Survival Instinct: A Zombie Novel (12 page)

She walked into her cosy, mismatched bedroom and sat on the bed next to Claire and Mark.

“Hey, Claire?”  Abby placed a hand on her shoulder.  “We need to get you to a hospital to get your head checked out.  Would you be willing to ride on a motorcycle with Jon?”

“I don’t want to go out there,” Claire shook her head.

“We have to go,” Abby informed her.

“I don’t want to.”  Claire held firm.

“Claire,” Mark got her attention,  “you should go.  There will be police officers at the hospital and they’ll make sure no one like Mr. Fargus gets you.”

“Police officers?”  Claire blinked up at him.

“With guns,” Mark told her.

“Okay.”  Claire finally nodded.  “Will you come with me, Abby?”

“I can’t ride on the motorbike with you,” Abby told her sadly,  “but I’ll meet you there, okay?”

“Okay.”  Claire nodded again.

“All right, let’s get you something to wear over your swimsuit then.”  Abby went over to her dresser.  She found an old T-shirt and put it on Claire.  It was big on her, hanging nearly to her knees.  She also found a pair of socks and put them on Claire’s feet.  She wouldn’t be able to walk in them very well, but Abby didn’t like the idea of her being barefoot on a motorbike.

“Excuse me, Abby?”  Jessica appeared at the door.

“Yeah?”  Abby turned to her.

“You wouldn’t happen to have an extra pair of shoes would you?”  Jessica’s feet were bare except for her stockings.

“There’s a pair of boots in the closet that might fit you,” Abby suggested.

Jessica went over to the closet and looked through it.  She found the pair of hiking boots and tried them on.  Abby could tell they weren’t her style and that she probably hated the look of them, but they were shoes.

“Good.  Let’s do this now before I lose my nerve.”  Abby grabbed a field hockey stick from under her bed.  The J-shaped stick felt reassuringly solid in her hands.  It wasn’t a baseball bat, but it would work just as well.  The stick was kept under her bed in case someone broke in, but Abby was going to use it to break out.

The little group headed out into the living room and gathered near the door.

“Okay, I’ll go first and knock him over.”  Abby checked the peephole again and saw Andrew’s gore-soaked face filling the view.  “Once he’s down, the rest of you run for the elevators, got it?”

They all nodded.

“Okay.”  Abby placed her hand on the doorknob, her chest heaving from the deep breaths she couldn’t help but take.  “One, two, three!”

* * *

Abby Walker yanked open the door with a pop.  Andrew took a stumbling step inside and she swung the stick as hard as she could into his face.  He fell back out like a sack of potatoes.  Jessica was the first to run past him, Claire cradled in her arms.  Jon was right on her heels.  Abby went through the door next, directing Andrew’s sluggish movements away from herself with the stick.

“Come on, Mark!” she shouted as she hit Andrew’s head again.  She had broken out a few of his teeth but he didn’t seem to notice or care.

“Hold on!”  Mark was gathering the first aid kit.  “We may need this.”

Mark leapt over Andrew at an angle that put the man between him and Abby.  A sickly, pained scream filled the hall.  Jack stood in the doorway to his apartment.  His scream sounded like a normal person’s would when finding their loved one in the condition that Andrew was in.  Except that he couldn’t see his partner.  His eyes had been gouged out.  His guts also hung out of his abdomen.  Jack turned his blind attention to Mark.

“Shit!”  Mark ran off down the hall, away from where the elevators were.  Jack took off after him, his guts dragging, threatening to trip him.

“Mark!” Claire screamed from near the elevators.

Abby gave Andrew one last smack and then ran over to the others.  The elevator had just arrived and they piled in. Claire was distraught.

“It’s okay, Claire.”  Abby took her from Jessica, handing the woman the field hockey stick.  Claire gripped her so tightly
that Abby thought something might crack.  “Mark’s a fast runner remember?  No one can ever catch him.”

“She’s right you know,” Jon chimed in.  “No one can ever catch Mark.  He runs like the wind.”

“But, what if he hits a dead end?” Claire sniffled.

