Rise & Walk (Book 2): Pathogen (23 page)

“I’m gonna have to leave you if you don’t open the door.” He shouted to the closet.

The glass on the right side window gave way beneath the pressure of a bloody-faced ghoul.  It pushed forward with both arms, sending the pane to land on the recklessly piled barricade of tables and plastic cribs with a clatter.  Tony mentally cursed.  To come all this way and not save the kid wasn’t something he wanted to live with.  Tony aimed the Colt; his flashlight shone and reflected on the wet pus weeping from a wound on the corpse’s face.  He fired, punching a small hole in its forehead, and quite a large one out the back. 

Leave or kick the door down and hope that it doesn’t break the lady’s legs, or worse, hurt the kid
.  He only had five bullets left in his magazine; a decision had to be made.  He looked at the door considering how hard to kick and only then realized that the baby was no longer crying.  He couldn’t remember when it had stopped.  Tony feared the worst when the closet door suddenly opened.

*****

Andy, now fifty feet from the hospital entrance saw two more walking corpses in the parking lot moving towards the entrance.  From a distance, and possibly since he had been immersed in darkness for the past two days, they looked like normal people, but he knew better.  They just didn’t move right.  He noticed that they could pick up the pace when they saw him, but that their knees and elbows had trouble bending.  He stopped the Bronco.  The Raiders fan that had frightened Denise so, had disappeared.  He looked around, checked all the mirrors, but all he could see now were the two newcomers from the lot. 

“That one must have gone inside.” Andy said.

“They have guns, they’ll be fine.”  Denise urged again almost bouncing with fear on the edge of the backseat.  “Let’s go deliver that prescription like he said!”

“Then these other two might go in too.  Maybe our guys won’t expect them.”

“They have guns!” she said as if nothing else was needed to deal with the dead.  Andy grimaced and put the Bronco in gear.

Thirty-Six

Tony sighed when he saw Nikki’s beautiful smile staring back at him from the door.

“What?  I told you to stay up there.” He said.  Her smile faded. 

“I came down from the ceiling.  She wasn’t budging.”  Nikki turned her flashlight on the woman in the rear of a small storage room.  The woman shivered in the corner next to a wall of metal shelves.  She held a bundled infant in her arms.  Tony saw that a small clear plastic crib had been moved into the room along with diapers, cans of formula, and other items necessary for a newborn.

“She must have been hiding in here since the start.” He said moving past Nikki.  He took to a knee before the woman.

“Ma’am, we’re here to get you and junior out of here.”  The woman looked up blinking in disbelief.  “We’re gonna climb up into the rafters, where they can’t get us.”  He said reaching out to her.  The woman flinched back and the baby began crying.  Tony stood and left the storage room.

“We can’t climb around up there with a baby.” Nikki said covering the windows with her pistol, braced from below with her flashlight in the other hand. “Let’s take care of these ones and make a run for it.”

Tony shuddered.  He preferred the sneaky approach, the trick play, or gimmick maneuver to a straight-up fight.  There were still five creatures at the window.  He felt his stomach tighten at the thought of Nikki and the lady, not to mention the infant, in the halls now that they had broken the silence with gunfire.  He was roused from his worry and surprised when Nikki bumped her shoulder into him with an impatient grunt.

“Come on! You promised to help me get to my parents.” She said.

Nikki took two steps forward, swung her pistol up, braced with both hands, aimed and fired.  Tony could have sworn that she had just a touch of swagger in her hips.  He stood amazed at her posture; the steadiness of her shoulders.  She was using the Weaver firing stance that he had shown her just the other evening that now seemed so long ago.  Her first shot hit a creature in the nose, pushing skin, meat, and bone inside-out like a discarded sock.  Her second shot missed another, but she corrected and brought the thing down.  She shifted two paces to the left with her gun lowered and reset her aim, firing twice and dropping another ghoul.  Tony moved quickly back to the cowering lady while Nikki continued her controlled firing.

“We’re going to leave soon.  We’re heading down the hall, to the big hallway and out the back. Can you do that?” He asked.  The woman looked at Tony as if slowly realizing for the first time that someone had finally come for her.  Despair fell from her countenance as she struggled to stand.  Tony reached to help her and she froze while looking at him.  He showed her his open hand.  She flinched as Nikki’s gun fired again. 

“Its gonna be okay, we have a ride waiting for us.” He said.

The woman found her feet and stood, rocking the crying infant in her arms, holding its head to her chest and covering its other ear with her hand. 

