Dead Faith (Book 1): Dead Faith Read online

  Hearing Gabe, both men turned around and started to sprint towards him, and what Gabe saw next would haunt him far worse than anything else he had seen on this night. As Jon spun around, his injured ankle gave out and he fell to the floor in a diving motion. He landed right in the hallway intersection where Gabe had been just half a minute before. The security guard had already sprinted several yards ahead before he realized what happened. He stopped running and began to turn around when someone came into view from the direction of the ER waiting room. A man in blue jean overalls jogged into view with a huge bandage wrapped around his finger, the kind you would see on a sit-com when someone smashes their finger with a hammer. More importantly, Gabe could see where the back of his skull had been smashed in by the ambulance wreck just moments before. Like the nurse Gabe had witnessed, he seemed to have the coordination of someone who was drunk. It didn't matter. The timing of Jon's ankle giving out was just the wrong place and at the wrong time. The man in the blue jean overalls dropped right on top of Jon and bit him in the shoulder. As the security officer took several steps towards Jon a woman in a sweatsuit came into view around the corner and grabbed the arm that was closest to her and started chewing. And then it was too late. The mob of medical staff and patients that had been chasing them were on top of Jon.

  “Jon!” Jabe yelled and ran toward him. Tthe security guard met him halfway and shoved him hard back down the hall. Gabe almost lost his balance as he was forced to run backward or fall.

  "It's too late, come on."

  The security guard drug Gabe into the elevator, and hit the button marked ‘B' just below the ‘1' button. As the doors began to close, Gabe could see dead people coming around the corner.

  Chapter 2

  The elevator opened in a dimly lit hallway. The security guard stepped off with his club raised. “It’s clear.”

  Gabe stepped off the elevator slowly, his eyes down, staring at the floor. “What just happened?”

  “I have no idea.” The security guard was still holding his club in the ready position and looking around for danger. After a few seconds he looked at Gabe.

  “Was that big guy your friend ?” The security guard lowered his club.

  “Yeah, he was. He was my best friend.”

  “I only worked with Martin for six months, but he was a nice guy. Had me and the wife over to meet his family last Sunday.”

  Gabe looked up, surprised by the sad tone in the security guards voice.

  “He got this job for the insurance. They were pregnant when he got it. They have a three-month-old now.”

  “This is crazy. I’m going to have to tell Jon’s wife…”

  “Well look, whatever is going on in the ER is spreading. We need to get out of here first before we can tell anyone anything.” He paused and then continued, “Follow me. We have a couple loading docks with lifts to take things directly down to the basement. We should be able to get out there. It will be noisy but we’ll be pretty far from the ER when we come out.”

  Gabe just nodded his head and the Security Guard took the lead.

  “Oh, sorry.” Gabe put an arm out and touched the security guards back.

  “Gabe.” Gabe said extending his hand.

  The security guard turned towards Gabe and took his extended hand, shaking it with a firm grip.

  “Chris McClung.” They nodded at each other and continued down the hall.

  Coming to a T intersection Gabe saw there were double doors to the right and more dim hallway to the left. He watched as Chris immediately turned left, but halfway down the hall, he suddenly put his fist in the air like Gabe had seen people do in war movies to signal a stop. There was an open door with light coming out of it ten feet in front of them.

  Chris pointed at the light and then put his finger to his lips to indicate they should be quiet. He held his club up as he peeked around the corner. His body visibly relaxed.

  “Hey Brad.” Chris said to whoever was in the room.

  “Oh!” Gabe heard the person in the room jump with fright. “Dang Chris, you scared the heck out of me!”

  “Shh.” Chris immediately cautioned. “Sorry, didn’t know anyone was down here this late.”

  “Just me and the dead people.” Brad answered.

  Gabe came around Chris so he could see Brad. It was a small, but nice office, with expensive furniture and duel computer monitors.

  “Dead people?” Gabe asked.

  “Yeah, our morgue is right back there.” Brad said pointing the way they had come.

