Apocalypse Z (A Zombie Novel) (8 page)

The tone of Marks voice and look in his eye sent a shiver down her spine. Lisa wasted no time in waking and getting them into the room.

He sat down in the chair and said, “It seems our doctor has been experimenting with a vaccine against the zombie virus. In pursuing that, he has turned all the patients and maybe some staff into zombies. Sheryl believes we may be next. So we’re getting out of here tonight. She’s going to help and in turn, we’re taking her with us. So with that, here’s the plan.”

VI

Lisa and Sheryl stood in the third floor hallway, just around the corner from the main elevators, waiting for Sam. She still didn’t trust Sheryl so she had her guard up. They had already been there for five minutes and Lisa was becoming inpatient. “This plan of yours better work,” she said quietly.

“It will, and it wasn’t all mine, you know. Mark came up with part of it.”

“Really? Did he come up with our part?”

She turned her eyes down. “No, this part was mine. He didn’t really like it, but I assured him we’d be alright”

Lisa pursed her lips. “I already dealt this perv when we first got here. All I have to say is this man isn’t going to touch me, let alone get sex.”

Sheryl waved her hand. “Don’t worry about Sam. He’s harmless. Even if he tried, you’d never even know it.”

Raising her eyebrows, she asked, “Really? How’s that?

Sheryl held up her pinky and giggled. Lisa almost smirked, but was able to keep a straight face. They heard the elevator door open and footsteps in the hallway. Sheryl pulled her scrub shirt down a little to expose more cleavage. Lisa straightened her shirt and pushed her chest out a little.

Sam came around the corner and stopped. Sheryl put her hand on his shoulder. In a very soft and seductive voice, she said, “Hello, Sam.”

That same goofy smile came across his face. “Hi, Sheryl.” He looked over at Lisa and said, “Hi.”

“You know, Sam, we’ve been feeling kind of tense lately.” She rubbed the side of her neck with her fingers and slowly moved them down over her shoulder and breasts. “I was just wondering if you could give us a nice oil massage… all over.”

He looked at Lisa. “Both of you? Together?”

Lisa gave him a soft smile. “Sure, that is if you think you can handle us both.”

He let out a jerky little laugh. “Yeah, I know I could. I just hope I’m not too much for you two ladies.”

Sheryl ran her fingers down his chest. “Meet us in room 344 in five minutes.”

Still smiling, he said, “Okay, I’ll go get some oil.” And he hurried down the hallway.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mark slowly pulled the stairwell exit door open and peeked down the hallway. He turned and whispered to Dedee, “I don’t see anyone. Let’s go.”

Quietly, they crept down the empty hallway until they came up to another that crossed it. Standing with their backs to the wall, they listened for footsteps. When they were satisfied they were alone, he peeked around the corner. Mark thought for a minute, then asked Dedee, “Was it right here, then left at the next? Or left here and right at the next?”

Dedee shrugged and shook her head. Mark waved for her to follow him as he turned right. The hallway was long and they followed it to the end where it ran into another. From there, they turned left. They followed that one and just before the end, they came upon the set of double doors they were looking for. After Mark peeked in, both of them went into the room and started looking around. Dedee found the switch and turned on the lights.

They went over and started looking through the metal cylinders. Mark looked at his hand trying to match what Sheryl had written on it and the markings on them. He stopped and put his hand on Dedee’s shoulder. “Shhhhh.”

She asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I think I heard something.”

Standing perfectly still, they listened. They heard footsteps outside in the hallway and they were drawing closer. They ducked down behind a gurney close to the doors and listened. The footsteps stopped and the door opened, then the person stepped inside. A woman’s voice asked, “Who’s in here?” When they didn’t respond, the woman said, “If you don’t tell me who you are, I’m going to call security.”

Mark pushed the gurney to the side and quickly came up behind the woman before she could react. He covered her mouth and pulled her into him as she let out a muffled shriek.

He calmly whispered in her ear. “We’re not here to hurt you. If you understand me, nod your head” And she did. “If you cooperate, you won’t get hurt. Do you understand?” She nodded. “If I move my hand, do you promise not to scream?” She nodded her head again. “Now when I move my hand, if you scream or make any noise, I will hurt you in a most unpleasant way. Do you understand?” And she nodded.

