Zombies! Episode 2 - Abby's Bad Day (5 page)

"Martin, I'm at
Sisters of Charity
hospital." Her voice broke. "There's been some trouble."

Martin's irritated breathing stalled and his
voice leveled out. "What sort of trouble?"

"I had to bring a customer here and he…he
died."

"Are you all right?" His voice was still
even.

"Martin, he got up again. He bit this nurse
and this security guard and they both died, too. And then they got
up and we're trapped in the emergency room."

"Abby, what are you trying to say?"

Abby shook her head. "Oh, Martin, I'm sorry.
I love you. I just, they've got us trapped and I wanted to hear
your voice."

"You said
Sisters of Charity
,
yes?"

"Yes." She was barely speaking now. In the
background, she heard the room phone ring.

"I'm on my way there."

"What? Martin, that's not a good idea…"

Dr. Leke tapped her on the shoulder. Abby
looked at her. She was holding the exam room's phone in one hand,
offering it to Abby. Abby hadn't even heard it ring.

"It's the policeman," she said. "He wants to
talk to you."

Abby knitted her brow. "Me? Why?"

Dr. Leke shrugged. "He asked for you by
name."

Abby spoke into her cell phone. "Martin?"
There was no answer. He was gone.

Taking the room phone, she put it to her ear,
closing up the other putting it away at the same time. "Hello?"

"Abby, my name is Anthony Heron. Do you
remember me?"

She shrugged. "I don't have a lot of
experience with policemen, unless you're one of the officers who
came into the gym last week."

"That's right," he said to her.

She pictured their faces in her mind. They
were blurry but she could remember a few details. "Which one are
you?"

"The handsome one," he said and she could
hear him smiling. What she couldn't know was that he was smiling
because Stemmy would have thought that was funny. But he went
serious again right away. "Are you at the hospital because of one
of those zombies?"

"Yes," she said tentatively. "Karl had a
nosebleed and dropped a weight on his foot. I brought him down and
he just died."

"Do you remember why I came in last
week?"

"You came in about Larrry Koplowitz. He'd
been killed." It suddenly dawned on her. "Is this connected?"

"Larry was a zombie. His wife and his little
girl were also zombies."

Larry had a family.
"Do you think it's
connected to the gym? Could I be infected?"

Suddenly the others in the room looked at her
a little differently.

"I wish you hadn't said that," Heron told
her, picturing the reactions of the others in the room. "If you
were infected, you'd probably know it."

"But it's been a week since Larry. And now
Karl…"

Heron cleared his throat commandingly. "Abby,
I need for you to keep a level head. If you're not sick then you're
not infected."

There was a tap on her shoulder and she
turned to see Peter, white faced, pointing at the door.

***

HERON
turned away from the phone at
the touch of a finger on his shoulder. It was Culph, returned from
his assignment. He was pointing into the ER.

"Abby, are you still there?"

"They're coming in," she said to him.
"They've figured out the door handle."

Jane was doing it. Maybe she'd leaned on it
by mistake or maybe there was some semblance of a brain still left
in that head. But she had her hand on the handle and she was
pushing it down. After that it was just a matter of pushing…

"Block that door. Throw everything you have
against it!"

Over the phone, Heron heard furniture moving
and people shouting. He put down the phone. They needed to get in
there now. Where the hell was Mancina?

Mancina was just coming back into the ER
waving a slip of paper as the doors themselves opened to admit a
familiar and unwelcome face. Dr. Denise Luco had been there when
Stemmy had died. His week old memory had Heron remembering her as
cold, typical, more concerned about her subjects than the lives
attached to them. Today she wore a smart green skirt suit that was
as starched as her personality. Her hair was done back in a pony
tail showing off grey roots. The look on her face matched the black
in her heart.

"What have you got there, Dr. Mancina?" she
asked, cutting the hospital's chief off in his tracks.

"Um, do I know you, miss?"

"Dr. Denise Luco." She extended a hand which
Mancina tentatively took. "I'm from the health department."

Heron reached for the paper, but Luco
intervened. He tried to hold onto his calm as he said, "There are
people trapped in that exam room and we need to get them out. I can
take down all three of those zombies before they take two
steps."

"I'm sorry, Detective. There's blood
everywhere and we still don't have a handle on just how
communicable the infection is. We need to analyze the situation
better before we override the lockdown."

Heron growled and turned to Mancina. "Those
are your colleagues in there, Doctor."

The poor man seemed overwrought with the
decision at hand. Heron was locked in a very atypical display of
frustration while Luco seemed cool and collected.

"I'm sorry, Detective. I have to defer to Dr.
Luco on this matter." He handed the paper to her.

At least she didn't gloat.

Heron turned away from them and pulled Culph
aside. The younger officer handed him a radio.

"Thanks," Heron said. "Do you want to do some
real police work?"

Culph looked over at the two doctors. He'd
overheard the conversation and put most of the pieces together. He
nodded.

"Good," said Heron and then gave him a list
of instructions.

***

THEY
pushed the small table and the
bed with Marie on it up against the door. Peter, desperately trying
to hold the handle in position, complained bitterly about how
strong the undead were.

"Everyone up against it!" shouted Dr.
Leke.

They pushed themselves into the back of the
bed, Everett crawling underneath to lock the wheels. The door
pushed open an inch and then halted against their combined weight.
Dr. Leke, Heron's warning still bouncing around in her head,
searched the room desperately for a weapon but there was nothing.
An IV stand stood unused on the corner but it was too long to be
effective in the enclosed space. Even still, it was too light to do
any real damage.

