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As Dianne moved through the facility she was struck by the realization that the place looked remarkably clean in spite of the destruction surrounding it in the city. None of the windows or exterior doors had been broken, there was no sign of looting on the ground floor and she had seen no sign that there were other people in the area. The oddity of the place being both untouched by the fire and left alone by any survivors was a good thing but it was also slightly nerve-wracking.
In an effort to ensure she really was alone Dianne didn’t take the stairs near where she came in nor did she take the set in the middle of the building. Instead she walked all the way down the length of the atrium, checking the windows and doors along the way, until she reached the far staircase.
Why would anyone leave this place alone? Maybe they didn’t realize this is basically just a hospital. The sign out front indicated that it was a long-term care facility and she assumed that anyone looking to loot medical supplies would put two and two together and realize the place could be a goldmine. Apparently they didn’t.
She looked up the stairs, took a deep breath and ascended slowly. As it was located at the end of the building the staircase was surrounded on three sides by tall, wide panes of glass. The stairs themselves were wide and deep, though they were only a few inches high and covered with slip-proof carpet to help accommodate the needs of the older patients. The stairs looped back on themselves twice for each floor with a wide landing after each loop. Dianne paused on the first landing and looked out through the window, shielding her eyes from the glare as she marveled at the beauty of the building.
The effect of the sun coming through the glass box on the stairs was almost enough to keep her from noticing the city that stretched out as far as she could see. The longer she looked, though, the more its destruction began to overwhelm her. Fire had consumed huge portions of the city, swallowing Virginia Tech, the Blacksburg Zoo and many of the new apartment complexes that had been built over the last several months.
In areas where the fires hadn’t completely destroyed the buildings there were hundreds and thousands of destroyed vehicles along with shops and homes that had been broken into and looted. The city resembled something out of a zombie or disaster movie, though all Dianne could think about was how much worse it could potentially be in other areas of the country—like wherever Rick was.
***
“You’re spilling it!”
“How is that my fault? My arm’s broken!”
“You couldn’t do anything with it if it was broken. It’s probably just fractured.”
“Isn’t a fracture a break?”
“Just shut up and give me the jug.”
The man with the injured arm passed the jug of water over to his companion, intentionally spilling some of it on the ground in the process. The uninjured man growled but decided not to escalate the situation. He grabbed the jug and took a long drink before wiping his mouth on the back of his sleeve and sighing.
“How are we supposed to find her in this mess?”
“I don’t know. Why would I know?”
“I’d rather find a needle in a haystack. At least then I could sit down while searching.”
The injured man slid off of the hood of the hatchback where he had been resting and pulled back his coat to look at his arm. He had used a strip of cloth to fashion a makeshift sling but keeping it immobilized had done nothing to dull the pain or reduce the swelling that was still growing around his elbow, wrist and shoulder. He could still move his fingers, but doing so caused a tremendous amount of pain to shoot up through his entire arm and down the side of his chest.
“You should call in. Tell him we haven’t found anything.”
The uninjured man shook his head. “What good will that do? He’ll just get even more pissed off.”
The injured man picked up a pair of binoculars off of the hood of the car and looked out across the city. “I don’t see how that’s possible. He’s already… wait. What’s that building up there?”
“What building?”
“That one, up there, with all the glass windows.”
“Nursing home, I think. My grandmother was there for a few months before she died. I went there once. The cafeteria had good food.”
“Look at the end of the building on the right. Second floor. Do you see what I’m seeing?” The injured man held out the binoculars. His companion took them and focused on the location, studying it closely for several seconds. The faint image of a figure wearing a white and green jacket was just barely visible through the heavily tinted glass. She was standing still, looking out on the city for a moment before she turned away and vanished from sight.
“Well I’ll be.” The uninjured man l
owered the binoculars and grinned. “She went to a nursing home? What the hell for?”
“You really want to look a gift horse in the mouth?” The injured man walked around the car and opened the passenger door before reaching in to get the radio sitting on the seat. “Base, unit three here. Put him on. We’ve got something.” He looked at his companion as he lifted his finger off of the transmit button. “You sure it’s a nursing home?”
“Pretty sure. They call it something else but yeah. That’s what it was.”
“Hm.” The injured man waited a few seconds until the man with the red shirt came on the radio.
“I hope you have some good news.”
