The Zombie Chronicles - Book 4 - Poisonous Serum (Apocalypse Infection Unleashed Series) (7 page)

I shined my flashlight into the dark, gaping hole, illuminating a receptionist’s desk, floral couches, and matching floral paintings on the walls. I almost expected some people to peer out holding guns and questioning why we were breaking into their makeshift fortress, but nobody showed up. Still, someone had boarded the place up pretty tight. I wondered who had done it and if any of them were still alive.

Chapter 5

We all looked at each other as the rain poured down.

“
Who’s going first?” the man asked, holding up his axe.

Nick shot us a look. “Cover me.”

“
We got your back,” Lucas said.

A woman softly touched my shoulder. “I’ll take your umbrella so you can go inside. Be careful.”

“
Thanks,” I said.

Nick didn’t waste another minute. He just climbed right in, pulled out his gun, and put his gun arm over his other hand, which held the flashlight—just like he’d taught me. I clambered past the jagged wood, careful not to get a gash; there were no doctors or stitches available, and an infection from even the smallest cut could mean death.

“
I’m right behind you,” Jackie said.

“
Stay close,” I whispered.

Everything was eerily quiet except for the pounding of rain. The receptionist’s desk had an old calendar on it, one from the prior year—an eerie reminder of the year our world changed forever. Flashlight beams swung everywhere and bounced off the walls once several of us had crept in. I didn’t see any signs of survivors, but that didn’t mean they weren’t hiding somewhere. For all we knew, they were terrified of us, the intruders, or they were waiting to ambush us. I shared these very pessimistic but very possible ideas with Nick and Lucas. A few of the others tuned in.

“
We come in peace!” a man suddenly yelled. “If there are any survivors here, we mean you no harm. We just need to stay here until the storm passes.”

Lucas grabbed the man’s arm. “Stop that! You tryin’ to announce our presence to hordes of zombies or what, mister? I don’t figure the undead will be offering us a cold beverage and welcoming us into their humble abode.”

“
Kid, if that chopping didn’t wake the dead, my hollerin’ sure as heck ain’t gonna,” the man retorted in a huff, shaking Lucas’s arm off him.

“
We can board up this window once we deem the place safe and everyone is in,” a woman in a wet leather jacket said.

“
Should we stick together or split up into teams?” another man asked.

Nick stepped forward. “I think it’s best to split up. We can cover more ground that way and get this place secured.”

“
We’d better hurry. All those other people are sitting ducks in the cars out there,” a woman wisely noted.

“
Right,” Lucas said, “so why are we still standing here talking about it? Let’s go, folks, and leave no stone unturned. That means we check the elevator, the stairwells, driers, stoves, freezers, and fridges—every nook and cranny.”

The man nodded. “I think it’s best that some groups search the halls, while others watch for zombies outside. We can also post guards at the window that’s been, uh…compromised.”

“
Finally, somebody’s making sense around here,” Lucas said.

Jackie glanced around. “This place reminds of a haunted house,” she said with a shudder.

“
Forget the house. It’s too big for that. It’s more like a haunted castle,” Claire said. “Before all this happened, I was reading this book about some haunted castle in Scotland so this place really gives me the creeps.”

I had a sick feeling in my gut, but I couldn’t let that stop me from searching the place. I shined my flashlight to the left, then to the right. There seemed to be a west hall and an east hall. Elevators were directly in front of me, and stairs lead to the second and third floor. I felt some grim certainty that something horrible was going to happen, but I knew I needed to push those worrisome thoughts aside.
We’ve found safe hideouts before,
I reminded myself,
like the airport tower and the gym. We didn’t have any horror movie moments in there.
Still, as much as I tried to convince myself, nothing calmed the unsettling feeling of dread that was running rapid through me.

“
We’ll take the east hall,” a blonde woman said, turning right.

A slightly chubby, balding man motioned to the left. “Then we’ll take this one.”

“
We’ll go upstairs and start with the second floor,” Lucas said.

“
Leave the third floor to us,” said a man with a raspy voice.

Nick motioned me to follow him, and we headed up the winding stairs. I opened the door and carefully stepped in while the other group pounded up the stairs, heading to the third floor. Straight ahead was a circular nurses’ station. I glanced around, taking in my surroundings. Charts lined the back wall, and a medication cart was parked off to the side. My light beam roamed over filing cabinets, a computer, a printer, a copy machine, and papers and clipboards littering the floor.

Val touched my arm and pointed down the west hall. It was so dark, so eerie. I knew anything could dart at us at any given moment; if enemies of the human or zombie variety were hiding in there, they’d have the element of surprise on their side. I couldn’t help but picture hordes of the undead bursting out from both directions. My nerves were on edge as we headed down the lonely corridor amidst the shadows that danced on the wall from our flashlight beams.

My brother pointed to Claire, Val, and himself, then gestured to the rooms on the left. He pointed Lucas, Jackie, and me to the rooms on the right.

I shot him a nod to indicate that I understood his voiceless command, and then I eased the door open as a cold shiver shot down my spine. The window was boarded up, but I could hear the screeching wind and the pelting rain and the crashing thunder. It was terrifying to be in that large, dark, lonely building with no light or electricity, and the pounding wind didn’t exactly ease my tension. The dark, musty room smelled like mold, and dust particles floated all around us. My flashlight beam swung around the room in an organized fashion as I gripped my gun tightly, my gaze darting everywhere. With my very next step, my foot landed on something that cracked under my weight, startling everyone. Of course, I remained cool, calm, and collected—or at least I tried to appear that way.

