Dead Life Book 5 (10 page)

“So answer a question for me,” Gina said, after the shooting stopped.

Here it came.

“When exactly did you get the first sign of trouble, before or after they swarmed you?”

“We rounded a corner and there they were,” Al said.

“That’s bullshit and you know it. You’re telling me the two of you didn’t hear all those fuckers before you saw them.”

“Yeah. Something like that,” Al said.

“Steve, tell me you didn’t hear them,” she said.

“We heard them. There’s somebody trapped in there. That’s why we kept going.”

“You two promised us you wouldn’t do that. First sign of trouble, we’re out of here. Do you remember saying that?”

“I never said that,” Al said.

“I’m not talking to you old man.”

“You damn well better not be little girl. Not like that.”

“Will you two stop it?” Cindy said. “Al you were wrong to walk into that mess. What exactly is your plan? Get the two of you killed so Gina and I are left out here alone. You should have come back out. Didn’t we decide a long time ago that we couldn’t save everybody? You don’t even know who’s in there.”

“I’m sorry baby. I was trying to do the right thing. What if was one of us trapped? I can’t just leave somebody to die. Not like that.”

“So, you’re saying you want to go back in there,” Cindy said.

“In the back of the mill there’s some offices. They were trying to get in the door. Do I think we should go back in? Hell yes, but I’ll leave it up to you and Gina.”

“Only if we take one of the trucks in. Are you okay with that?”

“You really think we should go back in there?” Gina asked.

“I trust Al,” Cindy said. “If he thinks somebody might still be alive in there then yes, we should at least see if we can help them. Besides, it looks like it’s clear in there now. What have we got to lose?”

The girls drove and Al and I sat in the back seat. We made our way back into the mill. Cindy was right. We met no resistance other than a few crawlers that we handled by crushing them under our tires. Cindy stopped about fifteen feet from the offices and the four of us got out of the truck. Al produced a crowbar from under one of the seats and we went to work on the door. In a matter of seconds the offices were open.

It was pitch black on the other side of the door. Gina handed out flashlights and we made our way in. Four beams of light swept the room revealing nothing more than a desk and two other doors. There was a lot of blood on the floor and walls but no bodies. Al went to the closest door grasped the doorknob and stood to one side. I got in position on the other side and he pushed the door open. Gina and Cindy stood back and shined their flashlights into the room.

“It’s a bathroom,” Gina said.

I stepped into the doorway and looked in. There was nothing to see other than a toilet that was well used and full to over flowing with human excrement. I grabbed the doorknob as fast as I could and closed the door.

“Goddamn that stinks,” Al said.

“I guess the water isn’t working,” I said.

“You think not?”

“Listen,” Cindy said.

The sound of someone sobbing was coming from behind the other door. We set up outside of the door just like we had for the other. Al opened the door and the girls shined their flashlights in.

“Oh my god,” Gina said.

I looked into the room and could see several bodies on the floor. It was obvious they hadn’t escaped from whatever had happened in the mill unscathed. The bodies closest to the door were covered in blood and bite marks. They had all come here to die after their camp was overrun. This looked to have happened recently and none of the bodies in the room appeared to have died from a head wound. If we didn’t do something to correct this soon they would all be rising as the undead in a matter of minutes.

“We need to get out of here,” I said.

“We’re not leaving them like this,” Al said, moving into the room and drawing his pistol.

I did the same and fired into the head of the body closest to me. A blood curdling scream nearly caused me to drop my gun. One of the bodies sat up. “Please don’t hurt my mommy.”

A little girl covered in blood sat up and looked up at me from across the room. From behind me I heard the sounds of a struggle.

“Don’t go in there,” Al said. I looked over my shoulder and Al was trying to hold Cindy back. “I’ll get her.”

“She’s got bites all over her arms Al. There’s nothing you can do for her,” I said.

“What are you going to do, shoot her?” Al said, under his breath. “We won’t hurt your mommy honey.”

Al went into the room stepping over the bodies on his way. When he got to the little girl he held out his arms to her. She looked up at him and just sat there. One of us needed to do the right thing. Al looked to the three of us for help. I saw the glint of metal as the little girls arm swung at Al’s leg. Al stumbled back and groaned. A shot went off from behind me, the little girl’s head snapped back, and she fell to the ground. Cindy pushed past me and rushed to Al’s side. He was bent over holding his leg, a small pocket knife was imbedded in his thigh.

Cindy dropped to her knees and grasped the handle of the knife. “I’m going to pull it out now. This is going to hurt Al.” She pulled it out. The blood flowing from the wound increased with the knife gone soaking Al’s pant leg.

Cindy pressed her hand against the wound. “I need something to slow the bleeding.”

I was in shock. Probably more so than Al. “Who shot her? Did you?” I said, looking at Gina.

She just shook her head.

“What does it matter? I did,” Cindy said. “Get me something to wrap around his leg before he bleeds to death.”

Al pulled a large bandana from his pocket and handed it to Cindy. She tied it around his leg then turned her anger back on me. “Are you just going to stand there? Help me get him out of here before they start turning.”

I got Al’s arm over my shoulder and we helped him out of the room. Gina crossed the room and checked to see if we had any surprises waiting for us in the mill on the other side of the door. She stepped out of the room and looked around, sweeping her rifle from side to side. Satisfied it was all clear she waved us through. We got to the truck and I looked back.

“I have to go back. We left the door open.”

“Leave it,” Cindy said. “We’re not staying.”

“What about Al’s leg?”

“I’ll work on it in the truck. This place isn’t safe.”

I looked at Gina and she just shrugged her shoulders. Maybe Cindy was right. Al and I had been calling the shots up until now and things hadn’t been going so well. Let her take charge. Things couldn’t get much worse.

