Twenty-Two 

Across town, Moria had also called Chloe, who received the terrifying message about the newly discovered “Med Zed’s”. 

The group at the apartment building had fallen into a nice, peaceful pattern, once the storm hit. They had cleared out three total apartments, and had stashed supplies in each apartment in case one was over taken. The building was secure, the moronic zombies below mostly unable to navigate the stairs en masse, much less tear down barricades all the way up on the high rise floor they were on. 

Chev’s leg was healing well, with the efforts of Chloe, coached by Moria via phone, assisted by Charlie and Damon. Charlie and Damon, with some help from Chloe and even Chev, had cleared two extra apartments, so Chev and Charlie set up in the one next door, leaving Damon at Chloe’s, so there would be at least one able bodied and definitely immune person per apartment. 

The third apartment had been reserved for other survivors, mostly earmarked for Moria, and they had a fourth apartment to go through and then set up, which would be all the generator would be able to handle if the power went out, and even that wouldn’t last long. 

The group had agreed to not use much power, and much of their scavenging had been for alternative lights sources, not just fire wood for the fireplaces, but candles, batteries, lights, anything that could be worked without power, and, each apartment was well stocked with enough to be able to make due without using the power for much, which would help. 

The group of four, even if they got a few more mouths, would be pretty well set through the first month or so of snow, if everything went to shit from this snow storm, and stayed that way since there could be no one working on restoring services. 

Everything had been fairly peaceful, minus the brief bit of action with some zombies here and there, until Moria called. 

—

At the Hospital, Moria’s blood was pumping, her heart racing. The med zeds had considered searching the hospital for survivors… one of them had taunted Georgie and Lissa about it. 

Thankfully, the zombies from the morgue, the ones Sam was calling Med Zeds, were leaving the hospital. Moria watched from her small window, watching a large group of them run, leap, while screaming and laughing, dancing over the snow, making their way across the plaza and then out of the medical area, past the research and development area, and out into the city proper.

Moria watched, noticing some Med Zeds didn’t follow the group, but more terrifyingly, went off alone, or in a small group, plotting and planning, heading towards other parts of town. 

Moria tried to remember how many Med Zeds would be in there, based on how many bodies had been in the morgue as her mind spun, trying to figure out what, and how, zombies could be created like that. 

Moria knew she needed to call back down to Georgie and Lissa who were justifiably terrified and wanted to get out of the morgue, just in case they came back, and up to the 6th floor, where Moria was. 

Moria also knew it would be best if the three of them got together they could better lock things down, and there was safety in numbers…Moria no longer could trust the safety of the door being barricaded, not with those Med Zeds on the loose. 

Down below, floors down, George and Lissa were very quiet, still, and unsure. 

Lissa had put some coffee on, and the two managed to sip it, Lissa lit a cigarette. George, who really didn’t smoke, took one as well. 

“How did you keep them away?” George finally asked. 

Neither of them had really spoken, not since Lissa had stared down the Med Zed leader, and got them to leave them, and the hospital, alone. 

Sure, she had turned them loose on the city, but they were going to be doing that regardless. Lissa had stared them down, and they didn’t break the barricade down. They left the hospital, and George and Lissa were able to tell Moria all about it, and had even recorded some bits of it, before Lissa made George turn the camera off. 

“Does it really matter?” Lissa said blowing out the smoke. “Don’t turn that on.” Lissa warned when George fiddled with the camera. 

“Okay, I won’t turn the camera on. But can you tell me what happened?” George said. 

“Well, from what I can tell, it looks like the zombies kept in the deep storage are somehow a bit smarter and craftier than the regular ones. They broke out of the drawers, out of the walk in, and, thankfully, they didn’t attack us.”

George cocked his head. “Lissa. They were going to eat us, and you straight up told them no. And, get this…it worked.”

“I didn’t tell them know. I told them they weren’t getting in. I threatened them. I bluffed. It’s fine.” Lissa dismissed him, inhaling on her cigarette, her nerves still raw. Lissa wasn’t sure she could explain what had happened, but for the first time in her adult life, Lissa wanted to talk to her father. 

George shook his head and picked up his camera. “Okay well I’m turning this on then, if you aren’t going to be honest any day way.” George said, snippier then he normally was, which caught Lissa, who had been lost in her thoughts, off guard, and yanked her from her swirling thoughts. 

