by Evans, Mike
Yassa was glad to only have three left, they could kill each other all damn day long for all he cared. Yassa aimed and fired pointe blank at the one closest to him. The second was going for Pete and reached down and gripped onto the top of Pete’s head clenching tightly and tried to pull him forward to rip off Pete’s face. Yassa yelled, “Close your mouth!”
Pete didn’t ask why and for good measure closed his eyes as well. The loud report of a rifle going off inches from his face made him go temporarily deaf. The Turned landed on top of Pete and he struggled, trying to free himself. It fell on top of his arms and half on his head, pushing its much heavier body on top of him. He could just barely hear with the ringing in his ears. Yassa yelled, “Get that thing off of you, now, before you fall.”
He had no qualms about tossing tthe Turned off of the roof, unsure what the benefit was about it as it was dead...a second time. Pete's biggest issue was the fact that the Turned was heavier than his small frame could handle. Yassa could not do anything to help him at the moment if he wanted the two of them to live. The final two of the first wave came directly for his face. Yassa tried pulling his rifle up but there wasn’t enough room. He put the pistol directly into its open, salivating, and hungry mouth, pushing it off balance and into the fourth contestant of ‘who wants to die by lead poisoning’ and fired the pistol three times. Brains, black and sluggish, exploded from the rear of its head. Yassa pulled his gun back, putting a hand on its shoulder, and threw it off of the side of the ladder. The fact that they had all planned to get across the roof was becoming more like a scenario that would not actually happen.
Yassa looked up, quite pleased to see that those rushing towards him to kill the two of them were growing fewer in number. When Ellie got the last shot fired off, the rooftop looked like a war had happened, which in a way it had, but at the same time he also was thinking in the back of his mind how all of this had gone so badly in less than a few seconds.
He raced over, leaving Pete on the ladder, and slammed the door shut sliding as many of the Turned in front of it as he could, trying to make damn sure they would be safe on either side of the roof until the time came that they were ready to reassess where they were at and take the next step. The door began getting slammed from the inside. Yassa took one of the Turned and slid its arm through where a bar might go across to keep it shut normally. He pulled a zip tie around its wrist to the side, hoping it would be enough to keep them from getting onto the roof. He also looked back, seeing Pete no longer frozen but still absolutely terrified making his way across the ladder reluctantly, knowing options were limited, that they all sucked, and that if he wanted to live, he was either going to have to step up or pray somebody took pity on him and delivered him safely to the base.
Yassa had no lack of faith that his six was covered and yelled, “You get your ass up and run. We are almost there; do you understand me?”
Pete said, “I can’t, I can’t!”
“You will or you’re fucking dead. Get your ass moving, now.”
There was a motivation that ringed in his ears. You move, or you die, or you fall, but it's up to you, and Yassa couldn’t do anything else about it. Pete dug deep, unhappy about this and swung his leg up pushing up to his hands and knees and then to his feet.
When Pete made it across the ladder, he stood up, testing his legs to make sure that they were still working. He was already a pale kid and the fact that he had been inside for the better part of a year did little to help that fact but even he had the smallest amount of color in his complexion and as of right now he would pass for a corpse without any issues. Yassa walked up and was going to ask the boy if he was okay but felt he probably already knew that answer. Pete, to Yassa’s surprise, looked up and in less than a second's notice wrapped his arms around the grizzly man, burying his head in his shoulder, and begin crying uncontrollably like a man who definitely seemed to appreciate the gift of life or continuance of life that was bestowed upon him. He was not ignorant enough to think that Yassa did not have a great deal to do with him still breathing and not be coming one of those freaks.
Yassa was not necessarily the touchy type but could tell this kid was doing everything in his power not to absolutely lose his shit and go bananas. He patted him on the back and whispered, “Everything's cool man, we crossed, we're going to go across again and then we're going to get the fuck out of here. You're going to love the base, it's like here but without zombies, really tall buildings and has a bunch of tanks and guns and shit you can blow these things up with.”
Pete let go, stepping back a foot saying, “That doesn't sound anything like Drake. What in the hell are you talking about?”
“Are you no longer thinking about how close you were to dying and becoming a zombie shish kabob?”
Pete nodded, using a shirt to wipe his eyes and Yassa said, “Then I've done my job.”
The two watched as the rest of the group made it across one by one. Joey had faith that it was going to keep him from falling but Joe still made Joey hang back and let him go first. He wasn't sure which of them were heavier, but sending a kid with Down’s syndrome and letting him be the guinea pig he was pretty sure would be a one-way ticket to Hell. When everyone had made it to the opposite side of the ladder, Joey and Joe took a grip of it pulling it across, thinking if the Turned realized they could go up to the roof Ellie and everyone were on, that they would be in the exact same predicament as they had just gotten themselves out of. Not a single one of them wanted to have to do anything like that again... like, in their entire life.
