The Dead Zone (Book One)

Chapter 19

"Roamer's can't jump 'em. But we sure can." Paige didn't have time to argue or agree with his logic as the nearest group closed in, the roamers slamming into the chain link, rattling it against the metal rods that held the fence up. The fence wouldn't hold long, but it would slow them down and buy them a little time. 

 Eventually the weight of multiple rotting bodies would knock it down and they'd be able to follow them again.They darted across the backyard, jumping the next fence that led to a different yard. And so on and so forth. Bryson paused at the next fence, jamming his knife into a single roamer that stood in their path, her long, pale arms reaching for them over the barrier. 

 With a spray of blood she collapsed, her dirty hair covering her face, which Paige was grateful for. She looked so young. Maybe a teenager. But in a world like this, until they found a cure, it was them or us. That roamer, or Bryson. All the people she loved. She knew her choice without even having to think about it. Guilt and hesitation were not emotions that survived out here.

They were both out of breath by the time the hospital loomed above them, a pristine building stretching toward the heavens. It looked undisturbed for the most part, besides a few broken windows. Drapes fluttered out into the daylight, ghostly specters peeking from the top floors.

 "Where do we need to go? The front doors?"

 She shook her head at him. "No. We need to find the trauma room. Our best bet is to go in through the emergency room doors."

 Bryson didn't have to ask what the trauma room was. It was where they performed surgery on anyone with a substantial wound; car crashes, burns, stabs, and most importantly, gun shots. They ran across the street hand in hand, their footsteps echoing loudly as they found the ramp to the Emergency Room, probably where ambulances used to drop off patients.

  The doors, marked with the symbolic red cross, which had at one time been automatic, had to be pried open, a sick smell hitting them instantly from inside the hospital. 

 "Ugh. Gross." Paige complained, stepping gingerly through the door with her arm over her nose, peeking slowly around the corner. It was undoubtedly the smell of death and rot, mixed with something else, consuming the once sterile smell of the hospital. The emergency room lay empty, but several blood stains marred the floor and walls, along with a few questionable chunks that he tried not to focus on. 

Just breath through your mouth and keep moving. Zach needs you.

 A roamer, who appeared to once be a middle aged woman, stood behind the protective glass where she must have once did paperwork, wearing a bright green pair of scrubs. She clamped her jaws at them, unable to reach them from the other side of the glass. Little did she know that when she woke up for work all those mornings ago that would be the last time. Who could have ever guessed they'd have a fate such as this?

 "You know, the last time I was in a hospital was when mine got overrun in Portland," Paige had a nostalgic look in her eye, her voice wistful as she recalled. "Ours was much bigger than this. Apparently we had a lot more patients too- the halls were flooded with roamers when I escaped. But here... it's so silent."

 Bryson mulled this over. She was right; hospitals had a huge carrying capacity. So then, where were all of the patients? And by that, he meant, where were all the roamers?

 "Maybe they all escaped outside, to look for more people to eat." He threw out the suggestion as they picked their way through a hallway. Several trays scattered the floor, old remnants of food letting off a putrid smell. Several papers fluttered in an unseen draft, as if waving them on. Paige stopped to check one of the signs hanging on the wall, veering them left.