Dead Beginnings (Vol. 2) (3 page)

He hurried to the nurse’s station and picked up the phone. Kelly sat at the desk, hunched over her paperwork, her pen moving slowly. Her face was gray like expired meat and dripped with sweat.

“Hey there, love, mind if I use your phone?”

The young receptionist looked up listlessly. “Sure, go ahead. Is everything all right?” More sweat trickled down her neck.

“Yeah, just something strange with my last patient. Said he was bit by someone. I just want to check on my wife and make sure she keeps the doors locked.”

“Oh, yeah, right. There’s been a few cases of those today. I had to help Jones out earlier. The guy came in all calm, didn’t even seem to notice the chunk missing from his shoulder. And then, all of a sudden, he freaked out. Took four of us to hold him down. He scratched me good too, on my arm, but it’s nothing to worry about. They checked it out and ran some tests. Seems fine.”

Lee held the phone to his face as he stared down at her. He couldn’t believe what she was saying. If that had been him, he would be nervous as hell, pacing back and forth, checking for the blood work results every other minute. God knows what the man could have given her, but she didn’t seem worried about any of it.

He saw the tail-end of the wound on her arm from beneath her sleeve. Deep red blood bubbled and dried over the jagged cut. Lee pursed his lips together. He wanted to shake her and tell her to wake up as she stared off into the hallway with her lips parted and eyes glazed over.

Instead, he turned his back and dialed Anna’s cellphone number.

              “Hey,” he said and continued without waiting for a response. “There’s a lotta strange incidences today. I want ya to be careful. You should probably stay home. Lock the doors. Don’t open for anyone.”

              “I’m on my way to my parent’s house. What do you mean
strange incidences
? What’s going on?”

              “People gettin’ bit,” he said.

              “Like by rabid animals?”

              “No. People,” He looked over his shoulder at the closed door containing the patient in question.

              “Jesus,” his wife whispered.

              “Why are you headed to your parents? I thought you just went to see them yesterday.” He was willing to talk about anything, even her parents, to get his mind off the look on the man’s oblivious face.

              “I’m going to tell them,” she paused and took a deep breath while he waited, “that if they can’t accept you into their lives as their son and love you as such, then I want nothing to do with them. You’re the father of my child and they can’t continue to treat you the way they’ve been. I’m sorry I let it go on for so long.”

              Lee’s mouth hung open as he processed what she said. “What? Why...you don’t have to, ya know? I’m fine with—”

              “I know,” she cut him off. “I want to. You deserve better. You’re my family and I love you, and I always will.”

              Lee brushed his hand over his mouth and laughed silently. He never thought this day would come. He’d hoped for so long, but it was always a distant dream. “I love you too,” he said softly. “You’ve no idea. This is…” He searched, but couldn’t find the words to express his appreciation.

              “Our child is so lucky to have you for her dad,” she said. “And you be careful too, OK?”

              “I will.”

Anna took a deep breath as she pulled into her parent’s driveway. “Here I go.”

“I’ll see you when I get home.”

A moment of silence and then nothing.

VI.

              Lee hung up the phone. The smile he’d worn that morning returned with full force. He bit his fingernail to try to hide it, but it was no use. Somehow in the last twenty-four hours, his life had done a one-eighty. Everything was falling into place. Everything he’d ever hoped for he was finally getting.

              His thoughts were interrupted by a loud thud from behind. Lee turned to find Kelly slumped face-down on her desk. She wasn’t moving.

              “Someone get a doctor!” he shouted as he rushed to her side. “Kelly, love, are you all right?”

              He bent to place his ear next to her head. It was hard to hear anything over the bustle of the emergency room. He reached out and placed two fingers on her neck to check for a pulse.

              Nothing.

              He gently massaged around to find the vein in her damp, cold neck.

              Nothing.

              “Dammit, will someone fetch a doctor!”

              Several nurses scattered while bystanders stopped and craned their necks to get a better look.

              Lee carefully lifted the young receptionist’s head and scooped her up in his arms to lay her out on the hard floor. Strands of wet hair clung to the sides of her face. Again, he lowered his ear. It hovered less than an inch from her slightly parted lips.

              He waited, straining to hear for any signs of life coming from the poor girl. All he heard was the shuffling of feet, gasps from the onlookers, and someone talking over the intercom.

              “Everyone step back,” he said when he noticed the wall of legs closing in on him. “Give her some room.”

Placing one hand over the other, he started chest compressions.

“One. Two. Three. Four.” He counted quietly to himself. “Come on, Kelly. Five. Six. Seven. Eight.”

The young woman’s head moved from side-to-side as Lee tried his best to bring her back to life. Where were the nurses with the damn crash cart? Why wasn’t anyone coming to help?

He pinched her small nose and lowered his lips onto her, hoping desperately to breathe life back into her. Her pale cheeks puffed out and then deflated once he removed his mouth from hers. Over and over, he repeated these steps with precision, holding it together as best he could.

She couldn’t die.

He wouldn’t let her die.

He had to save her.

Just as Lee was about to lower his mouth to hers a second time, Kelly’s eyes popped open. There were no gasping breaths, no sudden movement to sit up, no tears rolling down her cheeks. Her lids simply sprang open to reveal bloodshot eyes.

“Oh, thank God!” Lee heaved, wiping at his forehead. “Kelly, are you all right? Can you hear me?”

Her sickly eyes rolled slowly over to him. Her lips peeled back to reveal all her glistening teeth. Lee stared, unsure if she had suffered from a stroke. She needed a doctor now. A low rumble came from deep within her throat.

