Survivors in a Dead World

by Gary M. Chesla

  Monica rolled the ball down the hallway and knocked over all the pop bottles.

  Ed wiggled in Debbie’s arms, trying to get free and go after the ball.

  “I win!” Monica yelled.

  “Not yet you didn’t,” Debbie protested. “I get to go and then we go two more times before someone can win.”

  Monica grinned.

  “Go set the bottles back up,” Debbie said. “It’s my turn.”

  Monica ran down the hall and set up the bottles. She came back to Debbie and took Ed.

  Debbie was getting ready to roll the ball down the hall when a loud racket sounded from their room.

  Monica ran over to the doorway and looked in the room.

  “What was that?” she asked.

  “I opened a couple of windows,” Debbie replied as she walked over behind Monica and looked inside the room. “Our room was starting to get stinky so I thought I would try to air it out. It must be getting windy outside.”

  The blinds over the open windows continued to flap in the wind.

  Monica ran over and looked outside.

  “It’s getting dark outside and it is starting to rain,” Monica said. “Jimmy is going to get wet.”

  Debbie walked over to the windows and started to turn the crank to close the windows, “I better close these windows so we don’t get wet too.”

  “Let’s go finish our game,” Debbie said. “Jimmy will probably be back early today. He hates to get wet.”

  “Me too,” Monica smiled.

  Debbie looked down at Monica’s dirty face, “Yes I know.”

  They walked back out to their game.

  Debbie rolled the ball and knocked down seven bottles.

  The Shrimp didn’t laugh like Debbie had expected, they were all too occupied with the sound of the wind.

  The windows whistled as the wind forced its way through the gaps in the seals.

  The brick building was sturdy, but the windows and doors vibrated with the force of the wind.

  “I hope Jimmy found someplace to get out of this storm,” Debbie thought, worried that he might get more than wet.

  They managed to finish their game. Debbie won by three points. She took it easy on Monica. She had been tempted to let her win, but the Shrimp was hard enough to live with as it was and decided to beat her but to let the game be close enough to keep the Shrimp happy.

  “OK Shrimp,” Debbie smiled. “I win. You have to set all the bottles up for the next game.”

  “Two out of three?” Monica looked at Debbie hopefully.

  “That wasn’t the bet,” Debbie laughed. “Go set up the bottles. I get to go first this time.”

  Monica took a pouting posture, but turned and walked down to the bottles.

  Monica had just reached the bottles when a horrible crash sounded. The entire building shook violently.

  Shattered glass and debris flew across the hallway back behind Debbie at the other end of the building, near the doorway to the school and the first grade classroom.

  Debbie dropped down on the floor, holding Ed close against her body and stared down the hallway.

  The sound of the wind and rain was now much louder.

  In fact Debbie swore she could feel the wind blowing through her hair.

  Monica ran up next to Debbie and dropped down on the floor next to her. Ed was now perfectly still and Monica looked down towards the debris with a look of shock on her face.

  Debbie pushed Ed towards Monica, “Here, take Ed and stay here.”

  Monica grabbed Ed. The startled pup didn’t try to wiggle away this time.

  Debbie got up and slowly walked down the hallway, staying close to the wall.

  As she moved down the hall, she could feel her hair blowing off of her face. She felt her face being pelted with tiny bits of dirt.

  The force of the wind picked up as she neared the end of the hallway.

  Debbie crossed the hall in front of the third grade classroom and listened carefully as she neared the corner where the hallway went to the left and led to the main entryway of the building.

  The noise from the blowing wind was very loud here.

  “What happened?” Debbie thought. “It sounded like an explosion. It sounded like some Special Forces unit she had seen in a movie had just blown off the front of the building to begin their attack. God I hope not.”

  The idea of a zombie commando team flashed through her mind. It would have been funny if she wasn’t so terrified right now.

  Debbie moved her head around the corner and was greeted with a burst of wind in her face, taking her breath away.

  The hallway went another twenty feet before it ended at the front entry way. The door, windows and the twenty by twelve foot metal frame that held the door and windows in place was gone. The entire entry way was gone. Rain pelted the tile floor ten feet into the hallway forming a large puddle of water.

  The door and the metal frame were now on the floor in front of Debbie. The glass was gone, lying across the floor in shattered pieces all the way back to the first grade classroom.

  Debbie looked back at Monica and Ed. She signaled for them to stay put and be quiet.

  Debbie walked down the wet hallway trying to be quiet as the broken glass crunched under her feet.

  Debbie splashed through the puddle and walked to the wide open entry way. Rain drops were now hitting her in the face as she looked down the steps that led out to the street.

  Then she saw what had happened. It hadn’t been a zombie commando team. It was the old massive oak tree that stood along the walkway at the bottom of the steps. The tree had to have been five feet thick. It had been here when she went to school. It had been there when Jimmy went to school here. As large as it was, it must have been here for many years before the school was even built.

