Dead of Knight: A Zombie Apocalypse Survival Tale (3 page)

              The President hadn’t made a statement yet but his press secretary had the usual to say:  stay calm, pray, the appropriate authorities are investigating, etc.  No one agency seemed to be in charge.  Officials from Homeland Security, the CDC, FBI, FDA and local agencies were all giving press conferences.  And they were all on different pages of the playbook.  The CDC was making the most sense in their press conference telling people to stay home and avoid contact with anyone who had gotten any flu vaccine.  Finally, in the CDC conference, someone asked a question that seemed the most relevant.

              “Do we know exactly where the tainted flu vaccines were sent?”

              “Yes,” was the reply.  “And we are in the process of getting that info out.  Your respective news agencies should have it in a few minutes.”

              The picture cut back to an anchor at CNN who was saying that while they waited for that info they were going to talk to a panel of experts.  Experts?  Who could be an expert on something that had never happened before?  On something that was impossible?  The so called experts were in denial of the facts anyway.  They were claiming that the tainted flu vaccine patients weren’t completely dead.  It reminded me of ‘The Princess Bride’ where Wesley is ‘mostly dead.’  These experts were actually saying that multiple medical professionals in multiple locations had all made the same mistake.  None of them were going out on a limb and stating the obvious.  That meant that plans and solutions weren’t yet being made.  It seemed ominous.

              While all of that was happening on the big screen, I grabbed my iPad and logged onto Facebook.  There were several posts about what had happened at the hospitals.  And Twitter was blowing up with the story.  But, most people thought it was an elaborate hoax.  Even the die-hard conspiracy theorist people were skeptical.  I sent a few messages to online friends and a few real life friends. I also grabbed my phone and called the next door neighbors.  The Thompson were good neighbors and pseudo grandparents to the kids.  No answer.  I looked around online again.  You could almost feel things getting worse.

              “Maybe we should turn this off for a while.”

              I literally jumped off the sofa at the sound of my wife’s voice. Even Thor was startled a little.  This brought a laugh from my kids.  But, I didn’t think it was funny at all under the circumstances.  I had not heard them come into the room.  It took a moment before I was able to speak.

              “Christ, I’m gonna put bells on you guys.  You scared the crap out of me.”  This only made Mal laugh harder which made Tabby laugh harder.  It even brought a smile to my face finally.  I was glad they weren’t so scared that they couldn’t laugh.  “I don’t think we can turn it off, Sam.  We need to keep track of what’s going on.  What if some of that tainted flu vaccine was sent to Charleston?”

              “Wait.”  That made my daughters laughter go away immediately.  “You mean that those monsters could be here, too?”

              “They’re not monsters, Tab.  They’re just people who are sick.”

              “Mom, stop.  If you die and come back to life that makes you a monster.”

              “No,” said my son, Malcolm.  “You’re a zombie.”

              All of us turned to look at Mal.  I’m sure my mouth was hanging open.  And time seemed to come to a halt.  With all that was going on, all the news reporters and experts, all the press conferences and no one had put a name to it.  Leave it to my seven year old to call it what it was:  The Zombie Apocalypse.

              “They’re just in movies,” Sam said.   “There’s no such thing as zombies, Mal.”

              “I think there are now,” I said quietly.

              Just then the news anchor caught our attention.  They now were ready with the list of cities that had received the tainted vaccines.  There were approximately 50,000 doses sent out.  The graphics on the screen scrolled through the names of the cities.  There were a lot.  Then, there it was…  Charleston, SC

              “Do we know anyone who has gotten a flu shot recently?”  I just threw it out to the room.

              “Yeah,” said Sam.  “Several people at work have gotten shots.”

              “Are any of them sick?”

              “Come to think of it, I don’t think any of them were at work today.”

              “I know a few kids at school who have gotten flu shots,” said Tabby.

              “Oh God, Ryan.  The Thompsons next door got flu shots.  I’m sure other neighbors have, too.”

              Mal just shook his head.  I guess his age don’t talk about stuff like that.

              “What about your mother?”  Sam’s mom, Karen lived about 2 hours away in Savannah.

              “I don’t know.”