“He won’t,” Abby assured her
,  “the stairwell is over there remember?”

Claire nodded.

“He’ll be fine.”  Abby held Claire close.  “He’ll be just fine.”  She was trying to reassure herself as much as the little girl.

Everyone was very tense as they rode the elevator down into the garage.  No one was mentioning Jack.  It was impossible that he could be moving in the condition he was in, yet there he was, running.

The doors opened into the cement enclosure that was the apartment’s garage.  Jessica Clay stepped out first, holding the field hockey stick high.  Once she saw that everything was clear, she waved the others out.  It was obvious that the pretty businesswoman’s nerves were barely holding up, but she somehow continued to press forward anyway.  Abby followed after her, holding Claire tightly to her.  She felt badly for the little girl.  She was so scared and should never have had to see what she did.

“Where’s your bike, Jon?” Abby asked the teenager who stuck by her side.

“Just over there.”  Jon pointed.  “I always park in the striped zone since it’s closer to the elevators.”

Abby thought about reprimanding him for parking illegally, but then thought better of it.  They hurried over to his bike.  It wasn’t big or fancy, but that didn’t matter.  As long as it worked.  Jon unclipped the helmets from it while Abby put Claire down.  Jessica stood guard with the stick, casting a wary eye about the cars and jumping at shadows.  Jon handed one of the helmets to Abby.  She slid it onto Claire’s head and started buckling it up.  Once on, she knocked on the top twice and gave Claire a thumbs up and a smile.  Claire returned the gesture, her face stoic.

“You ready?”  Abby turned to Jon.

Jon was already straddling his bike, strapping his own helmet on.  He also gave Abby a thumbs up.  Abby then lifted Claire up and put her on the back of the bike behind Jon.

“You hold on tight,” she told Claire.  “You wrap your arms around Jon’s waist and you don’t let go for anything, got it?”

Claire nodded, the helmet on her head bobbling around slightly.  She wrapped her arms tightly around Jon.  Jon didn’t complain and started up the engine, then balanced the bike and kicked up the kickstand.  It wasn’t surprising that he was just as eager to go as Abby was to see them off.

“I’ll see you there!” Abby once again reassured Claire, even though she had to shout to be heard over the roar of the engine.

Jon gave another thumbs up, then started moving forward.  He lifted up his legs and the bike sped away towards the exit.  Abby started walking after it.

“You’re serious about meeting them at the hospital?”  Jessica started following after Abby.

“Of course.  Claire saw some horrible things; she needs a friend, not strangers.  I’m going to be there for her.”

Jessica sighed.  “All right.  Well, I’m coming with you.”

Abby stopped.  “No, you don’t need to do that.”

“I don’t need to, but I am anyway.  You shouldn’t be walking around out there alone.  Besides, that Mark kid had a point: there’ll be officers at the hospital.  It should be safe there.”

Abby nodded.  “All right then.”

“But I get to hold onto this.”  Jessica clutched the field hockey stick to her as they started heading toward the exit.

Neither of them wanted to think about what might have become of Mark
, but both of them did.

Riley

“Dr. Bishop!  Dr. Bishop, they need you!”  Nurse Masters burst into the suture room, scaring the hell out of the patient Riley was stitching up.

“What is it, Masters?” Riley calmly asked without looking up from her work.  Dr. Riley Bishop didn’t like working at the same time as Masters, who had a tendency to over-exaggerate things, which could get very frustrating in an ER.

“Some guy just walked in through the ambulance bay doors.  He’s bleeding to death.”  Nurse Masters ran back out of the room.

Riley sighed and looked up at her patient with an apologetic smile.  “Do you mind waiting one more moment?”

“Go ahead.”  The patient, who was getting his hand sutured after it had been sliced open by a broken pane of glass, looked extremely worried.  A lot of patients who came into the ER did, but nurses freaking out always made them worse.

“Thank you.”  Riley got up and headed out of the room, stripping off her gloves as she went.  She tossed them into the disposal bin outside the door as she headed toward the receiving bay.

There was a large ruckus going on, so Riley picked up the pace.  Maybe Masters wasn’t exaggerating for once.

