Chapter 6: The Squad
BEFORE DAYLIGHT broke through the sky, Sam had the guys up and moving. They had gone in four-hour shifts throughout the night, monitoring activity in the area. Everything appeared calm. They left their gear, and Joey stayed behind to keep watch. He would signal them if anything changed. The rest made their way towards the hospital a few hundred yards from their campsite. They moved swiftly and quietly, as the morning sky began to lighten just enough to show the way. Jacob took the lead, sweeping the area for anything suspicious. Sam made up the middle with Chris and Amos while Scott brought up the rear equally sweeping the area for activity behind them.
Once inside the building, they moved by flashlight, breaking up into two teams and heading in opposite directions to cover as much space as quickly as possible. Jacob led Chris and Amos to the left, and Sam and Scott headed to the right. It didn’t take long to realize there wasn’t activity in the area because there was nothing left. The hospital was cleaned out entirely . They were able to find some alcohol prep pads, some sanitizing and cleaning agents no one seemed to have wanted, some large bed pads, and some surgical equipment.
There were several people sleeping on one floor, and they carefully avoided that section despite Chris insisting that it was likely where the best supplies were. Jacob figured it wasn’t worth getting in a fight over. Jacob radioed Sam after only two or so hours to report their findings and to say they were heading back, that it was a wash. She agreed, but on the way out, Scott found a row of offices. One of them was marked “anesthesiology.”
“We should at least check.”
“It’s an office, Scott. They didn’t keep medicine and stuff like that in there, did they?”
“How do I know? But it’s one of the words Doc said to keep an eye out for.”
The office didn’t look like it had been touched, unlike much of the rest of the hospital where tables and chairs were overturned and cabinet doors ripped off. They took a second to rummage around, only to find absolutely nothing. However, the bottom desk drawer was locked.
“Just leave it, Scott. It’s not even worth it.”
“Just give me a minute. Humor me,” he said, and she did.
It took some prying, but he finally got the drawer open to find small vials of fluid stacked full inside.
“What is it?”
“How am I supposed to know?”
“Do you have the list of medicines we’re looking for?”
“No, Jacob has it. Maybe Doc can use whatever it is though, so just grab it all and let’s go. Knowing people are sleeping a few floors above us kind of has me creeped out.”
He laughed but filled his bag with the vials. On the way out, he once again got side tracked by signs reading “Surgery.” Following them, they came to a room with several little rooms open to it.
“Sign says ‘outpatient surgery.’ It doesn’t look as ransacked as some of the other areas we checked.”
He quickly started rummaging through drawers and carts and wall units. There was a locked door that looked like it had several dents in it, as if people had tried over the years to get in with no luck.
“Just leave it, Scott.”
“No way. This could be the jackpot we’re looking for!”
“You aren’t going to be able to get in there. You can see people have been trying like crazy.”
“Woman, do not underestimate me! Sometimes it just takes being smarter than the object.”
He stood back and assessed the situation. There was a keypad, but there appeared to be no power to the hospital. He tried to think hard.
“You know in the bunker, they had automatic lockdowns when the power goes out. But there’s always a manual override. I got it— it’s a fail-secure system. I should be able to override it if we just apply a jolt of current to it. Hand me your flashlight,” Scott told Sam.
She rolled her eyes as she dug it out of her pack. “This is never going to work.”
Scott unscrewed her flashlight and removed the batteries, then took out his own and removed those batteries. He unwound the coil inside the flashlight carefully, then assembled the batteries in a line. Next, he removed the keypad and exposed the wires there. Using the coil to connect the two, he was able to cause a spark to the wires on the keypad, successfully overriding the fail secure. It immediately clicked open.
“I can’t believe you just did that! Scott, you’re a genius!” She hugged him as he twirled her around.
He shrugged. “Just needed a 12-volt current to trigger the bolt and override the fail-safe. No big deal.”
They slowly opened the door, and their mouths fell open. Inside were all sorts of medical supplies and equipment. They didn’t have enough bags to take everything on this trip, so they each grabbed a little of everything there, with no idea what they were taking, but figuring that, if it was locked in a room like that and obviously others wanted in, then it had to be worth something.
Jacob radioed in, complaining they were taking too long. They gave their location, and soon the others were there filling up their packs and pockets with anything and everything they could grab.
There were bags of fluids that Chris was trying to stuff carefully into an extra duffel bag he had brought along. “They’re IV fluid bags. I’ve seen Doc use them to hydrate people or dilute meds he’s administering. We definitely want these.” He was also scanning the labels and prioritizing what they should take.
“This steel box is locked tight, but it’s not too big. Can you get it off the wall and we’ll just take it with us?”
It took some work, but Jacob managed to pry the entire box from the wall. Satisfied with their loot, they left the room, careful to lock it back behind them and started out.
“Hold up a sec,” Sam said. She called over the radio to check in with Joey.
“Sit tight for a bit, there’s movement at the door.”
“10-4.”
When commotion and voices reached their ears, they stumbled back as quickly as possible, practically knocking each other over to get back into the safe room.
“Someone’s in our territory; they do so by chance of death. Search the floors. If they’re here, we’ll find them.”
“Shit!” Amos said as they all shushed him praying against everything that, since they had clearly never managed to get into this room, they wouldn’t think to check it.
Things were quiet for a long time, but they couldn’t be certain how well they could hear from inside, and they were blind to the outside. They all sat around. Guns cocked and loaded and within arms’ reach as they waited out the day. They fed on the disgusting meal bars, suddenly thankful for them. After what felt like hours, they chanced a radio call out to Joey. It was staticky from inside the room, but they heard enough to know there was still activity in the area.
At nightfall, he informed them they had set up a watchman at the entrance the group had entered the night before. He advised that if they were holed up safe to stay put. They listened. Two days they sat in that room waiting for the all clear.
“Ok, camp’s packed up, and the weather’s dropped a lot. Feels like snow’s on the way. Right now there’s no one watching the door. As soon as night falls, if that’s still the case, it should be your best time to make a run for it. Then we’ll leave the area immediately.”
“Good call, Joey. Keep us posted,” Sam told him. “Lord knows, we should all have plenty of energy to get us moving and far away from this place.” She told the others who laughed without humor. Tempers had been running high and the blame game was going around. They were all miserable, cooped up in the tiny room blind.
On Joey’s command, they exited the room as quickly and quietly as possible, locking it behind them. They had hoped to return again for more of what they had to leave behind. As it was, they each had a bulging backpack plus six duffel bags full that Chris had brought with him. Turned out he was very serious about making sure Doc had enough for both Jared and Cassie when the twins arrived.
No one was at the door and they met no resistance as they quickly ran out into the cold dark night. Joey was loaded down with more than his fair share of all their camp gear, but he was packed up and ready to run when they reached him.
They moved at a fast pace for as long as they could. Amos was the first to slow the pace, apologizing the entire time.
“It’s okay, Amos, we should have enough distance now to slow down some, but we still need to push it. We’re a walking target here with this loot.”
“Doc’s gonna freak!” Scott said excitedly. “Who imagined we’d find such a score?”
They walked through the night, finding a safe place hidden enough to ease their fears and slept as the sky began to lighten. The sun was high in the sky when they woke and continued on their journey, after much debate. Part of the group wanted to hide out and lie low and walk again through the night, but Sam just wanted to get them home as quickly as possible, so they pressed on through the afternoon and through the night. It was just starting to snow when the walls of the Compound came into view. They made it the last few miles and radioed for Doc to meet them with help at the main entrance. They passed off the supplies and crashed in the visitor cabins, too exhausted to even make it fully inside the walls of safety.
* * * * *