Chapter 5
The two of them started down the road towards the quarantine as the sun sank. This road was a little country road that led through the woods. In a normal world, it would be considered scenic, but this wasn’t a normal world. Dany slowed her carefree pace into a cautionary tread. Regan was right at her heels. Suddenly, she stopped, growling low down in her throat. In the time that Dany had spent with her, she’d never heard her growl like that, and it scared her. She drew out her machete. Movement caught her attention off to her right. She spun to face it, and Regan followed suit. There was a zombie coming towards them. As she had a new vantage point, she caught more movement. She couldn’t even express her horror at what she saw. There were zombies coming at her from every angle it seemed. She counted seven before she had to focus on the one closest to her. Regan readied herself to pounce. Dany took the first one that came within arm’s reach, and Regan leapt at the second one. Dany lost herself in her own battle, fending off one at a time for what seemed like hours.
Dany went down. There were too many of them. She wasn’t afraid of infection anymore, but she still didn’t want chunks of her flesh gone. The pile of bodies was growing, and it was hindering her fighting ability. She stepped back to a new area to start fighting. She heard a yelp and spun around to see Regan surrounded by three zombies. She had to protect her. Dany swung her machete one last time and took the head off of the zombie nearest her. She ran to Regan’s side, hurriedly dispatching two of the zombies. Before she could get to the third, however, it ripped open Regan’s stomach with the bony fingers it had left.
“NO!” Dany went into a frenzy. Chopping at the zombie that had hurt her friend. Tears slid out of her eyes as she knelt down in the bloody grass. “Oh, Regan. I’m so sorry girl. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there to protect you.” Dany held her head in her lap. Regan looked back at her and whimpered. She licked Dany’s hand, letting her know that it was ok. That she did everything she could, and she wouldn’t trade it for anything. Dany hugged Regan close. She almost didn’t notice the zombies closing in on her as she watched the light go out in her friend’s eyes. She laid her friend back down in the grass, gently. She was wiping the tears from her eyes when a zombie came up behind her and scratched her shoulder, trying to get to her face. Dany spun around and pushed the disgusting thing off of her. She grabbed her machete and started hacking away at anything that came close to her. She had to move again since she built up a pile of bodies. She caught her breath for a second, there were too many. They kept coming out of the woodwork all around her and she was starting to get tired. She didn’t fancy being ripped apart while she was still alive, so she kept going. Her blows were getting lighter, and her swings were getting weaker. She hadn’t eaten that morning, and she hadn’t eaten the night before. Her vision was tunneling, and she knew she couldn’t do this for much longer. Her only comfort was that she would die here next to her friend. Even so, she continued to fight until the blackness swallowed her.
***
Dany woke with a bright light in her face. Her eyes were gummed shut and her mouth was parched. She definitely wasn’t in the woods anymore. She looked up, right into a heat lamp. Shutting her eyes she looked back down at the floor. It was dirt, and she was about a foot and a half above it. Taking stock of her various aches and pains, she was able to feel that she was on a wooden bench. Once her eyes got adjusted to the light, she surveyed where she was. It really was rather odd. She was in a wooden box. One of the walls had a small window at the top, so she guessed it was a door. She tried to stand up, but her knees wobbled. Leaning on the wall, she made her way to the door that was opposite her. She banged on it with all the strength she had, which, at this point there really wasn’t much. The window slid open and a man looked in on her. At least, she thought it was a man.
“Hey. What’s going on here? Let me out.” The man looked a little surprised to hear her talk.
“It’s been hours, why haven’t you turned?” Oh here we go, she thought. This was going to be a pain to explain.
“I’m immune for some reason. This isn’t the first time I’ve gotten bit or scratched.” The man looked at her like she was crazy. Maybe drunk, but there wasn’t enough alcohol around in this world to get her drunk. “Please let me out. I’m thirsty and I need to use the bathroom.” The man was hesitant, but finally he slid the window closed and Dany could hear the key in the lock. The door opened, and she stepped out of the room, to see a half circle of people in body armor and weapons pointed at her. She put her hands up quickly, signaling to them that she was unarmed and not a threat.
“How is it that you’re immune? That’s a little hard to believe. There’s no such thing as good news nowadays, and the hope for a cure is good news. The doctors need to talk to you.”
“I have no problem talking to them, but can I please get something to eat and drink first? I haven’t eaten in a few days and that fight took a lot out of me.” The memory of Regan’s torn body came back unbidden, and the tears were flowing down her cheeks.
“Are you alright?” The man hadn’t moved any closer to her, but he did lower his weapon.
