The Dying of the Light (Book 1): End (30 page)

Great, a good-looking doctor. Just what I need
, I thought as Kim flushed, and she and Rachel both gave him appreciative looks as though neither I nor Dalton were standing right there.
Probably thought we wouldn’t notice.

Gaines looked over at me out of view of the doctor, rolling his eyes and making heaving motions. I stifled a snicker and we were both the picture of innocence when the girls’ heads whipped around.

Kim cleared her throat, turning back to Dr. Underwood. “Doctor, where is the infected patient? Where is the rest of your staff?”

“The staff and the patients we could move have all gathered in the cafeteria, on the other side of the hospital. There’s about sixty or so in there. Only Shelly and I stayed to let you in after the lockdown. I thought it might be useful to have someone to run messages back to the rest of the staff, just in case.” Underwood began moving down the hallway.

“The patient’s in Exam Room Three, just down the hall on your left. I wouldn’t go in there unless you absolutely have to, though. She’s dangerous, and from what I can tell is very infectious.”

“What do you mean, ‘from what you can tell’, doctor?” I asked. My whole squad froze, looking at the doctor.

“One of the new candy-stripers made it past the nurse’s station somehow when we were all busy, and got into the room. She wasn’t exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, if you know what I mean. Probably never knew what the ‘Code Orange’ even meant. The woman apparently spit and moaned at her, and some spittle entered her eye,” he said.

When he noticed we weren’t following, he turned back. “There’s nothing to fear; she’s been sedated and moved to another room, where we put her in the same restraints, just in case. After all, she wasn’t even bitten.”

I looked at Kim, who shook her head. “Not now, with only the one squad. We’ll deal with that one after.”

A quick nod and I had the squad on the move once more. “Eyes and ears, people. Shelly, you stay with the doc.” The nurse scooted ahead to grab hold of one of Underwood’s arms, obviously clinging to the last piece of her sanity she could find readily accessible. He just stood there, wondering what was going on, so I hauled him along with us.

“Listen, doc, all it takes is one bit of bodily fluid to be infected. Ever hear of prions?”

“You’re saying this is BSE? Mad cow disease?”

“Not exactly, but it’s still prions. And don’t look at me like that; what do you think I do all fucking day? A prion disease. That’s what this is. Just one prion, and then you become what your initial patient became. That’s why we wear these, just in case.” I said, pointing to the wraparound safety glasses I wore.

“It’s been something of a crazy morning. I’m afraid I wasn’t thinking all that clearly,” he grated. “Still, you would normally have to ingest tainted brain tissue for this…”

“Like I said doc, this isn’t your garden-variety prion.” I sighed and lightened up. “That’s okay, doc. Let’s just try to get out of this alive, ok?”

He paled, realizing for maybe the first time how dangerous the situation was. He pulled the nurse closer to him as we moved down the hallway.

We moved fast, rifles tracking in sweep patterns as we followed our training, regardless of the lack of reported walkers. I hefted the X-29, realizing the damn thing was about twice the weight of my SCAR.

I already hate this piece of crap,
I thought.
I just hope it works. Of course, it if doesn’t, then I’ll have one more thing on Gardner — if I live through it.

We rounded the corner near Exam Room Three, and we could hear the creature moaning from inside. Reynolds and Gaines set to cover the hallways, with Kim behind me and Martinez and Eaton flanking us on the other side.

Underwood perked up as we approached the exam room. “Now, as you’ll see, the patient is experiencing severe dementia and violent tendencies, as mentioned in the advisory,” Underwood said as he glanced through the door’s small inset window. Shelly crouched down against the wall, her arms around her knees, not making a sound though her cheeks were wet with tears. “Well, that’s odd,” Underwood said. “She was strapped down a moment ago…”

I couldn’t react fast enough as he opened the door, and swore as a grasping clawed hand came through the doorway, throwing the door wide and yanking the doctor inside. Shelly screamed, and there was a flash, then the smell of burning ozone and more than a little cooked meat. The doctor came flying back through the doorway at the same moment, impacting the wall opposite and falling to the ground in a crumpled heap.