  Debbie could see where the inside of the tree had been rotting. With the weak inner section of the tree, it was not able to withstand today’s storm and the high winds.

  It was still a heavy and massive tree. When it snapped, it fell on the covered walkway that led up to the door. The walkway was flattened and had pushed into the entry way causing the metal frame to explode into the school.

  Jimmy had smeared mud on the inside of the door and windows to hide their presence in the school. Debbie didn’t know how they would fix this. It was like the entire side of the building was gone.

  Debbie stood and stared at the street in front of the school.

  She could see all the cars piled up on the street and sidewalk only twenty or thirty feet away. She could see the library across the street off to the right.

  Worse yet, she could see the dead staggering up the side streets, coming in her direction.

  The loud crash must have echoed through town. The dead always liked loud noises and would all gravitate towards loud sounds.

  Debbie could see that the dead were on their way to the school. Unfortunately the building was now wide open to welcome them.

  The sounds of the dead were now louder than the sound of the wind and rain.

  Debbie tried to think what to do.

  When some of the dead surprised her as they started to pour around the side of the building, Debbie had to fight back the scream that was now stuck in her throat.

  The dead started to stagger onto the roof of the walkway. The roof to the walkway was now acting as a ramp that would lead the dead directly in through the now open front of the building.

  Debbie turned and ran back towards Monica.

  “Grab your sleeping bag,” Debbie shouted.

  Monica quickly ran into their room.

  Debbie ran in behind her and picked up her and Jimmy’s sleeping bag.

  Monica was now standing looking at Debbie, not sure what she should do next.

  “We have to go down to the boiler room,” Debbie shouted. She knew that when Jimmy came back, he would come in through the boiler room.

  They could try to wait in the fourth grade classroom, but the dead would be abl
e to see them through the windows in the door. With the number of dead coming towards the school, the wooden door couldn’t hold out for more than ten minutes.

  They had to get down stairs and behind the metal boiler room door and hide.

  Debbie shoved both sleeping bags under her left arm and grabbed Monica’s with her right hand.

  They ran out the door and turned right, back towards the front entrance and the door to the basement that was half way down the hall.

  As Debbie ran out into the hall, she could see the dead were already inside the school. Six of them were slowly making their way towards where Debbie and Monic were standing.

  One of the dead had already reached the door that Debbie needed to use to get down stairs.

  Debbie led Monica quickly towards the creature.

  Ed started to whine.

  When they were ten feet from the door, Debbie let go of Monica.

  “I need both of my arms,” Debbie said. “Just stay behind me and get through the door and go down to the boiler room. I’ll be right in front of you but don’t wait for me, just get down stairs.”

  Monica and Ed both whimpered but didn’t say anything.

  Debbie held the two sleeping bags up in front of her.

  She looked at Monica, “Now run.”

  Debbie tried to hide behind the sleeping bags and ran at the creature standing in front of the basement door.

  She collided with the creature.

  The creature fell backwards onto the floor and began frantically thrashing its arms and legs.

  Debbie fell back on her butt.

  She quickly got back to her feet and grabbed the frozen Monica and pulled her through the doorway and slammed the metal basement door.

  Debbie led Monica and Ed down the dimly lit stairwell.

  The steps ended as they reached the dim light that filtered into the basement through the mud covered basement windows at the top of the wall near the ceiling in the cafeteria.

  She led Monica into the boiler room and closed the door behind them.

  They stood in the dark room.

  The sound of the dead, groaning and banging into the desks in the room above them filled the air around them.

  Jim worked his way through the brush and weeds on the far side of the football field.

  He was wet and miserable. It had been one hell of a storm that just passed through.

  He wished he would have been able to fish under the bridge today. The bridge would have kept him dry.

  When he walked down to the bridge this morning, there were just too many of the dead under the bridge to be able to fish comfortably. Most of the dead were in bad shape, broken arms and legs from falling off the bridge. They weren’t able to come after him they were in such a mangled condition. Jim had stood back and looked them over. A few could drag their bodies slowly on the ground but all most of them could do was just move their heads around and groan.

  Jim didn’t feel like spending an hour roaming among the dead, crushing their skulls to shut them up. Besides, they could still make enough noise to attract other, more mobile creatures that Jim also didn’t want to deal with if he stayed there much longer.

  Instead Jim walked along the river until he came to the spot where he and the girls had cut up over the hill to get back to the school the other day after being attacked by the dead. He spent the morning fishing there.

  Jim was soaked to the bone. When the high wind blew through, the air chilled him and made him shiver.

  The seven trout he carried in the plastic bag was great but it didn’t make him feel any warmer.

  Jim crawled through the wet grass to the side of the football field.

  He forgot all about being wet and miserable when he saw the scene in front of him.

  There was chaos near the front and main door to the school.

  There were more of the dead crowded around the front of the school than he had seen around the entire school the day before.

