by White, A. L.
“Just a few here and there, I guess. My wife was one of them,” Charlie replied, looking down at the snow remembering his Annie.
“We will teach you everything we know before we move on.” Lori said. Then she turned to Virginia and said, “On second thought, I think I would feel more at ease with you and the dogs with me.”
Virginia rolled her eyes and started to object, but deep down she agreed with Lori that maybe it would be best to stay together.
Lori handed the keys to the truck to Charlie. “You know the way.”
Chapter 17
The drive to the school was a little too quiet for Virginia. The town’s streets were snow covered like earlier parts their journey had taken them through. Only she really had not paid a lot of attention to the buildings passing by the window. Here it reminded her of a ghost town blanketed in white. There were no signs of life other than the lights coming from the building that the new guy called the school. It made her feel uneasy for some reason that she couldn’t quite put her finger on. It may have eased her mind had she walked down the street with the lads to get a closer look, but hopefully there would be time for them to do a little exploring later.
They slowly rolled up on a corner where two of the buildings were set considerably higher than everything else. One was lit up on all three floors, beckoning them to come inside. Charlie turned on the street between the buildings, and then into an opening in the fence to what was clearly a full parking lot. Virginia could see both the RV and the bus up close to the door.
“Well, we are here. Welcome to what we have been calling home,” Charlie stated as he turned the key to off and exited the truck. Virginia and the lads jumped down out of the bed and waited for Lori to join them.
“Are we sure we want to go in there?” Virginia asked. “We really don’t know what is waiting in there.”
“We know what is out there, and it sure couldn’t be worse than that,” Lori replied.
Charlie motioned for them to follow him and headed to the door. On the way, Lori noticed that no one closed the gate coming into the lot behind them, and there wasn’t a soul watching the door in front of them. When they reached it, there wasn’t even a lock set on it; Charlie just pulled it open. They could all feel the heat smack them in the face. It had to be at least eighty degrees Fahrenheit, and it took their breath away for a few seconds.
“Okay, this is the main floor here,” Charlie said after they climbed the ten well-worn wooden steps just beyond the door. “Down at the end of the hallway, you will find another set of stairs that go down to the front entrance of the building. Next to that is the old school nurse’s office that is now Doc’s medical room, and another set of stairs that go down into the gymnasium/cafeteria. The kitchen and the showers are also down there. You can get a hot shower every other day in the morning.”
“The other rooms here are the family dorms; we try to keep families together. The second floor is mixed between families and singles, with one classroom being used for classes. The third floor is where Doc has been putting the singles, like him and myself.”
“A hot shower would be great!” Jermaine stated.
“You may want to get up early then. The line forms quick,” Charlie replied laughing. “You can go ahead and look around if you like. Doc usually welcomes everyone new and helps find you a room.”
From off to the left of Charlie, a thunderous noise came from the stairs going up to the second and third floor. Before they could identify if it was a threat, the largest man Virginia had ever seen was on top of them.
“Mister, Mister, Doc says you should bring these folks up to the third floor so they can settle in first. OHHHHHH you have puppies!” The man shouted with glee as he fell to his knees and threw his arms around Zeus. Zeus licked his face, wagging his tail; that told Virginia that this was no threat in the lad’s mind. That made him safe to her as well.
“This excited fella here is Todd. He is harmless, in case you haven’t figured that out yet,” Charlie stated smiling.
“Looks like you have a room upstairs with the rest of us singles then,” said Charlie.
“No! That lady, Miss Zoe, said you were all part of her family and needed to stay together. Doc said that only real families like me and Tressa could stay in the family rooms, but Miss Zoe wouldn’t hear it. She was like Tressa, where I think I can do something and she says ‘no way.’ Mister could see that he lost and put them all in your room. I asked Tressa if we could stay in that room too, and Mister said, ‘why not!’”
“All right then, Todd, why don’t you show these folks to their room then,” Charlie said, laughing a little at Todd’s excitement.
“I sure will, Mister,” Todd replied, then started to frown a little. “Can the puppies stay up there, too?”
“Yes Todd, go ahead and take them up as well. Looks like you guys have your own personal escort now, so I have a few things I want to check out up on the roof, and I will catch up to you all later.”
Charlie followed them up to the third floor then crossed the hall to the stairs that led to the roof. Once there, he found Boo looking through binoculars out across the river.
“Well, that didn’t go so bad after all,” Boo said without even looking at him.
Charlie settled in beside Boo and joined him in gazing off into the darkness. Neither man said anything for a few minutes. They were both going over what had transpired over the last hour or so in their own ways. For Charlie, it had been a great success in rescuing fellow humans in their time of need. To Boo, it was a successful mission that succeeded by luck alone. That was alright with Boo; sometimes luck was all you needed, but next time they might not be so lucky. He couldn’t shake something the younger one had said. It had him worried. He was not really sure if this would be the time to bring it up; he was hesitant to take the excitement out of Charlie’s good deed.
Boo didn’t have to figure out how to bring it up, Charlie did it for him. “The girl said they would follow the food source.”
