even now, aren’t we.” I chuckle. He stares back at me and there just seems to be no joy, no mood to joke. He looks around at Matt Freddie and me. Then he just walked off.
“There s just no pleasing him, is there Sam?” Freddie blurts out. I could not help but laugh. I heard a hard knock on the back door. I walked to the back and push my ear up to the door. It did not sound like a bunch of demonic creatures of the undead trying to get into the hospital to eat our flesh. I pull heavy pink door open and in walk Sarah and Nicole. Their rifles dangled delicately from their shoulders. They looked around and listened to the excited barking of the dogs.
Dog! I forgot Leila in the car. I grabbed Nicole by the wrist and we ran back outside.
“Sam! What are you doing?” She shouts as I pull on her wrist.
“I need to get my animals” I shout back as I stop in front of the closed gate. I opened the gate and pushed the trunk opener. Leila hopped out with her leash dragging across the asphalt. I grabbed Cleo and gently toss her into the bag. Like a good cat she lands on her feet. I zipped up the bag and threw it onto my back.
A shot rings out; I look at Nicole who is still holding her gun in form as a thin stream of smoke goes off. She looked back and her expression told me to hurry up. Another shot followed by another. The Infected are coming closer. I reach deep into the trunk and pull out the light blue box containing one unhappy cat. I grab my woodpecker scythe and reach up and close the trunk. Another loud bang of Nicole’s rifle flies out.
Then another.
A third.
Click. She looks at the gun confused. She is out of ammo. I look up and a swarm of, the infected are slowly coming towards us. “Run!” I shout at Nicole still trying to shoot the empty gun. She begins backing up slowly still trying to work the gun. “Hurry, Nicole!” She watches me waddle with all the weight on my back and arms slowing me down. She chases me down and grabs Babe from me trying to help me out. On our right a zombie has gotten too close for comfort. It’s body is tall and lanky like an awkward teenage basketball player with bloody brown cuts all over it’s face. Its vibrant green shirt is caked with dirt and other matter all mixed together to form this disgusting mess.
It does not stand a chance. One swing from my massive scythe catches this creature’s side not puncturing anything but knocking it off balance. The infected stumbles and before I can finish my attack the butt of Nicole’s riffle smashes into the zombie’s face. I can hear the jaw and nose shatter as blood flows like a river out onto its dirty green shirt. The infected lets out a loud screech silenced quickly by the woodpecker scythe.
Nicole has already opened the gate and I rush through. The gate closes behind me and I find myself lying on the cold concrete with the heavy bag on top of me, crushing me. I don’t want to move, or get up. Just let me stay here for a moment.
“Sam you are the only one with the code.” Nicole reminded me. I roll over onto my side and pull myself up. Leila is in my face, I can not help but smile at her. She licks my face and I get up put my code into the door. The door lets out a gentle ring and we walk in.
Safe, for now we are safe.
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