              “Call her and check.  Tab, humor me and go check the windows and doors again.”  She nodded and went to do it.  No eye rolling, no back talk.  That was good.  She was helping and enjoying it.  That left me.  I needed a plan but it would have to wait.  Sam was off the phone already.  That was strange.

              “She didn’t get one yet.”  Sam collapsed into my lap and threw her arms around me.  “Thank God.  She kept putting it off this year.  She always gets one.  Always.”  She looked up at me.  “What about your mom?”

              “About a month ago.  She told me when she was bugging me about none of us getting one.”

              “A month ago?  Maybe she didn’t get a tainted one.  She lives in a rural area.  Maybe the tainted ones didn’t get to rural areas.  Besides, something would’ve happened by now.”

              “Maybe.  I don’t remember when the Boston victims got their vaccines or how long they were sick.  But, I did see Baltimore go by on the list of cities that got the tainted vaccines.  If you live on the eastern shore of Maryland, I bet your flu vaccines go through Baltimore.  I tried to call her a few days ago and didn’t get her.  I’ll try again in a bit.”

              Tabby got back from her task and sat down next to Sam and hugged her. 

              “We good, Tabby?”  She nodded and Mal came over and threw his arms around his sister.  We stayed like that for a few moments, savoring the energy and love.  Then Tabby asked the obvious question.

              “Now what?”

              “Well, I think we’re safe in the house for now.  Do not open the door for anyone.  Period.  We have food and water.  We’ll do what they say and hang tight for now.”  Our house was a two story colonial style house.  The bedrooms and two bathrooms were upstairs and there was a spare bedroom downstairs that we used as a craft and storage room.  Another bathroom, kitchen, dining and family room were also downstairs.

              A change in the TV picture caught my attention.  The CNN anchor was saying that they had lost the live feed from the crew in Boston and that they were working to get them back.  Other sources were reporting that the hospital where the attacks were was being evacuated and ambulances were transporting the wounded to other area hospitals.  I just shook my head and sighed.

              “Well, that’s the worst thing you could do.  It appears that the dead are coming back to life and attacking the living.  Right now there seems to be no other explanation.”  I chuckled a bit.  “Sorry.  I almost said ‘logical explanation’ but caught myself.  Yet, the wounded are being transported to other hospitals.  Those are the anchors own words.  They have no idea what they’re dealing with.  They’re just helping to spread the damn things.  These wounded are going to die then come back to life and kill more people.  Those people are still thinking like doctors and nurses, trying to help.  It’s admirable.  But it’s going to get out of control.  This is what I was afraid of.”

              ‘You’ve got to tell someone,” said Sam.

              “What?  Tell who?  I don’t think the Governor of South Carolina is going to take my call.”

              “Call CNN.”  The words came from Mal.  It wasn’t the worst idea.

              “Okay, get me the number.”

              While Mal was looking for a phone number for CNN a live feed came back from the missing crew in Boston.  The scenes were of absolute chaos.  The hospital was surrounded by flashing lights from police vehicles.  A perimeter had been set up and there was smoke coming from the building, maybe three or four floors up.  The camera operator had set up across the street from the hospital in another building so there was an excellent view of the chaos.  Faint gunfire could be heard coming from inside the hospital.  Every few moments a member of the police would bring out someone who had been injured.  Most of the injured had probably been bitten so the police were unwittingly ensuring that the virus or whatever it was would not be contained here.  In between the escorted victims, every so often an unescorted victim would come running out.  Sometimes they were met by a medic and sometimes they simply ran into the watching, waiting crowd.

              Soon, police could be seen backing out of the building as they fired on some unseen threat.  A few police ran up from the perimeter to join the fight as the zombies, I guess that’s what we’re calling them now, reached the doors and staggered outside in full view of every camera at the scene.  The police stopped and made a stand, not wanting to let the zombies reach the crowd.  Amazingly, the crowd stayed.  Everyone was watching in amazement and horror.  There were more than 20 zombies heading for the police line.  A few went down with leg wounds as the police fired into them.  But, the injured zombies continued to advance toward the crowd now crawling instead of staggering.  One or two went down with head shots but the police didn’t seem to make the connection.   Then an officer ran out of ammo, dropped his firearm and broke ranks, running into the crowd.  This unnerved some of the crowd and they tried to back up, pushing and shoving.  Then three more officers ran.  Another fell to his knees and held out his arms like Elias in ‘Platoon.”

