“Negative. You’d better stay inside and keep the doors shut until I give the all-clear. Over,” Alex replied.
“What about you? Over.”
“We’ll hide under the trucks. There’s nowhere else. Over.”
“Roger that. Um, be careful. Over.”
“Will do. Over,” Alex replied.
“Commencing radio silence,” Officer Brown said.
Alex switched the radio off and clipped it onto his belt. He dared another quick look at the approaching infected and swallowed a curse. The first zombie had reached the vehicles and was making its way toward him. They were out of time.
Without wasting another precious moment, Alex dropped to his stomach. Tony was already in position, occupying one half of the space, and Alex crawled in next to him. He took care not to make too much noise, cushioning the rifle, so it didn’t rattle on the tar.
He was scarcely under when the first pair of feet shuffled past them, dirty and bare. A low moan emanated from the figure, and it sounded like a lost child. But he knew the infected was anything but a lost, innocent kid and prayed they weren’t discovered. If that happened, they’d be ripped to pieces within seconds.
Alex gazed at the strip mall’s front entrance and spotted a pair of frightened eyes staring at him through the grimy glass. Molly’s.
The view was interrupted by another set of legs and another. The infected kept coming, the crowd thickening as more streamed around the truck. Soon, the light was blocked out completely, and they were dumped into a twilight zone — one filled with the dead and nothing but the dead.
They were trapped.
Chapter 5 - Amy
After Alex left, Amy was determined to prove her strength. The sooner she was back on her feet, the sooner they could go. It wasn’t that she disliked the Radcliff community. They’d been very kind to her and Alex. She missed Dylan, however. Crazy, violent, red-headed Dylan who hid a soft interior behind a wall of hostility.
Amy thought back to the first time they met. It was in Louisville while Alex lay passed out in the car, sick from an infected stab wound. She’d been looking for help, and her eyes landed on Dylan. The memory was still as fresh in her mind as the day it happened, and she had no trouble recalling it.
***
“Can you help me, please? It’s my brother. He’s hurt. I need to get him inside.”
Dylan hesitated, then shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I need to get out of this city. I don’t have time to waste.”
She pushed past Amy who grabbed her hand and pleaded, “Please. I need you to help me carry him inside. He’s in the car over there. It’ll only take a moment.”
Screams erupted behind them as a wave of the undead attacked the fleeing masses in the street, and Dylan pushed her into a dark alley. After checking that it was clear, she asked, “Car? You have a car?”
“You said you need to get out of the city, right?” Amy asked.
“That’s right.”
“Help me get my brother fixed up, and we’ll take you wherever you need to go. He’s a soldier, a fighter, and I can shoot too. Plus, he knows this city like the back of his hand. Together, we can make it.”
“What’s wrong with your brother?” Dylan asked.
“He was stabbed two days ago. We patched him up, but it’s infected. He needs antibiotics.”
“Where do we get that?” Dylan asked. “I haven’t seen a pharmacy anywhere near here.”
“There is a veterinary clinic three shops down.”
“A vet?” Dylan asked, amused. “I suppose it could work.”
“It will work. I know what to look for. I spent last summer volunteering there, and I learned a couple of things.”
“I see,” Dylan said. “So, here’s the deal. I’ll help you get your brother safely into the clinic if you give me the keys to your car.”
“No way,” Amy replied. “You help me get him inside, fixed up again, and back to the car. Then I’ll give you the keys, and we can all get out of here.”
“You drive a hard bargain, little girl, but it’s a deal,” Dylan said.
“I’m not a little girl. I’m sixteen, and my name is Amy.”
“Alright, Amy. I’m Dylan. Nice to meet you. Now let’s go save your brother.”
They shook on it, and the bargain was struck.
***
And that was that. The beginning of an unlikely friendship. It didn’t matter how it all began, however. All that mattered was that they were family now — one weird, dysfunctional family. All she needed to do, was convince Alex that she was strong enough for the outside world.
With her sneakers tied and her jacket zipped to the chin, Amy set off down the hall. At first, she stayed inside the hospital, wandering its halls with her hands tucked into her pockets. Many of the people she passed, she already knew: Dr. Williams, a few of the nurses, and a couple of the guards. She greeted them all, sometimes stopping for a quick chat before moving on again.
“Hey, Simone. How’s the love life? Are you still marrying Donny?” she asked a pretty young nurse who loved to fall in love. Almost every day, she’d tell Amy that she’d met the love of her life, only to change her mind the next day.
“Donny? Who’s Donny?” Simone asked with a giggle.
“Like that, huh?” Amy laughed before moving along. She couldn’t believe she’d only been there for a week. It felt much longer already. Time was different in the apocalypse. Nobody bothered much with calendars and dates. It was all about the people you knew and the events that shaped your lives. Good and bad.
The kindergarten fascinated her, and she spent a long time watching the little children play through the window. In a way, they were a relic of the past. In a world where only the strong survived, children were scarce. Especially babies and toddlers. I wonder if I’ll ever have children. I used to think so, but now I’m not so sure.
The hospital
