Waiting to Die ~ A Zombie Novel (4 page)

Bill
tries to shake the sounds, but is rooted to the spot when he hears a brittle
crack from the recoil of the gun. The intercom goes silent. He waits for only a
moment before throwing open the office door and emerging into the hallway,
frantic to get away.

Beyond
the morgue, the hall is empty and otherwise quiet, save for the muted sounds
from the hospital above. Bill takes off in a sprint, heading along the
corridor, trying to put distance between him and the hell that he has been
thrown into. After taking a hard left, he faces the door to the stairwell, his
heart pumping heavily in his chest. He opens the door, waiting patiently,
listening for anything that might indicate that he is alone. Relatively assured
that it is safe, he takes to the stairs, skipping every other one until he is
at the first landing.

A lone
figure shambles past the window on the other side of the door that looks out
into the first floor reception area. Bill pauses for fear of being spotted, and
waits until the corpse is out of sight. His plan for leaving through the first
available emergency exit thwarted, he turns and begins to climb the next flight
of stairs. There is a fire escape on every floor, and he intends to use one of
them to get as far away from this nightmare as he can.

Turning
the corner, heading towards the second flight of stairs, he only makes it a
third of the way up before he realizes that there is someone standing
motionless on the landing above him. Becky stares blankly downward as if she
were in a trance. Glaring at the floor, her hair hangs over her face, sweaty
and in strands.

“Becky?”
Bill smiles at her familiar face.

Becky's
jaw slackens and her gaze fixates on a new objective. Her eyes lock onto him as
her mouth distorts into an open maw. Black and red stained teeth expose
themselves, protruding through tightened, cracking lips. Her slithering tongue
juts outward, curling in on itself, licking at the air.

“Shit!'
He exclaims as creature awkwardly moves forward.

At the
first step that she makes, her foot twists to the side at the ankle, skidding
on the stairs, and she begins to fall. Bill steps to the side, wielding the
bone saw shoulder height as the corpse falls by him. Sprawled out on the
landing below, it struggles to get up, seeming infatuated with the man that
stands above her.

Raising
the weapon higher, Bill exclaims, “Don't do it, Becky. Please...”

The
corpse pulls itself up on all fours in an effort to stand, growling at the
sound of Bill's voice. A thin stream of red tinted saliva hangs from her mouth
as Bill backs up along the stairway.

“Please,
Becky. Don't,” he pleads with her.

Having
risen to its feet, the corpse takes a step forward, jerks on unsure legs, and
reaches out toward the prize that stands before it. She grazes Bill's lab coat
as he backs up along the stairs, keeping his distance from the woman.

In a
swift, spasmodic movement, the body reaches out again causing Bill's instinct
to take over. He swings wildly, catching the corpse alongside its temple. The
blade glances off of slick bone and imbeds itself into her cheek. The cadaver
recoils from the impact, and lashes back with a deafening howl.

Again,
Bill wields the weapon above his head as the creature’s torn face glares at
him. Through skin and meat, a portion of bone shows through below the corpse’s
eye, winding down to the cavernous gash along its mouth. The body launches
itself at the living flesh before it, enraged and howling through blood and
spit.

In one
swift movement, Bill sends the saw down into the creature’s skull, splitting
through to the pulp that rests under the surface of gleaming bone. The body
collapses like a rag doll, suddenly devoid of the automation that allowed it to
exist.

Bill
stares at the heap of flesh on the stairs below his feet and lets out an
exhausted breath. He grits his teeth in anger, clenches his fist, and drops the
weapon once more. With a clang, the bone saw hits the ground next to Becky's
body.

Bill’s
chest convulses as the first tears of sorrow grace his reddening eyes. He
begins to sob, clasping his mouth with his hand in an effort to conceal his
pain. Grief overcomes him as he stares at the woman’s body. He had spoken to
her, not even an hour ago and now he was standing above her lifeless form,
smeared in her blood, and quivering from grief.

“What
the hell is happening?” he asks aloud. 

A sudden
explosion jerks him back into reality and he braces himself against the wall as
the building shakes in the aftermath. He looks down at Becky; at his fallen
friend, at what she has become and wipes away the tears from his eyes. Another
explosion prompts him to leave as debris from the ceiling showers him in fine,
white dust. He shields his eyes and steps over Becky’s body, ascending to the
next flight of stairs.

The
sounds of mayhem recede, becoming faint as Bill arrives at the second floor of
the hospital. Peering through the window at the next level, he only sees an
empty hallway beyond. Slowly, he begins to turn the doorknob, trying to stay as
silent as possible for fear of more of the creatures lurking out of his range
of sight. The door gives easily, sending a rush of air that smells of bleach
and sanitizer into the stairwell. There is a faint odor of something burning,
but he can’t tell where it is coming from.

Pushing
the door in toward the hall, Bill scans his surroundings, and walks through. He
can hear a barrage of gunfire outside of the building, snapping away, bursting
through the cracks and pangs of the building.

With a
crash, the hospital shakes violently as an explosion rocks its foundation,
emanating from somewhere outside. Florescent fixtures give way above Bill's
head, sending scraps of ceiling tile and dust raining down. The lights begin to
flicker in a strobe effect, disorienting and confusing him to the point where
he has to close his eyes to regain his bearings.

Once he
recovers, he is overwhelmed by an orange glow that shines through the tiny
windows of every one of the hospital rooms. As far as he can see along the
hallway, the luminescence radiates through, giving off an eerie glow that makes
him imagine that this is what Hell might look like. Smoke wafts in from underneath
the doors, mixing with the odor of burnt hair and cooking meat.

