“Your home is gone.”
The weight of the statement didn’t hit Jenn until she said it out loud. Sarah started to reply, but her mouth slammed shut. She looked at her son and then back at Jenn. It was only then that the woman’s age showed through her tough exterior. She wiped the frayed ends of her graying hair out of her eyes.
“It’s all we know,” she said, and then she reached out for her son and wrapped her arms around his neck. “It’s all we’ve ever known.”
Jake leaned into Jenn, making sure no one could hear him. “I don’t think she’s going to make it.” Jenn looked at him for further explanation. “She’s going to slow us down.”
Jenn drew back, astonished by the boy’s comment. She was stunned by the callousness of his words. “This is what we’re going to do,” she said loud enough for everyone to hear. Jenn stepped into the center of the loosely gathered circle. “We’re going to find some transportation, and then we’re going to get the hell out of here.” She focused on Sarah and the older woman nodded. “We have to survive; nothing else matters.”
The pep talk was enough to pull everyone in line. Jenn started walking, and she hoped Sarah could keep it together long enough for them to get safely away. Michael sped up his pace and took the lead. He assured Jenn that he could get them back to Dumont. It was the last place Jenn wanted to be, but she figured it was the only place they could find a working vehicle.
It was afternoon when Michael slowed the group. The sparse woods opened up ahead. Jenn’s eyes were on him as he cautiously made his way back between the trees. His whisper was enough to relay the danger ahead.
“Ferry Road is right out there.” He took a few deep breaths and then nervously peered over his shoulder before continuing. “Dumont is about a quarter mile south of here.”
“We can’t just walk back there,” Jake asserted.
Jenn shushed the boy and received a scornful scowl for it. “Can’t you get us around it?” she asked. “Can you bring us out closer to the highway?”
Michael considered it and then finally nodded. “I can, but it will take some time. Don’t you think Mr. Walker and his men will take the highway back?”
Jenn knew he was right. If they kept to the trees and continued south, they’d run the risk of running into him.
“Maybe we don’t have to.” Sarah’s comment pulled all eyes to her. She was mid-thought trying to figure something out. “In the mornings, I part time at the high school.” She stopped herself. “I did, that is.”
Jenn was hoping there was a useful point to the story and her face showed it.
“So anyway,” Sarah continued. “They have buses, a whole bunch of them. If we could get our hands on one of them, we’d have ourselves a makeshift RV.”
Jenn’s mind sparked to life. “That’s perfect. What are the chances they’re still there?”
“Pretty good,” Michael said. “A group of us were out hunting near the school a few weeks ago, and I saw a few still parked out in the lot.”
Jenn knew it was a gamble. There was no guarantee the buses would run. There was an even better chance the fuel had been taken months ago.
“How far?”
“It’s off the highway,” Michael said. “Further west of Dumont. We could cross here and avoid the town altogether.”
There was little to debate. Michael led them to the edge of the woods and then kept still for a long time. He seemed unwilling to go any farther, and Jenn had taken control of the situation. The destination on the other side of the road was farther than it first appeared.
Jenn went ahead without saying a word. She was in the middle of the road when the sound of a roaring engine came barreling toward her. She didn’t look for what was coming. Jenn pressed herself, moving faster than she ever thought possible. She reached the trees on the other side of the clearing and leapt for cover, landing face first with a hard thud.
She was up on a knee behind a tree when the heavy truck pulled into view. The vehicle was bearing down the road at a high speed, and a group of figures stood out from the bed of the truck. It raced by and only then did the truth of the passengers become apparent. A makeshift corral surrounded the bed. A dozen or so zombies clawed at the cab trying to get through the glass at the driver and passenger. The vehicle was gone a moment later and the details lost.
The sudden appearance of the truck increased the hesitation of the others to cross the open space. Sarah went next, followed closely by the kids. Jake could only convince Alicen to run if he held her hand the entire way. Michael went last, bringing the group together safely on the other side. He continued to lead the way with Jenn at his side.
