Degeneration (30 page)

             
Richard quickly got up and
clamored towards the windows.
The
floor creaked and groaned under his weight.

The i
nfected
started to get back on
their feet
, snarling
.
One of the orderlies sprinted
towards Richard.

             
Richard
braced himself as–

             
The orderly
tackled Richard onto
the floor.

             
Richard grappled with the orderly, desperately trying
to keep the man from biting him
. He
kept both hands pressed
against the
orderly’
s chest, keeping the man’s
snapping mouth back.

The orderly
scratched Richard’s arms and tore deep gashes into his skin.

Richard screamed
in
pain.

             
In the midst of their tussling, neither
of them noticed
that the floor undernea
th them was sinking and sagging
.

             
The
orderly vomited into Richard’s face a
s the other i
nfected i
n the room converged en-mass towards–

             
The entire floor gave a defeated groan and collapsed into the engulfed first floor
lobby.

Richard and the group of infected
plummeted down amongst a shower of debris
, drywall dust, and sheets of insulation
.

             
Richard landed hard against
the charred laminate floor on his back
amidst two rows of engulfed waiting
room
chairs, expunging the air from his lungs
.

The orderly
who had assaulted Richard landed amidst the engulfed waiting room chairs.
One of the police officers landed headfirst
a few feet in front of Richard; hi
s neck
gave an audible snap on impact and he lay motionless. The rest of the infected landed scattered amongst the flames and flailed on the floor, screaming.

Richard
sat up, gasping
for air,
and frantically wiped
the vomit from his face with his hands. The searing heat blurred his visio
n and the smoke stole his breath. He was in hell. He stood
a
midst a shower of flaming debris,
gasped uselessly
in the smoke,
and staggered
forward between the large pockets of flames. A large
pillar c
rashed
down behind him,
narrowly missing him,
but he couldn’t even hear it over the roar
ing fires all around him
. Ahead, at the other end of the engulfed
lobby
, he could
barely make out the hospital’s emergency room entrance.

The
sliding glas
s entrance doors were shattered
and covered from th
e outside by badly
burnt plywood plagued with multiple
bullet
ho
les. Beams of sunlight shone
through the
holes and cast numerous spots of light on the
charred
corpses huddled
against the
base of the plywood.

Gasping for air, Richard walked towards the barricaded entrance
.
He trudg
ed between two rows of engulfed plastic chairs
and
felt
his arm hair and eyebrows se
aring off.

He was going to die.

             
An engulfed
corpse
bounded
out of the flames next to him. T
he co
rpse was so badly burnt that its
sex
was indistinguishable. It
collapsed and lay motionless
in front of Richard
as
the
flames
devoured
it.

             
Richard
maneuvered
around the corpse and
lurched
towards th
e bullet-riddled plywood. He stuck his mouth around one of the bullet holes and was finally able to draw in a breath of
air
; he began coughing uncontrollably
.

             
A large sign suspended over the lobby entrance crashed
next to Richard and kicked-up a plume of ash.
The sign read: ‘Please Remember to Sign out with the Receptionist. Thank You for Choosing Us for Your Healthcare Needs. Central Hospital, a Member of the Triad Healthcare Group, LLC’.

             
Richard kicked
the sign
aside and climbed on top of the charred
corpses
huddled against the base of the plywood. He
heard
their brittle bo
nes snap under each step
.

             
“
Hey!”
Richard
hoarsely cried
through one of the bullet holes
as he
simultaneously
slapped his open palms against the burnt plywood. He erupted into a spasm of violent coughs. “
Help me!”

He took a step
back and
rammed the plywood with his shoulder.

The
weakened
plywood shattered easily and
disintegrated
into black ashy splinters.

He tumbled
down the five small steps
that led
up to the emergency room
doors and landed hard on
his side, coug
hing violently. Severe burns covered his body and his arms and face were covered with pus-filled blisters. Pain radiated throughout his entire body. He
spat
out bloodied
s
aliva onto the cement and s
lowly
rose to his knees as
his breathing became more regulated.

Richard looked up at the building, gasping for breath.

The hospital towe
red into the sky and leaned
askew
. The upper floors had caved-in
and the plastic
covering the building
had fallen away. The building
was close to collapsing.

