The Sheriff Buried Deep in a Sea of Corpses

The jeep jolted over the rubble and filthy remains piled across the road.

Its body rocked violently, its chassis groaning nonstop.

The wire mesh welded over the windows was spattered with thick, dark red liquid, further obscuring their view.

The overpowering stench of decay seeped through every gap. Even the tightly shut windows could not keep it from invading their nostrils.

"Turn left! Into the alley! Lose them!"

Lynn roared as he was thrown against the door. The map in his hands had long since been crumpled to ruin, the "safe routes" marked on it reduced to a joke before the zombie tide.

He could only give directions based on his memory and Davis's instincts.

Davis wrenched the steering wheel, and the jeep skidded into a narrower alley packed with dumpsters and abandoned furniture, its tires screeching.

The rear scraped along a weathered brick wall, stripping off broad patches of its surface.

In the rearview mirror, a dozen ragged walkers were left at the alley entrance, howling in vain.

But more footsteps and howls were converging from the ruins in every direction.

"Fuck! There's no end to them!"

Davis swore and floored the accelerator.

The jeep barreled through the alley, smashing aside wooden crates and trash cans amid the constant sounds of twisting metal and scattering garbage.

Min-seon clutched the first aid kit, every jolt turning her stomach.

She forced herself not to look at the rotting faces that occasionally lunged at the wire mesh outside and clawed at it. She simply bit her lower lip and concentrated on counting the supplies in the kit.

She was beginning to regret coming along.

"Turn right at the intersection ahead! We should... should be able to see the hospital."

Lynn's voice was tight as he struggled to make out the streets flashing past outside.

Through the gray haze, the outline of King County Memorial Hospital's main building finally appeared.

Scorch marks covered its walls, and many of its windows were shattered, leaving dark holes.

More disheartening still, densely packed, writhing figures covered the ground across the plaza and streets around the building.

Hundreds upon thousands of walkers enveloped the hospital like a layer of foul-smelling moss.

The sound of the jeep's engine was like a drop falling into hot oil.

Roar-!

The entire horde stirred at once. Countless rotting heads turned toward the sound, thousands upon thousands of empty, hungry gazes fixing on the speeding jeep. A deafening collective howl rose into the sky, its sound waves battering the windshield.

"Fuck..."

Davis stared ahead, his palms instantly soaked with cold sweat.

"We can't stop. Push through. Find a back door, a fire escape."

Lynn's shouts were swallowed by the walkers' howls. He pointed toward a narrow entrance to the underground garage at the side of the building. "Ram through! Break through the barricade!"

"Hold on!"

A savage gleam flashed in Davis's eyes. He floored the accelerator, the jeep's engine roaring as it reached top speed and charged straight at the abandoned ambulances and barricades piled at the entrance.

Crash-!!!

Metal slammed together violently. The side of an abandoned ambulance crumpled, and the jeep's front bumper twisted and snapped.

The wire mesh over the windshield groaned and buckled.

The tremendous impact slammed all three occupants hard against their seat belts and the vehicle's interior.

The jeep became wedged in the breached barricade, white smoke rising from its hood as its engine gave a dying rattle.

In front of the jeep, several of the nearest walkers were knocked flying, their bones shattering.

But more walkers surged up. Rotting arms battered the windows and body in a frenzy, their howls ringing out inches away as thick filth smeared the wire mesh.

"Get out! Now!"

Lynn was the first to unbuckle his seat belt. He kicked open the warped door and raised his gun to fire.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The suppressed pistol gave muffled reports. Two walkers trying to poke their heads through the doorway had their heads knocked backward, foul blood and brains splattering the inside of the door.

The smell of gun smoke overpowered the stench of corpses.

"Raaagh!"

Davis shoved his door open.

The thick-backed machete in his left hand slashed out, cutting a lunging walker diagonally from shoulder to abdomen and spilling its entrails across the ground. His right hand grabbed the shotgun, aiming its muzzle at the swarming horde.

Boom!!!

The shotgun thundered!

The upper bodies of seven or eight tightly packed walkers directly ahead burst apart. Shattered bone, rotten flesh, and foul blood sprayed backward, briefly clearing a small patch of ground.

"Min-seon! Keep up!"

Lynn shouted as he fired single shots at the walkers closing in from the side, but still more surged toward them.

Deathly pale, Min-seon clutched the first aid kit and crawled out of the back seat on her hands and knees.

She fought down her nausea and fear, her gaze cold.

She gripped a slender scalpel. When a walker staggered by the shotgun blast lunged at her, she abruptly slid sideways to dodge, driving the scalpel precisely into its eye socket.

Squelch!

