Mark Clodi - Ascension

"We, we can't go that way!" Max sputtered, closing his eyes a moment he let go of Stewart and sought out the zombies he knew were there. "They are coming!"

"From the west?" asked Bill.

Nodding Max said, "And the east. Bill I don't see many of our guys retreating, no living. I see a lot of isolated groups, surrounded by the dead."

"What do we do, Sarg?" asked Javier.

"We head south, of course." All of them knew that Chicago was lightly inhabited, but north into Wisconsin, was more of a crap shoot, there were pockets of heavy zombie populations dotted with uninhabited regions. "First we get some weapons, and food if we can find it."

"So the armory or the px?" asked Ruben, who undoubtedly knew the way to both by heart, the man was good at knowing where to find things.

"Armory. We can pick up food along the way if we have to. Stewart can you walk?"

By way of an answer Stewart let the pistol butt drop from her hand and stood up.

"They are here." Max said, pointing to the front door.

A trio of zombies rushed by the doorway, followed by some slow, shambling zeds in a motley assortment of clothing.

"Max get that rifle!" Bill said, pointing to a rifle left by one of the wounded who had fled the lobby. "Javier, Ruben, each of you give him a magazine. The armory is that way, right Ruben?" Bill had gestured out the front door, where there was a block sized chunk of lawn with a flag pole.

"Yeah, maybe we could go west a little and try to work our way around…"

"Max?"

Max shook his head, "Too many, I don't know Bill, I don't think we can make it."

Slow zombies started shuffling into the lobby.

"Goddamn it. To the stairs, get upstairs now!"

"Bill." said Max pausing, "We can't go anywhere from there, if we go up we'll die."

Hundreds of zombies flooded the lawn in front of the hospital.

"We die now or we die later, I'd rather die not at all, but I'll take later if it is an option. Go Max!"

None of them fired at the slow zombies as they hit the stairwell. Max noted it went up to the fourth floor and did not provide roof access.

They ran into three men coming down the stairs and tried to ward them off going down, but the three did not listen. A few moments later they heard the sound of gunfire from the stairwell and screams as the men were overwhelmed. On the fourth floor they closed the fire doors and Bill took out a plastic restraint, like the kind often used in lieu of handcuffs when police made mass arrests, and looped it over the double doors, effectively locking them together.

"What if a human comes up here?" asked Max.

"Us or them, brother." said Ruben, but Bill hesitated.

"He's right, we can't take the risk of locking them out." Taking his belt knife Bill cut through the plastic. Shrugging he said, "It wouldn't have held them long anyway."

People were coming out of the rooms all along the hallway, curiosity on their faces. "What's going on?" asked an older African American man, in a wheelchair with his leg in a cast from his hip to his toes. He had on a name tag on with the words, 'Amir Lincoln' printed on it in black marker.

"Zombies are coming. We have to get to the roof." answered Bill.

"What about us?" called another man further down the corridor.

"You gotta get to the roof too."

"Where do we go from there?" called another faceless voice.

"Nowhere, we hold them off."

"The stairwell at this end has roof access." said an orderly dressed in light green hospital scrubs.

"Let's go then." said Bill curtly.

Behind them they heard the people scrambling to follow the soldiers, Ruben lagged behind long enough to take out a new plastic restraint. Casting a glance over his shoulder, he strung it through the door handles alongside the one Bill had just cut off. He stepped back to look at his work with some satisfaction.

"Pretty good job." said Amir from behind him.

Surprised Ruben turned and looked down on the man. "Yeah, it will make a difference, every second helps."

"You know if someone stays here they can just hold the handles up, it wouldn't take much effort."

"Yeah, but who would do that?" asked Ruben.

The man gestured at his leg, "I ain't gonna be climbing any stairs mister. They gave me crutches I can't use," he hitched his thumb over his shoulder, "they are in my room, would you mind fetching them for me?"

"Sure thing." Ruben entered the guy's room and saw the crutches. He grabbed them and brought them out to the old guy.

Amir waved him off, "No, no. I can't even pull myself up, I was thinking they are wide enough to shove between the emergency handles, you know, to act as a kind of a bolt."

Ruben slid the crutches down between the handle and the door, sure enough they fit almost perfectly and would keep the handles on the other side of the door from being engaged, effectively locking the door.

"Great, now find another set and let's get to the other stairwell."

Ruben ducked into a few rooms until he came across another set of crutches, out in the hall he saw Amir had already wheeled down to the other stairwell. There was no one left in the hallway except for them.

"Gimme one of those straps." Amir said, holding out his hand. Ruben complied, he still had another dozen or so left, so he handed the man two. "And the crutches. Now go. They won't get in here easily, maybe not at all."

Ruben paused for a moment, holding onto the crutches, and said, "You know, I could get you up the stairs."

Amir shook his head, "I'll be safe in here, two sets of locked doors, you won't have that up top, I bet they just rush by me to get you. 'Sides there are some other guys stuck in here too."

Ruben knew it was true, several patients, unconscious, were still in their beds. "Alright. Goodbye Amir."

"Goodbye whoever you are."

"Ruben."

"Pleased to make your acquaintance Ruben. Now git."

Ruben handed over the crutches and made for the stairwell and started climbing. Behind him the door shut with a hefty 'click' sound and he heard Amir jamming the doors with the crutches. By the time Ruben made it to the roof access they were getting ready to shut the door. It was a single door, but about forty inches wide. Bill was holding it open and he asked, "Where've you been? I'd have shut the door in another minute."

"I just came up last, to make sure everyone made it up okay."

"No one left?"

Looking Bill steadily in the eyes Ruben said, "No, there is no one left down below."

"Good, but we got a shit fan of problems up here. Go take a look."

Ruben made his way to the edge of the building, looking over he saw the walkways around the hospital were crammed with undead. Moving to look at the green he saw it was crammed full of undead too, though these seemed to be second tier, the almost human kind, but not quite supers. Worse, among them they had prisoners. A shot rang out and the gawker next to Ruben screamed, then pitched over the front of the building, yelling the whole way down. Or course Ruben didn't see the man hit, by then he was on his face, backing up quickly towards the middle of the building.

"Get away from the edges you stupid fools!" he yelled as more gunfire rang out from below. Only one more person was shot, a younger man who was already in a hospital gown. He reeled away clutching his arm with cry before being tackled by an orderly to get him out of sight.

"Bill, what do we do?" yelled Max from near the edge of the building.

"Stay near the center, if you have guns watch that building, in case they try to run some zombies with guns up there." Bill pointed to the building next to theirs, separated by only a fifteen foot gap. Luckily the building was only the same height as theirs, not taller, nor were any of the others nearby.

A hand grenade went off down below, followed almost immediately by another. Stewart and Max looked at each other, then saw a small black object sail over the lip of the parapet, to land thirty feet away. It exploded a split second after landing and sprayed shrapnel into the patients and soldiers, wounding several, one severely enough to drop him into unconsciousness.