Surviving The Aftermath (Book 1): The Dead Linger (23 page)

“What the hell were you making all that noise for?” The woman whispers.

“Shhhhhh, he doesn’t know.” John’s voice comes in. His back now up against a wall Jack says.

“Who are you?”

”We were here first, anything you find is ours.” The woman talks again.

“Oh Joan hush. We were looking for supplies, I’m sure you guys were too.”

“This your son?” Another guy asks.

“No, were just friends, were both from a larger group down the road. What about you guys?”

“Don’t tell him anything, he’s lying and just wants to take what’s ours.” Again the woman, Joan speaks.

“Fine let’s go.” Jack stands.

“Wait those things are out there.” The other man whispers.

“No there not I just came all this way from the entrance and didn’t run into any. I saw some shadows way down at the other end but if we hustle we can make it before they get over here.”

“Jack you were lucky, those things are in every crevice around this place. I’ve killed 2 since we got here.”

“Why didn’t I hear any gunfire?”

“Because I didn’t want to bring the rest down on me. Use your brain man.”

“Were in a fucking hornets’ nest kids.” The other stranger said.

“Yeah, we’ve been stuck here since last night. Joan is too scared to move and we saw hundreds of them, and released them, because shit for brains over here . . . ” he was interrupted by the other man.

“Hey.” Man #2 said with a sullen voice.

“Decided to open a set of roped off doors. We barely made it in here. We were trying to figure a way out when we came across your friend here.”

“Well the answer is obvious, we have to fight our way out.” Jack said.

“We don’t have any guns.”

“Grab something to swing and let’s go.” Bang! Bang! Bang! A face appeared in the window of the door.

“Make sure the door is secure.” The 2 male strangers leapt forward and press the surgical bed up against the door and everyone grabbed stuff and piles it on or around the bed.

“Shit. Way to go, while we were sitting here dicking around we missed our chance. Now what?” Jack says.

“I guess we look for an alternate route and call for help.

“If anyone can hear us this is Bravo team. Were trapped, I repeat, we are trapped in St. Luke’s hospital.”

“This is Alpha on the way.” And silence.

“What are you guys military or something?”

“No, but we are nicely organized. Ok Alpha is a bus with 3 other people that might help. Are you guys coming with us or wanting to stay here?”

“We’ll go our own way.” Joan immediately replies.

“No we’ll go with you.” Man #1 says. Joan grabs both guys by the shirt and pulls them to the other side of the room for some privacy and vigorous whispering commences.

“We don’t know these guys.” She whispers harshly.

“So? If they wanted what we have they would have taken it already.”

“Maybe they are waiting for us to lead them to our other stuff.”

“I doubt it, they have vehicles and radios, I bet they are better situated than us at the moment.”

“I’m with them.” Guy #2 indicates.

“Me too.” Guy #1 says. She looks over at Jack and John who are now pulling the vent grate from the ceiling off.

“You ladies coming?” John inquires. The door finally begins to budge.

“Shit let’s go!” Jack lifts himself up and reaches back down as everyone hands up there packs. Joan comes up first, then man# 1. Jack really wants John to come next, but he knows he’ll wait till last, it’s just the kind of guy he is. Man #2 jumps up and pulls himself up. There are so many zombies now pushing on the door it opens, but they still have to get around the gurney and the other crap on in the way. John jumps, missed Jack’s outstretched hand.

“Hurry!” Man#1 says.

“Come John, jump.” Jack says. Again John jumps and can’t hold on.

“Fuck!” John gets bumped from behind by the gurney, but uses the momentum to launch himself one more time. 4 sets of hands grab his arms and haul him up through the opening.

“That was close. Let’s go.” The zombies were in a frenzy below, stretching their arms up and groaning. They were climbing on each other and anything else they could to try and reach the living.

Tom woke up with a splitting headache and completely disoriented. He was tied down on a bed, arms and legs.

“Look who’s awake. Well Tom, I’m Luke, it’s nice to meet you.” A gruff brute of a man said leaning over to look down at Tom.

“Where am I and who are you?”

“Told you he was prick.” Tom recognized the voice immediately. He glared at Jeff who sat across the room like he was the shit.

“Jeff you bastard. I just need one hand free to kill you.” Tom struggled a bit, but realized it was useless, so he lay back down and shut his eyes.

“So, now that were all friends, how’s about you tell us where you’re from, so we can get to know you better.”

“Nowhere.”

“Well that’s not what we heard.” A new voice says. “Our buddy Jeff here says you get a sweet little set up.”

“He’s just lying to save his ass. He and I ran into each other out there and that’s it. He left me for dead.” Tom said as he continued to lay there with his eyes partially closed, he could see both men’s reaction to this news. They look bewildered and then pissed. Luke walked up to Jeff and grabbed him up by his collar.

“Is that true boy? You play’n us?” He shook him.

“No way man! I swear to god they have a set up. He’s lying!” Jeff pointed down. He let Jeff drop on the floor. Then turned to Tom and dropped an elbow in his gut.

“So, talk.” After some coughing and sputtering Tom regained his voice.

“I don’t know what he’s talking about.” He managed to say. “I’ve been on my own since the beginning and ran across this fucker in a store, we were both looking for supplies, he hits me from behind and takes off with everything I had.” Tom hoping to add a slight touch of truth in there about a store. Again all the men look at each other than Jeff who is still on the floor.

“I swear, there’s a hundred of them, I saw them. There’s women and food.” Jeff held up his hands. “I promise you.” He was pleading for his life now.

