Chapter 73

I did wait a little longer before going out and trying to talk to the occupants of the medical centre again. While I waited I had Hope teleport me in a new set of body armour to replace the one that the dickhead had put a hole in. That proved to be easy. Then I held an impromptu briefing over the vehicle's radio system. I told everyone my plan and then told them to get ready to move. If the occupants refused to chat with me again, we'd be going in with our weapons at the ready and anyone who tried to stop us would die. I didn't like the idea considering the number of civilians in the facility, but I really didn't like the idea of spending the night outside with a bunch of zombies. When I was done the briefing I ordered the ramp to be dropped again so I could get out.

Dork was there waiting for me holding the bullhorn that I'd dropped. He just shook his head in response to my plan.

"We have to try," I told him as I took the proffered device from him.

"We have tried," Dork reminded me, "and you got yourself shot. I think we should just go in and make them do what we want them to do."

"I would," I told him, "if this was the other Earth or Game World and these guys were bad guys but they're not, and considering I want them to help Nimue, I think I'd rather have them helping me as a friend and not as my prisoner."

Dork just looked away and grunted in response to that. I left it at that and stepped away. Slowly I walked forward again. As I did, I put the bullhorn to my mouth and I started calling the centre again.

"I would like to speak to whoever is in charge of this facility," I shouted out to the building. "My people are not infected and we would like medical help for a woman who needs a new arm. We know that you have both the equipment and medical personnel available in the facility that can carryout the procedure. We also know that you are low on supplies. I think we can make a deal. All I want to do is to talk to you."

Dusk had fallen by then and as the distant sun set towards the west, darkness started to blanket the surrounding landscape. I had no desire to be out here at night and I was getting tired of the game. I could leave at anytime. Hope could teleport us all out in the blink of an eye and she could drop us off at the resort, but I didn't want that. What I wanted was to get into that building and to move on with life. Was that too much to ask?

"Who are you," a voice cried out from an open window high above me, "and what do you want?"

I immediately scanned the face of the building but saw nothing. Whoever was calling out was keeping out of sight. There were several windows open above ground level so the person could have been calling from any floor and any window. The only thing I did know for certain was that it had been a woman's voice.

"I've already told you what I want," I said back at the voice using the bullhorn. "I want to talk to you about making a deal. I've got a woman here who needs your medical assistance and I've got a small army here that can be used for either good or for bad. That will be your choice. Will you talk to me or do we have to do things the hard way."

There was silence again for several seconds and I was getting antsy about it. I'd been hit once today and I really didn't want to get hit again. It had hurt and besides you can't get lucky every time someone tried to kill you. The next shot might be between the eyes and I wasn't in favour of that. Since the woman didn't want to talk anymore I decided to put an end to it.

"All right," I shouted sternly into the bullhorn, "I've given you two chances today and I'm not going to give you a third chance. The first time I tried to talk to you people, one of you shot me. As you can see I'm not dead. Unfortunately for your man, he is dead. Now I've asked nicely and you people don't want to cooperate so I'm putting an end to it. My people and I are coming in there and there isn't a thing you can do about it. If you want to live, you'll put down your weapons and surrender. If you don't, we'll kill you. It's as simple as that."

With that I lowered the bullhorn and handed it back to Dork. Then the two of us walked back towards our vehicle. As we did the woman's voice called out again.

"Wait," the voice called out again. "I'll talk to you. You don't have to threaten us."

"I'm not threatening you," I growled back at the woman, not even using the bullhorn to reply. "I'm just stating the bloody obvious."

"What?" the woman asked, obviously not hearing my reply. I sighed and took the bullhorn back from Dork.

"Look," I said with exasperation in my voice, "we can continue to bellow back and forth like this for the next couple of hours, thereby drawing in every zombie from miles around, or you and I can speak face to face. It's your choice, but you better make your decision fast. My people and I don't want to spend the night out here if we don't have to do it."

Again there was a pause while the woman pondered the choice given her. After a moment she shouted down to me one more time.

"All right," the woman declared loudly, "we can meet face to face, but only you and you have to come unarmed. If the security people see a single weapon on you they will kill you before you even get a chance to explain."

"Nice," I grumbled to no one in particular.

I agreed much to the consternation of my mates and my friends and my men. I told them I didn't care. I still had my other world translator on and everyone in my force could hear me through it. If something happened they would know about it when it happened and they could act accordingly. All I made them promise was not to kill the doctors if they had to come in and rescue me. I didn't want to go through this again. Leaving my weapons behind, I walked towards the force field and the pile of decaying zombies that had been cut down by it.