They walked in silence for more than an hour. The tree coverage grew sparser the farther south they went, and the fear of the dead increased. Several times, Michael brought them to a stop and urged them to get down. Shadowy figures moved between the trees in the distance, some walking alone while others moved in packs. Their mindless fumbling identified them and the moans echoing beneath the canopy of limbs confirmed it.
Jenn checked her watch. There were only a few hours until sundown. They would have to find somewhere to hole up before the infected were free to hunt. The thought of it brought a frightening question to her mind. Where was the infected hiding? That question lingered as Michael pushed them to move faster. The overhead coverage broke and the heat of the day was gone. Sunlight crisscrossed a dilapidated football field as long shadows stretched across the fifty-yard line. Michael looked to Jenn and pointed at a sizable building beyond the field.
“That’s the gym,” he said. “The main school buildings are on the other side of it.”
Jenn scanned the open space on either side of the building. The highway stretched to the east and west as far as she could see. There was no sign of trouble in either direction.
“Do we have to go in there?” Sarah asked.
Jenn studied the gym as if the walls might offer some answers.
“I doubt the buses have keys in them.”
Jakes ears perked up.
“Let’s at least check before we risk going inside,” he said.
Jenn knew he had a point. They didn’t have much to defend themselves with and the thought of a close quarter fight wasn’t appealing. They moved across the football field with all eyes on the highway. There was no guarantee that Mr. Walker and a group of his men wouldn’t come barreling down from the east at any moment.
Michael gave up his lead position when their backs pressed against the gymnasium wall. Jenn poked her head out around the corner of the building and discovered two things almost immediately. A pair of long, yellow buses sat motionless in the parking lot in front of the main building and the double door entrance to the high school was half the distance to the lot. She motioned for the others to stay put. She was halfway down the side of the gym before she realized Jake was following her. She tried to shoo him away, but his expression told her he wasn’t going to listen.
Three heads poked out from the corner of the gym waiting for a signal. Jenn gave up trying to go it alone and instead grabbed Jake and pulled him to her hip. “Stay close,” she said, to which Jake rolled his eyes. They reached the opposite edge of the gym and Jenn looked out at a sidewalk between it and the main building. She felt Jake’s grip tighten on her sleeve and knew his machismo was more for show than anything else.
The double doors were barred from the inside. There was a chain around the interior handles, but the broken glass panels showed a lack of planning in the defensive strategy. The dried blood splattered across the sidewalk gave a hint as to who eventually won the battle. Jenn checked both directions and then pulled at Jake as the two sprinted past the main doors and on to the parking lot.
The lot was empty except for the buses, and Jenn wasted no time heading directly for them. The bus closest to the building was stained all along its side with smears of blood dotted with handprints. The stains covered the side panel from the bumper to the sliding door. A thumping sound fr
om inside the bus caused Jenn to freeze mid-step.
She put her finger to her lips and urged Jake to walk around the rear of the bus. They stopped behind the vehicle and peered through the emergency door window. There was no sign of movement, but there was no way to be sure. Jenn tiptoed along the outside of the adjacent bus and then around the front. She felt Jake pull at her shirt and then followed his terrified eyes to the driver’s side window of the first vehicle.
The driver had apparently been in a rush, never having time to take off his seatbelt. He grasped the steering wheel, pointlessly sliding his hands back and forth. His once pressed collared shirt was stained with a thick blue-black color no doubt from the blood drained from his face. His cheeks were missing and only the violet scars of muscle and tissue remained. His one eye stared out through a socket void of skin and deep gauges revealed his skull in some places and half-eaten brains in others.
Jenn stepped between the buses and tried to ignore the driver as he caught sight of her and slammed his hands against the window. She pushed open the bus’s door with help from Jake and leapt up to the driver’s seat. She glanced back at the seats as the boy stepped up, but nothing moved. Jake’s voice shocked her as it broke the quiet.
