Life Among The Dead (27 page)

“
Now we’re talking.” He smiles maniacally at the swarms of walking dead.

53

Zombies in hard hats moan upon the opening of the door leading to the west wing. Dan briefly catches a glimpse of the hall before retreating back into the service tunnel. It’s all bare beams, and exposed pipes and wires.
They obviously must have been working on it before becoming zombies,
he thinks. They spotted him.

Dan doubles back through the narrow passage. He follows the beam of his flashlight through the darkness, concocting a plan.

The soldier locates a room he had seen moments ago. He opens the door to the satellite blood bank and enters after a quick scan. It’s a small room with several stainless steel refrigerators along the walls. He can see a door straight ahead that he thinks must lead to the main hall, or perhaps to where the blood was once collected from brave donors.

He opens the steel doors that house the vital fluid. His flashlight reveals numerous transparent bags filled with the red liquid. Each is labeled with different blood types. Dan isn’t being choosy. He tosses the sacks into the center of the room, making a pile of random Rh factors.

The soldier pulls Becka’s razor from his boot and starts to puncture the formless bags. A red puddle of blood spreads across the clean white floor.

In the tight passageway again, Dan walks away from the west wing. He props the rifle against the wall a few yards down from the bank. The flashlight is laid down on the floor shining towards his trap. His pistol is in one hand, an un-ruptured bag of blood is in the other. He walks back to the exit where he had seen the contract zombies.

Dan opens the door wide while crouching. He slaps the bag onto the floor to work as a doorstop. When he is satisfied the door will remain open he sprints back towards his light, jumping over the beam and sliding to a halt along the smooth flooring.

The dead moan when they smell the food. Dan has his 9mm pointed at them as they come down the hall and enter the little room. He figured he could hide behind the light and become invisible. They follow their noses, one by one, disappearing into the blood bank.

Dan slides along the wall after the last one enters the room. Their moaning becomes desperate, as if the offering frustrates them. He reaches for the knob and can see some of the dead inspect the puddle and some are pacing the room. Dan holds his breath until he hears the comforting click of the latch catching. The breath he had held is released as a sigh.

Dan finds the stairs in the construction zone and proceeds all the way down to the second floor. He follows a cold breeze to a smashed out window that opens to what looks like a concrete porch with no rails. Pieces of broken glass glitter on the hard surface.

The cool air feels nice. Dan finds that it also smells better than the hospital’s aseptic air. He steps through the busted pane of glass and into the November weather. There is a slight gust blowing leaves around below. The sky has clouded over, and is starting to darken.
Almost dusk,
Dan contemplates. He isn’t sure what is preferable, traveling in the daylight so they can see better, but also be seen. Or, at night where they can hide from the reanimated, which may also be hidden.
It doesn’t matter,
he concedes.
As soon as I get the bus we’re gone.

At the edge of the platform Dan realizes he is standing above the emergency room entrance. He can see the blue roof of the bus he is planning on using. It’s the size of a typical school bus. He figures it should do just fine. The only problem is the fact they have babies with them. They can’t exactly jump holding the children. He will have to find everyone another way down.

Before heading back into the bleach smelling facility Dan gives the city of Waterloo one last look. He’s going to miss this place; he and his wife had made a nice life here, and had plans for the future.

Across the street Dan can see a construction site. A fence had surrounded it when they arrived. The wooden wall has been toppled at some point since. Shattered planks now lay in the street and on the sidewalk along with several mangled bodies.

The west wing must have access to the loading docks,
Dan ponders as he heads for the stairs. He is concerned about the next flight. It will put him not only close to the ER, but also in uncharted territory. He has no choice.

Moaning echoes up through the stairwell. There are rectangular signs strewn about on the untiled floor. One tells him that the Emergency Room is down there. Dan debates whether or not to risk using these stairs, or perhaps locating another way.

He decides he will have to find an alternative route. The soldier stalks through the unfinished hallways, which will never be finished, leading with the rifle. Dan takes a left down a corridor and judges he must be heading towards the back of the hospital.

He locates a stairwell and can hear moaning coming from below just like the other.
Fuck!
He screams in his head.
The first floor must be teaming with them.
The moans don’t seem as loud as the other, and from the sound of them there aren’t as many. Dan leans against the wall and starts down the stairs letting gravity pull him.

At the bottom Dan finds a plywood barrier. Red paint labels the area that is blocked off with two letters: ER. To the left of the wooden wall he finds a set of double doors. Through small square windows he is delighted to learn he has located the loading docks. Things are looking up.

A sign on the wall outside the double doors reports that beyond this space is the MRI area and more loading docks, where he and Bill had entered. Dan is reveling in the fresh breeze again as it flows through the dirty cavern of the dock. He hears a distant engine sound and an odd metallic scraping. It sounds like excavation equipment to him, but that seems impossible.

Dan walks to the alley between the hospital and the large wall. He sees a couple of semis are parked with their back ends ready for either loading or unloading, and a blue pickup truck with a bed full of lumber.

He hops down onto the boards piled neatly on the truck’s back.
It’s only a three foot drop,
He rationalizes.
The kids can be handed down.
Dan works out the logistics, figuring he can get the bus down here and then bring all the survivors out this way. “Simple.”

He is running around the building towards the Bus. As he rounds the corner he stops short, not wanting to be spotted. The walls are almost completely window and the dead are packed in behind the glass. The Emergency Room is crammed with zombies. Their decomposing flesh is pressed against the glass leaving behind smears of clotted blood and grime.

Dan low crawls to hedges that line the drop off zone of the ER. He scoots along the shrubs on his way to the bus just beyond the concrete overhang he had stood upon moments ago. The engine sound is getting louder; he can’t worry about it now.

