Parish (3 page)

              “We’re waiting for my wife.” Jack motioned down the road with a nod of his head.

              “Didn’t you see the news?  St. Katherine’s is overrun.  I hate to be the bearer of bad news.” Mitch frowned and gave his a sympathetic look.

              “No, she called earlier.  She’s going to catch a ride with the National Guard.” Jack forced the thoughts that his wife may not be his wife anymore out of his mind.

              “I hope she does, friend, I hope she does.” Mitch picked up their fluffy white Shih-Tzu, and patted her on the head gently.  A soft growl came from behind the small cluster of bushes on the other side of their entrance way.

              “Chevvie! Chevvie, come on you stinky bastard!” Mitch yelled calling for their third, rather smelly black dog.  Jack looked past his neighbor and spotted the blind dog roaming in circles.  “Dammit, Chevvie!” Mitch started walking towards him when all of a sudden a hand came out of the bushes and grabbed hold of the dog causing it to let out a terrible yelp.  A moment later a mangled looking face followed the gray hand.  There was no color in its lifeless eyes as it bared its teeth. 

              “Holy shit!” Ellen screamed, just then the head opened its mouth and sunk its teeth into the dog who was still wiggling wildly in an attempt to get away from the monster.  “Mitch!  It’s eating him!  It’s eating him!”

              “Get in the car, hurry!” Mitch pointed to their brand new sports car.  “Here, take Bunnie and let me grab Hughey. Hughey! Come on boy, come on!”  Their third dog seemed to stop mid-shit and run as fast as his small frame could carry him.  He jumped in through the open door of the car.  Ellen was clamoring to get in and shut the door.  “Jack, you need to get out of here it’s not safe, it just ate my fucking dog man!”

              “We’ll leave as soon as Emily gets here.” Jack backed up onto his own lawn to clear their driveway. 

              “Suit yourself man.  Good-luck.” Mitch didn’t pause any longer than he had to before he followed Ellen into the car.  The engine roared to life, throwing it into reverse he backed out of the driveway as fast as he could.  An elderly woman shuffled out into the road, her eyes were white and she had blood dripping from her toothless mouth which opened and closed as she growled.  She turned to the noise of the car and began to move forward.  Jack heard Mitch yell from the car.  “Goddamn zombie, make me ruin my car!”  He floored the gas pedal and tried to go around the woman, but clipped her with the front corner of his vehicle sending her flying.  The sound of her head hitting the concrete was identical to the sound a cantaloupe would have made a dull thud.  Jack grimaced and lifted his arms to shield himself from the sight.

              The woman who was sprawled out on the ground twitched and began moving.  Her eyes landed on Jack, who was still standing on his lawn staring in disbelief at the woman.  She growled and began crawling towards him, her arms out stretched and fingers opening and closing in an attempt to grab him while still at least forty feet away.  Jack turned quickly and ran back into his house.  He slammed the door behind him and leaned all of his weight against it as he took long, slow deep breaths.  Vomit was pushing up into the back of his throat and he fought the urge as it began to burn his eyes.

              “What happened Dad?” Wade asked as he ran over to his father.

              “They’re outside, two of them…maybe more.” Jack replied as he sank to the floor.  “I just saw the neighbor’s dog get eaten.”

              “OH!” Wren cried, both hands flying to her mouth.

              “They knew, they were just waiting for everything to calm down before they left.  We cannot go out there.” Jack shook his head.  “I’m going to keep trying to get ahold of your mom.”

              “I can hear something outside growling, are you sure the dog was eaten?” Wade asked as he pressed his ear to the door.

              “Yeah, I saw it.  It’s not a dog, it’s them, they growl like animals.” Jack took a deep breath as he pulled himself up.  He picked up the phone and dialed, held it to his ear and tried to dial again.  “The phones are dead.”

              “Maybe we shouldn’t have stayed.” Wren shook her head.

