Respect for the Dead (Surviving the Dead Book 1) (11 page)

Gillian held her breath, trembling she waited by the door holding the plastic dog skull high above her head.  Out in the hall she heard voices.

   “Dude! What the hell?  That bitch bit me.” 

“Man this is totally messed up!  Those people were crazy!  What are we gonna do?”

“Shit,” a voice exclaimed followed by the sound of cabinets opening then slamming shut.  “This won’t stop bleeding.  Help me find something to bandage this up with.”

“What should I get?”   Questioned a different voice, a voice with a hint of resentment. 

“Dude I don’t know!  We are at a Vet so they have to have something around here for like dogs that have been hit by cars and shit.”

  Gillian listened to the two voices argue just on the other side of the door.  “Ok” she thought.  “Sounds like two boys and one has been hurt.” She wracked her brain trying to remember the self defense course she took in college.  “Ok, aim for the eyes and the balls.”  She thought psyching herself up for a fight.   “I think I’ll forgo the screaming.   No one will hear it anyway, and it’s dumb.”  She let her mind wander, “Get it together girl.”  She let out the breath she was holding then took in a deep one steadying herself. 

Without warning the door knob turned, the door swung wide slamming Gillian in the face.   Staggering backward she grabbed her head; the plastic jaw clattered on the ground as she swore loudly the side of her face throbbed.  Through streaming eyes she spotted a young man standing in the doorway wide eyed.  He was about five foot two and utterly shocked.

“Hey lady I’m so sorry, are you ok?”

Lowering her hands Gillian stared at the young man.  “Yeah I think so.”  She said rubbing her face.   Suddenly remembering this guy shouldn’t be there, “Wait!  You broke in!  What the hell are you doing here?”  She demanded.   The side of her face stung as she spoke. 

  “Hey Jeremy, man come here.”

A taller young man poked his head around the corner and looked over his friend’s shoulder.  Gillian noted his arm was bleeding at the shoulder.  She also noticed he wore an unkind sneer.  The shorter man spoke up, “Hey sorry about the front door, but we had to find a place to hide.  Are you a doctor?  Can you help Jeremy?”  He ejected in rapid fire.

“Who are you?”  Gillian demanded, rubbing her face.  She backed slowly to a drawer, opening it clumsily behind her she felt around for an icepack.  Applying it to her face where the door hit her.  She angrily shouted,   “This is so going to bruise.   Who are you and why did you break in?” 

The short man blinked at her for a second then replied, “Oh, hey right, sorry my name is Matt, and that is Jeremy.” 

“And just who are you hiding from?  The Police?”  She was still wary, in pain, and wanted some answers. She also could hear police sirens and wasn’t about to trust two guys who just broke into her clinic.  On top of that one of them was injured and bleeding onto her floor. 

“Who are we hiding from?  Dude!  Seriously?  Everyone!  All those crazy fuckers out there.”  Was Jeremy’s shocked reply, “The whole damn town has gone nuts… Shit this hurts.”  He grimaced and clutched at his shoulder.   “You’re kinda like a doctor or something right?  Can’t you give me something for this shit?” 

Gillian stared at Jeremy.  “Nice.” She replied sarcastically.

“Sorry, Jeremy is kind of a dick.” Matt muttered leaning toward Gillian.  “Uh doctor Olsen?  Can you help him out?”  He asked politely while giving Jeremy a reproving look.  Jeremy just shook his head in disgust. 

“How did you…”  Gillian Stammered. 

Matt pointed to her lab coat where her name tag was.  “Right, well you can call me Gillian.”  Embarrassed by her own forgetfulness, she waved Jeremy over to a small whicker couch by the wall, “Let’s have a look at that shoulder.”

Jeremy pushed past Matt aggressively stepping into the room.  Gillian shook her head at his rudeness but Matt just shrugged.  Jeremy sat down and Gillian began to lift the sleeve of his blood soaked t-shirt, “what do you mean the town has gone nuts?”

Jeremy’s head spun to give her a look like she was crazy.  He turned to Matt and spat out, “Well now that we’ve all been so properly introduced an all that shit.  Haven’t you been paying attention to the radio and the TV and shit?” 

Gillian looked from Matt to Jeremy confused.  Matt shook his head shrugging, he opened his mouth to explain but Jeremy gave an annoyed huff, “All the sick people have gone nuts.  They have just gone fucking crazy.  They are attacking people and trying to kill them.”

