Dead, but Not for Long (36 page)

Snake was about to ask the doctor exactly what Helga had said, but he remembered that Autumn was nearby,
and Helga’s vocabulary wasn’t always PG. Then again, Autumn wasn’t your typical nine-year-old.
The kid was mature beyond her years, both in intelligence and in her knowledge of the world. Snake was sure the girl
had heard worse, so he finally asked Doune for the gory details.

Doune lowered his voice and repeated Helga’s threat.

Snake turned pale and swallowed hard.

“Of course,” Doune added, “I don’t think that’s physically possible, but perhaps she was
speaking metaphorically.”

“I hope you’ve got a good supply of that sedative,” Snake replied before walking away.

He made it as far as the door to the doctor’s lounge before he was stopped again.

“We need to figure out where to hide the guns,” Jack told him. “I don’t know how early the Coast
Guard choppers will arrive in the morning so I think we ought to get this done tonight.”

Snake rubbed his beard as he thought about it. “Is there any place in the hospital they won’t
search? Walk-in freezer or morgue, maybe?”

“I can’t promise that they wouldn’t find them there,” Jack said. “I’m guessing they may do a
pretty thorough search. I was kind of thinking about someplace outside of the
hospital. Maybe a nearby building they wouldn’t even think about.”

“It would have to be close,” Snake said. “We can’t risk hiding our
stash in a building that might get bombed.”

“What about the truck?” Jack said after a few moments of silence. “We could hide the guns in the back and park it nearby. We
could even make it look like it’s been wrecked; throw up the hood, park it at an angle.”

“I like it,” Snake said. He looked longingly at the door to the physician’s lounge, where the nice, soft sofa awaited him.
Sighing, he said, “I’ll get some of the guys to help me.”

It took a while to find just the right spot and to
stage the accident. They had emptied the truck earlier, but after stashing the
guns and ammo in the back, they piled some furniture inside and left the back
door hanging open. Snake yawned as he regarded the final product.

“Let’s go get some sleep,” he told the others as
they killed off a few stray zombies. “Those choppers will be arriving early, I’m sure.”

He was more than ready to collapse for a few hours, but was stopped again, just inside the door.

“Had a little problem while you were gone,” Wolf said, keeping his voice down.

“What now?” Snake asked.

“That guy nurse, Keith, went after a couple of the
guys. He was drunk.” He nodded toward the ER where Keith was passed out on a gurney near Helga.

“Where’d he get booze?” Snake asked.

“Mouse had something to do with it, but I can’t
get a straight answer out of him.”

“Nothing new there,” Snake snorted. “I don’t think
Mouse knows how to give a straight answer. I’m kind of surprised, though. Keith
didn’t strike me as the drinking type. I thought he was all into health food and working out.”

“I guess his wife got killed today,” Wolf said. “Her
building was of those that got blown up.”

“You sure?” Snake asked.

“Pretty sure. Keith was on the phone with her when
it happened. He kind of flipped out. That little Filipino nurse, Amelia, said
she’d never seen him like this.”

“Is he okay, now?”

“Yeah, Doune gave him a shot of that stuff that he
gave to Helga. He says they’ll both sleep for a while.”

“All right. I’m going to try to do the same, but I’m
sure I won’t need one of Doune’s shots,” he said, tiptoeing past Keith and
Helga to get to his room. He slept for almost two hours before being shaken awake by Jack.

“What?” Snake growled, sitting up.

“We need you in the Crow’s Nest. Something is
going on and I’m not quite sure how to handle it.”

Snake thought that seemed odd since Jack was the
man in charge of security. He was curious but Jack wouldn’t explain more.

“You’re going to have to see this for yourself,” he said.

“All right,” Snake said, getting to his feet.
Still half asleep, he made his way with Jack to the elevator and took it to the
fifth floor. He yawned widely as he and Jack stepped out and went to the Crow’s
Nest. Mouse met him at the door.

“Uh, boss, we got a problem,” Mouse said.

“Yeah, I keep hearing that lately,” Snake said with a long-suffering sigh.

The others were gathered at the window and Jack walked over to join them.

“Keith found a bottle of tequila and finished it off,” Mouse started.

