J. Knoll - Zoe, Undead

CHAPTER 14

Before evening fell, the zombies had already surrounded the hospital. All teams fought gallantly, but the glass doors of the first floor succumbed quickly. Fire teams in the vehicles that were parked out front did what damage they could, but from there it was a fighting retreat away from the hospital to draw off as many as they could, but only a few hundred pursued them. This mob was the biggest yet and it seemed that every zombie in the city was converging on the hospital, their biggest remaining source of food. At last count, over four hundred people had sought refuge and now occupied the top two floors of the six story hospital, and those who were directed to fight did so with great vigor and aggression against an enemy that now numbered over ten thousand.

The defenders of the first floor retreated to the stairwell and barricaded the doors as best they could before retreating to the next level to make another stand. It took the zombies some time, but they finally broke through in two stairwells and relentlessly climbed up after those who still lived, those they meant to eat. Ammunition would not hold out long and everyone knew it, and the San Antonio Zombie Response Team was ready for that eventuality. Though they still fought with rifles, pistols and shotguns, they all had machetes, crow bars and a variety of knives hanging from their belts to await their turn. Other ZRT fighters were also brandishing improvised hand to hand weapons from anything they could find, and Morgan had a crossbow hanging on her back with a quiver of a dozen bolts that she would use as soon as her ammunition was exhausted.

In the ICU, Doctor Kavorski and Rachel continued to work with the samples taken from the still lifeless zombie girl who lay strapped to her bed.

With the sounds of the battle drawing closer from seemingly all sides, Doctor Caswell sat at the nurse's station, which they had fashioned into a makeshift lab, and peered into a microscope, slowly turning the knob to bring her subject into focus.

Doctor Kavorski strode in at a hurried pace and slammed a handful of papers down, shaking his head as he barked, "The virus is still in her blood! I don't understand! With all of the heat she was subjected to it should have died!"

Rachel continued to stare into the microscope and said calmly back, "It's acting differently in her tissues now. I'm not sure if the heat weakened it or what happened exactly." She pulled away from the microscope and looked to the bank of heart monitors that was integrated into the desk. Only one was on, one that showed more of a wave than a heartbeat. "Her heart even seems a little stronger, and her brain spiked activity twice. She's still in there. Now we just have to figure out how to get her awake."

"I doubt we'll have time to make that happen," he grumbled. Looking up to an approaching soldier, he asked, "How does it look?"

"Not good," the soldier replied. "We're pulling back. You two are going to have to come with us."

"I'm staying with her," Doctor Caswell insisted.

"Not an option, Ma'am," the soldier informed. My orders are to get you and your team to the top floor."

"We can't just leave her," Rachel insisted. Rising from her chair, she stormed around the desk and past the men, and right into Zoe's room.

At the girl's bedside, she grasped her arm, clenching her teeth as she observed, "She's warmer than she was." Turning to the door as Kavorski and the soldier entered, she said, "We have to take her with us, then. We can't just leave her."

Doctor Kavorski approached and took her shoulders. "Rachel, it's over! We have to go! We've obtained all of the information from her we can."

Rachel pulled away and looked back down to the girl. She unbuckled Zoe's wrist and held it with her fingers to look for a pulse, and she clenched her jaw when she did not find what she was looking for.

Gunfire erupted down the hall and they all looked toward the door.

"That's it!" the soldier barked. "We're going. Now! Grab your reports and let's go!"

Looking down to the girl, Rachel gently stroked her hair, then reluctantly turned and strode out of the door.

Escorted by three ZRT soldiers, two armed with M-4's and the third a shotgun, the two doctors hurried along toward the last secure stairwell. Kavorski carried a folder full of papers and a notebook while Doctor Caswell carried a plastic box that was filled with vials of samples taken from Zoe.

They all turned to the corridor on the right, two soldiers in front and one bringing up the rear. Halfway down this corridor was where the elevators were, and the door to the stairwell. With the elevators all in the basement and power to them turned off, the stairs were the only option to get to higher floors.

Nearly to the elevators, the two soldiers in the front stopped, and one raised his fist to signal those behind to do the same.

They could see the elevators, and the door right beside them that was marked as access to the stairwell, and that door opened.

A zombie pushed his way out and stopped, then was pushed forward by another. Another emerged after that one, then another. They were a mix of genders and sizes and races, and they were beginning to fill the hallway ahead. A strangled moan escaped one, a deeper moan escaped another. One of them cried out as if startled. They all moved with jerky motions and many seemed to be having difficulty holding their heads up.

"Slowly back away," one of the soldiers up front ordered.

All five people retreated with steps that were as quiet as they could make them.

One of the zombies looked their way and lowered his head, and his brow, and his lips slid away from yellow stained teeth as a moan escaped him. He started toward them, walking like he was drunk, and this alerted others who turned and saw them, and followed. A louder moan sounded from one of the others and still more turned on the people who backed away from them. More still emerged from the stairwell and turned immediately to pursue the only source of food they could see.

The first soldier reached for his radio and raised it to his mouth, loudly saying into it, "MD escort to central command. Center stairwell is breached. We're taking them to the west stairwell."

"Negative!" the radio answered. "West stairwell has been overrun. Get to the stairs at the south garage. That one appears to be holding, but hurry! They're calling for help from that area already!"

"Roger that," the soldier complied. Looking over his shoulder, he ordered, "South stairs, double time!"

They all turned and ran, and the zombies pursued.

"We don't have enough ammo for a sustained defense!" one of the soldiers barked.

"I know," the first confirmed. "We just need to get…" He stopped.

They all stopped.

More zombies were blocking their path.

Raising his weapon, the first soldier informed, "Looks like we're fighting our way through." He fired in short bursts and two of the dozen zombies ahead of them fell. The other soldier also aimed and fired, and together they slowly advanced in half steps.

The soldier behind them turned and looked behind him, then he raised his weapon and fired into the mob behind them that was closing on them with alarming speed. "We need to go!" he shouted between shots.

With the dozen zombies ahead of them down, they all resumed their flight toward the elevators near the south garage, only to be confronted by a few others. The soldiers in front aimed and engaged them, advancing in those half steps again, but this only gave the mob behind them time to catch up again.

Firing into the mob behind, the soldier bringing up the rear retreated at the same half step pace the others advanced with, and the doctors found themselves caught in the center.

A magazine was emptied and fell to the floor, replaced by another. Someone else emptied and replaced the spent magazine in a couple of seconds.