Mark Clodi - Undead Advantage, a Zombie Chronicles Novel

Hank made a look that suggested 'who? Me?' and laughed, "No need to worry about that darling, plus I got you looking out for me right? I'll be okay."

"Sure Hank, you'll be fine." Then Evaine switched to Spanish and muttered, "better than fine when you finally get over our age difference, then you will be mighty good indeed!"

Continuing in Spanish Hank said, "Oh yeah the old 'Spanish Culture' thing, huh? Funny how you always see young girls marrying old goats and never young boys doing the same thing. Makes you wonder which is the smarter sex?"

A rather uncomplimentary word spilled out of Evaine's mouth, along with a good natured smile and she turned back towards the children.

John spotted the convoy first, when he did he excitedly yelled out, "Juan! There they are Juan! Do you see em?" The eighteen year old was dressed in green hospital scrubs badly in need of changing. He stood about five foot ten inches tall, had black hair and hazel eyes with long soft looking eyelashes. His hair was, like his clothing, in need of a good washing, his face had the pall of someone who has been up too long and is running on pure adrenaline and caffeine.

Juan was in the bathroom, which did have a window, however he was sitting down and could not see outside, let alone back along the road leading to the hospital, "No. I don't see them, Give me a minute to finish! Jesus wept! Call it in to Jack, let them know they are coming, okay?"

"Sure thing!" pulling the walkie talkie of off his belt he pressed the send button and said, "I can see them Jack, they are pulling up the street now. Juan is on the pot, so I am calling to let you know."

Some laughter came back at John a moment later as Jack replied, "Thanks, we'll open the doors for them and tell Juan not to rush things, cleanliness is next to godliness, right?"

John looked puzzled for a second and looked at Juan as he came through the bathroom door, "What did he mean by that? God that guy is so weird sometimes!"

"Sì. Don't worry about it. Next time you don't have to mention I am on the pot, right?"

John's face blushed as realization dawned on him, then he turned quickly to look out the window again with a clipped nod. "Say, Juan, you guys got a humvee, eh? That must be nice, did you run into military guys then?"

Turning to look, Juan shook his head slowly, "No, no they didn't when we left, maybe someone came in or something, I better tell Jack, make sure it is who we think it is." Putting his lips near the talkie he said, "Jack."

On the other end, Jack answered, "Juan old pal, you all buttoned up already?"

"Good to go. Jack one of the vehicles coming up is a hummer. Did we have a hummer that I didn't see at the club? It is painted in a camouflage pattern."

"What? No! I don't think so. Aw hell Juan you don't think they are bad guys do you?"

Peering at the vehicles closely Juan watched for a few seconds, shaking his head he answered, "Not bad guys, they look okay to me, but they have lots of guns and stuff, you better try and call them on the cell before they get to much closer!"

"Affirmative, right away!" the walkie talkie went silent for a few minutes while John and his Spanish counterpart watched the convoy approach with trepidation.

"Its them Juan! Its them! They picked up a straggler, but it's okay!" Jack's voice brought the welcome news over the walkie-talkie.

"Gracias a Dios!" Juan muttered quietly, then said, "Good, glad to hear it, me and John will stay here until you send someone for us, okay, just to keep a couple eyes out."

"Yeah, as planned anyway, well send someone up there to relieve you soon, we have to figure out how we are going to proceed, probably me and a couple other guys will come up and we'll shoot the shit about it in fifteen minutes or so, okay?"

"Yeah, super, we'll be waiting.", Juan said, turning to John he continued, "You still got that deck of cards you found?"

Closer to twenty minutes later Jack showed up with Nanci, a man in an Army uniform and no one else. The man in the uniform looked a bit shabby, he was shaved, but the uniform was a little big on him. He was wearing a military style cap, though he had a Kevlar helmet hanging off of his belt. He was also dressed in full body armor, which may have contributed to making his uniform seem overly large. His hair was not close cropped in a crew cut, just a normal looking haircut. His face was tanned, not Hispanic and he had brown eyes. His eyes conveyed the look that Juan was familiar with these days, Sylvia had the same look, so had Kevin. The two thousand yard stare of a man who had seen so much his mind was no longer quite focusing on the here on now, so much as the 'there and then'. Juan had only a second to take this in before Nancie grabbed him by the neck and kissed him, she then started hugging him tight, while whispering endearments and praises to God that he was alive. The look on Jack's face told Juan the other man had news, and that it was not good. After a few seconds Jack cleared his voice and said, "It will just be us talking Juan. No sense pulling everyone into this. Juan this is Ted Jenkins, Ted, Juan and John."The men shook hands all around, "John you and Ted get to watch and see how we do things, if you have anything constructive to add, jump in and say something., Turning to John he said, "You might know parts of the hospital better than we do, did you work here or were you visiting?"

"I had part time hours here after school, they called me in when people didn't show up to work their shift. I just swept the floors." replied John.

"Good enough, you know the main hallways and can help us figure out where to go. I want to basically try and isolate the cafeteria, maternity ward and ER, if we can keep these places clear it will make it easier to eat and escape if we have to. Of course the guys back at the warehouse will get a call if there are any problems. Doc tells me they are getting another load of vehicles working now if we need reinforcements. They sent over twelve men, plus we got Ted and his two more guardsmen.", pausing he pulled a box of ammunition out of his jacket and handed it to Juan, "Oh they sent a ton of shotgun ammo, you might want these, huh?", Juan took the shells, opened the box and while they were talking he busied himself tucking the shells into his various pockets.

"Okay, John, any thoughts on how to block the hallways or anything between the areas we want to isolate and the rest of the hospital?" asked Jack.

John thought for a moment, rubbed his chin and said, "Yeah, the fire doors! We can just shut and lock them from the central panel, I think Tim has a key and knows how to do that, he can shut the maternity ward off on the second level and shut the doors between radiology and the ER on the ground floor, there are not any doors between the cafeteria and the main entrance, but the other ground floor rooms can be cut off. We had a problem with one of those doors locking once, it was a big deal, had to call in a contractor, patients and doctors had to go up the stairs and down the other side to get to rooms, it was a big mess….Sorry! I didn't mean to go on there, uh, yeah we can mostly do it, except for the cafeteria, the stairway exits all open out and can be locked from this side, nothing would get through, but we could get out."

"Okay, we can build more barricades to seal off the cafeteria from the main entrance better, we already got one up, but it is pretty flimsy. Why don't you go ask Tim about it and get stuff locked down now John? And thanks for your help."

John got up to go, saying, "No problem" and as he left Juan could not help but wonder at how smoothly that had been handled by Jack. Ever since the group came in, Jack had been a little edgy and Juan was pretty sure it was because of the Guardsman, Juan recognized what Jack did as a way to get the kid out of the room so Ted could talk to them in private. Jack waited until he heard the door at the end of the hallway clang shut and then turned to Juan again, "We may have a problem."