Free Infected by Anthony Izzo

looked down at her boots, which were spattered with blood. Hopefully none of it bled through and came in contact with her skin, for there was no telling how the germ was spread. “How you holding up?”
     
    “Feeling a little woozy.”
     
    “You think it's from getting scratched?” Emma asked.
     
    “Either that or it's because I just cut down seven humanoid freaks with a shotgun.”
     
    “That's enough to make anyone sick.”
     
     
    The bodies of the things lay in the hallway, blood pooling on the floors.  The hallway had taken on a smell that reminded her of unwashed feet and old meat combined. Aside from the zombies – or whatever they were – her next concern was ammunition. She had ten shells left for the shotgun and thirty rounds for her Glock. “How you fixed for ammo?”
     
    “Six rounds left for the twelve gauge. Thirty rounds for the sidearm.”
     
    There could be a hundred or more of these things running around and some of them took multiple shots to bring down.  But there were patients on the upper floors, one of them her mother. She could only hope they were locked up safe.  “All right. These things aren't going to kill themselves. Let's move.”
     
     
    Weiss, Max, and Lori got off the elevator in the lobby. The security desk was straight ahead, and Weiss saw that blood had been splattered across the desktop. Not splattered. It looked like someone had taken a paintbrush and gone to town. “Where's the other guard?”
     
    “Walking a nurse to the lot,” Max said. “That was the last time I saw him.”
     
    “Hopefully he got out. I need to check on my ER. Take Lori to her car. Get her out of here,” Weiss said.
     
    “I'm staying with you,” Lori said.
     
    “Lori.”
     
    “I don't want to hear it. What's next?”
     
    Weiss said, “I need to find out if anyone's still alive in my ER.”
     
    “I'm getting out of here. You two should do the same,” Max said.
     
    “You're security. And we could use your gun,” Lori said.
     
    “My life ain't worth eight bucks an hour. And I might need the gun,” Max said, and walked away.
     
    “Coward,” Lori said, but Max either didn't hear her or was chosing to ignore the statement.
     
    Weiss went down the hallway and pushed through the emergency room doors. The walls in the main room were smeared with blood. There were four bodies sprawled on the floor, all of them missing chunks from torsos, arms, and legs. If that weren't bad enough, a re-animated corpse dragged itself across the floor, its intestines trailing behind like blood-soaked rope. Weiss took the hammer and bashed its head until it moved no more.
     
    “Where is everyone?” Lori asked.
     
    “Dead or run off,” Weiss said.
     
    He checked the main desk. The pit, as the nurses liked to call it. It was empty, as were the patient bays. His emergency room had effectively become a ghost town.
     
    “What now?” Lori asked.
     
    “There's two cops sweeping the building. I don't know how far they've gotten,” Weiss said.
     
    “Mike, what the hell is it?”
     
    “It's moving fast whatever it is. I'm guessing some crap the army cooked up. Some freak bug. We need to call for help,” Weiss said, and took out his cell.
     
    “Not here. We'll get out. Call from outside.”
     
    Weiss looked around, thinking Lori was right. There was no telling how many of those things were running around the hospital. They left the emergency room and reached the security desk. The main entrance was just ahead. They were almost there when two of the creatures smashed through the glass doors.
     
    Weiss froze, gripped Lori's arm. A half dozen more of the pale-skinned things filled the doorway. Tugging on Lori's arm, he directed her back to the elevators. If they kept going, they'd reach the side entrance at the end of the hallway.
     
    That door proved to be a dead end, as three of the zombies broke through the glass door. The things had broken out of the hospital. If they got into town