“Sorry, I wish I could,” said Kristie, her hands tight on the wheel.
We were going very slowly, in fact some of the zombies were staggering faster than we were driving.
“Shit,” muttered Kristie as more zombies began surrounding the truck.
“Can’t you shoot them?” whined Eva.
“No, we aren’t wasting our bullets on hundreds of zombies too stupid to even find a way in here. We need ammunition for when we’re on foot,” I said.
“Bryce, how in the world are we going to get into the hospital when they’re following us this close?” asked Sara.
“Look,” I said, pointing to the emergency entrance. “There are some people with guns getting ready to do something.”
As we got closer, about five military soldiers ran outside of the emergency doors and started picking off the zombies that were following us. As we got closer, one of the men motioned us over to a separate ambulance entrance, big enough to drive the SUV into. Once inside, they closed the door and approached us cautiously.
“Have any of you been vaccinated lately?” asked a tall, humorless-looking soldier holding a gun.
“No, sir,” replied Bryce, raising his hands in the air. “None of us have.”
The soldier nodded and then introduced himself. “I’m Captain Brent Lufkin. Does anyone here need medical attention?” he asked, looking specifically at Sara who’d stepped out of the truck holding a hand over her protruding belly.
“No, not yet anyway,” said Bryce. “We’re here to try and locate a couple of people.”
“Really, who?” asked the Captain.
I spoke up. “Veronica King, the news anchor, and my mother, Kristen Wild.”
“Well Veronica King left a couple of hours ago to help pick up some survivors who’d radioed in. She should be back within a few hours. Got to say, that woman surprised the hell out of me. She’s as tough as nails.”
“What about Kris Wild? Have you seen her?” interrupted Bryce. “She’s fairly tall, light brown hair, somewhere in her forties. She would have arrived with a wounded soldier.”
He shook his head. “Kris Wild? Sorry, it just doesn’t sound familiar but you’re welcome to take a look around,” he said. “We have over one hundred survivors. Most of them are staying close to each other in the children’s wing of the hospital. Come on, I’ll show you.”
The hospital had generators, so luckily there was electricity. As we neared the children’s wing, I noticed many of them eating warm meals and talking quietly to one another. Surprisingly, there weren’t many children around.
“I wonder what happened to the children that were in this wing of the hospital,” I said softly
He shrugged his shoulders. “Not sure.”
The captain turned to me. “Most of the children that were already staying in the hospital received the vaccines. We had to place them in special holding cells so they wouldn’t harm anyone.”
“They’re still here?” asked Kristie.
He nodded. “Yes, they are. Unfortunately some of them are getting so violent that we can’t get near them without the risk of getting bitten.”
I shuddered. “You’re just keeping them locked up until they die?”
“On the contrary, we’re studying them to find out if we can halt the process or find an antidote. We’ve had some communication from the CDC in Atlanta,” he replied.
“There are still researchers left from the CDC?” I asked in shock. “I would have thought they’d all gotten the vaccine.”
“Not all of them agreed with vaccinations either,” he replied, “lucky for us.”
“Do you mind if I take a look around?” I asked him. “I need to find out if my mother ever arrived. Maybe someone else saw her.”
“Go ahead, I’ll ask around for you, too. Don’t forget to check some of the private patient rooms,” he replied.
We all split up and began asking around. Bryce said he’d check some of the patient rooms in Urgent Care. Curiously enough, Eva volunteered to tag along with him and he reluctantly agreed. I trusted him but there was no way in hell I was going to allow her back home with us later. I crossed my fingers that Veronica would come back soon and take her daughter off our hands.
~~~
I started checking the rooms in the children’s units, hoping beyond hope that maybe my mom was there, resting. Unfortunately most of them were unoccupied and the few that had people in them hadn’t heard anything about my mother, so I decided to venture farther away from the children’s unit. As I approached the birthing wing, I heard a man talking in one of the rooms. The tone of his voice sounded familiar and my heart skipped a beat. I rushed towards the sound of his voice.