EYEHEARTZOMBIES

The sirens reached the library thirty seconds before the lights. The lights made it fifteen seconds faster than the truck. A red and white box on wheels pulled up outside of the library and two paramedics climed out of the cab. They went around to the back, took out a stretcher, and climbed the steps to the front door.

“Hi, all,” the first one said tiredly. He saw the girl and nodded at everyone. His parter came in, a female paramedic, and they both knealt down by the corpse. She leaned forward and checked for a pulse while he pulled out a blood-pressure cuff. After a few seconds from her and a few pumps from him they looked at each other and shook their heads. The whole affair was strangely quiet and unreal. They packed their implements back into the little black bag they had brought in with them.

The male paramedic, his tag read “Jones”, turned to the assembled group and smiled again. “So, who found her?” He looked around and Elijah and Seth both raised their hands. He smiled condescendingly at Seth, then turned to Elijah. “So, sir, want to tell me what happened?”

Elijah swallowed and rubbed his palms together. “Well, uh,” he began, then paused to swallow again. “She, uh, stepped in front of my taxi cab. I didn’t have any time to stop or anything, you understand, she just jumped right out there. I — I tried to swerved but I didn’t have time, like i said, and, well…I hit her pretty hard I guess. I was probably doin’ thirty or so.” He swallowed a third time and started cracking his knuckles.

Jones looked at Elijah a little bit longer then turned back to look at his partner. She had been filling out a form while this interview was taking place. They both seemed rather pleased for a little break from rescuing people and driving at breakneck speeds down the roads of the city. She just shrugged at him and gestured at Seth with her pad.

Jones turned to Seth and asked him the same question. Seth gave the answer he had been giving all along. He stepped outside in the rain, saw the taxi, heard the squeal and bump of the tires, then the girl. “So that was it, then? You guys moved her in here, I guess?” Jones looked a little tired of goading them into answers.

“Yeah. I didn’t want to leave her in the rain,” Seth said, hearing how weak of a reason it was when said to a paramedic. “I guess that was the wrong thing to do. I just…” He trailed off and Jones nodded.

“Lots of people move people that they shouldn’t for reasons just like that. Don’t worry about it, kid. By the way, what are your names?” He looked back and forth between Seth and Elijah. They both gave their names, first and last, and saw the female paramedic write them both down. She nodded when she had them, then asked for phone numbers. They gave them in the same monotone as names, the monotone children usually use when they’re in trouble and sitting in front of the principal’s office. She nodded again then flipped her notebook closed and stuck it in the black bag.

“OK, Simon,” she said, moving closer to Naomi’s body. “I guess we’ve got everything here. Just gotta get her taken care of.” She reached forward to take Naomi’s left hand. She wrapped her fingers around the dead girl’s wrist and picked up her arm. Quick as lightening, Naomi’s right hand reached up and seized onto the woman’s throat.

“Gah!” She sputtered in surprise and fell back, coughing and clutching her throat. Everyone could see red starting to seep out around her fingers. She was panting and turned over, onto her free hand and knees. Blood dripped onto the tile floor.

“What the fuck?!” Jones yelled and jumped back, away from the body. “What the fuck?” He yelled again, looking over at his partner. “What the fuck!” A third yell and Naomi was struggling to sit up, her broken back obviously giving her problems. A gurgled escaped her lips and her eyes were wide open, rolling in their sockets.

Everyone screamed, even the fat, coughing man. No one really moved, though. They were all too startled to do more than jump back in their seats and pull their hands to their faces. Ruth was the only one to jump to her feet. She started backing up into the chair, her hands clasped over her face.

On the ground, the female paramedic was clutching her throat still, coughing and hacking at the finger-sized holes in her trachea. The pool of blood below her was growing and started to run through the grout between the tiles.

Naomi had finallly given up on sitting and had pushed herself over onto her stomach. Another growl came from her as she pulled herself to the side, moving toward the blood. Her hand landed in it on the second pull and she laid flat on her stomach to lick her palm clean. She looked up with blood smeared across her face and nose and stared with dull eyes at the wounded paramedic. “Uh gud nuh!” came from the lips of the woman. Naomi reached her bloody hand up to grab the woman’s hand from around her throat and the paramedic toppled over onto her side, her back to Naomi.

The woman started to scrambled away on her side, her boots and pants sliding on the tile that was still damp from the rain. Naomi grabbed her around the shoulder and pulled herself onto the woman from behind. The paramedic managed a strangled scream before Naomi buried her mouth in the woman’s throat.