Pt Three-Three

3

Dave could hear Kailee breathing heavily behind him.

“Hey,” he whispered, “you need to try to be a little quieter. Who knows how good these things’ hearing is.”

“Sorry,” she whispered back, “You know I am just a little freaked out since there are like zombies trying to eat me and stuff. It’s not like this happens every day.”

“Hey, I am scared too we just have to be careful. We don’t know how far this thing has spread. My money is on something from the military base going wrong. I mean the nuclear power plant is up north quite a ways I don’t think that could have had anything to do with it.”

The two of them had barely escaped the hospital. Dave had turned around and Aaron was nowhere to be found. Kailee had been screaming at the top of her lungs one of the zombies was about to lunge at her when Dave had pulled her out of the way and drug her out the door into the night. He was pulling her towards the truck when he realized that there were several shapes standing around it. Crap, he had thought to himself. They were definitely zombies, blood was coming from their mouth and their arms were outstretched and coming towards the two of them.

Dave had immediately changed direction to the left of the clinic practically dragging Kailee behind him as he looked for somewhere they could hide. He came to a door a little ways down, checked it and found it unlocked. It was one of several utility closets that the city had over the town so they could access equipment easier when they needed it. He had pulled Kailee inside and closed the door behind them and now here they were planning their next move.

“Did you check your cell phone?” Dave asked.

“Yeah I got nothing. Not even a single bar. It makes a good flashlight though.”

She held the phone up the light from it barely illuminating the room they were in revealing shapes of several different kinds of equipment. Dave saw a shovel sitting in a corner so he went and grabbed it.

“This will come in handy.” He said swinging the shovel.

“Hey be careful you could knock my head off with that thing.”

“Sorry.”

“So what should we do next?”

Dave thought for a minute. He honestly did not know what to do. He had checked his pockets for his truck keys when they got in the closet and realized that he did not have them. He couldn’t remember is he gave them to Aaron or not. For all he knew he dropped them somewhere on the way here which means he had about a million to one chance to ever find them. They couldn’t stay here in this closet, shed or whatever it was. He had to think of a plan and that’s when he got one.

“We could check the cop shop we drove past on the way into town. I mean out of everyone in this small town if anyone would survive it would be a cop. They have all the guns.”

Kailee looked up at him. The cell phone light clearly showed the fear on her face as she spoke.

“What if we don’t make it? What if they get us?”

Dave walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder.

“I won’t let them get you Kailee. I have this shovel her and I will beat the living crap out of any zombie that gets within five feet of you.”

“Do you promise?”

“Yes I promise. Trust me okay, I won’t let anything happen to you.”

As the words left his lips Kailee pulled him toward her and began to kiss him. Dave did not resist as he began to kiss her back. The realization that they might die was a little too much for both of them and they both needed to know that they had something before they opened that door and possibly walk into their own death. After several minutes Dave pulled away and looked at this girl he barely knew in the eyes.

“Let’s go.” He said

Kailee nodded in agreement as she stood behind him waiting for him to open the door. He opened it just a crack at first, seeing if there were any of them standing close to the door. As far as he could tell the coast was clear and he opened the door, shovel in one hand and Kailee’s hand with the other. Coming to a corner, he stopped and peeked around. He spotted a shape several feet in front of them, just standing in the middle of the street. He thought it was the old man that they had almost hit earlier. If only he would have ran him over then he wouldn’t be dealing with him now.

The cop shop was a couple blocks down on the opposite side of the road. He wondered if he could sneak by this guy and get across the street. He turned around to Kailee and motioned for her to be very quiet as he began to lead her across the street, being careful not to alert the old man to their presence. They quickly made it across the street and were turning in the direction of the police station when they heard something from behind them. A zombie was almost directly behind Kailee a loud shrill was now coming from its mouth. Dave quickly switched places with her, placing himself between the zombie and her. As the zombie jumped at him Dave brought the shovel in an arc sending it directly into its face, causing it to fall back and then down onto the ground.

Dave immediately rushed up to the fallen zombie and brought the shovel down on its neck. The first blow did not quite do the job, leaving a decent sized gash but the head was still attached and the zombie was trying to get to its feet. Dave brought the shovel down a second time putting all his force behind it, this time severing the head completely; it rolled into the street its body lying motionless at his feet.

Dave turned around to Kailee, grabbed her arm and continued to lead her in the direction of the police station. The old man had seen them and was coming in their direction. No time for him, Dave thought, have to get to the cop shop. Pulling Kailee behind him he rushed to either a hope or a dead end and certain doom.

********

Rick awoke to the sound of frantic knocking on his door. For all he knew it could be zombies clawing, trying to get in to eat his flesh. Then he heard the voices, clear and crisp panicking human voices. He got up from the chair behind his desk and got close to the door.

“Please is there anyone in there? Hello?” a male voice came from behind the door. “Could you please let us in?”

“How many of you are there?” Rick asked from behind the door wary to open it up.