Suddenly, the nurse’s station erupted in panic. Shrieks of terror echoed down the long hallway. People ran in every direction. As he turned to see what was going on, a pair of cold hand clasped around Lee’s neck and pulled him to the ground.

Kelly was trying to bite him. He struggled against her, unsure how a girl of a hundred and ten pounds could be so strong. The clacking of her teeth grew louder as she tugged at him desperately.

“Stop, Kelly! Let go!” he yelled as he pressed his arms into her chest and locked his elbows.

It was the only thing he could do to keep himself away from her snapping jaws. Someone else ran by, tripping over the pair as they wrestled on the ground.

One of the doctors, a man Lee had gotten a drink with once late after work, lunged onto the fallen man and sank his teeth into his neck. Blood erupted like a fountain as arteries severed. The injured man garbled, trying to get one last scream out before it was all over.

Doctor Stenson didn’t stop as the hands of the dying man under him tried to swat him away. He buried his face further into the tender part of the neck and ripped away strips of flesh and muscle. Bright red blood ran down his chin as he chewed and chewed at what used to be a living, breathing human being.

Lee saw all of this from the corner of his eye while he tried to keep Kelly at bay. It was worse than he thought. Kelly wasn’t the only one who was sick. Whatever it was, it was spreading fast. He had to get out of there.

It went against everything Lee stood for, but he had no choice. He pulled an arm back and let it fly forward into Kelly’s jaw. Teeth and blood flew from her mouth and scattered over the white floor. He only had a second to feel any remorse before she whipped her head back to stare at him. She opened her mouth and released a horrifying sound—a mixture of a shriek, growl, and moan. It was unlike anything Lee had ever heard.

With her jagged teeth exposed, she lunged forward like a wild animal. Lee scrambled on his hands and feet until he felt something hard at his back. He rolled just in time to avoid getting a chunk of his own neck ripped out by Doctor Stenson.

Kelly collided with the doctor. The two tangled on the floor, shoving and tripping the other, but never trying to attack one another. Lee watched as he righted himself to stand tall next to the desk. When the two had finally gotten to their feet, they fell onto the dead and bloodied man together. Their hands dug into his abdomen, ripping through his soft skin as if it were made of dough. Grabbing at his entrails, they yanked and shoved them hastily into their masticating mouths.

Bile rose from Lee’s stomach. He turned his head to vomit. It kept coming until all the contents of his stomach lay sprawled on the floor behind him. There was no time to wipe his chin as more crazed people burst in from the adjoining hall. All their clouded eyes locked on him. He ran around the desk for the exit down the hall. What was going on? What kind of sickness was this?

Everywhere he turned, people were eating other people. Blocking the sliding glass doors to the parking lot were two middle-aged women and a teenage boy tearing into an elderly man. He was still conscious as their hands penetrated his body. His howls of agony echoed through Lee’s head, a sound he was sure he would never forget.

How much pain could a person endure before they couldn’t take it any longer? He was sure whatever that man felt was more than he himself could handle. But the old man wouldn’t give up. His frail, wrinkled arms pawed at the group of carnivores devouring him. He clenched his fists and hurled them at their shoulders, but it was useless.

There was no saving him. Lee was certain of that. The only question was how would he get around them to get out of the building?

The thought of abandoning the nearest exit to find another made his heart race even more. As he stood, trying desperately to make the right decision that would save his life, footsteps grew louder behind him. He whipped around, his fists clenched and raised in defense.

Another nurse, Heidi Birkoff, was headed for him, her stiff legs moving as fast as they could. Her once beautiful blonde hair was soaked through and stained red as if she had bathed in the blood of her victims. Black bile oozed from between her teeth as she gnashed them together maniacally. It dripped down her chin and onto the floor.

“Heidi, please, stop,” Lee begged. “I don’t want to hurt you. I know you can hear me, Heidi, please!”

If there was any consciousness left inside the thirty-three-year-old nurse, she wasn’t showing signs of it. Relentlessly, she moved forward, her arms outstretched and her fingers swiping at the air in front of her, hoping to latch onto any living thing unfortunate enough to get in her way.

Lee wanted to close his eyes and wish away the scene unfolding in front of him, but he knew if he did it would mean his death. Instead, he balled up his fists. His arms tensed at his side. He stared forward, waiting patiently for Heidi to come to him.

The closer she got, the more eagerly she moved. Her pace quickened to form a lopsided jog. Lee noticed a piece of sharp bone sticking out from the ankle that dragged behind her. Heidi’s mouth wrenched open as she closed in.

Lee kicked out his leg to meet her forcefully in the gut. The nurse was thrown back. A sickening crack echoed as her head met the hard floor. She struggled to right herself, but couldn’t. Against his better judgement, Lee walked over and looked down at the pathetic creature who had once given him a homemade card on his birthday.

His breaths became shallow. His eyes glossed over with the oncome of fresh tears. Heidi clawed at the air above her, snapping her jaw and straining her neck to get to the fresh, warm meat that hovered over her.

She was a monster come to life.

With the cry, Lee raised his foot high and brought it down on her head. In the movies, they show blood shooting out from all sides and brain spilling onto the floor, but all Lee heard was the crack of Heidi’s skull as it caved in from the force of his foot.

Tears streaked his face as she stared down at the unmoving mess that was once a happy, thoughtful, sweet, and caring woman. There was no going back from what he had just done. It didn’t matter what she was now. She was once a human being and he had just crushed the life from her in a matter of seconds.

The urge to crumble overwhelmed him. His legs shook as he forced them to stand tall under the weight of his massive body. His hands shook violently. How could he have done that? How could he kill someone? His job was to save people! The voices in his head screamed. His knees trembled as they prepared to buckle.