Matt took a deep breath and answered Gillian’s questioning look, “We were going through downtown when a whole group of them came out of this building and”

“And just fucking came after us.”  Jeremy interrupted starting to get worked up.  “Then… this girl,”  He paused with a glance at Matt, “she just bit me. I had to beat the shit out of her to get her off me, OW!  Watch it that hurt dammit”

Gillian was cleaning the wound.  Jeremy spared Gillian a glare before continuing, “Well the rest of them just looked fucked up.  Some were all covered in blood...  and they were just…..the shit was all messed up.”  Jeremy trailed off staring down at his hands. 

Gillian looked to Matt to explain but he just starred at a poster of proper weights for cats.  She returned her attention to Jeremy’s shoulder.  With a slight gag she noticed the smell, “how long ago did this happen?  This wound looks infected.”

“About a half hour ago.”  Matt replied with concern. 

Gillian went to the cabinet and retrieved several items.  Jeremy watched her the whole time.  She began applying some antiseptic cream which caused Jeremy to jump away cringing.  “Damn! Bitch what the hell did you just put in my arm?  God that hurts.”  He shouted.

  “A half an hour ago?”  Ignoring the insult, she stared at the arm in disbelief.   The wound was green and black and there was a truly foul smelling puss already leaking from the ragged wound. She could see the teeth marks, it was definitely a bite.  Gillian frowned as she noticed the rest of the arm was red and hot to the touch.

“I need to get some antibiotics from the kennel.  I’ll be right back.”  She moved toward the door, Matt made to follow her when the sound of breaking glass made them all freeze.

  Shaking with fear Matt pushed past Gillian to the door.  He opened it a crack and looked out.  Glancing back at the other two he opened the door the rest of the way and edged into the hall.  Moving slowly and as quiet as possible he crept to the door separating the hall from the waiting room. Gillian followed him.  He held up a hand to stop her then slowly eased this door open a crack. 

It took just a glance for his fears to be answered.  He jumped back, closed the door as quickly and quietly as possible.  He turned around and smashed right into Gillian banging his head into the already swollen side of her face.  She whimpered but Matt’s hand flew over her mouth.  “There are two of them in the front.  I think they just stumbled in.  I don’t think they know we are here.”  Matt whispered, looking scared yet relieved.

“Two of whom?”  She asked pulling his hand from her face.    Matt hushed her. 

Jeremy answered her by vomited loudly all over the floor.  Gillian turned her attention back to Matt, shocked as he grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the back of the clinic.

“We have to get out of here now!”  He urged in a desperate whisper.  Gillian turned to face him and saw the absolute terror on his face.

“What about your friend?”  She asked turning back to Jeremy’s room.  They heard something crash to the floor from the counter in the waiting room.  Matt grabbed her arm. 

Gillian made a move back toward the examination room.  Matt pulled at her arm urging her to follow him.  She ignored him watching the door to the lobby as she crept forward.  “It’s too late.”  Matt hissed.  She looked back at him confused.  “Come on we have to go.  We have to leave him.”  Matt pleaded. 

Gillian was at the door.  Jeremy was on the floor moaning.  Suddenly he was starting to convulse.  Foam was coming from his mouth.  She moved to help but found her way blocked by Matt.  He grabbed her shoulders and used his whole body to keep her from going into the room.  

“He is going to attack us.”  He whispered.  “Just like Sarah did.”  Matt tightened his grip on Gillian’s shoulders pushing her backward.  “Please we have to go now.  Is there a backdoor?”

“I need to help your friend, who is Sarah?”  Gillian said as she tried to pull away from Matt.  The door to the lobby rattled open and all thought except escape left Gillian’s mind.  Two men entered the hall.  One was missing his lower jaw the other had most of his left arm shredded.

Devin sat on the edge of his chair transfixed by the monitors.  He couldn’t believe what he was witnessing.  A man had just been killed right before his eyes.  Run over as he tried to move a barrier to allow people safe passage out of the city.  “They just left them, the police just left.”  He stuttered.  These were people he saw every day, people of his hometown.  These were the people he would say hi to on the street and get a pleasant response.  “Could it really be falling apart so fast?”  He thought.

His attention was diverted from the monitor when the door flew open slamming hard against the wall.  Lacey Warrington rushed into the room carrying several heavy binders.  She took a seat a few chairs down from Devin, letting the binders scatter over the counter.  “The Mayor told me to come help you.”  She stated, her fingers clicking keys as she logged onto a computer.  “I can’t believe what is happening.  Have you called Cheryl?”  She ended her question with a cough.   

