The Demented Z (Book 2): Desolation (Book 2) (11 page)

“I don’t get it.”  
Eddie said.

Tom turned and peered around the car’s trunk.
  Beyond the car barricade that surrounded the
hospital was a massive horde of infected.  
There were too many bodies swarming the front to see if they had gained
entry. Looking back at Eddie, Tom said,
“I’m not sure either. Something went
horribly wrong; they would never blast car horns at the hospital.”

Zeus continued a low, barely audible growl, while he stared
under the car at the infected.

“We need to get inside the hospital, but there are way too
many.”   Tom said.

“I know a way in.”

Tom looked over at Eddie.  
“Spit it out.”

Pointing at the ground, Eddie said, “Underground...there’s an
underground access. We used to screw
around down there. Around town there are
a couple different access points. One of
them is in the basement of the old part of the hospital.
  Friends and I used to sneak in at night,
looking for...uh...meds and stuff.”

“How do we get in?”

Eddie sat thinking for a bit and then said, “Closest one’s
down off Washington, near the post office.”

“Let’s roll.”

“I think we need more firepower.”

Tom glanced down at the rifle in his lap and said, “We don’t
have much ammo left, but we can’t carry enough ammo to stop all of them.
  On top of that...nearest sure weapon is your
rifle lying in the school hallway. Want
to go get it?”

Eddie shook his head.  
“No way.”  
He quietly stood and said, “This way.”

Tom mumbled, “That’s what I thought” under his breath as he
stood and followed after Eddie. He could
hear Zeus following behind.

By the time they reached the post office, the sun was just
dropping below the buildings that sat on top the hill.
  The going had been slow, but they were able
to avoid any infected. It was likely
that all the infected outside were up at the hospital, however Tom had learned
weeks ago that being spotted by demented still inside houses could be nearly as
deadly as running into ones outside.

“Back this way.”  
Eddie said while ducking between a pair of overgrown shrubs.

Zeus raced ahead of Tom, disappearing after Eddie.
  Tom followed the two of them through the
thick foliage. Exiting out the other
side, he found both of them standing above a flat steel trap door.
  The four foot square, hinged piece of metal
was framed by a short cement wall. At
one end sat a beefy padlock.

“How do we get that off?”  
Tom said while pointing at the lock.

Eddie smiled, bent down and pulled the pins out of the
hinges. He then flopped
the large metal door up and out of the way, using the padlock as a hinge.

“Looks like you’ve done that before.”
  Tom said with chuckle.

“Used to be a lot tougher to get the pins
out.”

Zeus peered down into the dark pit, sniffing at the
air. He worked his way around the short
wall, testing the smells all the way around.  
He let out a low grumble and sat down.

“Everything okay Zeus?”  
Tom said while resting his hand on the dog’s head.
  His tail gave a couple quick swats across the
ground.

Tom grabbed the flashlight from his utility belt and shined
it down into the dark opening. He was
surprised to see a fairly clean concrete tunnel extending east toward the
hospital and west toward the river. A rickety looking wood ladder angled down
to the floor below.
  “I pictured a dingy tunnel dug out of dirt.
  This thing must be tall enough to stand.”

Eddie looked over at him and said, “I’d heard a mayor had it
built back in the forties. Supposedly he
was worried about being invaded and unable to get around town.
  Used to be a building on top of each one, but
over time most got torn down. Now it
only leads to the hospital basement and the old courthouse.
  The rest are outdoors.”

“This going to be locked on the other
end?”

Shrugging his shoulders Eddie said, “I haven’t been through
in years, but it’s never been locked before.”

Tom slung his rifle onto his back, looked down at Zeus, and
said, “I’ll climb down, then you...”  
Before he could finish, Zeus climbed over the cement wall and scampered
down the steep ladder. Once at the
bottom, he sat down and looked up expectantly.  
Tom and Eddie shared a look, and then climbed down.

Shining the light in both directions, Tom saw nothing but
cement. About seventy yards in either
direction, the darkness swallowed up the light, finally winning the
battle. Tom rested his free hand on his
revolver and began working down the tunnel.  
The tunnel seemed to extend out to infinity.
  Tom was glad he was with someone that had
been here before, because he could easily see how the confined space could get
inside a person’s mind. While it was
tall enough to stand, it was barely wide enough for his shoulders not to rub
the walls. His mind slowly wandered to
the thought of infected sprinting toward them.  
Eddie would be in his way for a retreat.  
What if infected
were closing in from both directions?
  Stop it.  
I would hear them.