Whether we liked it or not, we had the disadvantage in combat because we didn’t know what lurked in those dark corners. I thought back to the day when the chaos had begun. I imagined the owner had evacuated the place and then boarded it up, hoping to come back one day and start over again. Surely someone had cared about the place if they’d gone to so much trouble to secure it. Then again, there could have been survivors there at one time who had since departed for one reason or another—reasons I didn’t want to think about. For all I knew, the poor survivors who’d been staying there had gone to find food and supplies and never made it back to their sanctuary.

I moved silently and cringed every time the floorboards creaked under my boots. A droplet of sweat rolled down my face, and my heart felt like it might actually beat its way out of my chest. As I continued to move carefully through the room, I suddenly saw a figure. I freaked out and jumped, startled for a split second, until I realized it was my own reflection in the dresser mirror. My nerves were so on edge that every little thing was beyond frightening; I was just thankful that Jackie and Lucas didn’t catch my blunder.

It felt as if we’d stepped into some kind of time capsule, an episode of
The Twilight Zone
, for everything was frozen in time, from the crossword puzzles on the bedside table and neatly made bed to the birthday cards lining the dusty dresser. The curtain divider was stretched across the middle of the room. I could feel my heart pumping as I pulled it back, just waiting for something to jump out at me.
Nothing? Thank God. Just another bed and dresser.
“All clear,” I whispered.

Jackie waved me over, her eyes locked on the closed bathroom door. I nodded, trying to look brave, but my stomach sank. I took a deep breath and shifted my position to deflect a possible attack, then slowly opened the creaking door. It was empty, so I let out a sigh of relief. Jackie looked under the bed, and Lucas checked the closet.

Next, Lucas motioned for us to check the next room. We nodded and followed him as he kept his gun pointed, alert for any signs of danger. When we searched the next room, my light beam suddenly landed on one eye and half of a face. My stomach lurched.

“
Zombie!” Jackie shouted.

I gasped, my mind reeling. I let out a shot straight into the zombie that was lying on the bed.

Lucas laughed, but I didn’t find one bit of humor in it. By the look on Jackie’s face, I could tell that Jackie didn’t think it was a joke either. Adrenaline spiked through my veins, and I had to force myself to take slow breaths.

“
You okay, baby?” she asked.

“
I’m fine. You?”

“
I about had a heart attack. At least it’s dead.”

Lucas doubled over in laughter.

Nick rushed in, his eyes wide. “Did I hear gunfire in here? What’s going on?”

I shook my head. “I just saved our butts, that’s what.”

Lucas dangled a dummy in the air with a bullet hole in its forehead. “Yeah, man. Your li’l bro here just saved us from the big, bad CPR practice mannequins. If he hadn’t, I might have had to give the thing the Heimlich Maneuver!”

“
You’re kidding,” Nick said, shaking his head.

Val softly touched my arm. “Dean, what if that had been a survivor? I know you’re scared. Heck, we all are. But you can’t be so quick to pull the trigger.”

“
Well, excuse me for trying to protect everybody!” I shouted. The truth was, I felt like an idiot. My nerves were completely rattled, and I started to worry that I might be losing it—that I wasn’t cut out for soldiering after all.

“
You gotta be more careful, Dean,” my brother said, beginning the lecture I figured he’d give me, as he was never one to keep quiet about it when I screwed up. “You have to make sure it’s really a zombie before you shoot.”

I swallowed hard.

“
It’s okay,” Jackie said. “I thought it was a zombie, too, especially with its face ripped off like that.”

“
Right. What’d Howdy Doody do to deserve being smashed in the face with a crowbar anyway? Musta taken a real
dummy
to waste their time and energy doing that.” Lucas said, laughing at his own puns, which no one else seemed to get. “I bet they had to take a
breather
or two in between whacks!”

Claire chuckled and rolled her eyes. “You can stop now.”

“
Lucas, that was awful, but your right. Personally, I’d have saved my strength for the zombies,” Val said. “C’mon. We have to finish securing this wing.”

In spite of the fact that most of the others were laughing and shaking their heads at Lucas’s sorry attempt at humor, I was still angry with myself for being such an idiot. I took a deep breath and tried to clear my head so we could move on. I feared they’d never let me live that one down, but for the time being, we had bigger and better fish to fry.

Once we determined that the entire floor was devoid of zombies and survivors, we headed back up to the entryway and met up with the rest of the men. The entire place was secure, and Nick and Lucas even double-checked just to be sure. We were very lucky to find the place, and Claire even suggested staying for a few days to rest. It sounded like a good idea, but we’d have to follow Nick’s lead; if he thought we should just stay long enough to wait out the storm, that would be what we would do. He was the leader, and as much as I hated to admit it, I’d learned the hard way that he knew a thing or two about surviving the zombie apocalypse.

Everyone piled into the nursing home, and we hurriedly boarded the window back up. We decided to stay in the west wing of the first floor, and there were enough rooms for everyone. We planned on taking shifts and posting guards everywhere to make sure we could sleep in peace.