better reception up there than down here surround by the hospital's walls.'
Jack moved forward to grab a box of ammo from one of the men, 'So are you staying then? Need a hand to lug this stuff up to the roof?'
'Staying?' Ted paused, then nodded, 'We aren't going anywhere, we decided that last night. We were just too dog tired to move the gun and stuff then. If you want to help us, I would appreciate it, plus I want someone else to learn how to fire the fifty and to take a look at our rifles, just in case we can get more guns sent down here. So if you and a couple other guys want to help us, sure. Choose who you want to learn the guns.'
'I can stay here, and watch the ER, take the other guys, alright?' said Juan. Nanci immediately chipped in that she would be staying down with Juan too, in case he got tired.
Agreeing Charlie organized Jack and the other three relief guards into pairs with the military men and they set off, each pair carrying a part of the gun, a box or two of ammo, or some other boxes and crates that Ted pointed out. During the process of unloading Juan just thought 'Stay Away' as hard as he could out at the zombies, it seemed to work and Ted noticed.
'Why're they acting like this? Normally they attack when we get this close, they are just milling about.'
Charlie answered, 'We don't know, Juan was out here this morning and he said they have been acting weird all night. Part of me is paranoid about it, like something is holding them back, trying to get a force up here before it attacks. So, like, we better move this gun up to the roof quick, huh?'
Nodding agreement, Ted hustled them along faster. Soon Juan and Nanci were left alone in front of the ER, every once in awhile people would come through, bring them coffee or ask if they needed a break. Juan politely refused. Jack and Charlie came back through with Sanchez and Thompson, to get another few boxes of equipment and to warn Juan and Nanci that they were going to fire off a few rounds of the machine gun and probably take a few shots with the soldier's AR-3 rifles as well. As they left Juan and Nanci watched the sky turn from light blue to pink in the pre-dawn light.
The crash of the machine gun shattered the quiet morning and made Nanci jump about six inches, though Juan barely stirred at the noise. The gun stopped for a few minutes then another series of shots rang out. Juan didn't know what they were aiming at, apparently the gun was not facing towards the ER. It would make more sense to put it around on the other side of the building to over look the highway which was far more likely to bring zombies to the hospital than the scrub covered hills that the ER faced.
The rifle fire sounded far less intimidating than the machine gun and went on for a shorter period of time. Just after sun rise Charlie and the three other original day guards were back to grab more ammunition for the guns, they were loaded up and heading back into the building when Juan heard Jack's voice yelling from the roof, five stories above, he was screaming and at first they could not understand what he was saying, then they understood him to be yelling for Juan and Charlie to come up to the roof right away. He yelled harder when they did not move right away. As he was yelling a flash of light brighter than anything any of them had ever seen before back lit Jack's body, it was like someone had set off the largest photo flash ever invented behind the man. A few seconds later they all heard a distant rumbling, like a stampede of cattle, the sound was from the other side of the hospital and washed by the ER leaving behind a weird echoing that bounced off the scrub hills back at them.
Chapter 22
By dawn most of the people involved in the racket out in the parking lot of the Mike's Club a few hours before had calmed down and gone back to bed. Kevin was sleeping, after Doc had looked his shoulder over and pronounced him a lucky son of a bitch. He had cleaned the wound and stitched it up as best he could, then bandaged it and forced some pain killers down Kevin's throat with orders for him to get some sleep. Doc even warranted that Kevin rated one of the few mattresses to sleep on.
Doc went by and checked again on Hank, who was doing far better than Doc would have ever thought possible. Broken ribs do not heal up, yet Hank was managing, getting himself to the bathroom, running around in the middle of the night while people were shooting each other, never complaining. Doc edged over to him and touched his forehead, checking for a fever, nothing. As Hank lay in the lazy boy that had become his home, Doc peeled back the bandages on his wounds slowly.
'You know that hurts more when you do it slow doc.' Hank said, startling Doc.
'Sorry, I thought you were asleep.' Hank gave him a look indicating that he had been, 'Sorry. I just got done with Kevin, I thought I should check you out before I went to get a couple more hours of sleep myself.' replied Doc quietly.
'What? It is morning out, no sleeping for us now.' Hank said, pointing to the doors of the Mike's Club where the dawn light was clearly visible.
Nodding, Doc said, 'You are probably right, but I am tired and need to get a little rest, the last few days have been pretty hard.' Doc continued working on the band aid around Hank's ribs, not quite removing it, but pulling it up and shining a flashlight down into the crevice created between Hank's skin and the bandage. The bruising was very mild, almost gone in fact. As he worked his way over toward back he had to have Hank roll over. 'Sorry Hank, I know this is a pain in the ass, but if there is an infection I want to nip it early, we don't have the means to deal with full scale sepsis.' Behind the doctor the doors to the Mike's club flashed brilliantly, lighting the entire building briefly. Both Hank and the Doc looked around, thinking that someone had just taken a picture of them, when they saw no one nearby they looked to the door where people were scrambling around outside. Then a wave of sound hit them, rumbling through the ground, through the building and waking everyone from the smallest child to the oldest adult among them from their slumber, save one. Kevin would always regret the fact that he was blissfully unconscious and asleep when what remained of the government started fighting back in earnest and dropped a nuclear bomb on North East Denver.
Chapter 23
Dave threw another rock at the zombie kid, it was a heavy stone, and it hit the kid on the forehead and bounced off high into the air, coming down on the parapet of the roof before spinning on the edge and then falling off into the alley below. The kid's head looked dented and Dave laughed at the trickle of black blood that started to slowly ooze from the wound.
'Stupid little fuck, didn't dodge that one, did you?' Dave laughed again and reached for another rock from the top of the flat roof they were on. He had moved about three blocks away from the Mike's Club, the new plan was to ambush people trying to get to the club and to that effect he had parked his motorcycle in the middle of the street. On the seat of his bike he put that piece of shit, plastic fucking gun. He figured if the bike was not enough of a reason for people to stop, the gun might draw attention. It was just after dawn and business was dead. He plunked another stone off of the kid's head, aiming for the eye, he hit it, Dave had to admit that his accuracy throwing things had gone way up since 'passing on'. The rock was not large enough this time to do more than bruise the eye lid, it did not even draw blood. Still the kid slowly raised his hands to his face and held one over his eye while holding the other out towards Dave, as if trying to block any more incoming missiles.
Dave didn't know how old the kid was. Three? Eight? He hadn't been around kids much, who knew they could be this damned fun? Dave reached down and grabbed a handful of pebbles and threw them half-heartedly at