I looked up at Kim, who was reloading her weapon, and she smiled. “Well, at least we know it works. Tag and bag. Eaton, see to the doc.”

I shook myself out of my surprise and moved into the room, gasping and choking at the smell of charred walker. The electrodes from Kim’s shot still protruded from the walkers chest, and it shook and quivered as though it was having a seizure. I nearly gagged on the stench and it took every bit of self-discipline I had to reach into my pack and withdraw the mask and cuffs. Fortunately, my gloves were non-conductive, so I didn’t feel any of the residual shocks as I placed the mask over the monster’s head and jaws, securing it tight, then did the same with its wrists.

“AEGIS Five, Alpha Six.”

“Go ahead, Alpha Six.”

“Primary package has been wrapped, sir. At least one secondary has been identified and we are moving to secure.”

“Very well. Keep me updated.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Gunny, get in here and help me with this,” I said. Dalton came in a moment later, and we managed to tear down one of the privacy curtains for the exam room, rolling the walker into it like some sort of still-twitching undead burrito. The curtain might be made of low-grade plastic, but the multiple layers wrapped around it should hold long enough for our purposes. Together, we dragged the body out into the hallway.

I nodded towards Underwood and looked at Kim. “How is he?”

She shook her head and grimaced. “Eaton says he’s got burns all over his arm where the thing was holding onto him and a severe concussion from the impact with the wall, but as far as she can tell…” She broke off then reached down and hauled the still screaming Shelly to her feet, slapping her so hard she nearly spun into the wall.

“Knock that crap off! I was five years younger than you when I saw my first walker, and I didn’t go screaming my damned head off.”

That’s my girl, a softie through and through.

“Where’s the other room? The one with the candy-striper?” The girl pointed two doors down and across the hall, sobbing and trying to wipe her eyes.

“Uh, ma’am, perhaps we should…” I began, but Kim just dropped the poor girl, who immediately fell back into a motionless lump on the floor. At least she’d stopped screaming.

“Leave him, Eaton. We’ll come back for him later.” Rachel stood up from the still form of Underwood, and was death walking once more as we all moved to the door where the other assumed walker was being held.

Curiously, there was no noise from inside, and I began to wonder if she’d been infected after all. Maybe it was just some other illness. It didn’t really matter, though; zombie prion or not, we needed to find out. I knocked and stood back from the door, giving Kim a clear field of fire while still keeping my eyes on the door itself. Again, no moans, and I looked over at Kim, then pointed at the door handle and hinges. An outward-swinging door that closed automatically — provided nothing pushed against the no-resistance handle from the inside — and no lock. Great.

She nodded once to me, and moved into a firing stance, ready for anything that might come through the door, human or undead.

I signaled a countdown and at one I threw the door open and dived out of the way. Turns out there was no need. The room was empty, and as I covered Kim, she picked up something on the exam table, passing it to me as she moved out into the corridor.

A piece of a standard hospital restraint. It appeared to have been ripped in two, the leather, metal and plastic wrenched and twisted beyond the breaking point.

“Oh, shit.” I whispered.

“Alpha Six to all teams, alert one. We have a rogue walker.”

“Roger, Alpha Six.” Commander Anderson’s voice on the line was calm, almost as if he had expected something like this. Maybe he had; he’d been fighting walkers longer than any of us except the colonel himself. “AEGIS Five to Mobile One, prepare to roll out and proceed at speed to our location for immediate reinforcement on my order.”

“Mobile One here.” Captain Graves voice was taut and controlled, just like Anderson’s. Two consummate professionals, just going to work. I was glad to have them on my side. “Order acknowledged, sir. We are ready on your go.”