              “We didn’t have a choice.  Look, maybe you guys should go get dressed, quietly.  Put on something sturdy, grab your sports stuff too like the helmets and whatever.  I can’t see how they wouldn’t help.  Grab Jamie some stuff while you’re at it.” Jack sat the phone down.

              “Okay.” Wade looked at his sister.

              “Look out the window while you’re up there.  See if you see your mom.” Jack lifted his eyes to his children who both nodded before going to the stairs.

Five hours earlier…

“Doctor?” A plump nurse walked over to Emily and stared her down.  “I can’t stay here, I have family you know.”

              “We all have someone Monica, we have to make sure the contagion doesn’t spread.” Emily replied.

              “Spread?  It’s a fucking wildfire!  There ain’t no containing it now!” Monica bellowed, her fat face pinched up.

              “It’s our duty to try, besides the National Guard is posted outside, they’re here to help us.” Emily picked up a clip board and looked over the papers.

              “This is insane!  I’m leaving!  If you want to play martyr I sure as hell won’t try to stop you but I’ll be dammed if you’re going to force the rest of us to join you!” Monica spun on her heel and headed down the corridor leaving Emily to her work.  She sighed and pulled a picture from her coat pocket.  It was a picture of her, Jack and the children.  In a rare moment they were all smiling and appeared to be happy.  She ran her finger over the photo.  The moment that made them so happy was no longer in her memory bank, no matter how much she tried to recall it, it wouldn’t appear.  A lump formed in her throat as her thoughts turned to her family.  She prayed they were safe.

              “Doctor DeLasalle!”  A voice called out from behind an open door. “Doctor we need you in here!”  Emily steeled herself and jogged into the room.  A nurse was bent over a pediatric patient who was thrashing around.

              “What happened?” Emily asked as she darted to the bedside of the girl and attempted to hold her still.

              “I don’t know.  I came in here and she was doing this.” The tiny nurse lifted her eyes to meet Emily’s.  “I think she’s turning.”

              “Oh god, no.” Emily breathed turning her attention to the face of the child.  Her once flawless ebony skin was turning mute and the color was fading from her eyes.  “I need a soldier in here!  I need a soldier!”  Someone in fatigues ran into the room and stood at the foot of the bed.

              “What’s going on?” The man asked, his voice so deep it seemed to rattle the bones.

              “She’s turning.” Emily replied simply.

              “Alright, you go on, I got this.” The soldier motioned to the door.  Emily and the nurse let go of the girl who continued her violent thrashing.  They walked out into the hall, closing the door softly behind them, making their way to the opposing wall Emily put her arm around the young nurse.  She buried her face in Emily’s shoulder and sobbed.  Suddenly one lone gunshot echoed through the hall before silence fell again.  The nurse squeaked and continued to cry.

              The door opened and the soldier walked over to them.

              “It’s done.” He said, adjusting his weight from one foot to the other. 

              “Thank you.” Emily bit her lip as she smoothed the young woman’s hair.  “What’s your name?”

              “Darla.” The woman grabbed her shirt and wiped her eyes with the collar.

              “Darla, everything will be alright.” Emily attempted to smile.  The soldier continued to watch both of the women.

              “No it won’t.” Darla shook her head slowly as she lifted her arm for the Emily to see.  Right between her wrist and elbow a huge chunk of flesh was gone, slivers were still clinging to the bone.  Emily gasped.  “She got me.  I’m going to die, aren’t I?”

              “I’m so sorry.” Emily took a step away from the woman, the soldier reached out and gently guided Darla into the room he has just exited.  Emily squeezed her eyes shut, as the door closed.

              “PLEASE, NO PLEASE!  You don’t have to do this!  I’ll be okay! Oh, god please I have a little baby at home! Please!”  Darla was sobbing and begging for her life.  Another shot rang out and the begging stopped.  Emily allowed herself to collapse onto the floor. 

              “Ma’am?” The soldier was addressing her.  She lowered her hands from her face and looked up at the mountain of a man.  “Ma’am, it wasn’t your fault.”

              “Are you all going to get this under control or are we all stuck here until we turn?” Emily dropped her head in defeat as the words left her mouth.