  Gabe looked back to the double doors they had seen at the T intersection. He couldn’t be positive, but he thought he saw a shadow.

  “Who is this and what is going on, Chris?”

  “Oh, sorry.” Chris walked over and picked up Brad’s desk phone. “Brad, Gabe, Gabe, Brad. Brad is our Hospital Engineer.”

  Gabe nodded to Brad, but Brad still looked confused.

  “101 Booth Drive. I’m at Saint Booth Hospital. Yes Yes. Good. Yes, some sort of outbreak of violence at the hospital. People have been killed. You better send everyone you got. Okay.”

  Gabe realized that Chris had called 9-1-1. As he was listening he thought he heard something bang down the hall, but couldn’t see anything past the double doors.

  “Sorry, can’t. I’ve got to get out of here.” Chris hung up the phone. “They wanted me to hang on. The good news is they had other calls from here so they are on their way. The bad news is they mentioned they had the same kind of calls from other hospitals too.”

  “What’s going on?” Brad asked impatiently.

  “Some of the sick patients started attacking other patients. Anyone they attacked started doing the same.” Chris answered.

  “Dead patients.” Gabe added.

  “What?” Brad asked incredulously.

  “It was the patients that died. They started attacking… biting the other patients. And when they died they got up and did the same.”

  “Is this a joke?”

  “No.” Chris said solemnly. “They got Martin and Gabe’s friend, who was as big as a house.”

  Brad sat and stared at them for a few seconds and then there was a distant banging.

  “You guys heard it that time?” Gabe asked.

  The other two nodded their heads. They walked out into the hallway and looked back toward the double doors.

  “That’s really the morgue down there?” Gabe asked, afraid of the answer.

  “Yes.” Brad answered simply.

  They could here more banging.

  “Does that sound like someone trying to get out of a metal drawer to anyone else?” Gabe asked.

  “You guys, this isn’t funny anymore.”

  “Come on,” Chris said. “I promise we’re not kidding.” Chris pulled Brad in the direction they had been going before they stopped at his office.

  “Let me get my stuff.” Brad went into his office and opened a desk drawer and grabbed his keys and phone. He grabbed his computer mouse and started the process to shut down his computer when they heard a long grinding noise. Brad dropped the mouse and joined Chris and Gabe heading down the hall.

  “Is that Blood?” Brad asked, noticing red liquid on both Chris and Gabe.

  “Yes. Now let’s go.” Chris again took the lead with his club out. After just a few minutes of walking through hallways and taking various turns he pushed through two double doors and they entered a large room. Gabe looked up and immediately noticed it was two stories tall. There were large dock doors to unload trucks above them, with lifts at both doors. Both lifts were up on the second floor.

  “Dang it, they aren’t supposed to leave them like that.” Brad said. “That is a safety hazard.”

  “Morning crew will do that when there isn’t another delivery until the following morning to make it easier.” Chris added.

  Chris walked over and took a controller attached by a cable to the ceiling off the wall. He pushed a green button with an up arrow still barely visible after ye
ars of use and the lift on the right began to come down.

  After the quiet walk through the hall, the noise of the lift seemed earth-shatteringly loud. They looked at each other and laughed nervously.

  “Geez, it is taking forever.” Gabe said as he walked over where he could see through the windows in the double doors they had entered.

  There was a large hand cart stacked with unopened boxes. Gabe took it and rolled it in front of the doors. When he turned around both of the other guys were staring at him.

  “What? Just in case.”

  The lift finally reached the ground and with a gush of air and a beep it indicated it was down. All three men got on the lift and Chris hit the up button. It took a second to start, which was just long enough for them to get panicked looks on their faces when it finally jerked, lurched, and started moving up smoothly.

  “That would have been bad,” Chris said now that they were a few feet off the ground.

  “Right!” Gabe agreed, sharing a knowing glance.

