Infected (Book 1): The First Ten Days

by Thomas, Jack

My body and mind managed to remove the ability to feel cold or stiff because of the winter as a way to improve my survival ability. But this moment was different. I stood over the fall to my death god knew how many feet over ground, in frozen weather, a perfect reminder of how cold I really was. What a time to shiver.

  Contain yourself and make it to the next classroom!

  My slow slide across the ledge continued to worsen when the wind became obvious and tried to push me back to the classroom I came from.

  The cold, the wind, the stiffness and shiver all factored into slowing me down, but none succeeded to stop me. I pushed on.

  My fingertips were frozen by the cold and the wind, but I could still feel the subtle cracks and bumps in the wall of the building and the window when I reached it. Now I knew the first window was sealed so tightly it needed to be broken to get out and the second would be the same, this brought up a series of difficulties; I somehow needed to break the window I made it to, and not push myself off of the ledge and it had to be done without the attraction of infected into the classroom.

  My eyes enjoyed the view of the mountain ahead of me, since I still hadn’t looked down. Snow peaks and nearby clouds made a beautiful scene. If it was the last thing I saw before, I died I did better than most.

  I wrapped my fingers around the right angle which turned into the window frame and used it as support while I took my gun out. The plan was to shoot the window. The sound of the gunshot outside would echo through the emptiness and cover up the sound of the window broken inside to allow me in safely.

  Back inside the classroom I left, the moans of the infected hinted confusion and hunger. They searched for me inside of the room believing that I was still there.

  The gun now in my hand, I slid further down the ledge so my back would be against the window. The gun now aimed back at the window. I pulled the trigger.

  The echo of the gunshot rang through the open air and up the mountain, came right back to me as the window broke behind me and I fell backwards onto the cabinets in the classroom.

  My legs hung out through the window but my back rested nicely over a bed of glass in between the cabinets and me. I saw everything upside down. The room was empty of life and looked identical to the one I left, with the exception for two dead bodies. One of a young kid with a hole in his head, presumably stabbed or shot, the other of a woman who hung herself from one of the pipes which crossed through the room; they both faced away from me. I lifted my head to take a breath and laugh off the near death cliff walk while I took in more of the amazing scenery.

  The slight movements I made cracked the glass I laid on top of and crunched until I came off the cabinets. Before I moved any more I listened to see if any of the infected would try to get inside of the room I was in, but as I expected, the sound of the gunshot completely camouflaged the sound of the window shatter.

  This was my cue to leave the classroom and find the main office and track down my family, but as I walked through the classroom it became apparent… I didn’t have to look any further. I found them.

  I dropped the gun on the floor and stared at the incredibly familiar details I didn’t notice when I looked at the bodies upside down. The familiar jacket Daviel kept with him at all times and wore for every occasion was still on him, covered in his blood. The bite marks on his neck told a full story. I didn’t want to touch him but I continued to stare for an eternity inside of an eternity. I was somewhere in my head where time both meant nothing and was forever.

  “Daviel…?” His name left my lips in the form of a question, one which I knew the answer to.

  My face was wet, I still didn’t move an inch. I’ve lived unimaginable horrors to get to the school yet this moment was more like hell than anything I could have ever imagined. There was no cold or hot, no good or bad, not even up or down, there was that moment, that sight and a strange ache tight in my chest which squeezed the air out of my lungs.

  My face dripped. The fists I balled up were warm, as were my eyes and the rims around them.

  I couldn’t bear to look up now that I knew who the person who hung from the pipe was. I screamed on the inside, silently frozen on the outside.

  My entire goal to find my family kept me hopeful and with someone in the world to look for and exist with. In the flash of a second, the bang of a gun and the shatter of glass I ended up alone in the world. It was emptiness, one that the deepest and darkest isolation would fear being part of. I swore the room filled with a hazy dark gas and fogged up my view, but it was the tears that held themselves up and obstructed my view, still focused on Daviel.

  My dry throat was accompanied with the same numbness which petrified my body.

  PUM! A loud bang came from the classroom next door. One of the infected knocked something down while they roamed aimlessly. The rest of them screamed and moaned like the sound was a sign of food.

  The sound helped me find my way back into a more conscious state. I picked the gun off of the floor and paced my way to the door, never looking back.

  “I love you… I’m sorry I couldn’t make in time…” I told them, hopingthat some part of them could hear my apology. I didn’t know how to react. I couldn’t even look back and face them. I was otherwise speechless. There was nothing of meaning I could have said aside from that apology which became lost in the wind as the words came out of my mouth.

  My hand now on the door handle, I took a deep breath, the last one I would ever take in a room with my little brother, with my mother. When I could no longer stand being there anymore, I went through the door.

  On the other side, the infected cleared out into the classroom where I was originally. They didn’t notice my slow paced exit from the room of broken dreams.

  I still needed to come up with the energy to complete the other mission. Jason was still being held hostage by Richard and he needed help.

