'Oh, right, that's what he used to whack on the desk when we got too noisy.'
Alex jumped back as Fred swung the baton at the window. The first time it bounced off, the second the glass showered into the room, raising a cloud of dust. Fred tapped at the jagged edges and they peered inside. The reason Alex had seen more light through the window was that the whole far wall was missing, the ceiling was sagging, with tiles dropping down from it and everything was covered in dust.
Knocking the glass out had loosened the door and it swung open.
'I can see my stuff,' Maisie said.
'Yes, but is it safe to go in?'
Before the words were out of Alex's mouth, Maisie was tip-toeing across the floor. She grabbed her bag and jacket and ran back, then stood in the corridor shaking the dust off. The others simply stared at her.
'Yeah? Like, what?'
'How? How did you know the floor wouldn't collapse?'
Maisie shrugged. 'Just saw my stuff.' Thinking that was sufficient explanation, she turned away and began checking through her bag.
'Perhaps one at a time, then?' Fred suggested.
'Hold on, Maisie seems pretty good at this,' Rachel said with a sly smile. 'Urm, Maisie, dear?'
'Yes?' Maisie appeared not to notice Rachel's unusually syrupy tones.
'It looks like the good luck fairy is smiling on you today.'
'Huh?'
'Well, you just went in there and got your stuff.'
'So?' Maisie shrugged again. 'Like I said. I saw it, went in, got it, came out.'
'So, sweetheart, we'd like you to go in there and get ours for us, as you're the lightest and prettiest.'
'Oh, Rachel, do you think so?' Maisie said, smiling happily.
'I don't need no girl to get my bag,' Fred said as he took a step into the room. Then he thought better of it, turned and came back. 'Actually, I don't need my bag. It's only got school books in it. I'm not allowed to have my phone in school.'
'Not allowed?' Rachel said, her voice getting more shrill at each syllable.
'Er, well, no. Not since…' He looked around at the others. 'OK,' he shrugged, 'they thought I might have been sending a text once in an exam.'
Rachel chuckled. 'Idiot!' But then switching tone in an instant, she turned to Maisie. 'So, Maisie, you think you can help us out here?'
'Sure,' she said standing up. 'I can show you how I fooled you all into thinking I'm not very smart.'
With that, she stepped into the room and, skipping from one table to the next, she scooped up Rachel's sparkly pink bag and coat, Alex's black shoulder bag and red hoody, and Steve's rucksack from where he'd dropped it next to the teacher's desk. There was an ominous grinding noise from behind her as she stood in the doorway passing round the coats and bags. Alex looked over Maisie's shoulder and saw the floor beginning to go. She grabbed Maisie and pulled her into the corridor.
The grinding noise became a dreadful ripping sound. Without a second's pause the group snatched up all their stuff and beat a hasty retreat back to the stairwell as most of the classroom floor fell away, crashing down into the one below, taking all the tables and chairs with it. When they looked back, a cloud of dust billowed out of the doorway they'd all been standing in moments before.
'See, I told you I could do it,' Maisie said with a triumphant smile.
The others all looked at Maisie, then back at the slowly settling dust and back at Maisie again.
Fred was the one who finally spoke, 'Now we've survived another deadly danger,' he said, zipping up his jacket. 'I have to say I'm feeling rather hungry.'
'We could try the canteen if it's still standing,' Alex said.
They took a left out of the quad, through the left hand side of the ground floor corridor and from there out to the back of the school yard. Outside the canteen was an abandoned grocer's delivery van. Its back doors were wide open and a box of chocolate bars was lying on the ground where the delivery guy had dropped it when he ran away.
'Could be useful,' Alex said, glancing at the contents of the van as they went past. 'Let's try inside the canteen.'
Chapter 13: A Smell Of Burning
The canteen was deserted and empty of bodies but there was a smell of burning.'
'What is that?' Rachel said wrinkling her nose and hanging back by the door.
Alex went through into the food preparation area.
'The dinner ladies must have scarpered when the klaxon went off. They left something cooking but it's just a charred mess now.'
Alex turned off the gas supply to the vat that had held the makings of a meat stew.
'It might be burnt but that food smell is driving me crazy,' Steve said. 'What else is there apart from cinderised stew?'
'There'll be rabbit food,' Maisie said.
'What?' Alex said.
Maisy pointed at a pile of chopped iceberg lettuce. 'You know, like, salad.'
'French fries that only got half cooked before the power went off, sitting in cold fat. Cold peas, cold cabbage…'
'What about the hot cupboard over there?' Steve said. They usually keep pies in it.'
'Oh, pies!' Fred said. 'That's worth a try.'
Fred was already nearest. He opened the door to what looked like a heavily insulated stainless steel box on legs. A delicious smell wafted out. Fred was about to reach in when Alex stopped him.
'Use the oven gloves, we don't know how hot the trays are.'
