TAGGED: THE APOCALYPSE (9 page)

Eve waved her hand in front of her nose, clapp
ing a hand over her mouth to prevent herself from chucking again. “The smell. It’s them,” she whispered to Candy. It was a combination of body odor, vomit and something much worse she couldn’t quite put her finger on but that if pressed would describe only as the smell of death itself. They put the woman and child into the room, just as three of the nurses showed up to help.

The visibly ill were not hard to find. It seemed that around
twenty five percent had a scratch or a bite, boils or fever. And the sicker they were, the worse they smelled. Dixon growled and his hackles went up whenever they got close to an obviously infected person. He also seemed to growl at a lot of people that didn’t appear to be sick.
Maybe this giant dog was a little freaked out too,
Eve thought.

“What if the doctor’s right that all the sick ones turn into those things?” Eve whispered in Candy’s ear.

Candy led them to the doctor who was examining a patient in the midst of the chaos. “We put all the sick ones we could find in the other room.”

“Very good.”

A muffled scream sounded to their left.

“What’s happening in there?” Dennis pointed through the glass into the Group A top priority sick room
, where they were separating the bitten, scratched, and visibly sick patients from the general population.

Two nurses had been tending to the woman with the arm ripped off and the sick child. From the other side of the glass, they could see that a small animal had latched onto the neck of one of the two female nurses with its teeth. A closer look revealed that it was the young child of the injured mother. The other nurse and several by standers were frantically trying to get it off. The mother seemed to be unaware of anything around her. A well
-intentioned male bystander yanked on the feet of the toddler, dislodging it from the nurse’s throat, suddenly releasing a torrent of blood from the neck of the nurse. The nurse collapsed in a puddle of her own blood. There were screams, and people inside began rushing to get out of the room back into the general population, but the door was locked.

“This is bad,” Dennis said.

“We have to help them. Get them out,” Candy said, raising her pistol and looking to Dennis and Eve for support. “We have to unlock that door or they’ll all die.” Candy pushed toward the door, gun in one hand, with the other hand pulling Eve, who held Dixon on the leash. As Candy reached for the handle to unlock it, blood spattered the door and glass in a wave. People were screaming inside.

Dennis grabbed her wrist. “Don’t. It’s too late. You let them in here and we’re all dead.”

Candy pulled her wrist from his grip, then stood there looking defeated in through the glass. Apparently, at least four had turned. The toddler was biting and scratching ankles and calves like a Tasmanian devil. Its mother, with the missing arm, suddenly became vicious, ferociously bringing down two more and scratching five more in the few seconds since they began. The others, who had changed, were equally vicious, biting and savaging any within their reach. Everyone had blood on them. A young woman with a gigantic, red welt on her neck pressed herself against the glass, begging them to open the door. Candy’s hand began to rise to open the door. Dennis gripped it strongly. “
Look
at her neck. It’s too late.”

“Do you think we’re safe in here?” Eve asked
.

Two men and a woman in the general population room where they stood
, who had not previously appeared to be ill, suddenly dropped to the floor unconscious and began vomiting. “Oh shit,” Dennis said under his breath.

Candy grabbed Eve and pulled her and
Dixon toward the door. Dennis stuck to them like a shadow. “Come on, we’re going back to the control tower.” But just as they reached the entrance to the medical unit, the men who had been fighting at the fence came running from everywhere. Many were cramming themselves through the door like Black Friday at WalMart.

On the other side of the room, by the priority sick room, a large scuffle erupted
, and they could hear screaming and then two gun shots rang out. “Follow me.” Dennis grabbed Candy by her hand and they formed a train cutting through the crowd. Candy held onto Dixon’s leash and Eve held onto Candy’s pants with her hand.

The doctor appeared in front of them
, gloved hands covered in fresh blood. There was fear in his eyes. “They’re turning too fast. We have to quarantine them.”

An older man with a fresh carpet of new hair on his previously bald head
, and big teeth, lunged at Dennis, who for a big man, moved surprisingly fast to get out of the way. Dixon tackled the beast-man with his chest, biting his face and neck, and then picked him up in his massive jaws, shaking him like a rag doll until Eve heard his neck snap loudly. Eve pulled him off and Candy shot him in the head from point-blank range.

“It’s too late,” Candy said.

They ducked into the examination room to collect Brit, now on a rolling gurney. The nurse, who had been watching him, was nowhere to be found. They hardly noticed Needles at the glass. Each door they badged through with Thompson’s badge around Candy’s neck closed and locked behind them as soon as they passed through. Dennis led them deeper into the facility, right, left, right, right. Finally, they came to a large open area with darkened neon signs.

“A lunchroom?” Candy said
.

The doctor went straight to the sink
, where he removed his bloody gloves and began washing his hands with soap and water.

“It’s perfect. Food, water, there’s a bathroom over there. We’ll be safe here, I think.” Dennis grabbed a metal gate, pulling it across an open entrance area and padlocked it shut. “Who wants a cheeseburger?”

“How can you eat at a time like this?” Eve said.

“I have to go back in there. I have to do what I can
,” The doctor said moving toward the padlocked gate.

“No one’s going in or out of that door before morning. If even one of those things gets in here, we’re all dead. You saw how fast they are
,” Dennis said.

“He’s right,” Candy said. “If we go back out there
, we’re dead.”

“The dog’s been scratched,” Dennis peered at the large
, bloody gash on Dixon’s neck from a safe distance. “If this dog turns, we’re all dead. I’m afraid we’re going to have to put him down.”

“No!” Eve cried.