A large white sign was stapled to a sheet of plywood coveri
ng the other set of lobby doors. T
he edges
of the sign
were
badly
b
lackened
, but it
was still legible.

QUARANTINE

WARNING: HIGHL
Y COMMUNICABLE CONTAGION INSIDE

THIS AREA HAS BEEN DEEMED UNSAFE

ABSOLUTEL
Y NO ENTRY PERMITTED

ABSOLUTELY NO EXIT PERMITTED

US
E OF DEADLY FORCE IS AUTHORIZED

H
e turn
ed and stared at the parking lot.

It
was
a
jam-packed maze o
f burnt vehicles, toppled
luggage, and
blackened
corpses. Infected
, many of which were badly burnt,
wandered aimlessl
y between the haphazardly parked vehicles. None of the wandering infected
seemed to notice Richard as he ga
wked at them with his mouth agape
, terrified.

Countless r
ed fliers blew freely across the parking lot and littered th
e steps of the hospital. He
reached down and grabbed one of the tattered fliers.

THIS AREA IS NO LONGER SAFE

A mandatory evacuation has been ordered for the entire affected area.

Report to the following FEMA Safe Havens for immediate evacuation:

North Hills Mall –
Overrun

Rex Hospital –
Overrun

Brier Creek Shopping Center

Crabtree Valley Mall

Wake Med
(Official CDC encampment)
–
Overrun

Central Hospital
(Official CDC encampment)
–
Overrun

RBC Center –
Overrun

Triangle Town Center

Official Information: 90.1 WXTK FM

Official Information: 96.3 WYTT FM

No cameras, phones, luggage, weapons, nor pets allowed. Four people max per household. Children less than 3 years old and elders over 85 cannot be accepted at this time. No handicap services are available. If you are ill, you will be turned away. Avoid major roads and all strangers.

             
Richard crumpled the red flier, dropped it to the
ground,
and
stared at the breached lobby doors with a
haunting realization
.

             
He
stared down at the deep fingernail-gashes that ran down both of hi
s blistered forearms and then looked
at his vomit-caked shirt.

             
“I’m infected…”

16

             
C
olonel Mathis slouched sullenly
against the rear-wall of the cramped supply closet
, the very same closet he spent last sixteen hours
. He reached a gloved h
and up and wiped the condensation from the
outside of his facemask. He was sweltering inside of his soiled white-suit, but he didn’t dare
remove it and compromise his suit in the process. The only light in the
dark closet
came from the
small LED
tactical light
attached to
the right shoulder of his white-suit.

Earlier,
he heard the
rippling explosions and felt the heat radiate though the building from the napalm bombardment. He knew what had happened.

He was pretty sure that part of the building he was in had collapsed but he was thankful that the fire didn’t gut the entire building and roast him in the process.

Nonetheless, t
he situation inside
the closet
wasn’t
good.

The odor inside
his white-suit was noxious and near overpowering. Urine and feces ran down his legs and soaked through the
uniform he was wearing underneath his
suit. The closed environment of the suit prevented anything from coming in, but it also prevented anything from
going out. His stomach ached with a strange
mixture of nausea and hunger.

In the hours that had passed, Ma
this’ thoughts never veered
towards the family he abandoned, to the horde o
utside, or to the fifteen
hundred soldiers under his command who were
most likely dead.
His mind was quiet and alert as he stared at the closed door in front of him in a state of shock. It felt like a nightmare he couldn’t wake himself out of.

             
Before his radio battery died, he heard numerous scrambled transmissions coming in from units all over the state. The news wasn’t good. It sounded like the Air Force was shooting down anybody trying to escape by aircraft and that the Marines were using deadly force to keep people from breaking the state-wide quarantine; military personnel included.

             
He even heard reports that they were field testing a vaccine in some of the towns around Raleigh.

             
The most frightening part, however, is that it didn’t sound like the vaccine was working. In fact, it was making things worse.

             
His squadron was dead and his career was finished.

He
contemplated turning his pistol on himself multiple times in that dark closet, but he c
ould never build the nerve to do it
.
Instead, he resolved to wait for help, even though he knew no help was coming.