Chapter Six

Hiding in the hospital, waiting...

Nathan didn't let go of my hand as we ascended the stairs, our footsteps echoing up the silent stairwell. He paused outside the door at floor six and peeked in through the narrow window. The hallway was empty except for a nurse at the far end.

"Alright it looks normal. Let's go." He pushed the door open and led me to room forty-two.

"Looks can be deceiving," I mumbled as my heart slammed against my chest. I thought for sure he'd be able to hear it.

It was unnervingly quiet on the unit. I didn't hear the same beeping from the heart monitors I heard earlier. The silence didn't bode well with me. I walked as close to Nathan as possible without stepping on him. I clutched the back of his jacket and investigated the rooms as we passed. Something wasn't right. Most of the beds were empty and messy.

"Nathan," I whispered tugging on his shirt.

"We're almost there," he said, pulling me a bit faster.

"But Nathan," I persisted.

"Shh."

"Why is it so quiet?" I ignored him shushing me.

He stopped and listened for a few seconds. "I don't know."

"Why are some of the rooms empty?" I continued.

"Are they?"

"Yeah and they weren't empty before."

He reached back and grabbed my arm. "Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Wait here." He paused outside of Becca's room.

"Wait here? I'm not waiting here!"

"Just stay here!"

"I don't feel good about being up here." I refused to let go of his scrub jacket as he inched into the room.

"You're fine. Let me go so I can do what I need to do." He turned toward me and gripped my shoulders. His voice was so strong, reaffirming, and sure; the complete opposite of me.

"What could you possibly need to do to my sister?" I asked while looking around the hallway for signs of anybody.

Reaching inside my jacket I grabbed my Glock 22 out of the holster and checked the chamber. Locked and loaded.

"I want to do a few tests."

"Tests? She's an undead zombie! You don't perform medical test on a zombie, Nathan."

I replaced it and gripped the door jamb. I knew he was trying to keep me calm.

"You're not leaving me here alone." I glanced up and down the hall.

Dangerous criminals and thugs I could deal with. Blood thirsty, flesh eating zombies; not so much.

"Stay right here. I'll be a few feet in the room. You'll be safer here."

"I want to leave."

"Emma, we're going to leave. Calm down."

Reluctantly I nodded. I stood right outside the door as he approached what used to be my sister. Becca was still strapped to the bed and the restraints had rubbed her wrists raw. Dark purple blood soaked the sheets and covered her arms. She snarled and snapped at Nathan as he approached her. He pulled back the blankets from her legs and took a pen from his pocket. Disgusting, thick, foamy drool lathered at her mouth. She reminded me of a rabid raccoon.

"Her blood doesn't look normal."

"That's because it's not," Nathan said, looking at her legs. "Did she always have purple veins?"

"No. Her legs were always really pale like mine." I held onto the door and kept my eyes trained on him. "What are you doing?"

"Testing her reflexes."

"Why?"

"To see how extensive the nerve damage is from the virus."

"Oh," I mumbled as he traced the end of a pen on the bottom of her feet.

I grimaced and held onto the gun as Becca reached for him. She tugged at the restraints and a furious snarl emanated from her. She looked like a primal beast.

Poor Becca.

My heart sped up and my stomach turned when I heard a groaning behind me. I turned my head slightly.

"Oh god."

Her milky white eyes caught my attention first. She didn't stare at me, sort of through me. My gaze drifted down, and I noticed there was a huge chunk of skin missing from her shoulder. The nurse stumbled down the hallway with blood all over the front of her uniform. She was only a few feet away from me and moving rather fast. I took a few steps into the hallway watching her.

"Hello?" I called to her. "Are you alright?"

I knew she wasn't. I don't know why I asked. She groaned and lurched forward.

"Nathan?"

My face fell when I glanced behind her. The undead clustered together and formed this huge undead herd. One dragged a weird looking machine behind him. A brown liquid leaked out of it streaking the floor.

"Hmm?"

"Nathan!"

"Hmm?"

"Doctor White!" I shouted, panic filling every fiber of my being.

"Shh, I'm concentrating." He wasn't fazed by my terror in the least.

"That's great, but whatever she has I think everyone else up here must have to." I bumped into him as the nurse stumbled into the room reaching for me. There was no time to grab the gun. They were too close.

"Holy shit!" he yelled, jumping back as she grabbed his lab coat. He struggled out of it, grabbed me, and yanked me into the bathroom.

I didn't know so many bodies could fit into such a small room. They swarmed us as we threw our weight against the door locking it. I let my forehead rest against the cool wood and listened to the sounds from beyond.

"Did it bite you?" I looked at him in terror.

"No. What about you?"

I shook my head. "I don't think so. Nothing hurts, and I don't see any blood."

"Okay good. This is insane. I don't understand how it can be spreading so fast. There should be an incubation period of some sort. This makes absolute no fucking sense." He walked small circles around the bathroom as I sat in the shower.

"Don't ask me. You're the medical professional."

The longer we stood there listening, the more the room beyond seemed to fill with groans, snarls, and moans. I could see the shadows of undead under the door as they shuffled around. Some of them even smacked at it. I hugged my knees and tried to keep from throwing up.

"How many are there?" he asked.

"I don't know."

"This is spreading really fast."

"What are we going to do?" I chewed the inside of my lip unsure of what to do.

"We need to find a way out." Nathan looked around the small room.

"Get out? How the hell are we supposed to get out of here? We're trapped!" I started hyperventilating. The walls of the room seemed to close in on me. Everything spun, and I could feel the vomit rising.

"Calm down. Panicking is not going to help," he shouted. The incessant howls of undead became more fervent

"What else is there to do? We are trapped in a small bathroom. Trapped, Nathan! There are flesh eating zombies on the other side!"

