Mark Clodi - Undead Advantage, a Zombie Chronicles Novel

"What do you gotta check all alone? Just wait, I will catch up. I can catch up with you and we can go together." The man pleaded, "Goddamnit Juan if something happens to you Hank will kill me! And he would have to stand in line behind Nanci! Just wait for me where you are."

"I'm on the second floor; go through the doors to your left towards the elevators. I am heading toward the maternity ward. Okay amigo?"

"Aw, Juan, no man, no! You know they eat everything, don't do this Juan!" Jack's voice pleaded with him.

Juan put the walkie-talkie back on his belt and turned the volume way down so he would not have to listen to Jack as he pushed his way through several sets of doors between him and his goal.

He moved along swiftly, but as quietly as he could, Juan had a suspicion, he could not tell where it came from, but he had a gut feeling that the babies were still alive. He made his way around the last corner to the maternity ward and saw a lone zombie standing outside of a traditional baby viewing area, the zombie turned towards Juan and his eyes started glowing a faint orange, easier to see here under purely florescent lighting. Juan felt something stirring inside him, an urge to run, lay down, sleep, run, flashing through his mind in quick succession. His anger grew as he forced himself forward, a primal scream tore itself from his throat and he hip fired the thirty ought six at the beast in front of him, striking it in the shoulder. The wound, unsurprisingly, healed almost instantly, as did the second one Juan put in its guts. The second wound however tore its way out through the thing's spinal column and it lurched sideway for a second, during which time Juan felt the compelling presence in his mind abate completely. Using his anger to keep the thing out of his head he propelled himself down the hall towards it. The zombie should have been twitching helplessly on the ground, instead it held itself upright, Juan knew this was not possible.

Juan made as if he were going to swing the rifle as a baseball bat, barrel end out, as he did so the zombie grabbed the barrel and jerked it out of Juan's hands. Which was fine with Juan, in fact he did not even resist the thing grabbing the rifle away from him. The zombie's over zealous pull turned it around like a top from a lack of resistance, slamming the end of the rifle into the metal support of the window, breaking both the glass and a chunk off of the wooden butt. Juan, meanwhile, pulled the pistol from his belt, brought it up and fired three shots point blank into the back of the thing's head.

It went down silently and Juan stepped over it and fired another three shots into its head, yelling as he did so. Again he felt a surge of energy wrack through his body. Behind him he heard the doors swinging open and he saw Jack pelting towards him, shotgun at the ready, he backpedaled when he saw Juan and his feet slipped on the smooth, still clean and sanitary floors and went out from under him. He landed on his butt and said, "Wha-what-what the fuck was that! What happened to you Juan!"

Juan stood there for a second, contemplating things, then said, "Nothing, nothing Jack, I am okay amigo. I just found this one here and I think the babies are alive. I am okay. In fact I feel…just fine."

"No, no something is not right, just for a second, it looked like your eyes were glowing, kinda yellowish or something. Must have been a trick of the light.", he said in a tone of voice indicating it was not a trick of the light.

Getting up and dusting himself off he pointed into the baby's room, the window was splattered with black ichor and cracked, but Juan could still see inside the room. Not only were most of the beds filled, but crouching down among the babies were their mothers, nurses, doctors and various other people, all of whom were looking at Juan as if he were some sort of incarnation of God.

"C'mon amigo. Juan?" Jack asked tentatively from behind Juan, getting up to his feet as he did so.

"Look." said Juan, pointing through the splattered and cracked glass into the baby ward.

"Shit, I see, man, I see. Aw fuck. Remind me not to bet against your 'gut feelings'."

Jack pulled out his radio, while Juan looked for a way in. One of the few men not dressed in hospital garb came to the glass and yelled, "Through there, but they got three of the husbands they turned into zombies in there too, they can't get in, we can't get out."

Nodding grimly Juan went to the indicated door and looked back at Jack.

Meanwhile Jack had contacted Terry and filled her quickly in on the situation. He put the walkie talkie back on his belt and moved over to cover Juan. Once he was in position Juan asked him, "You ready?"

Jack answered, "Sì." and Juan pulled the door open. The zombies were in a small room that looked like a nurses station and had a counter dividing it into two halves. All of the zombies were on the same half of the room as Juan and between him and the door to the maternity nursery.

Jack watched as Juan popped the door open, pulled his rifle into position and rapid fired three shots into the narrow half of the room before Jack even had a good idea of what was in there. He said quietly to himself, "Holy fuck!" and Juan looked back at him while his hands automatically popped the magazine out of the rifle and reloaded it of their own accord. Juan's look was one of questioning.

"Did I say that out loud?" Juan nodded 'yes' to him. "Well what the fuck was that? What happened to you? I mean talk about fast, you were a blur there man, you had the door open and those zombies were down before I even counted them up! What the hell is going on?"

The door at the end of the hallway opened up and several men and woman began running towards the two men, hailing them as heroes. Most were crying and upset. Two of the women stopped over a couple of the bodies, sobbing quietly.

Jack held up his hands and said, "Whoa, whoa, people calm down here! We were just checking this place out, we were glad to save you, right Juan? Happy to do so!"

The small crowd forced its way into the hallway, with everyone clapping Juan and Jack on the back before heading to the rest rooms down the hall, a man in scrubs explained it had been awhile since they had been given bathroom breaks. Jack, concerned, ran ahead of the crowd and cleared both bathrooms before letting anyone in, then he stationed himself at one end of the hall while Juan stood at the other. Jack knew he was supposed to be watching for zombies sneaking up on them, but his eyes kept being drawn back to Juan. The man was standing larger than life at the other end of the hall. As the men and women finished in the bathroom they seemed drawn to Juan, before long the entire crowd, Jack included, had gravitated close to him.

The walkie-talkie on Jack's belt crackled to life, "Hey buddy, what is the situation there?" came Terry's voice.

Jack pulled his up and responded, "Hey Terry, we got about ten, no eleven adults and.. Uh doc? How many babies? Oh. Okay we got twelve kids, uh babies really. The doc says they can't move three of them, they were premature and need the equipment."

"Shit. So what do we do? Hold on the cell phone is ringing, Mother Goose is calling for their status report. I will tell them the situation and see what they recommend."

A few minutes later Terry got back on the Motorola and said, "Can we hold out here and wait for a relief column with food and the walking wounded?"

Relief poured into Jack, and he was immediately ashamed because of it, however the mere thought of not having to leave the hospital again made him feel better, he answered, "Sure, the ammo is low, but we can barricade the ER doors, check the other entrances and do a quick sweep of the hospital to see what we can see. Plus some of these guys are pretty able bodied, they could handle bats at least and maybe some of them are shooters. How is the crowd outside?"