Mark Clodi - Outbreak

Tom said, “Stewart! Stewart! Zombies everywhere!”

Sure enough the clinic was surrounded by a mob of thirty or so zombies, none of them looked like what Stewart would classify as ‘beta’ or ‘alpha’ zombies, those that were faster and more aware of their environment, just common ‘zetas’. Zeta for classic zombie, that always brought a smile to her face. Back to the clinic situation, Steve sped the car up as he went by and several members of the mob made lumbering runs after the moving car.

“Steve, slow down a bit, draw more of them away!” commanded Stewart.

Steve slowed, but only three of the zombies continued the pursuit. Shrugging Stewart said, “Go to the end of the block and we'll shoot these three, then circle around and try to get more of them; circle, draw them away, shoot em. Got it?”

Shooting the zombies was like shooting fish in a barrel. The three dropped easily and Steve circled the block and tried to draw more away, the rest of the mob was less inclined to follow this time around and several even ducked for cover among the nearby cars. This was going to be harder than Stewart thought.

“Isn’t there somewhere else?” asked Steve.

“Nowhere close.” replied Stewart bitterly, “Besides we know someone is still in there, otherwise why the mob?”

“So what do I do? Ram some of them? Shoot into them as we drive by?”

“No we gotta come up with something more clever than that. Pull up at the corner of the block and lets stop and think for a minute.”

Steve pulled the car to a halt at the corner and all of them looked back at the clinic, then to each other, casting guarded glances at Max when they thought he was not looking.

“Here is the thing, we have to get Max in as quick as we can, the ‘golden’ hour rule still applies even in this prolonged emergency. Max, you are not going to die, it looks to me like the bullet just skimmed across the front of your abdomen and is not inside of you, but we still need to get you stitched up and probably on anti-biotics or something, the doctor or nurse will know what to do. I think we could probably rush the zombies in the parking lot, I think they are smart enough to duck down for cover, but I didn’t see any ‘alpha’ zombies no real bad guys, right?”

“So, let me get this straight, you are thinking that we should bum-rush thirty zombies to get to the front door?” asked Steve.

“I dunno Stewart there are a lot of zombies around the building…” Tom said tentatively.

“No! No bum rushing Steve, c’mon! I mean we pull up twenty feet away and blast a bunch of them, Tom and I will sit on this side and just fire out the windows, we will drive them off and then make a break for the doors.”

“We don’t even know the doors are unlocked, I don’t think they are, otherwise there wouldn’t be anyone inside, right? So how do we let them know we need in?” asked Steve.

“Steve, use your head, the gunfire should do that, right? Any other additions or better ideas? Max? You alright, try to stay with us here buddy, we can’t have you going into shock on us okay, you are probably going to have to walk when we get to the front doors.”

“No, no ideas Stewart.” said Tom, Steve just nodded and said, “Okay lets do it.”

Steve pulled the car around the block yet again and then onto the other side of the street as far away from the clinic doors as they could get and still be on the street. Stewart and Tom each took careful aim and brought down a couple of the zombies, the rest turned towards them slowly and again they fired, neither were accurate enough to bring another zombie down, but both hit their targets. After a third volley and one more head shot, the rest of the zombies fled around the corner or ducked behind the cars along that side of the road.

“Shit!” swore Stewart, “This sucks, we are going to use a lot of ammo to clean this group out! Hey Steve look at the door!”

Sure enough a man in a rumpled shirt with a traditional doctors coat was at the front glass doors waving frantically at them.

“I guess there are people alive in there. You're a lucky man Max.” said Steve, “Let me pull the car up and I bet you guys can get a couple more once the angle changes.”

Steve pulled the car up and while they did hit a couple more zombies they did not bring any down.

“This ain’t working Stewart!” said Tom as Steve backed the car up to try and get them a different shooting angle.

“I know, I can see that, they are smarter than they looked. Hey Steve can you back us up on the sidewalk in front of the clinic? We could get a shot or two off there, maybe get a couple of them.”

Steve did this and Tom and Stewart let loose another volley of shots hitting several of the undead, but only bringing two more down. Max let out a yell when two zombies, one carrying a cinder block slammed into his side of the car, the side window, amazingly did not shatter inward, but did break into a million starred pieces. Max’s yell startled Tom and as he pulled around to see what Max was yelling about he fired a round off, shattering the heavy glass in the front door of the clinic and narrowly missing the physician’s leg.

The doctor yelled something that sounded like, “Oo-oh shit you fucking douche bag!” and retreated into the clinic out of sight, several zombies made for the front door, Stewart shot them both in the head as they made no effort to dodge or hide.

Tom screamed at Steve, “Get us out of here! They are going to break through!” While Max fumbled with the revolver he had picked up earlier trying to point it at the zombies outside the window.

“Ma-ax! Don’t shoot through the window!” yelled Stewart, “Steve pull ahead a few feet, but don’t take me out of sight of the front door, if the zombies get through there we won’t have a doctor anymore!”

Steve pulled the car forward about ten feet, the zombies clambered up onto the back of the squad car, Steve reversed, catching one of them under the car and running it over, the other one started smashing at the rear window with one fist while hanging on to the antenna with the other.

In half a second everything changed, Stewart opened her side door and got a bead on the zombie riding on the trunk, she shot him once in the neck and then capped him in the head as he fell off behind the car. She was then grabbed by her feet by a hand reaching out from under the cruiser. Tom screamed and hopped out of the car after her, at the same time several of the hiding zombies made a rush for both the car and the clinic door.

After getting to highway six Amelia still did not have any advice on how to proceed, so she turned the caddy onto the highway hoping it would ultimately be faster. The advantage of this particular section of road was that it ran through mostly residential neighborhoods, so she could easily switch to the back streets if she needed to.

Amelia managed to drive a few miles before she spotted flashing emergency lights up ahead on the road, as she crept the car slowly closer she saw a police car and several tow trucks, but no people, there were also several wrecked cars pulled out from the underpass and lots and lots of shotgun shells next to the police car. No bodies, no zombies, nothing to indicate exactly what had happened, but the road was clear, she hit the accelerator and scooted the car past the underpass onto another clear stretch of highway.

“Wanna try the radio station again? Call it in? Let him know six is pretty clear so far?” asked Amelia

“Sure, why not.” Diane said, she had plugged her cell phone into the car for recharging and redialed the stations number again. Diane had not been expecting to get through, let alone on the second ring, the station was still playing canned music, the dj had not been heard since their call.