  He didn’t understand why there were so many at the school now.

  “Debbie and Monica must be terrified,” he thought.

  “But why are they all near the front of the school?” he thought.

  Then he saw the huge oak tree lying across the front of the building.

  The large oak brought back more memories of his years in elementary school.

  It was near that tree when he was in third grade. He was playing baseball with his classmates.

  He swung the bat at a pitch just as a little first grader walked in front of him.

  He hit the kid in the head with the bat.

  The kid went screaming to his teacher, crying that Jimmy had hit him with the bat.

  As usual the teacher didn’t bother to ask how it had happened.

  Jim smiled to himself, “What number paddling was that one? Three hundred forty-seven I think.”

  The tree had also been the scene of another crime that had ended with him getting his butt beat.

  Mary Jane Marolt always tormented Jim. She knew if he tried to retaliate, he would get paddled and so she constantly flaunted that over his head.

  In fifth grade Jim received a sling shot for his birthday.

  Jim hatched a plan to get revenge on Mary Jane.

  He took his slingshot to school. At recess he waited under the big oak tree for Mary Jane to walk by.

  It was in the fall and there were plenty of acorns on the ground. When Mary Jane walked by, Jim shot her in her fat ass with an acorn.

  Mary Jane didn’t know who shot her, but there were plenty of kids on the playground that day that were more than happy to tell on Jim.

  “Number Three hundred and forty-eight,” Jim grinned.

  But the smile on Jim’s face faded as he noticed the crowd in front of the school seem to be getting smaller.

  The only way that could happen was if they were getting inside the school.

  “How could that be?” Jim wondered.

  “Moni couldn’t have left the door open, even though that would be like something she would do,” Jim thought. The door was locked and secured with a chain. Even he hadn’t been able to remove the chain.

  But the dead kept coming and disappearing at the front of the school.

  Jim now began to panic, “Were Debbie and Moni OK or were they……”

  Jim didn’t want to finish that thought.

  There were too many of the dead around the front of the school for him to work his way around out front to see if the dead were getting into the school for sure.

  The back of the school was relatively clear, but he couldn’t just run across the field like he usually did.

  Jim crawled along the weeds towards the far back end of the football field.

  He had to take the long way around.

  He made sure to hang on to his bag of fish. He had a feeling he was going to need them.

  He crawled across the far end of the field, staying in the weeds until he reached the playground.

  From the playground, the school was now between him and the dead in front of the school.

  Jim stood and began to run.

  If he could make it to the dumpsters, he didn’t care if the dead saw him. He had to get inside the school and find Debbie and Monica.

  The dead spotted him about halfway to the school, but he was able to reach the dumpsters a good thirty feet before they did.

  He didn’t try to sneak in through the coal bin door, he didn’t have time to try and hide what he was doing. He threw the bag of fish down into the boiler room and then jumped feet first through the coal bin door, sliding down into the room.

  As he dropped down into the dark room he heard a voice.

  “Jimmy, Thank God you made it back,” Debbie said.

  Chapter 12

  Carrie was up early.

  “We’ll see who gets their lazy ass out of bed first this morning,” she laughed.

  After she tied her shoes, she put on the long flannel shirt the doctor had given her to wear over her new
t-shirt.

  She had been surprised by the extra shirt. She had been surprised by the bulky thick t-shirt the doctor had given her to replace her old bloody blue shirt too.

  She had expected he would have given her a sleeveless t-shirt that was tight and about two sizes too small.

  But like she had said to Bob, she tended to over react and was too sensitive sometimes when it came to things like this. Experience had made her suspicious of gifts and men in general.

  In a way she couldn’t be too hard on herself for her feelings, she had gone through quite a bit over the last year. She had been forced to protect herself from some real animals when everything had first gone to hell.

  She was glad Bob had stopped her before she got her hands on Tom yesterday and rang his neck.

  She knew Bob was right, Tom was harmless and didn’t mean to be crude. It was just a guy thing and she had heard a lot worse before.

  Besides, she smiled as she glanced at her reflection in the mirror on the bathroom door as she walked by, “Tom might have been crude in how he said it, but he was also right!”

  She buttoned her flannel shirt, not because she was trying to be modest this morning or because she thought Bob and Tom were perverts, of course they were perverts but they were nice perverts. She wore her flannel shirt this morning because she was chilly.

  A storm had blown through last night. She had heard a heavy rain storm in the middle of the night and the shirt would keep her warm and make her feel more comfortable.

  She also wore the knitted Steeler hat the doctor had given her and tucked her long red hair under the hat.

  With Ken hanging from the helicopter today, the cabin door would be open and she knew the wind would be wicked inside the cabin. She didn’t want to spend all her time brushing her hair out of her eyes so she could see.

  After checking herself over, she was ready for her job today. She also noticed how good soft clean clothes felt.