The ZWD Trilogy (Book 1): Zombie World Dominance [The Destruction Begins] (18 page)

“Savannah, who am I relieving? I need to get a report on the
patients.”

“You’re not relieving anyone. We’re so short-staffed, everyone is
running all over the ER to help out wherever they can. Once a patient makes it
back here to see us, they sit for another three or four hours or more before we
can get to them. Some of them sit in the waiting room for ten or twelve hours
before we can work them in to be seen. We’re doing what we can with what we
have. I was told that the hospital might be going on lockdown sometime today.
When that happens, they won’t let anyone in without absolute, treatable medical
emergencies. If they lock this hospital down, then you’ll have a choice to stay
or to leave. If you go, you won’t be allowed to come back.”

Layla looked at her husband. He gave her a thumbs up. She said, “Savannah,
if they lock this place down, we’ll both be here.”

As they were talking, the radio at the charge nurse’s station
started going off, startling all three of them. They thought everything in the
city had shut down. Savannah turned to the radio. She picked up the mic and
depressed the key.

“University Medical Center Emergency Room here. Over.”

“This is Officer Gage Barra, New Orleans PD. I’m headed to your
location with a seriously injured officer. He’s got some serious facial
lacerations. His cheek has been ripped open and his eye is hanging out. I’ll be
at your location in three minutes. Over.”

“Copy that, Officer. We’ll be ready. Drive safe. Over.” Savannah
turned back around, looking at Layla.

“Well, it looks like you have another patient on his way in. Get a
gurney ready and grab an aide. I think Brice Maillieux is closest. Grab him to
help you when they get here. They won’t be long.”

“Thanks, Savannah. I’m sure this won’t be my last patient tonight.
How many surgeons do we have upstairs?”

“We only have one left, Dr. Franchebois. Both he and his nurse,
Trinity Skinner, have been here for the last three days. They’re having a rough
go of it. It’s one surgery after another. If it’s not absolutely necessary, we
don’t send anyone upstairs to them.”

“Okay, Savannah. We’re off to work. If one of us falls over, just
give us a good kick to wake us up.”

Layla started towards the ambulance door to wait on the patient
that was on his way. Landon was right behind her. Once the officer arrived,
they took him to their assigned rooms to treat him. All they could do was make
the officer as comfortable as they could while they waited for Dr. LaTour to
treat him. His wounds were deep; he was going to lose his eye.

While they were waiting for Dr. LaTour, they started to analyze
their other patients one by one. They had six patients in the four rooms.
Adding them to the six patients in the hall, they had a total of twelve
patients to cover.

They entered the first patient’s room, where the smell of decaying
flesh was pungent. They looked at the patient. It was clear to them the patient
was dead. He had several deep, slicing gouges in his leg. As Layla looked at
the wounds she did not think they were so bad that they would kill a person.

She told her husband, “Landon, could you go ask Savannah to call
the doctor? He needs to pronounce the time of death. After that, the body will
need to be moved to the temporary morgue in the basement.”

“Okay. I’ll go find her.”

Landon found Savannah at the charge station. He told her, “Layla
wants you to call the doctor over to pronounce the time of death for our
patient. When he’s done, we will move him downstairs.”

“Landon, we’re too busy right now to ask the doctor to pronounce
anyone. Just put a note in his file. Take the patient and the file to the
morgue. It’s down the hall and to the right. Take the elevator to the basement.
It’s to the right again after you get off the elevator. The room’s locked, but
the key is on a hook next to the door. Put the body on top of any stack of
bodies that you can. Then lock the door behind you and come back with the
gurney. Do you need anything else?”

“No, I guess I’m okay with that. I’ll do as you ask. Is this the
procedure from now on with all the dead?”

“Yes,” Savannah said. “We’ve had so many patients die, we’re just
putting the bodies in the morgue with their charts. We don’t even have any more
body bags. You’ll have to use a single sheet to wrap them. All we’re doing is
moving patients through the system as fast as we can. We’re up to our asses
with patients. We can’t do much more than patch up the living or take the
bodies to the morgue. As soon as we can get an open gurney, we put another ass
in it as fast as we can. We aren’t even checking for insurance anymore. We’re
just about out of a lot of meds that we need to treat patients. We’re doing the
best we can in the time that we have to treat them.”

When Landon got back to Layla, she was walking out of the policeman’s
room with tears in her eyes. Landon held her. “What happened honey?” he asked.
“Why are you crying?”

“The cop died. I was holding his hand. He told me to find his wife
and tell her that he loved her, but before he could tell me where he lived, he
cramped up and died. I can’t do this anymore.”

