The teams checked every nook and cranny of the ground floor. Eventually they declared it clear. Cameron was ecstatic, because the ground floor held all the operating rooms. They could call in Yuba, and take everything back to town so that Henry would have everything he needed to perform surgeries. Still…the upper floors more likely than not also had supplies that would come very much in handy.
The only problem was that no supplies, whether on the ground floor or upstairs, were going to get salvaged with nothing to see with except flashlights. He spread the schematics and a map of the hospital he found on the hood of truck, and it showed that there was a basement with, according to Andrea, a backup generator. It was a bit of a long shot, seeing as those generators probably failed long ago, but it was either that or to continue working in the dark.
"Tony," Cameron ordered, rolling it up the sheets of paper and sticking it in his back pocket, "call Yuba and request backup. Walsh, Natasha, and Nick are on zombie watch. The rest of you are coming with me."
"I'm not sure I wanna follow someone as suicidal as you into battle," Sheila said skeptically.
"Stay here then," he responded indifferently. It was getting on in the afternoon, and Cameron wanted that basement cleared of any and all possible zombies before sundown. Rifle in hand once more, he started making his way back to the hospital…. A few steps later he realized that only Andrea and Donald were following him.
She looked back too, and said to them, "What's the hold up."
"Like Sheila said, Cam just acted pretty suicidal," Cole explained.
Cameron smacked his face. It didn't occur to him that the stunt he just pulled would bring his leadership into question. I really am an idiot.
He sucked in a breath of cold air, and told them clearly, "It may come as a surprise to some of you, but I'm not retarded enough to go into a dark basement crawling with zombies by myself." As Cameron spoke a zombie fell out of a window from above, and landed far off to his right cracking its skull open. He went on, "We didn't spend four fucking days out here for nothing. Now do you want this hospital cleared, or don't you?"
They all looked at each other, and eventually five people stepped forward. That was enough. Cameron led the way back into the hospital, and shined a light on the schematics to find his way to the door to the basement. Once they found the door, Cameron banged on it, causing growls and snarling noises to issue from the other side.
Cameron briefly contemplated on a variation of Nick's plan, by splitting the team in two, positioning them on opposite ends of door, and mowing down the zombies as they spilled out. But he quickly scrapped it, realizing that they might just end up shooting each other.
"I'm open to suggestions," Cameron announced.
Walsh spoke up, and they ended up using his plan. The team was indeed split in two. Cameron was with Donald, Cole, and Andrea. The rest fell back.
"Ready?" Cameron asked them. They nodded, so Cameron raised his rifle, which had the flashlight reattached, aimed at the door's lock, and shot it off.
Instantly the zombies spilled out of the basement, so they began picking the monsters off. The horde ran straight to them and before the things got too close, the four of them turned tail and ran. As planned, they made a tight left turn down another hall, making sure to hug the wall.
After running a few yards, Cameron and the rest stopped and pointed their rifles back the way they came. As the zombie horde followed them, all of the things slipped on the hand soap that a few minutes earlier had been spilled all over the floor. Without hesitation they began a barrage of gunfire on the zombies that tried and failed to get back up. When the floor was completely covered with dead bodies, the rest of the horde simply stepped over the corpses and continued to give chase.
That was the cue for them to continue their retreat. Soon enough they reached the other team, ran past them, and as soon they passed them they began a new barrage of gunfire. Cameron and his team didn't stop to look as they continued running until they reached the end of the hallway. Once there they took the opportunity to reload.
A minute later the other team came running towards them and stopped, and all eight of them pointed their rifles. Once the zombies reappeared they started shooting once more. The plan was that if they didn't finish off the zombies by that point then they'd go left to try to make for the truck.
Thankfully that didn't happen. The monsters thinned out, and the last one fell to the ground dead. Still they kept their guns at the ready just in case. It wasn't for another few minutes that they finally relaxed.
Slowly they went back in the direction of the basement. The floor was littered with the bodies of the undead, and it amazed Cameron how many people had managed to hide down in that basement. They made a right at the pile of bodies that had slipped on the soap.
"MOTHER FUCKER!" A zombie that was pinned down under the bodies had managed to extend its arms and grab Donald's leg so that it could sink its teeth in.
Donald pulled away and fell, as Andrea shot the zombie. Cameron and Cole proceeded to pull Donald back and put him against the wall.
"Fuck!" Donald grunted, clutching his bleeding leg.
Sighing sadly, Cameron knelt and put a hand on his shoulder. "Sorry, but you know your options."
"I may have expected to die, but not like this," he said, breathing heavily as he tried to stand.
"What the hell is up with you?" asked Cameron. He might not have been so concerned about the man's mental state if he hadn't already talked about dying two days previously.
"Lung cancer," he answered, trying to put weight on his wounded leg. "Been a smoker for thirty years, and I was diagnosed before all hell broke loose."
