Mark Clodi - Undead Advantage, a Zombie Chronicles Novel

Charlie did not stop, when the bottle he had ran out he went and got another, pausing only to slip on a pair of latex gloves and grab some gauze he returned to Mary's side and started probing her wounds, while pouring more disinfectant on her. Juan reloaded Charlie's pistol and set it down on a metal tray and stepped out of the room to grab Mary and Charlie's rifles. When he got back he loaded them as Mary whimpered and Charlie scrambled around for more gauze. Sitting the rifles by the side of the doorway he pulled up his Walkie-Talkie and said, "Jack?"

"Ten four, Juan, go ahead." came the reply.

"There were a lot of them in the ER, we came in gunning for them, but a fast zombie hit Charlie from the side, tried to knock us all over, but I got out of the way, he knocked Mary over and then used her body to shield himself from me. He bit Mary in the fight."

There was a long pause, then "She okay otherwise? What is your status now?"

"She got bit a couple of times, that is her crying in the background, Charlie is trying to disinfect the wound. Me and Charlie are banged up but okay. I am watching the door. The fast zombie got away Jack. Make sure it doesn't come around at you."

"Get her cleaned up, then back out, we need more people to clear this place. Got it?"

"Ten four." Juan replied.

Charlie was busy probing the wounds with more cotton while he poured on even more disinfectant. Mary was quieter now, but winced at times when Charlie probed too hard. After watching for another minute or so Juan said, "Charlie? Charlie!"

Looking up Juan could see tears on Charlie's cheeks, he angrily replied, "What."

"We gotta blow, is it as clean as you can do?"

"Gimme another minute okay? Another minute of this stuff then I will stitch her a little and apply a bandage to try and control the bleeding."

"A minute? You got about that, look we can put you both in the same truck if we need to. Any of this stuff worth taking, anything the doc said we might need?"

"No, not really. The club has disinfectant and gauze and even latex gloves, no we need medicines and stitching, we can take that out of here. We should have gotten to a supply closet, still could if Jack lets us."

A new voice came from the hallway, "Mee-eeat! I can smell you there, I still taste the woman, delicious!"

Making 'what the fuck' faces at each other Juan turned his attention back to the hallway, the door at the end was propped over a little, Juan could make out an arm on the floor holding it from shutting completely. He took careful aim at the side of the door and when the voice started again he fired. The voice started laughing and said, "I am not that dumb, you are mine, you stupid, little Mexican, I will feast on your guts and when you die I am gonna feed them to you too. You will be my slave!"

Looking at the walls Juan could tell they were made of drywall, he slowly lowered the shotgun and picked up Mary's thirty ought six, saying to Charlie, "You got her ready to go yet?"

Juan silently estimated where a person would stand at beyond the door while the zombie rambled on about making Juan eat his girlfriend and then would tell him everything about where they came from. Juan was squeezing the trigger when the voice taunted, "You will be mine too. You know I can make any zombies I create do whatever I want them to do? That is the way it works. You don't even know who you are messing with, in a way you are lucky I am here, you at least had a chance. My master went to deal with that DJ, otherwise you would already be dead!"

"Master? So you are just another fucking punk then?" shouted Juan.

A heavy fist pounded on the right hand side of the door, denting it through both layers of metal, and giving Juan the side of the door his adversary stood on.

"Punk! I'll show you punk when I am feeding you your own di-"

Juan's shot rang out projected where the thought the things head would be at through the drywall of the hallway. Everything fell silent.

Charlie whispered, "Did you get him?"

Shrugging, Juan replied "I gotta go see, get your gun and watch me from here."

Charlie told Mary to stay where she was, he had her in a wheel chair, but he did push her around with her head pointed towards the room's door. He handed her his pistol off the stainless steel tray, so she could cover him while he covered Juan.

Juan crept down the hallway, through the propped open doorway he heard a shuffling sound, the other side of the doorway was not dark, it was well lit and cheery, peeking through the door by pulling is slightly open Juan was able to see a set of feet kicking out frantically on the floor. He did not see any other zombies in the hallway beyond, he slowly eased open the door the rest of the way open and looked at the youthful zombie in front of him. He saw that the thirty ought six bullet had come through the wall and hit the zombie in the back of the head at the base of the skull, but just a little off center. The zombie was trying to move his arms and legs, but seemed unable to control his movements, his skull, Juan noticed was healing. It was not healing as fast as his leg had earlier. Pointing Mary's rifle at the zombie's head Juan said softly, "You were saying?"

The zombie muffled a few garbled words out, Juan said with a heavy Hispanic accent, "I couldn't understand you. I'm just a 'stupid little Mexican' so maybe you need to speak slower, my English, is no so good señor."

The zombie looked up at him in rage and what Juan saw next would have his hair raising up on the back of his neck for the rest of his life whenever he thought of it, the zombies eyes glowed. Even in the brightly lit corridor, the zombies eyes were brighter, worse the thing started to rise up off the floor, not using its hands or legs at all, it was just floating upwards, at least that is how he would tell the story later, when he finally talk about it. Fear startled him into movement and Juan swung the end of the rifle around like bat, crushing in the top of the zombie's skull and ending its second life. A feeling of euphoria cascaded through Juan's body and he felt a pull towards the stairs. Barely reigning himself in he made a quick check of the hallways in all directions then waved at Charlie and called out softly, "It looks all clear now. You get Mary out to the truck I am gonna run through a few places and see if I can find any more of them deeper inside." After saying this Juan ducked through the door and disappeared.

"No! Come back Juan!" shouted Charlie. Juan disappeared into the building. Juan opted to take the stairs upwards, not sure what he was looking for or even what he was doing. A strange urge had come into him and he was almost to the second floor when his walkie-talkie sputtered to life.

"Juan! Its Jack. Charlie came out of the ER screaming for help, that you ran off, what the hell are you doing?"

Slowly Juan pulled the walkie-talkie to his lips and said, "I am doing what has to be done, we gotta know Jack, we gotta have a better idea. Give me five minutes, it'll take Charlie that long to get Mary squared away, okay?"

"No goddamn it! We can come back again later with more men!"

"I think it is empty Jack, I think there are not any of them in the building, the fast zombie pushed them all into the ER, I think. Just let me check."

"Fuck no! We can check later! Goddamn it Juan! Get back here!"

He was not sure why he wanted to see what else was in the hospital, but he felt compelled to continue. On the second floor he saw several signs directing him to various parts of the building, looking up he grimaced, one word stuck out at him and he knew he had to go there.

"Jack, stop, listen!" after Jack stopped talking, Juan continued, "Stop and listen to me. I know why I gotta go, I know now I gotta go check something out. The second floor seems cleared of them okay?"