              “No ma’am, those aren’t our orders.  Our orders are to secure the hospital, that’s all.” The soldier offered Emily his hand.  “We’ll get it secured.  You got family out there?”

              “Yes, you?” Emily asked.

              “Naw, it’s just me.  I ain’t had no family since I was a kid.” The soldier smiled.

              “What’s your name?” She looked for a nametag but saw none.

              “You can call me Artemis.” He smiled, his teeth were a brilliant white.

              “Okay.” Emily laughed softly.  “I’m Emily.”

              “Well, I would say it was nice to meet you but under the circumstances…” Artemis allowed his sentence to drift off.

              “Oh, no, I understand.  I wish we would have met under different circumstances too.” Emily shook her head.

              “Well, I should go, I have to keep on my patrol.  If you need me you remember to just yell Artemis and I’ll come running.” He hoisted his gun up higher on his shoulder.

              “Thank you, I appreciate that.” Emily nodded before turning and walking in the opposite direction.  She heard the sound of his boots growing faint as he moved away from her.  Shoving her hand in her pocket she pulled out her cellphone and turned it on.  There were no bars, instead a little image of an old rotary phone receiver had a red mark across it indicating there was no service.  Silently, Emily cursed her luck and continued on with her rounds. 

              As she turned the corner and began walking to the nearest nurses station a hail of gunfire could be heard two floors below her.  She stopped, frozen as she looked to the ground.  The gunfire was accompanied with screaming.  After a few moments the screaming and the gunfire all ceased.  The heavy doors leading to the stairway flew open and a half dozen soldiers poured out onto the ground, all panting and sweating.  A female looked at Emily as she pulled herself from atop the pile.

              “We lost the bottom floors.  We need to stop all the elevators and barricade all entrances onto this floor ma’am.”  The woman searched the doctors’ face, but Emily did not respond.  “Ma’am?  Ma’am?”

              “What’s this now?”  An elderly doctor, who had worked at the hospital for more than forty years shambled over to the soldiers who had made it to their feet.

              “Who are you?” The female soldier questioned the old man.

              “I’m Doctor Miller, the Chief of Staff.  Would you care to tell me what on god’s green earth was all of that hullabaloo a moment ago?”  He pursed his lips and squinted his eyes at the woman.

              “The first two floors are overrun with the growlers, we need to shut down the elevators and block all the entrances.” The woman repeated herself with a tad bit of an attitude, obviously irritated at having to repeat herself.

              “Ah, I see.” Dr. Miller nodded slowly as he rubbed his hand on his chin.  “Well, go on and do what you need to!  You sure won’t get much help from me, I’m seventy-eight years old!  Oh no, I’m no use when it comes to what you need to do.”  He turned to Emily.  “Come, Dr. DeLasalle, come with me darlin’”. Emily allowed herself to be led away by the elderly man.

              “Burt, this is terrible.” Emily muttered as Dr. Miller helped ease her into one of the chairs in his office.

              “Yes, that it is, it sure is my dear.  Terrible, absolutely one hundred and ten percent terrible with a side of horrendous.” Burt nodded as he walked around his desk and began to rifle around in one of the desk drawers.  After a moment he pulled a large unopened bottle of whiskey and sat it on the desk.  “Care for a drink?  Calm the nerves?”

              “I don’t usually drink, Burt.” Emily laughed at the absurdity of the situation.

              “Ah, neither do I but I think that a night like tonight calls for a small drink.” Burt reached behind him where a glass water decanter sat and plucked up two glasses.  “It isn’t everyday one has to stab ones own patients in the head to kill them before they can be cannibalized, yes?”

              “Oh, god Burt, that sums it up disturbingly well.” Emily leaned forward and took the full glass he offered her.  She sipped it gingerly, grimacing as it burned her throat.

              “I have always had a way with words.  How else do you think I’ve managed to have seven wives over the years?  I do not believe it was my boyish good looks.” He raised his glass to toast Emily.  “Although perhaps it was more to do with my bank account.”