The Dead Chapter 16

Book 1: The Dead

Chapter 16

Nobody said much the next morning, everyone was too preoccupied preparing for the hospital, and trying to convince ourselves that we had a chance. Caleb at least seemed slightly calmer than last night, but as I began to think about the task that lay before us I started to wonder whether or not I had made him any safer by not sending him on the distraction mission. I also began to question my motivations for coming with them. Simon was a friend, but I wasn't sure I was ready to risk life and limb for him. I remember thinking about my family, I knew my sister was one of the dead, if somebody hadn't already killed her, and my mother was either dead or infected, if what I knew was true. I wasn't sure about my father, but I knew it was unlikely he was alive. So why was I doing this?

I couldn’t answer that question, I don’t know if I ever could, but I didn’t have the chance to find out because Todd came over and interrupted my thoughts, a solemn expression on his face. ‘Well, I guess it’s now or never,’ he said, trying to sound unafraid, it wasn’t working

‘You don’t have to do this you know,’ I said, my fear for my friend overcoming my fear for Caleb’s state of mind

‘Yeah…  Yeah I do.’ He walked over towards the bike, grabbing a helmet as he did, his rifle slung over his shoulder. We had considered switching guns, the handgun being the better choice for someone on a bike, but there wasn’t enough time to teach anyone to use a rifle or the handgun and I couldn’t drive a car let alone a motorbike. As he sat on the bike and began to put on his helmet Wendy came over and stopped him, she had been scarce since our decision the night before, but I couldn’t blame her. She leaned in close and kissed him, barely pulling away enough to whisper, ‘come back to me okay?’

‘I will,’ Todd replied, smiling, but the smile disappeared, ‘I promise’

‘Good luck,’ I told him. Wendy stepped back, reluctantly letting go of his hand. Todd put on the helmet and drove away. We started to get ready to leave when we heard two shots from the direction of the hospital. There was no turning back now.

Monica had found some binoculars in one of the abandoned cars that morning, using them we were able to see that Todd’s plan had worked, most of the zombies from the front of the hospital had disappeared. I remembered the amount of the dead that were there before and started to breath heavily at the thought of them chasing my friend, but I couldn’t freak out now. The Ute was ready and Monica and Wendy got into the front of the Ute while Caleb and I were sitting in the back. The plan from here on was to drive slowly and quietly towards the ambulance bay, quietly killing any of the dead that approached us. This was the part I was most afraid of, if there were more of the dead than anticipated, or we made to much noise and alert the ones inside then we could be overrun before we could do anything about it. But there was no time for changes or alterations, this was happening now.

We drove slowly around the wall of abandoned cars in front of the hospital. Caleb and I were ducking below the wooden walls we had added, we didn’t want to give any dead an excuse to attack us. I heard every noise the car was making, every time the engine noise got slightly louder or we drove over some rocks or rubbish I worried we had made to much sound and expected hundreds of the dead to suddenly leap on top of us. Caleb and my breathing sounded as loud as gale force winds. I tried to calm myself and slow my breathing, but there was nothing I could do the fear was so intense. Finally I saw the cover of the ambulance bay appear overhead. But as the Ute turned to park I saw the deadmen that had seen us and were lumbering towards us.

There were four of them, and most of them were intact except one had half of its face hanging off as if it had been dragged along the road. They were still moving quite slowly, I don’t think they realised what they had found, the smell and the sight of living flesh hadn’t reached them yet. All they noticed was the movement. Caleb was the first to gather himself and exit the Ute, breathing heavily but still careful to make little noise. He crept up to the nearest deadman who had begun to groan and pick up speed as he got closer. The Ute stopped and Wendy, Monica and I also got out of the Ute as Caleb swung his axe with a large amount of force and almost sliced the man’s head in two. I walked up to one, a woman wearing a patient’s gown which was thankfully still intact but covered in blood, and swung my weapon. She fell to the ground but continued to move until I used the pointed end to break open her skull. I looked up and saw that Monica had finished of what used to be a doctor with her axe. But what surprised was when Wendy pulled out a large kitchen knife and stabbed it into a suited deadman’s temple. I think out of all of us Wendy had become the most adjusted and accepting of the new gruesome world we were in, or the most determined to survive.

Even with the violent manner of our attack we managed to avoid getting much blood on us. The last thing we needed now was for one of us to become infected. We still weren’t sure whether or not Monica had been infected from her encounter on the main road, although she had shown no signs of fever or illness, and we were checking regularly. We were grateful to find that the remaining dead outside remained oblivious to our presence and there were no ambulances blocking the entrance, I assumed they had all been dispatched when people everyone began vomiting blood. We were also grateful when we found to the side of the large double doors was a fire exit map, which clearly showed the location of the pharmacy. The good news was it was on the first floor, and relatively close to our location, the issue was it was in a large area for people to wait, with large glass windows big enough for a deadman to get through. I hoped there were curtains or something to stop any of the dead from seeing inside. My worry was that the seating area was going to be filled with the dead, effectively making access to the pharmacy impossible. But we wouldn’t know that until we entered. We had no choice but to plan for all outcomes, but I knew there was no way this would be easy.