The Real Night of the Living Dead (15 page)

Hank called Buster over.

“What’s the scoop, boys?” said Buster.

Hank said, “Look here, we’re going to get moving. We’re heading out for guns, the three of us.” Buster nodded, waiting for his part to come in. “I want you to protect these girls and the patients.”

“How long you boys
gonna
be?”

“Don’t know,” said Hank. “But keep this damn ward locked. Matter of
fact,
put some furniture or something in front of it.
To strengthen it.”
Buster nodded. “Who’s upstairs?”

“About a hundred patients,” said Buster, “and maybe another ten twelve nurses. They locked themselves in the ward. They’re good.”

“All right then,” said Hank. “You’re in charge. Remember.”

Buster nodded.

That’s when we heard Pearl raising her voice to Doctor Cochran, “Where
?...
No, you can’t leave us with those dead people.”

“Calm down,” said Cochran. “We’ll be back fast.”

“But they’re dead,” said Pearl. “Don’t you understand?”

“What is she talking about?” said one of the nurses.

Hank said, “Ignore her. She was attacked, and she just needs some sleep.” He paused for a moment, looking over the faces of the concerned nurses. “We need protection against these sick people, so a few of us are headed to the guard house. Buster here is in charge while I’m gone. Please remember not to open this door for anybody. I don’t care if it’s your best friend. If they’re sick, they will attack.” The nurses were scared. “
Youse
got that?”

They nodded. Some answered.

“Another thing,” I said. “If you see them outside the windows, or out in the hallway, then move away, out of their sight. If they see anybody in here, that will make them that much more determined to get in.”

“Let’s go, doc,” said Hank.

The doctor was walking toward us when the professor said, “Doctor Cochran, my good man, you are supposed to be responsible for my well being.”

“I understand
,
Professor,” said Cochran, “but I will be back as quickly as I can. Don’t
worry,
you’ll be safe here till I return.”

“Well that’s not good enough, sir. I need to get to my bed in time for my wife’s visit, and you are the only individual who can take me there.”

“Professor, please.”

Hank interrupted, saying, “What is it that you want, nutty buddy? What, you want to come with us?”

The professor chuckled, saying, “Well, I am certainly not staying here without the presence of the good doctor. He is responsible for my safety, and that comes into play now, especially now, in this time of crisis.”

“Just shut up and move it.” Hank was upset, not wanting to bring the professor on our dangerous journey.

Buster peeked through the window in the door. All was clear. He opened it, and we exited the ward; me, Hank, Doctor Cochran and the professor.

“You boys be careful. I’ll keep trying to call for help while
yall
gone.”

Then he shut the door.

“We can’t go out the front entrance,” I said. “They’re already at that side.”

“So how are we getting out?” said
Cochran.

Hank’s head was turning side to side, looking up and down the hallway. Then he said, “Around the corner, down at the end of this hall, there’s a window. We’ll have to climb out of it.”

We followed him down the stretch.

A few minutes passed.

We were around the corner, at the five foot high rectangular window. Hank was unlocking the screen and opening it.

It was silent.

Then the moans began.

We turned and saw the infected people from the tunnel, making their way out into the hallway. They didn’t see us. They were dragging their feet, moving in the opposite direction, toward the ward.

“I don’t get it?” I said, watching them.

“What?” said Hank, as he pulled up the
window.

“I’ve seen some run like madmen. Then I see ones like these. Look how slow they’re moving.”

“It’s the rigor mortis setting in,” said Doctor Cochran. “The process begins after a body has been dead for a few hours. The muscles begin to tighten and stiffen.”

“But they’re not really dead,” said Hank.

“But they are,” said Cochran. “This vaccine may be driving their bodies as if they were still alive, but the bodies are dead. Even though they are moving around and eating, I would imagine they will continue to rot and follow the normal steps of decomposition as any usual dead body would. What I don’t understand is how their digestive system is able to operate?
If it operates at all.”

“All right,” said Hank. “Come on. We
gotta
jump out.”

Cochran was looking at the slow movers walking in the direction of the ward. He said, “Don’t you think we should take care of those few? So they are not banging at the door in a few minutes, terrifying the others.”

Me
and Hank looked at each other. Hank said, “He’s right. We should get rid of them now. That way, they’re out of the equation, and we don’t
gotta
worry about them trying to get in the ward.”

I agreed.

Hank left the window open, and we ran down the hallway, approaching the group of about five dead people.

We were fifteen feet away from the door, where they had emerged only moments ago, when we heard the roar of running footsteps.

We stopped in our tracks.

Chapter Twenty-three

The door was pushed open and infected women in hospital gowns were gushing out, into the hall, and moving in both directions.

