After Halloween came Thanksgiving, and after that was Christmas.
I didn’t know why, but I decided that when we all had a chance to breathe, I wanted to create an accurate calendar. Who knew if any of the old holidays would be relevant anymore, but Christmas would always be important to me. I didn’t care about gifts. There was a whole empty world full of gifts for the taking. I cared about the whole notion of ‘Peace on Earth and good will toward men.’ We needed some of that. Not just for the people I was with, but for everyone else who was still alive out there, alone, afraid, and hiding from the monsters.
The whole ‘killing the world except for a select few’ idea was sick and a little sad. It was also a tired, old trope that had been re-hashed so many times in low budget horror movies that I would have thought by now the bad guys would have figured out that it didn’t work.
Either the monsters won, or someone came along to save the day.
Who knew that that someone would be me, along with my sister, my family, my friends, and all the rest of the survivors we were traveling with?
I guess that was cool.
I guess.
I never expected me and my sister to have quite such an exciting life. We certainly never planned on being immune to some sicko-psycho disease. Still, here we were, living that exciting life, and immune to Necropoxy.
Woo hoo.
Ten minutes into our ride, Professor Billings announced that we weren’t all that far from the University—maybe an hour at most. I didn’t know how that could be because everywhere we had traveled so far seemed to have taken so much longer than that. The professor explained that we had all been hovering around the same area of Western Massachusetts since we had left Littleham behind.
Every place we had been, from Amherst to Greenfield, Purgatory Chasm to Cummington, Hollowton to Apple, were all situated in a wide circle that spread out from the University.
That made sense.
Before Necropoxy, my world was all about Littleham, school, soccer and video games. My family barely ever came up this way. Who knew there was such a big world out there? I guess people in Littleham used to think that people out here were isolated. Maybe Littleham folks were the isolated ones, content to stay in a place where evil people like Diana didn’t exist, except on TV.
As I was lost in my thoughts, Trina hit something in the road, and the bus jumped a little bit.
“Sorry,” she called out. “Just a poxer.”
For some reason my stomach lurched. I felt a little like I was on an amusement park ride without end. I was tired of the poxers. I was tired of the killing.
“Earth to Tripp,” I heard a voice say. “Earth to Tripp Light.” It was Prianka. She sat down in the seat next to me and put her head on my shoulder.
“I’m here,” I said.
“Just checking. You seem a million miles away.” Our fingers easily wrapped themselves around each other, and we sat quietly as Trina drove and Professor Billings gave directions.
After a while I leaned over and kissed the top of her head. “Do you think Trudy and your brother can really do this thing?”
Prianka shrugged. “Sanjay was right. Just because he’s autistic doesn’t mean he’s stupid.”
I knew that. Of course I knew that. Still.
“But he’s ten,” I said. “I know he’s smart. But he’s just a kid.”
“We’re all just kids,” she whispered. “So’s Bullseye.”
My shoulder stiffened. “Um . . .”
Prianka reached up and put one finger to my mouth. “I trust him,” she said. “And I trust you. Wherever you sent him, I’m sure he’s safe. Besides, he’s with Dorcas, right? I’d feel safe if I was with Dorcas, too.”
I leaned over and whispered to her. “Has anyone even noticed?”
“That they’re gone? Only Sanjay,” she said. “But I’m sure they’ll figure out soon enough.”
I bit my lip and stared out into the darkness as we rolled down a bumpy road that seemed to never end.
I hoped she was right about them being safe.
For everyone’s sake.
49
RIGHT ABOUT MIDNIGHT, Trina pulled the bus over to the side of the road. “Do you hear that?” she said.
Jimmy leaned his head over to the window and looked up into the sky. “It’s a helicopter, isn’t it?”
I looked out my side of the bus, but there were too many trees for me to get a good glimpse of anything.
Everyone else started to get nervous. As for me and my friends, this wasn’t our first rodeo.
I stood and turned around. “There’s another helicopter,” I said like I was the leader instead of Aunt Ella, and it was my job to calm everyone down. “Just sit quietly please. We don’t have any lights on. They can’t see us from the sky.”
Trina turned and stared at me with the monocular still strapped to her face. She looked like someone who was into cosplay and heading out to a space convention where everyone dresses like their favorite superhero or movie alien. “What if they’re using night vision, too?” she whispered to me.
I glared at her. Even if it was dark inside the bus, I knew she could see me through the monocular. In twin-speak, my glare meant, ‘Shut the hell up. Do you want to freak everyone out?’
Her mouth dropped open a little, and she nodded her head. “Oh,” she barely squeaked out. Not long after that, the chopping sound that cut through the night faded into the distance and Trina started the bus again.
Twenty minutes later Professor Billings led us up a hilly road, flanked by trees, that seemed as remote as where the Peace Pagoda was. At the top of the hill the road ended and we could either go right or left. Across the street, right in front of us, was a huge, dark, water tower. Behind the water tower I could make out the shapes of what looked like apartment buildings.
