Lakewood Memorial (19 page)

Maylee slammed on the gas and the car raced
forward. The car bounced as wood fell away underneath it.

The headlights lit up the chain across the
other end of the bridge. They both screamed. Then Maylee squared
her jaw. There was no other choice. She gunned the engine more and
the car picked up speed.

The car hit the chain and Maylee's heart
leapt when it snapped. The car reached pavement just as a huge
chunk of the bridge fell away into the river. Maylee screeched to a
halt. The second chain and sign flew away from the front of the
car, clattering to the road.

Both Maylee and Dalton looked over their
shoulders. The bridge gave a final groan and collapsed into the
river.

"We're in so much trouble," said Dalton.

"I think the world has more things to worry
about right now," said Maylee. She turned back and gave the car
gas.

Twenty-Seven

The cafeteria was in flames behind them as
Angie and Park rushed down the hallway. Kristen and Mr. Paulson
followed.

"Shit," said Angie, stopping and turning
back to look. "We really have to hurry now. No way we're putting
that out."

Alarms went off all over the hospital. A
splitting, piercing ringing.

"And this is when the sprinklers would be
going off?" said Park, looking around.

"Yeah," said Angie. "Come on." She turned to
look back at the others. Kristen was walking toward her.

"What?" said Angie just as Kristen balled up
her fist and punched her.

"Don't you ever fucking treat my father that
way!" she screamed.

Angie dropped the jugs of alcohol she was
carrying. She flashed red and shoved Kristen away. "Back off,
bitch! You want to beat my ass, wait 'til we get fucking
outside!"

"Hey!" yelled Park. "As
much as I love a good cat fight, we really
really
need to fucking
get!"

Kristen glared at Angie. She rushed her,
slamming her into the wall and grabbing her hair. Angie screamed
and rammed her knee into Kristen's stomach.

* * *

"Come the fuck on!" said Park, yelling at
Angie and Kristen. Mr. Paulson watched as his daughter and Angie
fought in the hallway. He could feel the heat from the cafeteria
behind them, even though it was a good twenty feet.

He said nothing, looking at Kristen's pale
face. He knew the look. She was spent. It was the same look she had
when she'd spent all day caring for him. The same look she had when
Sam would go off by himself and do whatever the fuck it was he used
to do.

He looked at Angie as she
struggled with Kristen. The bitch had almost got him killed. Maybe
he was asking for it. Maybe he
wanted
it. He should have died years
ago. Did people think he liked being a tired old man who couldn't
even fucking stand up anymore? Did people think he liked sucking
away at his daughter's time? He could barely get to the toilet
himself anymore. How long before he had to wear a goddamned diaper
and lay on the bed while his
daughter
changed him?

He heard groaning come from the cafeteria.
He wheeled himself around to look. Down the hallway corpses were
approaching through the flames.

He turned back to the others. They were
arguing with each other.

He started to say something, then shut his
mouth. Fuck it.

Fuck
this
.

He looked one last time at
Kristen.
I'm sorry
, he thought.

He wheeled the chair around to face back
toward the cafeteria. He pushed the controller forward and moved
toward the door. The corpses were just starting to emerge.

"Here I come, fuckers," he said. With his
free hand, he reached behind himself and pulled the tube from his
oxygen tank. He heard the slight hiss of the nozzle next to his
ear.

The corpses saw him coming and groaned in
welcome. Mr. Paulson reached over his head and twisted the
regulator open as far as it would go. The oxygen blasted him in the
back of the head, the hiss of it almost drowning out the groaning
of the corpses.

"Dad?" came Kristen's voice far behind
him.

I'm
sorry
.

The corpses closed in on him. He fished out
his lighter, held it up to the oxygen nozzle, and lit it.

* * *

The explosion shook the hallway.

"Dad!" screamed Kristen, rushing toward the
fireball.

"No!" Angie grabbed Kristen and pulled her
back.

"Let me fucking go!" Kristen screeched,
struggling with Angie.

