Chapter 4: Trauma For Your Momma

Dr. Creed and the orderly Tim try to escape an infested hospital. But one of them won't make it out...

Dr. Ivana Creed was freezing her tits off in the large freezer down in the basement. It was the first place she thought of during her retreat. She and the Orderly, (she thought his name was Tim), had been the only two people to make it out of The Trauma Unit when the bodies started to reanimate. 

 

Earlier that day, they were coming in a dozen at a time. Injured people with severe gashes and chunks bitten out of them. All their stories were nearly the name. They had been bitten or mauled by other people. It was mass hysteria in the streets. Badly deformed, crazed people attacking anyone within arms reach. 

 

Ivana had been overwhelmed from the start. As only one of three Doctors on duty for the early morning shift, she wasn't use to that type of mass-exodus from the streets. The nurses did their best, overloading the beds and putting everyone else wherever there was space. All they could do was sterilize and dress the wounds and move on the next patient.

 

But something was wrong. 

 

Too many people were still dying.

 

Everyone was dying. 

 

In the span of 90 minutes, she counted 73 men, women and children that came through the Emergency Room Entrance. And all of those people ended up dead... or on their way to dying. Chances are they would've died, if the dead didn't reanimate and start to feed on them. 

 

She recalled the first corpse to attack was a Japanese teenager who had her right arm nearly torn off by her own brother and mother. Dr. Creed had the unfortunate task of amputating. The surgery seemed to go well, but the girl wouldn't stop bleeding. 

 

She died ten minutes later. 

 

After pronouncing the death, Dr. Creed went on to the next patient, an elderly man who's cheek was gnawed off by his imvilid wife. In the process of patching him up, she turned to call out for assistence, when she came face to face with the young Japanese girl who had recently died. But now, she was standing in the middle of the ER. The stump where were arm use the be was bleeding out. Saliva drooled from the side of her mouth. She swayed in her spot, as if she didn't know what the do next. 

 

"Christ!" Dr. Creed called out.

 

And that's when the girl looked up and focused her milky white eyes directly at the doctor. The thing screamed at the top of it's lungs and lunged for the Doctor. The corpse's grip fastened onto Dr. Creed's medical coat. The one hand held tight to Ivana as she shuffled backwards, dragging the dead thing into the lobby with her. 

 

Out of nowhere, an Orderly (Tim?) grabbed the dead girl around the neck from behind and pulled her off of the doctor. That's when the girl focused her attention on him and locked her bite down deep onto his forearm. He screamed as it ripped and thrashed until the skin, muscle and tendons came ripping from the bones. He let go of the girl and cradled his wound, trying to stop the splattering blood from escaping.

 

Dr. Creed thought fast. She removed the coat and used it to wrap the Orderly's wound. She was ready to call out for assistance when something grabbed her ankle like a vice grip. She screamed and looked down to see the Japanese zombie girl dragging and pulling her mouth toward the Doctor's exposed ankle. She felt the thing's lips and tongue touch her skin, when the Order sent his size 14" basketball sneaker into the zombie's face. It's head pushed back and its neck snapped. Its grip slipped from the Doctor's ankle.

 

"We gotta get the f**k outta here!" Tim said, grabbing the Doctor by the arm and pulling her toward the door leading to the stairwell.  

 

Ivana wanted to protest. She was a doctor and at that moment, people were dying. She wanted to tell Tim that she couldn't just leave all those people.

 

And then she turned to look back at the Emergency Room. She saw the horror that was taking place. The entire area was covered with thick, dark blood and torn flesh. Bodies were lying everywhere, while those who still moved were eating the placid ones.

 

This was madness. And in that moment of madness, self preservation took over. She turned away from the death orgy and followed Tim, into the stairwell.

 

When they reached the ground level, they stopped to catch their breath. Ahead of them was the exit which led into the parking lot, and more steps leading down into the S.C.F. (Storage & Containment Facility).

 

They had a decision to make. 

 

"Let me take a look at that arm." Ivana said, catching her breath.

 

"No!!" Tim cried snatching his wound back. "We gotta get the f**k out of hear first!!!"

 

"Calm down." she said. "We're safe for the moment."