“It’s extremely unlikely the dog will turn, even if he’s bitten. No doubt, he’s naturally immune. These diseases rarely cross species. For instance, the Asian Bird Flu crossed from birds to humans, extremely rare, and therefore, extremely deadly. AIDS, they believe, was originally passed from monkeys in Africa, and then jumped species to humans. We all know how deadly
that
is. There’s still no cure.” The doctor came and put a hand on Eve’s shoulder to calm her. Dixon looked suspiciously from one to the other. He was clearly aware they were talking about him. “I don’t believe this ravening virus has crossed species. It seems only to affect humans. And I suspect that, as with any disease, there’s a certain percentage of the human population who is also naturally immune. That percentage may be very low, but there are almost certainly people among us here at the power plant who carry this immunity. They hold the key to curing this outbreak…”

“Yes, yes
, fascinating doctor,” Dennis challenged sarcastically. “But how can you know for sure? I don’t want that dog changing into one of those things in the middle of the night and killing us all.”

“
I can assure you that he won’t.”

Dennis looked unconvinced.

“We’ll tie his leash to the table by the door.”

“That dog could smash that table like a toothpick.”

“Help me to clean the wound,” Candy leaned over Dixon. “Sven loves this dog more than you know.”

It was a jailbreak scene in reverse.

Throngs of people were pressed against the fence and dozens were climbing the fence topped with razor wire in an effort to get away from what was behind.

But the worst part was the screaming. It sounded like hundreds of women of all ages were simultaneously screaming and wailing at a pitch sufficient to shatter glass. Beneath that were the throatier, anguished cries of men and boys. Behind the mass of people pressing the fence and gates was a much larger, darker mass. Sven thought that he could see dark masses swirling behind them like the demons of hell. Ever since meeting Warren and the flagellates, Sven had been seeing things like dark shapes moving among the people and the beasts. It was like the people and the beasts were merely puppets to be manipulated by these dark shadow-things hovering around them, attaching to them, and racing through them.

“Shoot the climbers
!” Zeb shouted.

They opened fire on the shapes climbing the fence. Two fell screaming into the writhing masses of panicked survivors beneath.
Another climber paused, pulled a pistol from his pocket, and began shooting back. Two more men beneath the climber began shooting at Jackie and the others.

“They’re shooting back!”
Bubba, Zeb’s son, went down with a strike to the thigh. Zeb and his sons targeted the shooter and anyone in the general area of fire. Mack and Tiny carried Bubba like a battering ram through the crowds behind to the medical unit and returned moments later to the battle.

“
They’re alive! Don’t shoot them,” Sven shouted, running for the gate. “Open the gate! Open the gate!”

When the gate opened
, it was like Black Friday at Walmart. The people flooded through wild-eyed, others hoarse from shouting and screaming. Tears of relief streamed down many faces.

“The infected…they’re coming…”
Behind the survivors was a gigantic dark amoebic mass of ravening infected, feeding on the survivors, pushing them forward toward the gates of the power plant. 

“
Close the gate!” Jackie shouted, and Sven, Zeb, Mack and Tiny ran to muscle the gate closed against the ebbing stream of humanity.

It took a few minutes
and five strong men to close the main gate, and still the survivors streamed through the pedestrian gate.

Those survivors left outside the gate clamored to be let in, and others immediately began climbing the twelve-foot fence. The pedestrian gate was opened to allow a constant stream of survivors to tumble through just ahead of the ravening hordes.

Just beyond the fence and entrance gate lights, Sven could see what appeared to be a solid mass of beasts moving toward them. He had never seen so many of anything in one place before. He had seen the buffalo once on the plain
s of Yellowstone. Thousands of them moved as one. The sound of their hoofs shook the very earth beneath like an earthquake. Awesome. This was more like ants or wolves. They were terrifying with their glowing, red, unearthly eyes, fierce teeth and mane of hair over skeletal bodies. “Hair like women. Teeth like lions. They move as locusts consuming all before them.” Sven remembered the words of the flagellates. Could these things be the judgment of God? The smell of death was overpowering as they approached. Tiny doubled over, vomiting, then Mack. Sven stepped away slightly to avoid losing his dinner.

“You’ll get used to it,” Jeb said.

“Men to the front!” Jackie ordered to the men in the rear protecting their families. “All men to the front! Line up along the fence.” Mostly, they followed the order. The younger men tended to stand closest to the fence, eager to fight, with the older men and families closer to the rear.

The first beasts jumped in among the survivors scrambling to get through the gate. It was terrifying to see them rip
ped to shreds. The first volleys through the fence were panicked over reactions that ripped indiscriminately through beasts and survivors alike.

“Aim for the head! Body shots don’t stop them!” Jackie ordered.

Sven felt courage when he saw so many standing with them. There must have been at least five hundred men with him at the gate. All of them were armed with something. The majority had a pistol or rifle. Those who didn’t had at least a machete or a club. They held the strong position. They should be able to fight off the horde.

More survivors streamed through the gate, but the beasts were viciously attacking all
. A woman with three young children entered with a toddler on her hip. Two young girls entered, clinging to each other wild-eyed. Men shepherded their families in front of them. Single men tried not to appear terrified. The women and children pressed to the back, and most of the men returned to join in the fight.

“Close the gate!” Jackie and Sven ran to bar the pedestrian gate
, to prevent any more entering. Those remaining outside wailed hopelessly and gnashed their teeth, pleading, ”Let us in.”

“Head shots only! Fire! Fire!” Jackie ordered.

At first, it seemed they were winning. The beasts were going down in droves. The survivors stood along the fence and just picked them off. Often, they would get two for the price of one bullet. Even three downed with one bullet a few times, the beasts were so thick. In death, again, the beasts looked pitiful: skeletons with gigantic suppurating sores, frequently bones were broken, or joints hanging by a single ligament. He didn’t understand how they could move, much less jump, and lunge with such great speed. But most disturbing were the twisted second death masks of agony. The beasts were in so much pain.