Nikki fired five more shots, adding three more bodies to the pile outside of the nursery.  She didn’t understand Tony’s reluctance to just take out the creatures and make a run for it. They were far safer now then the situation she and Veronica had endured yesterday at the shack.  She moved forward while loading her second full magazine and peered out through the broken windows.  Her flashlight reflected off the white tiled walls of the hallway casting an eerie glow, illuminating the wrecked pile of dead before her.  She listened as best as she could through her ear plugs.  Something was approaching from the left.  Nikki sidestepped to the right and aimed.

Mason turned the corner fast with his shotgun raised.  He froze in her beam and smiled.  Nikki’s finger twitched but not enough to fire.

“Did you shoot all these Blondie?”

“Most of ‘em.” She said lowering her weapon. “Not as many as yesterday.”  She began to push a crib away from the door.  Mason nodded in reluctant approval.

Tony emerged from the closet with the nurse and infant.  She moved slowly and looked around the room as if it were unfamiliar.  She stopped and reached back into the closet for a large diaper bag that swung slow and heavy in her grasp.  Tony pushed a small desk from in front of the door.  Nikki took the bag from the woman and shone her light on a case of cans on the desk.

“Maybe you should bring those” she said to Tony.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Formula,” said the nurse, surprising Tony, “She can’t eat solids.”  He looked at her for a moment and smiled, then holstered his weapon and picked up the box of formula.

“Do you have everything else you need in that bag?” he asked, “We don’t want to have to come back here.”  The nurse began rocking the infant.

“Yes. What’s happening?” She shook her head.  Tony reached out to her.

“Not now, we don’t have time.  We’re heading to the left and down the hall to the main entrance them out the side door.  Hold the baby’s head ‘cuz we may have to shoot.” 

Nikki opened the door and slung the heavy bag over her shoulder.  Small shots began to ring out from the atrium area. 

“Come on!” said Mason as he turned and began running down the concourse.

Wandering ghouls from all around the hospital converged on the main entrance opposite Gabe and Billy, attracted to the sounds of gunfire.  A few approached from the second floor of the large open area, finding their way to the stairs.  Others from outside the building began crowding the open main entrance.  Gabe fired five rounds from his twenty-two as fast as the trigger mechanics would allow, hitting an approaching creature on the stairs in the torso only twice.  Billy, his heart racing, lifted his rifle and shouted.

“The head, he said the head.” Billy tried to calm down and wait for a good shot.

“Shit! Shit Shit!” was Gabe’s only reply.  He moved further away from the hall into the open to get a better angle on a ghoul.  He fired three shots that found their way into his target’s shoulder.

“Slow down and aim!” Billy yelled as he fired three slow, carefully aimed shots at a ghoul near the front entrance.  It fell and tripped up a creature behind it.

“Shit!” Gabe gritted his teeth and aimed carefully.  He thought he heard someone yelling over the steady firing of Billy’s rifle.  Lost in a sort of panic fog, he resumed firing.

Mason sprinted down the wide hallway.  He saw Gabe and Billy in profile firing towards the main entrance.  As he closed the distance, he saw a third figure at the end of the hallway.  The silhouette was unfamiliar, but its gait was unmistakable.  It plotted slowly towards the men, with its arms upraised, a hand dangled useless from the right wrist.  Mason didn’t dare risk firing the shotgun and catching his friends in the blast.  Even if he stopped and took careful aim, he just wasn’t that good with the shotgun. 

“Behind you!!!” he hollered, pumping his legs with fury.  His chest pounded as the ghoul was almost on Gabe’s back.  Gabe appeared completely unaware of the undead Raiders fan that closed in.  Mason pulled out his Luger.  At the edge of the hallway, he stopped and took aim.  He was close enough now that he knew there was no way he could miss the ghoul.  Mason flicked down the safety and pulled the trigger.  Nothing happened.  He pulled back the Lugar’s slide and a live round plopped out on to the floor before the action snapped closed.  He pulled the trigger again and would have heard the click of a bad firing pin if not for Gabe’s cry of surprise.

Mason threw the Lugar at the attacking ghoul.  It spun in the air and bounced off the creature’s head.  Deflected by the impact, the corpse only sank its teeth into the back of Gabe’s neck without tearing the meat free.  Mason took five running steps and leapt on the creature knocking it down with the butt of his shotgun.  It rolled over and bared its freshly bloody teeth, only to receive two shot shells worth of lead pellets from Mason’s over-under.  Gabe’s knees buckled as he turned in a panic.  His face drained of color as he felt the trickle of blood on the back of his neck.  Mason snapped his shotgun open and reloaded.  Gabe’s expression told him that the creature had broken the skin.  Mason just stood staring; uncertainty froze him in his tracks.  The thought of preemptively shooting Gabe, to prevent him changing into a monster, began to appear in his mind.  Billy stopped firing and approached.