“I heard that, though I’m still not clear on how
he got the booze,” Snake said. As far as he knew, there wasn’t a drop in the
hospital. “I heard you had something to do with it.”

“Well, I, uh, kind of came across some on our last supply run,” Mouse admitted.

Snake’s attention was momentarily distracted as
Wombat wrote something on a whiteboard then held it up to the window.

“But you don’t drink,” Snake looked back at Mouse, confused.

“Which is why I gave it to Keith,” Mouse said, as though that explained it all.

“Okay,” Snake said, trying to follow Mouse’s
convoluted story. “So you gave Keith a bottle of tequila and he drank it. I don’t
think that’s a huge problem. He just lost his wife so he got drunk and passed
out. And why are so many lights on in here?”

“So people can see inside better,” Mouse said.

“Four!” Someone called out.

“Why would they need to see inside?” Snake asked,
turning to look at the men at the window again.

“You kidding? That’s at least a six,” another biker said.

“It kind of goes along with this problem,” Mouse said.

Snake kept finding himself distracted by the
others. He turned back to Mouse, “The problem with Keith getting drunk?”

“No, that’s not the problem. The problem is that he left.”

“Let’s go with five,” Wombat said, writing on the
board again before holding it up.

Snake looked at the bikers in utter confusion, but
then he realized what Mouse had said.

“Left?” Snake repeated, looking back at Mouse
again. “Left the building?”

Mouse nodded. “There’s more.”

Snake just stared at him, not wanting to ask.

“Helga saw him leave and she followed him out. The
two of them are on a rampage outside,” Mouse said, nodding toward the window.

“Helga? She was strapped down with those
heavy-duty straps,” Snake said with a frown. “Did she break out?”

“Not exactly”

“Mouse?”

“She threatened me, Boss. The stuff she said she’d do if I didn’t let her loose, it was horrible.
Maybe she wouldn’t have really done it but . . .”

“She would have. You don’t know Helga,” Snake
said, walking over to join the others. He looked down at the parking lot, which
was also thoroughly lit up. There were bodies strewn everywhere and in the
middle of it all was Keith with a sledgehammer and Helga with a crowbar.

“Oooooh,” came several voices in unison as a
couple of the bikers looked away. Keith had just brought down the hammer on the
skull of a crawler. It looked like something Snake had once seen the comedian Gallagher do to a watermelon.

“That’s a nine, for sure,” Moose said.

“A nine?” Snake asked.

Wombat showed him the whiteboard with the number
nine on it, before holding it up to the window.

“Should we go help ‘em, Boss?” Moose asked.

“I don’t know,” Snake said, scratching his beard. “We
might just get in the way.”

“That was my thought exactly,” Jack sighed. “Which
is why I woke you.”

Snake stood at the window for a while longer,
watching as the dead trickled into the parking lot, only to find their final
deaths at the hands of the two warriors. Most of the bikers had their rifles
ready, just in case, but so far no assistance had been necessary. “Let’s just
see how it goes for now. Is someone by the door to let them back in?”

“Fish is,” Mouse said. “He’s listening for them to
knock or for us to call down.”

“Ouch!” someone said as Helga split a skull with
the crowbar. “I give that one a seven.”

Wombat erased the nine and drew a seven on the board before holding it up.

Helga looked up at the window and frowned before
looking around. She walked over to two zombies that had just made their way
into the parking lot and she stood between them. As they both turned toward
her, she swung one way with the crowbar then the other, dropping them both
within seconds of each other. She looked up at the window.

“Eight,” Mouse said. Others agreed.

Wombat held the sign up and watched as Helga crossed her arms.

“Maybe we’d better make that a nine,” Mouse suggested.

“I was thinking the same thing,” Wombat said, changing it.

Helga grinned after the board was held up again, and went back to her work.

It was another hour before the two were ready to
come inside. When they were told they had to go through quarantine, neither of
them argued. Keith found a gurney and promptly passed out.

Once he was sure that Helga wasn’t going to need
to be restrained again, Snake said, “I’m heading to bed.” Sunrise would be at 7:00,
which was only a few hours away.

