The Real Night of the Living Dead (13 page)

Cochran nodded.

“One.”

I gripped the baton.

“Two.”

The professor, appearing at ease, and Pearl, shivering in fear, stood behind Hank.

“Three.”

Beads of sweat ran down Cochran’s face as he pulled the door open.

And then.

It was quiet.

From what we could see, the tunnel was void of any creatures. It was flooded, as I had suspected, but it wasn’t as bad as I’d thought.

The water was about three feet high. The tunnel was about eight feet in length and width. There were light fixtures in the ceiling, but they were out. Hank was shining his trusty flashlight that he snatched off the floor when he ran down here.

It was cold in this tunnel. I remember hearing this morning from someone that the temperature was supposed to drop tonight. Did it ever, felt like it was about forty degrees down
here.

Then we stepped in the water, and I had to take a deep breath. The water was freezing. It sent chills up my spine and covered me in goose bumps.

As we walked, I stared at the professor in front of me. With Hank’s flashlight as our only source of light, I could just make out a silhouette of the professor, but I thought to myself, Boy, he must feel like a
popsicle
, wearing that gown and nothing else.

Along the walls, there were huge cockroaches near the ceiling, keeping away from the water. On any given day, I hate cockroaches with a passion.
Too many bad experiences with them when I was a kid.
But tonight, I’d gladly take on a tunnel full of them rather than face even one of those maniacs.

We drudged through the water, our legs felt like they were moving through quicksand. It was slowing us down. We couldn’t help it. We were tired, but it was also cold, and that wasn’t helping us move any quicker.

About fifty yards into the tunnel, we heard banging echoing far behind us. The creatures must have finished with Billy and were looking for us. There was no way for us to barricade the entrance to the tunnel, so the best that we could do was to close it shut.

We heard the moans now behind us. They got through. But we didn’t panic. We were so far ahead that it would take them some time to waddle through these cold waters to reach us.

We moved on.

Chapter Twenty

We were in the stairwell of N-7, one of the hotel dormitories. It was first used as a dormitory for the nurse staff, but had recently doubled as a ward for female patients. I believe the first two floors were used for patients, and the third floor, for nurses.

The moans in the tunnel were barely heard, but they were there, in the distance, and soon they would be here.

I was closing the door shut when I turned to Hank and said, “We need something to seal off this door. In twenty thirty minutes, they’ll be pounding at it, trying to get in.”

“Come with me,” said the overweight security guard,
then
looked at Doctor Cochran. “Stay here with these two and keep an eye on things.” Cochran nodded. “Anyone tries to get
outta
that tunnel,
youse
scream…or something. Warn us.”

“Oh, believe me,” said Cochran, “that will not be a problem at all.”

Hank said, “We shouldn’t be any more than ten minutes. Any longer than that and you’re probably on your own.” He turned to me. “Come on, convict.”

I clenched my jaw, bit my tongue, and ignored the mug. I stepped to Cochran and handed him the baton. “In case you need it.”

“Thanks,” he said.

I followed Hank up the stairs and through the door that led into a long deserted hallway.

The place was quiet until we got closer to the ward. It was then that we began to hear faint screams. But these weren’t the screams of the creatures. These screams were more familiar, like an old friend welcoming us home. They were the screams of Philadelphia State’s patients. This was a normal thing to hear at this time of night in the hospital’s wards; patients screaming because they were trying to drown out the voices in their heads, or just screaming to be heard. Most of the time, they’d scream themselves right to sleep.

I was so relieved to hear them. I wanted to hug the first one I saw.

We approached the entrance to the ward. It was locked. Hank grabbed the set of keys from his belt and began flipping through them, looking for the right one.

He found it.

Hank unlocked the door, and we walked through, our eyes scanning the surrounding area, making sure we were safe.

The ward was layered with alcoves, and, like the other building, there were three beds to each one. Every bed had a patient in it, and most, if not all, of those patients
were
strapped to the frame.

In the corner was a nurses’ station. That’s where we saw Buster and Dallas, the two colored attendants on duty, both were in their forties, sitting at a table, playing cards and sipping from their thermoses. Dallas was the lead attendant and my boss. The first colored lead attendant in the history of the hospital.

As soon as they saw us walking toward them, Dallas stood from his chair. Their eyes widened; they seemed surprised to see us both soaking wet from the waist down, but even more surprised to see the splattered blood on my shirt and pants.

Dallas’ lips parted, about to say something, but Hank beat him to it, saying, “Is everything okay in here?”

“Yeah,” said Dallas. “Something
wro
…”

“Where’s the nurse on duty?” interrupted Hank.

“She’s upstairs, having her supper. A little late…”

Hank said, “Listen, we have an emergency on our hands.” Buster was off his chair now, standing behind Dallas. “Are all the patients accounted for?”

“Yes. They in bed,” said Dallas. “What emergency?
You talking
about the electricity going out earlier?”

“We need to get everyone in this building locked in the wards. You understand?”

