Dead Tropics (4 page)

"Mike, go get a visual on what's happening downstairs in ER."

The big man nodded and turned to go.

"And make it snappy."

Mike inclined his head and left. Clearly not one for idle chitchat.

My head was spinning. Surely we were overreacting. There was no way this craziness could be happening all over the hospital?! Emma looked pale.

Ken murmured, "Just a few of those creatures took out our whole staff and security guards. If this disease has spread..."

"We don't even know if it is a disease." Emma said without conviction.

"Disease, mass hallucination, act of God. Whatever it is, it kills people and then brings them
back
ready to kill. And the only thing that seems to stop them is a bullet to the brain." Ken said dryly. "I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it would be bad news if it got out."

Emma shuddered. I wrapped a protective arm around her. "We are all aware of what's at stake here, Ken."

My thoughts raced. What about the children's ward? ICU? Most of the patients in this hospital would be unable to defend themselves!

Ken deflated and looked sheepish. "Sorry. Bit stressed."

I couldn't help myself. I laughed out loud. "That's seems to be the understatement of the day."

Ken grinned and Emma giggled nervously.

The sound of moans filtered through the doors. We sprang up nervously.

"We need to move." Emma's voice trembled. "There are so many of them. What if they get through?"

"We need to know what we are dealing with before we go anywhere." Biggs came over to stand in front of Ken and Emma. "Fill me in on what happened up here. The more I know, the better I can deal with the situation."

Emma nodded and took a deep breath, watching the doors anxiously.

"I was lucky." She smiled a little, aware of the irony of that statement. "The miners died within minutes of each other. We left them on the trolleys while we cleaned up. I was in the next room getting supplies, but Allana and Jan were in the room with the bodies..."

She swallowed and looked away. "I heard them screaming and when I ran in, Jan and Allana were on the ground and two of those monsters were
eating
them, chewing on their faces, their stomachs."

Emma squeezed her eyes shut as the memories slid over her. "I ran back into the supply room and locked the door. They came after me and banged on the door for a while. I just prayed and prayed and then I heard them move away. They were making grunting sounds, like they'd gone back to ...eating. And then the screams from the other rooms started." She shuddered. " I hid in the cupboard until I heard Ken calling my name."

Ken's mouth tightened. "I went to the men's room I was only gone a few minutes but when I came out of the room, the others were already dead or dying. That's how quickly it happened. As I passed by, I saw Jan and Allana dead on the floor and the supply room door shut; I thought maybe, just maybe, Emma was still alive."

He looked at her with a half smile. "I had to know for sure."

She returned his smile. "I've never been so happy to see anyone in my life."

She glanced up. "I was giving him a big hug when I saw... "

"What?" Biggs tried to urge gently.

"Jan and Allana. They sat up." Tears filled her sapphire eyes. "No faces left, torn stomachs but they got up without any sign of pain."

She bit her lip. "I
knew
that they were dead. Yet there they were...walking."

Ken continued. "When I felt her body tense, I turned around, and they were coming at us." He shook his head at the memory. "Thank God their faces were so messed up that they couldn't see very well 'cos they tripped over some boxes. I just grabbed Emma's hand and ran right past them."

Biggs frowned. "So your walking dead theory is all based on those nurses having more resistance to pain than you? Jesus."

"No!" Ken exclaimed. "We saw others - hell, Brian was dragging himself along the floor - and he'd been torn in half." Ken choked and looked away.

"Go look through the door window, Biggs, if you didn't get a good look earlier." I said steadily. "But I think you already know the truth in your gut."

For a long moment, no one said anything.

"Yeah." Biggs answered heavily. "Okay, then." He turned to leave.

"Biggs." I said, unsure of what to say but knowing I had to say something. "One of the paramedics was bitten this morning. He began showing all the same symptoms as these things, shortly after. It's probably nothing to worry about." I hastened to say. "The majority of people who are exposed to an encephalitis virus never go on to develop any symptoms but we really need to get your men treated. Just in case."

He absorbed this new information silently and then shook his head. I heard him mutter as he strode away, "I knew I shouldn't have got out of bed this morning."

It seemed to take forever but it was probably only five minutes later when Mike returned. He entered the room at a trot, which immediately sent my alarm bells ringing. My heart started beating faster.

"Time to relocate, folks." He said, deadpan. "We've got dead people heading our way. Most of the ER, if I am not mistaken."

6

"How long have we got?" Biggs barked, doing a quick count of his remaining bullets. I exchanged a long look with Emma. She had to be thinking of all the people we'd worked with every day, just as I was. Was it possible that they were all dead - or one of these creatures?

Mike pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Five minutes if we're lucky. The stairs are proving a bit of an obstacle but I wouldn't count on that stopping them for long."

"Right." Biggs turned to look at all of us. "Considering the loss of communication, we have to assume most of the hospital is lost. We need to concentrate on getting out of here alive now."

"If we get to the roof, there's a ladder on the side we can use to get down." Emma spoke up eagerly. There were nods all around.

"Okay, everyone head to the elevator." Biggs snapped.

I snorted. "Oh I don't think so."

Biggs turned to glare at me but I met his eyes coolly. "Think about it. We have no way of stopping the elevator from stopping at any of the above floors. If the upper floors are
lost
, as you put it, we could find ourselves being delivered straight into the arms of those monsters." Just the thought of it caused a shiver to run down my spine.

Mike raised a brow as he looked at me appraisingly. "She's got a point, Biggs."

Biggs grunted a reluctant acknowledgement. "Stairs it is, then. Let's go!"

As our small group headed in the opposite direction to the ER, I couldn't help glancing nervously over my shoulder. The thought of being trapped in these narrow halls with those creatures made me feel sick.