Slowly, he moved his hand and stepped back. Trembling, she turned and looked at him, her voice cracked as she whispered, “Please don’t hurt me. I’ll do anything you want as long as you don’t hurt me.”

“I want you to show us where this is at.” He held out his hand and she looked at the writing.

Surprised, she asked, “That’s it? That’s all you want?” Then she looked toward Dedee, and Dedee nodded.

Mark nodded and said, “That’s all we want.”

She took them through another set of doors, showed them where it was, and set it up for them. Then she said, “An eight second exposure would put someone out for a couple of hours.”

“Alright, now I need you to get on the gurney and lay down.”

She began to tremble as she complied. “But you promised, if I cooperated, you wouldn’t hurt me.”

Mark put a mask over her face. “We’re not going to hurt you. You’re going to take a little nap, and when you wake up, we’ll be gone. Now breathe deep.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jeff and Jet waited by the corner with their backs against the wall. Jet reached down and pulled his hand up. She looked at his watch, then put it back down. A few minutes later, they heard footsteps from around the corner. They waited until they were almost on top of them and Jet shot around the corner. She looked at the guard and smiled as she walked by.

He turned. “Can I help you with something? You’re not allowed in this area?”

She said, “I’m just looking for a bathroom.” She saw Jeff sneak around the corner and she turned to walk away.

The guard reached out, grabbed her by the hair, and jerked her back. Jet let out a little cry and tried to take a step back as she reached for the guard’s hand. Jeff reached up, grabbed a handful of the guard’s hair, and jerked his head back. He brought his arm up and slammed his elbow down across bridge of the guard’s nose as hard as he could. His legs wobbled and he fell to the floor. Jeff straddled the guard, picked him up by the collar of his shirt, and punched him in the face two more times in rapid secession.

With blood flowing from his nose, the guard begged, “Please, no more.”

Jeff looked over at Jet; she was wincing and rubbing the back of her head. Jeff felt an anger growing inside him. Gritting his teeth, he said, “This is for hurting my girlfriend.” Then he punched him in the face even harder, causing blood to spatter on the front of his shirt. He looked at his hand that was covered with the guard’s blood and said, “And this is for bleeding on my fist.” He hit him in the face once more and the guard went completely limp. Jeff let go of his shirt and let him fall to the floor with a thud. Reaching down, he wiped the blood from his hand on the guard’s clothes.

Jeff gently ran his hand over the back of her head. “Are you alright?”

She looked up at him and smiled as she said, “Yeah.”

Jeff pulled the guard into a nearby janitor’s closet and cuffed him to the sink’s drainpipe. Jet took the mop and quickly cleaned up the blood in the hallway. As they closed the door, Jeff made sure it was locked.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lisa and Sheryl went into room 344 to wait for Sam, but he was already there with a small bottle of oil in his hand.

“Are you ladies ready?” he asked as he held it up.

Sheryl took the bottle from his hand. “We sure are.”

He turned to Lisa. “I thought you wanted some too?”

Nervously she said, “Uh… yes… I do.”

Sam waited for Lisa to come closer then he heard Sheryl. “Hey, Saaaammm, Aren’t you going to rub it in?”

He looked back over and was unable to move. Sheryl had her scrub shirt off and had oil running down over her breasts. He stuttered, “Uh… uh… yeah.”

Lisa quickly picked up a metal bedpan from the counter and slammed it down on the crown of his head. It made a loud ping when it hit and he dropped to the floor with a thud. She gasped and her eyes got big. Stepping back, she said, “Oh my gawd! I think I killed him.”

Sheryl wiped the oil off with a towel and put her scrub shirt back on then ran over to check for a pulse. “No, he’s alive. He’ll just wake up with one hell of a headache. Quick, get his clothes off and help me drag him over by the bed.”

They took his handcuffs, ran them around the frame of the bed, and cuffed his wrists. Sheryl went through his pockets. She took a folding lock-blade knife, a set of keys, and his notebook. Placing the keys and knife in her side pocket, she started flipping through the notebook. On the inside front cover, she found the keypad codes to all the doors. Lisa stuffed his socks into his mouth and ran some cloth tape around his head to hold them in place.