  “I swear it is moving slower going up then it did coming down,” Brad joked nervously. The other two smiled and nodded, allowing his levity to relax the situation if only just a little. They had just reached the five-foot mark when a loud bang at the double doors scared them. Looking over they could see that the doors were bowed in towards them., The only thing stopping them had been the dolly of boxes Gabe had put there. Brad backed towards the back of the lift while Chris pulled out his billy club and stepped forward. Gabe stood where he was, transfixed.

  The door slammed in loudly and caused the men to jump again. The dolly and its boxes fell over this time. Suddenly a naked man burst through the doors. A large unhealed scar with stitches sticking out was visible on his chest and his body had a gray look to it. He stumbled on one of the boxes and went down. When he got back to his feet, he went sideways before correcting his course. He ran straight toward the lift. Chris braced himself. With a leap the dead man managed to get his arms onto the lift, but his momentum pulled him under it and he quickly disappeared. Gabe heard a thump quickly followed by moaning and groaning.

  “How… that’s not possible.” Brad was as far back as he could get without rubbing against the wall.

  Neither of the other men answered him.

  When they got to the top, the lift slowed down even more for the last few seconds and then finally let a beep out as it locked in place. Chris pushed another button on the control and the garage door slowly went up. When it was only up about three and a half feet he stopped it.

  Looking out they saw two cop cars going by on the road on the far side of the parking lot. They turned into the ER road and whizzed around the corner. After a few seconds of making sure they didn’t see anyone else they came out of the garage.

  “I’m parked right over here.” Chris said pointing to what was apparently a small employee parking lot next to the loading docks.

  “I’m on the other side of the building.” Brad said.

  “I’m over by the ER, think you could drop me off?”

  “Sure, get in.”

  All three men got into Chris’s Pick-up truck. It was hard to tell in the dim light but Brad thought it was green and was glad to see it had the extended cab so there was another row of seats. Brad got in the back seat since Gabe’s car was closer.

  As they came around the corner they saw that in addition to the two county sheriff cars they had seen go by, there were two city police cars already there. The two cops were behind one of their cars firing at the figures coming out of the door of the E.R. The other two cops were nowhere to be seen.

  Chris stopped at the corner. They knew it was going to end badly. The number of people coming out of the front of the hospital was just too many, and many of them were just shrugging off the gunshots. One of the officers reached the end of his clip and instead of reloading he holstered his gun and pulled the shotgun out of his car. The other officer was reloading and the first of the hospital victims jumped onto the hood of the cop’s car. The shotgun was definitely more effective. He shot the man on his hood and stopped him in his tracks. He didn’t get back up. He fired into the crowd. Many in the crowd went down and stayed down, which also caused those behind them to trip. But even with the shotgun there were just too many. One of the people from the hospital managed to go around both cars. The cop with the pistol saw him coming and put shot after shot into his chest but it didn’t even slow him down. He jumped on the cop and immediately bit him in the throat.

  The cop with the shotgun saw what happened, fired off two more rounds, and jumped into his car. Without closing his door he slammed it into reverse. The victims from the hospital were immediately in hot pursuit, chasing after him in their drunken and uncoordinated run. But even in reverse he was able to outpace them. When he reached the end of the building, he slammed on his breaks, which closed his door, did a U-turn, and continued right past Chris’s pick-up truck.

  Chris looked at the crowd of people running in their direction.

  “Uh… guys.”

  “Go, follow him!” Gabe called, not at all worried about retrieving his car at this moment.

  “Go, go!” Brad added.

  Chris gunned the pick-up truck and they spun out for a second before the tires gripped the pavement and took off in the same direction as the cop. They looked through the back window and while they were in no danger of being run down by the victims behind them, they weren’t showing any signs of slowing down.

  When Chris reached the intersection at the exit of the hospital the light was red. He could see the cops lights disappearing in the distance ahead. He looked around, seeing no traffic in the immediate vicinity he gunned through the light.

  As they drove away from the hospital they kept looking back through the rear window. Chris made a few turns that Gabe suspected weren’t one hundred percent necessary, but he was glad he did.

