Mark Clodi - Outbreak

Diane’s breathing became labored and she abruptly sat up, wheezing, “Amelia!” Diane cried out, “Amelia!”

“I am here Diane, I am here! You’re going to be alright.”

“Amelia, it hurts pretty bad. I want you to know it is not your fault. I should not have been throwing up, I knew what to expect when we broke in here and couldn’t keep from tossing my cookies, if I had been faster I could have got out of the way. It is not your fault, okay?”

“Shh Diane, don’t worry about it, just calm down, okay?”

Diane did calm down, she took a few deep breaths and looked up at the ceiling while trying to stay calm, the problem was she could not feel her hands and her arms were aching terribly. Unlike Amelia, Diane did have first aid training, from a course she had taken after her grandson fell while playing at her daughter’s house and broke his arm. Diane did not like the helpless feeling she had that day while waiting for the paramedics to arrive and had soon after enrolled in and completed both a first aid and a cpr course offered through the local Red Cross. She pulled her arms up in front of her face and said, “Amelia, shine a light on my hands, please.”

Amelia did so, Diane said, “Okay you have the bandages too tight they are cutting off circulation to my fingers and hands you have to loosen them a bit. Not that I am complaining, you stopped me from bleeding to death. Let see if we can’t get them a little looser and still control the bleeding.”

Amelia did as Diane said and eventually they found a compromise between suppressing the blood loss and allowing Diane’s hands circulation.

As they were adjusting the bandages, Diane heard the sobbing from the bathroom, “What is that Amelia?”

Amelia explained about the child-zombie in the bathroom. Diane was shocked, as if the thought of a zombie child had never crossed her mind. “Are you sure it is a zombie?” Amelia shook her head ‘no’ and said, “Uh-huh, I don’t know but I had to get you taken care of before I dealt with it. Her. Him. I dunno whatever it is.”

“Honey, you better deal with it now, because if it is a little kid you are going to feel really bad if you wait too long. Go to the door and try to find out, ask it questions and see what it says.”

Amelia moved over to the bathroom door and said, “Hey in there? You okay?”

The crying stopped and a small voice answered, “No. My arm hurts and I can’t hold anything with it. You hit me so hard!” The anguish in the voice was full of reproach and Amelia felt awful. “Why did you hit me?”

“Look I didn’t know, I thought you were a zombie, in fact”, and Amelia felt bad for saying so, “I still don’t know if you are a zombie or not. What were you doing in the hallway?”

The crying started again.

“Hello? What were you doing in the hallway?”

Through sobs, the voice answered, “I thought you were here to save me!”

‘Oh frick, no way to know unless the kid opens the damn door and even then how can I know for sure?’, she thought, then out loud she said, “Okay, you gotta come out here and let me look at your arm, my friend knows about these sorts of things, she can tell us if your arm is broken. Okay.”

“No. Go away.”

“Diane? Diane, the kid won’t come out. What do I do? It has the door locked from the inside.” Called out Amelia.

“I suppose candy wouldn’t work. Just keep trying, we have to go soon, at least to a different room and if the kid wants to come with us they need to come out. Now.” replied Diane

“Okay, okay.” back towards the door she said, “Look kid, I am sorry for hitting you but I didn’t know okay? We cannot stay in this room. Here, we cannot stay here, so unless you want to be alone again you are going to have to come out and let us look you over to make sure you are not one of them.”

Nothing. The door did not unlock, the sobbing continued quietly.

“Kid! C’mon sweetie, open the door and come out, we have to leave this room it is getting creepy. Which room were you in? The door must still be okay, if the zombies could not get in, lets move back to your room, okay? Kid?”

“That’s what the other zombie said too. I had to come out so we could ‘go’.” replied the voice. “Then they said, they would just keep me there, penned up like a meal for when they got hungry again.”

“Oh honey, I…I we got to get out of this room, do you have a light in there? Anything?”

“No. I don’t have a light.”

“Hey then why don’t you open the door enough so I can pass you a flashlight, okay?”

“You won’t hit me again?”

“No, I won’t. Here I will sit the light on the floor you can come out and get it and I will stay away from the door and everything.” Amelia turned one of her flashlights on and pointed it towards the wall, setting it down near the door. She then stepped back and waited. She saw a small head and eye peer out from underneath the door sideways.

“Move farther back.” Amelia moved until her butt was up against the far wall.

The head disappeared from the floor and the lock clicked open. The door slid open slowly and a hand reached out and took the flashlight, instead of closing the door eased open farther revealing a child in an overly large ‘Colorado Rockies’ t-shirt and gray shorts was revealed.

From the kid's hair cut and clothing Amelia thought it was a boy, probably. “What is your name?”

“Cory.” he said.

“Cory, I am Amelia. I am sorry for hitting you. It is just I was fighting the zombies and I thought you were one of them.” as Cory stood there listening Amelia could see him trying to stop from crying, silent tears were forming in his eyes and he shifted awkwardly with his left hand holding the flashlight, his right arm was mostly hidden by the over sized rockies shirt and was pointed straight down along his side.

“Cory, could you pull up your shirt sleeve and let me see your arm?” Cory did this and Amelia was saddened to see the result of her swing, his arm was bruised to the point of being black and the arm was swollen with broken skin at the impact point. “Oh God. I am so sorry baby, so sorry.”

With that Cory started to cry again and then flung himself forward into Amelia’s body. Amelia did not know how to respond and hated herself for it, she wanted to comfort the boy, at the same time she was waiting for his teeth to tear into her abdomen or worse into her breasts like the second zombie she had killed. Cory did not seem to feel her grow stiff beneath his one armed embrace and just held her until Amelia was sure he was not a zombie, then she patted his head and made soothing sounds trying to get him to quiet down. Eventually she brought him over to Diane, who said probably the arm was broken, but she did not know, still it would be best if they treated it as if it were broken for now, just to be safe. She had Amelia cut more off the sheet in a triangle shape and then talked her through making a pretty fair sling for Cory’s arm. Partway though the proceedings Amelia was able to throw blankets over the bodies on the bed and she also took a spare blanket from the closet and tossed it over the bodies near the door when she noticed Cory’s eyes being drawn to them like ants to a picnic sandwich.

Once everyone was bandaged and bound up Diane pronounced that she was ready to go and Amelia asked Cory if they could go back to his room, he said sure and after Amelia moved the bodies away from the door and checked the hallway, they proceeded down another dozen doors to Cory’s room. His door had not been forced in, though it was battered and there were two bodies outside of it.

Cory pointed to them and said, “They were fighting, then the smart one came along and bashed them, the other one followed the smart mom around and she said she could make it do what she wanted.”