“What’s wrong?” Billy asked.  Neither man answered. 

The others emerged from the hallway.  Tony moved the nurse past the men before she could get a good look at the situation.  Mason took Gabe by the arm and rushed him towards the exit.

“Grab the medical crap from the Bronco?” Mason commanded.  Tony stopped, holding the door open for the nurse and Nikki.

“What for?” he asked.

“He’s bit.” Mason said helping Gabe through the door. Billy followed with a look of surprise on his face.  Tony turned his attention to the outside and saw that the yellow Bronco was gone.

*****

Alexandra felt the safety harness bite into her shoulder as the Blackhawk banked hard to the right over upper-Whisper Lake.  She heard the pilot report their speed as one-hundred and ten knots to Denkinger before they slung around the center of the lake.  As they leveled out and slowed, she saw for a brief moment the edge of a lake shore and knew that the camping area must be ahead.

“There.” She heard Richardson’s voice over the headphones, “That’s my son’s boat.”

The temperature inside cooled as they slowed and descended to a hover. 

“Ninety degrees to Port.” Said Denkinger and the Blackhawk turned so that their right side was facing the campground.

“Look at all of them.” Denkinger’s voice said.

Alexandra couldn’t see anything from her seat in the back row.  Reiss, two seats down from her, stood from his seat and slid open the Starboard side door, revealing the shore leading up to the campground.  A large number of figures staggered from many different parts of the camping area.  Men, women, and children with various exposed wounds began to approach the shore.

“Bring us in lower.” Richardson ordered.  The chopper came within ten feet of the water kicking up a fine mist into the cabin.  Alexandra adjusted her safety belt and leaned forward for a better view.  She saw the infected group converge near the lake shore, some reaching out in the choppers direction.  As they flew nearer, she could see their physical trauma more clearly.  A woman with only a greasy red skull where her face should have been pushed her way past a smaller man with a torn neck.  The faceless woman roared.

“They’re attracted to the noise.” Denkinger said.

“Then make more.” Richardson said ominously.

“Sir?” Denkinger asked.

“Engage!” The old man ordered.

“Aikman, Reiss, Smith, at the door. Lock and load.” Denkinger barked.  Alexandra’s adrenalin began to boil in anticipation of what was about to happen. She saw Reiss drop onto a seated position with his legs hanging out of the sliding door.  Two other men unclasped themselves from their seats and took similar positions in the door.  The three men took aim with their automatic weapons on the clamoring crowd at the shore.  The helicopter swung slowly closer.

“Fire!” Denkinger said.

Alexandra felt the rapid fire of Denkinger’s M-60 as the air inside the Blackhawk pulsed and soured with the stink of expended powder.  Gunfire ripped into the infected mass as Denkinger walked his seven-point-six-two millimeter rounds from side to side at six-hundred rounds per minute, blasting golf-ball sized chunks of spoiling meat from their bodies.  The raw force of the weapon sent slugs through the first row and still carried enough power to tear horrific rents into the second row of creatures.  Alexandra saw the bodies start to flail and jerk as a thick cloud of reddish-brown debris rose where they fell.  She turned away and saw that the other soldiers were smiling and hollering as if cheering at a football game.  She looked around to the other men and saw that all were enjoying the scene, except for Lewis.  The medic appeared to be astonished by the sight.  Alexandra looked away as Denkinger stopped firing and spoke.

“Headshots!” was his command.  Under the noise of the engine and with her headphones on, she heard the staccato reports from the men in the door who began firing. 
What the hell am I doing here
, she cursed in her head.  She understood that despite whatever orders Colonel Borden might have been given, there probably wasn’t a cure for these people and that they were one-hundred percent deadly.  There was no way to end their threat without violence and that’s what this machine was made for.  For the first time Alexandra realized that this was the end result of her business; the manufacture of weapons for war.  But this wasn’t a field test, firing at wooden targets.  She was a in a flying chainsaw made to cut flesh en masse and the last thing Alexandra wanted to see right now was a team of  ex-jocks who couldn’t cut it in the real military guffaw at the efficiency of a modern meat-grinder.

Alexandra locked her eyes on a spot on the floor and just waited until it was over.  She decided that she should leave as soon as possible.  She would resign if she had to and just get the hell away from Richardson and his hirelings.  The guns silenced and rather than look out the door, she looked up at the soldiers in the row facing her.  Their smiles had fallen into serious expressions.  One man swallowed, his Adam ’s apple jumping hard while his eyes were fixed on the camp.  Alexandra looked to the shore.