Ellie walked by, patting Pete on the back, and said, “Hey, at least you're still alive right? You stick with us and you could live to be twenty-one maybe even twenty-three? I don't want to get too cocky and be giving you numbers like thirty or thirty-five but we do a pretty good job of not dying.
Pete was pretty sure she was kidding but thought this might be just a little bit too soon for him to emotionally deal with anything else. The idea of getting those drugs and getting off this base was almost or probably definitely was the most important thing that he had ever been a part of in his young life. In his defense, he wasn't even old enough to drink, and on a side note was a very adventurous person, per se, before the zombie apocalypse had begun worldwide.
The group made their way across the second ladder, much more quickly this time, and definitely much more quietly than the original. When everyone was back on the rooftop together again, they assessed their options. The vast majority of them sucked. Kya was staring off into the distance. She seemed to be the only one thinking about the fact that with every building they went further away was going to be that much further back to their three door Humvee. She figured other people were probably thinking that and that mentioning it at this moment in time would have little positive to add to the circumstances. They, regardless, would still need to enter the building, find the drugs, get everything tucked away nice and neat and then at that point in time would be able to figure out what exactly they were thinking they would do to try and create some sort of diversion to outsmart the Turned. They didn't seem horrifically intelligent, but at the same time they had survived for quite a while as well.
Yassa said, “So is splitting up a good idea, still? I feel like we are having enough trouble keeping ourselves alive as a group. I mean, I’m sure that I’ll survive, but I don’t wanna have to tell Clary that everyone got killed. I don’t know if he’s going to care about a few of you getting killed, but I know he has a soft spot for a couple of you guys. I don’t know if he’s going to care about a few of you.”
Joe didn’t answer he said, “In hindsight, I would say that we should stick together. But if we don’t hurry up, I think that we aren’t going to be leaving this campus.”
Pete added, “Uh, we’ve been here since it started and we are still alive. Well, unlike you guys we haven’t been doing anything stupid...until we let you inside of the building. Then I decided it was a good idea to come here with you and I’m still
deciding why.”
Ellie said, “Well, it has to be because of Yassa’s fantastic personality. He just really seems like if this wasn't a zombie apocalypse that he might have been on one of those dating shows where he had twenty women after him.”
Yassa smiled ear-to-ear and said, “Actually that sounds a lot like my previous life. But it was actual reality and not a stupid fake show.”
Joe checked the door to the roof, listening for a few minutes and shining a flashlight around, making sure nothing was headed up in their direction. Joe looked at his pre-decided group and said, “Kya, Jon, Brett, come on we're going to take this top floor and we can alternate one and then another. We can meet up on the ground floor. Once we get there, I guess it's probably time to make a plan to get back to the Humvee.”
Pete said, “I just have one question.”
Joe definitely couldn't say the kid was growing on him now that his head ached.
Pete asked, “Who am I supposed to go with?”
Before anyone could say anything, Joey walked over and put an arm around him and said proudly, “You probably better go with us, Pete. No offense to Mr. Joe, but I don't really know him all that well, and if you want to live, we are usually good people to hang around with.”
Kya looked to Ellie who was shrugging and said, “Well, why don't we just make it a group goal that everyone makes it back alive. I mean, how does that sound?”
Yassa was mumbling as he was the last through the door, mentioning something about how he just really wanted to make sure no zombies took a bite out of him.
Joe took the lead of the group of five. He hoped that Kya’s goal of everyone coming out of this okay was something that actually did happen. When they made it down the hallway a little further, Joe was shining the light left and right; no one daring to breathe or making noise. Joe saw a lot of microscopes in quite a few of the rooms that they were passing slowly. He definitely thought a sign advertising this was the science building would not be something necessary to figure out what the specialty of this building was.
Joe thought about grabbing one of the microscopes but it was not on his zombie shopping list. He hoped that that would not be something he might regret at a later date and time. When he lifted one up it wasn't like the crappy ones that he had to use to view things in high school that weighed a few pounds, this one had multiple power cords running into it and what looked like a HDMI cables which he could only assume would send whatever they were looking at to the giant flat-screen TV that was on the table beside them. He figured this had to be a private college, because no public ones would probably have anything as fancy, not that he could talk. He had mostly done the minimum needed to be a police officer and had been more than happy to only do minimal training at colleges to keep everything he needed certified in order.
Kya walked past a doorway, not knowing how close her end had just about been. A hand reached out, grabbing for her long hair, and only missed by half an inch. Jon and Henry would not end up so lucky. Two hands came out, not reaching for Jon’s hair but directly for his jacket, which not conveniently for him was buttoned-up and being covered up with a camouflage day pack that had buckles and was clicked across his chest, basically putting him on a leash for the Turned.