“I heard her, too.”
“We’re safe in the school?” Charlie asked, still looking into the darkness.
“Yes, I believe we are, in the school and the library,” Boo replied. “We will have to check out the old tunnel that goes under the street to make sure it is passable. If so, we could close the gates up so that they are as secure as they can be.”
“Wouldn’t we be kind of trapped in here then?” Charlie asked.
“Yup.”
“You think we could hold out in here?” Charlie dug further for the answers to his questions.
“Nope.”
“I thought you said we would be safe in the library and the school.”
“Charlie, I did say we would be safe in these two buildings, and we will,” Boo replied. “How long we can hold out is a different matter altogether. That depends on food to eat, coal to keep us warm, and gas for the generator, now doesn’t it?”
Charlie thought for a few minutes and then replied, “All I have accomplished tonight was to bring hell down on us then, haven’t I?”
“I think you hastened it a little. I do believe that it was coming this way all along. How long do you think the creatures could feed off of the livestock out on the farms?”
“I guess I never really thought about that,” Charlie replied.
Hearing the change in Charlie’s voice as he shifted from a man excited with doing the right thing to the man who had to put the creature down that had once been his wife, Boo felt the need to reassure him. “I think we have a few options left, Charlie. If we use some of the town’s abandoned cars we could block the bridges. That takes care of them coming in that way unless the rivers freeze over.”
“We could use some of the school’s buses to block the viaducts on the other side of town,” Charlie added.
Boo smiled at him, “Now you’re thinking, Charlie!” It was good to see Charlie in action when he actually thought out an issue. If Boo had his choice, Charlie would be doing more lead
ing around here than following. If only they could convince him to lead and let Doc deal with the mental and physical health.
“Maybe it is time for your guard unit to start earning their keep,” Charlie thought out loud.
“Yes, I agree. We will have to get them together and start posting a few up here and at the gates around the clock.”
“Do you think they are ready?” Charlie asked.
“No, not yet, Charlie. But the folks that came in today are just what we needed; I think. As long as someone can convince them to lend us a hand and stay for a while.”
“You don’t think that they are staying or would help out?”
“Not sure, yet. They operate like a small unit and look like they have seen a lot more of these creatures up close than we have. We should bring it up to them tomorrow morning and get a better idea of what their plans are.”
“Plans? What plans could they possibly have that would take them away from here and out there in the middle of that?” Charlie pointing toward the herd.
“From what I hear, they have a map they were following; that is how they ended up here. I guess we will just have to ask them what their plans are, Charlie. From what I have seen so far, if the creatures come into town it would be nice to have them with us.”
Charlie agreed on that last point, from what they had both seen out on the road. Those people had stood their ground when the creatures had them completely surrounded. Charlie couldn’t tell you with any degree of certainty that he could do the same.
Boo shook his head and handed Charlie the binoculars. “I am going to secure the gates before it gets any later, Charlie. You think you could do a four-hour watch?”
“I can handle it, Boo.”
“I will be back up in about four hours then, Charlie. Keep an eye on our gates and the bridges,” Boo said as he left.
Chapter 18
When they went to bed, thanks to Lori, Walter was sharing the double bed with them. He didn’t take up much room and was scrunched up against the window with Lori in between him and the others. After getting a good warm meal into their stomachs, it felt good to sleep in an actual bed again. Virginia wasn’t complaining about the bunks back at the bunker, or even about the beds in the RV, but these were real beds that she could pull the thick blankets up around her neck and fall into a deep sleep. Well, she tried to fall into a deep sleep, but it just wasn’t coming as easy as it had for the rest of the group. It wasn’t Zeus’ or Zoe’s snoring that was keeping her up, nor the man called Doc on the other side of the room harmonizing his snores with them. Lori was moving around fitfully in her sleep like she had back at the bunker when Zoe had saved her. Though even that wasn’t what was keeping her awake. She didn’t feel like they were in any danger, Zeus and Perseus wouldn’t let anything get too near them. She knew that. There was just something that felt too good to her, being around all of these people. In Virginia’s mind there were zombies, people, and people who didn’t know they were soon to be zombies. Being here made her think that maybe there was a chance to live a normal life; a chance to not be as quiet as she could for fear of attracting the zombies to her.
A few hours later Lori began to tremble enough that Virginia felt like she was doing it on purpose, so she sat up and looked over at her sister. Lori’s skin seemed to be paler than normal in the little bit of light coming in through the transit above the door from the hallway. Zeus too, had noticed it, and was sitting up staring at her now. Virginia placed her hand softly on Lori’s shoulder and shook her. No response. Virginia shook her a little harder until Lori’s eyes popped open, causing her to move away quickly. Lori’s beautiful eyes had been replaced by black oversized pupils; lifeless eyes like those of a shark. Frozen in time, Virginia didn’t know what to do, so she just sat there petrified. Zeus let out a barely audible growl, as if he too was stuck between attacking a zombie or leaving Lori to sleep.