"Emma, calm the fuck down! We need to be rational about this. You're a cop?"

"Rational went out the window when my sister turned into a zombie! They didn't exactly have zombie training in the fucking academy."

Nathan grabbed my shoulders and pulled me close. He lowered his head and pressed his lips to mine hard. After a few long seconds, he pulled back. "Stop."

"You kissed me."

"Yes, I did."

"They're going to hear us in here. We need to be quiet," I said absently.

"I think it's a little too late for that. If you can't hear what I do, there are tons of undead people out there!"

"At least you're admitting they're undead."

"It is not time for I-told-you-so's."

He stood in the center of the bathroom looking around. I didn't know what he could possibly be looking for. The only thing in the bathroom was a sink, toilet, and a shower. There was one way out, and that way was currently blocked by zombies.

"Come here." He motioned toward the toilet.

"If you have to go I can close the shower curtain."

"No, climb up on the back. It's metal, but it should be strong enough to hold your weight."

"What am I supposed to do standing on a toilet?" I narrowed my eyes and pursed my lips. I was losing faith in the doctor.

"Push up one of those tiles. See what's up there." He motioned to the white tiles above my head.

"Oh, okay."

Nathan held my waist as I climbed up onto the steel pipe behind the toilet. I popped the tile out of place and glanced around the dark, empty space.

"There's nothing up here except wires and some pipes."

"That's what I thought." He helped me down.

"Is that our way out?" I asked, watching him climb up.

"I hope. If the steel beams are strong enough, we should be able to crawl through to somewhere safe."

"You hope? And what if it isn't strong enough to hold us?" I looked at the door with panic.

"If it doesn't hold, you won't have to worry about how to get through this."

A loud cracking echoed in the tiny room. My terror-stricken gaze was glued to the now breaking door. The moans grew louder as the undead pounded furiously.

"They're breaking the door? How are they breaking the door?" I screeched.

"The doors aren't that strong. Who knows how many are pounding against it."

"How sure are we that they're completely dead? I mean maybe I'm not right. Maybe they're just biting people."

"Without examining them closely, I'd have to say I'm about ninety-eight percent sure." He furrowed his brow and watched the door splinter.

"Okay." I looked around the small room for anything that I could use as a weapon.

"What are you doing?" Nathan's eyes darted back and forth from me to the breaking door.

"I'm trying to find a weapon. If this floor is over run from one person, imagine what the emergency room looks like after that nurse bit everyone. My single gun won't do shit."

He opened his mouth to say something but quickly closed it. He took a few deep breaths. "What are you going to do?"

"Me? We, Nathan, we. What are we going to do? And I don't know, but we're going to end up having to fight our way out of here. There is no doubt about that." I kicked at the pipe under the sink until it came off.

"Where is this sudden spurt of confidence coming from?" He watched while I climbed onto the back of the toilet with my pipe.

"I don't know. I don't want to die, and I am a cop. I should be in control. I mean I'm absolutely terrified. I feel like I'm about to puke all over the place. I'm going on adrenaline right now. Let's go," I pulled myself into the ceiling, "before I change my mind."

Nathan climbed on the back of the toilet once I was safely on one of the steel beams and hoisted himself up as the door broke. He looked up at me with terror plastered across his face. I grabbed his hand and pulled on him.

"Don't you dare fall! You're not turning into one of those!"

"I'm not trying to."

My back and shoulders hurt so badly. "Nathan, you can't leave me."

"As long as you don't let me fall I'm not leaving you."

"Come on, Nathan! Use your upper body strength!"

I didn't know this guy from Adam, yet I didn't want to lose him. I couldn't lose him. For all I knew, he could be the only person that would end up left with me. A hoard of undead spilled into the small room. Nathan kicked and thrashed his legs as the zombies grabbed at him.

"Don't let me go!" he screamed, trying to kick one of the zombies off.

"It'd be easier if you weren't a grown man," I grunted, digging my nails into his arm.

"Ouch!" He winced.

"It's my nails or their teeth."

"Nails it is." He kicked his legs harder and pulled up until he was safely in the ceiling with me.

Once on the beam, he collapsed on top of me. We lay there panting and silent. I couldn't help but throw my arms around his neck. Relief and terror gripped my soul.

"I didn't know you cared so much." He smiled.

"For all I know you could be the last man on earth. I can't let you die."

"Does that mean we can repopulate?" He waggled his eyebrows.

"Alright. You ruined it. Get off," I groaned.

"Kidding. I was kidding."

"The zombiepocalypse isn't the place for jokes."

"I think a small joke is okay." He shrugged his shoulders and rolled over.

"Maybe a little one then."

"Did you mean it?" He rolled onto his side.

"Mean what?"

"You don't want me to leave."

I sat up and rubbed my bicep. "I guess. I don't know."

"Yes you do."

"Don't read too much into stuff," I mumbled glancing at him briefly. "We are in a literal life and death situation right now."

"You're right. We are in a life and death struggle. I wouldn't fault you for falling for me."

"What? Are you serious? I just saved your life. If anyone would fall for someone you would fall for me."

"It's alright, Emma."

I rolled my eyes and looked away from the man. He gently touched my back and a rush of unwanted emotions took over. Tears streamed from my eyes and I wrapped my arms around him again. Perhaps he was right. Maybe the fact that we needed each other to survive sparked an apocalyptic love fire deep within. Would it be smart though? A love started simply because of a zombie infection couldn't possibly last. I couldn't bear to see another of my loved ones turned into a mindless flesh eater. My soul would never withstand watching the life leave my lovers eyes.

Why am I behaving like this? Stop it, Emma! Stop it now!