“If you guys just let me go, you’ll never see me again, I promise.” Tom stated. Again silent looks go between each guy. Luke walked over to Jeff again, and looked down. “You better get your memory jump started, because one of you is lying. We’ll give you some time to find this place, and your buddy is coming with us. One of you ain’t coming back from this trip.” He looked from guy to guy. They untied Tom and kept a gun trained on him as he stood ready to leave the room.

“Why the fuck are you doing this. They’re going to kill us both.” Jeff whispered at him.

“You’re mistaking me for someone who cares.”

“Mom what’s going on?” Meghan asks as what appears to be another set of people preparing to go out. And Jill and Oscar are back.

“Honey stay calm.” She put her hands on her daughter’s shoulders. “But it looks like Jack and John went into a hospital and they’re trapped for the moment.”

“What?” Meghan clearly affected by this news. “No!” She turns towards Jill. “Let me go too.”

“No baby!” Her mother gasps and tries to hold her, but Meghan shrugs her off.

“I’m going!” Jill now putting her hands on Meghan’s shoulders, she shushes her.

“Stop, Meghan, listen, please calm down. We don’t know the situation, they could be fine now.”

“But Jack’s out there.”

“I will bring him back. Do you really think he’d be ok if he knew you were out there?” Meghan shook her head causing the tears to fall.

“Stay safe with your mother, and as soon as I have Jack, he’ll radio you. I promise.”

“Ok. Ok. I just.  . . .  please bring him back.” She said very softly.

Kurt and Oscar are off by themselves saying their own goodbyes.

“I don’t understand why you won’t let me go. Casey is going and so is Jill.”

“I understand, but we need someone here to run things.” Oscar was trying to sooth Kurt.

“That’s stupid, you know how many times I’ve been out there? And with you might I add.”

“I know, just this one time stay here, please.” Kurt was not happy about this.

“Fine, but I want to go on record that I don’t like this one bit. And if you don’t come back, so help me God . . . .” Kurt trailed off. Oscar kissed him and turned to see Jill grinning.

“What?” Oscar asked her as he walked over.

“Nothing. Just enjoying the show.” The radio had been silent since the original call, they assumed the walls of the hospital were preventing anything from going out or in. Oscar, Jill, Casey and Mike loaded up into another SUV. They had guns, some food and water and even a little bit of explosive packed up in the back. They were off.  A hand drawn map and some names of the streets that the hospital was on was all they had to get them there. They drove for 45 mins with the occasional chatter, mostly just the nervous kind. Jill held her tongue when they stopped in front of the hospital, all the chaos and carnage that sat outside was daunting.

“Look, there’s the bus and the SUV.” Casey pointed and drove in to park next to them. All occupants of both vehicles were nowhere to be found. They tried the radio again.

“Should be go in and split up?” Mike asked

“No, we have to be smart. Obviously there’s hostile’s in there, we have no idea where Alpha and Bravo are in the building. We have to try and stay together, otherwise we’ll end up like them.”

“Maybe we can get their attention and let them know were here. Then they could let us know where they are.” Casey said.

“How do the hell do we do that?” Mike asked.

“The PA system.” Jill said. They made their way in like the teams before them, the ambulance bay. They spotted the front desk and immediately searched for a PA.

“Found it! I get to speak.” Jill quickly snatched the microphone like apparatus.

“Attention shoppers, the mall will be closing early tonight. Please make your way to the exits at this time, or if are lost in store please find someone at guest relations and they can assist you.” The other guys were chuckling for a second and then all was quiet.

“FYI we’re at the emergency room entrance for anyone who cares.” She said again over the speaker, still nothing. Then faint machine gun fire had everyone turning in its direction.

“Oscar why don’t you and Mike do a sweep around the building, maybe they are stuck on a different floor or something and we can see them from outside.” Casey asked.

“Yeah sure.” The two men left with a hustle in there step. Jill again made another announcement.

“If anyone wishing to leave by a window, we’ve sent people out to look for you, please feel free to bust out a window or get some sort of SOS out to us.” A loud noise of feet could be heard from the direction of the gun fire. Jill and Casey hid bracing themselves for whatever it was.

A whispered, “Jill?” Came from across the room and she peaked up to see. “We heard you.” It was the bus team. Casey and Jill stood, exchanged handshakes good to see you.

“Was that you guys shooting?”

“Yeah we found a room full of those things. Best guess is our boys were in the room and crawled up through the vent. These guys could be anywhere now.”

“This place is way too big for us to search it all. We just sent Oscar and Mike to check outside for any signs of life.”

“Shit man, where could those guys be, you would think they would have come right here.” One of the others said. Mike and Oscar jogged back in.

“We found nothing, we went around twice.” Again Jill made another announcement.

“Ok guys, were seriously getting ready to leave, you have to come out or let us know your alive.” Jill was getting worried.

“Keep moving.”

“I am, stop pushing me.”

“Well get your ass out of my face.”

“Would you two shut the hell up.” Joan was clearly sick of the bickering between man #1 & 2.

“John do you have any idea where were going?” Jack asked.

“No, but we are bound to crawl over another room, we’ll drop down there and head for the door.” That’s when they heard Jill. “Attention shoppers, the mall will be closing early tonight. Please make your way to the exits at this time, or if are lost in store please find someone at guest relations and they can assist you.”

“Shit, they’re here lets go.”

“Who are they?”

“The rest of our people, here to save us, crawl faster.” The train continued on and they came to a fork in the road.

“This has to be that hallway by the operating room areas.” Jack said.

“I’m so turned around, how did you even guess that?”

“It’s just a hunch, no clue though.” Another announcement came over the PA system about busting out a window if needed.