Free Cage The Dead by Gary F. Vanucci Page B

door.
    “What is it?” Gaia asked him. He swallowed hard and shook his head.
    “It’s Friedman.”
    “Nancy?!” Gaia said excitedly at first until he saw the remorse and sadness in Nick’s eyes. He shook his head ever so slightly, signifying that something terrible had happened—something that would upset her.
    “Dammit,” Nick whispered.
    “She’s…?”
    “Yes,” Nick confirmed with a nod. “She’s turned.”
    “We need to take her down gently,” Gaia said and then nodded at the silliness and absurdity coupled with that remark. The thing inside was not the woman she had gotten to know over the past few years. No, this thing was nothing like her old friend who had taught her many things about medicine and even life. She had learned a great deal about a lot of things, thanks to Dr. Nancy Friedman.
    But this thing isn’t Dr. Friedman!
    Suddenly, Gaia grew angered by that fact. This disease had taken her friend away from her. All of her friends! And that wasn’t all, she thought, grasping the handle of the machete and slowly removing it from its resting place on her belt. She tossed aside the shovel and gripped the machete hilt with both hands.
    She turned the handle over in her grasp and tightened her grip on it, squeezing it firmly. Nick sensed her intention too and nodded, as if reading Gaia’s mind…or at least, her features, for she knew she wore a mask of rage in that moment.
    Nick opened the door and Gaia stood staring at the mess inside. The light from flashlight penetrated the gloom of the space; a fluorescent glow emerging from the underside of a shelving unit was the only other source of illumination in the room.
    It reeked of death.
    Gaia could see a lab space with many overturned tables in the dim lighting, chairs and various medical instruments strewn about the room. The creature spun to face her and Gaia averted her eyes again, only using her peripheral vision. She knew that if she looked the creature in the face that she might falter in her quest. So she did not look directly at it and instead looked to the side and at the last second turned to face the undead atrocity that she had once known as Nancy Freidman, its back to her still. The disheveled auburn hair of her one-time-friend was covered in gore and glistened with tacky blood, as was her once-white lab coat. Cabinets were haphazardly wide open and several animal pens were smattered with severed animal limbs and other unidentifiable parts as if this thing had feasted on its former patients.
    That filled Gaia with even more anger and inspiration.
    The undead Nancy stumbled toward her, tripping over a toppled stool along the way, got back up and then raced quickly toward her, gaining speed with each inhuman step it took. Her machete met with some resistance as she buried the blade into its skull, stopping the creature in its tracks.
    Gaia heard the sound of the body hitting the floor. Nick stepped in and shone the light all about, revealing the space thoroughly.  Nothing else moved. It was a ghastly scene, and Gaia blanched at seeing all the dead animal remains in the enclosed space. A window was open slightly behind a counter, which may have limited the real stench, though it was pretty awful.
    Gaia used the dim lighting in the lab space along with the flashlight to find some medical supplies in the cabinets and drawers. The building was large, having similar lab spaces such as this for having multiple patients at once, which happened somewhat frequently. But the animals sometimes got sick or injured in bunches, as was Murphy’s Law.
    “Over there—the IV bags,” Nick muttered through gritted teeth. He was clearly still in a lot of pain.
    “Yes, but over here’s the good stuff,” Gaia countered, removing a package of pills and handing them to Nick. “Those are 30 mg doses of morphine. Should take the edge off. You’ve got a bad wound on your shoulder, it’s probably dislocated and you might have some cracked ribs based on the