Free TAGGED: THE APOCALYPSE by Joseph M Chiron Page A

rose and launched itself again at the window.
    “The good news is they are not active during the daylight. The bad news is that with all the dust and debris in the atmosphere, the sun only breaks through the haze about six to eight hours on a sunny day.”
    “Oh Needles. I’m sorry ,” Candy said.
    “What are those red marks all over its arms ?” Eve asked. Saliva ran down the thick glass where the beast had been spitting at them and trying to bite them through it. It had a thick mane of hair like a lion, four pronounced canines and seemed to prefer to move on four legs, but could move just as easily on two. It looked like a skeleton.
    “I’m glad you asked that,” the doctor smiled. “Apparently, it’s starving. It seems to feed only on blood and lacking any other food source it will feed on itself. It will literally drink itself dry, I suspect , hastening its own demise, unless it finds another food source.”
    “You mean us - humans?” Eve said.
    “That’s my friend in there , you son of a bitch.” Candy sounded defeated, her eyes misting.
    “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…the thing is, it’s not your friend , Needles, anymore.”
    “Ben. His real name was Benjamin.”
    “It’s not Benjamin, anymore. You see your friend Benjamin succumbed to his infection about six hours ago. He was clinically dead. No heartbeat; no breathing. We had him connected to an EKG machine at the time. He flat-lined for approximately sixty seconds before re-animating. The interesting thing is that there appeared to be no indication that either the heart or lungs were working following re-animation. It’s dead. The infection itself actually re-animates the corpse. The hair and the nails grow extremely fast and the teeth- clearly this is some bi-product of the infection itself. In fact, even when humans die, the hair and nails continue to grow for several weeks or even months after death. Anyway, what I’m trying to tell you is its actually dead. It’s a walking corpse.”
    “Ben. Benjamin!” Candy called through the glass. The beast stopped , clearly hearing her call. It sniffed the air. Candy felt a moment of hope, then it lunged against the glass, baring its teeth and attempting to scratch and bite its way through the glass. The doctor calmly flicked the two light switches flooding the room with light; it scream/growled and like a flash it was under the gurney in a ball.
    “It moves so fast,” Eve said.
    “It’s actually moving quite a bit slower than it was. It’s growing weaker and slower from lack of a food source and drinking its own blood. Here’s the problem. A lot of the medical supplies are in that room. Ideally, it will expire on it’s own in a day or two. Otherwise, well, we may have to go in there and put it down.”
    Candy turned away, covering her face with her hand.
    “And now for the really bad news,” the doctor folded his hands and stood opposite them. “Out in that waiting room are lots of people who have been bitten, scratched , and spit on by these things. We need to separate them from the general population before they die and become one of these things too.”
    “Where’s Thompson?” Candy asked.
    “Who?”
    “The guard that we took as a prisoner from the control tower. I only know his name, because his badge is around my neck.” Candy waved the electronic badge with his picture on it.
    “Hang onto that. That could come in handy later ,” Dennis said.
    They left Brit with a nurse in the separate examination room. He would probably be safer there than in the general population.

CHAPTER 10: October 15, 7:15 p.m.
     
    The smell hit them all as they entered the medical unit. Eve doubled over and threw up from the stench. Dixon sniffed it and immediately began lapping it off the floor before Candy could yank him away.
    “You can’t bring that dog in here,” the doctor said.
    Candy stiffened , “His name is Dixon and he goes wherever I go.”
    The doctor peered at her momentarily