“I have a feeling this is going to blow up in our faces,” she sighed.
“For all our sakes, I hope you’re wrong,” I responded.
Thirty-One | Adios Amigo
ZACH
Blake came down from the loft scowling, followed by a female State Trooper and the Major.
“The head statie doesn’t want us going in,” he said in greeting.
“That ain’t her choice to make.”
“That’s what I said. The Major said he’s coming and asking for volunteers.”
“I’m down,” Heather Murphey said as she walked up with Baby at her side. “It’s been boring as hell around here, this is the most action I’ve seen in weeks.”
“You ain’t right,” Baby coughed out a laugh.
“I got one more volunteer, and we can head out when you’re ready,” the Major said as he joined us.
“The sooner the better,” I replied. “I’m not comfortable here.” I looked around at all the troopers. They were eying us warily. We were all on the same team, but their goal was a lot different than ours. I couldn’t care less about Lakeview. Until I got Alexis back in my arms, she was the number one, hell, the only priority.
We left on foot an hour later. We suited up in our hillbilly armor, packs on our backs, quiet weapons at the ready. I felt like I was back in basic, all my shit on my back, running around in the dark like a pack of assholes.
We were joined by the Major, Heather Murphey and a guardsman, Alphonso Lopez. Our team consisted of me, Martinez, Baby, Romeo and Blake. We had five hours before dawn and plenty of time to make it to the school, which would be our FOB.
I set the pace at a fast jog, trying to stay alert and avoid potholes, zombies and the unidentified living. Zombies were a rare sight in the area. The bikers must be culling the herd in this area, but we did have a good tussle every now and again. They didn’t put up that much of a fight anymore. When a person first transitioned, they were faster, more aggressive and their bones were harder to break. A zombie’s decomposition was slower than a corpse, but it was still decomposing. They became slower, the older they were, and their bodies bloated and full of gas and liquids. It was easier to dispatch one with a knife and their bones broke easier. They even lost balance easier as their bodies broke down.
The ones that shambled to us were in a sorry state. Their legs were broken and they shambled over to us, dragging limbs, parts falling off. They were quickly taken out by blades and left in the street to rot.
We made it to the school with four hours to spare. The structure was impressive, three stories of brown brick, seemingly untouched by the chaos. The bushes were a bit overgrown, the weeds were taking over the parking lot, but overall it could have been just another old New Orleans structure, the gothic look impressive and imposing.
“My granddaughter went here,” the Major huffed into the com, he wasn’t used to the brutal pace we set. “We can gain access through the gym, which is the farthest structure from the camp. There should be a back door that we can access on the other side of those bushes.” He headed directly for the school, pushing through the overgrown bushes. I wanted to yell for him to slow down, but he was on a mission and his rank had him acting like he was in charge.
The gate was open and the place was a ghost town, which was great for us. We all pushed through and followed the Major. He seemed to know where to go. He went to a door in the back of the building and we filed into what seemed to be locker rooms, but it was hard to tell in the gloom. The rooms were odd, low-ceilings gave me the impression that it was built for much smaller humans and the old lockers that lined the walls were very outdated. The room was pitch black and we clicked on our flashlights to show the way.
The Major moved quickly through the room, making for doors on the other side of the room without slowing his pace. I hissed for him to slow down, but he only paused for a second. This dark, dank room was claustrophobic and I had to shake the urge to run in the opposite direction. The smell of mold and musk was strong. I could almost taste it in the back of my throat. As we went deeper into the dark room, I splashed through puddles on the floor and the unmistakable sound of dripping water filtered through the noise we were making. A pipe must be leaking somewhere in here.
“This is the gym up ahead, the school is on the other side of the gym. We should probably go to the third floor for a bird’s eye view of the biker camp.” The Major spoke quickly as he was pushing through the double doors that separated the locker room from the gym. I knew he had made a mistake the moment the doors swung forward and the smell of the dead wafted back at us.
“Shit, there’s hundreds of them, hundreds!” he screamed and turned. He forced his way into the locker room, but the doors weren’t the type that locked shut, they swung back and forth, like the kind of doors you would find in a store. It was an all-girls school, they must not need high-security in the locker rooms.
The dead began pouring through the doors. He was right, there were hundreds. We were going to be trapped in a cramped, dark room with hundreds of dead teenage girls. They were all dressed alike in their brown and white checkered uniform skirts. Each one had thin, white, collared shirts, some pristine, others matted with blood or ripped open. They all wore black and white saddle shoes and most were coated in the blood of their classmates, chunks of viscera hanging from their laces. It was the most disturbing sight of my life.