“What happened?” Riley asked Dr. Cender, a younger resident, as she got closer.

“Guy came in with his guts hanging out,” Cender filled her in.  “He started fighting people.  He’s probably on PCP.  Mason, Anderson, and Guiles are trying to subdue him
, but he’s a real fighter, this one.  Help me get this gurney over there.”

Riley Bishop pushed her way into the crowd of people standing around.  She pulled the gurney behind her while Cender directed it from behind.

“Step aside!  Step aside!”  Riley shoved people out of the way.  “Doctors coming through!”

Riley got through the mass of people.  She was surprised when she saw the scene on the other side.  Dr. Anderson and the biggest male nurse in the ER, Mason, were trying to bring down a giant six foot six patient, while Guiles, another resident, was trying to find an opening in which to stick him with a needle full of something.  The man’s guts were indeed hanging out, but he also had a major laceration down one forearm, nearly cleaving it in two, and what looked like a massive crush injury to his skull.  The gutted giant roared and grabbed Dr. Anderson, who had been hanging off his back, swung him around and bit down hard into the doctor’s arm.  Anderson cried out and collapsed to the floor.  Mason and Guiles grabbed Anderson and dragged him over to Riley and Cender,
and out of harm’s way.  The patient attempted to pursue, but tripped over his own entrails, hitting the ground hard.  However, he immediately started to get back up as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.

“Goddamn biters!” Anderson yelled out, cradling his arm.  “Why is everyone biting these days?”

Riley knew what he meant.  Over the last few days, there had been a record number of people coming in with bite wounds to their hands, arms, legs, face, wherever.  A few psych patients were also brought in who would continuously try to bite you despite sedation, restraints, and anything else you could think of.  Not even close family members could get through to them.  Their loved ones didn’t even have any ideas about why they had begun acting that way.  Last Riley heard, the crazies were still going; they didn’t even sleep.  This giant of a patient was looking like one of them, except he also looked like he had lost a fight with a lawnmower first.

“How have you not gotten him yet?” Cender asked Guiles.

Dr. Haily Guiles was fast.  She had always managed to get quick and precise needle injections into problem patients.  She was also fantastic at finding veins, which made her a huge asset in the ER, specifically during problem cases like this one.

“I did.”  She pulled Anderson behind the gurney as the big man got up and came at them again.  Riley, Mason, and Cender placed the gurney between them and the crazed patient.  He hit into its side and tried to reach them over the top.  The three of them held the gurney against him while the giant swung his arms at them.  They had to duck out of reach.

“What do you mean?”  Cender narrowly avoided a swipe.  It seemed the giant couldn’t bend at the waist very well, which was in their favour.

“Just what she said.”  Nurse Mason ducked down and braced his shoulders against the gurney’s frame.  “She already got him twice with haldol.  Five c.c.s each time. It hasn’t had the slightest effect.”

“I have an idea.”  Riley left the others to struggle against the gurney.  She ran into the doctor’s lounge and did a quick search.  She found what she was looking for.  There was a fire hose in the lounge, in a glass case.  She pulled open the case and yanked out the hose, pulling out plenty of slack.  Grabbing the nozzle, Riley left by the other door, which came out behind the drugged-up giant.

“Cender!  Catch!”  Riley threw the hose nozzle at Dr. Cender.

He narrowly avoided getting grabbed by the giant and caught the nozzle.  “What am I supposed to do with this?  I don’t think hosing him down will do anything!  It would just get him wet!”

Riley moved fast and placed herself behind the man’s other shoulder, glad that he hadn’t noticed her yet.  If he figured out that she was there, he might be able to turn her into a pancake.  “Pass it back!”

Cender threw the nozzle like a football.  Riley caught it, gathered up the slack, and ran to the other side of the man again.  The giant paid no attention to the thick band of hose that was now pulled against his middle, right over the gut-spewing hole.  Riley threw the nozzle back at Cender.  Cender clued in to what she was doing and once again threw it around the other side.  They kept tossing the nozzle back and forth until the hose was thoroughly wrapped around the giant.