Chapter 1

Trapped

“We’ve been locked in this hospital for months with all this shit going on,” Carolyn Marks whined. “So, what the hell are we going to do?”

Lilly Sanders pushed damp, dark hair out of her face and answered. “Keep doing what we’ve been doing. We’ve got more supplies from the cafeteria storeroom.”

“You know they’ll run out eventually.” Carolyn brushed her arm across her damp forehead. “We can’t stay here forever.”

“I know. You’re speaking to the choir,” Lilly answered.

Carolyn looked around to make sure no one was listening. “I think about leaving, but I know I wouldn’t make it to my car. I saw that herd of monsters out there. Besides, I don’t know where I’d go; my family’s dead. I heard the screaming that first night.”

“I’m sorry,” Lilly looked out the window. “My family was in Houston. I doubt they made it out of there. They lived in Midtown. No way they would have gotten out of the city when the infection hit there.”

Carolyn sighed as she looked at her watch. “I guess I’d better get to my session with Dr. Appleton. Don’t want me to try offing myself again.” Carolyn forced a laugh.

“You won’t do that. We all have had our moments of weakness,” Lilly responded.

“Maybe, but y’all don’t act on it. I did,” Carolyn answered as she walked away.

Lilly watched Carolyn walk away, then Lilly turned back to the ward of surviving vets. Out of the two hundred and fifty-three in the hospital, only twenty-two had survived by the end of the second week, when the backup power failed. She took care of six of those men.

Lilly forced a smile on her face and walked into the ward. “Morning, guys. How’s it going?”

“Living the dream,” answered Sargeant Max Bailey with a wave. “Come give me my morning kiss, gorgeous.” He grinned.

“You know, I’ve got a husband waiting at home,” Lilly retorted with a forced chuckle. They knew he was probably dead, but Max continued the joke that began almost five months ago.

“My loss,” Max looked down in bogus sadness. “Oh well, I’ll settle for a sponge bath.” He looked up with a grin and a mock lear.

“Oh my God,” Lilly laughed. “You’re encourageable.”

“Give her a bre-ak,” Neal Bishop laughed. His head reared back in good humor. “Pay no attention to that fool, Nurse Lilly.” Bishop coughed.

“No problem at all, Bishop. I’ve got his number. He’s a player,” Lilly laughed.

Bishop survived burns on over sixty percent of his body from an exploding fuel tank when his vehicle ran over an IED. No one thought he’d make it, but he did. When the power went out, they thought Bishop would be one of the first to die but a determination to survive brought him through. That and careful care by Lilly and the remaining staff. Now Bishop was the clown of the ward still wrapped in gauze on thirty percent of his body.

“We getting breakfast this morning?” Jasper Belcher asked.

“Of course,” Lilly answered. “It’ll be coming up anytime now. Ms. Harriet is working on it; it takes time to get it brought up here.”

“More of those damned plastic eggs. Fucking tired of that shit,” Jasper, a black kid barely twenty years old who’d lost both legs above his knees, complained.

“Enough, Jasper, they’re doing the best they can,” Bishop interrupted Jasper’s complaining.

“Shut the hell up; we’re all fucked. They’ll have another outbreak, and the staff will take off and leave our asses sitting here, dumbass,” Jasper snapped.

“I will be walking and le-ave your sor-ry ass,” Bishop responded. “You complain too, mu-ch.” He snorted, then began coughing again.

Lilly raised her hand as she studied Bishop with concern. “Quit bickering, boys. Time to wash up for breakfast.” She began moving from bed to bed. Lilly poured a pitcher of hot water into a small plastic pan, then retrieved and passed each patient a clean washcloth and hand towel. While they cleaned up, Lilly filled a pitcher with water on each bedside table.

“Pretty stingy with the water, Nurse Rachet,” Complained Jasper.

“Sorry about that, but lugging up five-gallon buckets of hot water is a bit of a struggle these days,” Lilly responded and moved to the next patient. “We’ve only got two orderlies left now. It’s hard to get enough water up to this floor.”