“There’s no key.”
She spun around in the seat as if getting the bus to start never occurred to her. Jake jumped into the first row behind her and focused on the occupied bus. He stood up on the seat and tried to look past the thrashing driver.
“I don’t see any keys hanging from the slot.”
“Unless he still has them,” she said.
Jake shot her a sideways glance.
“You want to check his pockets?”
Jenn considered their options. “The office,” she said. “The keys would be in the main office.”
Jake’s eyes lurched back to the school’s main doors.
“We have to go in there?”
They were off the bus in a hurry and behind the gym soon after.
“We shouldn’t all go in,” Jenn said, her eyes on Alicen.
“Oh no you don’t—” the little girl started, but Jenn cut her off.
“We can’t all get trapped in there. A lot could go wrong.” She scanned her meager group.
Sarah stated the obvious. “You’ll need Michael with you. I’ll stay out here with the kids.”
Michael appeared game, but Jenn wasn’t so sure Sarah wanted him to go. Jenn got down on one knee and looked Jake in the eyes.
“Listen to me, if this goes wrong, you head for the woods.” Jenn scanned the tree line beyond the football field. “Don’t go in any farther than you have to. Head west and follow the highway.” She turned to Alicen. “Listen to your brother.” The comment reminded Jenn so much of something she would have said to her kids. The memory flash nearly brought tears to her eyes.
Sarah hugged Michael but didn’t say anything. Jenn started for the main double doors and was a few feet away when Michael caught up with her. He was holding a screwdriver in one hand and a pocketknife in the other. He focused his frightened stare on the door’s broken panels.
“Ladies first.” He offered a hand to help her.
“What a gentlemen.”
She stepped through the broken glass and into a dark interior. The long, central corridor was littered with debris. There was a fair share of blood splattered across the floor and lockers lining the walls. Jenn’s eyes went to the leg of a broken chair. She picked it up and took a firm grip. Its jagged end promised a good stabbing weapon if it came to a close quarter fight. Michael’s feet crunched across broken glass as he followed her in. A number of doors lined each side of the hall evenly spaced between the lockers.
“The office is right there at the end of the hall,” Michael said.
Jenn didn’t want to open any doors if she didn’t have to and hoped Michael knew his way around. She focused her sights on the end of the hall and started off. There were stacks of chairs and desks in places with some of them smashed to pieces. There was little to tell the outcome of whatever fight had taken place.
The doors along the hall were closed, most with small viewing windows covered with drapes. A few of the doors showed signs of small arms fire while others were hacked in places. Very few of the glass inserts remained with most shards of glass tainted with blood and bits of only God knew what. Jenn walked with hesitant steps, and only her labored breaths and Michael’s careful strides could be heard.
They were midway between the double doors and the end of the hall when a new sound echoed toward them. Jenn looked up and found Michael’s eyes on the inside of a classroom. He approached the door and waved her over. She peered through at a rush of movement outside a long bank of windows on the opposite classroom wall. Several men leapt out of the backs of trucks, pouring into the parking lot.
“Oh hell,” she said.
There was panic in Michael’s response. “We have to get out of here.”
Jenn looked down the remaining length of the hall and found the outline of the office door. “No,” she said. “We can do this.”
“My mom’s going to run for it. She’ll get spooked and run for the trees.”
“Listen to me.” She took hold of his arm and dragged his attention away from the window view. “We need that bus. We need to be on the move and inside a vehicle before it gets dark.”
“You don’t even know if the keys are in the office.”
He was right. She nodded.
“All right then,” she said as she pieced together a plan. “We’ll do a quick check, and if we don’t find them, we’ll head for the gym,” she explained, but Michael stared at her unconvinced. “We’ll catch your mom before she makes a run for it.” Jenn wasn’t sure she believed it herself.
