Rage by Lee Pletzers Page A

emergency room. The remains of the boy who had stood guard lay in a splattered mess in the middle of the room in a mish-mash of blood and bone and meat. And my stomach growled.
    Something deep inside me wanted to rip into that flesh and feed. My mouth watered at the feast laid at my feet. The scent of blood and the sight of raw meat aroused my senses. It was a new emotion just now showing itself, part of the primal zombie virus that flowed through my veins. And if I wanted to maintain what was left of my humanity, it was best to keep such cravings suppressed and under control.
    A male scream came from down the hall. I headed there at a quick pace, pulling the Glock from my jeans and checking it was loaded. There was a full clip. It had been oiled and loaded. Someone, perhaps the doctor planned to use it on George or me.
    Passing an open door to a private room, something caught my eye and I stopped. Returning to the open door, I shook my head. A nurse zombie was ripping out a man’s intestines with her teeth. She stopped suddenly and turned to face me, chewing on a large gray intestine. I wasn’t in RAGE form at the moment and I wondered if she would attack me. She didn’t. She waved and went back to feeding. It was a depressing sight but I could not blame her. I understood the hunger. I had experienced it first hand in the emergency room moments ago. It was doubtful if any of them would be able to hold back on feeding to follow my instructions.
    Oh, fuck!
    If Sally is here, I just sent them looking for her.
    My priorities changed in an instant, fuck finding the doctor, my wife was more important. The Rage built up and I pushed it back down. I was slower this way and not as strong but if I found Sally, I didn’t want her to see me in RAGE form until I had had a chance to explain things.
    She’s all I had left in this world that reminded me of a past existence where living was stressful but beautiful at the same time.
    I couldn’t lose her, and with renewed energy and purpose, I raced down the corridor, kicking open each door as I passed. The rooms with patients in them also had zombies feasting. I checked each one of the dead to make sure it wasn’t Sally being fed on.
    Room after room after room it was all the same. There were more zombies than I remembered. Pushing through two heavy doors, I entered the room where George’s blood was fed into my veins. I scanned the room for any signs of life and spied a door next to the nurse’s station I hadn’t noticed earlier.
    I kicked it open and found a short hallway. At the end of the hallway was a white door and next to the door was a truck battery with two leads sitting on the floor. I had an idea where that door opened and I was right. It was the room that George and I were held captive in. The battery obviously attached to the door the second Dr. Cannon closed it. Effective. It had solidified my belief that this was a high security building and that the lasers mentioned were real.
    Man, I had been duped big time.
    There was no time to think about that. Sally was counting on me. I knew that deep in my soul and if she was in this building, I would find her, no ifs, ands or buts about it. When I was outside I counted five floors to this building and there had to be an underground level or two as well.
    Leaving the room, I passed the nurse’s station realizing I had a choice to make. Go up or go down. I walked at a quick pace through the empty room. I saw my bent and twisted bed frame and it brought a smile to my face.
    Decision made, I exited at the other end of the room and came across a bank of elevators. A few feet to the left were two sets of doors; one had a lighted sign reading: ‘stairs’ above it and an arrow pointing up. The other door had a similar sign with an arrow pointing down. I shoved the doors open and took the stairs up two at a time.
    There were no zombies on the second floor, perhaps they couldn’t make it up or had forgotten how to take stairs,