The Real Night of the Living Dead (7 page)

Billy was holding the broom. Melvin had a mop and gave the other to Haas while saying, “We beat those mugs pretty good upstairs,
Veimer
, but it did no good. The only time I saw one go down and stay down was when you shoved that piece of wood in his eye.”

Haas interrupted, “That’s due to the fact, as I said before, that the vaccine has altered the brain function of these individuals. So you must injure the brain in order to stop the failed vaccine from driving it, from controlling the specimen.”

“Okay,” I said, looking at Melvin and Billy, “you heard the doctor, you take a whack,
you
aim for the top of the head, the brain.” Then I grabbed the silent woman by her hand and led her into the closet. She stood, wearing a long brown dress, staring at me as I closed the door on her. I felt so bad. I didn’t want to see her get ripped apart. I couldn’t imagine it. I just hoped they wouldn’t get to her in there.

“We need to get past them, through the door, and down the stairs,” said Doctor Haas,
then
stopped for a brief moment. I saw his eyes roll. He stumbled, then caught himself and stood straight again. I noticed then that his face appeared a little flushed. He continued, “The first floor is going to be very dangerous, depending on how many of them are down there. You all know where the entrance is. Go there.”

“Yeah,” I said. “And make sure we close the damn door behind us.”

The moans and shrieks from the infected people were growing louder. It caught our attention. We all looked to the massacre taking place in the ward; three of them had a patient on the terrazzo floor and had torn his torso open. One of them had their face inside his opened stomach and appeared to be chewing on intestines that were lodged inside.

Another spotted us and was climbing over an alcove wall now, making their way toward our group.

“Ready?” I said.

No one made a sound. They answered by gripping their mops and broom tighter, Billy nodded.

I said, “Come on,” and ran down the center of the ward, toward the hallway. Melvin, Billy and Haas, bringing up the rear, followed me.

Most of them were too busy devouring the patients in the ward to even notice us, or if they did notice, we were already well past them.

One of them was only about two feet away from Melvin, when they reached out and grabbed his arm. He screamed and jerked away from the maniac, then poked him in the chest with the mop handle, trying to push him back. Billy followed it up with a good crack to the top of his head.

That dropped him. It worked like Haas said it would; the patient didn’t get back up.

We continued to run.

Near the edge of the ward, Billy slipped on a puddle of blood. His feet went up in the air, and he landed hard on his back. That caught the attention of the infected. They began moving toward us now. I looked back at them and noticed how the blood was everywhere; the yellow tiled walls were covered in streaks of it, and puddles were scattered throughout the ward.

Me
and Melvin helped Billy to get up; his bare feet slipped a couple more times on the blood, but he made it and balanced himself. Haas was covering us, making sure no one crept up.

We began to run again, down the hall. This time, the ones in the
ward
began chasing us; some of them running. I heard a few loud thumps echo in the hallway and could only imagine that some of the creatures were slipping on the same puddle that Billy did.

They screamed louder as our space between them grew.

We made it through the stairwell door, and two of them were waiting for us. They both had bites; one had a bite on his arm, the other had a bite on the back of his neck.

As soon as I came through the door and saw them, I pushed them back. I didn’t want to waste any bullets unless there was no other option. I knew Melvin and Billy were behind me and would take care of them.

They did.

Melvin hit one across the face. Didn’t kill him, but he dropped him to the floor and out of the way, giving us the chance to run off. But Billy was a good shot; he crushed the broom handle over the head, and the creature was gone.

We ran down the stairs. The creatures chasing us were still somewhere on the second floor.

Haas’ speed was slowing a bit. Billy looked back and saw that he was about ten feet behind him. He said, “Come on, doc. Shuffle them paws faster. I know that one ear
ain’t
keepin
’ you from
gettin
’ a move on.”

Haas said, under his breath, “Shut up.”

I couldn’t help but notice the hard rain beating on the windows as we ran, trying to make our escape of N-3.
 

We reached the first floor entrance and could hear moans echoing in the hallway. We all looked at each other, all of us showing fear, even Billy. We weren’t sure what to expect on the other side. But we had no other choice, it was either fight our way to the tunnel, or wait here to get ripped apart by the mob coming from the second floor.

“This is suicide,” said Melvin, beads of sweat running down his face.

Haas said, “Suicide is standing here, waiting for them upstairs to bring us our death.”

“
Dumbo’s
right,” said Billy. “Now let’s stop
actin
’ like a bunch a goddamn queers.” He held up his broom, a grip so tight around the handle that his knuckles were white, pushed past me and shoved the door open.

We followed him through and were met with a crowd of diseased patients, about ten (maybe two or three nurses and attendants were part of the crowd), at one end of the hallway. At the other end, five patients, some of their arms covered in blood up to their elbows.

A few of them held torn bloody body parts in their hands and were still eating them. I almost threw up, but had to swallow it down hard. We saw two of these creatures fighting each other over the leg of a woman.
Unimaginable.

The ones who weren’t busy eating had been standing, staring at the walls. Billy, busting through the door, got their attention. Now they were closing in on us from both ends of the narrow hallway.