“Oh thank God!” the voice said. “I knew there would be someone here. Oh, right there are two of us. Please could you let us in? Some of them are coming towards us, please hurry open the door.”

Rick thought for a moment. What if they had already been bitten? He knew what would happen to them if they had been. They would become the same flesh eating monsters that were outside the doors. But at the same time it was his job to protect and serve and even if they had been bitten they weren’t zombies yet. They were living and breathing human beings and he had taken an oath.

“Alright I am opening the door.” Rick said as he turned the knob. Two bodies came in. It was hard for Rick to make them out in the dark, but he swore he saw long hair if he had to guess they were both in their late teens. Awesome, Rick thought, now it’s going to turn into Adventures of Babysitting. He closed the door behind them, withdrew the flashlight on his belt, turned it on and pointed it in their direction.

“Dude,” the boy said, “You are going to put someone’s eye out with that thing.”

“I need to have a look at you.” Rick stated. “Need to make sure you haven’t been marked by any of those things outside. I don’t need one of you turning and feasting on my insides while I sleep.”

“We are alright man. Neither one of us have been touched.”

Rick realized for the first time that the boy was carrying a shovel. He shined the light at it and could see crimson red decorating the spade.

“So it looks like you know how to handle yourself. That’s good we are probably going to be doing a lot of that in the near coming future. Go ahead and sit down over here, what are your names?” Rick asked.

“I’m Dave,” the boy said. “And this is Kailee.”

“Hi.” Kailee said lifting her head up for just a few seconds before setting her eyes back down on the floor. Rick could tell from the look on her face that this girl had been through a lot that night.

“So,” Rick began, “How exactly did you find your way to my door this evening?”

Dave spoke for the both of them naturally. He began his story with the party and then explained in detail every aspect that had transpired that night. He started with finding the man lying on the road, convulsions and all, and ended with them sitting there in the office telling their story. Rick then proceeded to tell his story, starting with Shannon barging into his office raving about being bit by the local trouble maker. Then, finding Debbie Sheppard on the floor of a woman’s restroom getting her intestines munched and then ending with Rick making his way back to the police station only to find severed fingers and a trail of blood leading into the night.

“Crap man,” Dave stated. “I thought our night was crazy.”

“It was no crazier than any of ours,” Rick said. “What about your friend? Do you think he made it out?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. I turned around and he was gone. He must have taken off like a bat out of hell.”

“Well we just have to count him as lost. All those people at the clinic are probably zombies by now too. We have to plan our next course of action.”

“What do you mean?” Kailee asked breaking her silence for the first time. “We can just stay here can’t we? You have a radio and guns right? Help will be coming in the morning so we might as well just stay put because this is one of the first places they will look.”

“As much as I would love to believe that honey,” Rick started, “There is a very large chance that no one is coming. I mean who knows if this thing is airborne or not. From the looks of things it looks like something right out of your ordinary zombie movie. Whoever got exposed first passed it on to the first person they came in contact with. It must travel from the blood if I had to guess. Almost exactly like your everyday sexually transmitted disease except it’s transferred through a bite and probably exposure to infected blood. But these are all guesses mind you I am not scientist.

“One thing is for sure we cannot stay here. I don’t have anything for food in this place. And we have no power or running water which means its going to get really gross in here after a couple of days. We need to get somewhere that has a generator and there are only two places in this town that have one.”

“The clinic has one,” Kailee interjected once again, “There were lights on there and the rest of the town was dark. We could—“

“Nice try smart one,” Rick interrupted, “If you didn’t notice the place will now be crawling with zombies so that is a definite no go.”

“So how about the second place?” Dave asked.

Rick didn’t answer at first. The second place was somewhere that he had sworn a long time ago he would never set a foot into. A now it seems that all things pointed to its very door. What an ironic sense of humor God had, if in fact there was a God. Rick was pretty much convinced after the events of tonight that if God really existed he no longer cared about the human race, because if he did he would never allow a harmless girl to be so brutally torn apart and then turn into the very thing that did her in. No, they were in this alone and had to take care of themselves.

“Hello Earth to Saturn anyone home?” Dave interrupted his thoughts. “Where is the second place?”

Rick snapped his attention back to the kids looking them both right in the eye as he spoke.

“The church is about two miles from here. They had a generator and they have their own well which means they have running water. They serve food to the needy and elderly once a week so they should have a full kitchen which means that is where we are going. At first light we leave and head in that direction so you two should rest your eyes. I will stay up and keep watch.”

Of course both of them didn’t want to go to sleep. But Rick demanded that they both lay down in a bed in one of the cells. He was going to make them split up but the girl would not leave the boys side so he gave in and let them share a bed. Eventually they fell asleep surely plagued by memories of the night. Rick sat at his desk cleaning several of the guns that had been in the lockers. In the morning he would lead these two kids to a safer place. His job was to protect and serve and that is exactly what he planned on doing. He only hoped that there could possibly be more people that need the same services.