Mark Clodi - Undead Advantage, a Zombie Chronicles Novel

Charlie, held out his bloodied hand to Juan, who took it and was pulled to his feet. Charlie then shook his hand, "Sorry I yelled at you. I know you were trying to help, I just needed space. I have the feeling my life of treating people is going to suck for a long time, if I can't save them, they are going to die and we won't be able to save many trauma patients now. You see what happen Juan?"

"No, tell me."

"We were moving cars into place, a guy drove up with car full of people, friends and family, only one of them was not bitten. Thomas here", he pointed at the dead man, "told them our deal, the bitten go into pen, the girl who was not bit could come in and not be segregated. Or they could leave, their choice. Just like Jack told him to say, you know? Well, they got all mad about it, made to drive away and we got back to work, about ten seconds later one of them shot Thomas from a block away. Everyone shot back, probably killed all of them. Hey," Charlie said to everyone around them, "Did anyone check on them?"

A chorus of "No" and "Hell No!" came back from the crowd. "Maybe we should? Just in case?"

Jack's voice called out from somewhere outside the circle, "Yeah, we should. I'll go, you want to come with me Juan?" Jack stepped out in front of the crowd, a look of sadness on his face as he glanced towards Thomas.

"Sì." replied Juan, "I'll go. Gimme a gun somebody."

A man handed Juan a new looking shotgun, he whispered, "Fully loaded, five shots, plus these." As he passed the gun and a half empty box of shells over to Juan.

"Okay, everybody else get back to work. Next time, we keep our guns out and ready until they get out of sight completely okay? C'mon Juan." said Jack.

The doc took Charlie aside and started talking to him as Juan, Jack and a couple of other guys started walking slowly to the van. As they walked the block to where it was Juan could smell gasoline and blood.

"You came looking for me, right?", asked Jack to Juan.

"Sì. We need to find a bus or two, maybe a semi too. I think we are moving to Sky Ridge, we wanna send some people over to take a look at it first, the highway should be open, it was this morning when we came through to get back here anyway. You know anyone who would want to go?"

"Hm tough getting people to leave, plus brother, I don't know the way to Sky Ridge, it's now the place people like me get their medical care. I could get you to Denver General though. Hold that thought, lets take care of this first."

They approached the van slowly, there was movement inside of it. The thing was a wreck, with dozens of bullet holes in the side, both rear tires were flat and gas and anti-freeze were leaking all over the pavement beneath the vehicle. At least one of the bitten had turned and was feeding on the others, who all looked dead or close to it. Jack approached the door and the squirming mounds of flesh inside it. Aiming his gun into the van, he pulled on the handle of the door, spilling a couple of the bodies half out into the street.

One of the bodies was moving like a slow zom and drew Jack's attention, he put a bullet in its head before Juan even knew if it were a zombie or just a badly wounded man. Turning towards him, Jack said, "I am in charge of security, anyone kills one of my guys they can't expect me to let them in. These guys are all dead anyway Juan, all bitten, except her." He pointed to a woman in the back seat, who had taken a bullet to the head, "She claimed not to be, I'm going to shoot all these guys in the head so they don't come back." Jack then proceeded to do so, while the two guys with them watched for other zombies attracted by the noise and shot two of them as they approached. Juan just watched and waited. When Jack had all the bodies out of the van and on the ground he rummaged around and pulled out all the guns and bags he could find, going through the bags for ammunition, there was a lot of it to go with the hunting rifles and shotguns, plus some rounds for a Glock style plastic pistol one of the men had one him. Jack, Juan and the boys brought all the guns back with them, where the work was continuing on moving the cars.

"Fuck Juan, you know I issued instructions that got one of our guys killed. It could have been you or that kid you came in with, Kevin, or any of us. I don't know if I am cut out for telling people to do things that will get them killed."

"Sì. You did like we decided; I would have done the same."

"Maybe, maybe I should have spoke up against turning people away instead." Jack said sadly.

Juan reached over and grabbed Jack's shoulder, stopping him and turning him them both face to face. "You did the right thing, you hear anybody blaming you for what happened? No? That's right, 'cause they all, all these people, would have done the same thing, you know why? Yeah, sure you do, because it is the right thing to do. Some of us are gonna die Jack.", smiling he continued, "Well some of you. Not me. Not from a zombie. My old lady will kill me when she finds me in bed with another woman fifty years younger than me."

That got half a grin on Jack's face. "You saying I can't afford to over think this huh?"

"Sì amigo. Sì."

Jack seemed to digest this and they walked the rest of the way back to the group in silence, once there he turned back to Juan and said, "So Juan, why are we still working on the perimeter if we are leaving this place, shouldn't we just get packed up to go? I can have twenty of these cars moving in fifteen minutes if you want to go today, take three or four over to scout the place then come back for everyone else if it is clear."

"Doc said, maybe we could keep this place too, it is built like a fort, we hold it and the supplies and use the hospital to live in. Doc has been to the hospital, I think I could find it if he gave me directions, I'll go."

"What? Our Segundo getting into the line of fire? No way, not on my shift you ain't."

"Hah, who will override me? You? You are just a board member." Juan joked.

"Oh playing politics are we? I'll have you know, rumor has it anyway, that our Jefe, wants a couple of women on the board, I was thinking of nominating Nanci and maybe your mom, what was her name? Gloria?"

Juan's face paled, "You wouldn't!"

Laughing Jack shot back, "Maybe we can come to a deal without me resorting to such extreme tactics?"

"What did you have in mind?"

Jack looked thoughtful for a few seconds, "Okay, I go, you go, one of the nurses goes, that guy Charlie, plus three others for the extra guns and eyes, we take pickup trucks with extended cabs. This way we have a nurse to get the supply inventory, and the trucks to carry some of it back, if the place is clear or mostly empty, then we just bring back a few days worth of medical supplies, if it isn't we do a quick snatch and run back here with whatever we can get away with. Sound good?"

"Sì. Yeah, sounds good, I want to go now, before Hank wakes up and 'modifies' our plan any. He is too hurt to come with us, you know how he is though, he would want to come, this way we will be gone before he wakes, if not back before then." said Juan.

"Okay I will get Charlie, the three others and two trucks lined up. You go talk to old man Gonzales get him to at least cut us some bottled water."

"Sì." Juan turned and headed back to the building.

Before looking up Cisco Gonzales to get some bottled water Juan went looking for Nanci. He found her in the back of the store where a dozen grills had been set up to act as a makeshift kitchen. Nanci was busy cooking up dinner, which was still several hours away by Juan's thinking, however he had never cooked for two hundred people either. He knew more than half of the grills were set up to smoke all the meat from the deep freeze into a more portable form, dried jerky. The freezers were still working, but they drew a lot of power, Alfonso, their only electrician, didn't think they could keep everything running, if they could shut down the deep freezers that would allow them to have that much more power for the industrial sized refrigeration units. Men and women had spent quite a bit of the morning reorganizing the refrigerators, packing stuff in for storage as opposed to leaving it in the display cases. They had also duct taped all the doors closed to make them more efficient, except for one refrigerator door, which they now used as an access point. This way they would not have to open and close the fork lift sized door on one side of the refrigerator very often. If the power did go out the deep freeze would be shut down, the food would stay very cold for a few hours, maybe a few days, but they would move as much of it as possible to the refrigeration units, which should be powered by three of the generators on the roof. How long that would last depended entirely on how long they had a fuel supply.