Here is the sequel to the first story I wrote, I hope you all enjoy it.
A Doctor’s Survival (Part 2)
June 29, 2016 Saturday
I tried my best not to breathe too loud; I had learned how good their hearing was the hard way. I heard their low eerie groaning as they walked around the little shop outside the room. All that separated me from the mindless creatures was a wooden door that had a broken lock.
I hid under the desk in the little office, thinking of how I was going to get out of the bicycle shop that I had run into to obtain a bicycle so that I could out of the city before sundown. A few of the zombies outside heard the noise I was making trying to get a bicycle off of the rack and began coming towards me. It wasn’t until they were at the entrance that I realized they were even here. I quickly ran into the back, but couldn’t find a backdoor, only the office I now hid in.
I looked out the window behind the desk. If there weren’t bars on the window I could probably escape from there. I let out a quiet sigh as I sat there curled up under the desk, unable to do anything but wait for some miracle to happen. Outside I occasionally heard screams and distant explosions. Dark smoke was beginning to blanket the sky from the hundreds of fires that were burning all around the city.
I slowly got out from under the desk and stood up to try and get a better look outside the window. A few zombies walked around outside in the street and then I noticed the lock on the bars. I became excited at the prospect of getting out of this cramped little room; I just had to find the key to the lock. I started searching the drawers of the desk behind me, trying my best to keep quiet. I finally found the keys in the second drawer beneath a bunch of papers and then attempted to open the window. It squeaked and groaned as I raised it higher and higher. On the other side of the door I heard the zombies moaning get louder; they knew that there was someone alive among them. I frantically opened the lock and pushed the metal bar covering away, just as the zombies started breaking down the door.
I climbed out of through the window and fell into the alley. I looked up to see a bicycle leaning against the building, right under the window I had just climbed out of. I grabbed it and rode out of the alley and onto the sidewalk. I rode as fast as I could and didn’t bother looking back to see if anything was following me. My sole focus was on what lay ahead of me for I did not want to crash into a zombie. As I rode through the mostly deserted city, I thought about what I would do once I got out. Where would I go? Where would I live? I only had enough canned food for a couple of days.
The sun was beginning to set, I had at most half an hour before it became dark, and I was still at least 10 miles from the country-side. I rode faster, determined to get out of the city before dark for the sun was my only source of light. My legs began to burn from the intense peddling. The sun was already three-quarters hidden by the skyscrapers off in the distance. I wouldn’t make it out of here before dark, I had to find some place to hide, and fast.
A few blocks away I found an apartment complex. I raced over to it, walked through its broken glass doors, and cautiously walked into the lobby. I leaned my bike up against the wall, deciding it would be okay to leave it down here. With my pen knife at the ready, I slowly walked up the stairs to the second floor and set out on finding an unlocked apartment. It was difficult to find the doors for the only light I had was the little amount that streamed in from the window at the end of the hall.
I finally found an unlocked door, and gripped my knife even tighter as I opened the door and quietly walked in. The window illuminated the messed up living room. Whoever lived here had sure left in a hurry. The sofa was overturned and there was trash and paper on the floor. The apartment had two other rooms, a bathroom, and a bedroom, both were thankfully completely empty. I went back to the front door and closed it and locked it. I then turned the sofa right side up and checked out the kitchen.
The cabinets were wide open and devoid of any non-perishable food. Something I did find in the cabinet under the sink was a flashlight and an extra pack of batteries. Thankfully the water was still on so I was able to refill my canteen.
I suddenly realized how hungry I was. The events that had transpired today had left me starving. I was able to make a sandwich with the still slightly cool food in the refrigerator. This would be the last sandwich I would have in a long time. I sat down on the sofa and just stared at the white wall, chewing on the sandwich.
My mind was still reeling with all that had happened that day. The screams of dying people and the moans of the walking dead echoed in my head, sending shivers down my spine and making me tear up a bit. I thought about my future. Would the government come and fix everything? Where was the army anyway? Was I the only uninfected person left on the planet? I shivered again at the thought of being the last person on the planet.
Once I finished the sandwich I lied down on the couch and tried to get some sleep. Half an hour later my eyes were still open, still staring at the wall. I was too scared to fall asleep, even though I was physically exhausted from all the bicycling and running.
June 30, 2016 Sunday
Eventually sleep did come to me, and the next day I was woken up by the rays of sunshine that poured in through the window and hit my face. I slowly got up, still half asleep and looked around the room. All was clear, no zombies. I went over to the window and looked out onto the street. The mindless creatures walked about the street aimlessly. I wondered if they ever slept.
My curiosity of their life style didn’t last long; I still had to get out of the city and the sooner the better. After having a light breakfast, I carefully walked back down to the lobby, being careful to not get surprised by any zombies that had the entered the building during the night. The coast was clear, but the roads outside was still packed with zombies. Going out through the front door would be suicide; I had to find another way out. I looked at a map of the building on the wall of the lobby and found that there was a back door on the other side of the building. I turned on my newly acquired flashlight and headed towards the back of the building. Eventually I found an exit and something on the floor that made me smile. It was a small, one-handed axe that someone had left. I had never been so happy to see an axe. My happiness didn’t last for long; I remembered that I was still by myself in an abandoned building in a city teaming with mindless, hungry creatures.
I quietly cracked open the exit door and peeked outside with my axe ready to swing. There was no movement in the alleyway so I opened the door wider, walked outside, and did a 360. I then strapped the axe to my back with some rope, got on my bike, and rode through the alley. I figured that it would be safer to ride through the alleys instead of out in the open in the streets.
