Deadlocked 8 (46 page)

“Hero, come on. Give me the gun.”

He obliged, and I held the rifle with one
hand as I tried to help him through the gap with the other. The
horde was right on his back, and I had to rest the rifle on him as
I fired out at them. He screamed a curse at me about how I was
burning the shit out of him, but I told him to shut up and hurry.
Finally, he climbed through and we both tumbled to the floor. The
dead were surging in through the mirror as well, and I fired up at
them, spraying rotten flesh and blood all across the ceiling, which
then promptly fell back down on us.

We crawled out of the room and into a hallway
that was lined with similar doors. The horde was pushing through
the mirror, and I was sure the rifle would be emptied any
second.

“Through here,” said Hero as he staggered
across the hall to the nearest door. I followed behind while firing
back at the zombies, but for every one I killed there seemed to be
two more coming at us.

All the while the red lights flashed, and I
heard a woman’s voice saying, “Please return to your rooms. You’re
not in any danger. Please return to your rooms. You’re not in any
danger.”

“Fuck you, bitch,” said Hero. “There’s all
sorts of danger.”

We made it into the room, and then closed the
door just as a creature slammed against it, forcing us back. I
thudded my shoulder and the door slammed shut.

“How do we lock it?” asked Hero as he looked
at the nearly featureless door.

Again, a creature bashed into it from the
other side, causing the door to open again before I pushed it
closed. Hero came to help, and pressed his back to the door.

“I don’t know how to lock it,” I said as we
were hit again.

“This sure is a hell of a way for us to go
out,” said Hero. “Stuck in some girl’s bathroom, with a horde at
our back and a lunatic planning to burn us to death. Only us, man.
Only us.”

The horde was massing now, and they were
pushing so hard that we could barely keep the door shut anymore. My
boots squeaked on the tile floor as I sat beside Hero and pressed
my back as hard against the door as I could. The brace was digging
into my side, and I could feel its sharp edge cutting into me, but
that pain was nothing compared to how my back felt.

I grimaced as I held the door shut, and I
forced out a question, “What did you mean back there about you
being dead already?”

Hero was in similar agony as he struggled to
press himself against the door. “I’m not going to make it much
longer. They were keeping me alive with some chemical shit. They
said I’ve only got a day or two off that stuff.”

“That might not be true,” I said, hoping it
might be the case. “These fuckers were all liars.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s true, man. But that’s
okay. If you get me to my son, it’ll all be worth it.”

“Please return to your rooms. You’re not in
any danger. Please return to your…”

That’s when the purge began. The fire that
immolated the facility burned through the halls in a flash. The
fire followed the air flow, devouring everything in its path, and
made its way through the hall and into the Dawn’s area. It surged
past the broken mirror, and all the way to the door at our
backs.

All of the air was sucked out of our room,
and the flames licked in through the gap that the zombies had
forced open. Grey fingers that had been poking into the room burst
into flames, and I watched the hair on my arm melt away just before
the blisters began to form.

No one could survive this.

Laura Conrad

“No one should’ve survived that,” said Billy
as he recounted the story to us. He lifted his bandaged arm and
said, “I saw my flesh blistering right in front of my eyes.”

It had been a long time since I’d seen him
this happy. Even though he was confined to his wheelchair, which he
normally hated, he was smiling wider than I’d seen in years.

“All the air got sucked out of the room, and
I couldn’t breathe. I was sure we were dead. There was no doubt in
my mind.”

His reunion with Hero had brought back a
youthful vigor that Billy had recently lost. The past couple days
he’d been regaling anyone that listened about what happened at the
airport facility.

Annie and I had been found on the road by the
Rollers, and then met back up with Zack and the rest of the
refugees of Vineyard. We’d decided it would be best to return to
the rehab center to wait until we were certain that New Vineyard
was safe. It was shortly after arriving back here that Abe showed
up with a car filled with girls that had come up from the
underground facility.

“He’s not kidding,” said Abe with an
ebullient grin. “We were all the way outside when it happened, and
even we almost got burned alive. Ask Celeste.”

