Zombie D.O.A. (6 page)

When he recovered his composure, he said
,
“Now listen, you keep yourself safe, you keep Rosie safe. Get some water and some food, get a gun if you can. Lay low until the
y
get this under control.
”

“
Get
what
under c
ontrol?
T
he army? The National Guard? What the hell’s going on Blaze
? Why aren’t they telling us what’s going on?
”

“All I know is this, brother. It started at the hospital, not Mount Sinai, the small one.  Not St Vincent’s, that’s closed now, innit?”

“Lenox Hill.”

“Yeah, that’s the one. Anyway, that’s where it started. Some nip
tourist
was brought into the emergency room and attacks a nurse. I mean, rips her fucking face off is what I heard. The
n, details a bit sketchy here, h
ospital security shoots the poor ba
stard, but not before he makes s
ushi out of a few of them too. Next thing you know, there’s a riot, patients, doctors
,
staff, the shebang. The cops get called in and before you know it it’s spilling out into the streets.

“
They think it’s some kind of virus or something.
People are fucking killing each other, slaughtering each other on the streets. They’re fucking eating each other like in some
fucking
Zombie movie.

“
Whatever you do don’t get bitten, this stuff is as contagious as the clap, and a whole lot more serious.
W
e
’ve
been sealed in. Quarantined. A
ll the bridges
closed
, tunnels jammed with traffic
. They got the coast guard patrolling the rivers. They got tanks in Times Square for
Christ’s
sake.”

“W
hat
about you
?
You okay?
”

“
I sound like
I’m okay to you?
Like I said, you lay low. Look after that lovely wife of yours. It will all blow over. And don’t get yourself hurt playing no fucking hero. I got plans for you
,
brother. Who knows
,
maybe even a title shot.

“
Listen, before this fucking thing cuts off. I’m heading out to the park. It’s
only a few blocks. The army has
got a base set up there. They got doctors
,
the CDC, the shebang. I heard they got
some kind of refugee camp
. I’m gonna head out there and I’ll make sure they send out a patrol to get you. You be cool brother, stay low.
I’ll…”

The line went dead. I tried redialing but there was no signal. I never spoke to Blaze again.
 

Th
e baby
had worn herself
out
and was quiet now. Ruby, Rosie had called her. Ruby was the name we were going to give our daughter but I didn’t
want to call her that because…b
ecause I knew what I had to do.

I
went over to her now. She was lying on the bed
squirming around
, the way normal babies do. She looked at me and
seemed to smile
and I pulled back instantly. This was no normal baby because normal one-day-old babies do not have teeth.

She
started crying again and I went out to the kitchen and mixed up some formula. Rosie had stocked up on so much Similac and Gerber Good Start, you’d have sworn she was expecting triplets.

I went back into the bedroom and tried to feed the baby but after a few pulls on the bottle she spat if out and started
shriek
ing and shaking her little fists.

I reach
ed out to sooth
e
her and she
stopped crying immediately, grabbed my hand and started to pull it towards her mouth. She was amazingly strong for such a small thing, and I had to yank my hand away from her.

Immediately, she started screaming again and I felt powerless to
help
her. I reminded myself that this was not my daughter, this was not Ruby, and yet despite
that
, I softened when I looked at her. She was all I had left of Rosie and I started to
convince myself that it would be okay. That there’d be some antidote or treatment for this viru
s or whatever it was. That Ruby
and me and New York City would be okay. How wrong I was.

When I couldn’t stand Ruby’s screams no more (yes, I was calling her Ruby now)
I w
ent to the kitchen and
got some ground beef from the freezer, defrosted it in the microwave and mixed it up with some Similac in the blender. I took that back to Ruby and she sucked it down like a
drunk
falling off the wagon.

When she was done she fell asleep immediately, and I moved her to the crib and pulled a blanket over her. I watched my daughter sleeping and ran my hand through her dark curls and wondered what she had done to deserve being born this way.

Later, I remembered Blaze’s advice and went to re
trieve Dom’s
revolver
. 
I’d never handled a gun before
that day,
but I’d seen enough cop
shows
to know that I should check the cylinder.
I expected all the rounds to be spent, but
3
were still live
.
I
replaced them and
shoved the gun into my waistband and said a silent prayer that it wouldn’t misfire on me
again
when I needed it.
       
 

After that
I checked the cupboards and the freezer and there was enough stuff there to keep me going for a while. I remembered how I used to tease Rosie about being a hoarder and how she used to say you never know when you’re going to run short. Well today I was thankful for Rosie and her hoarding ways.

I tried the TV
again
.
The same message was running and I sat there watching it until I fell asleep.

W
hen I woke it was dark.
Something had woken me.
Then I heard it again.
Shouts
, laughter
,
a woman screaming.
I rolled off the co
uch and felt around for the gun,
then I crawled towards
the
window and
peered
out.

The street was well lit and I could see
people
out there
-
a man
, a woma
n and two small boys
who looked like twins
. I recognized them as a family who had moved in across the streets a month or so ago. I’d never spoken to them but I’d run into the guy with his two kids in the market on the corner once and I’d overhear
d him
telling the clerk they’d just moved down from Boston.

Now it looked like they were planning on making a quick
return. Their
Jeep SUV
was stacked with stuff but the
y were stopped in the road. The
man had his hands raised and the two boys were huddled to their mother.

Looking left I could see why,
C
h
avez
and hi
s gang, looking the worse for wear
.

The Level 42’s had acquired some
new
members since last I’d seen them. There were at least 20 of them now, maybe more. Along with the usual gangbangers, there w
ere a couple of suits, a bald
man
in striped pajamas, some young guys who looked like college frat boys
,
a woma
n
in jogging gear
, even a priest.

The Boston guy was saying something to Chavez. He had his wallet out and was holding out some bills. Chavez, took the money, tore the bills in two and threw them in the man’s face
. Then he grabbed the guy by the hair and dragged him towards his waiting gang.

The 42s surged forward and Chavez
made a sweeping sign with his hand as though sprinkling s
omething on the ground and they
fell back as one.

Chavez stood there smiling and surveying his troops. Then he called one of them forward, a teenaged boy in Chinos and a
bloodstained
white vest. The boy approached cautiously.

Chavez ran his finge
r along the man’s jaw line and
invited the boy to take a bite. The boy sniffed the man’s neck, his face, his hair, like some scavenger trying to decide if the carrion was too far gone. Then he sunk his teeth into the man’s neck with suc
h ferocity that I could h
ear the crunch from across the street.

A spurt of blood arced through the air as the boy pulled the man to the ground and
continued to feed. The 42s pushed
forward
again
but Chavez sent
them back with a sweep of his hand.

The man’s wife huddled on the ground, her arms wrapped around her boys, preventing them from seeing the atrocities being acted out on their father.

Chavez now turned his attention to the woman
. H
e
dragged
her to her feet
while her sons screamed
. The woman was obviously terrified but she stood and pushed her
boys
behind her and faced
Chavez down.

The gang leader moved in close to the woman
and ran his tongue across her face. He reached down a
nd
grabbed her crotch, and still she didn’t flinch. Her hand
s
remained
firmly
behind her back protecting her
sons
.