“I tried, we…We….We um, got cut off.”  Devin tried not to let his imagination run wild.

“Yeah I can’t get through to anyone either.  All the Cell and land lines are absolutely jammed.  The cops have to use two way radios and even then the static and interference from other users is crazy.”  Lacey coughed again.

For several minutes the only sound was Lacey’s typing and occasional cough.  With a flourish Lacey clicked the enter Key.  “That’s all of them.  All the street lights are flashing green for the way out of town.  Now we just need to get the word to people.”  She finished with a rather painful sounding hack.  Devin looked over concerned, but she just shook her head, waving him off with a smile.  “I’m ok, just normal allergies.” 

“Shit it is totally falling apart out there.”  Norman Baker exclaimed as he rushed into the room and looked up at the screens.  “The scanner is going nuts, did you call home?”  He asked Devin.

  “I was...something happened and I can’t get a hold of anyone.”  Devin repeated, as Lacy coughed again.

“Did you tell them to get the hell out of town?”  Norman demanded. “You need to get your family out man.”

“I tired” Devin shrugged.  His resolve that his family would be fine was evaporating quickly as he watched another group attack several people who ran from a building. “I told Cheryl to go, I’m sure she did, that is the reason I can’t get them.”  He wasn’t sure if Norman believed this or if he even did.  

  “I’m sure they are…”  Norman began but was cut off as a loud crash made both men jump and turn.

Lacey’s chair toppled to the floor as she jumped to her feet.  “Oh MY God, the fools!  What are they doing?”  She screamed pointing at the monitor showing the bridge. 

Cars scrapped through the barriers trying to get across to the inbound lanes.  Sparks flew off a small hatchback that was trying to barrel down the shoulder after a motorcycle.  A motor home had just muscled its way through the breach pushing a minivan out of its path.  Both drivers sped down the open road until the van crossed over in front of the RV clipping the front bumper.  The van spun and flipped over in front of the larger vehicle.  The driver of the RV had made a platform on the back to carry an extra cooler and two propane tanks.  The RV was slowed by the sparking scrapping van.  A bright green sports car tried to fly past the obstacle, sideswiped another car and slammed into the platform.  The propane tanks erupted in flame from the impact.  The green flaming car glanced off a second car, lost control and imbedded itself into the retaining wall. 

  Flames were quickly overtaking the rest of the motor home.  The driver was becoming more erratic finally skidding to a halt across the lanes.   Seeing the road blocked with flames several drivers that followed slammed on their brakes, smoke billowed from the tires.  Reverse lights came on but the cars that were behind were coming up too fast.  They smashed into the ones trying to get back through. 

A pickup truck tried to smash through the burning wreckage only to add its hulk to the flaming barricade.  The driver ran several feet down the road in flame before collapsing in a smoldering corpse.   Now cars and flaming debris totally blocked the inbound lanes.   

Burning bodies began to emerge from the flaming RV.  “Good God!   It’s like a fucking clown car.  There must have been ten or fifteen people in it.”  Norman shouted then fell silent.  The flaming undead were heading into the mass of crashed vehicle.  People were climbing out of windows and scampering over hoods trying to escape.  “Oh my god.”  He whispered watching the chaos.

Now the outbound lanes were in panic.  The arms of the burning corpses flailed over the wall.  People ran between the cars and over them.  Cars were trying to force past each other on the bridge three abreast until the inevitable; they became lodged against each other and the railing.  The road emptied out in front of the blockage on either side.  Several people jumped the barrier and ran down the bridge.   

Devin watched as others tried to get out of their cars.  He saw the panic as the flames spread across the one side and the dead closed in on both sides.  Both kinds of doom were getting closer to the trapped people.  They tried to smash their windows while others jumped from the bridge to the shallow river below.   

Many were now turning to run back to town only to be met by another wave of people trying to get out of town.  This group did not have the same urgency; they were not running or pushing.   

Devin watched as the group running from the flames faltered and began throwing rocks and debris at oncoming crowd.  “What are they doing?”  He asked gripping the back of a chair.

  The second mass of people steadily advanced.  Then people were running back to cars or in any direction.  Devin, Lacey and Norman stood stock still watching as the group from town began advancing through the sea of wrecked vehicles.  They were banging on windows and attacking people as they tried to get out of their cars.

“Sweet mother of pearl!”  Devin exclaimed.

“What the fuck is happening?”  Norman whispered.