              Then, all at once, the zombies were on the police.  They fell upon the brave men and women who had made their stand, trying desperately to protect the innocent lives behind them.  The zombies feasted as the crowd tried to run.  But there were too many people in the crowd and the ones in the back couldn’t see.  The camera watched as people trampled one another trying to get away.  Zombies looked up for their next meal as their previous meal died from their wounds.  Those in the crowd who were trampled made easy prey, even for a slow, staggering zombie.  The CNN camera operator zoomed in on a young girl as a zombie reached her and began feasting, tearing into her tender flesh.  You could hear her screaming over the other screams as the zombie ate.  The camera operator must’ve realized what was happening because they moved on and focused on the hospital entrance where more zombies were staggering out of the doors.

              The picture returned to the studio.  The anchor was crying and someone moved into view to try to comfort him.  Another anchor stepped in front of the scene and spoke as the camera focus adjusted.

              “I think you all feel the same after what we all just witnessed.  It looks like a scene from a horror movie, but I assure you that this is really happening.  It is not a joke.   It is not CGI.  It is not some ‘War of the Worlds’ type broadcast.  We are getting reports of similar scenes, some worse if you can believe that, in New York, Atlanta, Orlando, St. Louis, Charlotte, Phoenix and our nation’s capital.  Basically, and someone correct me if I’m wrong, these are all cities where the tainted vaccine was sent.  The President is scheduled to speak in about an hour, but I think it’s safe to say that if you live in an area where the tainted flu vaccine was sent, or even if you don’t, just stay in your homes, or your office or school or wherever you are.  Do not check on loved ones.  Do not answer the door.  Stay inside and let’s see if our leaders can come up with a plan for this new threat.  What can only be called, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, but can only be called the zombie invasion.”

              I’m sure the anchor continued talking but I didn’t hear any of it.  I don’t think the other members of the family heard it, either.  We all sat in stunned silence of what we’d just seen and heard.  We were all crying and poor Thor was nuzzling Tabby trying to figure out what was going on.  Maybe it was time to turn the TV off for awhile.

              “Sam, why don’t you go start dinner?  Something fresh.  We don’t want to use up anything in cans until the frozen and fresh stuff is gone.  Tab, can you take Mal up to your room and play.  Your Mom and I will be right down here if you need us.”

              Hugs all around then the family spit up.  I grabbed a pen and pad of paper and started taking notes.  I need a list.  It’s how I work best.  There were a lot of things to think about.  Too many, actually.  Where are the flashlights?  Should we all sleep in one room or are we okay in separate rooms for now?  Do we leave the safety of the house to check on the Thompsons next door?  They’ve been so good to us over the years.  The list goes on and on.

              Some of it was easy.  I have my own flashlight as does Samantha.  There were two others in the hall closet downstairs and one in the garage.  Plus, we could use our phones in a pinch.  For now, anyway.  But, at some point we won’t have the ability to charge them.  Other answers depend on how long this lasts.  I guess that’s the big question.  Can the government handle this type of emergency?  Theoretically they could find all the people who got the tainted flu vaccine and round them up.  Problem solved.  Except it wasn’t.  It was too late for that; the zombies had already broken out.  Besides, the government couldn’t do anything quickly.  It was way too large to mobilize to take care of the problems of Super storm Sandy or Hurricane Katrina.  It’ll take days for them to get it together.  By then, 50, 000 people could die and wake up as zombies.  Who knows what trouble that would cause?  Then what about the people that had been bitten today?  They’re gonna be zombies too.  That’s how zombies work.  If there are such things as zombies?  Which now, apparently, there are.  I can’t even go any further down that road.  The basic math is bad enough.  If everyone who got the tainted flu vaccine became zombies, then turned two other people into zombies, who then turned two other people into zombies, we’ll be ass deep in zombies in just a few days.