Oasis: Chapter 13

A Very Serious Mistake

I didn’t have to look very hard. There was a set of keys hanging from the lock.

I wondered what could have had happened.

The door swung open.

My heart sank. I realized I had a problem. I had no idea how long the keys had been left there. I only knew that whoever left the keys had made a very serious mistake. I just didn’t know if it had caught up to them yet. I didn’t know if any infected had gotten in. I had no idea who was still there. But at least I knew I could get in and lock the door. Who knows how long it’s going to take to find another open building?

I set my jaw, gently pulled out the keys and entered. As quietly as I could manage, I locked the door, put the keys in my pocket and explored with both hands holding the bat.

The first level was filled with bland cubicles but devoid of life. The stairway only went up, and there was an elevator with only a down arrow. As I passed the bathroom, I could have sworn I heard running water.

I crept up to the door and listened for a good five minutes.

No noise.

I opened the bathroom door a crack.

It was poorly lit by a small frosted glass window.

My heart pounded. I edged the door open another crack.

No movement inside.

I couldn’t take it any longer. I gave the door a larger shove and lunged in, bat at the ready.

No one here.

I let out a small sigh of relief and relaxed my grip on the bat. Maybe they did leave the keys during the rush home when the crisis broke. I almost had myself convinced, then I heard it again.

It was the sound pipes make when water is running through them. The water ran for about thirty seconds.

My stomach dropped. I froze. I ran through the possibilities in my head. Is it just one person? Are they infected? I figured if they were infected, at least they hadn’t completely lost their mind yet. The glassy-eyed once-humans I had seen didn’t seem like the hand washing type. If I head up there anytime soon, I should be guaranteed a thinking human being.

That was a small consolation. I didn’t and I couldn’t know what was going to happen once they saw me. Will they think I’m infected? Are they dangerous? And what if there are more than one? I quickly decided it would do me no good to stand around. I headed for the stairs.

The stairwell had no windows. It was pitch black and very hot. The air felt thick and unhealthy.

I stumbled as quietly as I could up the stairs to the second floor. Once I found the door I pressed my ear to it and listened as hard as I could.

Nothing.

I slowly opened the door a crack.

Nothing.

I kept my breathing as quiet as I could, but it sounded like a crashing waterfall in the silence of the stairwell. I slipped through the door and helped it close ever so gently. I raised my bat again to batting position and began to work my way around.

This floor was full of offices. The walls were white and stark. There was also a break room with a water cooler, a refrigerator, and a vending machine.

I wondered where the medical research equipment was and decided it was probably only accessible via the elevator downstairs.

A loud crash came from the floor above me. The crash was followed by footsteps. Footsteps that seemed to be pacing.

At that point the thought occurred to me that I was going about my exploration a little wrong. After all, If I was holed up on the top floor, would I want someone sneaking around, or would I want some signs of intelligence? And if they were infected, I wouldn’t be much worse off by saying hello.

I relaxed the bat again and held it only with my left.

The footsteps continued to pace.

I headed for the stairwell and went up. This time I didn’t try to be so sneaky.

The air in the stairwell was hotter and muggier the higher I went.

When I found the door to the third floor, I paused.

I was still too agitated for my own good.

I took three deep breaths of the burning air. I forced my shoulders to relax and rolled them around. I tried to imagine the most non-threatening way I could possibly carry the bat. I took one more breath and pushed on the door handle.

“Hello?” I swung the door open. “Anybody th…”

A small man in a white lab coat looked up from where he had been pacing the floor. His eyes opened as wide as they could and he froze.

I stepped in and raised a hand. “It’s OK, I’m just…”

The man turned down the small hallway and ran into an open door.

“Wait!” I ran after him.

Before I could make it halfway, the man popped back into view holding a gun.

“Stop right there!”

I almost tripped trying to slam on my own breaks. My heart pounded as hard as ever. I dropped the bat and raised my hands. “Look, I’m not infected.”

“Oh, yeah?”

I edged back a little. “I just want somewhere safe to stay the night.”

The man narrowed his beady eyes.

“I’ll leave in the morning. I promise.”

The man thought for a moment and then lowered his gun a little. “Then take off your clothes.”

 

next chapter: Confessions of a Mad Scientist

On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft – Review

This is the second of the three books I recently bought on writing. The third got here today, and I’ll be certain to read it in the next little while.

On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft

This is Stephen King’s memoir/writing book, and it’s really good. The memoir portion is chock full of interesting and amusing tidbit’s from King’s life. The writing part gives some excellent and practical advice.

The main point he makes is that you shouldn’t let anything get in the way of the story. Don’t bog your work down in useless information. One of my favorite lines in the book is, “first draft – 10% = second draft.”

It’s a great book and I highly recommend it.

How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy – Review

I recently bought a few books on writing in the hopes that they would magically transform me into a fantastic novelist. The first one that showed up at my house was this, “How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy,” by Orson Scott Card.