It turned out the pies were only warm but highly edible all the same.
The five friends gathered round a tray of twenty pies. There were beef pies with a little pastry bull's head on the top and chicken pies with a small pastry chicken on. They were made by a well-known supermarket. Rachel dumped a pile of plates on the worktop and they grabbed a stack of pies each, then went and sat round one of the big round tables in the dining area. One by one they went back and forth to the drinks dispenser as the need arose.
Finally, they pushed their plates away and sat back in their seats. Rachel looked round the small group then burst out laughing.
'What's the matter?'
'Just look at us. Think what we've been through this morning and here we are, lounging around covered in pie crumbs, too full to move even if a whole herd of zombies came through the door.'
Maisie had been falling asleep but she shook herself awake. 'You heard zombies?' she said, grabbing Rachel's arm.
Alex smiled, brushing her pie crumbs onto the floor.'No. No zombies, Maisie. But we probably should make a plan.'
A sudden noise made them all duck under the tables.
'I bet they're in here,' Janet's voice wafted through from outside of the canteen.
'Mum?' Steve called out, raising his head above the table top as she pushed the door aside.
Steve didn't pay any attention to the four adults behind his mother, he simply ran towards her and flung his arms around her.
'Mum, mum, you're safe.'
'Yes, darling and so are you,' she said, tears rolling down her cheeks.
'But what about dad?' Steve said, with a shiver of apprehension.
'Dad?' Janet held her son at arm's length and stared into his eyes. 'Your dad's on a course. You've forgotten already that we drove him to the station?'
'Oh, yeah, yeah,' he nodded, slumping into a chair, relief getting the better of him.
Janet looked over his shoulder at the other kids, who were peeking out over the table tops to see if it was safe. 'I see you've brought some friends. I hope none of you are…'
'We're all clean,' Rachael said, standing up. 'I guess you're all clean, too?'
'Yes, Graham said, we've been tracking you for ages but we couldn't get near because of all the activity out there.'
'Rachel's got like a plan,' Maisie said.
'Oh?' Graham said.
Rachel rolled her eyes. 'I didn't say I had a plan, it was Alex and she said we needed one.'
'Does the plan include anything to do with food?' Bill said, moving toward the tables th
e kids had been eating at and looking longingly at the remaining empty pie crusts.
'There's more pies in the oven and plenty of cold food,' Steve said.
'I'm very proud of you, Stevie,' Janet said giving her son another hug.
'Mum, don't call me that in front of people,' he whispered, 'I've only just got them to stop calling me Fats.'
'Oh, yes? And which of you kids has been calling him that?'
'Steve's our friend, Mrs Raymond,' Alex said. 'Right from the start he put us straight about calling him names and then he saved us from the zombies because he knew about the castle. If it wasn't for him, we'd all be dead.'
'Alright. Thank you dear. It's good to see you're all safe.'
'There's all sorts back here,' Bill called from the kitchen. He emerged with platters of pies, sliced ham and salad.
The kids watched the adults eat. Steve filled up a big jug of water for them. Maisie got some glasses. Alex paced nervously and kept a lookout by the door. At one point she went outside and returned a few minutes later.
'Alex,' Janet said, 'you look like you're hatching a plan.'
'There's a truck loaded with catering supplies out there. The key's in the ignition and I checked the fuel gauge. It's over half full.'
'Kid's right,' Graham said. 'Either the Ministry or the army will do a head count and find out we're missing. That means they'll come looking for us.'
'Why can't they just like leave us alone?' Maisie said.
'Because we might be infected.'
'But we all know we're not.'
'Is the truck big enough for ten of us?' Janet said.
'Yes, if we take out some of the catering stuff.'
'So the plan is we all pile in the truck and take off?'
'Yeah, we keep out the way of the army…'
'And the zombies.'
'Of course the zombies,' Janet said. Then we get past the quarantine barrier somehow, find Stevie's dad and match the rest of you up with your parents.'
'But what if we like get caught?'
'That,' Janet said, standing up and speaking in the sort of voice she used to instruct rogue fishing captains to take their catch elsewhere, 'Is not going to happen.'
Part One - The End
Also available: Parts Two, Three and Four, and an omnibus edition containing all four parts
If you would like to receive information about new books by Peter salisbury, please email: peter dot salisbury at rocketmail dot com
If you enjoyed this book, please leave a review
If you enjoyed this story by Peter Salisbury, you may also like:
British Zombie Breakout: Part Two - Escape From Kilkorne
- What chance of survival do the fugitives have while zombies are still at large in the English countryside and when a corrupt politician and the Chief Scientist are intent on their capture, dead or alive? Who will prove to be the more ingenious, the authorities, the fugitives or the zombies?