The pain was excruciating. I don't know if it was my enhanced responses or what, but it started to hurt the moment I stepped into the field. It was like someone had put a white hot poker between my eyes and into my brains. For a moment I wanted to lie down and die. Worse I wanted to puke my guts out. Thankfully I didn't. I'm pretty certain if I had, the occupants of the centre would have decided I was infected and they would have opened up right away and one of them could have gotten lucky. Instead I pressed on until I reached the front entrance of the hospital and the extreme edge of the force field. At that point the pain disappeared almost as quickly as it had arrived.

I was met at the doors leading into the hospital by two men armed with side arms and that was it. They looked like a cross between somebody's idea of stand-ins in a bad war movie and rent-a-cops to me. One of the men covered me with his pistol while the other frisked me. A quick glance at the weapon told me that it was a semi-automatic and that it was probably a 9-mm. If the guy shot me it would hurt but with the armour that I was wearing, it wouldn't hurt that much. Still I wasn't interested in finding out how much so I cooperated with them. Both men were middle aged, reasonably tall and reasonably fit. Both needed a shave and their clothing could have done with a cleaning. Neither said anything to me until they were done making certain that I was unarmed. Then the one that had frisked me opened the inside door to the hospital and told me to step through. Naturally I did what the man told me.

A second later I was standing in a wide hallway that ran the length of the front of the hospital. The hallway joined with other corridors at the far end of the one I was standing in. There was some cushioned metal framed chairs and sofas situated in a small alcove to the right of the doors and there was a bank of elevators in the wall that faced the front of the building. There was little else in the place except a couple of sleeping bags that must have belonged to the guards and an over flowing garbage can that needed emptying.

A woman in a white blouse and a pair of dark coloured slack with a starched hospital smock on met me on the other side of the set of doors. The woman was medium tall, slightly built, and probably in her early thirties. She had long blonde hair that she wore in a bun and she had a pair of glasses on. She was the only person waiting to speak to me. If there was anyone else about, they were hidden. I came to halt in front of her and waited to see what she would say. As I stood there waiting the two guards took up positions on either side of me, standing a few feet away with their weapons drawn but not pointed at me. I silently noted that they weren't the friendliest bunch of people I had met in my many lives, but then again, they weren't the stupidest. I could appreciate their caution and due vigilance.

"You asked to talk," the woman stated almost dismissively, "so maybe you should start talking or maybe you just want to turn around and leave."

I smiled at that and the woman began to look a little uncomfortable.

"Are you one of the doctors," I asked the woman pointedly, "or are you one of the administrative staff."

"I'm a doctor," the woman said firmly. "I'm Dr. Elizabeth Gruber and you are..."

"Are you capable of cloning a woman's arm?" I threw back at the woman without bothering to introduce myself.

"We can do something like that," Dr. Gruber replied hesitantly. "Why?"

"Because one of my mates lost her arm a month or so ago in a firefight," I said looking down at the woman sternly, "and I want it replaced. If you can do that for my mate, then I can do things for you."

"Like what?" the woman asked without hesitation.

"Well for one," I told her, "we can clear the town below of the zombies. We've cleaned out at least half of the undead bastards already and if you can do what I want we can get rid of the rest. That would make your life here that much easier. At the minimum you could head off to the corner store and grab some food to replace what you've been going through here."

"We could," Dr. Gruber agreed thoughtfully, "but what if we wanted more. You're with the military aren't you? You could evacuate us from this facility and take us to one of the larger safe zones. That would benefit us both."

"We could do that and even more," I replied taking my time answering, "but that all depends on you healing my mate. If you do that, I'll help you out."

"That's the second time you used the term mate," Dr. Gruber stated in a questioning manner. "What do you mean by that? Are you part of a strange cult or something?"

"No," I grunted dismissively, "we're not part of a strange cult. A mate is a wife. We're talking about one of my wives."

"You've got to be kidding me," Dr. Gruber exclaimed with surprise in her voice. "There hasn't been a pluralistic marriage on Earth in centuries. Who are you? What command are you with? And what's a zombie? You've used that word a couple times now. Is that what you're calling the 'untoken'."

"You call the walking dead the 'untoken'," I said in response, "and we call them zombies. It's still the same thing. As for who we are, well you could say that we're not from around here. However that doesn't really matter. What matters is whether you're willing to make a deal or not. Personally, I'd like to get my people inside your force field for the night and I'd like to get this medical procedure started. What do you say to that? Can we make a deal?"