The blade sank in, and the walker stiffened and fell.

Min-seon pulled the blade free and followed close behind Lynn and Davis through the fleeting passage their gunfire had opened.

Having survived in this apocalypse, she was naturally no ordinary person either.

"This way! The fire escape!"

Lynn spotted their target-a rusted metal fire escape set into the side of the building.

Dozens of walkers also packed the space beneath the stairs.

"Davis! Clear a path!"

Lynn shouted, inserting a fresh magazine and suppressing the flank.

"Get the fuck out of my way!!"

Davis roared and charged at the walkers by the foot of the stairs.

The shotgun thundered at close range!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Every shot sent flesh and blood flying. His machete hacked left and right, scattering severed limbs.

He forcibly tore a path paved with shredded flesh and foul blood through the horde, slime splashing all over him.

"Get up there!"

With his back to the stairs, Davis roared as he held back the surging zombie tide with his body.

Lynn grabbed Min-seon's arm and dragged her toward the fire escape. "You first! Hurry!"

He shouted as he fired single shots at walkers slipping past Davis.

Without hesitation, Min-seon grabbed the cold iron stairs and climbed.

Lynn followed close behind.

Seeing the two climbing, Davis abruptly retreated onto the stairs and unleashed another barrage into the tightly packed horde below.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Flesh and blood splattered beneath the stairs, temporarily stopping the walkers from climbing.

The three scrambled for their lives up the steep fire escape amid the stench of corpses and gun smoke.

Heavy footsteps and panting echoed through the metal passage.

Below, the walkers' howls surged like a tide as more constantly gathered, piled up, and clawed.

At last, Lynn spotted the small, rust-covered fourth-floor landing.

A heavy fire door with peeling paint led off the landing.

"Fourth floor! West side! Hurry!"

Panting, Lynn climbed onto the landing and pushed hard against the door.

It did not budge. Something was bracing it from inside.

"Move!"

Davis climbed up, swung his shotgun by the stock, and smashed it against the area beside the lock with all his strength.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The impacts were deafening, the metal door denting and buckling.

Crash!

With one final heavy blow, the lock broke away along with the warped metal plate, and the fire door sprang inward a crack.

A stench ten times stronger than the one downstairs, mingling disinfectant with blood and putrid decay, surged through the gap and struck all three in the face.

Fighting down dizziness and nausea, Lynn turned sideways and squeezed through first.

Min-seon and Davis followed close behind once more.

Beyond the door lay the fourth-floor corridor of the inpatient ward.

In the dimness, a few emergency lights flickered a sickly green.

Most of the ward doors on either side of the corridor stood open.

Thick, sticky filth, dark red and blackened, covered the floor, walls, and ceiling.

Countless flies buzzed and swarmed over the filth and mangled corpses.

More walkers wandered the corridor.

Dressed in tattered hospital gowns or medical uniforms, they shuffled over the sticky floor with missing limbs and trailing intestines.

The stench was suffocating.

Lynn's entrance shattered the deathly silence.

Hiss-haa-!

The nearest walker snapped its head around, its rotting face ghostlike in the green light, and lunged.

Then the walkers throughout the corridor were alerted. They turned together and let out a piercing collective howl, dragging their broken bodies out in dense ranks from both ends of the corridor and the ward doorways, instantly trapping the group between two fronts.

"West side! Find the private room on the west side!"

Going by his memory, Lynn called out loudly, his voice hoarse and distorted as his pistol fired frantically.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

But more walkers surged forward!

"Raaagh!"

Davis's shotgun thundered in the narrow corridor.

Boom!

Several walkers directly ahead were blasted apart. His left hand swept the machete upward, shearing off half the head of a walker at his side and sending foul blood spraying.

"This way!"

Min-seon screamed as she plunged her scalpel into the temple of a nurse walker lunging out of a ward.

She pointed toward a room deep down the corridor, its blurred sign reading "West-407." "407! That's it!"

Back to back, the three fought their way through the corridor of death.

Bullets whistled, the machete hacked, the shotgun thundered, and the scalpel pierced eye sockets or temples.

Every step landed in thick, foul blood and shredded flesh.

Walkers kept falling, and more kept coming.

At last, they fought their way to the door of room 407.

It stood ajar, spattered with blackened blood.

Davis shouldered the door open, his shotgun aimed into the dim room.

The room was in disarray, with overturned beds, smashed equipment, and broad smears of dark red blood on the walls.

A hospital bed stood in the center of the room.

A blond man with a deathly pale face lay quietly on it, dressed in a blue-and-white-striped hospital gown, his chest rising and falling faintly.

It was Rick Grimes!

But he was still unconscious.

They had finally found him.