Grabbing Ken"s arm, Lenore pulled him to his feet. "Run!"
He ran with her, stumbling and sliding over the dead bodies littering the floor. He heard growls behind him and glanced over his shoulder to see zombies staggering along behind them. The undead were reaching out with desperate hands as their mouths groaned in hunger.
Running down the hallway, Lenore guided him to the open window. She pushed him forward and it was Dale who lifted him up and through it.
Ken clung to him relishing the moment, then Dale set him down and shoved him toward the moving van. Lenore was heavier and harder to lift through the window and the zombies were almost to her, when she finally fell out onto the dry gra.s.s. Grabbing her hand, Dale tugged her after him as the zombies filled the window and began to tumble out.
Standing next to the truck, Linda fired at zombies, her shotgun barking loudly.
Ken scrambled into the back of the truck and looked back to see Dale dragging Lenore behind him. The zombies were falling out of the window and struggling to get up.
"Hurry! Hurry!" His voice sounded shrill, but he didn"t care.
Dale shoved Lenore up into the truck as Ken pulled on her arms. Lenore cussed at them with impressive insults, but they got her in. Dale slammed the doors shut, securing them.
Within seconds, the moving truck lurched and headed off at top speed.
Silently, Lenore sat down beside Ken on the bench and took his hand.
He sobbed silently beside her. He was surprised to see she was crying too, her big body shivering.
"You are one stupid f.a.ggot," she finally said.
Ken threw his arms around her and wept into her large bosom. "I know!"
Clutching him tightly, Lenore rocked him. "I love you, anyway."
"You saved me," Ken sobbed. "You saved me. I thought I was gone, but you saved me."
"No zombie is eatin" my best friend," Lenore declared through her tears.
Ken lifted his head. "But...what...oh..G.o.d..what about Jenni and the others? They"re still back there!"
Lenore just shook her head. "I don"t know, Ken. I don"t know."
As the truck headed back to the fort, the two friends clung to each other and hoped for the best for the other team.
3. Death"s Doorway Opens It was evident from the chaos in the operating rooms that things had gone to h.e.l.l fairly quickly. Dead bodies lay everywhere. Every single one had a gunshot to the head. Someone had meticulously gone through and killed every single person in ICU. Some, Jenni suspected, had not even been zombies.
"Why kill all of these, but not the ones in the ER?"
"Ran out of time, I suspect," Bill answered Jenni.
"Can we hurry it up? This place is making my skin crawl," Felix said from across the room.
"Yeah, this place is d.a.m.n creepy," Roger agreed.
Jenni unfolded her map and held it up against the wall to study it. The eerie lighting made her look very pale and almost dead. Roger felt uneasy by her appearance and took a step back.
"Bill, you and me can take care of the stuff in the O.R. Roger, Felix, you get those drugs from the pharmacy," she said firmly.
Felix studied his map, then nodded. "Let"s roll."
Things were very messy in the operating rooms. They entered very cautiously, but only found dead bodies. The corpses were terribly decomposed and they tried hard not to look at them too closely. Together, Bill and Jenni loaded up operating tools in a bin, careful to get the ones Charlotte had requested.
Bill"s walkie-talkie hissed to life.
"Sorry, Bill. Ken"s my best friend," Lenore"s voice said.
"What?" Bill fumbled to grab the walkie-talkie off his belt.
"What did she mean?"
"h.e.l.l if I know, Jenni."
Bill was just about to call Lenore back when they heard gunshots down below and what followed turned their blood cold. The bellow of a hundred zombie voices rising.
"We"re out of here," Bill said firmly.
Jenni slipped the safety off her rifle and grabbed the bin. She followed Bill out into the hallway just as Roger and Felix came running from the direction of the stairs.
"Just run," Felix hissed.
It was then they heard the footfalls on the stairs.
"s.h.i.t!" Jenni ran, clutching the gun in one hand and the bin in the other.
She could hear the scalpels and other tools rattling around in it, but she didn"t dare drop it. Juan needed these things.
Felix hit a door and shoved it open. They all piled into it and Roger quickly turned and locked it.
"Way out!" Felix ran toward the windows on the far side of the room.
Looking around, Jenni realized they were in some sort of dorm room.
Probably for doctors on long shifts.
"Felix!" Bill shouted.
The slender man didn"t turn around, but ran across the long room.
Sections were curtained off and Jenni realized a form was moving behind one at the far end. She could just make out its silhouette highlighted by the fading sunlight coming through the windows.
"Felix, no!"
He looked back just long enough to run straight into the last curtain. And beyond that curtain was something that reached out for him. He went down in a tumble of grunts and moans, the curtain falling over him and a dark figure.
Roger ran to help, his heavy body sweating profusely. "Felix, no, no!"
Behind Jenni, the door was struck by something large. Then the pounding began. Bill immediately pushed her aside and shoved a large metal wardrobe over in front of the door.
Felix shouted as Roger grabbed the curtain and yanked it back.
Tumbling out, Felix gasped in large breaths of air as he struggled to his feet. Behind him, a terribly mutilated and decaying soldier was chewing on a bit of Felix"s ear.