“Those are the dorms at the top of the campus,” Professor Billings said. “Anything dead inside can stay inside.”
I looked at the dark buildings across the street. If I were wearing Trina’s monocular, I’m sure I would be able to make out the haunted faces of poxers staring through grimy windows, damned for eternity to be stuck inside their dorm rooms.
From a few rows back, I heard Niki sniff. “I know where we are. My sister’s old dorm isn’t far from here.” Her words sounded so sad. I think she already guessed that her family didn’t survive that first night.
“I lived in the dorms, too,” Manny said. “I was lucky to get out. There must be a whole mess of dead things roaming around campus.”
“I’m scared,” Niki whispered.
I’m not sure why, but I didn’t have any room left inside my head to tell her that there was nothing to worry about or that everything was going to be okay. If I were old enough to gamble, I’m not sure I would like the odds that any of us were going to make it out of the University alive.
We were heading into the scariest mess we had encountered yet. Going onto the University campus was way worse than the zombie mob we found in Greenfield when we met Stella Rathbone. Heading onto campus was going to be a whole new level of scary. Thankfully, this time we were prepared.
Aunt Ella made her way to the front of the bus, bent over and exchanged some words with Professor Billings. When she was finished, she stood up and faced everyone.
“All right, people,” she began. “Just across the street is the back of the University. There are dorms there. We don’t care about the dorms. They’re far, far away from the center of campus, and that’s where we have to go.”
Professor Billings stood, too, right next to Aunt Ella. “Like I said back at Walmart, even though there are three computer labs on campus, two of them aren’t viable targets. They are situated too much in the thick of things and I’m assuming that the dead will be everywhere.”
&nb
sp; “Besides,” Aunt Ella said. “Necropoxy began on a Friday night. I’m told that students stay away from libraries on Friday nights.”
“True that,” said Jimmy, and more than a few people chuckled.
“So, if we’re lucky maybe there won’t be too many poxers inside.” Aunt Ella said.
Sanjay immediately raised his hand. “The University library has a maximum occupancy of two hundred.”
“Lovely,” grimaced Trina. “That’s two hundred monsters which means a whole lotta teeth.”
Almost on cue, Sanjay said, “An adult person who has all his or her adult teeth should have a total of thirty-two teeth. That includes eight incisors, four canines, eight premolars and twelve molars. Discounting loss due to poor dental hygiene, that’s sixty-four-hundred teeth.”
Yeah,” said Trina. “Like I said, that’s a whole mess of teeth.”
A general murmur washed over the bus, but my aunt put her hands up. “Thank you, Sanjay, for that interesting bit of information. Okay people, you heard the man. Once we’re inside that building we potentially have upwards of sixty-four-hundred teeth to deal with,” she said. “And we still have to get to the middle of campus in one piece.”
“We also have to hope their backup generator works,” piped up Randy Stephens.
In truth we had to hope for a lot of things.
We had to hope that we could fend off all the poxers that would certainly come shuffling our way.
We had to hope that Sanjay and Trudy could find the computer lab in the library and hack into Diana’s network.
Finally, we had to hope they could bring it down.
That was a whole lot hopes all wrapped up into a crazy plan that probably didn’t have the tiniest chance of working.
Or maybe it did. We would all know soon enough.
50
“OKAY, PEOPLE,” Aunt Ella shouted like the leader of an army squad heading into enemy territory. “Time to gear up.”
That was our cue. Each of us began putting on layers of clothing that we had brought with us from Walmart. I slipped on two thick sweatshirts, one of which had the University logo on it, and another one which, you guessed it, said ‘Masshole,’ across the chest.
Prianka rolled her eyes when she read the logo.
“Gotta love me, right?” I said.
“I’m just surprised it doesn’t say ‘Badirchand.’
I shrugged. “I guess I missed the Hindi section at Walmart.”
Apocalypse or no, I had a feeling Prianka and I would live the rest of our lives trading barbs at each other between make-out sessions. The funny thing was, I didn’t think either of us would be happy any other way.
After the sweatshirts came a double layer of pants. We even doubled and tripled up on our socks.
The whole point of layering was to minimize the chance of getting bitten. Those of us who were immune still didn’t want poxer teeth in us. As for the rest, we couldn’t afford to lose a single person from our ranks. That was simply unacceptable.
As I watched everyone donning their layers, I saw Freaky Big Bird. She still had that crazy look on her face but at least she wasn’t hesitating. She even turned to Nedra and said, “I can’t believe I’m doing this.”
Nedra shrugged. “You have to stand for something, dear,” she said. “If you don’t, you’ve lived a wasted life.”
Freaky Big Bird didn’t answer her, but Nedra was right. You have to stand for something. If not, you stand for nothing.
As I stared farther down the aisle of the bus I watched as my mother covered little Krystal from head to toe in layer after layer of clothing until she looked all puffy like a marshmallow.
The Buckmans were wearing ski jackets, except for Charlie. He hadn’t layered up too much. I guess that meant that he was planning on fighting.
