The Real Night of the Living Dead by Mark Kramer, Felix Cruz Read Free Book Online

vaccine has altered the brain function of these individuals. So you must injure the brain in order to stop the failed vaccine from driving it, from controlling the specimen.”
    “Okay,” I said, looking at Melvin and Billy, “you heard the doctor, you take a whack, you aim for the top of the head, the brain.” Then I grabbed the silent woman by her hand and led her into the closet. She stood, wearing a long brown dress, staring at me as I closed the door on her. I felt so bad. I didn’t want to see her get ripped apart. I couldn’t imagine it. I just hoped they wouldn’t get to her in there.
    “We need to get past them, through the door, and down the stairs,” said Doctor Haas, then stopped for a brief moment. I saw his eyes roll. He stumbled, then caught himself and stood straight again. I noticed then that his face appeared a little flushed. He continued, “The first floor is going to be very dangerous, depending on how many of them are down there. You all know where the entrance is. Go there.”
    “Yeah,” I said. “And make sure we close the damn door behind us.”
    The moans and shrieks from the infected people were growing louder. It caught our attention. We all looked to the massacre taking place in the ward; three of them had a patient on the terrazzo floor and had torn his torso open. One of them had their face inside his opened stomach and appeared to be chewing on intestines that were lodged inside.
    Another spotted us and was climbing over an alcove wall now, making their way toward our group.
    “Ready?” I said.
    No one made a sound. They answered by gripping their mops and broom tighter, Billy nodded.
    I said, “Come on,” and ran down the center of the ward, toward the hallway. Melvin, Billy and Haas, bringing up the rear, followed me.
    Most of them were too busy devouring the patients in the ward to even notice us, or if they did notice, we were already well past them.
    One of them was only about two feet away from Melvin, when they reached out and grabbed his arm. He screamed and jerked away from the maniac, then poked him in the chest with the mop handle, trying to push him back. Billy followed it up with a good crack to the top of his head.
    That dropped him. It worked like Haas said it would; the patient didn’t get back up.
    We continued to run.
    Near the edge of the ward, Billy slipped on a puddle of blood. His feet went up in the air, and he landed hard on his back. That caught the attention of the infected. They began moving toward us now. I looked back at them and noticed how the blood was everywhere; the yellow tiled walls were covered in streaks of it, and puddles were scattered throughout the ward.
    Me and Melvin helped Billy to get up; his bare feet slipped a couple more times on the blood, but he made it and balanced himself. Haas was covering us, making sure no one crept up.
    We began to run again, down the hall. This time, the ones in the ward began chasing us; some of them running. I heard a few loud thumps echo in the hallway and could only imagine that some of the creatures were slipping on the same puddle that Billy did.
    They screamed louder as our space between them grew.
    We made it through the stairwell door, and two of them were waiting for us. They both had bites; one had a bite on his arm, the other had a bite on the back of his neck.
    As soon as I came through the door and saw them, I pushed them back. I didn’t want to waste any bullets unless there was no other option. I knew Melvin and Billy were behind me and would take care of them.
    They did.
    Melvin hit one across the face. Didn’t kill him, but he dropped him to the floor and out of the way, giving us the chance to run off. But Billy was a good shot; he crushed the broom handle over the head, and the creature was gone.
    We ran down the stairs. The creatures chasing us were still somewhere on the second floor.
    Haas’ speed was slowing a bit. Billy looked back and saw that he was about ten feet behind