"s.h.i.t," Roger screamed.
"What? What?" Felix exclaimed, leaping away from the zombie. "Kill it!"
Jenni shot the soldier as it lunged forward. It jerked backwards as the bullet tore through its chest. The second bullet sheared off the side of his head and it tumbled to the ground. Its brain slid out through the shattered skull, falling wetly to the floor. A bit of ear, with a gold earring still attached, fell out of its mouth.
"Oh, s.h.i.t, no," Felix said as his hand came up to his ear. "No, no. He ripped it off with his hand. He didn"t bite me!"
Roger raised his gun. "Sorry, Felix."
"No, the f.u.c.ker ripped it off! It didn"t bite me!"
Pushing a desk in front of the door to brace the metal wardrobe, Bill swore under his breath. It continued to buckle and push into the room.
"We don"t have much time!"
Jenni threw the contents of the bin onto a bed and rolled it up in a sheet, then tied the ends to make a backpack. With a sigh of regret, she yanked her ax from her back and tossed it onto a bed. Pulling on the makeshift backpack with the surgical tools in it, she hurried toward the men fiercely arguing back and forth.
Felix screamed at Roger, holding his torn ear, as Roger obviously tried to get up his nerve to fire.
"You can"t do this to me. It tore it off. I swear it did. It didn"t bite me! I promise. Dear G.o.d, I promise!" Felix shouted. Tears streaming down his face, he raised his gun, pointing at Roger. "Put the gun down, Roger. I mean it! It didn"t bi-"
Jenni raised her gun and fired. Felix fell, silent and dead, over the soldier who had already effectively ended his life.
"You make it fast," Jenni said to Roger in a low voice.
"G.o.d, Jenni. He"s my friend."
"It doesn"t matter. You make it fast!"
The pounding on the door was increasing.
"Roger, some help," Bill said from where he was still stacking things against the door. "Jenni, get us an escape route!"
Roger ran over to help barricade the door. More and more decayed hands were reaching into the room through the slowly opening door.
Jenni looked out the window and saw a fifteen foot drop onto the roof of the first floor wing. The red truck sat silent on the gra.s.s just within view.
Sliding the window open, she punched out the screen.
"We gotta jump."
Pulling the mattress off the nearest cot, Jenni pushed it out the window and watched it fall. Satisfied, she grabbed another one off another cot, and also pushed it out.
"Let"s go, guys!"
Bill and Roger turned and ran as the door gave way. The first of the zombies shoved itself into the room.
Jenni pulled herself up onto the window sill, her trembling hands gripping the frame tightly. With a deep breath, she lowered herself as far as she could, then let go. She dropped hard onto the mattresses and felt the wind get knocked out of her. Rolling onto her side, she managed to get to her feet and struggled for her next breath.
Seconds later, Bill fell beside her. Despite his beer belly, he managed a better landing. Climbing to his feet, he scanned the top of the roof they were on, then looked up at the window.
"Roger! Hurry!"
Roger appeared above them, looking terrified. Wordlessly, he began to climb out of the window. The howling of the zombies seemed quite near now. Jenni saw a gray chewed hand reach out from behind Roger and make a grab for him.
"Jump!" Bill and Jenni shouted at the same time.
Roger screamed when he saw the hand about to close on his neck and jerked to one side. He fell wildly. Instead of striking the mattresses, he hit the hard gravel surface of the roof feet first. Jenni not only saw, but heard his legs break as the angry, white splinters of bone erupted from his shins.
"No!" She rushed to his side as he screamed in pain and collapsed.
"f.u.c.k, s.h.i.t! I shouldn"t have worn the red shirt," he cried out. Tears streaked his face and she saw his red turtleneck peeking out from his leather jacket.
"I wore red, too. But we"re not going to die!" Jenni turned to Bill, her expression desperate. "Bill, help me!"
Bill was looking up toward the window. "We need to go," he said in a desolate tone.
"Help me!" Jenni repeated, trying to drag Roger.
The injured man howled in agony.
"Now, Jenni," Bill ordered. "We need to go now."
She looked up in time to see the first zombie plunge out of the window.
Luckily, it landed head first, splitting its skull open. But the second landed on the first zombie and immediately crawled toward them.
Roger looked at her, terror in his eyes. "Make it fast," he said, his voice cracking. "I can"t jump down to the ground. It"s over, Jenni. Make it fast."
"No, no!" She tried to drag him, but he kept screaming in pain.
Another zombie landed on the mattresses. Then another. They were tumbling out of the window faster now. Some were crawling across the roof, others struggling to their feet.
"Jenni, do as he says!" Bill"s voice was urgent and stricken all at the same time.
"Make it fast!" Roger screamed at her, his eyes fastened on the zombies crawling toward him. "I don"t want to be eaten alive! Do it!"
Jenni rose to her feet, her gaze sliding to the zombies. Their teeth were snapping together in antic.i.p.ation of their feast.
"Roger, I"m sorry," she whispered.
She felt her finger pull the trigger and saw him fall back just as one of the zombies grabbed the bone sticking out of his leg.