Dead and Forsaken (19 page)

Maria
was very emotional when she looked down to see the face of twelve
year’s old Latia and her six year’s old little brother.
She didn't have kids but it was hard for her imagine how they felt
seeing their mother torn to pieces.

“
Come with me!” she
told Latia. “You can’t stay here!”

“
A bad man knocked my
mommy down and hurt her!” Alex told her as he starred into
space. They both were clearly distressed and in shock by the
massacre unfolding around them.

“
I know baby! It’s
OK!” she told him with a smile. “Don’t worry I’m
not going to let anyone hurt you!”

As they got up to move one of them
bumped the table and the sound caught the attention of one of the
forsaken. When the ghoul entered the room his arms were outreached
and bent at the elbow. From the side he looked like a normal person
but fresh blood and filth caked his body from head to toe. That’s
when everyone caught a whiff of his putrid odor. A pair of scissors
was protruding out his chest. The stinky bastard quickly dropped to
his knees and began to feed on the dead man in the corners corpse.
Maria quietly moved the kids across the room and they hid behind a
laundry cart filled with gowns and bed linens. The dead man turned
his head in their direction for a second revealing that the other
side of its face had been gnawed off exposing its teeth and gums.

When
the coast was clear Maria got them up and they all scrambled
outside. The shadowy corridor seemed to go on forever. Luckily
surroundings were vaguely familiar even in the dark. Visceral images
of mutilated corpses were everywhere. They ran into Joe and a small
group of people looking for a way out the ER.

“
Dr. Sanchez like my daddy
use to say if everything is coming at you then you’re going
the wrong way!” said Joe.

“
What are you talking
about? Is that direction blocked?” Maria asked.

“
You got to excuse my
redneck friend!” Dr. Green responded. “He is trying to
tell you that the exit is blocked with a bunch of dead people eating
everyone in sight!”

“
Well we can’t go
that way either!” said Maria. “The only ones left alive
back that way are me and these kids!”

With
nowhere else to go they all moved down the corridor and barricaded
themselves in the x-ray room.

******

Further down the hall
a group of survivors hid out in one of the rooms. “I will
check it out.” he said. “Just stay here!” We
reloaded our guns and looked around. I stood guard at the door while
Carlos cleared the other rooms. He came back a few minutes later.
The people were under the bed and behind medical equipment. We
waited until the coast was clear and motioned for the survivors to
run in the other direction. Carlos peaked around the next corner
towards the nurses' station. We slowly moved across the floor. We
had just missed a bloodbath. A thick layer of blood and other body
fluids covered the floor in front of the station. More blood
splattered across the counter top. I heard a noise and we looked
behind the counter.

“
GNAAAW!”

A couple of last night’s bite
victims were eating Dr. Khan’s body. We each took aim at one
each and put them down with a single shot.

“
BANG!
BANG!”

Carlos shot his gun one more time
to make sure the female was dead.
“BANG!”

“
What the fuck was that?”
I asked.

“
I hit that bitch one more
time for being ugly!” he said with a grin.

I
knew Dr. Khan wouldn't want to come back as one of those things so I
took care of him. In order to save bullets I bashed his head in with
a computer tower. His head ruptured open like an egg hitting the
floor sending brain goo and skull fragments all over the place.

By
the time I was done we heard screaming in the hall by the nurse’s
station.

“
Get away from me!”
yelled the voice.

When
we went to investigate we saw one of the forsaken. The beast was
soiled and dripping with blood. He had a noticeable limp and swayed
side to side as he walked. Suddenly he went barreling across the
room and plowed its body into an empty bed in the hall. Some poor
souls severed arm was still stuck on a bed rail with its hands in a
death grip. The overweight ghoul had torn the rest of the body to
pieces and left the remains scattered on the floor. The female under
the gurney was kicking hard and yelling at the top of her lungs.

“
No! Don't touch me!”
she shouted.
All
you could see was her attacker’s lower torso and chubby legs.
The thing was trying to work its obese dead body under the low
bottom to get at her. Carlos was surprised to see that the girl was
Blair the pretty blonde girl he met earlier that morning. She had
been swept up in the surging crowd as people tried to escape. At
some point she couldn’t control the direction she was going
and was knocked down as they rushed forward. One of the forsaken was
trying to get to her so she hid under a gurney. Blair had turned
pale white like a ghost but was still able to use her brains to stay
alive. She stuffed the cast covering her arm into the creatures open
mouth when it tried to bite down.

Luckily the plaster held its form.
Carlos and I flipped the gurney over on its side.

“
Get
off her motherfucker!” yelled Carlos.

He kicked the son of a bitch in the
head and it fell off her. He stood over top of the greedy ghoul and
stuffed the hot barrel of his Beretta in his mouth. Then the hungry
forsaken monster growled at us and gnashed its teeth around the
steel.

“
You
want something to eat?” he told the forsaken. “Well eat
this puto!”

Carlos squeezed the trigger and
tossed its body backwards with a loud shot.

“
BANG!”

Blood
and brains showered the wall behind him. I helped Blair to her feet
and she immediately ran to Carlos and wrapped her arms around him.

“
Thank you! I thought I
was dead!” she told him with tears in her eyes.

“
Your one crazy son of a
bitch you know that?” I teased. “Takes one to know one
right!” he countered.

At
first it seemed like we were managing well. I smelled an odor and
heard something shuffling behind us and cut the conversation short.

Visibility was low so the first
indication they were close was the smell followed by moaning.