“Give the bitching a rest, Jasper. They’re doing the best they can,” Max yelled.

“Fuck you!” Jasper cursed.

“Enough!” Lilly interrupted. “You get what you get. Any complaints, get your ass out of bed and get your own,” She snapped. “We’re doing the best we can. If you don’t like it, call your local Democrat congressman. Excuse me, congressperson. I’m sure they’ll rush right over.”

Lilly picked up a washcloth and handed it to Jasper so he could wash his face and body. When they finished their ministrations in silence, she emptied the water from the pans and returned washcloths to the end of each bed, along with towels.

“I’ll check on breakfast,” Lilly said, then pushed the cart from the ward with her back stiff, and jaw clenched. Once in the hall, she pressed her back to the wall and slid to the floor to let tears escape. “I can’t keep doing this,” Lilly whispered. She wrapped her arms around her dingy scrubs and wept.

“We have to,” A gentle voice answered. “We have no choice, honey.”

Lilly looked up and wiped her face. “Oh, Harriet. I’m sorry. I’m a baby feeling sorry for myself.”

“Nonsense. It’s that Jasper boy again, ain’t it?” Harriet asked. “He an unhappy young man. He should be thanking his God he’s still alive,” Harriet answered.

“Jasper’s right. If the infected break into this hospital section, he’s in real trouble. We don’t have enough non-disabled people to save everyone,” Lilly responded.

“Then he should be getting his butt out of bed and doing something about it,” Harriet advised.

“I agree,” Lilly echoed. “We have several men walking now that couldn’t walk before. They were lucky to be on this wing.”

“This is the wing to do that. We have the equipment, and people are still here to get them on their feet and moving. They should be focused on that every day, all day long. Every one of those men should be working on walking.” Harriet said.

“Maybe you need to talk to them, Harriet,” Lilly suggested.

“Maybe I should. In the meantime, I need to get breakfast,” Harriet answered. “You go get some fresh air. “I take care of this.”

Harriet walked into the ward with a frown on her face. She stepped inside and stood there glaring at the group of six men ending her perusal on Jasper. “You a sorry-looking bunch. Y’all layin’ up like you need curb service. I’m telling you something. You disgust me, and you,” Looking at Jasper with a stern glare. “You disgust me most of all. Your eyes look like my departed son, but that’s where it ends. He was a brave man. You are a coward. Lay up, waiting to get eaten. Well, I’m ready to toss you out a window to give you your wish.”

Jasper looked up, horrified. “But…”

“You been giving those girls a hard time. It ends now. I hear more, I come back, and you go out the window. Do you boys understand?” Harriet asked.

“Yes, ma’am,” Jasper whispered.

“Excuse me?” Harriet demanded.

“Yes, ma’am,” Several voices announced.

“Next, I want to see you out of bed. We done coddling, you boys. I serve meals at the table. End of story. No exception.” Harriet smiled as she walked to the first bed and pulled a tray to place it on the table. “Eat up. Each of you got work to do.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Max smiled. “I’ve been working on it.” He leaned down and picked up his prosthetic to prove a point.

Harriet moved to the other patients, and each agreed to be ready for the next meal as requested. Finally, Henrietta turned at the door with the meals delivered. “No more complaints. We’re all doing the best we can.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Max smiled. “I’ll see to it.” He held up the prosthetic for his leg one last time.”

Lilly and George Ortega, the physical therapist, arrived on the ward about an hour later to find a new attitude. Five of the men were ready to practice using the new prosthetics built by George in recent weeks. He had retrieved prosthetics from soldiers that had lost their lives when the hospital fell. When the staff fought back and sealed the hospital wing, he recovered prosthetics while disposing of bodies. Since then, he had worked diligently to refit the units to the surviving soldiers. In some cases, with a twist since the fabrication department was on the wing where they now resided.

“Well, I see we’re all ready for a day of work,” George, the stocky Hispanic man, announced with a grin.

“Hey, Ortega! I’m ready for a go-round with a zombie,” Max snarked.

“How about walking across the room first instead?” George responded.