Buster was confused, he said, “What about the nurses in their rooms? They’re all sleeping.”

“I said everyone,” said Hank. “I don’t give a donkey’s dick
who’s
sleeping. Get everyone in this building locked in these wards as fast as humanly possible. Now hop to it.”

Buster looked at Dallas for his approval. Dallas nodded and said, “Start on the third floor. Wake up the nurses. Take some to the second floor ward and bring the rest down here.”

“What should I tell them?”

Hank said, “Tell them, it’s a goddamn life or death situation. Don’t waste any time, just get their asses locked and safe.”

Buster seemed a little nervous after hearing that. I’m sure he was wondering what the hell was going on. But he didn’t ask another question; he ran off, toward the elevator.

I headed to the nearest window, which faced the rear of N-7. It was still raining but, at the moment, it had lightened up some. From this window, during a clear day, you could see a field beyond the parking lot, behind that was a road, then another field, followed by N-5. But with the darkness and the falling rain, the furthest I could see was the edge of the parking lot, where the dim parking lot lights shined.

There was a smaller group of the infected, about thirty, spread out from the closest field to the wrought iron gate that wrapped around the building. I turned back to Hank and Dallas and said, in a panic, “They’re already here.” I started moving toward the door of the ward, looking back at the two, saying, “I’m going to see if it’s not too late to lock this gate. Hank, get the others back at the tunnel.”

I ran down the stretch of the hallway. I heard footsteps behind me and stole a quick glance back. It was Dallas. He was following. He said, as we ran, “Who you talking ‘bout? Who outside? Patients broke loose?”

“You assigned me to N-3 with Melvin.” We were fast approaching the entrance to N-7. “The doctors were testing that polio vaccine and all hell broke loose. And when I say, ‘all hell broke loose’, I mean that goddamn literally.” We reached the entrance. I pulled open the door to see the rain beating against the cement steps, welcoming us back to the gloomy campus. No one was in the parking lot, but eight of them were about thirty feet from the gate’s entrance.
Me and my boss, about a hundred feet away.

I grabbed Dallas’ arm and pulled him along as I started running toward the gate. It was colder now. I could see my breath before me every time I huffed as my feet stomped against the asphalt.

As we passed under one of the lights, the group outside the gate saw us.

They screamed.

Three of them began to run, trying to beat us to the opening.

Chapter Twenty-one

About twenty feet away from the opening I realized this was a mistake; should’ve never attempted to lock this gate; should’ve stayed back there and just worried about securing that door.

It was too late to turn back now.

The three that were running made it into the parking lot, and they were coming right for us.

We were closing in for a head on collision. I shouted to Dallas, “Kill them.”

“What?”

“Go for…their heads…The brain…If you don’t…they’ll get you,” I shouted as we ran. “And whatever you do…don’t…let them…bite you.” I could see him out of the corner of my eye, giving me a weird look.

I gazed at the one in front of me, a male patient, couldn’t have been older than twenty-one. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, and his stomach had so many chunks of flesh missing that I could see his intestines beginning to sneak out. He snarled, showing his rotting teeth, as I got closer.

I didn’t give the sorry bastard a chance. I tackled him, the blood from the bites on his stomach smeared on my neck and shoulder as he was lifted off the ground. I ran with him a few feet before pushing him off, sending him crashing to the ground.

The other two went for Dallas.

I ran to him as he began to fight off one of the two creatures, both of which were women, with his sap, but it looked like he wasn’t trying to hurt her. He was swinging the wooden stick at her legs and arms, wanting to avoid any serious injuries to the patient.

“Go for the head, boss-man,” I shouted as I pulled the one, trying to sneak up on him, by her long wet brown hair and yanked her back to the gate where I started smacking her head against the wrought iron. She scratched at my forearm, trying to free herself, but I was merciless. I was whacking her petite little head as hard as I could.

The infected man on the ground was back on his feet. He jumped on me, and I fell, with him on top, to the ground. I was still holding the lady by her hair and dragged her down with us. She was still alive, but the beating from the gate split her forehead. Blood was escaping from the fresh gash and was running down her face.

The man on top was trying to bite into my bicep. I was lying with the rain beating against my face. I opened my mouth, to let some of the drops fall in, and swallowed. First damn drink I had in hours. Then I used my legs to push the guy up a few inches and, once there was room between us, I gripped him by his neck and threw him to the side.

He was off now.

I felt the woman clinching onto my pants, so I got to my feet as fast as I could. She was still on the ground. I looked down on her small frame to see those yellow eyes gazing hard at me. I lifted my right foot and slammed it down on the top of her head. I continued. I heard bones crunching, but I didn’t stop until I saw that she wasn’t moving.

I glanced outside the gate and could see the rest of the small group moving slow, but still getting closer to the opening. I knew I had a chance now to shut it and prevent them from coming inside. I ran, grabbed the end of the gate and pushed it, sliding it, the wheels in the track, rolling, and the opening, shrinking by the second.