Dead Living (23 page)

James leaned against the side. Scott was near
the front, where the open sliding door separated the back from the
front cab. Aaron and Sam sat next to each other, a fact the older
doctor noticed.

“It's been a while since I've been outside
the school,” James said.

Aaron smiled, which only made James more
nervous. Everyone was afraid. They had different success in hiding
it, but they were still afraid. Sam did the best job of keeping it
under control, but her constant unsheathing and re-sheathing of the
knife strapped to her leg was a giveaway.

“It's not so bad out here,” Aaron said. “Just
don't get bit.”

James wanted to talk. It was how he dealt
with being nervous. “I heard you lived in Baltimore for a while.
How did you manage that?”

“Very carefully. Sam saved my life.”

James looked at the attractive bronze-skinned
woman. She was dressed exactly the same as the last time she went
out. She had two layers of clothes, two knives, a hat covering her
head, a Beretta tucked in her belt. Everyone in Lexington noticed
the change in Sam since Aaron arrived. She smiled a little more.
James even caught her playing with the kids once or twice. She had
softened a little, but he had no doubt about her ability to kill a
corpse.

The truck bucked as Larry ran over a few
wandering corpses. Sam watched their bodies on the street as they
drove. Larry had to slow down for a turn, but the walkers still
didn't pose a threat.

That would all change when they had to
stop.

“So what's the plan, James?” Scott asked.

“I have no idea of what shape the hospital is
in. There's plenty of supply rooms, we just gotta hit them and get
what we need.” He patted the two backpacks he brought with him.
“Got plenty of room.”

Scott gestured to Aaron. “What's with the
bow?”

“Huh?”

“Everyone here has a gun or two. Why did you
bring a bow and arrow?”

Aaron ran a finger down the string of the
bow. “Never liked guns much.”

James smirked. “I didn't either, until the
heart attack victim I was working on shot up and tried to bite my
face off.”

“Guys,” Larry said from the front. “We're
almost there.”

Sam leaned close to Aaron. “Stay close to me.
I'll watch your back.”

He grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze.
There was a time she would have pulled it away. Now she relished
his touch, and squeezed back.

“Me and you, fighting our way through
corpses. Things don't change much, do they?”

Larry drove slow enough around the hospital
to get a good look, but fast enough that walkers couldn't reach
them. The parking lot had surprisingly few walkers. Most of the
windows on the first floor were broken. Some were boarded up, an
eerie glance into a past fight for survival.

“Okay, James, you know where you're going in
here?” Larry asked.

“Yeah. It's been a long time, but I know
where the supply rooms are. I just hope the inside is as clear as
the outside.”

Larry shook his head. “I wouldn't bet on
that. I'm sure a hospital is a good place to find a lot of dead
people.”

“The front door looks clear. Park as close as
you can.”

Larry stopped the truck near the door and
everyone jumped off the back. There were two corpses slowly
approaching from in between a few abandoned cars, but they were a
safe distance away.

Scott lifted his gun to fire, but Aaron
motioned for him to stop. “Save your bullets. Noise draws
them.”

They filed inside the hospital. James tried
to keep his composure. Another lifetime's memories flooded back to
him. The last time he was at the hospital was on the first day the
dead rose. He was a young know-it-all doctor. The bloodstains on
the walls, the mess of papers on the floor, he was part of that a
long time ago.

It was dark, but there was enough light
coming from outside that visibility wasn't a problem. A lone walker
was behind the front desk. She clutched a phone in her hand while
spinning slowly in a circle. When she saw the humans she moaned and
bared what was left of her teeth.

“Keep moving,” Aaron said. “We can move
around. They're only a danger if they're in a group.”

Larry gestured to his
right, down a long hall. “You mean like
that
group?”

Aaron turned. Eight or so corpses moved
slowly toward them. They were a mix of old doctors and patients,
still in the hospital after over twenty years.

“Damn,” James said. “There was a supply room
down that hall.”

