After Genocide: The Dead Live Again (9 page)

             
Pam still in mild shock of the event that occurred earlier she still held on to her magnum. Kelly turns to face Pam, “I need you to be strong okay just try to be strong,” she comforts.

              Pam agrees with a trembling nod.

              Kelly’s hand on the door knob there is the smell of blood that runs through the building. A twist and then a small push to open it, the sound of a creak is echoed throughout the entire room; “its dark” warns Kelly. 

“I don’t think so,”--Pam peeks in the room--“there is adequate lighting to see enough.” 

              Kelly walks in first, taking her steps carefully; then behind her Pam walks. 

              There is blood on the floor, plus a decaying body. A physical therapist from the looks of the leave over carcass, the guts scattered around the room, sounds from a television that appeared to be hanging on the wall, only a white blurry screen.

              A treadmill to the right facing the television, dumbbells to do rehabilitation curls for the elbows and biceps on the arms. To the right; a bicycle for exercising the legs along with some medicine balls, small shelf with some electrical muscle stimulation machines; the portable ones.

              “Look up ahead, there is another part to it,” Kelly says.

              “Anybody here?” asks Pam in a faint voice. There is no reply only the echo of her voice.

              “Come on lets go ahead,” Kelly says.

“You sure that is a good idea?” Pam asks.

“Well we heard the scream of a little girl.  If there is someone alive we must find her and bring her along.”

              They walk straight through the remainder of the room until they pass the small entrance indicating the next room. The lights barely lit up the room. To their right, a large pool covered in blood water but still practically clear to the eye. 

              And to the left is another pool, but inside it a zombie twitching around. No eyes to see what is coming but it can smell the girls inside. Kelly holds her machine gun tight then cocks it as she continues to walk. The zombies under the pool are walking slowly and all turn up to see the two girls. 

              “Shit. Pam. Get back,” Kelly orders. Pam begins to walk backwards then a turn around to face the door. 

              “There are two zombies here. Where did they come from?” she complains. 

“Pam. You have a gun, please use it girl,” Kelly replies. 

“Right,” Pam agrees and she aims it at one zombie then pulls the trigger once; shooting one zombie in the head, then pulls the trigger again taking down the other one. A deep breath runs inside her.

              Kelly pulls the trigger and shoots the twitching zombie first then aims at the pool and begins to fire at the others. About eight zombies were in the water; walking normally but slowly.  Not for long however.  

              Pam runs but there is a sudden freeze rushing through her body. Her blood clots and her muscles become atrophied. The sudden stun from the face of a zombie, fear ran through her; she felt as if this is the end, and so much she wanted to say and do to explore the world as a live person not as the living dead. 

              The wide open mouth of the zombie as it is near to bite; the teeth showed ferocity. Her eyes widened; then as the mouth appeared to approach closer the sudden spill of blood on her face as the head blew up into pieces. She fell to the ground, the body on top of her. She lay there in shock; she thought about what happened that split second.

              I ran through the hall to reach her; picking up the dead zombie body from hers.

“Pam you okay?” I ask her. Six coming in from the door; his gun aim. He shot the zombie that is about to attack Pam. Six gets closer; “are you okay?” he asks. 

              “Do you think I am infected? Pam asks. What if I become one of them?” she cried.

              “No. You won’t become one of them. None of us will,” I tried to comfort her.

              Blood is splattered on her face and she gets up after a few minutes had passed. She is a bit serious now, like the young weak girl was dead, this was a new Pam.

“Let’s go. Kelly and Six are waiting,” she says.

             
I begin to walk, leading the way out of the rehab facility; but Pam decides to take one last quick glance at the Rehab of Death. She views the dark hallway and in her sight and with the flickering of light until the first half is lit and the second half is shrouded in pure darkness a little figure of a girl is staring directly at Pam.

              It’s like she felt the presence or something, Pam begins to walk inside the facility again after all we had been through, taking her slow and steady steps but I realize what she has seen.

“Pam, be careful you don’t know if she is infected,” I warn.

              Curiosity and disobedience, or perhaps she saw something in this small child I couldn’t understand completely a bond of sorts that could not be explained only felt by some presence of unnatural ability, but she kept walking. The tiny echoes of the minor blood splatters on the ground echoing as her shoes stepped on them and increased the diameter range of blood.

              “Are you okay,” Pam asks.

              “Pam,” I warned by calling her name out. I draw my crossbow and knock an arrow just in case.

              Pam kept walking and soon after, the little girl began to mimic her moves and approach her as well.

Her dress is covered in blood but she manages to make it most of the way before saying something that took Pam by emotion.

“Please, don’t let the monsters get me,” and then her body falls on the cold floor.

Epilogue

              Thalia Acosta looks around as she views the cameras on the security room. Her group is vast in numbers and with the weapons in the mall they have plenty in case of unwanted guests. Her black curly hair is longer than usual. She grips a knife, the same knife she had when it all happened, the only weapon she used to defend herself and her family.

              “Boss you called for me,” Tanya walks in. Tanya holds a crossbow in hand and has a knife strapped to her right thigh. She wears camouflage clothing along with a camouflage poncho. Her hair is in a pixie cut as she walks, her Hispanic skin giving off in the bright light.

              “Yes how are we doing on food,” Thalia asks.

              “Might be low soon.”

              “We’re going to have to start working on a scouting team, keeping numbers lower than five and separating artillery as well,” Thalia replies.

              Thalia stands while looking at the camera screens, her blue jeans and black shirt noticeable as well as her black shoes. She is paused now, thinking, dwelling on what her group might need for the future that awaits them.

              “We should hotwire some of the vehicles in the parking lot and bring them into the basement. First a small party will escort one to hotwire and another will cover from the roof,” Thalia orders.

              “Anything else boss,” asks Tanya.

              “Any word on other survivors?”

              “No. Sorry. Our transmissions have not picked up any others on Call Back radio. However there is a report from the Elsa refugees saying a red suburban was seen driving around carrying several people. Seems like they been surviving as well.” Tanya reports what she heard and although Thalia is facing the screens she can see a bright smile on her face. Thalia knows her family is alive, and it will only be soon when she will see them again.