Lakewood Memorial (8 page)

For nearly half an hour, they all just sat
and stared. Behind the three shut glass doors, people moaned and
ran their hands along the glass. Angie moved her gaze from one door
to another as she leaned against the nurse's desk.

“
Call the cops again,”
said Sam.

“
They're not answering,”
said Angie. “But surely they know. The whole hospital is under
attack. Surely they know.”

“
What about your kids?”
said Freeda beside her.

“
No answer at home.
They're probably out getting pizza or something. Brooke said they
might. I just hope they don't see this on the news and freak
out.”

Kristen was leaning on the handles of Mr.
Paulson's wheelchair. “I bet the cops are outside right now.”

“
They're dead,” said Park,
standing just inside the doorway leading to the empty hall. Moe was
in the first patient room, resting. Freeda patted Angie on the
shoulder, then walked down the hall to tend to Moe.

“
How in the hell would you
know whether the cops are dead?” said Sam.

“
Not the cops,” said Park.
He took a step into the room and nodded at the glass doors. “Those
fuckers. I think they're dead.”

Mr. Paulson let out something between a
laugh and a snort. “Listen, son. I know I may look dead, but I'm
actually not. Know how you can tell, dumb shit? I'm fucking
moving.”

Sam chuckled.

“
You can shut up too, shit
bag,” said Mr. Paulson. “You wouldn't know shit if it came out of
your ass and slid down your leg.”

Sam glared at Mr. Paulson. Kristen shook her
head at Sam, then stroked her father's head.

“
Now, Dad, don't get
excited.”

Park ignored all this and stepped closer to
the doors. “Some of these fuckers are hurt. Too hurt to be
walking.”

Angie looked. Park had a point. A ridiculous
point, but still a point.

“
My god,” said Kristen.
Angie looked over to see her staring at the doors. Angie followed
her gaze to a teenage girl standing outside one of the doors. The
girl was wearing a torn and dirty dress and her lips looked glued
together.

“
I know her,” said
Kristen. “I mean, I knew of her. She was killed in a car accident.
I saw the burial notice in the paper.”

Angie saw Sam look and frown. He said
nothing.

Park looked at Sam and Mr. Paulson. “You
think she got better? Maybe she should have told the mortician
before he glued her mouth shut.”

“
That must not be her,”
said Sam.

“
It's her,” said
Kristen.

“
For
shit's sake,” said Mr. Paulson. “If she's walking, she's not dead.
I
can't
walk and
I'm
not fucking dead.”

Park snorted and looked at Angie. “You got
one of those stethoscope things?”

Angie opened a drawer in the nurse's desk.
“There's one in here. Why?”

“
Here's why,” said Park.
He walked to the glass door and pulled open the locks.

“
Hey!” said
Angie.

“
Hold your shit, this'll
be quick.” Park pulled the door open, yanked the teen girl inside
and shut the door before any of the others could get in.

“
Catch,” said Park,
pushing the girl at Sam.

“
What the hell is the
matter with you!” yelled Angie.

Sam took a step back but caught the girl by
the shoulders. “You crazy fuck!”

The girl moaned through her glued lips.

Park locked the door and turned.

The girl's lips separated, thick black blood
and dried glue falling from her mouth. She groaned at Sam.

“
Shit!” said
Sam.

“
Here,” said Park. He
grabbed the girl's shoulder from behind and kicked her legs. Sam
let her go and the girl fell backward to the floor. Park held her
down by her shoulders, kneeling behind her.

The girl hissed and bit at Park. “Shit,” he
said, avoiding her mouth and struggling to keep her down. “She's
stronger than I would have thought.”

“
Get her the hell out of
here!” said Angie.

“
One second,” said Park.
He looked at Sam, who was staring down at him and the girl. “Hold
her fucking legs, genius!”

Sam flashed red. “Fuck you, asshole.”