 

"F**k you, Doc!" he shouted back. "How the f**k can I be calm!? Did you see that back there?!?" he held up his wounded forearm. "You see what that thing did to me?" he wanted to cry. "F****n' zombies! Those were muthafuckin' zombies!!"

 

"There's no such thing as zombies." Dr. Creed said. "There has to be another explanation."

 

"Don't try it, Doc!! You saw that girl! She DIED!!! And then she came back, and then she took a chunk out of my arm!!!!" Tim headed for the exit. "That's zombies..."

 

Tim wasn't going to wait for the Doctor to make a decision. To her dismay, he headed for the door marked with the big red EXIT sign over it. He pushed it open and they both staggered out into the open parking lot. 

 

With their eyes adjusting to the bright sunlight, they didn't make it five yards when they stopped dead in their tracks. Dr. Creed hadn't noticed it before, but the city's loud air-raid emergency siren was screaming in the air. Out beyond the thick trees planted around the hospital, large bellows of black smoke rose into the sky. The sound of emergency trucks and police cars raced back and forth. A military helicopter rushed overhead. And in front of them, maybe ten yards away was a thick wall of lumbering corpses, arm outstretched and reaching for them. 

 

"Oh s**t! Oh s**t! Oh my f*****g s**t!!!" Tim shouted as he turned to the Doctor. 

 

"We gotta go back in! Hide in the basement!" At first Tim was focused on Dr. Creed, who was so terrified, she didn't hear a word he said. But then he focused behind her on the Exit door that was slowly closing behind them.

 

"The door!!! The door!!!" he pushed her until she came back to her senses.

 

They both bolted back toward the door. Tim managed to jam his 'good' arm into the doorframe just before it closed. They both quickly ran back into the stairwell and slammed the door behind them. Almost immediately, a cluster of muffled banging started from the other side of the door. They both just stared at the door for a minute, trying to figure out what next to do.

 

"Ok." Dr. Creed said nodding her head toward Tim. "Zombies, it is."

 

"F****n' A" Tim replied. "What now?" 

 

"Let me think..." she whispered, wiping the sweat from her face. She took a good look at Tim, who's wound dressing was drenched with blood. He was shivering. His eyes were fluttering. She knew he was going into shock.

 

She clapped her hands together hard. "Stay with me!" 

 

Tim straightened up.

 

"We can't go back up, or outside. So we head down into the S.C.F."

 

Tim's eye bulged. "Containment? The Morgue?" he laughed nervously. "So we're gonna run from the dead people, into the place were we keep all the dead people?"

 

Dr. Creed started walking down the stairs. "It's not all bodies down there. It's mostly bio-cultures that need to stay on ice and away from civilians. At least most the bodies down there are in locked drawers. We should be safe in there. We'll lock ourselves in one of the large medical coolers. The door's 10 inches thick. We'll stay there until the authorities get a handle one this."

 

They both descended to the bottom level of the hospital and found themselves in the deserted basement. They made their way down the main corridor and made a series of left turns down narrower corridors to reach their destination. The Doctor paid close attention as they passed the Morgue. To the left was the 'storage' room; 94 body-sized drawers filled to capacity with corpses. To the right were about a dozen bodies neatly arranged on gurneys. They were covered with tarps and their feet were exposed, displaying their toe tags for easy access. All in all, there were over a hundred bodies surrounding them, just waiting to reanimate and attack them.

 

But they never did. Every body on that level remained still. She filed the mental note away and refocused her attention on Tim. They had just made it to the backroom with the large storage cooler when he finally gave in to fatigue and his injuries. He collapsed a few yards away from the large refrigerated room.

 

As he lay there dying, a million thoughts ran through Dr. Creed's head. Why was he dying so quickly? Did he lose that much blood? Was it a viral outbreak? Was it contageous?

 

She comforted him for as long as he breathed. His look of fear stared back at her. 

 

"It bit me." he whispered to no one. His eyes darted around the room as if expecting something to come for him. "I don't want to be a zombie..."

 

Suddenly, far in the distance she heard a 'snapping' sound. It was faint, but still made her jump. She knew what it was. It was the door handle to the entrance. Someone or something had just made it downstairs.

 

"I don't want to be a zombie..." he kept muttering under his breath. By this time, his eyes were rolling in the back of his head.