“I understand what you’re going through. The first person that I
couldn’t save on a fire call, I broke down and cried right there in the street.
If you want to go home, I’ll understand.”

“I don’t want to go home. I’m a nurse. I’m needed here. It’s just
hard to watch people die without being able to do anything for them. I’ll need
you to give me a shoulder to cry on every once in a while. Will you do that for
me?”

“I’ll do anything I can for you, any time you need me. Let’s go
back to work. Having something to do will take your mind off what’s happening.”

“Okay, honey. I love you.”

“I love you, too, sweetheart.”

This pace went on for Layla and Landon for fifteen more hours.
They saw ten to fifteen patients an hour. In fifteen hours they saw 195 patients.
119 of them were discharged. Twelve were sent upstairs for surgery. They had
sixty-four die after they were taken into the emergency room. Their deaths were,
for the most part, quick. With few exceptions, all the patients died from a
zombie attack. They were able to get away from the zombie that attacked them,
only to die shortly thereafter from their wounds.

The morgue in the basement had bodies stacked from floor to
ceiling. When a body was added to the morgue, it took two men to heft the body
to the top of a stack.

They worked at this pace for another ten hours straight. After
twenty-five hours on their feet, they decided to go home for some sleep, but
found that the hospital had gone on lockdown after they had been at work for ten
hours. The guard at the door told them that if they left, they would not be
allowed to return. They had to make a decision whether to stay or go. They
decided to stay.

Looking for a place to get some rest, they found a small room
upstairs where they could be alone. As they closed the door, Layla said, “Landon,
I don’t know what to do. We can stay for as long as we want, and we’ll be safe
here. If we leave, then we will be on our own. Outside, there’s no place as
safe as where we are right now. If we stay, all we have is work or sleep. What
do you want to do?”

“We should stay until we can’t help anymore,” said Landon. “I mean,
we don’t have anything else to do. And you’re right; we don’t have anywhere
else to go. The hospital is safer than being outside right now. If you want to
stay, I’ll stay with you. If you want to leave, then I’ll be right beside you.”

“I want to stay. I really believe that this is where we belong.”

“All right, then, it’s settled. We’re a team,” said Landon. “We’ll
stay, but right now I need some sleep. Do you want to try to get some sleep here,
in this room? There’s no bed, but we can sit on the floor and hold each other
as we sleep. Then we can go back downstairs and start all over again.”

“That’s a great idea. I’m about to pass out on my feet.”

“Let me lock the door so no one surprises us. I’ve been thinking
about the patients we’ve seen. Anybody who has been injured by a zombie dies.
There seems to have been no exceptions to that. If we can tell the people in
the triage tent not to allow people in who’ve been attacked by a zombie, we’ll
have more time to treat the rest of our patients. We should have someone send a
message out to triage about that. But now I’m going to fall down if I don’t get
some sleep. If you wake up before I do, wake me up.”

They leaned back against the wall and drifted off into a much-needed
sleep.

They had been working for the last seven straight days since
Australia Day Zero. They would sleep right through most of day eight.

All they had to look forward to was another day of patients when
they woke. It would be rough, but they would be safely inside, away from the
zombies.

Manhattan
Island 

New York City

ADZ +60d

Jerry
was the first to make it up to sidewalk level, followed by Mary. Jennifer was
next, followed by Mike. Once they were all on the sidewalk, they stopped. They
all turned and looked back down the stairs to see if the creatures were following.

The
creatures were starting to come up the steps after them, but much to their
surprise, the things only came up the steps as far as the shadows extended;
they seemed to wish to avoid the direct sunlight. They stopped, staring at the
four survivors from the shadows.

Looking
at the creatures, Jerry said, “Do you guys see this? They’ve stopped coming up
the stairs. They won’t move out of the shadows. They don’t like the sunlight.
Maybe it hurts? The tunnel has electric lighting… They don’t seem to mind that.
They caught us in the dark of the tunnel. Maybe we can use that against them at
some point.”

“God
damn
,
those are some right fucking ugly creatures,” said Mike. “Look at their clothes,
if you can call ‘em that… they’re all ripped to shit. Look at that one. It’s
missing an arm. That one over there is stumbling around, missing a foot. And they
smell like hell! They’re all torn to crap. They’ve all got deep gouges or other
kinds of wounds… Can you see their eyes? They’re all glazed over. Makes me
wonder if they can even see at all. I wish we had some gasoline or something to
pour on them so we could burn ‘em to the goddamn ground. This is gonna get a
lot worse before it gets better. I want to go home. it should be safer out on
the island.”