“Look, I’m sorry. I don’t fully understand it, myself…I just…I don’t know.” Lissa said. “I don’t think any of them stayed behind…and if it’s just one or two, we can probably take them. We need to get to Moria, we need to figure this shit out, we have to get safe.”

“You think they may come back for us?”

“They know where we are, it isn’t smart to stay. It wasn’t smart before when we thought they were just zombies, but now that we know they are much worse than that…We have to go. Moria’s office is a good first step, but we should probably think about going somewhere else, once we know what the Med Zeds do.”

“Yeah. We will need to pack anything from down here that we need…and there are so many useful things we need to bring things we will need for survival…” George pulled out his phone, texting Moria, and continued her thoughts, while smoking the rest of her cigarette. 

These Med Zeds would be a problem. A big problem. 

Lissa had already downloaded and saved all the medical files they had managed to load before everything went to hell, as well as the files Moria had been compiling. In addition to this, Lissa had found several physical files, and could see several more outside in the main morgue area, so she knew she would need to grab those, as well, if possible. 

“We take any medical records, any thing with this disease. We take medicines, whatever Moria says we need.” Lissa said out loud. 

“Yeah, I already texted her to see what we should bring.” George said, appraising some bags they had, to see which ones would be best for carrying their supplies. 

“If we take the elevator, we can bring more supplies.” Lissa said, also fearing the stair wells being crowded with people who would have turned into zombies. 

“Elevators could also have zombies in them, already.” George said. “It’s a major zombie rule.”

“Yeah, but we need to carry enough supplies and research to help solve the zombie crisis, and heal any living people out there, of any of the sicknesses humans can get.” 

George thought about this. “I suppose we can check the elevator, kill anything in there, hold the elevator, load it up, and take it all the way to Moria. 

“And Moria said she had been having trouble getting the elevator to lock down, so we can take it, and help her barricade it.” Lissa finished. 

George continued texting Moria while Lissa went through the supplies they already had in the office, wondering how many zombies they would have to deal with. The Med Zeds had said they were going to open every door, which would mean lots of zombies, as the hospital staff had taken to closing doors to prevent reanimated zombies from getting out, after learning the regular zombies didn’t have much brain power.

Simpler times, when they only had dumb zombies to deal with. The scary part would be the hallway to the elevator that led to Moria’s office. The elevator in the morgue only went to Hospital floors, and the offices weren’t serviced by it. 

Lissa wished they had a gun, instead of the ax and bat they had instead, but knew it would have to work. Lissa was very pleased with how many supplies they had scavenged, food, scrubs, some medical supplies, and even a good deal of medical files. 

“We need backpacks.” Lissa chuckled.

“We should go raid the lockers then. If we have to go out there anyways, we should do it properly.” George said, ripping up some of the scrubs they had found. “We pad our limbs, make it harder to get bites, plus our gloves and masks. We get to the locker area. Barricade that door, break open lockers, find some backpacks, and anything else, maybe someone carries a gun, and we come back here, load up our stuff, get down the hallway to the elevator.

Lissa nodded, thinking about this. The lockers would likely yield a couple packs and some supplies, so it was a good move. They could then carry everything easier, instead of trying to get all the way down the hallway, killing everything, and then carrying all the supplies, they could just fight or sneak their way past, get on the elevator, and get upstairs. 

With George’s help, Lissa got herself prepared for the trip, ignoring her nerves as best she can. George had ripped up scrubs, and after finding some duct tape and magazines, had started taping together a form of armor for them both. 

“The magazines, the covers are thicker, and glossy, hard for us to bite through, right?” George said. “They should still have human teeth, so, as long as they can’t bite through our armor, we have the time we need to get them off of us and get to the elevator.”

Lissa was impressed, and helped wrap George’s elbows with the extra scrub material they were using for around their joints, so they could still have range of motion, but keep themselves protected from bites. George and Lissa each had masks, goggles, and gloves, with Lissa packing a small fanny pack she had found with a few basic essentials and more gloves and masks, and two more pairs of goggles, just in case they got stuck or the supplies that were keeping them safe got damaged. George took the ax, and Lissa the bat. Lissa looked at George, and back at herself, before breaking into a laugh. “What was it that Moria called it? Modified PPE, right?”

George laughed and handed Lissa a face mask for her mouth, to avoid blood or bodily fluid droplets. 

With a deep breath, the two knew they were ready. 

Moria had given them a long list of medicines that would be great to grab, telling them to grab whatever they could find but hi lighting some priorities, so both of them had written that list on the magazine covers they wore on their forearms, so they could grab them if they saw them. 

