"You freaking idiot! I'm trying to tell you to get your freaking act together so that you can help! We're in the middle of a city-wide crisis, maybe even a nation or worldwide crisis I'm not sure. But people like me or my children who get hurt and can't take care of themselves need doctors or the best they can get. You ought to be ashamed of yourself for being so freaking stupid. Not to mention selfish!" I cried. He shrugged as if my words didn't affect him at all. I let out another screeched and started swing at him. Unfortunately, in my outrage, I had forgotten about the stabbing which was nowhere ready to take my full weight just yet. As soon as I took a step towards his retreating form, my leg gave out and I fell to the floor with a hard thud. I took deep breaths feeling nausea in my throat threatening to overwhelm me along with the darkness tinging the outline of my sight. "Are you alright?" Craig asked as he stepped up. I growled angrily at him. "What do you care? You're just
I glared at him and folded my arms over my chest. "I'll have you know that I went to all of my children's doctor appointments!""Oh, so you just turned away?" I growled at him, but my growl turned into a loud squeak when he stuck the needle into my leg before I realized what was going on. The minute he pressed down on the plunger the agony in my leg immediately lifted. He had given me a shot of pain medication. I wanted to jump up, dance the jig and sing hallelujah all at the same time. "Feel better?" he asked as he pulled the needle out.I nodded and took my first pain-free breath gratefully."Good, because now comes the hard part."He reached over and picked up the small half-moon shaped piece of wire with a thread hanging off it and came towards me again. My stomach immediately rebelled at the sight of the terrifyingly small thing that would be going into my leg. "I promise. You won't feel a thing. Just, don't throw up on me, k?" he begged with obvious disgust. My jaw dropped at
I stared at him a moment or two before finally joining in on his laughter. Benjamin apparently had caught sight of Craig stitching me up and had found that worse than the blood earlier. I caught my breath as best I could and explained to Julia what had happened which prompted a loud belly laugh from the other end of the phone. I told her I would call her back as soon as we got situated. Craig dragged him into the room before quickly finishing suturing my leg closed and wrapped it up. He reached into a drawer and pulled out a thing of smelling salts then promptly woke Benjamin up from his little nap.Benjamin jerked up and yelled, "don't call me Benny!""Well, if I hadn't you might have been mistaken for a zombie!" I shouted back but could not hold the angry look at his owlishly big blinking eyes. "What?!" he shouted jumping up. He looked around as if his body were placed elsewhere and he might truly be a zombie in disguise. "When you were at the door, your face was as pale as a gho
The hallways almost seemed to go on forever as we gradually made our way back to the front of the building intending on taking the elevator up to the second floor where the nursery was. Craig led the way and was followed by an over-exaggerating teenage boy as he kept his crossbow swinging around to every conceivable attack point. As Craig entered the final hallway, he stopped dead in his tracks almost causing Benjamin to run into him. But as soon as Benjamin saw what had stopped Craig his crossbow snapped up and was pointed straight ahead. I slowly made my way to them and stopped short as I found the object of their attention. A zombie was banging into the door repeatedly. If I had to give it an emotion, I would have said it was confusion. The door wasn't budging no matter how hard he slammed against it, and I could see how much that was frustrating it. I stepped closer trying to figure out what was going on. I wondered, curious what was stopping it from getting through such a door.
Craig and I stood almost motionless staring at them. I wasn't sure which fact was more inconceivable: that the creature was dead or that Benjamin was the one who made it that way. "Holy shit," Craig breathed out suddenly breaking the silence. As if that was some cue to the babies, they all began crying at once. "Check on the babies," I told him as I struggled to kneel next to Benjamin. Craig grabbed my arm and stopped me. "You check on the babies, I'll get him." I didn't argue with him, just hurried quickly over to the maternity ward. The fact that they had left so many helpless, defenseless babies behind dumbfounded me. Two of them were still in incubators with feeding tubes and respirators. Tears gathered in my eyes at the thought that these people had been so heartless as to leave these babies, nor had a mother or other family members come to get them. To be honest, I wondered if there was anyone left to come and claim them. I knew deep inside that the creature that Benjamin
"Are you okay?" I asked him concerned since he still looked pale. "Yes. Just embarrassed over my actions," he said looking mortified."Over what? Saving our lives, or passing out?" I asked him slightly confused."Over passing out," he admitted, then his green eyes suddenly hardened once again. "I refuse to regret my actions otherwise."My mouth dropped at the transformation that occurred right before my eyes once again. "What happened, Benjamin?" the question spilled from my lips before I could halt it. I could tell by the look he gave me that the question took him by surprise. "What do you mean?" he asked with an obvious forced nonchalant tone. His eyes shutter as he looked away trying to busy himself with a tray sitting next to him that suddenly needed to be rearranged. "I think you know what I mean," I said gently, then reached over and grasped his arm forcing him to face me. There was an intense sadness in his face, his eyes filled with the horror and regret I would hav
A good portion of the day had gone to taking care of the infants and helping Craig clean up the hallway before Benjamin came back. I was never happier for Craig's assistance as I was when he went into a janitor's closet and cleaned up the evidence of the woman's demise. Once that was all done, I watched with mounting apprehension for some sign of Benjamin's return and the longer he was gone, the harder my gut twisted with worry for him. I was so relieved when Benjamin finally made an appearance I wanted to jump with joy. He was even carrying an armload of food that he'd brought from the cafeteria after he had cleared the way there. I nodded my thanks for the food and tried hard not to bombard him with the questions that were still sitting on the tip of my tongue. With the babies were all still sleeping, I had managed another phone call to Julia who gave me the good news that she had finally talked the people into heading to the hospital. The turning point had been when she had explai
"Holy shit," Craig breathed again. This time I didn't call him on it because it echoed my thoughts exactly. Holy shit. "Now what?" Benjamin asked. We watched as the people held up rifles and headed towards the front door. "Block the entrance and hope to hell that they don't need anything from the maternity ward," I said hurrying and turning out some of the lights in the rooms. The only ones I left on were the ones above the baby's cribs since one of them had jaundice and needed U.V. treatments desperately. I pulled that bed off to the side hoping that the door would block most of the light. Craig and Benjamin blocked the doorways with beds from the rooms then raced back over and we all hid behind one wall in the nursery. We were all deathly quiet hoping that the babies didn't wake up, or that they didn't try to push themselves in through the door. My heart was thundering so loud that I wasn't sure if I could hear anything anyway. When gunshots rang out through the air, we a