“I
don’t know, Mike. All I know is this place is not safe for anyone,” said Jerry.
“I agree that we need to get out of this shithole. If going back home is the
answer, then let’s get going. Are you girls okay with this?”

“You know
wherever you go, I’ll be with right there with you,” said Jennifer. “I don’t
want to stay here any longer than we have to. Can we go now?”

“Not just
yet, Jen. It’ll be dark soon. I don’t think it’ll be safe to be outside when it’s
dark. Remember what happened in the tunnel. I’m not ready to lose anyone else.”

“Should
we call the cops, or something?” said Mary. “You know, report this to someone?”

“Yeah,
if your phone has enough charge, call 911, or you can use mine. Tell them that
two of our friends were killed by some kind of creatures, and their bodies are
still in the subway tunnel — the 125
^th
Street near Malcolm X Boulevard
subway station, and that the station’s abandoned.”

They
walked around the subway entrance to the highest point above the steps and leaned
against the railing, watching the creatures below them. The things were
standing there, looking at them, as the four of them looked back.

Mary
dialed 911, only to get a busy signal. She tried again, and a total of six more
times. After the last time, she stopped. Her face looked frustrated and afraid,
all at the same time. She began to cry.

Jerry
looked at her. He reached out and drew her close to him, and asked what was
wrong.

“No
answer, Mary?”

“No… 911
is busy. I tried it six or seven times, but it was always busy. I’m getting
scared, Jerry! 911 is supposed to be answered every time you call it. Have you
ever
heard of 911 being busy? What’s wrong with 911? Is it overloaded? Are the cops
so busy that they can’t take our call? This is really starting to scare me. We thought
we were gonna be safe on the street, but I don’t feel so safe anymore. I want a
policeman to come and help us… and I don’t want to leave our dead friends down
there.”

Mike
was starting to worry. As Mary was calling 911, he was watching the creatures in
the stairwell. As the sun gradually sank lower in the sky, the shadows below
them got longer. The creatures came up another step, though they were still in
the shadows.

Looking
over the railing at the creatures, Mike said, “Hey, guys, do you see this? I’ve
been watching the things down there. The lower the sun sets, the longer the
shadows get. Then they move up a step. I’ve been watching them. Why do you
think they are wearing clothes? I mean, they’re are all torn up, but it’s still
clothing. Isn’t that weird? I don’t figure anybody dressed them, right? So do
you think they were human before they became these creatures? You can tell some
are males and some are females… Some of the males have beards, and others just
have like a three-day growth. The females all look like they’re dressed like
they were going to work. Something’s really messed up about this.”

Jerry
thought for a while. After a few minutes, he said, “Mike, I see what you mean
about the clothes. Wow. And you’re right — they seem to be following the shadow
up the stairs. It’ll be dark soon, then they’ll be right up here with us. We
need to get the hell off of this street and back in our room, behind a locked
door. On the way to our room, let’s grab whatever we can get to eat. The hot dog
cart is still over there, but the man who runs it is gone. Let’s raid the damn
thing and take as much as we can carry back to our rooms.”

“That’s
stealing!” said Jennifer. “I’m not going to jail for stealing a handful of hot dogs.”

“Jen,
if this was a normal situation, I’d agree with you, but we just watched two of
our friends get killed by something that we’ve never seen before. Right now I’m
stealing whatever is left on that hot dog cart. If a cop wants to arrest me,
let ‘em. Until then, I’m going to eat. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m
walking over there and taking as many hot dogs and bottles of water as I can
carry, and anything else I can find, too. Come on, Mike — are you with me?”

“Yeah,
I’m in. I’m hungry. If I have to steal to eat, then I’m gonna steal. Girls? Are
you with us?”

“All
right, you guys,” said Mary. Jen and I will help you steal so you can fill your
tummies. I just don’t wanna get caught.”

“C’mon,
let’s get dinner. If we get enough, we’ll have breakfast, too. We need to be up
in our rooms before those things make it to the top step. Once we’re behind
closed doors, we’ll have a better chance to stay alive until morning.”

“So
what are we going to do in the morning?” asked Mary.

“I
don’t know. What I do know right now is that there’s food over there. I also
know that those creatures like the dark. The sun’s going down. I don’t want to
be out here when it is dark to find out if those killing machines are still after
us. In the morning, we’ll have a full day of sunlight to figure something out.
I don’t know what it’ll be right now, but we need to get off the street right now.”

The
four of them crossed the street to the hot dog cart. They found hot dogs,
snacks, sodas and bottles of water. The boys took their tee shirts off and made
makeshift bags to carry everything. They loaded up everything. There wasn’t
anything left on the cart.