Our heads swung side to side, watching as they cut the distance between us and them.

“There’s no way we’re getting past that,” I said, I knew the entrance to the tunnel was just around the corner from where the ten creatures stood. We had to make a decision. And fast.

That’s when Billy dropped to the floor. My initial thought was that he slipped again. But I looked down and saw Doctor Haas on top of him.

Chapter Eleven

He was on Billy’s back and was screaming as he ripped his shirt open, wanting to bare flesh before taking a bite.

Billy was trying to turn over, but the doctor’s weight was too much for him (Billy was about 120lbs compared to Haas’ 200lbs.)

It all happened so fast that
me
and Melvin didn’t have time to react. I had no choice but to use the revolver on Haas. I pointed the gun at his head and was about to pull the trigger, but then I realized that the bullet could possibly exit Haas’ and hit Billy.

I hesitated.

The infected people from either side were closing in.

Melvin said, “Hurry!”

As Haas’ moved his mouth to Billy’s bony shoulder, I grabbed Haas by his hair, pulled his head back a few inches, and fired a bullet through his temple. There was a little explosion on the other side of his head and bits of flesh and brain mixed with blood shot out like a volcano eruption.

He dropped dead on top of Billy.

Billy rushed to shove Haas’ body off.

I turned to Melvin. We were in trouble. He was busy swinging his mop handle at the crowd of ten that had closed in on his side.

I picked up the mop that Haas wouldn’t be using anymore, and one of the infected patients from the other side, the smaller group, grabbed my wrist.

Billy was swinging his broom like a madman, trying to help Melvin.

I shoved off the patient. Had the gun in my right hand and the mop in my left, fighting to stay alive. Out of the five patients that I was fighting off, three of them were men and the other two, women. But with those stale yellow eyes and distorted screams, they were all the same to me.

Between Melvin and Billy swinging at their group, they were able to kill two. But they were growing more tired by the second. “We
gotta
go back,” said Melvin, breathing heavy. “Back the way we came.”

“Come on, you crazy fuckers,” said Billy.
“Medication time.”
He whacked another on top of their head and the creature dropped. “This heavy duty broom’s
gonna
fuck the crazy right out your head.”

I swung the mop at one of the infected men.
Dropped him.
Before I could pull it back to swing again, one of the women grabbed the mop handle and wouldn’t let go.

I didn’t want to tug, because it would’ve pulled her right on me. I raised the gun and fired a shot in her forehead. The force of the bullet jolted her carcass back into two of the creatures.

Melvin screamed.

Billy shouted, “Stanton, they getting him.”

I stole a quick glance behind me ― not wanting to let the group I was fighting off get close to me ― and saw an infected attendant and patient clutching on Melvin’s T-shirt. Billy was doing his best to defend themselves, but had the rest of the group screaming and clawing to get their hands on him.

Melvin was swinging like a wild man, but another two grabbed hold of him, one wrapped their arms around his waist, and the other pulled his hair.

I knew I had to act fast, or Melvin would be dead. I shot the one closest to me from my small
group,
he fell beside the dead woman. I heard Melvin shriek,
then
heard flesh being torn.

Please, God. Please, don’t let them do this to my friend.

I didn’t want to turn around. I was afraid to see what awaited me.

I forced myself to turn. For a second, I could swear that my eyes were closed, afraid to see the sight.

I looked. Billy was fighting off a few trying to reach him while trying to beat off the four that were on Melvin.

My gaze drifted to Melvin; he was still standing, screaming, as the first two who grabbed him were biting his forearms, tearing off mouthful size chunks of flesh. The creature that had him by the hair moved in and took a small bite from the back of his neck.

Melvin’s mouth opened as wide as it could, and he let out a painful cry. Both his arms had blood pouring from the bite wounds and running down to his hands.

I screamed and fired the last three bullets of the revolver into the heads of the three who were feasting on him. The one who had him by the waist was pulling up his shirt and about to sink his teeth into his back.

I threw the empty gun at one of them, then swung the mop and hit the creature holding Melvin’s waist. His grip loosened a bit, and I pulled Melvin toward me.

Then we could hear a woman’s voice screaming, Help me
!,
coming from down the hall, around the corner. I could picture her trapped, in her nurses’ station, surrounded by a band of flesh craving maniacs. I wished we could’ve helped, but there was nothing we could do. There was no way we would be able to get to her without risking our lives further.

“Let’s go, Billy.” I shouted. “Back out the goddamn door.”

Billy was doing a good job of fighting them; he had another two dead on the floor.

The three behind us, from the smaller group, had moved in, and one of them grabbed my hand. He pulled my hand up and toward his mouth. I froze as I saw this happening; I looked into his eyes as he opened his mouth. Then I snapped out of it and pulled my hand away.

I rushed back as fast as I could, my left arm wrapped around Melvin’s waist, and my right arm gripping the mop. I went through the door first, back into the stairwell,
then
Billy followed, fighting off the rest of the creatures as he walked through.

“We’re leaving out the front,” I said. “It’s the only way.”