Dead and Forsaken (15 page)

Even before reanimated
corpses started rising from the dead just walking around the
hospital in the dark was creepy. Now the rising dead forced us to
stay locked up and hunkered down inside without any air conditioning
or lights. I asked Sandoval to round up several people to sit close
to each barricaded door. Everyone couldn’t go to sleep
somebody had to stay up. We placed two men at each door. They would
warn us if the undead attacked during the night. Sandoval and I took
care of the double glass ambulance doors. The rest of the survivors
waited in the moon lit hallway to get some sheets and pillows. Most
of them just breathed a collective sigh of relief at being alive.
Everyone that could not find a bed found a spot on the floor.
Strangers and families bedded down together for the night.

With
all those people cramped in a small space we were surprised there
were no fights. It was over hundred degrees outside so inside the
hospital felt like a boiling hot oven. The added heat made the
patients miserable and their medical conditions worst. The heat was
paralyzing. Just moving from one room to the other created sweat
puddles under your arms. The irritating conditions made it hard for
some people to fall asleep. People left rings of sweat in their
beds. Everyone kept the doors to their rooms open. Most of the
survivors tried to get comfortable in the halls. At least they were
a few degrees cooler than the rooms. Complaining about it was
useless because there was nowhere else to go. Every neighborhood
outside this hospital had become a bloody war zone. We needed to get
some sleep and regroup. I urged them to hang on till the morning
then we would figure out our next move at first light.

Dr. Black cracked open a half
gallon of Captain Morgan. He was not a big drinker but tonight was a
good night to get drunk. The bottle was a gift to him from a patient
who had a bad aortic valve. The doctor figured out what was wrong
with the patient and sent the man in for emergency heart surgery. If
it wasn’t for him the man would have died. Dr. Black poured
some of the liquor into his coffee cup and swallowed it hard. It
burned going down his throat causing him to take a couple of deep
breaths before gulping down another swig. He was generous and shared
the bottle with anyone that was brave or desperate enough to drink
it straight.

“
Can you can pass a little of
that my way?” demanded Dr. Green.

“
It would be my pleasure
sir!” said Dr. Black pouring him a glass.

Dr.
Green downed his drink in one try.

“
Aaahh!” Dr. Green
proclaimed with a cough. “Now that’s something I can
believe in!”

He
poured another drink, popped a couple of pills in his mouth and took
gulp. I would have had one too but I had to keep my head clear. I
was responsible for the lives of all these people. I stood there in
the dim light of the main hall watching the double glass doors
listening to the sound of gunshots and screams in the distance. I
even heard a helicopter pass over head but no one came to rescue us.
Maria walked up and touched me on the shoulder and I turned around
with a serious look on my face.

“
Is everything alright
Kevin?” she asked. “I’m here for you if you need
to talk!”

“
I am okay. I just need time
to think that’s all Maria.”

“
If you need a friend I am
here for you!” she said while taking my hand.
I pulled here close to me and kissed her softly. The kiss was
gentle, strong, and worth the wait. Standing in the dark hall I
almost forgot about the walking dead killing people all around us.
Sandoval walked up the hall and brought me back to reality.

“
Damn bro for God’s
sake get a room!” he joked.

“
You think I can afford a
hotel room on what they pay me?” I laughed.

“
I’ll let you gentlemen
talk.” Maria declared. “Besides I have patients to check
on!”

We
both watched her disappear down the hall into the darkness.

“
What’s up with that
man? First the white man starts taking all the fine Latin girls now
I got to compete with the brothers too!” he said smiling ear
to ear.

“
Well you know what can I
say? Maybe she just likes dark meat!” I said grabbing my chin.

“
Well I must like white
meat because I love me a Katy Perry looking bitch!” he added.

“
What about all that shit
about hating white people?” I asked.

“
When the lights go out
it’s all the same hommie! As long as that ass is fat I am
knocking it down!” he said as we both busted into laughter.
I needed a laugh like
that. It broke through the tension and stress of the night. I told
Sandoval to keep an eye on things and walked off to find somewhere
to think. I found an empty exam room, and closed the door. I sat
down in the pitch-black room and braced myself against the wall. I
just sat there and took a deep breath. The darkness reminded me of
the desert at night. I reflected on everything that happened tonight
for the first time. All these people were thanking me for helping
them but I was just acting out of instinct. If I was anything, I was
a survivor. My mother gave birth to me two months premature. I
weighed only three pounds and six ounces. The doctor that delivered
me even told my grandmother to prepare my mother for my death. He
didn’t think I would make it through the night.

Grandma
told him to go back in the room and do his job. She said that I was
going to live because God had a purpose for my life. I wondered if
my purpose was to save these people. I survived poverty, gangs and
two wars. I had my first real street fight when I was six and shot
my first gun when I was thirteen. I graduated high school and had
joined the Marines by the time I was eighteen. Then I was ankle deep
in sand and knee deep in dead bodies four years later. All these
things made me respect and understand how precious life is. Taking a
man’s life required no thought or effort. It is hard for
people to live with the guilt of committing murder. For me it was
different. If I did not kill them they would have killed me. Anger,
rage, and revenge fueled me. I had lived through too much to die
now. If I had to kill every mother fucking dead bastard from here to
flagstaff then I would. I was born to kill just like those dead
things stumbling around outside.

When I walked out the
room Sandoval was still standing watch.

“
You know for a convict
you make a pretty good night watchman.” I said trying to get
him to smile.