Aaron knew he could just walk forward and
knock every single corpse down. They wouldn't hurt him.

But then his secret would be out.

“Are there any others we can get to
fast?”

James thought a moment. “The second floor.
Follow me.”

He led them down another hall toward the
stairs. There were a few walkers in the way that Sam put down with
single shots to the head.

James reached the stairwell door first, and
was too anxious to open it.

“No, wait!” Aaron said.

He was too late. James swung the door open,
and two corpses fell out of the stairwell. They tackled James and
pinned him to the ground. Their teeth barely missed his throat.

Aaron and Sam acted fast. She drove her knife
deep into the side of one of their heads. He grabbed the other by
the back of its shirt, and just threw it off. Sam stabbed the other
through the temple. Her knife still had gore from the first
kill.

“You okay?” Aaron said, helping James to his
feet. “You can't just rush around. You get bit?”

James shook his head. He felt like he was
gonna vomit. “I'm sorry. I'm fine. I'm just not used to being out
here.”

Sam carefully leaned into the stairwell. It
was completely dark, but she heard nothing. Still, she had to be
sure. She let out a small whistle, knowing any walkers in the
stairwell would moan.

“It's clear.”

“That's a strange way of handling walkers you
have there,” Larry whispered to Aaron as they entered the
stairwell.

“I've been yelling at him to be careful since
we met. He won't listen to me,” Sam said.

Aaron moved past Sam to take the lead. They
were blind moving up the stairs. Despite using the hand railing
they almost tripped a few times. Sam bumped into him as he stopped
near the second floor door.

He peeked through the small pane of glass
carefully, and saw movement straight ahead near the end of the
hall. It was more movement than he thought they'd see. He knew
walkers liked to be near each other. But to be in that large a
group, without any food around, could only mean one thing.

“Shit. A thinker.”

Larry wrinkled his face in
the dark. “A
what
?”

“A thinker. Some of them can think. They're
the most dangerous ones.”

James considered that. “That's probably the
scariest thing I've ever heard.”

Aaron nodded. “Where's the supply room on
this floor?”

James carefully peered through the window.
“It's to the right, away from that mob, thank God.”

“Trust me. When that thinker gets a sniff of
us, they won't stop. He'll have them all turning doorknobs to get
to us.”

“Which one is it?” Sam asked. “We'll put it
down right now.”

“I'm not sure. There's not really enough
light to get a good look.”

“Okay,” James said. “There's another
stairwell down the hall, across from the supply room. We just gotta
get what we need, and get out of here.”

Scott nodded. “I heard that.”

They pushed the door open. Sam led everyone
down the hall as fast as she could. Aaron stayed near the door just
for a moment. The mob of corpses saw the humans, and grew agitated.
Aaron could see which one was the thinker. A walker that was once a
surgeon led the undead, a curious gleam in his one eye. He was
missing half his face and part of his jaw.

As Aaron jogged down the hall to catch up, he
saw James turning the doorknob to the supply room in frustration.
He didn't know if it was locked or jammed. A corpse took a slow
step behind the four of them. It was amazing how quiet they could
be when they needed to. They didn't see it coming.

He stopped in his tracks and nocked an arrow.
He drew back and aimed for only a split second, then released. The
arrow sailed through the air and hit its mark. Sam let out a small
shout as the walker fell to the floor. The walker missed taking a
bite out of Larry only by a foot.

Aaron heard noise behind him. He turned to
see the mob of about fifteen corpses, led by the surgeon thinker,
slowly gaining ground.

“You'd better get that door open,” he called
as he joined the group.

James and Scott gave each other a look, then
took a step back. They both kicked the door at the same time. It
didn't fly open, but it did crack a few inches. They pushed as hard
as they could. Something blocked the door from the other side, but
it was finally moving.

They piled into the pitch-black supply room
and closed the door behind them. James was the first one in, and
tripped over something. Everyone else took a long step to get over
whatever it was.

Scott pulled out a candle and lit it. The
tiny flame threw shadows on the walls, open racks, and shelves.
They saw what was blocking the door.