“
Unless you want her to
get up and eat your fucking dad or whoever the fuck that is in the
chair, hold her fucking legs.”

“
You're out of your
goddamned mind,” said Sam, getting down on his knees and taking
hold of the girl's kicking legs.

Angie was stunned at the stupidity she was
witnessing. “What the hell is the point of all this supposed to
be?”

Park smirked at her. “Proving a point. Get
the stethoscope.”

Angie rolled her eyes. “Are you shitting me?
That's what you risked opening the door for?”

“
Just get it.”

Angie sighed and took the stethoscope out of
the nurse's desk. She walked over to where Park and Sam where
holding the girl down.

Angie knelt and looked down at the girl.
Seeing her up close made Angie feel cold. The girl's skin was gray
and pasty. Her eyes were clouded and vacant. And she looked
familiar.

From an obituary in the newspaper.

Angie put the stethoscope in her ears and
leaned over the girl.

The girl hissed and snapped her teeth at
Angie as she put the stethoscope to the girl's chest and
listened.

She listened longer than she needed to.

Finally, she sighed and sat back, removing
the stethoscope.

“
And?” said
Park.

“
No heartbeat,” said
Angie. “Nothing. And except for when she makes noise, it doesn't
even sound like she's breathing.”

“
My god,” said
Kristen.

The room was quiet for a few moments, save
the hissing and moaning of the girl.

“
Ok,” said Sam. “She's
dead. Great. The whole world's gone fucking crazy and I'm holding a
corpse down to keep it from eating me.”

“
Yep,” said
Park.

“
Ok, genius,” said Sam.
“You let her in. She's dead. How in the holy fuck do we kill her
again?”

“
I know,” said Angie. She
stood and strode back to the nurse's station. She pulled the fire
extinguisher from the wall and stepped back over. She slammed the
extinguisher down on the girl's head.

“
Jesus!” said Sam, letting
go and sitting back.

The girl gurgled and moaned, moving more
slowly now. Angie heaved the extinguisher back up and brought it
down again. The girl's head collapsed, brain and black blood
shooting out to one side.

“
Jesus!” repeated Sam,
jumping up and backing away.

The girl's hands fell to either side. She
was still.

Park let go of the girl and raised his
eyebrows. “How'd you know that?”

“
Rick,” said Angie,
standing and dropping the extinguisher.

“
What?”

“
At the dispatch desk.
His...head was crushed by the ambulance. He's the only one who
didn't get back up.”

Park nodded and stood. “Well, okay.
Hopefully the cops bring lots of fire extinguishers.”

Mr. Paulson snorted. “Those dick-sniffers.
What passes for cops around here probably got eaten in the parking
lot half an hour ago.”

“
They have guns,” said
Angie. “I bet just shooting the brain would kill these
things.”

“
This is crazy,” said Sam,
pacing and continually glancing down at the dark slick of blood and
brain on the floor. “In-fucking-sane. Where in the hell are they
all even coming from?”

Park shrugged. “This one was buried, right?
Isn't there a graveyard right by the hospital?”

Angie nodded.

Mr. Paulson laughed. “Sure as shit there is.
Always thought the peckers here got a little something if they let
patients die and gave the mortician some business.”

Angie felt cold. “Oh shit.”

“
What?” said
Park.

“
There's graveyards all
over this town.”

Park shrugged again. “Lots of old people.
Lots of dying.”

“
What if this is happening
all over town?” said Angie, pulling out her cell phone. “Oh shit. I
have to call home.”

She dialed and waited.

Eleven

Maylee heard the phone ringing from the
kitchen and did her best to ignore it.

“
The phone's ringing,”
said Dalton. He was sitting on the toilet tank with his feet on the
seat.

“
Thanks for letting us
know,” said Maylee, sitting on the sink and twirling her bat one
way and then the other. “Why don't you open the door and answer
it?”

The phone rang a few more times then
stopped. Moaning and scratching came from the door. Brooke was
standing with her back to the door, rubbing her temples.