Flames leapt across the ceiling and walls.
Corpses groaned. Kristen fell to her knees, sobbing. "Dad!"

Angie looked up ahead and her eyes grew
wide. "Everybody down!"

She and Park dropped to the floor. Angie
pushed Kristen over to lay flat. "Let me go!" Kristen yelled.

Mr. Paulson's wheelchair flew over their
heads, slamming into the wall to their right. Flames from it coated
the wall and shot up over their heads.

"Come on!" yelled Park, climbing to his
feet.

"No!" yelled Kristen, reaching toward the
cafeteria. All Angie could see up there were flames and the outline
of corpses. "Dad!"

Angie grabbed Kristen's shoulders and pulled
her to her feet. "Come on!"

"Dad!"

Angie turned Kristen around and pushed her
forward, down the hallway. She bent to get the jugs of alcohol. One
was too close to the flames. She grabbed the one she could safely
get and stood.

"Come on!" she yelled.

She and Park ran down the hallway, Angie
dragging Kristen with them.

Twenty-Eight

Maylee guided the car
through another bend in the road. It was a little easier than
before. She was getting the hang of this. She smiled to
herself.
See, I'm not a kid
anymore.

Dalton was looking out his side window,
watching trees speed by. He turned to her. "How much longer?"

"Not long at all," said Maylee.

Dalton nodded. "Okay, I'll get the bat so we
won't forget it this time." He crawled around in his seat, reaching
into the back.

Maylee shot a quick look over at him, then
back at the road. "Hey, your seat belt isn't on!"

"So?"

"Put it on right now!" Maylee turned the
wheel, going through another bend.

"I'm just getting the bat!"

"Dammit, Dalton!" she said. She took one
hand off the wheel and pushed him back into his seat. "Put it
on!"

He glared at her, then started to reach for
the back seat again.

"Now!" Maylee yelled, doing her best Mom
impression. Dalton sat back in his seat, looked at Maylee, then
reached for his seat belt. He put it on and stuck his tongue out at
her.

Maylee smiled and went around another
corner.

Three corpses stood in the middle of the
road.

Maylee and Dalton screamed as the headlights
washed over the corpses. Maylee panicked and wrenched the wheel as
far to the right as she could. The car screeched, slid down the
road sideways, and flipped over.

For a moment all Maylee knew was the sound
of crunching metal and breaking glass. And Dalton screaming.

Then her senses were too numb to know
anything.

Then, slowly, they came back. She was upside
down in her seat, hanging from the seat belt. Dalton coughed next
to her.

Oh god
, she thought, looking upside-down at the glass strewn across
the road and smelling the burnt rubber of the tires.
I
am
just a kid. What the hell am I doing?

She heard the sounds of feet shuffling to
her right. The corpses were coming.

"Dalton?" she said. "Are you okay?"

"I think so."

Maylee fumbled with her seat belt. It
detached and she fell to the top of the car. Her head banged
against the ceiling. It smarted but she did her best to ignore it.
The corpses were getting closer. She could hear them.

She got up to her knees and reached across
Dalton to his seat belt. He seemed to be okay.

"Told you to wear this," she said,
quietly.

She undid the latch and caught Dalton as he
slid out of his seat.

A pair of legs appeared just outside the
broken windshield.

"Shit," she said, easing Dalton down. "We
gotta get out of here."

Moaning came from over the car. With a "pop"
and the sound of flesh tearing, the corpse dropped to its knees. It
was a woman in a flower-print dress. She moaned through cracked
lips and reached for them.

Maylee turned to her window just in time to
see another corpse crawling toward it. It was a man covered in
scrapes and cuts. He reached out, clawing at her.

Dalton screamed from behind her. Maylee
turned to see that the woman almost had him. She looked past Dalton
to see his window was still shut. The car was too wrecked to even
think about trying to get it open.

"Back seat!" she yelled, pulling him into
the back and clear of the reaching corpses.

