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exhausted. “Just to let you know, whatever you hear on the news about this crisis being localized and that the government is handling things, is a flat out lie.”
    I actually wasn’t so shocked by this, giving what I had been through. “What are you talking about?”
    Ellie sighed and told me. “We have been working non-stop on infected people. They don’t go into comas, they die. They die and then they come back. The morgue is a nightmare, full of walking dead and they are trying to get out. Several patients who didn’t get transferred in time came back and attacked staff members. John, I watched my shift boss get eaten by two patients. Eaten!” Ellie sounded more panicked. “Jesus, God, what the hell?”
    I didn’t know what to say, so I was quiet for a minute. I was having a hard enough time wrapping my head around the events of the day to really hear what Ellie was telling me. Ellie seemed to shake herself and asked me “Did you do what I asked, earlier?”
I told her, yes, and I went into detail about my preparations, about where I had guns and ammo, and the boarding of the windows.
“They’re that far south, are they?” Ellie asked.
“What do you mean?”
    Ellie sighed again. “We had a Chicago cop in here and he said the city was complete anarchy. Thousands of those things were in the streets, attacking anyone they saw, and transferring the virus. If they aren’t killed, eventually they become one of them. Sometimes it’s fast, sometimes it’s slow, and it all depends on the individual. The cop said they can only be killed by destroying the brain.”
    “I know.” I said inadvertently.
    Ellie paused. “How do you know?”
    I told her about my little excursion, not leaving out any detail. I figured I would catch nine kinds of hell, but she just was quiet and then said, “Thank you for saving my baby.”
    I tried to be reassuring with a little false bravado. “Any zombie coming after him has to go through me first, and hell hasn’t made a zombie yet to match me.”
    Ellie began to cry, and I immediately regretted my words. “I’m sorry babe, I know this is serious.”
    Ellie managed to bring herself together, and asked me where Jakey was. “He’s over on the floor, trying to figure out why he can’t put a ball that’s bigger than his head in his mouth.”
    “Can I talk to him?”
    “Sure.” I brought the phone over to Jake and held it to his ear. I could hear his mother speaking to him, and he smiled as he recognized his mother’s voice. He squealed and laughed, and I could hear Ellie say how much she loved him and she would watch over him. That was odd.
I brought the phone back to me and said, “Hey, I’m back, he rolled away.”
Ellie was crying again. “John?”
“Yeah?”
“Take good care of my baby, please.?”
“Sure thing. What’s going on? When are you coming home?”
Ellie paused. “I’m not.”
    “What? What are you saying? Why aren’t you coming home? If things are that bad, you need to get out of there and come home.” I was getting very concerned.
“John, please listen to me.” Ellie begged.
“Okay.” I said suddenly worried.
“I’ve been infected with the virus.”
    My world suddenly crashed. The sinking feeling I had in my gut became a hole in my chest. My heart sank and I could not focus. I started breathing heavily and I nearly dropped the phone.
“John? Please talk to me.” Ellie said. “I need you to talk to me.”
“Jesus, no, Ellie. Not you. Please not you.” I started to choke up, cursing a God that would do this to my family. “How?”
“An accident. An infected patient was brought in, and he hemorrhaged in the OR. Two of us got blood in our eyes.”
All I could do was shake my head. “No, no, no, God, please, no.”
“John!” Ellie cried. “I need you to strong for me. I need you to take care of Jake for me. Please!”
“I’ll come get you.” I said, knowing deep down it would be suicide. “Just wait and I’ll come get you.” I