The Living Dead Series (Book 3): Dead Coast (4 page)

D
avid put his hands up and turned slowly, looking for the source of the sound. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness he saw they were in a small front room containing a sofa, a television and a gigantic fish aquarium. Heavy curtains covered the single window. A strong smell of cigarette smoke hung in the air.

A
shadowed figure, shotgun held at the ready, strode angrily forward.

“What was that for? Don’t you know that gunshot is going to draw a crowd of those monsters?”

A chunky, dark-haired man, wearing heavy-duty work boots and a camouflage vest, he seemed to be almost sparking with rage. Bea flinched and backed away then raised the Glock. He didn’t slow down and knocked it from her hand then slammed her into the wall. She saw stars before the room seemed to recede down a narrowing hallway and all sounds ceased. She slumped to the ground.

Choked with rage, David raised the butt of his rifle and managed to land a good hit in the guy’s substantial belly. His breath released with a startled
oomph
but he didn’t go down. He launched himself at David and threw him to the floor, battering him with those steel-toed boots. David kicked him hard in the knees and he came down, almost on top of him.

The two men were silent during the whole struggle, both aware that the creatures would be drawn to sound. Just as David managed to sit on top of his opponent, ready to punch the man’s head into the floor, a deep moan and then a keening snarl sounded outside. Both men froze.

The man sucker-punched David in the stomach then slid out from under him. Scrambling to his feet he twitched the curtain aside and looked out.

“Five or six of them now. In a few minutes it’ll be a hundred.” He glared at them then noticed that Bea was unconscious.

“What’s wrong with her? I didn’t hit her that hard.”

“She has a concussion, you jackass. Who knows how much damage you caused when you hit her.” David caught his breath then scooped her up and carried her to the sofa. Her eyelids fluttered but didn’t open. He checked and found her pulse was racing.

“What was I supposed to do? She pulled a gun on me.”

“Only after you racked that shotgun and came at us. Do you have any blankets?” He wanted to keep her warm.

“I know there are some upstairs. This isn’t my house. I was getting ready to leave when I saw the two of you. We can’t stay here.”

“I’m going to have to stay here. At least until she gets back on her feet. Could you just look for some blankets? Please.”

The man grunted and turned away. David heard a click and looked around. Their reluctant host had just turned on a closet light and was rummaging through the closet contents. Electricity?

“You have power here?”

“Yeah. Not sure why. This is a pretty old part of town. Maybe it’s on a different sub-station from the rest of the area. I’m not using lights unless I have to and I’m trying to keep them from showing through the windows. Don’t want to attract unwanted attention.” He emerged from the closet with a knitted afghan.

David covered Bea. “I don’t think they can see very well, if at all.”

“Yeah, I kind of figured that but there are other threats. Lots of gangs and just plain old-fashioned bad guys in Cincinnati will thrive in situations like this. Like the ones down south that deliberately stayed in New Orleans during Katrina just to loot or worse.”

“Should we be worried that the homeowner is going to come back and shoot us for trespassing? Do you know whose house this is?”

“My ex-wife’s. I came over here looking for my two boys when all this broke. Everyone was gone when I got here and I’ve been trapped by the infected for two days. They had cleared out when you and your gun-happy girlfriend showed up. Thanks a lot.”

The chorus of moaning outside rose to a disturbing pitch. David felt the hair on his neck prickle. How he hated that sound. It carried such driving, primal menace. No thought behind it, just the urgent hunger to kill and consume.

“Look, I’m sorry. That guy came on us so fast. I mean, we know how attracted they are to sounds but we had to get rid of it. My name is David and this is Beatrice. She’s not my girlfriend, by the way. We’re trying to get to the west coast. She’s trying to find her brother and I have business out there.”

“I’m Homer Hazard.” He fished in his down vest and drew out a pack of cigarettes, lighting one and taking a deep drag.

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope.”

“But you’re-”

“Asian, I know. As far as the Christian name goes my mom liked reading the classics and the surname is supposed to be an anglicized version of Hsiao.”

“So you’re from Ohio?”

“My family is from Tennessee. Can we move on? Do you want to take your ‘not girlfriend’ upstairs to one of the bedrooms? She’ll rest a lot better on a bed.”

“No. It’s fine. I want to keep an eye on her. Plus who knows when we’ll have to bug out,” David said.

“So you’re headed to the west coast? That’s a long way to travel with or without zombies blocking the way. You know the whole country is infested, right?”

“We assumed it was but we don’t have any recent details.”

“You need to educate yourself fast, buddy. The west coast was hit by an off-shore earthquake and the tsunami that rolled in smashed the harbors and beaches. They’re a mess out there. You’re on foot?”

“We are now. No keys in any of those vehicles in the streets. How were you going to get out?”

“The black truck out there is mine. I’d be long gone by now but I’ve got very limited ammo. Just a few shells left. Those things finally migrated to the next block. I can handle a few at a time but hundreds- I’m screwed. Lord knows when I’ll get out of here now. I’m going up to get a better look at the street.”

He left. David found the kitchen and ran water on a paper towel to wipe some of the blood from Bea’s face. He hoped the water wasn’t contaminated. If it wasn’t now it soon would be. Municipal utilities probably hadn’t been maintained since all of this started.

He peered out the window. The crowd had increased exponentially. The dead shuffled back and forth, bumping into one another or cars, sometimes falling but always getting back up eventually. As usual they showed no real awareness of one another. A woman fell down and he was close enough to see she had no skin left on the soles of her feet. She must have walked it off. Others were in worse shape.