"No we do not have a deal, Herr Brigadeführer," a man's voice said from the end of the hall. Immediately I glanced in the direction of the voice. A short stocky man was walking towards where Dr. Gruber and I were standing. He was old with grey hair and he was wearing a suit and a medical smock over it. The words he had said to me took me by surprise. He spoke with a heavy German accent.

"That is," the man continued when he reached us, "unless we can get some straight answers from you."

"You are who?" I asked the man gruffly.

"The question is who are you, Herr Brigadeführer?" the man replied. "Dr. Gruber allowed you in against my standing orders while my attention was elsewhere. We are a closed facility and we have no desire to deal with the outside world until this plague has run its course. So unless you wish to be executed where you are standing, you will start explaining yourself."

"I already have explained myself," I told the man coldly. "I am here because one of my wives needs medical attention and my intelligence has informed me that this facility is capable of providing it. I will trade services to you and your people in exchange for this medical assistance."

"And I do not believe you," the man scoffed back at me, glaring angrily up at me from where he was standing. "I have never seen vehicles such as yours and you have not once identified yourself. I think our discussion is over with. Kill this man!"

"But Herr Director..." Dr. Gruber started to say in protest.

I didn't wait to hear what the woman had to say and I certainly didn't wait to hear what the man would tell her in response. Instead I decided to take matters into my own hands. The two guards had gotten nervous while the 'Herr Director' had been speaking and both men were covering me with their pistols at the ready in a two handed grip. They actually jumped with surprise when the director had barked his order and the good doctor's protest had made them hesitate instead of doing what they'd been ordered to do. Taking them down would take a little speed and finesse and a lot of luck. I still tried it.

I moved towards the man closest to me. In doing so I ended up putting the 'Herr Director' and Dr. Gruber between me and the second guard. As I started to move I called for support. I figured it wouldn't hurt to get my people in here as fast as they could.

The guard closest to me started with surprise and then he started to shoot. The first shot went wild since it had been reflexive and the man hadn't even bothered to correct his aim. That round ended up speeding past the stocky man's ear and embedding itself in the far wall. It caused Dr. Gruber to squeak with surprise and for the 'Herr Director' to throw himself on the ground. Fortunately for everyone else, the second guard held his fire. He did however start to move further away in an attempt to distance himself from me and to get into a better position to deal with me.

I ignored everyone except the man I was going for. With my enhanced speed and agility I was on him before he could bring his pistol about to get off another shot. As I reached him, my left hand came down on his pistol and hands. My big maul of a hand grasped the weapon before it could be aimed at me, and my strength pushed it down and away from me. Before the man could even react, my right came up and I dropped him with a fist in his face. As he started to stagger backwards, his weapon went off again. I cursed as the heat from the gun dissipated into my hand and the action grazed my palm. Still I held on for all my dear life and I hit the man again. This time I knocked him out. As he went limp, he released his weapon and I was suddenly holding it in my hand. I never got the chance to use it.

The second guard shot me in the back. He fired two rounds and they both slammed into my body armour. I grunted feeling the impact but that was it. Pissed I started to turn towards the man to engage him. As I did, I transferred the captured pistol from my left hand to my right. The man popped off another round at me, but this time it missed. That was when Dork showed up with his squad of men. The big guy blew a hole through the front window of the hospital with his shotgun and then he blew the guard away. It happened just like that. Dr. Gruber screamed some more and then threw herself down on the floor beside her boss and her boss cringed with fright.

"I guess we're in," Dork grunted at me once he'd stepped through the shot out window. As he said it a jagged smile formed on his face.

"I think you're right," I sighed in response. "That means we don't need to use my aces."

"Yeah," Dork chuckled as he glanced about to make certain there were no further threats, "but it also means that you don't need to negotiate with these idiots anymore. You should be pleased."

I wasn't but I didn't say anything about it to Dork. I was concerned about other things at that point and I needed to concentrate on them. I told Dork to get the rest of our people into the hospital at once and to keep an eye out for more guards. I knew there were more so we weren't safe yet. While he focused on doing that, I helped Dr. Gruber back onto her feet. I told the 'Herr Director' to stay where he was.

"Why are you doing this?" Dr. Gruber stammered once she was back on her feet. "We are a medical facility, not a military one. You can't do this to us. It's not fair."

I looked at the woman with disbelief on my face and then I shook my head. As I did, I slipped the captured pistol into my belt.