Brett watched in horror, as did Joe and Kya. Henry’s feet came off the ground and Jon and he had a chorus of screams filled to the brim with terror as they disappeared inside the dark classroom. Jon’s pleas echoed from the black as night room, “Help me! Somebody, please God, help!”
Between the darkness and confusion, Joe had to turn around, seeing what was transpiring. Brett was staring crazy-eyed, trying to figure out what he should or could do, given the circumstances. He had weapons but none of them had flashlights attached to the guns. It probably, in hindsight, would have been an intelligent decision for one of them to make, but apparently no one had thought about it, given they were not even near high noon for time. Joe rushed back but Kya was already running that way.
The horrific sounds that came from the room left little hope in what they were going to find or that it was going to still be worth their time to do anything outside of shutting the door and locking them in. Shots erupted, echoing their way down the hallway. Joe looked around trying to see who was firing. He realized quickly no one was and that apparently if Jon was going to go down, he was not going to do so peacefully and he was not going to do so without taking a little piece of the Turned with him. The gunfire did not stop after just two rounds but his screams and the screams of the Turned also did not subside. It wanted its meal and it wanted it now.
Joe couldn't help himself wanting to go in after the two boys. It was his job to put his life on the line every single day, or at least it had been at one point in time. He had to do it more than once and had never learned to get used to it, and on a side note, had never been able to think of a reason why someone else's life was more important than his own with the exception, of course, of his ex-wife. If she'd been eaten by a zombie, it would not have broken his heart.
Brett raced around the corner thinking that he could be a hero. One more shot fired from Jon's rifle before everything went hauntingly quiet. Joe yelled, “Is everyone okay?”
It only took a second for him to get his answer. He looked over to Kya to make sure that she was okay and saw blood splattered all across her face. Little bits of bone were sticking out of her cheeks, presumably from the boys. Joe couldn't make sense of what had happened because she was still standing and other than a bloody gory face looked okay. He was going to ask what in the hell happened when Brett fell backwards, a perfect small hole dead center in his forehead had a lonely drip of blood coming down from it.
Joe didn't lean down to check on her but he did pull his pistol walking straight forward into the room. There was no question that Jon was not going to be a survivor. Henry’s fate was still questionable. As of right now, Joe was hoping maybe that he and Kya would be. He walked forward, gun up with his flashlight next to it as he had been trained to do and had been doing on the streets for a few decades. He looked across the room left and right seeing the Turned shaking on the ground, bullet holes riddling its body. Joe snapped off one quick shot, not worried whatsoever about taking care of one of the Turned.
Finding the two boys was his next thing that needed to be done. He saw Henry, or most of him, lying stretched across a science table. His head was no longer attached; it’d been thrown somewhere with no regard. This day was chalking up to be a real bag of shit, he thought. Joe walked over seeing a mangled Jon lying on the floor, shaking uncontrollably and gushing blood at the side of his neck. The only blood that was on the boy's face was coming from his eyes. Joe had seen all of this before and he knew what the future would hold if he let this continue. Jon was already bringing up his arm to his mouth the words he was trying to say sounded like someone babbling. The only thing just thought that he heard was him saying, “I'm okay. I just got a little bite.”
Joe knelt down next to the boy, patting his shoulder, feeling horrible about everything that has transpired on this day. He fired off one shot into the top of his skull and the lights in his eyes went out.
Joe looked around, seeing cabinet upon cabinet of bottles. He couldn't tell what any of them were and hissed at Kya to get in the room. She walked in, shutting the door, following Joe, pointing at it and his instructions. Joe walked over to the windows, ripping the blinds from them and filling the room with a much-needed light.
Neither of them spoke for a moment, they simply walked up to the cabinets and began looking at an alphabetically sorted plethora of chemicals. Between the two of them they had gotten all but four or five of the ingredients. Neither of them wasted any opportunity to screw up and each of them double checked all of the labels and triple checked the shelves and everything that had a door on it in the room to make sure that if it was here, they would not miss it. The last thing they were going to do was to worry about screwing up and leaving something so precious behind.
Joe looked over, trying to figure out exactly what he was looking at. He saw what was probably a sixteen or seventeen-year-old girl looking at him. But he was pretty sure she had the soul of a forty-year-old. He replied, “Thanks, I just hate feeling...feeling like a failure. I should have never brought you kids with; I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“You were thinking that these kids, who are heavily armed, know what they are doing. They know the land. They know where they are going, and that if I...being you were to go alone that there would be almost no chance of living. You’d never make it. We can’t do this thing alone. Almost everyone who has tried has failed. There’s nothing else to it but that.”