Even though it says “& Fantasy,” it really concentrates on the Sci-Fi portion of things. The only part where it deals with a fantasy specific topic is when Card talks about setting up a system for magic that makes sense.

One part that I really enjoyed was the discussion on tailoring your work to be a specific “story type.”

He stresses lots of reading and not being afraid to experiment upon common themes.

All in all, it’s worth a read, but I didn’t find this book to be as useful as his book on�Characters and Viewpoint.

Oasis: Chapter 12

Life On The Street

I wasn’t as shocked at seeing an infected person this time. A couple of years working in the emergency room had conditioned me for crisis. I glanced around to check my options.

The alley wasn’t a good option. I had no idea what was back there or even where it really went. The only other option was to go through the infected man onto the street.

He didn’t have to think of a plan. He just kept coming.

I guessed he was about fifteen or twenty feet away. In between us I noticed two metal garbage cans. I sprinted.

He continued his limping advance. As I neared he seemed to prime himself.

I snatched up the lid from one of the cans.

The infected man jumped at me.

I spun the lid as fast as I could.

The infected man grabbed the lid’s rim with both hands.

I pushed as hard as I could, hoping to bowl him over.

He yanked the lid.

The force of his pull swung me around to the side. I felt the lid being torn from my grip. I stumbled, but I knew I was passed him.

He dropped the lid and dove at me.

I tried my best to sprint, but I was still off balance. I tripped over some garbage and fell.

The infected man stretched and groped at me.

I scrambled to my feet and made it into the open road. I took at glance back at the alley.

The infected man was back on his feet and shambling for me.

There was also movement from in front of my building. The man whose fingers I had smashed under the door was facing me, hand still caught. He struggled to stand, tearing at his trapped hand.

I knew he’d be free soon.

The other infected man emerged from the alley.

The little voice inside me was screaming again for me to run, so I turned and ran. I had no idea where I was going, but I knew I had to put some distance between myself and those two infected. Enough distance that they couldn’t follow me.

I turned at every intersection for the next few blocks. Hopefully that’ll lose them. Eventually I slowed and stopped in the middle of a block. My decision to leave seemed completely idiotic now. I was trapped outside in the heat of the day. I had no friends to help me, no shelter to hide in and no protection other than an old baseball bat. I also had no idea which building might already have infected people in it.

I caught some movement in the windows around me, and I could feel the inhabitants watching me. I knew they were asking themselves if I was infected or not. Some were probably even wondering if I was one of the terrorists on the TV that started this mess. No one was going to let me in.

A man’s scream echoed from within one of the nearby buildings.

I wondered how many buildings across the city were filled with the same screaming. Why isn’t the government doing anything about this? What happened to the Army? Are they going to let the city just die? I decided it wasn’t a good time to debate this in my head. I still needed to get off of the street.

I remembered my original plan to find a place the among the factories and shops to the south. That still seemed plausible, so I started for them.

More and more often noises were echoing from some distant house as the virus claimed its victims. One house’s door appeared to have been beaten in.

My skin began to crawl. I wondered if anyone or anything was still inside. I decided not to check.

Inside an apartment building up ahead there was a lot of shouting. The shouting led to what sounded like muffled gunfire.

My resolve hardened. I was consumed with a single thought – find a safe place. I wasn’t about to put myself in harms way by checking out anything that sounded dangerous. I picked up the pace and passed by.

A door opened behind me.

I stole a glance to see, and sure enough, it was the apartment building.

A man stumbled out of the door and fell. He pulled himself to his feet again. He looked as if he had been in a nasty bar fight. He had cuts on his face, he was favoring his right leg, and his left arm appeared to have been bitten several times. He looked around, saw me and started across the lawn.

“I need help.”

My heart sank. Up until last night, my whole life was about helping people in emergencies. I wanted to go bandage him up, but I knew what those bite marks meant. There is no helping this man. I took a step back.

A woman came out of the door behind him. She had the same vacant stare I had seen before. She said nothing, but turned toward the man trying to escape. He didn’t need to look back. He knew who was chasing him.

“Please help!” He reached out a hand.

There is no helping this man. To stay and help was suicide. I ran.

His tortured screams echoed in my ears.

I kept running.

Soon enough, the houses gave was to machine shops and small factories.

My lungs burned. I stopped and gasped for air.

The look of horror on his face was etched in my memory.

I felt sick to my stomach. There was nothing I could do. If I had stayed, I just would have gotten infected, too. I knew it was true, but it still hurt to just abandon the man like that.

A building caught my eye. At three stories, it was the tallest building on the block. The plaque mounted next to the door read “Oasis Medical Center Research Annex Two.” On the door was painted the hospital logo.

I knew the hospital had several labs throughout the city, but I had never been in any of them. Still, seeing a building with the same logo that was on my scrubs made it feel something like going home. I decided to look for a way in.

 

next – Chapter 13: A Very Serious Mistake

Resource Updates.

I just added a number of link and things to the writing resources page for everybody like me who wants to be a novelist.