Free Dead, but Not for Long by Matthew Kinney, Lesa Anders Page A

looked around the room for crawlers but
found nothing. Approaching a closet labeled “Equipment,” he jiggled the handle. He thought he heard a muffled scream.
    “Hello!” he called out. “I’m with hospital security. We’re clearing this room.”
    He started to pull out his keys but stopped when he saw the doorknob slowly turn.
    The closet door opened to reveal a very frightened young woman and a child.
    “Keith!” Jack yelled. “We’ve got survivors!”
    ~*~
    Eric dangled the mouse in front of Cheri. She seemed to be much more excited about the rodent
than the tofu. As she strained to grab it with her mouth, she rocked the chair
wildly. He dropped it into her yearning jaws and she clamped down with her
gums. When the chewing stopped, the tail draped from the corner of her mouth.
Eric pulled on her lower jaw to see the rodent jammed in her throat. Yanking it by the tail, he pulled it out to examine it.
    “You’re going to need help,” he told her as he drew a hammer from his tool box. He thought about
the blender for a second, but figured it would be too hard to explain to his
mother. Holding the creature by the tail, he began to pulverize it on his
bedroom floor. Some small pieces flew into various parts of his room and a
chunk of fur stuck to the hammer. Cheri became visibly agitated by the sight of the blood and flying meat.
    Eric scraped up the pile of remaining flesh and dropped it into her mouth, and she quickly
devoured it. The morsel only seemed to make her hungrier, which led Eric to
conclude that her hunger must be more psychological than physical. He sat back,
satisfied at his attempts to take care of her. Watching her lick the remaining blood from her lips, he keyed his radio.
    “Jack, you there?”
    “You haven’t been eaten yet?” Jack answered back.
    “Far from it, Boss,” Eric said, ignoring the sarcasm. “I’ve run some experiments and have come to some startling conclusions.”
    “What do you have?” Jack asked against his better judgment.
    “Jack, they don’t like tofu.” Eric sounded like he’d just discovered penicillin.
    There was a long pause on the radio before Jack answered back.
    “Eric,” his voice was harsh and deliberate, “don’t call me unless you have something
important to say. If it has anything to do with tofu, don’t call. If you don’t
know if it’s important or not, don’t call. If you’re about to be eaten, don’t
call because I won’t be able to do anything about it. On second thought, call.
It may improve morale around here!”
    The radio clicked off.
    “Grouch,” Eric muttered.
    Eric was shaken from his thoughts by the sound of breaking glass.
    ~*^*~

     
     
     
     

~08~
     
    Jack looked at the radio and shook his head, before turning his attention back to the issue at hand.
    Keith returned to the equipment room. He was glad to see that there were survivors on the
floor, but it was going to make their mission just a little riskier. He hated
to put the woman and child in more danger but now that they’d already drawn the
infected to the glass, there was nothing they could do besides stick to the plan.
    “Have either of you been bitten?” he asked.
    “No,” the woman replied.
    Keith guessed that she was about his age, late twenties, maybe. Her long, light brown hair
was pulled back into a ponytail and though she wore a set of oversized scrubs,
Keith could tell that she was in excellent shape. He was relieved, since the
odds of completing their task would be higher with people who could run fast
and wouldn’t be a burden. He glanced at the child, not quite so sure about her.
She was thin and pale and while she didn’t exactly look like an invalid, she
didn’t seem to be in top shape, either. Hopefully she was healthy enough to run.
    “I’m Lindsey,” the woman said. “I’m a physical therapist and I was putting Autumn through her
routine when a man went berserk and started tearing people apart out in the
hall. I locked the doors and