"So that's why you wanted to die?"
"Figure if I gotta go, I might as well go doing something meaningful," Donald said, sweating profusely. Using a knife, Donald cut off the sleeve of his sweater and tied it tightly around his wound. "There might still be zombies in the basement. Let me go first."
"Sounds good to me," Andrea agreed. Those in the vicinity all of a sudden gave her sharp looks. "What? He's clearly not all that upset he's dying."
"She's right," Donald confirmed.
Cameron exhaled. "Who the hell am I to stop you? Let's go."
Limping, Donald led the rest of the way to the basement door. He didn't even hesitate as he pointed his rifle and flashlight down the stairs, and started going down. Cameron was right behind him, as well as the six others. It was pitch black down in the basement.
"Which way?" Donald whispered, slowly continuing to lead the way.
Cameron handed his rifle to Andrea, and took the schematics out of his back pocket. "Shine some light over here," he asked Cole.
"It looks like the generator should be around here," Andrea said, pointing over Cameron's shoulder.
"Okay, watch my back," Donald said, raising his rifle and limping the direction of the generator.
To make sure that Cameron and the rest weren't snuck up on, they put their backs to each other and formed a circle to point their guns and flashlights outwards. Cameron was facing Donald as he proceeded onwards. The man's limping got worse and his breathing heavier. There was no doubt that the infection was spreading through his system fast.
A growling noise erupted from somewhere off to the left, and a zombie charged into view attacking Donald. His reaction was a bit slow, and he only just managed to hit the creature with the butt of his rifle. Donald was about to put an end to the monster, when another came from the right and bit him on the shoulder!
"Shit!" Cole yelled. He raised his rifle, put a round through the zombie's skull—and then in Donald's.
That only seemed to have caused a chain reaction. All of a sudden inhuman noises began erupting all over the basement, and more zombies appeared from the darkness charging at them. The remaining seven did their best to pick off the monsters coming from every direction.
"Don't break formation!" Cameron hollered, firing off round after round. Suddenly he came up empty and he had no time to reload. Oh shit! Without thinking, Cameron jammed the barrel of the gun into the wailing mouth of the zombie charging at him. Immediately he broke out his pistol and put a bullet between its eyes.
It was a complete bitch to try and hold the rifle up so that he could shine the light at the end, and at the same time keep on firing his pistol. As he did that he heard "Oh fuck!" and other screams of pain and agony. Eventually his pistol ran out too, so he discarded it and smashed the next zombie with the butt of the rifle. Once on the ground, Cameron drove the heel of his boot through the monster's skull.
He then felt something grab him from behind, but Cole was right there to shoot the zombie at point blank range. Cole then quickly went over to Walsh, who was on the floor trying to keep a zombie at bay. Quickly kicking off the infected, Cole put a bullet through its brain. "Thanks," Walsh said shakily as he inspected himself. The entire thing had lasted less than two minutes.
"Kill…me," Cameron heard a gargling voice say. He pointed his flashlight down to see Natasha writhing on the ground, grasping at the bleeding gash on her neck. Next to her was a dead zombie that had obviously not been taken out in time.
Cole grimaced and pointed his pistol at her, but Cameron stopped him. "I'll do it," he said solemnly. Taking the gun, he pointed it, and said sadly, "I'm so sorry."
"Get it over with," she gasped, splitting up blood and becoming paler by the second.
Natasha closed her eyes, and Cameron pulled the trigger. He knew that later he was going to dwell on that fact that it was his fault. She wasn't the only victim, though. Louie and Jake had bites on their shoulder and forearm, respectively.
"Kind of appropriate, ain't it?" Jake said, collapsing on the ground and laughing a little.
"What?" Cameron had to ask.
Jake unzipped his jacket to reveal he was wearing a red shirt underneath. "Don't know why the fuck I even came," he said, his voice becoming shaky. "We never said two words to each other."
"Was it because you heard 'Pregnancy in trouble'?" Cameron said, sounding sorry.
Jake nodded as his lips trembled. "I'll take option three, by the way."
A bullet suddenly went off, and Cameron turned just in time to see Louie fall dead as a gun fell from his hand.
"Ballsy," Jake commented as he started to cry. "Don't waste this, Cameron. Take good care of that kid of yours."
"I intend to."
Donald, Louie, and Natasha's bodies were carried off upstairs. Jake went upstairs too, and it was up to Cole to do the deed when the time came. It turned out that Andrea had lucked out, because a zombie had managed to grab on to her, but it only managed to bite into the insulation of her jacket.
Cameron reloaded his rifle, and he and Andrea pressed onward towards the generator. Upon finding it, she began to inspect it. It took a few tries, but she eventually got it to run and the lights turned on to illuminate the basement.
"Maybe we should wait for backup before we clear the upper floors," Andrea said when they headed back to the truck. Cameron agreed.