As his
skin warms and tingles, Bill realizes that the south side of the building is
engulfed in flames and the fire is spreading. He runs along the hall, covering
his mouth with his undershirt as the smoke thickens. He rips off a portion of
his t-shirt and moistens it in the drinking fountain which resides in a small
indentation in the wall. He places the fabric over his face, hoping it is
enough to keep out the toxins in the air.

Even
with his vision obstructed by the rolling smoke, Bill has an idea of where he
is going. Winding himself eastward, he keeps as low to the ground as possible.
Fumes blur his vision, and he is forced to wipe at his eyes in an effort to
see.

The door
to one of the patient rooms flies open with a resounding whoosh - a gurgling
scream rattles through the sounds of crackling wood and snapping tile. He
dodges a flaming body as it runs toward him. What he can only assume was a
patient slams hard against the far wall, bouncing backward against the floor
from the impact. He smells charred meat as the body slumps over. Beneath the
flames, a blackened silhouette sizzles and cracks into a burning heap. He gasps
through the rag over his face, sickened by the experience, shaken by the horror
of watching someone burnt alive.

He
closes his eyes as he passes the pile of charred flesh and moves as far from
the body as he can. Placing his back to the wall, he slides around the hellish
scene. The body twitches with the last throes of death as its limbs begin to
curl and smolder. The fleshly embers ignite the wall behind them, and flames
begin to dance up along the wallpaper. He coughs through the rag around his
face, crouches low, and scurries away under the smoke.

At the
east wing of the building, Bill makes a sharp left and turns into a corridor
that leads to the fire escape. From the corner of his eye, he catches the
slightest movement amongst some rubble that has fallen from the aftermath of
the explosion. Pausing for a moment, he glances to the far corner of the
hallway. There, on the floor before him, a young girl sits prone, huddled in on
herself, coughing in between heavy sobs. Immediately, he realizes that she is
alive, that somehow this little girl has survived the mayhem. He bends to one
knee and places his hand on her shoulder.

“Are you
all right?” Bill asks, raising his voice over the crackling.

The girl
recoils from fright and shields her face from attack.

“It's
okay,” Bill pulls away to keep from frightening her further. “You're going to
be safe. I'm going to get you out of here.”

She
looks up at Bill and coughs. Her eyes relax and she extends her hand.

He curls
his fingers around the child’s hand. “Put this over your mouth,” he says and
places the scrap of cloth from his mouth onto hers before leaning down to hoist
her up into his arms. “Just hold on, we'll be out of here in a second.”

Nodding,
the child tucks her face into Bill's chest; her hairless head protruding
slightly from the collar of his lab coat. Bill covers the child with his hand,
nearly concealing her completely from the debris that continues to fall from
above. She weighs nothing at all, a simple waif stricken by whatever terrible
god that allows children to become sick. He can feel the bones of her shoulders
and back pressing into him as if he were carrying a bag full of twigs rather
than a child.

As he
turns toward the fire escape, the silhouette of something catches his eye. The
faintest outline of a person comes into view through a doorway that leads into
a patient’s room. Reaching outward, arms held slack, the person moves into the
light shining in through the fire exit. A horrible mouth opens, burnt and
disfigured. The creature encroaches as fast as its charred legs will allow it
to move. An exposed, blackened skull pokes through its scalp, almost gleaming
in spots that haven’t been covered with soot. Its charred insides release. Gas
escapes through its maw; rancid and thick with the fluids that have built from
within its burnt lungs. The ghoul coughs out a moan that sends bits of spittle
and gore out onto its smoldering hospital gown.

The
child clings onto Bill when she hears the monster cry out. As the creature
reaches out toward the girl, Bill pulls back, balances himself on one foot, and
kicks the body in the chest.  Collapsing in on itself, the corpse loses its
footing and flies backward into the room, skidding a few feet until it finally
comes to rest near the hospital bed. Flames rage at the far side of the room,
licking at the walls as smoke billows out through open portions of the drywall.

Quickly,
he pulls the door toward himself as the creature snarls, hissing like a snake
about to strike. Before the door can be fully closed, the creature throws
itself against the obstruction, slamming itself in. Its face is pressed tightly
against the window, smearing blackened gore across the surface as its teeth
gouge uselessly against it. Snapping at the living on the other side, the
corpse flails its arms wildly as the flames spread behind it, igniting its
gown.

For only
a moment, he watches the hideous thing as it becomes engulfed by fire, slamming
itself against the prison door that has entrapped it. He backs away and turns
to the fire exit.

The
picture is stained within his imagination; an unemotional automaton swallowed
by flame, captivated by nothing more than the hunger that drives it.

“I'm
going to set you down for a minute so I can open the window,” he explains to
the child. Her grip tightens as Bill tries to place her on the floor. “It's going
to be okay. I'm going to put you down for a second. You'll be fine.”

The girl
looks up at him and stares into his eyes. She nods and loosens her grip,
allowing him to place her next to him on the floor.

Unfastening
the clasp above the window, he slides it open and motions to the girl to go out
first. Fresh evening air filters through, pushing away the sting of the smoke
that fills the hallways inside. Cautiously, the child extends her leg out as if
testing the surface of the fire exit to make sure it is real. Satisfied, she
pulls her other leg out behind her as Bill follows closely behind, guiding the
child with his hands on her shoulders.

With two
flights of stairs below him, he looks down through the grating at the empty
alley behind the hospital. He follows the girl, helping her along the way while
scanning his surroundings. The sound of gunfire and screaming has become louder
once they make it outside of the building, causing the child to jerk from
fright with every sound.

“We're
going to be okay,” he tells her, pointing off through the dimming daylight to
the parking lot behind the hospital. “See? There are ambulances back there.
Have you ever ridden in an ambulance?”

She nods
her head, yes.

“Then
you know that they’re pretty safe,” he replies.

She nods
again.