For a moment, we were all in shock, standing still. But one look at those eyes sent us running back to the window.
Me
and the professor were in front. Hank and Cochran were behind us. I was so scared, I was screaming as I ran. I didn’t look back to see how close they were, but I could hear them screaming.

I reached the window first. I didn’t stop or slow down to see how long the drop was, or if there were creatures out there. I just jumped.

I landed on the asphalt in the parking lot. My hands hitting first, then I rolled a few times. I stood up quick, looked around,
didn’t
see any of the creatures.

My eyes went to the window.

The professor was hanging onto the sill, stretching out his body so that the fall wasn’t too high. I could hear Hank screaming for him to drop, then Hank ripped his hand from the sill, and the professor came crashing to the ground.

Not even five seconds later, Hank came falling out, followed by Cochran, who was holding onto Hank. They both crashed together on top of the professor’s arm, causing him to scream in agony.

The men got to their feet. The screams from the hallway were getting louder.

We ran as the women began falling, not jumping, out of the window. They just fell. Like rag dolls.

Some of them were right back on their feet, running behind us. Others seemed to have suffered broken legs from the fall and were left to crawl in our direction. A few had landed on their heads and wound up killing themselves for good. But they still continued to pour out of the window onto the ground below.

As we turned the corner of the building, I stole a last glance of the window from where we emerged and estimated that there had to be at least fifty of those creatures on the ground. Half of them were running after us.

We were approaching the entrance of the parking lot. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the small group, that
me
and Dallas encountered, still banging on the front door of N-7. We grabbed their attention, and they joined the chase.

Once we exited the parking lot and ran down the road of the campus, the rain began to pick up. The drops were heavy and were smacking us in the face as we hustled down the road. Our destination of the guard house was about a half mile away. Most of which would be mud and grass as this road didn’t head directly down to the boulevard. It wrapped around the campus.

We came to a fork in the road, made a right, and continued running. We had maybe another fifty yards or so,
then
the road would curve back in the direction of N-5. At that point, we would have to leave the road and take the farmland.

I was breathing hard. A few times I just wanted to give up, but the thought of Clara, and hearing those screams behind me, gave me the energy I needed to continue. I was leading the pack. The professor was in pretty good shape for an older man; he managed to stay right by my side. Hank and Cochran were a few feet behind us. I could hear Hank huffing and puffing, sounding like his lungs were going to collapse.

The next curve in the road was here. We ran off the road and continued running in the muddy grass. I could hear my boots squishing the water out of the soaking wet terrain.

The road was lined with scattered street lamps. The parking lots had a few too. This gave us enough light to see where we were headed as we ran.

Then I blinked, and the darkness swallowed the campus.

The storm knocked out the power again.

Hank screamed and coughed, upset at not being able to see in front of us. His breathing was getting worse. The poor son of a bitch was going down any minute.

Then I was relieved to see the bouncing beam of light, coming from behind me and dancing in front of us. Hank had turned it on to guide us.

The screams of the creatures were strong, but had died down, only slightly.

“Stop!
Stop…I can’t” said Hank.

The beam of light was pulled from in front of us.

I stopped and looked back to see Hank wasn’t running. He was breathing heavy, staring at the infected.

The creatures were about twenty yards behind and approaching fast.

Cochran had also stopped and was standing beside Hank.

The professor was still running.

“Come on,” I said. “What the hell are you doing?”

“I
gotta
catch my breath,” said Hank, as he kept the flashlight on the approaching mob. “I feel like I’m about to die.”

“If you don’t get moving then you will die.”

His chest was moving up and down, up and down, as he raised his revolver and began firing at the creatures. A few of the bullets were head shots and dropped the infected women, but some, maybe three, missed and hit in the shoulder, neck, one even hit in the mouth, but the creature kept moving. However, even the missed shots still slowed them down. They dropped and took about a minute to get back on their feet.

I saw the creatures closing in.

Then everything went black.

Hank’s trusty flashlight…died.

Chapter Twenty-four

Hank fired another two shots in the dark, and the flash from the muzzle gave us a tease of what was on our asses.

The screams got loud again as the infected people grew excited.

He tried firing another shot, and I could hear the clicking of the gun. It was empty.

I ran.

Someone else behind me was running. I wasn’t sure who.

But then, I heard someone screaming. It wasn’t the screams of the creatures, but the screams of someone being eaten alive. A man screaming for help as his flesh was being torn from his body. So brutal it was to hear a scream like that.

I didn’t know if it was Hank or Doctor Cochran. But I knew it was one of the two. It had to be. The professor never stopped running. For someone who was considered insane he made the sanest move of all of us.