 

"Shhhhh..." she whispered. "It's ok."

 

There was another sound echoing off in the distance. Something kicked something. Whatever it was, it was heading in their direction. She wanted to drag the Tim into the frig and close it behind them. But it would be a waste of time and energy for her. She held Tim's good hand and he held on for dear life until his last breath escaped from his mouth.

 

His head slumped away from her and his body seemed to become twice as heavy. 

 

She gently laid his body down to the floor and then promptly backed away.

 

Something kicked something again. It was too close for comfort. 

 

She knew she had to make a plan. 

 

She looked at her watch and then started the stopwatch function. As soon as the ticking began, she made her way into the large containment frig and quietly closed the thick door behind her. She peered out of the small glass window and watched Tim's body. She needed a benchmark on the time of reanimation. With the Japanese girl, it took ten minutes. But when all hell broke loose in the ER, the bodies seemed to reanimate almost instantly. Was there a correlation between how you died and if/when you reanimate? Was this a virus being passed from body to body, or was it something that was airborne; maybe in the food or drinking water?

 

And then it started.

 

At three minutes and twelve seconds, dead Tim's legs started to twitch. 

 

Ivana jumped. A whimper escaped her lips. 

 

At three minutes, thirty seven seconds, the reanimated corpse sat up. It's milky white eyes scanned the area until they focused on Ivana, peering out through the freezer door window.

 

Dead Tim pulled itself to its feet and started to shuffle over to the freezer door. 

 

Ivana backed away a few steps as the reanimated corpse pressed his face against the window. Again, it's eyes locked on her as it started to pound on the door. With every strike, she flinched. With every forceful hammer, she came closer and closer to crying.

 

"I'm so sorry, Tim." she whispered. "I'm sorry you're a zombie."

 

He moaned as if answering her.

 

She looked around the freezer for something to use as a weapon. She knew there was a good chance that no one would find her in the basement. She didn't think Tim would go away on his own either, so she'd have to fight her way pass him and out into the streets.

 

Scanning her surroundings, she focused on pieces of rebar that were evenly spread out on an aluminum shelf and used to reinforce the surface for large blocks of ice. She started to push an ice block over when she noticed the pounding on the door had stopped. She looked back at the window, just in time to see Dead Tim turning around and walking away from the window.

 

Something else had caught his attention. Flashlight beams were dancing in the room outside.

 

"Someone else is down here!" she said to herself. "The dead don't use flashlights..."

 

She was going to have to act fast. She pushed over the first ice block to a thunder crash and grabbed one of the exposed pieces of rebar. She stood and made her way slowly toward to the door.

 

Suddenly, she was brought to an abrupt halt by a loud gunshot, which was followed by the small window suddenly being painted with red and what looked like flesh and brain matter. Her heart raced. She didn't know what was going on or what was going to happen next. She dropped the rebar and started to pace back and forth.

 

She looked up at the window again and saw what she thought was a gloved hand wiping away all the blood. Afterwards a flashlight beam and a pairs eyes peered into the freezer.

 

"Oh s**t." she whispered.

 

"I think we got another one!" she heard a muffled voice come from outside. There were more muffled voices and three other sets of eyes taking turns peering in. 

 

She walked to the door and looked out the small window to see four armed soldiers standing in the room, guns raised at the freezer door.

 

Ivana slowly pushed the door open and walked out with her hands up.

 

"Don't shoot." she said.

 

"You a zombie?" the Black soldier asked her. She then noticed that they weren't soldiers. They had to be in their teens. They were too young to be military.

 

"No." she answered with a frantic stutter. "I'm a doctor."

 

The teen soldier smiled. "It's ok, ma'am. We're the calvary." He shouldered his Belgium FN P90 and put out his hand. "I'm Lieutenant Clarence Tate. Field X.O." 

 

She took his hand. "Dr. Ivana Creed." She let out a feeble sigh. "What the hell is going on?"

 

"We'll have to debrief later. You're the only uninfected person we've found this extraction mission and we need to get you out of here. ASAP." He looked back at his team. "Call it in."

 

The shortest of the bunch, a pudgy redhead kid talked into the two-way handset attached to his chest. "This is Private Milwaukee; Rainbow Alpha Team, requesting immediate extraction."