Still, safety first, you know?
“Hey Minister,” I called out. “Why don’t you slap some layers on, or are you planning on getting eaten?”
“Thank you, Tripp,” Mrs. Buckman said. “Sometimes my son doesn’t like to follow the rules.”
Charlie Buckman groaned like a little kid being reprimanded by his mommy, and we all chuckled.
After everyone was fully covered, Aunt Ella addressed the bus again. “Okay, everyone. This is it. Our headlights are going on. Once we start heading onto campus, my guess is that we’re going to stir up a lot of the dead. That means fire, which is going to draw the helicopters our way.”
I grimaced. The soldiers and the helicopters were close. Maybe one of them was even carrying Diana or Dr. Marks. I guess some sort of showdown with these people was inevitable. Part of me hoped that we could get on campus, do what we came here to do, then get out without ever having to look at Diana’s pinched, superior mug.
Another part of me wanted her to show up. Seeing the look on her face when she realized we beat her was worth a fight. Like Nedra said, ‘You have to stand for something.’
Aunt Ella continued talking. “Our goal is to get to the library in one piece. Once inside, we have three jobs to do. Burn the dead, find the power, and seek out the computer lab.” Aunt Ella stopped for a moment and surveyed our faces. Then she pursed her lips, straightened her back and took a deep breath. “Alright people. Let’s do this thing.”
Immediately, we all reached into paper bags we had brought with us and pulled out our supplies. A few of us had lighters and cans of hairspray. Some others had homemade Molotov cocktails like we used back in Greenfield when we dropped them off the roof of Stella Rathbone’s building.
Nedra Stein, Charlie Buckman, and his parents were all holding tiki torches. Everyone else had other things that would easily burn. We were going to have to clear a path through the dead to the center of campus.
“I’m taking this thing off my head,” Trina mumbled as she slipped the monocular from her face. Then she spent like thirty seconds running her fingers through her blonde hair and complaining that it was all messed up.
“There’s the Trina Light I know,” whispered Prianka in my ear.
“Shhh,” I whispered back. “She has a school bus and she knows how to use it.”
Then Trina turned on the headlights, put the bus in drive and took a right alongside the water tower and all the dark dormitories. Meanwhile, I reached over and opened my window. Everyone else did, too. We were going to have to burn things as we rolled by and we all needed to be ready.
“I hope I don’t see anyone I know,” I heard Manny say somewhere behind me.
“You don’t know them anymore,” Randy Stephens said back.
It was the truth.
A half mile up the road, Professor Billings instructed Trina to turn left. She explained that the University was a huge square flanked on the outsides by dormitories. If we were lucky, we wouldn’t run into masses of poxers until we got deeper onto campus.
My sister palmed the wheel of the bus and slowly turned. About a thousand feet down the road, we encountered our first group. They were lit up by the headlights of the bus. I’m not sure how many there really were, but I have to say at least two or three dozen. They were milling around the middle of the street. When they saw our headlights, they all immediately turned like a flock of birds and started heading our way.
“Don’t hit the mob,” Jimmy said to Trina. “Just slow the bus down and we’ll do the dirty work.
Dirty work my ass. It was a total massacre.
When we were just about on top of the poxers, Trina brought the bus to a crawl. I reached through the window with both hands, flicked my lighter on then hit the flame with a shot of hairspray.
Immediately, about half a dozen poxers caught fire and started to squeal.
Behind me, wads of burning paper were thrown out the windows, and tiki torches with little burning ends were stabbed at t
he greedy hands of the poxers.
In hardly any time at all, we were surrounded by burning chunks and black goop that splattered the sides of the bus.
“Oh my,” Mrs. Buckman whispered. Meanwhile, Prianka left me and went to make sure that Sanjay was okay.
He was.
He just sat there with the dogs, Andrew, and Poopy Puppy, staring out the window as the poxers burned.
“Poopy Puppy says the dead people aren’t scary anymore,” he told her as he stared at what was left of them. “They’re just sad.”
“Yes, they are,” Prianka said. “But you know what? What we’re doing is sad, too.”
Sanjay didn’t look at her. Instead he put his hand on the window and stared out at the destruction we had just caused. Just like when we were back in the woods near Black Point Fort and found the dead guy in a cellar hole, he said, “Blood of my blood. Bone of my bone. Flesh of my flesh. Keep their souls alive. Help them live on. Be not afraid. Remember them.”
Wow.
Sanjay Patel was truly one special, little kid.
“What he said,” Charlie Buckman quietly whispered as he took his seat, blew out the end of his tiki torch and bowed his head. “Amen.”
51
WE BURNED AND we burned, then we burned some more. As Trina slowly rolled the bus down the road and farther into the University, the crowds got bigger and bigger. A few times, we had to let the bus come to a complete stop and alternate opening only one or two windows at a time to keep black, tarry splotches of burning dead things from coming inside.
After a while, the windows started getting goopy, and some of us took wadded-up towels to wipe the hot, black, sticky stuff away.
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