“
That’s funny
because you seem to know too much to just be a hospital security
guard!” he questioned.

“
You think so?” I
asked.

“
I know so.” He
declared. “Real always recognizes real.”

“
Before I put on this
little get up I was a Marine.” I said pointing to my uniform.

“
Oh yeah I was in the
army before they kicked me out for smoking weed!” he said
while giving me a fist pound.

“
And to think I just
pegged you for drug dealing gang banger.” I joked.

“
Hey I never said I was a
saint! I just said that those pigs framed me!” he said while
flashing gang signs.

“
What is your deal then?”
I asked as we leaned against the wall across from each other.

“
My deal is that I grew
up in south Phoenix just like everyone else. My story is just like
every other fool in the joint. No father, no money, and single
mother equals gang member.” He said with a serious look on his
face.

“
I know what you mean
dawg!” I told him while nodding in agreement.

“
All of my homeboys came
from broken homes too.” he proclaimed. “We grew up in
poverty but we had each other. That is what made me get down with
set! They were my family.”

“
I grew up the same way.”
I explained. “All my friends were in the gang but I was just
an affiliate. I never started banging full time because I always
played football. I stayed away from the hardcore stuff but I did a
little dirt when I had to.”

“
Nah get the fuck out of
here! We got a black man that actually admitted to being a
criminal.” He said joking.

“
No father and no money.
Somebody had to pay the bills.” I said rubbing my fingers
together.

“
I feel you hommie. I was
trying to take care of my family too but all I been doing lately is
trying to beat my case.” he said. “When I came back home
from the army shit was all fucked up! The punk ass apartment manager
was trying to evict my mom from our place. She was out of work
because she was just too weak to do anything after going through
chemotherapy treatment. She always smoked cigarettes and ended up
getting lung cancer bro. She never even wrote to me and let me know.
If I knew what was going on I would have never been smoking weed!”

“
Are you sure about
that?” I asked with a big grin.

“
Well at least I would
have smoked less nigga!” he said with a bigger grin on his
face. “Damn can I tell the story?”

“
My fault!” I said
still smiling. “Go ahead.”

“
I ran into one of my old
homeboys at the 7-11.” he explained. “We grew up
together and our gang even jumped both of us in on the same day. We
accepted that this was a normal way of life in the hood. We started
out as lookouts for the older gangsters. We would take our bikes and
sit on opposite corners. We warned them if we saw the police or
other sets approaching the block. We both had made a name for our
self by the time we got to high school. I got careless and got
caught selling to an undercover cop. I had just turned eighteen. It
was my first offense as an adult. The judge said that I could go to
jail or serve my country. I thought the army would turn me around. I
was in boot camp two weeks later. I actually liked the shit after a
few months. That was the first time I saw the world beyond the
valley. My homeboy started selling METH and started moving up the
ladder. He was a big hustler now. I asked him to loan me the money.
He said to come by the strip club he just opened and we would talk
about it. We had a drink when I got to the strip club and talked
about the old times. By now he was institutionalized mentally from
so many years spent in and out of prison. Instead of the money he
tried to give me some METH to sell for him. I thought he would be
the answer to my prayers but he was just trying to use me. I told
him that I didn't want to sell drugs anymore. He said that I had
until the next day to make up my mind so I left. The next morning I
got woke up by a shotgun pressed against my head.”

“
Rise and shine punk!”
the deputy yelled.

“
What the hell is going
on?” I asked. “What is this all about?”

Our apartment was full of fucking
sheriff deputies. The fuckers even pointed their guns at my mother.

“
What are you doing to my
son?” She asked. “He did not do anything! He is a good
boy.”

“
Don’t move miss!”
yelled the deputy in a threatening manner.

They wanted me to wear a wire and
except the METH deal. The cops were tired of waiting for my homeboy
to slip up. They had been hoping he would get caught with drugs on
him or some other gang member would murder him. Their plan was to
use me to arrest him and lock him up for good. I told the deputies I
refused to be involved in setting him up. If my homeboy found out
then my mom would never be safe in our neighborhood again. I was
trying to take care of her not get her killed.

“
It looks like their
serving a little Mexican sausage for breakfast boys!” he said
as he spit tobacco onto the front of my boxers.

He was trying to humiliate and
demean me but I just smiled at his pasty ass.

“
That’s funny!”
I told him real nonchalant. “Because when I was stuffing my
little brown sausage in your wife last night she was begging for
more!”

That redneck jerk was so mad he
made the canine cop sick his dog on me.

“
That’s right! Bite
his illegal wetback ass!” they all shouted. The teeth hurt
like hell but I still said no.

“
Fuck you puto!” I
yelled. “I'm clean you ain’t got no grounds to arrest
me!”

The
head deputy got mad and planted a gun and drugs in the house. He was
going to use it as evidence to incriminate me. He locked my brown
ass up and said I would stay there until I snitched. I did time in
the county but this was prison time. That was two days ago. The
first day they left me in a holding cell naked for over eight hours.
Tonight in the tent some fucker from my own set tried to kill me
with a shank. My own homeboy sent him after me. He thought I was
going to talk to the cops. I learned how to street fight when I was
little. I beat that bastard’s ass. I knocked him the fuck out!
I was so mad that I kept on hitting him. The other prisoners just
crowded around and watched. I probably would have killed him if I
wasn't tackled by a couple of officers. They kicked and punched me a
couple of times during the take down. That is how I ended up here
tonight. Plus they never treated me for that damn dog bite. I
thought about suing them for excessive force.”