They started for the door; Lisa stopped and said, “Wait.” She ran back over to Sam. “This is for the crap you pulled in the ER.” She pulled off his boxer shorts and placed them over his head, backward. She looked down at his groin and gasped, then started to laugh. “Oh my gawd!” She turned to Sheryl. “You weren’t kidding, were you?” Sheryl started to chuckle. Lisa patted him on the chest and said, “You poor man, it looks like a little baby string bean.”

Sheryl said to Lisa, “I have to do something real quick before we leave. Go get Todd and Amy. I’ll meet you by the pharmacy door in a few.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mark and Dedee made it back to the stairwell and worked their way down to the second floor. Quietly walking down the hallway, they heard people talking and had to duck into a room. Mark kept the door cracked open and watched as a group of three nurses walked up the hallway. One of them was talking about a missing nurse and the other two kept nodding their heads.

After the nurses had passed and turned down another hallway, they went back out. They took a wrong turn and got lost, ending up in the wrong wing. They worked their way back around to the stairwell and started again. Once they got their bearings, it didn’t take them long to find the room where the guards slept.

Mark removed the mask and slid the hose under the door. He listened carefully and heard the other four guards inside snoring. Dedee placed some towels under the door and turned the cylinder on. There was a hissing sound as the room filled with the gas. After two minutes, she turned it off. They took the cylinder and towels and hid them in a laundry basket down the hall.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sheryl ran to the ICU doors and looked in through the small window. Not seeing anyone inside, she took out the notebook and entered the numbers into the keypad mounted on the wall. Once inside, she ran over to the desk and went through the files. When she found Paula’s chart, she checked the room number and went over to it. Inside, restrained to bed, was something, but it was not Paula. It had on her scrubs and she found her ID sitting on the counter. Sheryl realized she was too late. Paula had already been infected and had turned into one of the living dead.

“I’m so sorry,” she said as tears filled her eyes.

Then she heard the doctor behind her. He asked, “What are you doing in here?”

She turned and shouted, “You bastard! You killed her!”

Surprised by her outburst, he jumped back. “I’m calling security.” He went behind the desk and picked up the phone.

Sheryl took the knife from her pocket. Holding it behind her back, she opened it. Walking up to the doctor, she said, “You’re a real son of a bitch.” She took it and jabbed the blade into his chest.

He grabbed the wound with his hand as blood ran down the front of his shirt and between his fingers. “You stabbed me, you stupid bitch!” he said with a combination of anger and surprise.

She stepped back as he lunged at her and reached for the knife. She swung it in front of her and sliced the palm of his left hand open, exposing some bone as blood ran down his arm. He quickly pulled his hand back. Taking a step forward, she jabbed it into his chest again.

He cried out through gritted teeth. “Stop it! That really fuckin hurts!” His legs started to buckle under him.

She stepped behind him, grabbed the back of his collar, and put the knife to his throat. “Come on, this way.” She guided him into Paula’s room and over to the bed.

He yelled out, “What do you want?”

In a harsh voice, she said, “Justice.” Then she shoved his face against Paula’s. She hissed and took a large bite out of his cheek and ripped it away. He cried out and attempted to push himself away from her. Between Sheryl’s anger and his weakened state, she was able to hold him down. Paula bit off his left ear and spit it back in his face, and then she went for his neck. She bit and ripped until the doctor’s blood shot out, painting the walls and cabinets red.

When he went limp, Sheryl let go. She walked around and looked down. Paula’s blue-white eyes stared back at her and she fought to get free. Sheryl took the knife and plunged the blade into Paula’s temple. She jerked a few times, and then stopped. Sheryl reached down and closed her lifeless eyes. She stood there for a moment then softly said, with tears on her cheeks, “Good-bye, my dear friend. May you rest in peace.” Then she turned and walked out of the room. As she left the ICU, she picked up a glass vase and smashed the keypad by the doors.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lisa ran into Todd’s room. She took the I.V. out and tossed it to the side. Todd got up and Lisa helped him put his shirt on over the cast. When he was ready, they quickly went down the hallway toward the pharmacy. Amy helped Todd, and Lisa followed behind them. When they got there, they saw Jeff and Jet standing by the door. Mark and Dedee got there a couple of minutes later.