The Rabid (22 page)

I ran over to Lucky, but it was too late. The little guy was breathing his last
breaths in my arms. He looked up at me with a sadness that struck me right in
the heart.

"It's
okay, buddy." I stroked the fur on his face. "It's ok."

With
one last longing look, my pet raccoon died. I sighed, wanting to cry, but not
in front of two stupid kids. I gently placed Lucky's body in my backpack and
stood to face them.

"Okay,
what the actual fuck, you guys?!" I dropped my gun to my side and approached Scott
to help him up. He seemed weak. I looked him over, but couldn't see any blood
or bite marks. Something didn't seem right, though. I ignored it for a moment to
grab Tinder Tango.

"Come on, guys."

The two of them were still white. Tinder Tango was shaking so bad the cage he
was against rattled. I took another look around the room. The Biters were
gnashing their teeth. One of them banged on his door, startling the poor kids.

"There are people here," I hand't even realized I'd spoken.

"What do you mean?" Tinder Tango breathed a sigh of half-relief.

"These things didn't put themselves in cages. There are people here. And they
have Lisa. Let's go."

From the
Desk of Dr. Lisa James

December 20

I'd realized not following Jack was probably a bad idea, but I figured they
could handle those diseased things on their own. In addition, I'd seen a
nurse's station on the opposite side of the hallway. There'd most likely be a
map of the hospital there.

So, I told Jack I'd be behind him and went the other way. There were papers
scattered all over the nurse's desk. Charts were left open on the counter. Many
of them stated the patients all caught the virus. The victims we'd heard were
probably all that was left.

Another howl emanated down the hallway. It startled me into faster action. I
rounded the station to see a directory taped to the desk. Looking it over
carefully, I found the Chief of Medicine's office was down and to the right.
The medical supplies would be around there, so I abandoned the station.

Suddenly, it felt like an earthquake rattled the building. A roar followed by
shuddering walls made my footsteps quicken. I could see the office. I was
inches away when I felt strong arms wrap around my waist and pull me into an
empty room.

The door slammed shut as I tried to kick my way out of the stranger's grasp.
But he held tight. He was very strong.

"Been waitin' for ya." A gravelly voice whispered in my ear. Chills shot down
my spine.

"Let me go." The firmness of my voice surprised me.

"If you insist."

I heard what sounded like a zipper, then a click, then the man stepped away
from me. He was indeed very large with a scruffy thick beard and a very dirty
bandana wrapped around his head.

"You're cuter than I thought." He smiled as if showing off how many teeth he
was missing.

"I'm not the only one here." I remained standing with two feet planted. I
gentle tug of my arm made me realized I was handcuffed to a bed. The man
appeared to live in the hospital. There were food wrappers and broken beer
bottles everywhere.

"Oh, I know that, sweet pea." The words stung. My father used to call me that.
"But my pets will keep your friends busy for quite some time."

"Pets?" I tried to stall him.

"Shush, now, sweet pea. Papa's gotta present for ya." The man closed in on me.
My mind raced with a thousand thoughts. All of them culminated in a fight or
flight response, but I was cuffed to the bed. I backed away as far as I could,
but I could smell his putrid body odor from feet ahead of me.

Twisting my body slightly, I felt around with my free hand for something to
attack him with. My palm closed around the sharp edge of a broken bottle. Pain
stung up into my arm, but I managed not to wince. I didn't want to tip him off.

He was closer. About six inches away. His smell clouded my brain. I heard shouting.
The man hesitated, but didn't stop coming for me. His fingertips grazed my
cheek just as Jack, Scott and Tango busted into the room.

The man spun around to face them. That's when I jumped onto his back and jammed
the bottle shard straight into his eye. Blood began to gush from the wound,
spraying partially onto the warped ceiling tiles. He screamed, clawing at the
glass sticking out of his head. My three companions stood in the doorway
dumbstruck as the large biker doubled over. The blood began to blind him. He
stood and aimed for the open door, but instead rammed into the wall with all
his weight. When he fell over, I could see the glass shard had embedded itself
deep into his gray matter. He was dead.

"Will someone please search him for a handcuff key?"

Scott got to work before the words had even left my mouth completely. Jack
stepped around the big man and approached me, his eyes sparkling with what
looked like surprise.

"You go girl."

"He threatened my life. It was survival instincts."

Jack put both hands up as Scott came toward me with the key. "Hey, I'm
impressed, not judgmental."

"Thank you." I used the sentence to appreciate them both at once while I
unlocked the handcuffs. I explained to them where the medicinal supplies were
kept and they followed me to the closet while regaling me with what they'd done
while we'd been separated.

The man had apparently been keeping diseased victims hostage and making them
attack anyone who entered the hospital. It also seemed as though he'd been
waiting for a woman stubborn enough to enter by herself.

The medical cabinet's lock had been broken — no doubt by the biker man. I
expected the worst when I opened it, but was pleasantly surprised to find a few
drams of morphine inside. Enough to put Gregg to sleep.

"Lisa." Tango startled me. He was close. "We have a problem. Jack's trying to
kill Scotty."

I couldn't believe my ears. I rushed out to the lobby of the second floor to
see Scott sitting against the reception desk with Jack's gun pointed straight
at his head.

"what's going on?" I gave the drams to Tango. He put them in his pack.

"Scott, tell her what's going on." Jack never looked at me.

"I swear I have no idea what he's talking about! he's crazy, Lisa! Help me!"
The boy's eyes pleaded with me.

"He got bit." Jack finally tossed me a glance.

"Is that true?" I studied Scott's face.