“Got it covered,” Max laughed.

“That is the goal for everyone this week. No exceptions,” George looked at Jasper in his bed as he headed toward the black youth’s bed. Jasper gave a slight nod but remained silent. Both prosthetics rested against the stump of his thighs, ready to be pushed into place.

George checked the strap and nodded. “Good job, Jasper. Let’s get those legs on,” He straightened the sock on the stump, then grabbed the first molded cup and pushed the prosthetic into place. “Feel good?”

“Fine?” Jasper answer.

George repeated the process and pulled Jaspers’s legs around to the edge of the bed. “Time to get to work, young man.” He grabbed a walker from the foot of the bed. “You can do this. I’ll be right behind you.”

Lilly pulled walkers and canes out for soldiers, then ensured each prosthetic was well seated and ready for their therapy session. Afterward, she went from patient to patient to check their progress as they walked across the ward.

“Doing great, Max, James. Sam, Juan, it’s not a race. Take your time,” Lilly encouraged as she moved between them. “Careful. The last thing you want to do is have an accident and lose your balance getting used to the prosthetics after the latest adjustments.”

“Hey, I’m almost ready to dance!” Max called out.

Bishop laughed from his bed. “I saw you dancing before you lost your leg, Sarge. It wasn’t pretty. What makes you think a peg leg will make it any better?”

“Roll you red ass out of bed, and I’ll chase you around this ward, Fry Boy,” Max chided.

“I managed to get out of bed when it counted, with a bunch of those chompers chasing me.” Bishop laughed. “I made it out of the burn ward when no one else did.”

“Yeah, you’ve opened up wounds that still need time to heal. So you’re confined to bed until the worst of them have a chance to close back up,” Lilly argued. “I’ve heard enough out of you, Max. Get to walking.”

Max laughed. “Okay, I’ll quit baiting Fry Boy.”

“Maybe I’d better watch that rowdy bunch,” George told Lilly. “If you’ll help Jasper, I’ll keep them out of mischief.”

“Works for me,” Lilly deliberately turned her attention to Jasper. The young man leaned into the handrails of the walker, and his weight settled into his prosthetics. He teetered for a moment, straightened his back, and squared his shoulders.

“Find your balance, Jasper. It’s been a while,” Lilly whispered.

Beads of moisture appeared on Jasper’s forehead; his arm muscles, tense with strain, then began to relax. “That’s it. Raise your right leg. The prosthetic is your lower leg. The shoe will provide traction. Now try it.”

“It’s heavy,” Jasper said as he struggled to pull it back under him.

“Pull your foot back under you, then do the other side. Yes, your upper legs have lost some muscle tone. I’m going to give you some weights, and you can start using them to rebuild some of that muscle,” Lilly advised.

Lilly pushed him to repeat the process with each leg half a dozen times. By then, Jasper was soaking wet and huffing with exertion. He looked at Lilly with pleading eyes.

“I’m beat,” he claimed.

Lilly smiled. “You did good, Jasper. I’ll be back this afternoon to bring the weights. I expect you to use them.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Jasper answered as he settled back on the bed.

Lilly pulled off the prosthetics and examined each stump for redness or pressure points. Then, she picked up a bottle of alcohol and gave each leg a rubdown. “This will toughen the skin.”

“Now, you see what I’ve done. I expect you to take care of yourself from now on. Your health depends on the self-care of your stump. A blister or sore spot can become infected overnight. That can leave you helpless or a burden on others—time to learn to take care of yourself,” Lilly advised. “You take care of the sock and wipe out the cup with alcohol too. Keep it all clean. Any question?” She handed Jasper the bottle and a few gauze pads to complete the task.

“No, ma’am,” Jasper answered. “I understand.”

“I’m glad. I’m sorry, but I think our days here are numbered. We have to be ready,” Lilly looked at the rest of the men in the ward. The rest of the men shuffled across the room—all except Max. Max barely used the cane he now held. She wished it was comforting, but she was worried. Thirty people at the VA hospital in Kerrville had survived until now, but she was afraid their luck was running out soon.