The pretty young woman nodded in agreement
and said, “It’s true. We thought you two were dead.”

“I was sure of it,” said Abe. “Otherwise we
would’ve stuck around to drive you back here.”

“No worries,” said Billy. “We lucked out that
you had to come back for the rest of the girls, otherwise we
would’ve been walking our crippled asses all the way back
here.”

When Abe and the Dawns had escaped the
facility, he was only able to bring back a single car full, and had
left Celeste and several of the other Dawns there to wait for
someone to come back and pick them up. It had been on that return
trip that Hero and Billy shocked everyone by staggering out, their
hair singed and their skin raw, looking like fresh corpses that had
bounded up with their arms wrapped around each other’s shoulder,
laughing and screaming about how nothing could kill them.

I’d already heard Billy tell this story a few
times, and it seemed to get more unbelievable each time. Truth be
told, I liked the embellishments he added, because each time he
told the story it seemed like Hero’s legend grew.

Hero was the reason we’d gathered here. All
of us were eager to see him, because he’d requested to be
quarantined after arriving, and many of us hadn’t had the chance to
see him yet.

The rehab was currently packed tighter than
it ever had been before, but we were all just thankful to be alive,
and there were few complaints. This morning Clyde had asked me to
get a few people together that wanted to see Hero, but he didn’t
say much else. I did as he asked, and the rumor quickly spread that
Hero was better and that he would be coming out today. A crowd had
gathered, and many of them were eager to listen to Billy’s story
about their escape.

Over the past couple of days, Clyde had been
reporting back to us that Hero’s infection was fading, and that it
seemed to be true that his body was fighting the virus off. This
had been all Billy needed to hear for him to regain the zeal that
he’d been missing since Hero’s disappearance. The two of them were
as close as friends could be, and I understood when they referred
to each other as ‘brother.’

Clyde walked out of the room where Hero was
being kept, and down the hall to the waiting room where we were all
gathered. He was surprised by the amount of people here, and was
about to say something before Billy quickly piped in.

“How’s Hero doing?” asked Billy. “Is it okay
for him to see his son yet?” Because of the quarantine, Hero still
hadn’t gotten to meet Mark, and Billy was anxious for him to get
the chance.

Everyone was waiting for an answer, but Clyde
was reticent to provide one.

“Clyde?” asked Billy. “What’s up?”

Clyde’s solemn expression said far more than
he did. “It looks like he was right. The infection is almost out of
him, at least if you go by the boils. They’re shrinking down to
almost nothing.”

“That’s good, right?” asked Billy.

Clyde nodded, but his tone sounded far from
cheery. “It’s good, yes.”

“Great,” said Billy. “Then let’s get him in
to see that baby.”

“Billy,” Clyde knelt down beside his
friend.

Zack and I walked closer, and so did Annie.
The entire waiting room of the facility was filled with our
friends, but the silence among them was telling. We’d all been
certain that this would be a joyous occasion, but now doubt crept
in.

“What?” asked Billy in concern as he picked
up on Clyde’s somber tone.

“Hero’s…” Clyde looked down. “He’s sick.”

“Well then fix him,” said Billy as he looked
up at the rest of us and offered a shallow chuckle. “That’s what
you do, right? You’re the best doctor I know.” He stammered a
little as he said again, “Fix him.”

Clyde could only shake his head.

“What are you saying?” asked Billy, his voice
quavering.

“I don’t think he’s going to pull
through.”

“No,” said Billy, and I could hear his heart
breaking as he repeated it over and over. “No, no, no.” He was
desperate for Clyde to be wrong. “Hero’s a fighter, man. He’s not
going down like this. Not a chance in hell.”

“He’s having a hard time even breathing now,”
said Clyde.

Billy pushed Clyde’s arm away from him and
said, “Bullshit! He was doing fine when we got here.”

“I know, but his condition has been
getting…”

Billy screamed out, “What did you do to
him?”