  “I’m going to my house.” Chris said to the unasked question.

  After that, no one knew what to say and they were silent the rest of the ride.

  Chapter 3

  "Come on in guys. You can meet my wife and we'll figure out how to get you home over some fresh coffee." As they got out of Chris’ SUV, they took a cautious look around before moving away from the vehicle.

  "Well, I don't think it could have spread here yet as fast as we were driving, even if it was air-born," Brad noted.

  All three tried to give each other reassuring smiles that mostly came out as grimaces.

  Opening a gate at the top of the driveway, they entered a stockade fence and a well-manicured backyard complete with a small, but attractive, swimming pool. Just a few steps from the gate Chris opened a glass door and entered into a kitchen as the gate swung closed behind them. Gabe and Brad followed Chris in, closing the glass door behind them.

  "Nice house," Gabe whispered. Even after everything they had been through, it seemed like the appropriate thing to say.

  "Thanks," Chris said, "But no need to whisper, my wife is a night owl."

  Chris left the kitchen through an open doorway opposite of the one they came in, calling out for his wife as he took a left, and disappeared down some stairs. Gabe and Brad stood awkwardly. Being strangers in yet another stranger’s house was strange enough, but neither of them had really been able to process what they had seen yet.

  Chris came up the stairs smiling sheepishly, "Well I guess she did go to bed. Not in the TV room. I'm going to go upstairs and check on her, but if you guys want to start the coffee or use the phone..."

  Chris stopped and looked at the phone. It was an old school corded phone that was common in kitchens before cordless and cell phones took over. The receiver was on the wall but the cord led down to a small table under the receiver. Chris reached down, picked up the phone, and hung it up.

  “Weird that the phone would be off the hook…” Suddenly the look of confusion on his face turned to one of immense worry. "Emmy!" Chris called out. He again, left the kitchen, heading up the st
airs right next to the ones he had gone down previously.

  Gabe walked over and picked up the phone Chris had just hung up. He looked at it a second and then hit redial.

  While he was doing that, Brad shuffled his feet. They both heard a loud crack of plastic breaking. Brad bent down and picked up a small bottle off the floor.

  Gabe's attention went back to the phone. "Her last call was 911... and they have a recording saying your call is important and they'll be right with you..." Gabe took the phone away from his ear and stared at it incredulously, “911 is putting people on hold?”

  "OH! This isn't good." Brad chimed in holding the bottle out towards Gabe as if he would be able to read it from the across the room. "These have Emmy's name on them, they are Glycerin pills... Heart pills. And apparently, they rolled under the kitchen table. What if she couldn't find them..."

  "And her heart starts to hurt so she calls 911..." Gabe finished.

  Suddenly both men are startled by a loud crashing noise in the house. After just a second of hesitation both run towards the sound. "Chris," Gabe called out as he ran up the stairs followed closely by Brad.

  At the top of the stairs Gabe could see into a bedroom across the hall where Chris was laying with his back on the bed and a woman on top of him violently struggling to reach him. Gabe could see vinyl records, both in and out of their sleeves, strewn across the floor and a large stereo, complete with a turntable, sitting in pieces off to one side. Gabe figured this explained the large crash they had heard. Chris was holding the lady by the upper arms, which allowed her to lean her head forward in an attempt to bite him. They could hear Chris pleading with the woman, who Gabe and Brad assumed to be, Chris' wife.

  "Honey, please, stop!" Chris was repeating over and over as he held his wife above him. Tears formed in his eyes as she managed to struggle closer and closer, "Please babe, I don't want to hurt you."

  Taking all of this in as he reached the top of the stairs, Gabe rushed over and jumped on top of her, grabbing a double handful of her hair, he yanked back hard and spun, pulling her off of Chris and sending her flying into the wall opposite the door. Chris' wife hit the wall hard, easily hard enough to knock someone of her build and size unconscious, but even as Gabe was watching, she began to get back up.