On the floor near the door were the bodies of
two men. There was a gun nearby and an exit wound on the back of
both their heads. They were nowhere near decomposed twenty years,
maybe around one or two. James guessed they were there for the same
reason, looking for drugs. They hid in the supply room and took
their own lives.

They were trapped, just like the two men
were.

Aaron heard the doorknob start to turn. He
quickly dived at it and held it still.

“Scott! James! Move that rack over here!”

They slid the heaviest rack they could move
in front of the door. Bottles and boxes fell all over the place.
Sam grabbed the dead men by the feet and dragged them out of the
way.

“That'll give us some time,” Aaron said. “But
once twenty of them start pounding on the door, we'll have
problems.”

James felt his heart sink. “They came out of
nowhere.”

Scott had never been so scared in his life.
He'd killed plenty of corpses, but he'd never been in a tiny room
with so many on the other side. He could hear their dreadful moans
as they pounded on the door. The hair on his neck stood up.

Larry had accepted that they would die, and
he was okay with it. He knew that in the world of the dead, any day
could be the last. He was going out like he always hoped, trying to
help another person.

James was angry. Aaron's confident attitude
made him believe they actually had a chance. Now he wondered
whether Aaron's time in Baltimore had just made him crazy.

Sam had been in many bad situations in her
life. Just a week ago she was trapped alone in the city, until
Aaron showed up.

Still, even she had doubts about their
survival.

“What do we do?” James asked.

Aaron looked around calmly. “Well, is what we
need here?”

James was stunned. “You're thinking about
Travis right now? How about thinking of how to get out of
here?”

Aaron only smiled, which was the strangest
thing the men had ever seen. Sam had seen Aaron's odd behavior
around walkers before. She wasn't used to it herself. It frustrated
her as well.

But she trusted him.

It's like they don't
bother him
, she thought.

“One thing at a time, guys. Let's get what we
need.”

James shook his head as he grabbed the candle
from Scott and studied the shelves. It was hard to concentrate with
a fate worse than death pounding on the door just a few feet away,
but he forced himself to stay calm. He started filling his
backpacks, getting several of everything. He grabbed a few splints,
drips and bags, morphine, antibiotics, sutures, antiseptic. He had
no idea if the liquids were still good, but a small chance was
better than no chance.

“Okay. I think that's everything.”

Aaron nodded. “Good. Time to go.”

He walked past Sam and nimbly jumped onto the
second shelf of the large rack against the wall. He stretched up
and pushed a tile out of the way. No one had even noticed it was a
drop-ceiling.

He held his hand out for the candle. Scott
handed it over, then went back to forcing his weight against the
rack blocking the door.

Aaron glanced around the area above the
ceiling. It wasn't that large of a space, but it was large enough
for what he had in mind. There were sprinkler pipes that branched
down the halls and offices, but he didn't think they would hold all
their weight.

The walls of the rooms didn't run all the way
up. They could stand on top of them in the dark space above the
ceiling, if they were careful.

“Okay, up we go.”

They were hesitant a moment, but the door
opening a few inches got them moving.

Aaron helped everyone up one by one. They
used the rack shelves as a ladder. Sam was the last one up, and
took a quick glance at the space they were climbing into.

“The ceiling won't hold us,” she said.

“Stand on top of the wall, right here,” Aaron
said. “Balance yourself however you can. Larry's got a hold of a
support beam up there. Just lean on him.”

She climbed into the ceiling, Aaron right
behind her. Before leaving the supply room behind, he kicked the
rack with all his strength, sending it tumbling to the floor. As
soon as it landed, the door burst open. Walkers poured in.

The humans all crouched in a line on top of
the wall. It was cramped and uncomfortable, but it was better than
being eaten alive. Sam could feel her heart beating in her chest.
She steadied herself by keeping a hand on Scott's back. She felt
Aaron behind her with a hand on her shoulder. If any one of them
lost balance there was a good chance they'd all tumble down.