The cold black eyes were locked on Virginia, and she felt what was left of her old life would die soon, and by her own hand. Then she noticed a tear trickle down Lori’s cheek.
Walter whispered, “She can’t help it. There are too many people here for her to handle.”
“What do you mean too many people for her to handle? She’s changed!” It was a whisper but is was a whisper full of urgency and panic.
“If we can get her outside to the camper, she will be ok,” Walter added as he rolled over and took Lori’s hand into his.
Without thinking, Virginia quietly reached down into her backpack, the backpack that held all of the clothes she owned in the world, searching for a dark green hoody. Finding it she tugged it free. “Here, do you think you can help me get this on her?”
Walter took the hoody and began to put it on Lori. Lori took over and completed pulling it over her head. For an instant, Virginia saw her sister and not the creature.
“If we don’t run into anyone, I think she will be okay,” Walter said as he climbed out of bed. “You know, it is hard controlling it sometimes.” Walter pulled Lori’s arm until she followed him; they were sneaking out of the room into the hallway. Luckily, there wasn’t anyone moving around on the third or second floors. There was some movement at the bottom of the stairs, causing Virginia’s anxiety level to rise, but it moved off quickly. The door leading out still wasn’t locked in any way; Virginia rolled her eyes in shock. Once they were in the RV, Virginia got the heater started and sat down at the table across from Lori. Walter had laid down on the sofa, looking back at the two of them.
Lori’s color was coming back to her now, along with her eye color.
“Is someone going to tell me what the heck happened in there?”
Lori shook her head for a few seconds trying to find a way to tell her baby sister when Walter broke in. “Your sister and I have it in us somehow. Lori was bitten, I think, but I don’t remember if I was or not. I don’t have any marks, not like she does.”
“I think part of that creature is still in me,” Lori stated with tears beginning again.
It was a lot for anyone to handle, especially for Virginia who had made it her life’s goal to kill all zombies before she died.
“I have watched you since you were on that bus all laid out! I have not seen any sign of a change happening!”
“I know, Virginia. I have been watching myself as well. This is the first time anything like this has happened to me. I have dreams of what I think are things that the creature had seen… but that is it,” Lori replied.
“It is the smell, mostly,” Walter added. “To us, people or living things smell sweet, like candy. It is hard to explain or control.”
“You’re right!” Lori stated. “I noticed it when we first got here, but it got stronger when I tried to go to sleep.”
“So we have to leave or tell them that the thing that they are trying hard to keep out is sleeping with them in the next bed?”
“I don’t know, Virginia!”
“Fine. What else have you noticed since that day? Anything?”
“Sometimes I know they are there before Zeus and Perseus do. Not by a lot, usually under a minute or so,” Lori added.
Part of Virginia wanted so badly to put an arrow into Walter and Lori’s heads right now before anyone got hurt, or worse. Another part wanted to know if there was a way that Lori could keep going like this and still be Lori.
“You can control this thing?” Virginia asked.
“It is only a tiny part, so I think she can. Just needs to learn how, like I did,” Walter replied smiling. “We are still human like you.”
“You two should start sleeping in the RV if being around too many people is what caused this. I promise you both, that if you do a full change, I will kill you.”
“That is what I would want you to do, Virginia,” Lori said with a warm smile.
“I guess if the lads think you’re safe to be around, then I do too,” Virginia said shaking her head slowly. “The lads and I are going to go for a walk and check things out,” she added as
she rose up and left without giving Lori a chance to object.
The cold air and solitude outside felt good after hearing all of that in the RV. Not being sure where the walk was going to take them, Virginia decided that she would like to see how good of a view there was on the roof. Pulling the door open and letting the lads enter first, Virginia followed and smacked face first into Boo’s chest.
“Bet it is cold out there,” he said to her.
“It felt refreshing. I wanted to look around a little.”
“If you want to get a good look, why don’t you come up and check out the roof? Maybe you can keep Charlie from talking my ear off again,” Boo said with a smile.
Virginia nodded her head and followed Boo up to the roof. They were right when they said everything was in view from up there. Once her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could see the little car where they had been trapped until Boo and Charlie came with the snowplow. More importantly, Virginia could see that the herd had moved surprisingly close to the bridge that they had crossed coming in. Pointing toward them with her finger, Virginia said “Look.”
Boo followed the direction that she was pointing when Charlie said, “They’re closer to the Jones Street Bridge than the Main Street Bridge. I am not sure which one we should be more worried about.”
“Looks like we need to block the bridges off after all then,” Boo stated.
Charlie nodded his head in agreement then asked Boo, “Should we be planning for a ‘cry uncle’ scenario?”
Boo looked at Charlie cold and hard for a few minutes and then said, “What do you think we should do, little lady?”
Virginia didn’t even pause to think about an answer, “Stop them before they cross.”
Charlie laughed long and hard at that. “How exactly are we going to do that?”
“Use the buses to block the bridges and worry about what gets around them,” Boo replied.
“When the rivers freeze over?”