"No! I swear! Help!"

Jack sighed, dropped his gun to the floor and knelt next to the boy. Then, he
pulled out a pocket knife, clicked it open, and went for Scott.

"Jack!"

The knife cut through the soft fabric of Scott's shirt, sawing a large chunk
out of the sleeve. Jack pulled down, revealing a fresh bite mark in Scott's
bicep.

"Jesus Christ..." Tango whispered the words behind me.

Tears coursed down Scott's cheeks. "I don't wanna die, Lisa. Help me."

"I'm sorry." There was nothing more I could say. He cried harder.

"You
have a choice." Jack stood, picking up his shot gun. "You can either stay here
and turn or I can end it for you right now."

Scott sniffled, wiping dirt and tears from his face. "I...I don't want to die."

Jack looked to me for guidance.

"Stay here, Scott." With one last glance at the floor, I started toward the
stairs. Tango followed. I could hear Jack giving Scott a bit of a pep talk.

"You did good, Scott. Your parents would have been really proud. You can pray
or cry or sit here and jack it, but you probably don't have a lot of time left
to..."

His voice trailed away as Tango and I exited the building.

***

We pulled up outside Huntington House with only hours of daylight left to
spare. Many of the diseased had wandered off of the property, making it easier
to get in. Tango immediately jumped out and ran to the front, eager to give the
morphine to Ms. Huntington.

I started to exit the vehicle, but Jack said my name to keep me back. I owed
him quite a bit of my time, so I obliged.

"If I ask you something, will you give me a one-hundred percent honest answer?"
he asked.

"Of course."

He took a deep breath. "Look, I know things have been tough. There was no easy
way to... Well, I guess I'm just trying to say I understand if you moved on."

"That's not a question."

He seemed surprised when he looked at me. "Oh, shit, you're right."

"So what was the question?"

He screwed up his face for a moment, then looked back at the house. "Scott told
me something at the hospital."

"Go on."

"He said you two slept together."

Had I heard correctly? "I'm sorry?"

Jack took his hands off the wheel and turned to face me again. "He said you two
slept together. You had sex. You did the deed. You vulcanized the whoopee stick
in the ham wallet. You retrofitted the pudding hatch with the boink swatter.
You cannonballed the fiddle cove with the pork steeple. Foxtrot Uniform Charlie
Kilo. Aren't you going to stop me?"

"I
raised an eyebrow. "I didn't want to interrupt. Continue."

He opened his mouth, but nothing came out for a few seconds. "People usually
stop me way before that. So, I guess I'm done."

"Well, the answer is no."

"Oh."

We were silent for a few moments.

"Why do you think he told me that?"

I shrugged one shoulder. "Perhaps to make you jealous. He saw me as a mother
figure and he was probably just being a territorial nineteen-year-old."

Jack made a face. "Kid had a real Oedipus complex."

I commended his usage of literary history. "Indeed."

***

"My
hands were shaking as I pulled a syringe full of the anesthetic. I'd tried to
make enough in relation to Gregg's weight, but I wasn't even positive of that.

"Shouldn't we test it first?" Gregg seemed agitated.

"There's no time. The virus is spreading almost up into your knee now."

He nodded. I took a brief look around the sterilized freezer. Tango was there
to help hold the leg in traction. He'd given me a razor sharp paring knife as a
scalpel. Jack had found fishing wire in the cellar and had given me a flame
torch used for welding to act as a cauterizer. He would be performing that
action while I cut. Sam had volunteered to suction and Jennifer was going to
keep track of Gregg's pulse. Everyone"s hands were gloved.

"All right, doc. Give it to me."

In order to make sure the syringe was free of bubbles, I tapped it twice to
release the air. I'd found some rubber tubing in the cabinets and tied it
around his upper arm. Finding a vein, I took a deep breath and slid the needle
in. He made no sound. None of us did. We watched him for a few moments.

"I think it's kicking in..." Gregg's eyelids seemed to be a burden on him and his
speech slowed. When he finally closed his eyes, I checked his pulse and we were
ready to go. I looked out the tiny freezer window to give Raychel a nod.

"Okay, everyone, cutting is going to be the hard part, so let's get it over
with." I moved next to Tango. Jack came to my right while Sam was across from
me. I instructed Sam to begin suction as I began cutting into Gregg's skin.

I started by creating a long incision around the circumference of his upper
leg. I left the bottom untouched for the moment. After the cut was made and the
blood siphoned off, I pulled the skin away from the connective tissue and slid
it as far down his leg as I could, exposing the muscles beneath. Jennifer
looked away.

"I'm going to cut away the lateral muscle, here. That will expose the bone." I
went to work, trying to be precise and quick. When the muscle had been cut
away, the artery became visible.

"We need to clamp the artery shut." I held out my hand. Tango put something in
my palm. It was a binder clip. "Seriously?"

He shrugged, so I made it work. I then had Jack cauterize around the clip then
separated the two ends. An electric carver was the only option I had when it
came to cutting through the bone. That took the longest.

I moved to the other side to repeat the process for the fibular bone. I cut
away the muscle then the bone. Once everything was separated and sealed off, I
cut a flap of skin on the underside of the leg, then instructed Tango to take
it.

"Put that on ice, please. I'd like to look at it later."

Tango hesitated, but eventually removed the leg from the table with caution. I
checked with Jennifer on Gregg's pulse and she tossed me a thumbs up.

"I need the sewing needle and fishing wire, please."

Jack handed it to me. I folded the flap of skin over the front of his leg,
sewed it up and was done.

"Now we wait for him to wake up."