After
the great hot dog raid, they were back up in their rooms. Because of the events
of the day, the girls wanted to sleep in the same room as the boys, though not
in the same beds.

As
they ate, Mike said, “We need to look for something we can make into weapons to
fight back against the creatures. If nothing else, something to beat them back
away from us.”

“That
sounds like a good idea,” said Jerry. “Grab anything you think we can use to
fight. Take it, even if we have to break something to make a weapon.”

“Wow,”
said Jen. “First we steal food. Now you want us to bust up the place to make
weapons. We’re on a roll. What’s next? Bank robbery? You know the hotel will
charge us for any damages. The guy with the hotdog cart could have us
arrested.”

“Hey,
you know what?” said Jerry. “If we have to break the law to stay alive, then I
guess that’s what we’re gonna do. I’m willing to go to jail for this rather
than to be dead.”

Jen
was silent for a bit. “Okay. I guess if you say this is what we have to do to
live, then I suppose we need to start busting stuff up to make weapons. God… I’ve
never stolen anything before in my life!”

“Jennifer,
I’d be happy to go to jail too, rather than wake up dead,” said Mary. She was
sitting on the bed, hugging her knees.

“Yeah,
you’re right, Jen replied. “Mary, are you all right? You’ve been sitting on the
bed like that since we got back to the room. What’s wrong?”

“What’s
wrong?
We just watched Stan and Rosie get
killed!
All we’re doing now
is arguing about stealing stuff or breaking things. Don’t you realize that they’re
dead?
We all stood there, doing nothing to help. We should have done
something...
anything
… to help. I can’t quit thinking about them, even
though it seems like
you
guys can.”

The
room got quiet for a minute. Then Jerry got up and crossed the room to sit next
to Mary. As he sat on her bed, he put his arm around her shoulders, drawing her
to him. He laid his head next to hers and whispered to her, “Mary, we haven’t
forgotten… not in the least. What is happening is real. We need to do what we
can to get something to eat, and we need to do whatever we can to be able to
fight off those creatures if we run into them again.”

“In
the tunnel, we didn’t have anything to fight with. You saw how easily those
monsters killed them. There was nothing that we could have done with our bare
hands to stop them from killing our friends. If we’d tried, we’d be lying next
to them dead,” said Mike.

“We
took what we needed to eat. We need to have some sort of weapons to keep the
creatures away from us. If they get hold of us, there’s no way to get away from
them. Is what we’re doing wrong? Maybe so, but we have to realize that we’re on
our own. If we’re gonna get back home, we’ll have to do whatever it takes to
make that happen. We’ll use the time that we have to make a few weapons before
we go to sleep. I don’t think this is a one-time thing. I think it’ll be going
on for a long time, if I’m right. Tomorrow it will start all over again. We
need to get to work on our weapons now. Then we’ll get to sleep.”

He
paused. “We’ve been in Harlem for less than 24 hours, “In that short time, we
watched two of our friends get killed because they were in the wrong place at
the wrong time.” He turned to Mary and hugged her. “Does that make you feel any
better?”

“Yeah,
it does,” Mary said. “I’m ready to help. What do you want me to do?’

“Why
don’t you keep a lookout at the window to see if any of those creatures are
coming into the building. Will you do that?” asked Jerry.

“Yeah.
I’ll watch for them. I will let you know what I see. And Mike, thank you for the
hug. I’m glad that you’re my boyfriend.”

“Once
we get this done we can go to sleep,” said Jerry. “In the morning when we get
up, we can look for a cab to take us back to the train. From there we can go
back home.”

“That
sounds good,” said Mike. “Let’s get to work so we can get this done. I’m
tired.”

After
she finished eating, Mary positioned herself by the window, watching the
street. Jennifer stood next to her. The two guys started looking for something from
which to make weapons. They broke a couple of table legs off one of the tables.
They took the long, wooden hanging rods from both of their rooms. With those
items, they figured they could push the creatures away from them.

It was
beginning to get dark outside. Mary and Jen hadn’t seen any of the creatures on
the street while they had been watching. They all lay down on their beds and tried
to get some sleep.

That
night they didn’t sleep much. As they lay there listening, they could hear the screams
of people being attacked. When the screams stopped, they knew that whoever had
been screaming was now dead. It brought back the memory of their friends having
been killed right before their eyes only the day before.

Mike
was standing next to the window, watching the street as the sun began to come
up. He wanted to see how the day looked. As daylight came, what he saw down on
the street was startling. He called softly to the others, waking them up.

Mike saw
that Jerry was awake, leaning against the wall. Mike gave him a thumbs up, and Jerry
returned it.