Dan is at the bus trying to see if he can get in from this side, but it doesn’t look promising. He can stand now that he has the bus as cover. He hops, trying to see inside the vehicle. The folding door is open on the other side.
I’ll have to risk being seen to get in.

Dan leaps over the greenery and trips, landing hard on the rough blacktop with his face. He scrambles to the front of the blue shuttle, diving in through the open door and thanking God there wasn’t stairs inside. The bus is low to the ground so that the elderly can get in and out as easily as possible. He takes position in the driver’s seat and turns the key. The fact they are in the ignition makes him think this is his lucky day. The fact that the engine doesn’t turn over makes him think differently.

Glass breaking is always a horrible sound; today it is one of the worse for it seems to herald nothing but death. Dan turns his head towards the cracking panes and sees the dead pouring out of the emergency room’s windows. They are a tangle of limbs as they flood the blacktop. The mass of bodies spread towards the bus in a snarled heap, they struggle to get to their feet.

The soldier fumbles with a lever to close the door, but it isn’t working. The thing won’t budge and the dead are getting close. Two male corpses have their eyes set on him now, walking his way.

Dan’s hand shakes as he turns the key again. His heart races as he watches the zombies close the distance.

“
Come on. Come on.” He pleads with the engine. The motor won’t turn over and just sputters. A noise startles him; a loud bang he first thinks is from his mode of transportation. Dan gives up on the key, thinking it must be flooded. He has never experienced it before, but has heard you have to give it time. Time isn’t in abundance. He pulls out his pistol and aims it at the door. The two men have reached the opening and behind them are several of their friends.

The noise occurs again. Dan knows it isn’t him since he hasn’t touched anything. The first zombie to the door is a man whose cheek has been removed forcibly. There are wounds on his neck as well, definitely teeth marks. Dan can see the tendons inside the wound. The white sinews twitch as the creature moves its head.

Dan is about to fire upon the first corpse that steps onto the bus’s platform when a miracle occurs. Some odd object has fallen from above and scrapes the zombies away. He stares incredulously as the event happens again. He tries the ignition once more, it finally catches.

Dan steps on the accelerator and darts around to the back of the hospital. He parks it by the truck full of wood. A steel ladder is affixed to the concrete slab of the loading dock, Dan clammers up the rungs and rushes to the stairs that he takes two at a time.

He intends to grab the survivors, first he has to check something out. The curious man sprints to the window that opens onto the awning above the ER. Though eager, he isn’t so careless as to not check around corners before taking them. He peeks around fast wielding the rifle.

The platform has a large bite taken out of it. The soldier stands, watching as a large yellow steam shovel swings at its pivot point, knocking the dead around like a giant swatting at villagers. The metal claw slams down upon them with its flat side like the fist of God.

Though unable to see the driver due to reflections on the windows, Dan knows he or she is safe inside. The walking dead around the machine’s enormous tank-like treads can’t seem to be able to figure out how to use the ladder.

The cab of the heavy equipment is just a few feet higher than the platform Dan stands on. Dan waves his rifle in the air trying to get the driver’s attention. The machine’s massive arm stills in midair. The treads slowly roll forward, easily running over any zombie that gets in its way. Dan is almost eye-to-eye with the helpful driver. A burly looking man in blue cover alls.

“
Thank you.” Dan shouts over the idling engine. The motor is switched off and for a second the air feels empty without its drone.

“
What?” The man shouts back.

“
I said: ‘thank you’. I was in the bus. You saved me.”

“
Oh… You’re welcome.” Dan’s savior had no idea there was a person in the blue shuttle until the thing drove off. The two men share an awkward pause.

“
Is that a muzzle loader?” The man in the cover alls asks.

“
Yeah.” Dan answers, looking at the weapon in question.

The Good Samaritan gives the relic a considering nod. “It’s a nice one.”

“
Is that duct tape?” Dan points at his new acquaintance’s arms.

“
Yeah.”

“
It’s a good idea.” Dan says. “No biting through that.”

“
Nope.”

They have a pause again in their interchange. Dan breaks the silence first.

“
I’m taking a bunch of people out of here. You’re welcome to join if you want. We are heading north to New…”

“
Naw,” He replies, shaking his head. “I’m pretty busy right now.”

“
I can see that.” Dan responds, looking over the blood splattered yellow machine, and the chunks of unidentifiable matter that clings to it. “You have a lot on your plate.”

“
Rain check.” The stranger says before starting the steam shovel’s diesel engine and backing the behemoth away from the window.

54

Dan is breathless, taking the stairs as fast as he can. He arrives at the door to L&D inside the pitch-black tunnels. The thin nurse and all the civilians in the scarcely lit ward greet him. Numerous faces stare at Dan with hopeful eyes. They all want to hear good news. The soldier passes them without so much as an acknowledgement. He heads straight into Heather’s room.

“
Hey sweetie, I got the bus parked outside.” He whispers. Their son lies on his mother’s chest, swaddled snuggly in a light blue blanket.

“
Good.” She says as she starts to stand.

“
Let’s get you two ready.” Dan locates the suitcase she had packed for the hospital the week she found out they were expecting. He opens the case on the bed after his wife gets off of it.

She is moving really slow. Dan wonders if she is in pain, and then realizes how dumb it is to wonder such a thing.
Of course she’s in pain.
His wife is able to waddle to the clear basinet and place Vincent into it. She kisses him gently and returns to the bed.

“
What would you like to wear?” Dan asks her as he picks through her selection of folded garments in the dark.