The bed moved.

Now all three zombies were pushing against
the door together. Though their weight was less by far than the
weight against the door, their strength seemed to have doubled. A
hand came through, probing. It found Marie's leg and wrapped around
it, pulling. She didn't even flinch.

"Get her off the bed!" Peter shouted and Dr.
Leke had an idea. A terrible idea.

"Everyone into the corner," she told them,
pointing to the right of the door. She was terrified at the
prospect of what she was about to do but she didn't know whether
she feared more for her body or her soul.

"They'll get right through," Peter hissed at
her.

"They're coming through anyway." She couldn't
tell them what she was going to do. They would never allow it.

Reaching forward, she grabbed Marie under the
shoulders and pulled her from the bed. The girl felt hot and light
in her arms. The zombie hand around her ankle resisted a bit but
lost ground as the door pushed against it.

"Go now!" Dr. Leke cried and the four people
moved away from the bed. The door burst open and the bed was pushed
up against the side wall. Dr. Leke, with Marie in tow, stepped in
front of the stumbling monstrosities, at the same time signaling
for the others to hold. They huddled in the corner to her right,
unsure of what was about to happen.

Then, just as the zombies regained what
passed for their composure, she dumped Marie off to the left. The
wounded and delirious girl fell to the floor with a thud and the
three zombies pounced, fighting each other for the flesh.

Like dumb deer caught in the headlights of an
oncoming truck, the people just stared until Dr. Leke shouted at
them to run. Abby was the first to recover, pushing and shoving at
Patricia, Peter, and Everett until all four of them had cleared the
room. Dr. Leke made a break for the open door but Sven, on the
outskirts of the feast, caught wind of her and grabbed hold of her
foot with his one good arm. He moved in to bite and she punched him
hard in the mouth, years of martial arts training, long since
abandoned, resurfacing for just that moment. But it wasn't enough.
She was too old and they were too strong. Looking up, she saw Peter
starting back toward her. In her last moments, she could see the
sacrifice she had made for their lives and thought it good. But she
could smell the blood, Marie's blood. Mercifully, the girl was too
far gone to scream. But Dr. Leke wasn't. And as the first of the
zombies sank its teeth into her thigh, she reached out and pushed
the door shut.

Let's see them figure out how to
pull
it open
, she thought and then was submerged in the
agony.

***

THE
radio crackled and Heron lifted it
to his face.

"Detective Heron," came the tinny voice from
the other end.

"Yeah."

"The guard's been sighted at the main
entrance. He came out, saw the cops, and then went back in."

"Anyone tracking him?"

"I sent in two uniformed officers."

"Do not approach him. Repeat: do
not
approach him. Just keep track of his location."

It was time to go. Heron had to deal with the
guard personally or he was likely to get himself killed or, worse,
infect someone else. Unfortunately, he needed to deal with the
situation in the ER as well. He would have to trust someone to do
the job for him. He'd tried to call Abby back but she'd left the
phone off the hook. He'd watched helplessly as the zombies spilled
into the room, gritting his teeth against the outcome. At this
point, he felt that errand he'd sent Culph on would be fruitless.
Then four people spilled out of the exam room and the door shut
behind them. He was only able to identify Abby for sure but both
doctors were men so he assumed Dr. Leke had been left behind. The
wounded girl was also missing. If the zombies didn't eat every last
bit of them, then there would be two more to deal with. In a
lightning flash of thought, Heron was able to apply that rate of
infection to the world.

He did not like what he saw.

Culph came back into the ER with six officers
and a large tote bag. One of the officers was carrying a sledge
hammer.

Heron smiled at the stricken look on Dr.
Luco's face.

"What are you doing?" She addressed
Culph.

"We're going to get those people out of
there," Heron answered and she turned to face him.

"You listen to me, Heron, that room is
rampant with infection. If you open it up and those zombies get
out…"

"They're not getting out. You'll test those
four survivors before they go anywhere."

"Um," Dr. Mancina piped in. "I don't know
what you've got in mind but you won't be able to get through those
doors and windows with a sledge hammer."

Heron grinned again. "Who said anything about
the doors and windows?"

Culph dropped and unzippered the bag. He
pulled out a heavy duty drill and a chain saw. Heron was deadly
serious about getting those people out of there but only half
serious about cutting through the walls. He'd told Culph to get as
many tools as he could lay his hands on. The more impressive the
tools the better.

Heron led them over to where the walls met up
with the first exam room and the one next to it. Dr. Luco moved to
intervene but two of the officers, the biggest two, stepped into
her path.

"Get out of my way."

"Sorry, ma'am."

"If she tries anything, arrest her for
obstruction," Heron said.

"Oh, shut up, Heron. You can't arrest me for
anything. And after this, you won't even be a cop anymore. None of
you will."

The two officers looked at each other,
considering her threat, but before the thought could settle in
their heads, Heron turned on her. "
Hey!
Don't threaten me
and don't you dare threaten these men, who understand what it means
to be a police officer." He grabbed her around the bicep, his right
hand easily encircling the whole thing. Dragging her off to the
side, he laid his cards on the table. "Nothing's going to change in
that room except that four more people might die. Somehow, they
managed to corral those zombies into one place and I don't think
they're smart enough to pull the door open."