Pushing the thoughts out, Tom focused on working along the
tunnel. The air smelled stale as they
moved further up the steady incline.  
Something brushed at Tom’s legs, startling him.
  Looking down, he saw Zeus’s fuzzy form
pushing his way past. He padded several
yards out in front and led the way. Tom
was a bit relieved to have the dog between him and whatever might lie ahead.

After several hundred yards the dog came to a stop, sniffing
at the air. Catching up, Tom noticed the
tunnel continued ahead, but also split off to the left and right.
  He looked back at Eddie.

“Straight ahead.
  Not much further.”

Tom pointed ahead and Zeus took off.
  The incline continued for another hundred
yards or more and then leveled back out.  
At the far reaches of the flashlight beam Tom could see something
breaking up the smooth gray cement. As
they neared he could see it was another wooden ladder angling upwards.
  Just like the other entrance, the tunnel
widened to about four feet square and directly above the ladder was a large
metal door.

Eddie caught up and the three of them stood in the small
space at the base of the ladder. Zeus
stared up at the entrance, listening intently.

“Hear anything boy?”  
Tom said. The dog let out a low
growl in response and pawed at the cement floor a couple times.

Looking over at Eddie, Tom said, “Are you ready for this?”

“Yip.”

“I mean really ready.  
If things hit the fan again, I can’t have you folding on me.”

Eddie nodded his head.  
“I know...I’m here and I’m ready. I
won’t let you down again.”

Tom hoped he was right.  
Eddie nearly cost both of them their lives with his inability to deal
with the fear and pressure. He was a
good kid, but Tom worried this was too much for him.
  It was difficult to determine how someone
would do when presented with a life or death situation.
  If they could not direct, control, and use
the surge of adrenaline, it could easily overwhelm them.
 
He’s
going to be fine.

Tom nodded his head and said, “Stay tight and don’t shoot
unless you have to.”   With that, he
started up the ladder. Whispering a
quick prayer, Tom pushed on the metal door and was relieved when it lifted a
few inches. Tom could hear grunts, but
they sounded distant. Easing the steel
plate a little higher, Tom was able to shine his flashlight through the
opening. No movement.

Lifting the door up further, Tom was able to climb up out of
the tunnel. He carefully leaned the
metal up against the nearby wall, and then used the flashlight to survey the
room. He stood in the corner of a large
mechanical room. A giant generator sat
in the middle of the room. It was dusty
and quiet. The walls were covered with
conduit, wiring, and electrical panels.

From next to him Eddie said, “Original mechanical room.
  Old propane generator still works, but they
only keep it in case the new one goes out.”

“You know a lot about the hospital.
  You know the layout?”
  Tom whispered.

“Oh yeah.
  My girlfriend...”
  He hesitated for a bit and then said, “I used
to have a girlfriend that worked here.”

Tom suddenly remembered Zeus.
  He turned to look down in the tunnel, but saw
his furry form disappearing around the back corner of the generator.
  Tom should have known better, the dog was
already up and doing recon on the room.  
I always did like German Shepherds.

“What can we expect when we walk out that door?”
  Tom whispered to Eddie while pointing the
flashlight at a large metal door.

“Short hallway...housekeeping one
way...stairs and another hall the other.”

“Does housekeeping have an office area?”

Eddie shrugged his shoulders.
  “Not sure...never been back there.”

“First thing's first.”
  Tom said as he watched Zeus finish his
perimeter check around the end of the generator.
  “Let’s see what the status is.”

Tom drew his revolver and headed for the door.
  Zeus stood, looking at him expectantly.
  “You get the door.”
  He whispered to Eddie.
   Tom clicked off his flashlight when Eddie
reached the door. He then whispered,
“Ease it open.”   A sliver of light sliced
into the room and grew in size as the door continued to swing inwards.

“What is that noise, sounds like a
jet engine?”   Tom asked.
  

  “Generator.”

The hall split to the left and right.
  Tom saw nothing but bare white wall.
  Relieved that the lights were one, Tom slid
the flashlight into his utility belt, holstered his revolver, and unslung his
rifle. Listening intently, he tried to
pick up on any sounds of the infected, but with the roar of the generator he
was unable to hear much of anything.

Zeus stalked into the open doorway, head jutting forward,
sniffing at the air. His body was tense,
tail tucked low, and his ears perked up like a pair of radar domes.

Rifle at the ready, Tom eased through the opening, following
Zeus into the hall. Just like Eddie
said, to his right the hall opened up into a large room filled with racks of
cleaning supplies and surrounded by vacuums, mops, and robot like machines.
  To his left stood a metal
door with a long rectangular window.

