Medora: A Zombie Novel by Wick Welker Read Free Book Online

his head down toward the carpet. Her face had become a conglomeration of boils, drooping crevasses and bulging fluid-filled sacs.
    Keith came up from behind Dave and peered in. He couldn't understand it. In the course of little under an hour, her face had undergone a drastic change. It no longer resembled anything close to the face of Janice Johnston. He couldn't think of anything that could cause such a radical change. No type of chicken pox, measles or fever could ever create the hanging skin and blistering boils on her face in such a short period of time. Not only could he not see her eyes, but also he couldn't tell where the eyes were supposed to be. She had become blind, deaf and mute.
    Dave stood up and looked at Keith with his mouth open, trying to convey the perplexity that he was feeling. “What is wrong with her? Her face! Holy shit, her face. Keith, what happened in the meeting?”
    “She was looking sick before we started but something happened right in the middle and she completely changed. She was literally sitting on top of Bob Courtman and pounding on his face.”
    “ Well, how the hell can she walk around hitting everybody when I can't even see her eyes, Keith! How does she even know what she's doing?” Dave's confusion was translating into displaced anger.
    Keith knew what was going through Dave's mind. He knew he was thinking about how his girlfriend had shot at three policemen earlier that morning and that his brain was surreptitiously making quiet connections.
    “What is going on with her ?” Dave started to look around at all his coworkers who were silently eavesdropping. They stood and stared, just as speechless as anyone else who had looked into that conference room. “Call the police and an ambulance!”
    “Dave, I told you, we have called them, but they haven't come yet. We don't know where they are. Look, we have all seen what's going on here and we have already tried everything we can, so stop yelling at everybody.”
    Keith flipped his phone out from his jacket pocket and dialed 911. The phone rang for twenty seconds with no answer.
    A voice finally picked up, “911, what is your emergency?”
    “Hi, I called early about a woman in the office building on 28 th avenue and…”
    “Yes sir, we are aware of that situation. You should only call once for an emergency. We can't be holding up the line.”
    “ Yes, I know, but it's been a half an hour and no one has showed up and she is in a serious condition. She is incredibly sick and needs to get to a hospital immediately.”
    “Sir, our call volume at the moment is beyond our maximum capacity. We have sent out an ambulance , but you must wait. I'm sorry, but it's all we can do under the circumstances.” She spoke hastily, trying to dissuade him from responding.
    “What circumstances?”
    “Thank you, sir, the ambulance will arrive shorty.” She hung up the phone.
    Keith just stared at his phone. “ Man, something is tying up the phone systems and the ambulances. Can someone turn on the news? Does anyone know anything about this?” Keith spoke out loud to his coworkers who were scattered randomly around the offices.
    Hess started moving towards the receptionist’s desk where a television was mounted on the wall. “Yeah, we can check out the TV in the foyer.” A flood of people started to congregate around the TV.
    Keith turned to Dave, “Can you stay here and watch Janice?” Keith felt odd making the request, as if he wasn't asking him to watch over a sick person but a danger trying to be kept under control like a forest fire.
    The TV was switched to a news station, which showed a street in the Bronx with eight ambulances parked down the length of it. A news reporter was standing in front of one of the ambulances talking into a microphone.
    “... The unprecedented volume of calls for emergency assistance has resulted in a citywide gridlock of ambulances and an overflow of hospital outpatient clinics. The flu season has hit early