“I think I’m going to stay up and work on the
generator with Spencer since the electricity has been flowing a little more
consistently at night,” Jack said. “I can sleep some more tomorrow after the
helicopters leave.

“Sparky,” Snake said. “His name is Sparky.”

Jack grinned. “All right. I’ll try to remember
that.”

Snake made his way to the lounge next to the ER.
When he entered the room, he thought he could actually hear the couch calling
to him. Peeking out the door, he got the attention of a biker passing through the ER.

“Pass it on to the rest of the guys. If anyone
wakes me up before the choppers arrive, they’ll be shot.”

The biker laughed, but Snake didn’t crack a smile.

“Dude, I’m serious,” Snake said with a straight
face. The biker quickly dropped his smile and nodded his head. The door slammed.

~*^*~

Snake had managed to sleep for less than an hour before being awakened at 3:45 a.m. by Fish.

“This better be important,” Snake said sternly, trying not to lose his diminishing sense of humor.

“Sorry, Boss,” Fish apologized. “But the guys in the Crow’s Nest want to show you something.”

“What, did Keith and Helga go back outside?” he asked.

“No, this is something else,” Fish said.

Promising himself some more sleep once the crisis
of the hour was resolved, Snake sighed deeply and headed to the top floor. He
walked into the observation room where a young biker with rather large ears was
looking out the window. The biker turned to look at Snake when he entered the room.

“Hey, Boss,” he said a little too cheerfully for
Snake. “I think that building across the park has power. There’s some kind of
light going on and off in the window. Maybe a machine of some sort.”

Snake looked to see a rhythmic pattern of flashes coming from the other window.

“How long’s that been going on?” he asked.

“Well, it started just after Keith and Helga came
inside but it’s been going off and on ever since then,” the man replied, scratching his fuzzy beard.

Snake looked at the young biker and shook his head.

“You can’t tell when someone’s signaling Morse code with a flashlight?”

He went to the phone and put it on intercom, announcing that he was looking for someone that knew Morse code,
and that they were needed in the observation room.

~*~

Keith was sitting with Jack in the cafeteria,
nursing a hangover, when they heard Snake’s message.

“Morse code, huh?” Keith said. “Did I ever tell you that I was once a Boy Scout,
Jack? Guess I’d better get up there and see if I can help.”

“Have fun with that,” Jack said, taking another
sip of coffee. He saw Lindsey enter the room and walk over to get a cup of coffee before walking his way.

“Is this a private party, or can anyone join?” Lindsey asked.

“It’s a little crowded here,” Jack joked as he
pointed out the empty chairs surrounding the table. “But I think we can fit you in.”

She sat down and took a sip of her coffee.

“I’m so glad we still have a few luxuries,” she said, setting her cup back down.

“Not bad for instant. Next trip to the store, I’ll have to remind Snake to bring the real stuff back.”

“We got some yesterday but I guess it probably hasn’t been taken to the kitchen yet,” Lindsey said, yawning before taking
another sip. “I’m just glad it’s not decaf.”

“Why are you up so early, by the way?” Jack asked.

“Autumn just can’t wait to get down here in the mornings to help Doune,” Lindsey said. “I guess I don’t need to come with her
but I hear her moving around and it wakes me up.”

“I guess it’s good that she’s got something to keep her busy.”

“Definitely,” Lindsey said, taking another sip. “It’s
not good to have too much time to think these days.”

“You looked a little down,” Jack said. “Everything
all right? I mean besides our current situation with the undead and all.”

“Just thinking,” Lindsey answered. “Trying to
decide whether to stay or go. Then there’s my mom and dad. Last time I was able
to contact them, they were fine, but I can’t help but worry. I just hate not
knowing what’s going on in the rest of the world.”

She took a sip out of her cup and looked at Jack. “What
about you? You never talk about your family. Anyone out there you’re worried about?”

The long pause that followed made Lindsey think she may have hit a sore spot.

“If you don’t want to talk about it, I understand.”

“It’s okay,” Jack said, staring at the steam
rising from the cup. “I’ve no family out there to speak of. My wife left this
earth two decades ago.”

“I’m sorry,” Lindsey said, not knowing what else to say.