A dark shape flashed past the glass.

Tom kept his rifle trained on the door and began shuffling
toward it.

Zeus let out a low growl.

Tom whispered, “Watch behind.”
  Stepping up to the door, he peered out
through the narrow window. Debris
littered the floor. It looked as if
several offices had been torn to pieces and flung into the hallway.
  Tom shifted to the other side of the door so
that he could look down the hall in the other direction.
  He caught a glimpse of someone walking about,
but they disappeared behind the corner before Tom could make out who they
were. Directly across from the door were
the stairs that led to the main floor.

Hunching down below the window, Tom looked at Eddie and
said, “It’s a mess out there. I think
they’re inside.”

Eddie knew exactly who “they” were.
  “Now what?
  We don’t even know if anyone’s alive...or even
here.”

Tom looked back toward housekeeping and said, “I have an
idea. We need a phone.”
  He stood up, raised his rifle, and began
working in between the supply shelves.  
Turning the corner at the far end of the shelving, he saw a small break
room with a phone mounted on the wall, and a window facing outside.
  Through the glass there were dozens of
infected milling about. The phone sat
all the way across the room in plain sight of the infected.

He slowly eased back behind the protective cover of the
shelving. “There’s a phone in there, but
there’s also a window with uglies on the other side.”

“What do you need a phone for...will they even work?”

“Phones may not work to the outside world, but internal
calling should be functional as long as the phone system runs off the
generator. A hospital would need the
phone system up and running at all times, so it would be one of the critical
systems that they would have to keep on generator.
  I’m thinking we use one to start calling
extensions...see if someone will pick up.”

Tom knew it wasn’t a great plan, but if they could find
survivors without having to stumble around the hospital, it would be a huge
advantage. Pushing some bottles of
bleach out of the way, Tom spied through the shelving.
  There was an office door midway along one
wall of the small lunchroom. It had a
rectangular window on it and a name plate next to that.
  If he could sneak inside there would be a
phone.

“Wait here, I’m going for an office back there.
  If I’m spotted and all hell breaks loose do
what you have to do.”   Tom stood for a
moment and then added, “Just remember there may be survivors still in here
somewhere...women and children.”   The
thought of Sam and Kelly trapped in here tore him up inside.
  Before his emotions got to him, Tom slung his
rifle behind his back and drew his revolver.

“Good luck man.”   Eddie
said.

Tom nodded and dropped to his hands and knees.
  Quickly crawling across a few feet of open
space, he hugged up against the building’s exterior wall.
  The hospital was built on a slight incline
and this portion of the basement sat only a couple feet below ground, so the
windows looked out at the legs of the infected.  
Hopefully this would make it difficult for them to see inside.
  Staying low on his knees, Tom crawled along
the cinder block wall. Zeus tucked up
next to the wall and followed after him, unwilling to remain behind.

Reaching the corner that marked the entryway to the
lunchroom, Tom checked the room’s layout and found that he only needed to crawl
another ten feet along a counter to reach the office wall.
 

He could hear the groans of the infected through the thin
glass. Their feet shuffled and dragged
across the rocky ground. Zeus, angry at
their presence, let out a low growl.

“Shhh.”
  Tom said quietly, hoping the dog would stay
calm. Not wanting to take any more time,
he crawled around the corner and stayed tight to the counter.
  Once he reached the far wall, he had to go
out into the open for about five feet and then get through the door without being
noticed.

Rather than waste any more time, Tom quickly made his way
across the short distance in a half-crouch.  
He could almost feel the eyes of the undead and demented piercing into
his back. Out in the open they would
surely see him. Tom fumbled with the
door handle briefly before it gave way and the door swung inward.
  A pair of metal desks sat in the middle of a
small office space. They were shoved up
against each other so that the occupants faced one another.
  A second door with a small window led out of
the far side of the room, to where, Tom had no idea.
  He was momentarily relieved to see two phones
sitting on top of the desks, but his sense of good fortune quickly faded when
he noticed the glass window that sat across from the desks.
  Like a macabre fish tank, a sea of infected
legs and arms swirled on the other side of the glass.
  The faces of those further back could be seen
occasionally through the mass of bodies.