Clyde calmly said again, “His condition has
been getting worse. I’ve tried everything I can.” I know that Clyde
had suffered through this sort of reaction from patients’ families
a hundred times, but it never got any easier. I could hear Clyde’s
sadness even as he tried to stay strong.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,”
said Billy. “Hero’s not going to die. Not a chance. Get the fuck
out of here.”

“Billy…”

“No, screw you, Clyde. Get back in there and
fix him.”

“Billy, listen to me.”

Billy struck out at his old friend, and I
stepped forward to intercede. Clyde fell back, and Billy was
screaming at the doctor as I wrapped my arms around him, pinning
him back to his chair and saying, “Calm down,” in an attempt to
still his rage.

“Get back in there and do your job, Clyde,”
said Billy, his voice trembling even as he yelled. “Do your fucking
job”

To his credit, Clyde never lost his temper.
I’d watched Billy and Clyde fight one another for the past twenty
years over a thousand different things, and this was the first time
I’d ever seen Clyde take abuse like this.

“I talked to Jill,” said Clyde, but his voice
was nearly drowned out by Billy’s berating.

“Calm down,” I said as I pinned Billy back.
Then I wrapped my arms around him and felt him begin to sob. I
pressed his head to me, wishing for nothing more than to steal away
the anguish I knew was building inside of him. “It’s okay.”

Clyde tried to speak again, and his voice
cracked from the sorrow that he was trying to hide, “I talked to
Jill. I think Hero’s safe to be around. She’s in there with him
now.”

Every time Clyde paused, I heard the grief
all around me as the crowd suffered the same as us.

“She wants him to meet Mark,” said Clyde, and
I didn’t need to see him to know that he was crying. We all were.
“And he wants you to be there when he meets him.”

“What?” asked Billy, and I could feel his woe
in the way his body shook. I held him tighter, aching for him as
well as for Hero.

“He wants you to be there the first time he
meets his son.”

Billy lost it. He wrapped his arms around me
and wept, pressing his face to my shoulder as I rubbed his
back.

Clyde continued, “He asked for you, and
Laura, and Annie. That’s who he wants in there.”

“Jesus Christ,” said Billy as he held me even
tighter. “Laura, he’s not supposed to die. Not Hero. Not him.”

“I know,” I said, and was shocked by how hard
it was to get any words out. It seemed like the only thing my body
wanted to do was grieve. It would’ve been easier to curl up into a
ball on the floor and scream than to find the strength to go in and
see our friend for what might be the last time.

Clyde put his hand on my shoulder and said,
“We should go in there.” When I didn’t respond immediately, he
said, “It’s time. We should hurry.”

I got up and went around to push Billy. I
felt Annie’s tight grip on my arm. I looked over at her, and saw
that her cheeks were bright red, as were her eyes. She was
suffering as much as I was, and I stole a moment to embrace her.
Billy was rolling himself along now, determined to get into Hero’s
room as soon as he could.

Annie and I followed, and I whispered to her,
“It’s okay. He’s going to meet his baby. Let’s be happy for
him.”

She tried to say something, but her words
were lost as she sobbed. I wiped away her tears with my thumb, and
then kissed her cheek.

We entered Hero’s room, and saw him lying
alone on one of the two beds. A thick cover was pulled up over him,
but he still looked fragile and thin. His face was gaunt, and his
skin pale. His eyes had bags beneath them, and his lips were so
chapped that they looked nearly white. Jill was standing beside the
bed, and wordlessly waved to us as we entered. Her face was puffy
and her eyes were weary. She had the look of a person that had run
out of tears.

Billy rolled up alongside the bed, and Hero
turned to look at him.

“Hey there,” said Billy, trying his best to
sound chipper, although he clearly wasn’t. “Clyde never said
anything to me about this. He said you were doing better. If I’d
known, man, no one could’ve kept me from being in here with
you.”

“I know,” said Hero, and his voice was
scratchy and distant. “That’s why I told him to shut his trap.”

“That’s not fair,” said Billy, allowing
himself to be amused by his friend. “I want to be right here with
you, bro.”

“But then I wouldn’t have gotten to hear you
out there yelling and carrying on about how badass our escape
was.”