The Last Alive

Chapter Fifteen- Where the Hell is Nathan

Chapter Fifteen

Where the Hell is Nathan!

I slowly climbed the stairs heading for the second floor. The door had been ripped off the hinges and lay mangled against the wall. I poked my head into the darkened hallway but saw nothing. Digging through my pockets, I found the ridiculously small flashlight my mom always made me carry around.

"Thank you, Mother," I muttered to myself thankful for her overprotectiveness for once.

I smacked it a few times until a dull stream of light lit up the square in front of me.

"You have to be kidding! What the hell is this? The Tonka toy of flashlights?" I groaned.

"Shh, you're going to draw them out," Taz whispered as loudly as he dared.

I looked over at him and rolled my eyes. We stayed as close to the wall as possible and tried to see as much into the darkness. The floor seemed to be silent. I heard a sickening crunch under my shoe as I took a step. I did not want to look, but I shined the flashlight at the floor. I closed my eyes and gingerly picked up my foot. Someone's skull went with my foot.

"Oh my God." I shook my foot like a dog trying to scratch a flea.

"Emma, shut up."

"Taz, calm down."

The head flew off and rolled down the floor. I stared in disgust as it bounced off a wall and spun. My jaw dropped when the eye sockets seemed to look at me. I had become accustomed to a lot of things in the past four years, but that was a first for me. I stood and waited for anything to come lumbering around the corner. There had to some of the undead on the floor.

"Nathan?" I called out.

No response.

I walked a little further down the hall and heard it; a light scratching which was becoming more intensified as I got closer. To the left the hall ended abruptly. To the right was a door. It was shut, and someone did a shitty job boarding it up. I could see the window broken and hands extending out. Some were green, others grey, and a few had no skin on them.

"Well, I know where he's not." I turned and headed back for the door.

The moaning in the stairwell was growing louder as we climbed to the third floor. I pushed on the door, but it would not budge. Using my tiny flashlight, I shined it through the window to see that a beam had fallen from the ceiling and blocked the door off. There were undead on the other side. They ambled about while some stood in a corner swaying back and forth.

Have they been stuck in the hospital all this time?

We continued our ascent. The fourth-floor door was intact and unlocked. An undead stood in an alcove by an elevator that was long out of use. I shined the flash light on it and noticed he had a housekeeper uniform on. The shirt was ripped and the pants were tight at the waist. He looked as though his decaying body was bloating and about to explode.

Are they dying? Is this what happens when they don't eat for a long period of time?

He turned his head toward me, and I nearly vomited. The skin was falling from his head. Bits and pieces of green flesh stuck to it, but most was nothing but bone. He started to stumble toward me, but he was even less coordinated than an undead that had eaten. I took a few steps to the side and watched as he fell over. The thing rocked back and forth trying to get back up, but it couldn't. I knelt next to the unfortunate soul, a tear sliding down my cheek.

"I am so sorry this has happened to you," I whispered, pulling the knife out of my boot. In a swift motion, I stabbed him in the head.

The body stopped moving and there was barely any of the black goo pooling at the surface.

"What is happening to all of them in here," Taz mumbled.

I shrugged and walked down the hallway of the unit. It looked so similar to the one Becca was on when everything happened. Everything was a mess. There was equipment overturned, rooms look like they had been ransacked, but the worst was the blood stains everywhere. That floor had been hit hard when there were still a lot of patients and staff on it. I looked behind the nurses' station only to find a few skeletons and papers. I continued along the hallway for any signs of anything. The moaning behind me got louder and louder, I turned to see an entire herd of undead lumbering after me. They were just as gross as the one I had just put down, but these ones were still moving. Rather quickly. I picked up the pace and ran, glancing behind me to make sure Taz was still there. I hit the door at the end of the hall thankful it still opened. I took the stairs two at a time to the fifth floor. We paused outside the hallway, peeking in and saw it was filled with undead.

"Okay on to the sixth floor I guess. I really hope Nathan isn't in there."

The last time I had been on the unit Becca died and the world as I knew it changed. I took a deep breath and slowly pushed open the door. The rooms were empty; even Becca's. Her bed was still overturned, but she was gone. The bathroom that Nathan and I had hid in was destroyed. I leaned against the wall outside of the room and rubbed my temples. The day my sister became a zombie was a horrific day. I lost a piece of me when she turned. The world was thrown into an apocalypse and everybody lost everything. Some lost more than others.

I pulled myself away from the room and continued along the deserted unit. I stopped near the kitchen area. The door was still in one piece and if I remembered correctly it locked from the inside. I heard something moving around on the other side. I pressed my ear to the wood and listened. It was something big.

An undead?

I grabbed the door knob and jiggled it a bit, but it was locked.

"Oh shit," I heard come from the other side.

"Nathan?" I called.

"Um, yeah?"

"Are you fucking kidding me? Open this damned door now!"

"Emma?" He unlocked the door and pulled me in.

"What the hell are you doing?" I asked him.

"I got stuck here."

"No shit. Why did you come?"

"We need more medical supplies." He took a swig of water.

"So you came alone? What are you drinking?"

"Nobody else would come with me and it's water. Want some?" he asked.

"I'll pass on the four year old water." I narrowed my eyes at him. "You have been gone for four days. Four fucking days! I went through Oakland looking for you! I blew up a police car just to get into this smelly death trap! Why didn't you tell me you were leaving the city?"

"Well, you found me." He smiled his lop-sided grin.

"I hate you," I muttered.

"No you don't." He wrapped his arms around me.

"Don't touch me. I'm mad at you."

"No you're not. You're relieved to see me."

I sighed heavily and stared into his magnificent blue eyes. The blue eyes I thought I'd never see again. I held onto his arms and pulled him in close.

"If you do anything like this again you won't have to worry about an Undead eating your brains because I will fucking kill you myself." I leaned into him and pressed my lips to his.