Mark Clodi - Undead Advantage, a Zombie Chronicles Novel

"No probably not, maybe if you could talk to a doctor, if they have one, you know, privately, try to invoke 'patient confidentiality', maybe that would work?" said Charlie.

"Hm, when you put it that way, I say 'Hell no!'. I am sorry I mentioned it, this is 'the man' we are talking about, even if the man does not exist anymore, I mean the whole U.S. Of A. Is not this bad is it?" Jack asked.

The four of them stood looking at each other for a long while contemplating that thought.

Whitney was laying on a bed with her arms around her sister Lauren. Next to her on one side was a black man, who she thought was named Kevin, he had been shot. Lauren, was softly crying to herself trying not to wake up the other patients, Whitney's tear stained face was a testament to her own grief at not being able to find their parents and almost losing her boyfriend Michael in the early morning battle with the zombie named Dave. Graig was lying on the bed on the other side of her, he was arguably the second most wounded of the survivors, the doctor they had suspected he had a broken arm, a concussion and a broken nose. The doctor has set the nose before Craig regained consciousness. Michael's brother, Matt, was nowhere to be found and Whitney had been trying to find out what happened to him. She loved Michael, and she was afraid of losing another friend more than anything. Whitney was pretty sure that her parents were dead, however she did not know for certain and that somehow made it worse.

An Hispanic woman came by and brought her another box of tissues, taking away a plastic bag full of used ones. Her name was Evaine, maybe Whitney could get some information out of her.

"Miss? Miss?" Whitney called quietly. The young woman, who had been walking away, turned back questioningly, "What happened to the others who came in with us?"

"Oh, your friends?" the woman came over Whitney's beside and put her hand on Lauren's head, "The doc gave the boy a tranquilizer, he was not doing really good and we, well, we had to do something. One of your friends, Angie?"

"Aggie." interjected Whitney quickly.

"Aggie? Okay Aggie is with him, the boy Ron he is feeling better, doc gave him pain medicine, but doesn't think his…his testicles, suffered more than bruising.", the woman blushed, "The other guy, Juan…John, he is doing okay, but doc is pretty sure his jaw is busted. Doc set it up and wrapped him, he is with the other three over with the older kids. Doc said Michael, he needed a surgeon, so he put him in a pickup truck and took him over to the hospital after getting him stable here. Doc doesn't know about your ribs and doesn't want you moving around much, but he says even if they are broken there is not much he can do for them. He", Evaine pointed at Craig, "is probably the worst off person we have here and rates a bed. Your sister, she can probably go with the others or stay here, she is okay, just has some scrapes and bruises."

"Can I leave? I mean, if I feel up to it?"

"Ah, you mean will I stop you? No. We want to bring you down to the real hospital though, on the next trip, you and him." again Evaine pointed at Craig, "You both need x-rays. Hank says there is a guy from the military that is going to meet them at the hospital, so he is going down there and you guys are supposed to go with them. I brought you fresh Kleenexes for the trip, you are supposed to be leaving soon."

"I don't want to leave my friends, if they are not going I am not going. Neither is Craig."

Evaine's smile faltered a bit, "You'll have to fight the doc about that, I don't know who is going on this trip, they want to move all the wounded and children down to the hospital today, you should go though, it is a real hospital and they can take care of you better there. Look here they come now. Please just go get checked out. Michael is there, so you can check on him, right?"

A balding older man approached the beds beside a taller middle aged guy. The taller guy came up and thrust his hand out at Whitney, he spoke with a mild southern accent, and Whitney recognized him, "Whitney right? I remember you from the clinic, Juan and I ran into you there."

"Yeah, I remember, Hank, huh? I don't want to leave the others here. I think we should stay together." said Whitney.

"Yeah, I thought you'd say that. We got a bus, the wounded will take up half of it, I think we can fit everyone in. I just hope no one else complains about you kids getting to go before the other kids, still you killed Dave, and most of you need medical treatment."

"Hank…" the older man began. Whitney recognized him as the doctor from the clinic where they had met Hank. Hank shushed the doctor with a wave of his hand.

"They are all they have, like family, we are not splitting the other families up. They can go together. Michael was already rushed over there." Hank's words carried authority and 'Doc' just nodded. Whitney appreciated the gesture.

Doc spoke up, "We don't have any gurneys or easy ways to get you onto the bus, I wrapped your ribs, but it is still going to be uncomfortable." He held out two tablets in his hands and Evaine got a water bottle from the stand beside the bed. "These are pain killers, they will not knock you out or anything, we need you to be alert in case the zombies hit the bus, we will need every set of eyes we can get. Okay?"

Whitney took the pills, hoping she could trust the doctor. The group moved off and let her relax for a little while. After fifteen minutes she did feel pleasantly numb however when the time came to move it did, indeed, feel uncomfortable.

When the helicopter landed there were a dozen people on the roof to meet them. It was a small helicopter, it only had three people inside and looked like it might carry six at the most. Hank and the group from the Mike's Club were not at the hospital yet, they were well on their way and reporting very little early morning activity, loading the bus had taken longer than everyone had thought, then there were a few unhappy people at the club who disagreed with who got to go on the bus and in the caravan that went along with it. Juan shrugged his shoulders, the quasi authority they had was just that, they didn't have a way to force people to do anything. His fantasies about building a better society with the survivors had taken a few hits recently, none were a worse blow than the near riot that Hank had to deal with just to get those people over to the hospital. In the end Hank calmed the crowd down by assuring them they should all be moved by the end of the day to the new facility except for a core group of volunteers who were going to be left in charge of defending the club and it's vast array of useful food and materials for the good of the group.

The helicopter wound down and as the blades slowly stopped the man in back opened his door and hopped out. He was Hispanic, which Juan had not suspected over the radio, plus what Hispanic parents name their kid 'Ed'? He approached Juan confidently and put out his hand.

"So are you the leader of this group then?"

"Ah, no, not really, I mean this group at the hospital, sure, but we got another guy really in charge, he is on his way, coming over from the club." Juan answered.

"In a bus?" seeing Juan's nod, Ed continued, "Okay good then, we saw a bus with some other vehicles coming this way from the air, the only vehicles moving, couldn't miss them. Shall we go inside?"

The pilot and co-pilot were getting out of the helicopter, Ed turned towards the dozen or so people and said in a raised voice, "Okay people I am going to talk with Juan and we are going to wait for the guy you chose as a leader to get here to decide what we are going to do. We saw his bus from the air and he should be here soon. I gave my assistant" he pointed at the man whom Juan had assumed was the co-pilot, "the information we have to share with you, so he should be able to answer all your questions. No holding back on anything either, ask and if we know, we will answer. Right now I am going to steal Juan away from you so we can talk before the other guy gets here."