I could only imagine the looks on the faces of the people of Laramie as the sixteen-ton APCs began rolling through town towards us. So much for low-profile. Hopefully we wouldn’t need the backup, but it was prudent to have the other teams ready if we did.

“Alpha Six, AEGIS Five.”

“Go ahead.”

“Proceed with search, but carefully, major. We don’t need any more bodies out there.”

“Yes, sir. Out here.”

“Ma’am, Dr. Underwood.” Rachel said, and I turned to see the doctor was moving towards us, a hand against the wall to support him, Martinez on his other side. To their credit, Reynolds and Gaines never took their eyes off their assigned hallways, keeping watch just in case.

The doctor sagged against Martinez, and looked up at us. “Shelly?” he asked, and I simply pointed to the weeping girl. He crossed the hall, putting one hand on her shoulder as he knelt down, the pain from his brief flight and powerful impact obvious. She flinched away from him violently, then realized who it was, and clung to him. He pulled her to her feet, and they moved back to join us, Martinez taking up his rear-guard position.

“What happened to the candy-striper?” the doctor asked.

“We don’t know, but this gives us some idea,” I said, holding out the broken restraint for him. He was shocked as he took it.

“This is impossible,” he said. “These things take hundreds of pounds of force to break. I’ve never seen any patient, even the truly crazy ones, come close to doing this.”

“These aren’t your garden-variety patients, Doc, as we might have mentioned,” drawled Gaines over his shoulder. Reynolds grunted in agreement.

“I can see that.”

“You didn’t see or hear anything, doctor?” asked Kim. “Nothing to indicate an escape?”

“Uh, no. I was in my office,” he said, glancing down at Shelly. “I was, uh, waiting for the call from the chief or from your people.”

I covered a smile and turned away.
Stress makes people do crazy things, I guess. She’s young enough to be his daughter!

Kim shook her head in disgust. “We’re just going to have to do this the hard way, then. Bravo Six, Alpha Six.”

“Bravo Six.”

“Any movement outside?”

“No, ma’am. It’s all quiet out here. Well, except for the press.”

“Good. Stay sharp.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“AEGIS Five, Alpha Six. Sir, I think we should move the press lines back. If we get a breakout here and have to put some down…” She left the sentence hanging, but we all knew what she meant. Secrecy would be out the door. It was one thing to edit and suppress reports coming from Afghanistan; it was a completely different story to do it here on our own soil.
At least, that’s what I’ll tell myself.

“Good idea. I’ll get on it right now.”

“Out here.” Kim turned back to us. “Alright, squad, we’re moving to hunting protocol as of now. Gaines, you’re on point. Eaton, cover the doc and the girl. Martinez and Reynolds, on our six. We’re headed for the cafeteria; that’s the last source of food for this thing. Everyone stay frosty; let’s move.”

We had cleared about half the floor towards the cafeteria when we heard the scream, cut off abruptly. Ahead of us, no doubt headed for the same place as we were.

“Well, I guess we know where it is, ma’am,” I said, sighing.

“Eaton, find a place to stow the doc and his nurse. Give him a weapon.” Kim turned to the doctor as Eaton moved to the last storeroom we’d cleared, double-checking it for walkers. “Listen doc, I can’t keep you with us. You’re going to slow us way down and we need maximum mobility for this hunt. Still, I can’t just leave you, so here’s what we’ll do.” She took the offered sidearm from Eaton, checked the magazine and handed it to the doctor.

“You ever fired one of these?” she asked.

The doctor straightened. “I was in the National Guard in college. I’ve had the appropriate training.”

“Good. You’re going to need it. I want you both to get in that room and lock it behind you. If anything tries to get in without identifying as one of us, you shoot it. These rounds will go right through that door. Aim high,” she said, indicating average head height on the door. The doctor nodded and helped Shelly toward the room.

“Oh, and doctor?” He turned back to Kim. “Save the last two rounds. Just in case. Clear?”

The doctor blanched, but nodded after a moment. “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it. Stay safe.”