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hand up here?”
    Cop or not, Frank was tempted to drive away.
He wanted to live through whatever was happening. The more he
stopped to help people, the less of a chance that would happen. But
he saw Denise and the man whose name he didn't know in the waiting
room. They had another woman and a baby with them. He'd never
forgive himself if he didn't help.
    “I'm gonna back up as close as I can,” he
shouted. “Hurry up!”
    Frank parked under the roof close to the
front of the emergency room. Margie jumped on top of the van first
and accepted the baby from Denise. Denise was right behind her. Joe
was ready to make the leap when he saw Frank pull his gun and aim
right at Joe's head. He fired a single time. Joe flinched as the
round went past his ear and struck the creature between the eyes
behind him that managed to climb out the window.
    “Hurry the fuck up!” Frank said.
    The women made it inside the van first. A
creature shambled toward them from the waiting room as Joe landed
on the ground, but a shot from Frank dropped it.
    Joe jumped in the side and shut the door. Six
creatures seemed to come out of nowhere. They pounded on the sides
and back, trailing blood across the van. A creature that used to be
a security guard lost its fingernails as it dragged them down the
side. The rear window cracked, sending spider-lines across the
glass. The baby was awake and crying in Margie's arms.
    “Go, go, go!”
    Frank hit the gas. He weaved his way in and
out of parked cars and ran through a row of bushes next to the
sidewalk. He drove past car accidents, creatures shambling through
the streets, people dying in the allies. Margie was in the front
seat, Joe, Denise, and the baby in the back. Everyone cried except
for Frank. He wanted to join them, but knew he had to keep his
composure, even after he saw his sister eating the hand of a doctor
in the intensive care.
    The world is falling
apart, he thought.
    “Frank, thank you, thank you so much,” Denise
said. “Your sister?”
    He didn't say anything, just shook his
head.
    “I'm so sorry.”
    Frank ignored her. “Look, everyone. I don't
know what's going on, but my grandfather used to have a house way
up in the woods in Cumberland. I'm going there. You guys can come
with me, or I can drop you off somewhere.”
    “You're a police officer,” Denise said.
“You're just gonna run?”
    He shot her a nasty look in the rear view
mirror. “I don't see you back there taking temperatures.”
    She was quiet.
    “Margie,” Joe said. He still had trouble
talking, but he had to know. “What happened?”
    The memory was still fresh in her mind. She
wasn't sure if she could talk about it without breaking down.
    “I lied, told them she was my sister, so I
could be there. Sarah . . . Sarah died. Doctor Blair, he tried his
best. But everything was screwed. There were people right outside
the delivery room, killing each other. She had an aneurysm or
something, right when he was born.”
    She cried a moment. Denise put a hand on her
shoulder from the back seat.
    “He was right in the middle of a C-section.
He told me I had to leave, but I wasn't going out there, not with
those things. He almost had the baby out when . . . when Sarah
reached up and bit Doctor Blair. She was dead, but she still got
up.” She paused a moment. “I-I cut the cord myself, grabbed the
baby, and hid in the bathroom. I could hear Sarah eating him just
outside the door. I think he got up too. They beat on the door.
They sounded so awful. Something would distract them, then they
would beat on it some more.”
    Margie cried at the memory. The entire hour
she was in the bathroom she expected them to bust the door down and
kill her and the baby. She could hear people being attacked and
killed just outside in the hallway.
    She remembered something Sarah said.
    “Joe. Sarah, before he put her under for the
C-section, she said 'Tell Joe Aaron'. Do you know what that
means?”
    He sobbed. Sarah and Joe came up