“
Just keep quiet, you
two,” she said. “All we need to do is wait for the
cops.”

“
The cops you can't call?”
said Maylee.

Brooke flashed her a look. “They have to be
coming. What's happening outside is too big. Someone had to have
called. They're coming.”

“
Not necessarily,” said
Dalton, staring at the door. “What if this is happening all over
town?”

A realization flashed through Maylee. “Oh
shit,” she said. She hopped off the sink to stand. “That's right!
Mom could be in trouble. We have to get out of here.”

Brooke sighed. “Maylee, please. You saw
those people.”

“
I'll knock 'em in the
head,” said Maylee, brandishing her bat.

“
There's too many,” said
Brooke.

“
They aren't people,
either,” said Dalton.

“
Don't say that,” said
Brooke. “They're people. There's just something wrong with them.
They're sick or something.”

“
No,” said Dalton. “This
is worse than sick. That guy with no eyes?”

Maylee lowered the bat, thinking. “Yeah. And
the arm that ripped off with no blood.”

They all fell silent and listened to the
groaning outside the door. Brooke looked like she was thinking.
“That old lady. The one that attacked me outside. Her skin felt
like a dead person's.”

Dalton wrinkled his nose. “What are you
doing touching dead people?”

“
Shhh,” said Maylee, her
mind turning. “Wait...are you thinking those things are
dead?”

Brooke shook her head. “No, that's
crazy.”

“
It was crazy already,”
said Maylee. “Them being dead would just be more crazy to add to
the crazy pile.”

“
Big pile,” said
Dalton.

“
Huge,” said
Maylee.

“
Will you two please keep
quiet,” said Brooke. “I'm trying to think.”

Hell you
are
, thought Maylee.
You're just trying to look like you're thinking. We're on our
own here
.

The phone rang again.

“
Dammit,” said Maylee.
“That might be Mom. She might be in trouble.”

“
We're
in trouble, Maylee!” snapped
Brooke. “We're trapped in your bathroom with a crazed mob outside
the door. Just back off for a second, ok?”

Maylee fumed but shrugged. She took a step
back and leaned against the sink.

Brooke frowned and rubbed her arms. “And why
the hell is it so cold in here?”

“
Heat's broken in the
bathroom,” said Dalton, buttoning up his over-shirt.

“
Mom's been on the
landlord to fix it,” said Maylee. “But he's a lazy
dick.”

“
Wait...” said Dalton. He
hopped off the toilet tank and walked to the bathtub. A large fuzzy
mat was in front of it. Dalton knelt down and pulled the mat away,
revealing a large rusted grate.

“
What's that?” said
Brooke.

“
Heating grate,” said
Dalton.

“
So what's your point?”
said Brooke.

“
I think I could squeeze
through.”

Maylee rolled her eyes. “And what, crawl
around in the ducts? You're a little dork, but you're not that
little.”

“
No,” said Dalton. “The
duct's loose, remember? That's what Mom's been on the landlord
about.”

Maylee thought about that.

“
And the basement is
unfinished,” said Dalton. “I've been down there when Mom was
complaining. The duct is just barely hanging on.”

Maylee frowned. Brooke shook her head.

“
Dammit,” said Dalton.
“Look.”

Dalton tugged at the grate. It was loose but
didn't come free.

“
Give me a toothbrush or
something,” he said.

“
You ain't touching my
toothbrush.”

“
Then give me mine,
geez!”

Maylee shrugged and pulled Dalton's
toothbrush from a cup next to the faucet. She handed it to him.

Dalton wedged the toothbrush in one of the
slots on the grate. He pulled on it, then again. On the third time
the grate popped free.

Brooke raised her eyebrows.

“
See,” said Maylee to her.
“Lazy dick.”

“
Now, watch,” said Dalton.
He put one leg into the hole and slammed his foot down. The
ductwork creaked and groaned.