The woman at the front of the car climbed
into the car after them. Her dress caught on a piece of glass,
slowing her down. The woman grunted and tugged, reaching for Maylee
and Dalton.

Dalton picked up the bat and swung it at the
woman's hands. Maylee kicked at the back window. The window cracked
but didn't give.

The corpse at the side window stuck its head
inside. It bit and hissed at Dalton. Dalton swung the bat into the
corpse's face, then back at the reaching woman. "Hurry!" he
yelled.

Maylee kicked the back window a second time.
Cracks spread through the glass but the window held.

The corpses up front and to the side reached
back at them. Dalton furiously swung the bat from side to side.

"Dammit!" Maylee yelled, kicking the back
window with all her might. The window gave. The window shattered
outward.

Maylee pulled her leg back and turned to tug
Dalton toward her. "Come on!"

They both crawled for the
opening in the glass.
Wait
, Maylee thought as they
crawled,
weren't there three corpses in
the road?

A rotten arm reached down from above and
into the broken window. It caught Dalton by the hair and he
screamed. Maylee could hear the corpse groaning from atop the
overturned car.

Dalton pulled free and smacked the hand with
the bat, nearly hitting Maylee in the head in the process.

"Watch it!" said Maylee.

The woman from behind them groaned and
Maylee heard glass break. They looked back and saw that she was
free of the glass. She was crawling into the car.

"Shit!" Maylee turned back to the grasping
hand. She grabbed hold of it and pulled it toward her as hard as
she could. The arm caught on the glass of the broken back window.
Maylee tugged harder and the skin of the rotten arm tore and
snapped. She fell back, the arm in her lap. She flung the arm aside
and grabbed Dalton.

"Now!" she yelled, pulling him with her.
They crawled out of the car, avoiding the rotten stump where the
arm had been.

Out on the street, they stood and looked
around. The car was in ruin. A corpse was atop the car, hissing at
them. It had no arms. Apparently Maylee had broken off its last
one.

"Serves you right!" she said.

"What?" said Dalton, looking around.

"Nothing," said Maylee, taking the bat from
Dalton. She slammed it down on the corpse's head. The rotten head
collapsed and the corpse fell forward, still. The other two corpses
were crawling around in the car.

"Now what?" said Dalton.

Maylee looked around. She pointed the bat
toward the woods. "The hospital should be just over the hill that
way. If we take a shortcut through the woods, we should still get
there pretty fast."

Dalton looked at the woods, then back at
Maylee. After a few seconds, he nodded.

Maylee frowned down at him. "Are you
scared?"

"No!" he glared at her.

"Well I am," she said. "But let's go
anyway."

And with that they turned and ran into the
woods.

Twenty-Nine

Angie raced down the hallway, Park and
Kristen behind her. The fire alarm kept up its shrill clanging, all
throughout the hospital. Smoke was coming from the hallway behind
them.

"How much further?" said Park from
behind.

"Not much," said Angie. "Just around the
corner is the..."

And she stopped.

Park and Kristen drew to a halt behind her.
"What?" said Park.

Angie stepped around the corner. "The
maternity ward."

Park and Kristen came up beside her.

A small room stood just to Angie's right.
She stepped inside.

"I forgot," she said, cold dread creeping
over her. "I can't believe I forgot."

A group of white hospital cribs stood in the
room. The three closest ones rocked slowly from side to side.

Park and Kristen stepped in after her.
"Forgot what?" said Kristen, her voice raw and thick.

Angie stepped over to the cribs and looked
down. "The Wilson triplets."

In the cribs lay three identical infants.
All three were gray with clouded eyes. They worked their toothless
mouths open and closed. They fumbled at the air around them.

And Angie couldn't hear it over the loud and
constant fire alarm, but she could tell they were moaning.

"Shit," said Park, looking down over Angie's
shoulder.

"Oh god," said Kristen, stepping back. She
put her hand over her mouth. "Oh god," she said again, muffled by
her hand.