Zombies with braces and big hair bows with their initials embroidered on them were going to haunt me for weeks. I would never again think the Catholic school girl kink was sexy…never again. They shuffled toward us, their skinny legs pushing them forward, desperate to eat us alive. They were in better condition than the ones outside, kept away from the elements…they were faster, more solid. If we made it out of this alive, I would be surprised.
The Major fell first, five of the girls were on him when he fell back through the doors. They pulled him to the ground as he screamed for our help. He tried to slash at them with his knife, but it was useless. I tried to reach for him, but the zombies were falling into the room, pushing past the scene on the ground. I would be eaten alive if I stayed to help. I began backing up quickly. I watched as one leaned down and ripped his cheek open. I drew my firearm, but I couldn’t shoot. The bikers would hear, they would know we were close. I couldn’t fire. But if I didn’t there would be no way out of this.
“Back outside,” Blake yelled into the com and we fell back. My eyes were locked on the Major as his flesh was being torn away from his face. His entire body was well covered in armor and clothes, except for his face. The zombies pushed and fought with each other to get to his face as they took bite after bite, ripping the flesh from him.
The tide of zombie teens kept coming. They surged forward within the tight quarters, completely blocking our escape route. There was nowhere to go but the showers, to the back of the building. We were all going to die.
I withdrew two of my knives, gripped them tightly in my hands and began to slice and stab. If I was going down, I was going down fighting.
“Here,” Baby called, yanking me back and pushing me toward a room I hadn’t noticed before. I was slicing at the oncoming zombies and I hated to turn my back on them but she held them off for me as we all made our way into what looked like the anteroom of a classroom. The door to this one could swing shut, and I slammed it closed just as the first zombie hit the thin wood and began to pound on it.
“I’m assuming this second door is going to lead out to the gym. Where more of those things are!” Martinez called. “No windows, what the fuck kind of classroom doesn’t have windows?”
“Health.” Baby shone her flashlight on the dry erase board and revealed a diagram on how to take care of your toenails. “Is that what they learn at an all-girls high school?” She laughed, it sounded manic.
Blake pushed a chair to the door. The big wooden door was built in the typical school fashion with a window on top of the door for ventilation.
He opened th
e window quietly with the crank and peered out into the gym. When he got down from the chair, he didn’t look hopeful.
“There’s a raised portion of the gym, I’m assuming those are the bleachers, but they appear permanent and start at about six feet up. On the north side of the gym, windows start behind the last row of seating. If we can make it to the other side of the gym, we can get out of here by way of the windows. It might be a twelve-foot drop, but we can do this.”
“You think we can make it across the gym in time, before they’re on us?” I asked.
“It’s that, or wait until they break that door down.” He motioned to the door we had just come through which was bowing under the pressure of the zombies. “Doesn’t look like we have much of a choice.”
“Hopefully most of those bitches will be in the locker room trying to get us from the other end.” Martinez looked put-out and disturbed.
“We’ve got to get the fuck out of here,” Alphonso said and headed toward the door. “Together in one rush, fast and quiet, we can do this.”
“Let’s go,” I hissed and we pushed through the door in a quiet dash for safety. The teen Z’s didn’t spot us until we were almost halfway across the gym and their slow shuffle wasn’t getting them to us anytime soon. We could make this.
Heather Murphey was the first one up the stairs, followed closely by Baby and then Romeo. I sighed in relief as I saw them taking the stairs two at a time until they were level with the windows.
Martinez and I were the last ones up the steps. We made it to the raised platform just as the first zombies were reaching us and easily began to climb the steps. They were hampered by their brethren as each jockeyed to be the first up the steps. They pushed and pulled on each other. Some just stayed on the floor of the gym and tried to reach for us through the railing. All we could see was the tops of their hands as they desperately tried to grab for anything.
In a few long strides I was up the stairs with Martinez by my side. I breathed a sigh of relief as I touched the glass of the windows, pushing my body through the small space. There was no drop, the others stood and waited for us outside. They were on the roof of a covered breezeway that ran about the height of the windows, so you only had to pull yourself onto it.
I pushed myself out, turning to pull Martinez through the small windows the moment I got free. I gripped his hand and tugged, right as he cried out. The sound went straight to my gut. He was hurt…I hoped to God it was a cut from the windows or something like that.
Blake shone the flashlight directly at us, revealing the horrific sight that would haunt my nightmares for the rest of my life.
There was one of the students, a big white bow in her hair, practically untouched as far as wounds, except around her mouth. She was gray and her skin had receded, pulling away from her face, decaying her lips. She had a hold of Martinez’s boot and had found a spot that wasn’t covered in armor. Her face was latched to his ankle as he kicked desperately trying to get away.