Sitting on the floor he went through his backpack. Still plenty of ammo but not enough to shoot his way out of here. He double-checked all of his weapons, making sure they were loaded. He then inspected Bea’s Glock and noticed a few light rust spots. He added two bullets to the magazine and snapped it back into place, thinking that he should look for some gun oil soon.

Bea murmured something and her hands moved restlessly. He took both hands and held them in his. She drew a shaky breath and seemed to slip into a deeper sleep. He sat beside her for a while.

There was a laptop on a kitchen counter and David booted it up, hoping it wasn’t password protected. The blue light from the screen was comforting, a reminder of civilization and normalcy and being connected with the rest of the world. He checked his email (old habits die hard) but there was nothing helpful there. Searching he found the latest posting from WHO, dated three days ago.

World Health Organization

Z-virus now in Post-Pandemic Period

Director-General’s statement at virtual press conference

Update:
Canada

Alberta Children’s Hospital reports considerable anxiety among the international community since the reported bombing deaths of an entire ward of children of guest workers from Mali. Hospital spokesperson Monique Darr confirmed the auxiliary wing of the hospital was bombed by persons unknown at this time. Witnesses to the early morning attack described a group of men in military style uniforms all wearing knitted facemasks and arriving on the scene in black, late model SUVs with tinted windows.

The Canadian government has a press conference scheduled for later today and WHO applauds this move and all efforts to increase the flow of information concerning the virus.

This is not the first hospital bombing seen in Canada since the outbreak of the pandemic but is the first time children have been targeted specifically.

Update:
China

The Chinese Ministry of Health, before today, has denied the existence of any cases of the virus in the country. Following a surprise shake-up in the Ministry, newly appointed director Xaio Ling confirmed a large number of virus cases in Guangdon Province but insists the situation is under control and they do not expect the disease to spread any further. Doctors say they have found no evidence that the disease is airborne and state that all new cases have occurred within isolated areas. All cases have been traced back to one hospital that has since been placed under quarantine.

The ministry will now be providing daily updates on the illness. WHO is pleased with this effort at transparency that will help provide useful information to other nations dealing with the virus.

Update:
Switzerland

Traffic checkpoints have been set up outside Geneva in an effort to stem the flood of refugees from Italy, which remains in crisis having been particularly hard-hit. The disease has spread outside the circle of first responder groups and their families. Overwhelmed hospitals have turned away patients causing them and their families to seek help outside the country. Surveillance in Switzerland has been heightened for suspect cases. Authorities now consider refugee cases 85% contained.

In conclusion
, as we move into the post-pandemic phase of the crisis we expect to see the disease spike in some areas with a gradual fade worldwide. Luck has been with us since the beginning in that cases were handled promptly and decisively and the virus itself did not mutate into an airborne transmittable form.

David sat back and stared at the screen. He couldn’t believe what he just read. Post-pandemic? The World Health Organization thought this was over? Did they really think they were fooling anyone with this garbage?

He heard footsteps on the stairs.  Homer came in and started rummaging through the fridge, pulling out a beer. He popped the top, took a long, thirsty swig and then belched. David shut the browser and turned around.

“Where were you when it all started?” Homer asked.

“At work.”

“Me too.”  Homer spoke between swigs. “I work downtown. Two of the major hospitals there- oh my gosh, you wouldn’t believe the crowds waiting outside the ER that day they announced the outbreak. People downtown were supposed to be evacuating but really going nowhere since all the streets were blocked. It’s amazing how just a few wrecks, stalls, and abandoned vehicles can shut down the entire traffic grid. On top of that a couple of water mains burst and everything was coated with ice. You could barely walk down them much less drive.”

“How did they evacuate then?”

“Most of the city bus drivers parked the buses and left but the mayor tried to organize the evacuation anyway. They announced that buses would be picking up on the corner of Depot and Rhinehart and we’d be dropped off outside the city. So about three o’clock that afternoon people started queuing up all along the streets, hundreds of people. I’d been trying to call the boys’ school all day then calling Janine to see if she had them. I was half out of my mind by then.

I was still up in my office trying to call Janine’s folks to see if they were over there. I had a great view of the street. Like I said there were a ton of people down there waiting for the buses. The buses never came. Those walking cadavers showed up though. They must have come from the hospitals. A lot of them were wearing hospital gowns.”

“How many dead?”

“At first probably a couple dozen. If people had known how to handle them, how to take them out, it would have been manageable. But of course no one did. Once they started in on the crowd- well, everyone they took down was back up within minutes and now playing for the other team.”

Suddenly a shrill scream pierced the continual moaning coming from outside. They ran to look out an upstairs window but couldn’t see anyone living. Just the shuffling mass of dead.

“Whoever it was must have been insane to go out there.” David still peered out at the crowd, looking for whoever just screamed.

“Where did you guys come from?” Homer asked.

“D.C. We made it out a few days ago.”

“Really? Were the Feds still in operation? Everyone figured they were long gone and hiding out somewhere safe.”

“Some branches were sheltering in place but the president and staff had already left. There is still a functioning government somewhere but those functions are greatly reduced.”

Homer left while David continued to look for signs of life outside. That scream sounded like that of a child to him and the thought of a-

He heard a muffled shout from the floor below and ran for the stairs.

Downstairs Bea was sitting up, her Glock trained shakily on Homer who had his hands up and was whispering loudly.