The Cure, page 11
Pete stood by the boat and looked up impatiently as he watched Kimmy and Bobby struggle to get down the hillside.
“Hurry up,” Pete shouted in a loud whisper, “We have to get out of here.”
“Take it easy Pete,” Kimmy could hear Jeff say to Pete, “She has been having leg cramps. Give her a minute, we are going to make it.”
Kimmy and her brother were almost to the bottom of the hillside when they heard the groaning creatures begin to sound strange. Stranger sounding than usual.
Kimmy took a quick glance over her shoulder to see dozens of the dead tumbling down over the hillside. The strange sound was the dead groaning as they bounced down over the hill.
Rolling down over the hill, the zombies reached Bobby and Kimmy much faster than if they had stayed on their feet and staggered their way down the hillside.
Bodies began rolling into each other less than ten feet from Kimmy and her brother.
The zombies began swinging their arms and legs as they tried to get to their feet.
Fortunately, the bodies bouncing down the hill behind them kept knocking the others back to the ground.
Kimmy and Bobby waded out to the boat.
“We have a problem,” Mildred said as they reached the boat.
Kimmy looked at the boat and saw there was only room for one more person. The boat sat low in the water with only about four inches between the water and the top edge of the boat.
“Get in the boat,” Bobby shouted.
“I’m not leaving you here,” Kimmy shouted.
“You’re not leaving me here,” Bobby said as he pushed Kimmy at the boat. “I’ll push the boat out in the water and then I’ll hang onto the back of the boat. You guys can pull me across the river. I won’t melt.”
Kimmy stumbled into the boat and dropped down on the floor in the final unoccupied space as she felt the boat moving out into the river.
Bobby pushed as Jeff and Dan began to work the oars.
They all turned and looked back at the shore line as the dead splashed into the water.
As the boat moved out into the river, Kimmy looked back and called out, “Bobby?”
“I’m still here,” came a voice from below the back of the boat.
“Keep kicking kid,” Dan said, “with you pushing us we might beat the other boat across the river.”
Jeff laughed as he pulled against his oar.
“That was close,” Mildred said as she watched the dead trying to follow them into the river.
“I think we are fine now,” Pete added, “I don’t think those things can swim.”
They all turned again to look back as the dead made their way into the water, only to be swept downstream by the current.
When they all turned to continue making their way across the river, Pete looked at the bridge above them.
“Keep us under the bridge,” he said to Jeff. “I don’t want those zombies to see us and try to jump in the boat with us. Even if they didn’t bite us, we would probably sink to the bottom like a rock if they hit our boat.”
The river wasn’t very wide. It was probably only about three hundred feet to the other side, but it took the boats ten minutes to fight the current and cross the river.
George and his men reached the other side first.
Pete and his boat reached the other side a few minutes later.
As Pete’s boat drifted into the small dock outside the pumping station, a door on the side of the pumping station opened and a man stuck his head out through the opening and looked around.
The pumping station was a twenty-foot square concrete windowless building that was built on the edge of the water. A small ten-foot dock was constructed from the side of the building and extended out into the river.
Under the dock were two large six-foot high pipes that opened up into the river.
The man looked around and his gaze finally settled on George.
“Hey George,” the man said, “I see you made it.”
“No thanks to you John,” George laughed, “What happened to the diversion you were going to create to help clear the way for us.”
“The diversion worked,” John replied. “Unfortunately it worked too well.”
“You call this working?” George laughed, “There were thousands of those things waiting to welcome us on the bridge when we drove in.”
“I had a few guys try to lead the dead down Walker Street and away from the hospital,” John grinned. “You know how those things like to get in on the action when they think there is an easy meal to be had. It was working like we had hoped. They were all battling each other to follow the guys down the street. What we didn’t count on was when all the zombies across the river saw the mob going down the street and I guess they didn’t want to be left out. They started to swarm across the bridge and began to follow the others down Walker Street. If you would have arrived twenty minutes later you would have been able to drive right across the bridge.”
“Lucky my guys tied up these two row boats under the other side of the bridge when they came back this afternoon,” George said.
“You’re lucky those bastards can’t swim too,” John added. “What do you say we get inside before those things develop an interest in sewage?”
George nodded, “Tie the boats to the dock and follow John.”
Everyone began to climb out of the boats and climb up on the dock.
Before getting out of the boat, Jeff pulled Bobby out of the water and into the back of the boat.
Bobby stood shivering for a minute before he moved.
“That water is cold,” he stammered as he stumbled to the side of the boat and tried to climb up on the dock.
His arms and legs didn’t want to work and Jeff finally grabbed his hands and pulled Bobby up with the rest of the group.