Hesitating for a moment, Tom decided he did not want to have
gone this far for nothing. Both he and
Zeus could have been noticed at any time, but maybe the lighting made it
difficult for the infected to see inside.  
Maybe the sound of the car horns distracted them enough to not notice
movement inside the hospital. Or maybe
Tom was really lucky. Or
maybe Zeus.   Or maybe infected
were about to break through the glass and consume them both.
  He quickly raced over to the nearest desk,
grabbed the phone, and yanked off a colorful phone extension sheet that was
taped to the wall. With both items in
hand he squished himself under the desk out of view.
  Since the space was designed only for a pair
of legs it was a bit cramped, but he was okay with cramped.

Zeus stood just outside the desk’s hideout.
  He looked from Tom, to the window, then the
door, and finally back at Tom. He had
the look of “what the hell am I supposed to do?”
  Finally, unable to decide, he just laid down
next to Tom.

Tom looked over the extension cheat sheet and decided there
was really no way of knowing where to call.  
Figuring that calling random numbers would only cause him to eventually
start re-dialing numbers, he would just start at the top and methodically work
his way through the entire sheet if needed.

He realized he had not yet checked the phone to see if it
even functioned. There was a name and
extension on the display, which seemed like a good sign.
  Lifting the receiver, he was glad to hear the
familiar buzz of dial tone. One number
at a time he began dialing through the extensions.
  After three rings it would go to voicemail on
most all of the numbers. When this
happened he would dial a second time to make sure anyone that heard the initial
rings would be given a second chance.  
Others never went to voicemail and he would let those ring seven or
eight times before giving up.

With each number Tom’s stomach squeezed a little tighter,
making him want to throw up. He was
nearing the end of the list when he dialed a number simply marked “Surgery
Two,” and after the second ring the call was answered.

“Hello.”  
A voice hesitantly said on the other end.

“Hey...hey, it’s me, it’s Tom.  
Who is this?”   Tom stammered in a
whispered rush.

  “Tom!
  We weren’t...we thought...oh praise God.
  This is Jenny.”
  She poured out in a jumbled hurry.

Relief flooded over Tom.  
“Is everyone with you?”

“Uh...were together.”   A
long hesitation and then she added, “Eddie?”

Tom was unsure why Jenny was not very forthcoming with
information. “Yeah, he’s with me.”

“Oh good!
  When we heard that Smoke didn’t make it we
were worried.”

Zeus let out a low growl, looking toward the window.
  “Easy boy.”
  Tom whispered.
  Back on the phone he said, “What the hell
happened here?”

“Let me put Hank on.”

Tom could hear rustling and jumbled voices through the
receiver. Looking down at Zeus, he saw
the dog staring intently toward the window, the hairs on his back bristled up.
  Tom rested a calming hand on the dog’s side.

“You must be a cat with all your lives.”
  Hank’s voice sounded through the receiver.

“I think I’m on my last.”  
Tom paused briefly and added, “Good to hear your voice man.
  What happened here?”

Hank hesitated for a bit.  
“Ah man...it all went to hell. Do
you want the short or long version?”

“Give me quick.”

“You’re not going to like it but here goes.
  Lincoln and a bunch of his men showed up and
took over the hospital. Locked all of us
up in one of the operating rooms and then hit the horns to draw all the
infected.”

“Wow...everybody okay?”  
The line sat in dead silence for quite a while.
  “Talk to me.”  
Tom said. Thoughts of Kelly and
Sam flashed through his mind. His heart
raced.

“They took Sam.”   Hank
said.

It felt like someone had sucker punched him.
  He wanted to scream.
  He wanted to cry.
  He wanted to curl up in hole somewhere.
 
How can
things just keep getting worse?   Why
me?   Can’t I get a break?
  He held the receiver to his chest, contracted
his whole body, and let out a nearly silent, agonizing scream of
frustration. Working to keep his
emotions in check, Tom said, “What do you mean they took him?”

“I’m so sorry man, there was
nothing we could do. Lincoln and his men
took him.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know. They
didn’t say anything. Once they found out
he was your boy they took off with him and barricaded us in the O.R.”

“Where is the O.R.?”

“Up on the top floor”

“Infected up there?”

“Not that we can hear.”

“I’m going to...”   The
rest of Tom’s statement was cut short when Zeus stood and began frantically barking.
  Tom began twisting to the side to see what
was going on. Suddenly something pounded
up against the window. He just got
turned in time to see a large, bloody man wearing a shredded business suit slam
his fists into the glass, shattering the window.
  Sparkling shards of glass exploded inward.
  Suit fell through the void, crashing to the
floor with a loud grunt.

Zeus let out a ferocious growl.
  With amazing speed he lunged across the room,
jumping on top of Suit before the man could regain his feet.
   The dog stood over top of him and began
using his jagged teeth to rip into the infected’s
exposed flesh.