Dead and Forsaken (23 page)

“
Shh!” he said. “Be
quiet for a second before we all get killed! I need everyone to stay
here while I check up on Kevin.”

“
What are we supposed to
do if something happens?” asked Kahleem. “You have the
only other gun!”

“
Don't worry about who has
a gun!” Carlos told him. “Together you can handle any
trouble!”

“
Be careful!” said
Blair.

“
I'll be back before you
know It.” said Carlos. “Joe is in charge until I get
back! Everybody stay low and shut up!”

Carlos
disappeared around the corner and headed down the second hall. Joan
and Anne told Joe they needed to go to the bathroom and pee a few
minutes after he left.

“
You can pee over there in
the corner if you have to go.” said Joe.

“
I am not going to use the
bathroom in front of everybody like a dog!” Joan told him.

“
Yeah she's right and you
can forget it if you think I'm going to pull my panties down in
front of y’all!” stressed Anne.

“
It is not safe to wonder
around here alone!” argued Maria. “Especially after what
we just saw back there!”

Blair
was still feeling sick so she wanted to go with them. She was so
stressed out that the baby had her stomach all mixed up.

“
If they insist on going
then I will go with them!” the Pastor declared.

******

The pastor and the others doubled
back down the hall to a set of bathrooms we passed on the way from
x-ray. Joan was in the lead with the other two girls and the Pastor
following them. As they were walking through the hall Anne kicked
something soft with her foot. She looked down and realized it was
some ones severed hand. It was discarded on the floor like a chewed
up chicken bone.

“
If that doesn't freak you
out then nothing will!” she squealed.

Luckily
they didn't see any creatures on the way.

Everything
seemed okay as they approached the door to the women s restroom. The
pastor slowly opened the door and called out to see if anyone
answered. Joan pushed past him and walked inside.

“
I should check it out
first!” the Pastor demanded.

“
I don't have time for
this!” she told him. “I really have to go!”

“
I understand but you
ladies shouldn't be left alone.” explained the pastor. “I
should go with you!”

“
I
don't think so!” said Joan while touching her breasts. “I
know you're a man of the cloth but when has that stopped a preacher
from laying hands on a body like this or having sex?”

All of the women laughed but the
pastor turned red with embarrassment. Anne grabbed Blair by the hand
and they all followed her. The Pastor still tried to follow them but
Anne stopped him again.

“
Just
make sure no one else comes in!” she told him. “We can
take it from here!”

Joan was incredibly confident about
her decision but still slowly walked into the bath room with Randy’s
hand held reciprocal saw extended in front of her. The room had the
type of raunchy smell you never forget. The bathroom had a long line
of sinks on the right side and a row of toilet stalls on the left.
Joan thought she heard something and stopped dead in her tracks. She
cautiously looked around but didn’t see anything. She went
down the row of stalls pushing open the first couple of doors. When
Joan didn't find anything she turned around and shrugged at the
other girls.

“
False
alarm girls!” she said laughing it off. “I guess we are
all a little jumpy!”

“
I
thought I heard something too!” said Blair.

“
It’s
probably just the baby messing with you nerves!” Anne
responded.

Blair
went into the closest stall to the door and threw up before sitting
down. Anne splashed water on her face before sitting down in the
stall next to Blair. Joan used the restroom quickly and then got up.
The heat was becoming unbearable so she splashed water on her face.
Joan looked at herself in the mirror and noticed that she had blood
in her hair. She put the saw down on the ground and filled the sink
up with water. Anne started telling Blair about the time she thought
she was pregnant by a married doctor. That’s when Joan leaned
over the sink filled with water and started washing her hair out
with hand soap. All of the women were so distracted that none of
them heard the door on the last stall slowly open. A decaying set of
hands with black nails came out the door. They belonged to a dead
forsaken female.

“
GRRRRRR!”

The
dead woman was middle aged but was dressed like a teenager. She had
on a mid-drift tee shirt and low rise jeans. The lack of ventilation
caused her body to swell up. Gases had accumulated in her body
cavity as it started to break down. Her fly covered walking corpse
came out of its hiding place and lurched towards Joan. Every step
she took caused her organs to fall out of the long gash that was
gnawed into her muffin top gut. Joan pulled her head out the water
and squeezed the extra water out her hair. She saw a figure in the
fogged up glass but thought it was one of her friends. The old
forsaken hag gripped Joan by her wet hair and bit a large chunk out
her trachea.

“
CHOMP!”

The
bite caused significant damage and caused her throat to fill with
blood. She tried to scream but only produced gurgling sounds. She
was also grabbed by the collar of her scrubs shirt causing it to
rip. Joan was still gasping for air as the forsaken woman pulled her
down onto the multicolored tile. Joan pushed her thumb into the
ghoul’s eye gouging it out. The beast was wounded but that did
not stop it! Anne and Blair did not hear the struggle. Again and
again Joan felt pain as teeth punctured her skin down to the bone.

“
GNAAAW!”

The
monster finally severed her jugular spraying blood everywhere. Blair
heard Joan's feet kicking against the tile and stopped talking.
After a few seconds Joan just laid there motionless in shock as her
blood loss continued.

“
Joan what's going on out
there?” asked Blair.

She
didn't get a response but could hear something moving around.

“
Quit playing around
Joan!” demanded Anne.