British Zombie Breakout: Part Three - Zombies Go Global
- The Minister's plots deepen, the only living sample of the virus is stolen, and Alex and Steve are on the run again. Where will zombies turn up next and can they be stopped from infecting the world? Will Rachel ever appear on TV or will Steve beat her to it? All this and more in the third and final epidemic.
British Zombie Breakout: Part Four - Zombies Go Global
Alex and Steve leave home together to begin their courses but in less than a week Alex goes missing when some hunk called Tarquin steps onto the scene. Just when everything was going so well, suddenly it wasn't... After completing their studies and passing yet more exams, the other Kilkorne chums, Rachel, Maisie and Fred prepare for college by going shopping, unaware that the screaming may be about to start all over again.
British Zombie Breakout: Omnibus Edition
Alex, Steve, Rachel, Maisie and Fred dodge the zombies in Parts One to Four combined into one edition.
Junker's Moon: Pirate Gold Book 1 - Junker's Moon Scrap, Salvage and Servicing Company had never been attacked before but that didn't mean its base of operations was unprepared. Marshall Brion began the day with no idea that within a few hours he would need all the concentrated expertise of three generations of Brions. Space pirates were inbound to the station. They were something to be feared but also to be repelled at all costs.
Junker's Moon: Revenge Book 2 - Junker's Moon Scrap, Salvage and Servicing Company had a surge in popularity following the capture of notorious space pirate Dirk Knight. What Marshall, proprietor of Junker's Moon had not bargained for was the thirst for revenge and ferocity of Dirk's wife, Vanessa Longtail.
Junker's Moon: Trouble Doubled Book 3 - Junker's Moon Scrap, Salvage and Servicing Company is in a state of turmoil and uncertainty, following the grievous wounding of its proprietor, Marshall. He hovers close to death having been stabbed by Vanessa Longtail, the notoriously vengeful wife of space pirate Dirk Knight. Finding she had not succeeded in murdering Marshall, as had been her intention, she returns to finish the job.
Junker's Moon: Cult Ship Book 4 - Junker's Moon Scrap, Salvage and Servicing Company had the exceedingly dubious honour of being visited by a cult ship, The Garden. The ship was registered as having charitable status and was therefore beyond FBIS jurisdiction. Its owner had stopped short of adding 'Of Eden' to its registered name but that was clearly his intention. Pastor Gripthorne was going to cause trouble with a capital 'T'.
Flight 1401: A Science Fiction Anthology (Five contemporary and near future science fiction stories) A young man is faced with deadly danger in a post-apocalyptic wasteland; a child finds a cache of century-old 'buried treasure'; a dying father reveals a secret world to his son; on a plane trip from NY to London, a youth's computer tablet is more capable than he anticipated; and the pressure to find new sources of fossil fuels leads to an ominous discovery.
The Old Store: A Science Fiction Anthology (26 post-apocalyptic SF short stories, 54,000 words) A close-knit group of men, women and children drive across a wilderness of broken concrete. They scavenge for food while trying to stay one step ahead of groups of starving marauders. The Families use their various skills to establish a safe, self-sustaining community. It isn't long before their haven is surrounded by armed gangs.
The Old Store: Lost Tales Volumes 1-3
Three books of completely new stories to complement 'The Old Store: A Science Fiction Anthology') More action and adventure set in the Families post-apocalyptic world.
Volume 1 adds a new dimension to the experience of Snake's encounter with rival gang boss Rat.
Volume 2 tells of the perils the Families fall into when dealing with dwindling supplies of fuel and ammo.
Volume 3 details Rat's adventures after he leaves the city carrying a recently acquired cache of weapons.
Volume 4 describes a hazardous train journey along tracks beset by bandits and interrogation by the citizens of a closely guarded city.
Passengers to Sentience (110,000 words - the first Passengers novel) Cyber detective Ben Thomas finds Lori, the girl of his dreams but is then kidnapped to a desert mining planet. Cruelly treated and under the control of a personality suppressant chip, Ben is not able to even think of escape.
Passengers to Zeta Nine (102,000 words - the second Passengers novel) Pioneers Raife and Nancy travel to an idyllic new planet. Intent on founding a new colony, their plans are interrupted by hidden dangers and unexpected discoveries.
Passengers: Revelations (115,000 words - the third Passengers novel) Ben and Lori prepare the human race for the discovery of aliens and investigate another criminal plot. Raife and Nancy continue their battle for survival in a potentially hostile environment. Symch gets a full-body upgrade and plans to break out from the mining planet which has become his prison.
Phantoms of the Quantum Rift (SF - a longer short story; 12,000 words) Switching on a network of quantum generators causes global catastrophe.
Spirit in the Circuits (An anthology of 6 non-gory horror/ghost sho
rt stories; 18,000 words)
The First Completely Electronic Robot and Science Fiction Limerick Book (Humour - 50 limerick rhymes having an SF theme)
Contact email: peter dot salisbury at rocketmail dot com
British Zombie Breakout Part One: The Castle Page 5