  Being the only person in the building who knew about Richard’s psychotic plan before he arrived at the school made the problem mine to deal with; I didn’t want to do anything but there was no choice. Jason was all I had left, and if anything happened to him, it was all on me for not doing anything about it. There was no longer a mother or little brother to protect, and as a result, there was no reason to be worried about my own safety anymore. If Jason was gone I would downgrade to the basic need to stay alive for the sake of being alive. What’s worse than to exist alone in a post-apocalyptic zombie run world? I wasn’t curious to find out.

  I was sure Richard and Jason were still somewhere inside of the school. To find them was the trick I wanted to learn. Richard was extremely elusive and this made things more difficult than they should have been.

  The hallways were emptied of infected because of the gunshot. It allowed me to move through the hallways freely once again. Although this time the goal was different.

  “Think!” I whispered to myself to figure out where I could find Richard. Based on the little I knew about the guy it was obvious he liked to have control of the things he was involved in, and he was an expert survivor. Both of these things meant he would want to see everything that went on at the same time he was in a safe location. My mind always went the same direction and it didn’t fail me before, so why would it start now? I thought of the roof. He had to be up there. A complete view of the school grounds was possible from that vantage point, and it assured a safe location away from the infected. He was definitely on the roof or somewhere near it.

  I need to find a staircase.

  I knew eventually I would run into the infected that couldn’t find a way to the classroom, and when it happened my pace was going to pick up, but for the meantime I needed to take my time and find a way up. Staircases usually sat at the end of hallways. If I was lucky enough to find a staircase at the end of the hall I was in, I could also avoid the infected on my way up. The problem was I didn’t want to be seen by any of Richard’s men if any of them were around. I wanted to catch them off guard so I could have a better window of opportunity
to free Jason. I had to find out where exactly on the roof they were located so I could come from below them undetected.

  To my luck, the end of the hallway did have a staircase and I went up. The plan was to go to the roof, scope out Richard’s exact location, go back down, find the location beneath him and sneak my way up under him. If he kept watch from the front of the school, unless he wasn’t there when I arrived, he already knew I came into the building.

  The stairs happily led me straight to the roof of the school. I cautiously opened the heavy steel single door to the roof of the school and walked out. The roof was more detailed for survival than I expected. It was suited almost intentionally for some sort of apocalypse. Several containers labeled Clean Water stood next the door I opened onto the roof. They obstructed most of my view from other points on the massive school.

  BOOM!

  A huge pop ate the silence in which the wind danced. It came from somewhere on the roof. Maybe I was right after all. A higher point would allow me to see more of the roof and tell where it came from, so I climbed the ladder on one of the containers. Fifteen feet up and I reached the top. More than I expected rested atop the schools roof. Dozens of generators sat next to each other with narrow walkways in between them. Over the generators I could barely see what looked like three people who kept watch over the edge of the front of the school.

  BOOM! Another loud pop came from the same direction. They sniped something or someone. To my mind first came Jack. He wasn’t my concern anymore, the bad guys were distracted. It was my chance; I didn’t even have to go back into the building if I could manage to sneak up on them.

  I made my way back down the container but before I sneaked over to whoever was on the roof I was more curious as to whom they shot at.

  I went over to the edge nearest me and peeked over. I tried to remain unnoticed by the others on the roof.

  The engine of a pickup truck became louder as it came closer. It raced up the hill to the school.

  It looked identical to the one Jack and I saw down the hill.

  Why are they shooting at their own men?

  BOOM!

  Another shot from the sniper, it landed a hit on the front tire of the pickup. The tire instantaneously busted into a million pieces and the pickup spun out of control at the top of the hill. How tense. I watched patiently and waited to see who would hop out of the pickup. The passenger door opened but no one immediately came out. The driver door opened and out came a girl, a familiar one.

  Melissa? What the hell?

  Marcus came out of the passenger side door, his handgun ready for action, aimed up at the roof of the school. He held onto his side like he was in pain and moved slowly away from the pickup. Melissa reached into the pickup and pulled out a handgun of her own and went over to help Marcus move faster.

  I was confused up to that point. How did they come across each other so far from where I left Melissa? It became stranger. Jack hopped out of the passenger side too, his rifle wrapped around him with its harness and he too had a handgun aimed up at the roof of the building. They moved through the school grounds until they reached the front of the school and vanished inside.

  I looked over to see why the sniper stopped taking shots at them but there was no one left over there. They either took cover on the roof or went back inside. Regardless of which it was, I needed to vanish too in case they spotted me.

  There was one way into and one way out of the school. They couldn’t escape without first facing Marcus. The problem was Richard’s man power was much greater than ours. But together, we could powerhouse our way through most of Richard’s disposable men. I had to get back down and meet up with them to help any way I could.

  No second thoughts. I took off. Back to the door and raced down every set of stairs. At the bottom I slammed the door open and went into the hallways. When I was on the roof the distance between me and the front doors of the school was greater than that of whoever else was on the roof taking shots. If they raced to get to the front I needed to move quicker in order to beat them there. No pacing, I rushed.

  I arrived at the hallway with the main doors, but they were in the middle, some ten classrooms down from where I turned into the hall. At the center I could see Marcus, Jack and Melissa. They noticed me too. But Richard, Jason and the sniper stood at the other side of the hallway having just arrived down there too.

