Dead: Winter by TW Brown

the ground. Great, more snow , I thought. I’ve lived in these parts long enough to know what a big storm looks like. This one was gonna suck. The clouds were heavy and dark, adding grayness to the entire world…or at least the world as we knew it.
     
    
     
    I looked down at the girl on the bed. With her eyes closed, she could be a playmate for Thalia and Emily. However, the moment that she opened those eyes, she would be Death.
    Her chest still rose and fell in short, shallow hitches. Sunshine and Dr. Zahn stood on either side of Tina. I forced myself to use her name in my thoughts. Despite what was about to happen, she was a person…a child.
    “So now what?” I asked.
    “It shouldn’t be much longer,” Dr. Zahn said while checking the child’s pulse. “Her heart rate is slowing considerably.”
    “I’ve never done this sort of thing,” Sunshine said to nobody in particular. She leaned close to Tina’s face and brushed a strand of hair away. “I mean I knew when Dr. Zahn told me what she wanted, and what we would use it for…I just never thought…” Her voice trailed off.
    A moment later, Tina’s tiny frame began to shudder. I glanced at Dr. Zahn who still held the child’s wrist. The convulsions ceased and Dr. Zahn looked up at me and nodded.
    Taking a deep breath, I covered Tina’s face with a piece of cloth and placed the spike where I guessed the center of the forehead to be. I said a brief prayer in my mind and brought the mallet down firmly. It took three whacks.
    Sunshine had stepped back at some point and began to cry. I hung the mallet on the wall in its place and moved out of the way so that Dr. Zahn could tuck everything in and zip up the body bag.
    “Tell her people that they can do what needs to be done for the funeral,” the doctor said.
    I went to the door and took a second to compose myself. I had made the choice to be the one in the room after Jon, Sunshine and Dr. Zahn told me what was to be done. I was still the de facto leader of this group by consensus. That meant it was my responsibility to do the dirty work. At least that’s how I see it. Maybe if we vote in a committee, things will change. Maybe we will have some sort of euthanasia team.
    I left the room and stepped into controlled chaos. Teresa, Melissa, Fiona and Sahiba were bundling the children up to go outside and play in the snow. Glancing out the window, I could see that we’d already had a few more inches in just the short time I’d been in Dr. Zahn’s trauma room. DeAngelo was over with his wife speaking with Enuma, and Jon had Jesus and Jake gearing up in patrol gear. I had no idea why and would check into it after I passed on the news that Tina was dead.
    “Daddy Steve!” Emily bounded up to me with a huge smile. “Jamie has another sled for us to play on the hill with!”
    “That’s great, sweetie,” I said and knelt to give her gear a looking over. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking for, but I remember my mother doing that when I was a little boy about to go outside and play in the snow.
    “He said it was supposed to be one of my birthday presents, but since the snow couldn’t wait, neither can my present!”
    Crap , I thought, we still have a birthday to put on . Not that I wasn’t happy for the change of pace from the norm, it was just that, with a dead child in the other room, plus three adults about to receive the same treatment, it was difficult to muster enthusiasm.
    “Well then you go out and have fun,” I said, giving her a squeeze.
    “Are you coming out to watch?” Emily stared up at me expectantly with her dark eyes. Double crap .
    “I’ll be out there in just a bit,” I said absently. My eyes had suddenly found one of the infected. It was a woman, and she was slumped over near the door to the sleeping area. I thought they had all been isolated.
    Getting up, I instinctively put myself between the infected individual and Emily. I scanned the room for Billy. He had been tasked