It was a good thing Al had left the lock open on the gate to the mill. There were dozens of zombies in and by the road as we left the mill. I was barely able to get the lock off the chain before being swarmed by the horde that chased us from the mill. I shot my way through the mass of undead bodies that tried to eat me before I could get back to Al’s “new” truck. Cindy and Gina followed me out of the mill with Cindy working on Al’s leg while Gina drove. The new leader of our group decided we would drive through the night if necessary. She was tired of all the stops we had made along the way and felt that things couldn’t get any worse than they had already been by driving in the dark.

Cindy was able to get the bleeding stopped and sewed the wound shut. She kept Al pumped full of antibiotics and pain killers, doing her best to make him comfortable.  Now all we had to do was wait. Gina and I stayed in constant contact over the radio and pressed on through the night. Al wasn’t doing well. He had a fever and was delirious. All I could think about was Rick and how suddenly he had turned. I wasn’t comfortable leaving the girls in the truck with him but Cindy insisted we push on. During one of our bathroom breaks that night I asked Gina to keep her pistol handy. If Al turned I didn’t want to leave it to Cindy to put him down. When Rick came out of the back of the truck Al and I had both hesitated, almost costing Gina her life. My girl was a survivor. If it hadn’t been for her quick action yesterday one of us might have been bitten.

Truthfully driving at night turned out to be a good thing. Even though the number of zombies we encountered was higher than in the daytime it seemed that all the criminals that ran amok during the day were tucked in for the night. Gina led our small caravan, plowing through anything that got in her way, and I followed behind in the rust bucket. By the time the sun was coming up we were almost to Rolla.

Even though it wasn’t a big town we decided it best to avoid Rolla completely and pick up the main highway west of the city. Rolla was a college town and school had just started before the event that ended mankind. There were probably thousands of co-ed zombies running all over the place. The last thing I needed was to be chased down by a bunch of undead teenaged runners eaten alive and then ripped to shreds.

Just on the other side of Rolla we stopped at a gas station to refuel. Al hadn’t gotten any better overnight. I reached through the window and felt Al’s forehead. My first reaction was to pull my hand away before I got burned. When Tim was little I remembered him having some high fevers a few times when he got sick. They were nothing compared to this.

“How’s his leg look?” I asked Cindy.

“It looks bad. There are red lines headed up his calf,” she said. “I’ve never seen an infection take hold so fast.”

“What have you been giving him?”

“I gave him a tetanus shot and I’ve been pumping him full of penicillin.”

“Have you tried anything else?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not questioning your abilities as a nurse. It’s just that, well I’m allergic to penicillin. Maybe Al is too.”

“He’s not. A few years ago he had a bacterial infection and I remember the doctor he saw treating him with ampicillin. It cleared the infection up right away.”

“I was just asking. Do we have anything else you could try?”

“Yes, maybe mixing two different types of antibiotics would be a good idea. I’ll try adding a gram of Rocephen to the cocktail of drugs I’m giving him now. If this doesn’t work I don’t know what else to try.”

Cindy rummaged through her first aid kit. Mixing some powder in a small amount of distilled water she prepared an injection and gave Al a shot in the hip.

“Why don’t you get some rest? You and Gina take the other truck for a while and I’ll drive this one.”

Cindy pulled Al closer to her. “So I don’t have to be here when you shoot him? You want to drive that’s fine. I’m staying right here.”

Gina put her hand on my shoulder. “We can be to Ft. Leonard Wood in less than an hour. “We’ll be fine,” she said, glancing down at her pistol lying in the seat beside her. “Go ahead and get in the other truck. I’ll see you when we get there.”

Cindy was partially right, I didn’t want either one of them anywhere near Al. It wasn’t that I was worried about them having to put Al down. I didn’t want to lose either one of them to the virus. If Al turned it would probably happen fast. Selfish as it sounded what scared me most was that the two of them would get bitten. I’d rather be dead than left alone in this fucked up world.

Chapter 11

              He wasn’t used to being hung up on like that. Being the kind of person he was General Simmons expected an incoming call from him to be treated with top priority. Never mind that most of humanity was gone, what was left of it fighting for survival, he wanted to talk to Captain Downs. Not later now. He immediately pushed redial and waited. Fucking assholes. Once they had Parks and his ranger team had all of them contained things would be different. Then we’d see how bad Captain Downs wanted to talk.

“Sir we’ve got the medical team assembled and ready for transport on your order.”

              “I’m having trouble getting through to our team in the field Major.”

              Major Dent had only been with the General for a few days and still wasn’t used to working for someone of his temperament. Most people in positions of authority could be headstrong and self-assured like General Simmons most certainly was. But the General took things to a level that Major Dent had never seen before. One thing was certain, the Major was plain old scared.

“What seems to be the problem sir?”

              “He told me he’d call back and hung up.”

              “Ranger team?”

              “No. That asshole from the NSA.”

              This was the man he had helped General Simmons track down after they had first met. If he’d only known how bad things were going to get he would have never stuck his neck out so far. Once again he let ambition get the best of him. Admiral Hunt had been more than happy to have General Simmons take full control of all the Army personnel that had made their way onto the small fleet that sat anchored off the east coast. All he had to do was keep his mouth shut. But no. When he heard the General was trying to track someone through a sat phone connection he’d gotten himself involved. Now he was part of the team. And this team had big plans. Drive back the zombie hordes, win back the nation, and along the way install General Simmons as President. Dictator was a better word for what the General had in mind. A crazy one at that. He could see him now, riding on a white horse at the front of his zombie Army. Was desertion possible while at sea?