I blocked the thought and focused on where we were going. The hallway was really only wide enough for three people walking side by side. Biggs and Mike were cautiously leading the way followed by Emma and me. Behind us, Jack was being assisted by Ken while B1 and the fair-haired guard who was bitten in the calf (B2?), were keeping a close eye on the corridor behind us. Eight of us against how many, I wondered with a shiver.

Up ahead, I could see the surgical wards looming. Biggs and Mike slowed down as we approached the doors and brought their weapons up. Biggs nodded at Mike, who slid along the edge of the wall and carefully peered around the wall. I held my breath as he pulled back again.

"Looks clear. Five patients lying in bed. "

Biggs nodded. "Move on, folks."

"Wait!" I grabbed his arm. "We can't just leave them here! They're sitting ducks."

The compassion in his eyes made my heart contract. "There's nothing we can do for them. They can't get out of bed and we can't protect them. Our ammunition won't last five minutes in a confined space like that."

Emma suggested. "If we lock the doors..."

Biggs glanced at her. "Those doors weren't designed to withstand significant pressure, like a horde of dead people pressing on it."

"It will at least give them a chance." I said grimly.

"Well, you'd better hurry!" yelled B1. "Here come the fucking zombies!"

I jerked around to see a mass of dark figures appear at the top of the far stairs. They dragged, stumbled, lurched and fumbled over the steps. It occurred to me that it would have been an amusing sight in other circumstances. Then the momentary humor fled as the creatures appeared to catch sight of us. Like a locust plague, the mass of damaged figures surged down the hall towards us.

The others bolted down the hall. "Come on, Lori!" Emma called desperately over her shoulder as I hesitated.

"Damn it!" I grabbed the doors and pulled them shut, flicking the lock. I sent up a quick prayer that the ...zombies ...were too stupid to work out how to work the lock and then ran after the others.

Oh God. Another ward. A quick look behind me turned my guts to water as I saw the horde was catching up. The pressure of the zombies pouring up the stairs seemed to be forcing the front ones to move faster. Some fell and were trampled, but not enough to stem the flow. There wasn't time to lock all the doors. To my shame, I kept running.

"Lock down! Lock down!" I screamed over and over, in the hope that any remaining staff or able patients would lock the doors. The doors wouldn't withstand a determined onslaught by the zombies but with their current focus on us, maybe it would be enough.

I caught a glimpse of a startled nurse standing at the door to the Oncology ward. "Lock the doors!" I yelled at her. "Lock down!" I hoped she listened to me. Nurses are trained to react quickly and ask questions later.

Ahead, the group slowed as we reached a T-junction. The fact that we had not encountered zombies so far filled me with hope that we might make it to the roof without trouble; that maybe the problem wasn't even widespread and that there was a perfectly legitimate problem with the phones. However, the sight that greeted us as we turned the corner dashed that hope as if it had never been. Blood pooled on the floor and dripped down the walls. Sheets lay scattered on the floor of the ward across from us. A bloodstained mattress hung off a bed. The complete absence of movement or sound made the scene surreal. The undulating moans of the zombie horde behind us provided a chilling score to the unnerving scene.

The stairs waited temptingly at the end of this suddenly endless corridor. Beside me, B1's sidekick with the minor leg wound, B2, looked over his shoulder anxiously. "What should we do?"

Before anyone could answer, slow moving figures started emerging from the wards ahead of us. By the pyjamas they wore, they were - had once been - patients. Now they stared at us with empty, implacable eyes and the ugly pallor of the dead. I barely noticed the gaping wounds that marked their bodies as they moved towards us.

We backed into a tight circle, trying to keep an eye on both sides of the corridor. "Any ideas would be welcome, guys." I joked, trying to calm my panicked breathing. Emma sobbed quietly behind me.

"Nothing for it but to shoot our way through this group, I reckon." Mike said dryly, nodding at the figures ahead of us. "A handful of them, a handful of us. Seems a fair fight."

B1 laughed a bit hysterically. "Oh yeah, real fair."

Jack suddenly spoke up for the first time since he'd received his injuries. "Someone take my gun." He held it out towards us. "My arm is...burning. I, I don't think I can shoot."

I noted with alarm the flush in his cheeks. Ken stepped forward and took the gun, checking it in a surprisingly professional manner. "Let's do it."

"Wait!" I cried. Crossing the hall, I opened the janitor's cupboard and pulled out a broom. Holding it at an angle, I snapped it with my foot and handed one half to a startled Emma. I quickly removed the broom head and smiled grimly as I wielded the jagged piece of wood like a dagger. "Now I'm ready."

7

As I plunged my stake through the eye of an old lady and into her brain, I experienced a moment of pure surrealism. How did a day that started out with porridge and babies become about fighting for my life? How could I, who had never killed anything bigger than a cockroach, be driving a stake through another human being?

Reality came crashing back as the old woman collapsed at my feet, only to reveal another creature behind her. As its bloodstained hands reached hungrily for me. I screamed involuntarily and scrambled backwards into Mike's broad back. Swinging around quickly, he immediately assessed the situation and shot the zombie charging me as casually as if he were playing a carnival game. The zombie went down like a piece of lumber, giving me a few precious seconds to regroup.

Emma cried out as one of the creatures grabbed her by the hair. Her eyes were wide with terror as she clutched her stake and struggled to turn around. Without hesitation, I jumped over the fallen zombie and launched myself at the creature. We crashed to the ground in a tangle of limbs. With desperate strength, I forced its head away from me as I struggled to get up on top of it. Releasing my hold suddenly, I grabbed my stake with both hands and plunged it with all my might through the eye of the zombie as its teeth bared in anticipation. Blood and viscous goo splattered over my hands as the body stilled under me.
Thank God a stake through the brain works as well a a bullet.