He stood on the dock as water continued to drip from his soaked coveralls.
John walked to the back of the small dock and opened the door on the side of the building.
“The last one in the building, pull the door shut behind you,” John said and then stepped inside.
George and his men went inside next, followed by Pete and Mildred. Kimmy and her brother went in next, Tim and Dan followed. Jeff was the last one inside and he pulled the door shut and checked to be sure the lock had engaged.
John led the group behind two machines that sat idle in the room. On the other side of the machines, John reached down and pulled up a manhole cover from the floor.
“It’s not the front door, but it does the job,” John smiled. “We are going down into the sewers,” John said then counted the number of people in line. “You,” John said pointing to Pete, “Grab a flashlight from the floor here before you go down the ladder. The last guy down will take the last flashlight and pull the cover back over the entrance. With my light that should give us enough light to see below. The pipes are six feet high so you won’t have to crawl or anything like that. The pipes lead into the main part of the city, but about a hundred feet up the line, we will climb up into the utility room of the hospital. So far we haven’t run into any of those zombies in the sewer lines, but just keep your eyes open.”
John then went down through the hole into the sewer line.
Kimmy watched as the others disappeared one by one down into the hole.
When it was her turn to go down, Bobby pulled her back.
“Let me go next,” he grinned. “I’m going to drip on whoever goes in front of me.”
Kimmy looked down through the manhole and saw Mildred climbing down the ladder and smiled.
“After you,” she grinned.
A moment later they were all down in the pipe and Jeff pulled the cover over the opening before he climbed to the bottom.
Kimmy stood in the pipe and looked around. The first thing she noticed was she was standing ankle deep in water. At least she hoped that it was water and not raw sewage.
That and it smelled down here in the pipe.
The group followed John up the line into the darkness.
Behind her, Kimmy could see the light coming into the pipe where it emptied out into the river.
That end of the pipe was blocked by an iron screen that was fit into the end of the pipe to keep kids and animals from entering the pipe to explore the sewers.
“It should also keep out the zombies,” Kimmy thought.
As the line of people moved into the darkness, Kimmy hung onto Bobby’s hand and followed up the pipe.
They waded through the wet dark pipe for about five minutes before she heard voices talking up near the front of the line.
Kimmy looked up at the sound of the voices and saw a light shining down from the top of the pipe up ahead.
Then she saw the people at the front of the line climbing up the ladder on the side of the pipe.
A few minutes later, Kimmy reached the top of the ladder.
A hand reached out to pull her out of the manhole and into a brightly lit room.
There were three lanterns burning brightly that lit up the room. The walls of the room were lined with pipes that ran from the floor to the ceiling, wires and what looked to be numerous breaker boxes covered one of the walls. A large furnace or incinerator sat in the one corner next to a chute that dropped down out of the ceiling over a large dumpster.
“Welcome to Kittanning Memorial, the last safe holdout of mankind,” John smiled at everyone.
Kimmy leaned over to Jeff, “He’s joking right?”
“Afraid not little lady,” George said from behind Kimmy, startling her. She wouldn’t have said anything if she knew he would be listening.
“I was at the National Guard base in Freeport when this all started,” George said. “We lost all contact with the outside world by the third day. There might be a few others that survived, but I wouldn’t count on it. This thing hit hard and fast. I doubt more than a select few could survive what happened. You are lucky we stopped to pick you up.”
Kimmy stood in silence. She didn’t trust this guy enough to want to carry on any kind of conversation with him.
George moved away from Kimmy and walked to the front of the room as two people dressed in blue scrubs came into the room.
Kimmy breathed a sigh of relief as George moved away, but her relief was short lived.
“As John said, welcome to what may well be the last holdout of mankind. You may think I am exaggerating or being pessimistic, but I assure you I am not. There haven’t been any communications with anyone else in at least three days. Hopefully we will find others someday like ourselves that have managed to survive. But until then, we must operate as if we are one our own,” George smiled. “We appreciate John and his group giving us this opportunity to join them. We should also be able to appreciate that John and his group cannot allow just anyone to come here. You are expected to abide by the rules that John and his group have set up. Anyone that cannot abide by the rules here will be asked to leave. Life is hanging by a threat and people that can’t go along with that will be considered a threat to everyone. If anyone has a problem with what I just said, tell me now.”
John looked at the group.
“Good,” he said. “I assured John there wouldn’t be any problems.”
“Thanks George,” John said. “I’m sure we are all going to get along fine. Now the two people that just came in are Doctor Wyatt and Doctor Kendall.
The doctors will take each one of you to the examination room to verify that you have not been infected. After your examination you will be taken upstairs to have a good meal and meet the others. This won’t take long. Just relax and enjoy the safety of the hospital and the doctors will meet with you very shortly.”