Jake and Alicen had survived a great deal on their own. If they got anxious, they’d run for it. Jenn started walking, not willing to debate with Michael. She didn’t think the kids would wait, and more so, she wasn’t sure she wanted them to.
An echo of conversation carried through the classroom windows into the main hall. Jenn guessed they had a few minutes at best. The closer they got to the office door the less the light from the distant entrance revealed. Standing in thick darkness, the fear of what was coming ate at her gut.
Jenn grabbed the office door handle. She gave Michael a nod, then turned and pushed. The interior was a black as a moonless night, and it was only then that she realized the error of her plan. “Hold the door,” she said. “I’m going to need the light.” She found a haunting look on Michael’s face as he stared into the darkness.
Jenn heard a shifting sound. The sudden noise hadn’t carried down the hall; it came from within the office. Movement pulled her eyes to the corner of the room. She surprised herself with an excited utterance.
“Come and get some!”
Silhouetted in the doorway, Jenn couldn’t see more than the outline of two figures. A low rumble from the room erupted into something she didn’t expect. It started as a single giggle, followed by full laughter. What she heard next was just as unanticipated.
“I bet you’re looking for some keys?”
14
Chris stepped out from behind the counter and lowered his weapon. He was smiling, but he could tell by the look on Jenn’s face that she wasn’t amused. Her shoulders didn’t relax until Chris and Jafar were in full view from the light in the hall. Jenn’s face softened, and Chris thought she might start laughing until she hauled back and punched him in the stomach.
“Damn you.”
He tried to stop smiling as he clutched his gut and sucked in air. Chris peeked past her and found Michael nervously waiting in the hallway.
“Where’s Jake and Alicen?” he asked when his breath came back to him.
“They’re out behind the gym with Sarah, near the football field, but we have more immediate problems,” Jenn explained as Chris managed to stand upright. “Two truckloads of problems to be specific.” He pushed past her, and she mumbled. “It’s g
ood to see you too.”
Michael spoke up as Chris met him in the hall. “What about the bus?”
Chris held up his free hand, revealing a set of keys around his middle finger. “Imagine that, we had the same idea.”
“You were going to leave us?”
Jenn’s question stung more than Chris thought it should. He fired back at her. “And you came here because you knew we’d be waiting?” He was backing down the hall, waiting for a response. Jenn’s stare hardened on him, but she didn’t offer a reply.
“We can’t get out that way,” Michael said.
Chris stopped where he was and looked at the open office door. Jafar sidestepped Jenn and focused his attention on a hall running perpendicular to the entryway. His eyes settled on the way leading toward the gym, and then he started to walk. Chris reached Michael and pushed him before Jenn finally responded.
“I wouldn’t have left you if I knew you were alive.”
Her statement froze him in his tracks. He couldn’t say the same, and he wasn’t about to lie to her. She started after Jafar before he had to come up with something to say. Chris was angry with himself for letting the comment bother him as much as it did.
The corridor was marred with long stretches of darkness broken by regular intervals of window light. The illumination was subdued by tinted lining and offered a limited view beyond a few feet in any direction. The way split twice more before they reached a dead end. Jafar looked to Chris with his pistol at the ready.
They expected the hall to end at the gym. Chris was trying to calculate their next move when the sounds of men pushing their way into the main hall echoed up behind them. Chris did a quick inventory of their defenses. He knew Jafar’s pistol only had five rounds remaining and his rifle had six. That left them with Michael’s pocketknife and the screwdriver he’d given to Jenn. He was willing to bet their pursuers had plenty of rounds to spare and a direct fight would be less than fair.
He motioned Jafar toward the front side of the school and a set of double doors at the end of another long hallway. He hoped the direction would lead them out to the section of the gym where Sarah and the kids were waiting. His hopes were quickly dashed after a few paces when several figures appeared on the other side of the glass doors.
The Decaying World Saga Box Set [Prequel #1-#2 & Books #1-#2] Page 32