  BANG!

  Richard’s handgun took a shot down the hallway. Like a bunch of roaches, we split up into whatever classrooms were nearest to us. Marcus and Melissa ran into one, Jack in to the classroom directly next to them. Richard, Jason and the sniper all went into a classroom on their end, and I went to the one in mine.

  From Richard’s end of the hall I could hear screaming out the window for the rest of the guys to collect and meet up with Richard to take us out.

  I peeked around the classroom entrance and watched the sniper get into position and Marcus looking back at me. He didn’t say a word but his stare came with meaning. It was a last stand. We couldn’t wait for the rest of the men to get there and kill us off. We had to act right then and there.

  Marcus went back into his class for a brief moment and poked right back out. He looked my way and smiled, looked back at Richard, and threw something down the hall in his direction. The tough surface of the object bounced off of the floor several times before it slid the rest of the way over to Richard, the sound of metal or hard plastic, it stopped right next to him.

  Marcus must have known they would run and Jason wouldn’t get hurt because it turned out to be a grenade. They all fled out of the class and to the hall they came from before it blew up.

  I took the open opportunity to run over to the class where Marcus and Melissa were held up. Jack met up with us there too. At the same moment the rest of Richard’s men come down through the stairs on their end, and Richard peeked around the corner to see if it was clear of any more incoming grenades.

  “Nice to see you are still okay kid!” Marcus told me. He made sure the hall was still empty outside of the classroom every few seconds. He would look out and then stare back in. I couldn’t help but notice how he held his side in pain.

  “Marcus filled me in on the reason you did it, but in the moment I was pretty pissed that you abandoned me, dude!” Jack said, “But again, he explained so I understand.”

  At least I was excused. “Sorry, man. We were just wasting too much time for me to feel comfortable. Especially after seeing what was happening inside.”

  Melissa stood there and stared me down in shock. She didn’t say a thing. She just stared. I watched her for several seconds and turned my attention back to Jack.

  “Did any of the people make it out alive?” I asked him.

  “Yeah, some of them, but Richard recruited more ruthless people than we thought. Many of those who got out did it with supplies and those guys made sure specifically the ones with supplies went nowhere,” answered Jack, his head slightly tilted down, like he felt guilty for what Richard’s men did.

  “Did you find them?” Melissa finally spoke.

  “Yes.” I left it at that.

  “Oh…” She replied. She could tell what happened.

  Marcus looked back at me, concerned, worried, and sorry for me.

  “Where…” I stopped myself from asking her where her family was. I had a good idea so I rephrased the question. “Why are you here?”

  “For the same reason you are,” she said. I could only assume her family was killed somewhere down the line. Like mine, like everyone else’s family.

  “Marcus!” Someone yelled down the hallway.

  Marcus didn’t respond but he turned his attention back to the hall. Richard spoke,

  “This cannot end well for you or those kids.” Richard tried to persuade Marcus and us to stop going after him. “It’s over. We have what we want. Leave and let us have the school. We will be out of here soon enough anyway. There is no point in fighting any longer!”

  “As c
ompelled as I am to agree with you that dog of yours aiming his little toy down the hall doesn’t exactly convince me!” Marcus yelled back at Richard.

  “I apologize. I did not mean to raise your suspicions,” Richard replied. Footsteps followed shortly after.

  Marcus looked more relaxed and walked out into the hallway. “You three, stay here!” he told us and looked at Melissa to make sure she could see his lips.

  “You look hurt. Are you alright?” Richard asked. His voice was now closer to Marcus.

  “Stay where you are.” Marcus raised his gun and aimed ahead of him. Jack and I rushed over to the door to get a closer look. When we made it Richard turned his attention to us but continued to speak to Marcus.

  “You can keep those kids safe, and I will let you leave. But you have to leave. If you do not comply with this, you will be removed by force. I have more people willing to fight for their survival than you do. I have a plan to save the human race from the vermin that run the streets as we speak. But it cannot be accomplished with you are in the way and with these kids having some fantasy hero complex which you instilled in them. Even if you stop they will continue unless you stop them yourself. Put your gun down.” Richard’s voice became more serious, bass. He faced Marcus again. “I will personally kill every last one of them if you do not retreat. At this moment, around that corner.” He pointed at the corner in which the sniper was at. “There is enough fire power to kill you all, kill every infected that come chasing after us, and still have some left over to defend ourselves later. I recommend you comply.”

  “That’s exactly what I waited for,” Marcus said, “If I’ve learned anything from you, Richard, it’s that a long enough wait will always reveal your true colors. Your imaginary salvation of the human race is nothing but a lie you tell everyone around you. You are only worried about saving yourself.”

  “I do not disagree. In fact, I claim that to be true. The only difference is, they know I am out to save myself. And if I have to train them to protect me and themselves for our own personal survival then that is what will happen. That is human nature, Marcus. You know this better than anyone. Survival of the fittest is the one true law of nature. He who can, will survive and he who can’t, will not!” Richard put his hand on his holstered gun. “This is my last warning. Leave.” He turned his back to Marcus and walked away.