Kimmy looked at Bobby.
They both had a worried look on their faces.
Bobby glanced back at the manhole then up at Kimmy.
Kimmy shook her head “No”, slowly.
She was tempted, but she also knew in their condition, they could never get far before they would be caught.
They were going to be examined one way or another, whether they wanted to be or not.
Their only chance was to plead their case with the doctors.
Hopefully the doctors would be more interested in studying them than shooting them.
Regardless of what the doctors were interested in doing, it was too late to run.
Their fates were no longer in their own hands.
In reality, their fates had not been under their control for the last few days. They had only managed to stay one step ahead of disaster.
Now they found themselves with nowhere to run.
Kimmy moved close to Bobby and reached for his hand.
They both stood nervously, scared out of their wits.
Kimmy began to ponder her decision not to run back into the house and hide in the basement.
Even as zombies, she trusted her parents more than she did these people.
Chapter 12
Kimmy froze when the person in the blue scrubs walked back into the utility room and began to look around at the people that still remained in the room.
The last time he had come back into the room, she drifted behind Jeff and Dan so she wouldn’t be picked to go into the examination room next.
This time she couldn’t stand the tension. They were going to find out about her soon anyhow.
Now she just wanted to get it over with.
She motioned for Bobby to stay behind the taller boys as she moved out in front of the group.
The doctor pointed at Kimmy then went over and opened the door.
Kimmy’s legs began to shake and her stomach churned. She fought back the urge to throw up as she followed the doctor through the door.
Kimmy was sure anyone that was watching her walk was probably wondering what was wrong with her.
She took short wobbly steps, reaching out to touch the door frame to keep her balance.
Kimmy followed the doctor down a long dark hallway.
“Watch your step,” the doctor said as they walked. “As you know we haven’t had electricity for a while and we don’t have enough lanterns to light the entire hospital, so some of the hallways are on the dark side. It wouldn’t be so bad but John’s men have a habit of leaving their tools lying around where you would least expect it. I almost tripped over a saw coming down here today. But I guess it is something we are going to have to deal with until we get the power back up and running again. We have a backup generator, but since we don’t know when we will be able to have power again, we are saving the generator fuel for important things like serious operations and for emergencies.”
Kimmy could hear the doctor talking, but little of what the doctor said was registering. She was too afraid of what would come next.
Kimmy followed the doctor but she felt like she was walking in quick sand.
Time seemed to have frozen around here. Whenever she glanced down the hall in front of the doctor, the hall seemed to go on forever with no end in sight.
The light that entered the hall from the occasional doors that were open into the hall, cast long creepy shadows down the hall.
Kimmy forced herself to breathe when she realized that she had been holding her breath since she passed the last open door, five doors back down the hallway.
Her entire body felt tense as fear began to grip her body to the point she didn’t think she was going to be able to keep moving.
She felt like she did when she woke up in the middle of the night, her body damp with a cold sweat as she found herself trying to scream or run, but nothing would happen.
The walls in the hall seemed to be closing in around her.
The air was becoming uncomfortably warm and it was getting harder to breathe.
Kimmy didn’t know if she was imagining all of this or if it was really happening.
All she knew was that she didn’t think she could go much further.
The doctor stopped and pointed to an open door.
With her mind in a panic, Kimmy didn’t realize they were now at the end of the hallway.
Kimmy walked in through the door the doctor had pointed to.
The room was better lit than the hallway.
It had two large windows that were covered with bed sheets.
The light was able to penetrate the white sheets and cast a soft glow over the room.
Inside the room was a bed, a chair and an examination table. It was the kind of table that had a roll of paper attached at the top that the doctor could tear off fresh paper to cover the table with clean paper for each new patient.
The garbage can next to the table was full of crinkled up balls of white paper.
Kimmy guessed the paper in the trash had covered the table during the examinations of the first people from her group that had gone with the doctors before her.
The other examinations must have all gone well, there was no blood on any of the paper and she hadn’t heard the sound of any gun shots.
The doctor followed Kimmy into the room and closed the door.
“If you would please undress we can get the formality of your examination out of the way,” the doctor said. “I’m sure you are anxious to go upstairs and have a good meal.”
Kimmy looked back at the doctor. For the first time since they had left the utility room, she now realized the doctor was a woman.
Kimmy guessed that a woman doctor could shoot her as easily as a man doctor.
Kimmy just stood motionless, looking down at the floor.
“My name is Doctor Diane Wyatt,” the doctor said. “Don’t be afraid, I’m not going to hurt you. I just need to look you over before you can go upstairs.”
Kimmy started to shake and then she began to sob quietly.