Blair
looked down and saw someone’s feet outside the stall door. The
person outside the door was wearing one sandal and was missing toes
off its other foot.

“
That’s not Joan!”
yelled Blair.

She
quickly got up and locked the door to her stall.

“
What are you talking
about?” asked Anne.

Before
Blair could answer the dead forsaken woman rammed the stall door.

“
BOP!
BOP! BOP!”

Blair climbed up on the toilet and
started to scream.

“
Heeeeeelp!
Heeeeeelp!”

When she couldn't get in the
monster turned her attention towards Anne. The deformed undead woman
crawled under her stall door and grabbed Anne's ankle. She was still
frothing at the mouth with Joan’s blood.

“
GROOOWWWL!”

Anne
kicked free but was still bitten. The ghoul had jerked her head
backwards tearing a small clump of flesh from Anne's calf. The skin
tissue around the bite immediately started to die.

“
GROOOWWWL!”

Thankfully
the Pastor was still outside. He rushed in and saw Joan's body and
the creature trying to squeeze under the stall door. He grabbed the
steel trash can sitting in the corner and kicked the monster. When
it turned around he stepped on the dead woman’s neck. Then he
repeatedly plowed the trash can into her skull. She continued to
growl as her lifeless eyes stared back up at him. The Pastor slammed
the can harder and harder until her head cracked open and the growls
stopped. Globs of thick foul smelling blood oozed from the wound.
The pastor yelled out to the other girls that the coast was clear.
He had bludgeoned the monster to death. He got Anne up off the stall
floor and then helped Blair down off the other toilet. Blair was
emotionally shaken but physically unhurt.

“
Thank you for saving me.”
Anne cried. “I thought I was going to die!”

That's
when they all saw Joan’s body. A large portion of muscle and
flesh had been peeled from her face. Suddenly Anne started screaming
after seeing her friend’s blood everywhere.
They
all witnessed her cough up blood and take her last breath. The
pastor closed her eyes and said a little prayer before they left her
lifeless body in the bathroom.

“
Maybe this is God's way
of thinning the herd!” said the Pastor.

“
You are supposed to die
in peace, comfort, and dignity” said Anne. “Not be
dismembered by monsters!”

It was an unfortunate event but the
two women were happy they were still alive. When the Pastor got
outside with the women they bumped into a lost Dr. Green. He had
finally showed up. When he saw the other survivors he pulled down
his sleeve and put what looked like a syringe behind his back.

“
Damn! What are you doing
sneaking around in the dark?” asked Dr. Green.

“
What where you doing?”
asked Blair.

“
Oh! This is just my
insulin.” answered Dr. Green.

“
Where is Dr. Okonkwo?”
asked Anne adding to the tension.

“
I'm afraid he didn't make
it!” Dr. Green responded.

“
What do you mean?”
asked Anne.

“
I mean he's dead!”
Dr. Green told her.

Blair
could see that Anne was upset and put her arm around her as they
walked towards the other survivors. She did her best to keep her
composure and help console Anne. Dr. Green tossed the empty syringe
when he thought no one was looking but the pastor spotted him. To
the untrained eye the doctor just looked like he had been running.
The pastor helped run the alcohol anonymous groups at the church and
noticed his eyes were bugged out, sweat had formed on his upper lip,
and his cloths were disheveled.

As
the group leader he listened to their addiction horror stories and
paired them up with people who could help keep them clean and sober.
Having a sponsor didn't guarantee sobriety but it helped. Their job
was just to guide members through the process. The pastor pressed
the doctor on his appearance but he said everything was OK. It was
clear to the pastor that he was in denial even though the drugs were
still coursing through his veins. He decided to let it go for now.
Anne did not tell Blair or any of the others what happened to her.
She knew that the sickness was spread by the highly contagious bites
but kept it to her because she didn't want alienated.
She
knew her friends and colleagues would be distraught if they knew she
had been infected with the undead plague. By now Anne only trusted a
few of the survivors that were left. Besides she might potentially
be immune. She tried to control her breathing to keep from
hyperventilating or having an anxiety attack. The last thing she
wanted was to draw any unwanted attention. After they all made it
back to the rest of the group she became more withdrawn and
confused.

******

I ran into Carlos in the corridor. The forsaken were sporadically
spread out everywhere. We also saw several other poor souls moving
in the distance. They were headed straight for a herd but we could
not help them. We wanted to warn them but that was not the time for
waving our hands or shouting. It was all over before we knew it.
Their screams only brought more of those things down on them. It was
a hard choice but we had our own people to think about. While
searching the other rooms in that corridor we encountered another
small group of survivors. Movement in the shadows stopped us dead in
our tracks. They were hiding in the darkness and we almost shot
them. They had been wandering around for hours covered in blood and
in a state of shock.

“
Don't shoot!” one
of them begged. “We are human!”

“
Jesus Christ!” I
told them. “I almost killed y’all!”

“
We didn't think anyone
else was alive!” said the redhead. “We have been hiding
in here all night long. Now we are looking for a way out.”

We
could see that they were messed up and bloody.

“
What happened?”
asked Carlos.

The
blonde haired woman said that her and her two friends were ambushed
by a pack of the forsaken. They came swarming out of the darkness.
After a quick skirmish they managed to get away. She suffered a
couple of superficial bites but her two friends were hurt bad.
During the tussle her friend received an ugly bite wound to the
chest.