George and Lissa carefully moved their barricade, and left their room, shutting the door behind them, and quickly made their way down the personnel hallway to the locker room. Mercifully, they only had to deal with two zombies, dispensing of them in quick fashion, before arriving to the locker room. 

The locker room was just off the shower area, with it’s doors closed. Once George and Lissa were in, Lissa closed the locker room door as well, in case any zombies wondered near by, the door could provide a barrier and a warning. 

Quietly, the two looked around, hoping to find the bags they needed without having to break open lockers. 

Sadly, not many people had made it down to their changing area locker room to grab their bags, but this also meant that while they would have to break open locker doors, they would likely find bags still intact. 

“Who was on staff, who died?” Lissa asked. “Those are the lockers we should check, they won’t miss their stuff and we have a better chance of finding a bag.” 

“Frank.” George said grimly. 

“I doubt he had a backpack.” Lissa said. “Or a locker. Didn’t he have an office?”

“Yeah. I think so.” George shrugged. “Collin?”

“Yeah. I think I’ve seen him with a bag. Roger- or is it Patrick? That new guy? He carries one.” Lissa added. George searched for the lockers of coworkers, while Lissa looked through the lockers she found open. Lissa had a locker several floors up, and inside was her purse and a book she hated, so she instead wanted to find anything of use down here. 

Lissa found a paperback novel, one that actually looked pretty good, and set it on the bench for later, and in another locker, found a couple bottles of water. 

George located Roger/Patrick’s locker, and with a swing, broke open the lock. From inside the shower room, a growl could be heard. 

George mouthed the word sorry as he carefully opened the locker, while Lissa held the door closed. 

“You were right. Bag in here. Some snacks too.” George whispered, quickly grabbing whatever would be useful, and then searching for another locker. He found Collin’s, which was empty, the loud bang from his ax bring more attention to them than they were prepared for. 

“Fuck.” Lissa said. The zombie in the shower room had been joined by another and together they were pounding on the door. Outside, in the hallway, at least one zombie was at the door. 

“I think if they groan long enough, others may come too, we need to hurry.” Lissa urged. 

George remembered seeing another doctor with a backpack, and quickly got that locker open. George was rewarded with a large black backpack. George grabbed the items Lissa had found and placed on the bench into this bag and handed it to her, while replacing her at the door she was holding. Lissa slid the bag on, tightening the straps, and pushed the bench in front of the door. 

“Anything else in here we want?” Asked Lissa.

“We shouldn’t risk it, we should go.” George said. “Hold the door, I can grab that zombie in the hall way.”

“Be careful.” Lissa said, taking her place back at the door, while at least two zombies pounded on the thick wood. 

George opened the door carefully and quickly dispensed of the first zombie outside, but had to leap backwards when the second fell into the door frame. 

“Bleggh!” George jumped backwards and regained his composure, correcting his grip on the ax before bringing the blade into the zombie’s skull. 

George worked to free the ax from the skull of the zombie, having gotten it stuck. “We have to go!” He told himself silently, before finally getting the ax free. 

“Okay, ready?” Asked Lissa.

“Yeah. Quick. That bench will hold for a second, we can get some space.” George said, holding the door. Lissa quickly entered the hallway, and then ducked, a zombie arm swinging at her face. 

Lissa jumped up and swung her baseball bat with all she had, knocking the zombie across the hallway, were it crumpled.

“They are active as hell we need to move!” Lissa urged George, who was impressed with Lissa’s skills. 

The two quickly made their way back to the morgue office, where Lissa told George to watch her back while she grabbed up all the medical files she could find that pertained to the infection. 

Lissa carried all of this into the office and the two rebuilt the barricade on the door. 

“Okay. Mission accomplished.” George said with a smile. “Now let’s get ready for the hard part.” 

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed!

Feel free to use these links to catch up on the prequel short story, the letter from the narrator, and the past chapters!

“#DontforgetFlakeCity” Short Story, Letter from the narrator, Roxy, Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three, Chapter Four, Chapter Five, Chapter Six, Chapter Seven, Chapter Eight, Chapter Nine, Chapter Ten, Chapter Eleven, Chapter Twelve, Chapter Thirteen, Chapter Fourteen, Chapter Fifteen, Chapter Sixteen, Chapter Seventeen, Chapter Eighteen, Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty, Chapter Twenty- One