The Undead Day Nineteen Read Online Free PDF Page B

agree...’
    ‘Yes,’ Lenski nods instantly, ‘This good thing. We do this.’
    ‘I…’ Maddox goes to speak.
    ‘And Doctor Carlton too,’ Lilly cuts in.
    ‘We do this,’ Lenski says agreeing with a curt nod, ‘Maddox do this,’ Lenski says in such a tone it leaves nothing else to be said by Maddox who just dips his head.
    ‘Okay,’ Lilly says, blowing air through her cheeks, ‘Okay…’
    ‘Not okay,’ Lenski says, ‘look at mess. Look at work. We have hole in wall.’
    ‘I meant okay I will stay and help,’ Lilly says.
    ‘I know this,’ Lenski says bluntly, ‘I know you stay. Maddox, get guns. Small guns.’
    ‘I think we only have one size…’ he stops at the glare sent his way.
    ‘Good. Get gun. We have meet yes? We decide, yes?’
    ‘Meat?’ Lilly asks.
    ‘Yes. We meet. We meet to decide. Three decide. Get Doctor.’ She waves a hand between them.
    ‘Oh, a meeting,’ Lilly says.
    ‘Meeting? Meet? Is same thing. We meet. Maddox. Get guns. Small guns.’
    ‘Okay.’
    ‘Now, Maddox.’
    ‘Okay,’ he says again, blinking heavily as he goes to walk off and stumbles.
    ‘Take other guns from children.’
    ‘Maddox, are you okay?’ Lilly asks watching him sway further round in a drunken circle.
    ‘Lock place where guns are.’
    ‘Okay,’ Maddox breathes the word out fighting to stay upright and keep the blackness at the edge of his vision from closing in. Everything hurts. His legs can’t hold his weight and his neck creaks like rusted hinges every time he moves his head.
    ‘Small guns, Maddox. Small hands.’
    ‘Small guns,’ Maddox slurs.
    ‘Maddox?’ Lilly steps towards him, watching as his legs simply buckle and down he goes, dropping like a stone to lie crumpled on the ground.
    Lenski tuts, shaking her head with a mouth pursed and thin, ‘Kurcze!’ She looks over at Maddox and round at everything else that lies broken and ruined, ‘Mess. All mess.’

Four
     
    The room would be pitch dark if not for the gas lamp hissing softly. The back rooms of the medical complex do not have windows and no natural source of light can penetrate the thick walls that deaden the sound and smells of the fort.
    He lies on his back on a hastily made bed of blankets stacked on each other to provide what degree of comfort they can give. The room is cool and bathed in the muted orange glow of flame burning within the glass casement.
    ‘I know of one,’ Andrew says with a sigh, ‘Chap in London got tazered ten times and survived.’
    ‘Anecdotal?’ Anne asks, glancing over the form of Maddox to Andrew.
    ‘No,’ Andrew says, his voice a whisper in the darkness. ‘Medical journal reported it for trauma doctors in the cities after the police started equipping their officers with tazers.’
    ‘He not die?’ Lenski asks bluntly, her emotionless face staring down.
    ‘He’s stable,’ Andrew says, ‘vitals are okay, heart rate, blood pressure…he’s young, fit and strong,’ he stops to pull a face with a tired shrug, ‘Hopefully…only time will tell.’
    Lilly shuffles forward, clearing her throat politely as a pre-cursor to speaking, ‘The man who was tazered ten times? He was okay?’
    ‘He had mental health issues,’ Andrew mutters, ‘whether that has any bearing on his ability to withstand the shock is something I do not know. Any person exposed to that level of shock to the body can have very serious health implications…look, all we can do is monitor him and let his body rest.’
    ‘How long?’ Lenski asks, as blunt as ever.
    ‘Jesus, how do I know?’ Andrew says glaring up at her.
    ‘We don’t know,’ Anne says, rising to her feet with a grimace at the pain radiating in her knees from being knelt down for so long. ‘Who wants this?’ She picks the pistol up taken from the back of Maddox’s belt and holds it out to the two women who stare at the squat black weapon.
    ‘Can you make him awake?’
    ‘Lenski,’ Anne says softly, ‘Maddox is unconscious, there is