After a few minutes of riding, I saw that the alley was emptying into the street up ahead. On the other side of the street the alley continued on. I didn’t see any zombies in my path so I sped up and kept riding. I was 20 feet from the street when something darted across my path. A zombie soon followed. I tried to stop, but I was too late and I crashed into the disgusting creature which let out a loud groan as I hit it. I flipped off my bike and landed on the hard cement, scraping my arms, legs, and head. I rolled across the road a bit before finally coming to a rest on my back, which was also in severe pain.
I groaned a little as I opened my eyes and tried to move my body. A man about my age then appeared over me and started to frantically pull me to my feet.
“Get up! We have to go, get up!” he shouted.
Still half-unconscious, I stood up and put an arm around the mysterious man who led me to the alley. As I was walking I got glimpses of my environment. I saw my bike a few feet away. Its front wheel was bent and the seat was missing. The zombie I had crashed into lay a few feet from the bike, completely motionless. The crash had really mutilated it. Multiple bones were sticking out from its dead, grey skin and its neck was unusually bent. I wasn’t safe yet though. Down the street at least a dozen zombies were walking towards us.
We hurried into the alley and I lost sight of the horde of zombies that were coming for us. He led me down the alley for a few minutes before opening a door from one of the buildings. We walked in and were engulfed in darkness. He turned on a flashlight and led me down a hall before opening up another door and walking me in. The few rays of sunlight that streamed in through the blinds on the walls illuminated a bunch of couches and tables.
“Lay down.” He whispered.
He said other things, but I didn’t hear him for when I felt the couch under me, my eyes became even heavier and everything around me became black.
I opened my eyes and stared at the exquisite chandelier above me.
“Hey, how u doing?” I heard a familiar voice say.
“I’m alright.” I said.
I tried to get up, but pain stopped me and I lied back down.
“Take it easy, you took quite a nasty fall back there.” The man said.
“What happened? Where am I?” I whispered.
“Well, you’re in a meeting room in The Luxury Hotel. I have been staying here ever since this whole thing started happening. Don’t worry though I’m pretty sure this entire place is empty. I work here, well, I used to work here. I was on the job Friday afternoon when the media began reporting all the violent crimes that were taking place throughout the city. People began checking out by the dozens and then when the power went off they didn’t bother checking out, they just left and tried to make it back home. The staff left soon after, and I headed back to my apartment, but as I was getting close I discovered that it had caught on fire. I had nowhere else to go so I went back to the hotel and locked myself in this meeting room. You’re the only live person that I have seen ever since.”
“What about your family?”
“Don’t have any, I was an only child and my parents died a couple years ago in a car crash.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, me too. Anyway, my name is Andrew, but you can call me Drew.”
“I’m Drake.”
“It’s really nice to meet you Drake. I was beginning to think that I was the only person left on the planet.”
“Yeah, I know the feeling.”
I tried to get into a sitting position and the pain hit me again. Eventually I was able to and I tried to find the sources of the pain. My arms and legs were bandaged and it felt like something was on my back.
“I tried to fix you up as best as I could. You had a bunch of scratches and cuts on your arms and legs and a big bump on your head. Also the blade of that axe you were carrying on your back seemed to have dug itself into you when you were rolling and it gave you a small gash.”
“Thanks for helping me, you could have just left me there.”
“Well it’s the least I could do seeing as I’m kind of the one that caused your accident. I had been in a gun store looking for a weapon when one of those things spotted me. I walked out of the store and started shooting at it, but it just wouldn’t die. In fact, it seemed to come more alive. Instead of just walking towards me it started to sprint after me. I gave up and started running back to the hotel and so did the creature. Then other zombies showed up and started sprinting towards me as well. I ran a few blocks, but they kept following me and the one I had shot at was dangerously close. I thought it was going to get me, but then I heard a loud groan and saw that you had crashed into it. The group of zombies was still coming towards us so I picked you up and brought you back here. I’m really sorry for what happened.”
“It’s okay, I will be fine, I’m just glad to finally see someone else that’s alive.”
“Yeah, I know. Are you hungry or thirsty? I have a bunch of food that I got from the kitchens.”
“Yeah, I’m starving.”
I ate some canned tuna and potato chips. It wasn’t the healthiest meal, but it would have to do.
“What time is it?” I asked him.
“I don’t know exactly. I don’t have a watch and the clocks here don’t work anymore, but I would have to guess around six.”
“Damn it, I was hoping to get out of this city before nightfall.”
“Where are you going?”
“I don’t know, but anywhere is better than the city, there will be much less of these damn things out in the country. What about you?”
“I don’t know. I thought about leaving this place also, but I was just too scared to go out there, but now I don’t think I have much of a choice. I blocked most of the entrances when those things started banging on the doors, but they will not last forever, and neither will the food I have.”
“You can come with me then. We will only stay for a couple more days, just until I feel better and then we will leave this damned city.”
“Okay, that sounds good.”
Drew and I talked a bit more before we fell asleep. I learned that he was a graduate student at Fairview University and was working on becoming a research scientist specializing in microbiology. We both contemplated the source of this disease and thought that it must have been the virus that Secrenom had been using to try to cure cancer.
Eventually my eyelids became heavy again and I fell into a deep sleep, I needed to rest and heal so that I would be fit enough to get out of the city in one piece.
To Be Continued
Sun Aug 30, 2009 10:28 am
