Cold Dawn

Chapter 12

The scream caught in her throat, as the groaning steadily increased in volume. The two nurses seemed puzzled by the noise, though not frightened. Patience looked at her co-worker. “Please can you take Cate back to her room. I won’t be long.”

Cate held her hand out, trying to stop Patience from leaving. She wanted to shout a warning, scream anything. But her voice let her down. The other nurse pulled her roughly away, and marched her into the ward. Cate was more than hesitant; she finally managed to scram whilst trying to pull away from the nurse. The woman was surprisingly strong for someone so slight.

Cate’s overwhelming fear made her kick out at the nurse as she tried to wrestle her to the bed. She hit the nurse square on the knee and felt it snap as the woman lurched forward with a blood-curdling scream.

Her ears rang with the sound as she searched for signs of the zombies. Knowing that the ward would be overrun with them within a matter of minutes, she ran straight for the door leaving the sobbing nurse with her broken leg. She knew she should not have left her there – but the woman would not believe her and would only slow her down and Patience would only be meat now. That’s what she kept telling herself as the guilt weighed in, running out down the corridor.

She slowed down listening for sounds – but it was quiet. Too quiet for Cate as she hunkered down and crept along the floor on her hands and knees around the corner. The tangy smell of metal, that she knew to be blood floated along on the smell of bleach.

In the white walled reception area, the red splatter over the walls, chairs and floor stood out in bright contrast against the dour surroundings. She squeezed her eyes shut hoping and praying it was part of her delusions.

Counting to ten, she opened them, but it was no dream. No hallucination. She saw a little girl no older than maybe six; her plaited blonde hair appeared to have been dipped in red paint as she eagerly chewed on a man’s torso. Her once blue jeans and cream t-shirt was covered in red.

She moved back around the corner as quietly as she could holding her hand over her mouth, trying to hold back the shriek she knew would come. The slow wet sounds and the crunch of little teeth against bone made her want to bang her head against the wall. No one should have to hear sounds like that – no one.

Trying to gather herself, she reversed backwards on her knees trying to be as quiet as she could – she needed to get out of here and fast. She looked left and then right trying to gage which way would be best, when a gunshot rang out echoing off the walls.

Gunshots meant only one thing – safety! She stood up and peered around the corner, the young girl was sprawled over her quarry with the top part of her head blown away. Not much was left of the blonde hair and Cate cried.

The tears obscured her vision, when a hand came down on her shoulder. She whipped round screaming pushing the hand away and hitting out. A voice broke through the heartache and misery with one word.

“Girl.”

Her body collapsed with relief at the sound of Ben’s voice. He was here and he was solid – that much she did know. He gently pulled her along out of the automatic doors whilst he kept the gun out eyeing the surroundings.

“Come on girl. I need your head straight now. We gotta get in the truck.”

His eyes scanned the street and spotted four more zombies, three were badly decomposed, their shambling gait and the stench that carried upwind was a sure sign but one was fresh and it had seen them. It began picking up its pace running straight for them.

“Girl you better a move on right now!” He hissed at her.

Opening the door of the old beaten up truck, he shoved her inside as he climbed in after her. Cate realised the danger that they were, in quickly moved over to allow Ben to get in – gripping the dashboard, she turned her head watching the zombies, as Ben started the engine and put the truck into reverse.

The impact juddered the truck, and they both bounced around the inside of the vehicle as it ran over the first zombie. Then followed the next, and the next and the next – Cate did not look at the mess of dead or ‘undead’ bodies they had left behind. The image of the little girl with her head blown away was more than enough for her.

As they sped away from the hospital, she kept staring at Ben, his presence in the truck was comforting but the memories and the words of the doctor kept nagging at her. She pinched his arm as he drove them along the motorway.

“Ow! What was that for?” he frowned at her.

“Nothing.” She sat back, her mind muddled with thoughts. “Where were you. . .? I waited and that man in the blue house was mean to me. He locked me in the cellar after he told me he was my granddad.”

Ben clenched the steering wheel, his jaw grinding. “That dam man was supposed to protect you!” he spat, shaking his head. “Girl I’m sorry but that man was not your grandfather. He helped me out once or twice a few years back – I thought, I thought we could stay there.” He hit the steering wheel with his fist.

“Dammit!”

“Ben. I feel like I am losing my mind. I’m not sure what’s real anymore. In the hospital they gave me drugs and I remembered stuff – stuff that. Well let’s say it wasn’t a wonderful memory. They said there were no zombies.” She wrapped the bathrobe tighter around herself, her body going cold. “And how did they get me from the cellar to the hospital?”

Ben looked questioningly at her, as she related to him what happened when the first zombie appeared. “I could have sworn that old goat let them down there on purpose, but the second – the second one didn’t bite me. I blacked out and I awoke in the hospital.”

Cate’s head began to ache as she tried to understand what had happened, it was like trying to fit pieces of a jigsaw back together but with oddly fitting shapes.

Ben gave her hand a squeeze. “Don’t you worry girl. We’ll find out what’s going on together.”