“That dog I was with, she was a really good friend of mine, and one of those monsters tore her apart like she was nothing.” Sympathy showed on the man’s face and he stepped forward finally to offer her a tissue for her tears. She nodded her thanks and wiped her face.
“Come on, let’s get you cleaned up before we go see the doctors.”
“Where am I?” She followed the man and was dimly aware of a pair of guns pointed at her back while she walked.
“You are in the New Jersey quarantine. Once the outbreak happened again, all the military around here ushered as many people as we could fit here into this quarantine and we’ve tried our best to keep on living as best we can.”
“Wow. So I did make it. I’m a little surprised.” The man looked at her quizzically. “I’m from Missouri, and I’ve been trying to get here, thinking that there might be some survivors that I could meet up with and start a new life.”
“You came all the way from Missouri? By yourself? Wow, that’s not easy to do for a grown man, and you’re just a young girl…no offense.” She glared at him anyway. So what if she was a girl?
“I had Regan, but what’s left of her is outside your front gate.”
“You didn’t have a family or anything to go with you?” The man was incredulous.
“No. My parents got infected trying to protect my little brother and me. They left before the change came over them so they wouldn’t be anywhere near us.” The man’s face contorted with sorrow. He must be remembering his own parents. He cleared his throat before he spoke.
“You said you had a little brother? What happened to him?” They had stopped walking and were in front of a low building made of brick.
“He got scratched. He drank a bottle of Draino rather than let himself change. I have no idea if he would have been immune or not. He killed himself rather than turn into something like that.” Dany’s voice went soft. “I got scratched too, and I was going to do what he did, but I was too weak. I was a coward. I couldn’t drink the Draino, so I waited for the change to come over me, and days went by with no difference. That’s when I thought I might be immune. I’ve been bitten and scratched a few times in fights since then, but as you can see, I’m still me.” The man was silent as he took in the story.
“I’m going to let the doctors know about you and how you’re immune, but if you go to the end of this building, there is a room where a lady will give you a towel and show you to a shower. It’ll be hot, but you won’t be able to stay in it too long. I’ll come back and get you when they’re ready for you.” Dany must have nodded because he walked away. She opened the door in front of her and followed the man’s instructions. Once she was in the shower, she let her tears flow. She cried fo
r her parents, her brother, Regan, even Marigold. She cried until the hot water ran out and she had to get out. Once she stepped out, she found her old clothes replaced by a new pair of jeans in her size and a long sleeved t-shirt. She saw a new pair of panties and a bra in her size as well. She dressed herself as quickly as she could then went back the way she’d come and sat on the front steps of the building until the man that had acted as her guide came back to get her.
“So, what did the doctors say?”
“I’m to show you to the hospital and they would like to draw some blood from you so that they can analyze and test it. They want to try to make a cure.”
“Yeah, sure. I have no problem giving up some blood. Maybe one day all of this will end.” She got to her feet and followed the man across the courtyard. She saw all kinds of people doing various things. Children were playing, women were doing laundry and hanging the clothes up to dry, and men were patrolling the walls with weapons. Her guide brought her to a white stucco building that looked too clean to exist in the world they were living in right now. He typed a pin number into the keypad near the door. “Wait, how do patients come in here if they don’t have a code?”
“One of us escorts them, so it’s not a problem. It’s a little confusing in those hallways anyway, so it’s better to have one of us around.” That made sense to her a few minutes later when he led her to a laboratory, but she couldn’t remember how they’d gotten to it for the life of her. “Go ahead and knock, they’re expecting you. I’m going to leave you here.” He walked away. Dany steeled herself and knocked. The door opened and she was bid to enter.
“Hello, there. You must be Dany, right? Would it be alright if we took some of your blood to run tests on?”
“Sure. Whatever I can do to help.” He bid her to lay down on a table. Before she knew it she was strapped down with no way to escape.
“Hey! What’s going on here?”
“Science is going on here. We’re going to drain your blood for research.”
“What? No, you can’t drain it. I said a little is fine.”
“Asking you permission was just a formality.” The doctor expertly put an IV into her arm, and Dany watched as bag after bag was filled with her blood. She saw a black edge appear around her vision, and slowly grow until she was lost to oblivion.
If you’ve enjoyed reading about Dany and Regan, continue reading for the first chapter of the feature length novel where it all began, Hurricane Dan by Bret Wellman.
Author’s note:
If you’ve enjoyed this book, please consider leaving a review at the major sites such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. It’s the best gift you can give an author. I adore hearing from readers and it’s a great way for other readers to discover new books!
Click here to see Hurricane Dan on amazon.
Hurricane Dan
By Bret Wellman