“
Hold on be quiet! What
the hell is that?” I asked. “It seems like it's getting
louder.
“GROOOWWWL!”

First
there was nothing then we turned around to see twelve more
carnivorous forsaken stumbling down the corridor. They were members
of the dead horde from the parking lot. The lead forsaken was an old
Asian man. He was doubled over to one side and missing one of his
eyes and his right hand. A stream of yellow pus and blood leaked
from his eye socket. A cloud of stale deathly funk trailed behind
him. I just glared at him trying to find the right words but Carlos
said it best.

“
That is some nasty shit!”
he cried.

Gas
from internal decomposition distended the abdomen of the deathly
pale beast next to him. Blair starred in fear as she stepped behind
us. Their pace increased as they made exaggerated jerking motions
and violent twists.

“
Try and get as many of
them as you can before they get to us!” I screamed.

I took a deep breath and aimed my
gun. He grunted like an animal and then lunged at me.
“GRRRRRRR!”

“
That’s it just a
little closer.” I whispered.
“BANG! BANG!”

The
bullet from my Glock hit the old forsaken center mass on his upper
body. The force from the slug caused his body to teeter backwards.
Seconds later he regained his balance and continued forward feeling
no pain. My second shot hit him in the middle of his forehead like a
baseball bat. It skirted around in his skull before exiting behind
his ear. The dead weight caused his body to go limp. The force sent
his body flailing backwards into a glass office door.

“
CRASH!”

The
glass shattered and sent a large shard falling down. It severed his
head clean off his neck. A waterfall of blood splatter dripped down
the rest of the door.

“
Well you don't see that
every day.” said Carlos with a grin.

“
Pat me on my back later.”
I responded. “We got more company!”

“
GROOOWWWL!
GROOOWWWL! GROOOWWWL!”

Several figures in tattered
clothing moved toward us with a slow paced methodical shamble.

“
Guys
their getting closer!” yelled Blair. “Maybe we should
go?”

A reanimated gang banger lunged
towards Blair but missed. Carlos smashed his elbow directly into the
beasts jaw before driving his knee into its chest. As he switched
his attention to Carlos its sagging pants began to fall down.

“
GRRRRRRRR!”

When they got close to his ankles
Blair stepped on them causing the homeboy to fall flat on his face.
Before he could get up Carlos double tapped him in the back of the
head execution stile. The noise brought us the full attention of the
others. Besides bites several of them were covered in dark purple
and blue blotches. These bruise were formed after their hearts
stopped and their blood began to settle. Carlos and I shot the rest
of them at close range standing side by side. It felt like time had
slowed down.

“
BANG!
BANG! BANG!”

It
wasn’t easy either with the way they bobbed, weaved and crept
forward. They reached and grabbed at us aggressively with their
hands trying to tear us apart. We discharged off multiple rounds but
they would not stop.

“
BANG!
BANG! BANG!”

It
was an orgy of blood and bullets. Their heads popped open like fresh
watermelons sending clouds of red pulp into the air. For everyone we
put down another one stammered into its place.

“
GRRRRRR!
GRRRRRR! GRRRRRR!”

All
of them slobbering, drooling and hungrily clenching their teeth.
“BANG! BANG!”

“
I am almost out!”
shouted Carlos.
“BANG! BANG!”

“
Keep shooting man!”
I yelled. “Kill them all!”

The
monsters opened and closed their mouths causing their teeth to
chatter. A mixture of mucus and saliva ran down their chins. The
very sight of the decaying mass was unnerving. They were closing in
and we had nowhere to run.
“GROOOWWWL! GROOOWWWL!
GROOOWWWL!”

“
We are running out of
hallway hommie!” said Carlos.

“
What are we going to do?”
asked Blair.

“
Just take your time and
aim. The last thing you want to do is shoot off all your bullets
trying to kill one of these things!” I told him.

Then
we had a stroke of good luck. Out of nowhere Maria opened the door
to x-ray.

“
Kevin! Kevin come this
way!” she yelled.

Lucky
for us Maria had reopened the door after hearing the sound of
gunfire and shells hitting the floor. She quickly motioned for us to
get inside. Carlos and Blair ran for the door while I took aim
directly at them and popped off a few more shots.

“
BANG!
BANG! BANG!”

I
blurted out a never ending barrage of curse words to keep our
attackers focus on me. Their rotting bodies fell to the ground
twisted in strange positions. Several of my rounds kept going and
struck the wall behind them sending portions of skull and plaster
flying.
“GRRRRRRR!”

I
shoved my gun so far into one of their faces that it pierced its
flesh and was touching bone.

“
I am not dying today! But
you are!” I said while shooting a female creature between the
eyes.

Her
bloody shirt was torn open exposing her bite mark covered neck.

“
Kevin we have to go!”
pleaded Maria.

She
yelled for me to come before disappearing back inside. I emptied my
clip sending a hail of bullets into the crowd.

“
BANG!
BANG! BANG! BANG!”

As
I turned to sprint for the door one of them grabbed the back of my
shirt. The creature tugged hard and stopped me in my tracks. I spun
around and hit him in the face with the empty gun causing him to let
go. As he tried to approach me again I kicked him in his chest
knocking him to the ground. While he was prone face down on his
stomach I stomped on the back of its head. My boot punched a
permanent crater in the monsters skull. The force fractured his nose
crushing fragments into his sinus cavity and brain chamber. I used
the opportunity to take off running. Some of the others tried to
come after me but they slipped in all the freshly spilled blood
coating the heavily waxed floor. It slowed them down but most of
the forsaken continued to stumble forward.