When he finally succeeded in kicking hard enough, the zombie fell away with a chunk of Martinez’s flesh still hanging from her teeth.
I yanked him through, slamming the windows shut as the dead began to pound at the glass. Their moans a cacophony of horror as I looked down at my friend. A man I would have given my life for. A man that was now as good as dead.
He looked up at me and his eyes held the truth. He knew his fate. He knew death awaited.
“Fuck, she bit me. A fucking Catholic school girl killed me. Mi mama was right,” he whispered.
“We have to get out of here,” Baby said, her voice was shrill, panicked. I hadn’t ever seen her mask slip. It sent ice cold rivulets through my veins.
I pulled Martinez to his feet and he winced as he put weight on his foot. We crossed the roof until we got to a set of windows that led into the second floor of the school. The classrooms were empty. The nuns had moved all the girls into the gym to wait out the apocalypse.
Baby forced the window open and we all slid in. I pulled Martinez with me, he was looking queasy and pale, his skin tone had gone gray.
“We need to start a fire, boil water,” I said, an idea coming to me. If we could take the leg off, it would stop the infection. He wouldn't die. “Lay down, Martinez, we’re going to save you.”
“Wait, what the fuck, boss, what are you going to do?” His eyes were wide as I pulled the tomahawk from the loop at my waist.
“Hold him down. Martinez bite down on something. Give me some fucking alcohol, someone.” A bottle of rubbing alcohol was put into my fist and I poured it over the blade.
“Pull up his pants. Martinez, better a fucking leg than death.”
“Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck,” he began to chant. Blake leaned over him and held him down by the shoulders. Romeo pulled up his pant leg while Baby and Heather moved to the back of the room. They were gripping on to each other like two little school girls.
I raised the tomahawk and swung, aiming for right under the knee. I wasn’t a surgeon, there was nothing precise about my cut, and his scream was heart-breaking. The leg didn’t come off. I chopped again and he screamed again. How many chops does it take to cut off a leg? I don’t know. I just went at it, I went into my head. I saw black, I saw red as the blood flowed from his leg. I began to puke as Baby pulled me from him and she began to work on bandaging him up. Cleaning him.
When I looked over at him, I knew it hadn’t worked. His skin had the gray tint of the about to turn. His lips were blue and quivering. I had tried. I had put him through so much pain, for nothing. Luckily he had passed out after the second cut.
His eyes fluttered open when Baby wrapped a bandage around his leg. “You tried, thank you.” His voice came out in a hissed whisper, his pain must have been so great. “Let me go, just let me go.”
“No, you’re going to get through this,” Blake said, bending over him, pushing at him. All I could do was stare. I looked down at my hands. They were covered in Martinez’s blood.
“Let me go,” Martinez called. His eyes were now bloodshot and you could see the veins through the skin of his face. It wouldn’t be long. He began to cough and there was blood on his lips.
“Step back,” Baby called to Blake, pulling at his shoulders, but he was unmoving, hovering over his friend, trying to do anything to fix him. “He’s turning, draw now, Blake.”
“Don’t let me…” Martinez whispered.
Blake didn’t move back, even though it was obvious Martinez was about to become one of the dead. He shook Martinez by the shoulders screaming, “Fight it Martinez!” But it was too late. The rattle of his breath stopped and Martinez slipped away, after having to endure a very painful death. And it was all because of me and my stupid idea. When Martinez’s eyes flashed open again, this time the eyes of the dead, Blake didn't move. It was my turn to act. I still had the bloody tomahawk in my hand. I pushed Blake away just as Martinez lunged to bite him and pushed the sharp edge through Martinez’s skull, ending his undead existence. Ending Martinez.
Thirty-Two | Overdosing with Satan Himself
ALEXIS
The pattern repeated itself again the next morning. The old bitch came and got me and brought me to the back room. She didn’t bother with the t-shirt and shorts this time. She made a point of parading me through the front room naked. The eyes of the guards watching me so intensely felt like pricks on my skin. I looked forward, staring at the door and nowhere else. I couldn’t look at anything else, the humiliation was too great.
Melinda met me at the tub and handed me the tee and shorts from yesterday and I could have kissed her. Just a touch of thoughtfulness was enough to give a girl hope in this fucked up world. No matter what Melinda said or did, I was getting her ass out of here. Whether she wanted me to or not.
After that, Melinda and I became fast friends. She began schooling me in all the comings and goings of the base. I knew this was her way of helping me, without actually agreeing to help me. She wasn’t to the point yet where she w
ould say out loud that she was willing to escape with me, but why else would she be telling me about shift changes and who is less likely to be paying attention? I was going to get her to come with me. I just needed a little more time.
Live (NOLA Zombie Book 3) Page 12