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“Look,” she whispered, pointing to the chains.

Everyone froze.

Hesitating, she looked around, then pulled a framed picture off the wall behind her. Holding it up, she used the reflective surface as a mirror to see through the windows set in the chained doors. Adjusting it slowly, trying to stay out of sight of the windows, she finally managed to get a look.

She almost dropped the painting.

Immediately, she slid down to the floor and motioned everyone down.

They were already on their way to the ground the second they saw her expression.

“It’s full of them,”she mouthed.

Everyone’s eyes widened.

“Packed. They’re just standing there,” she continued to mouth, trying to form words in a way that everyone could read her lips.

Lenore crossed herself and Ken gulped.

Bill motioned to everyone to crawl along the floor. Ken and Lenore began to crawl with Dale and Linda right behind them. They were heading to the doors on the opposite side of the room and not the stairway. Hopefully, they could stay out of sight until reaching the doors on the far end.

Jenni tried to hold her breath and crawl past the chained doors without gagging. Roger, Felix, and Bill moved right behind her. The stench was so bad she found it hard not to gag. Keeping close to the waiting room chairs, she crawled up to the stairwell and looked up. It appeared clear.

Across the room, the others were relieved to see the doors to the patient rooms were not chained. After a wordless debate, it was Lenore who finally stood up and took a peek into that hallway, trying to do it fast so as not to rile the zombies across the room behind the doors to the emergency room.

Jenni watched Lenore motion that it was clear, and then the other team slipped out of sight.

Bill moved up beside Jenni and squeezed her arm gently. She smiled back at him and tried to steady her nerves.

“We do this and go,” he said softly.

She nodded silently.

They climbed the stairs.

2. Death’s Doorway

Ken was relieved that it was relatively easy going once they were in the patient ward. Every room they passed appeared empty. Ken suspected whoever had evacuated the hospital had locked up all the infected in the emergency room. Per orders, they opened no doors that were not marked on Charlotte’s maps.

“Don’t hear them,” Lenore whispered. “It’s all quiet here. I bet they’re all stuffed in the emergency room. ”

“And they can stay there,” Ken answered. He made a face as they passed a decomposing corpse surrounded by dried blood and brains. “They were shooting everyone in the head. ”

“Smart move,” Dale said in a low voice. “But they must have decided not to waste anymore ammo and just got out. ”

Lenore gingerly pushed an empty stretcher out of her way.

“Okay, we get what we need and get back to save Juan. ” Linda blew her dark bangs out of her eyes and passed out the lists. “Just what is on the list. No more. ”

Collecting items, Linda, Lenore and Ken began to strike off entries on their “grocery” list while Dale knocked out a window at the end of the hall and began to lower equipment onto the lawn. It seemed like a good idea considering the danger in the reception area. There were probably enough zombies to break through the chained doors if they were provoked.

Moving quickly, the team did their job, being careful with every move.

Lenore warily avoided closed doors and grabbed up everything she could in a tote bag. Ken wheeled equipment down the hall to the window to Dale, sashaying as prettily as he could. Dale didn’t notice.

Finally, Linda slid out the window and ran to bring the big moving truck up to the window, her gun in her hand as she moved. Ken thought she was hot for a girl, but his eyes kept straying to Dale. He was a big hunk of a man, just like Ken liked them. He had tried to catch the big man’s eye a few times, but had failed so far. It was getting truly annoying that no one was out of the closet in the fort, aside from him. Ten percent of an average population was supposed to be gay. There had to be at least one more of his kind and he was hoping for a nice hunky man.

“Stop staring,” Lenore chided him.