World of Dead | Vol. 1 | Issue 5

by Johnson, Broderick

  “Hey!” Wesley screamed, “Kyra!”

  He watched as the white van pulled away and out onto the street. Wesley wasn’t sure what to do. He was in the process of shooting down the dead in the store until he heard the sound of a car door shut. Wesley had thought that Kyra was just getting inside the sedan that they had driven to the store in, but when he turned to quickly look he was shocked to see a man getting into the driver side of a white van.

  Distracted, Wesley was grabbed by one of the monsters that had gotten too close. He took the butt of the rifle and slammed it into the face of his attacker before taking a step back and firing a few rounds into its head. Wesley then exited the building and began to run after the van as it took off, screaming Kyra’s name to no avail.

  “Great,” Wesley said to himself, “Now what?”

  The monsters had already begun to exit the store as well. Uncaring of the glass shards that still lay in the doorway, Wesley watched as some of the undead freaks allowed the glass to tear parts of their skin off. It was like they couldn’t feel the pain at all. Because of how pissed off he was, Wesley unloaded the empty magazine in the rifle and took a new on out of his jacket. He slammed it into place and took aim at the beasts that were now hobbling outside of the store in his direction.

  Then a thought came over Wesley. He may not know the girl all that well, but that doesn’t mean that she should be abandoned. Wesley looked down at his rifle and made a last minute decision to get into the sedan. Just as Wesley closed the door after taking his seat on the driver’s side, the monsters began to swarm the car.

  “Alright,” he said to himself, “Let’s go save some babies, I guess.”

  He put the car in drive and took off before the monsters could completely swarm his vehicle. Wesley had no idea where the man was taking Kyra, but he knew that he had turned left onto the main street. He did his best to follow.

  Pushing the pedal to the floor, Wesley spun the wheel of the car and took off down the main road. Wesley tried to look as far down the main road as possible, but he couldn’t see the white van anywhere. He slammed on the brakes as he approached a road that broke off to the right and threw his eyes in that direction. No van.

  He continued to the next road, this time a road that broke off to the left, and slammed on the brakes. He just turned his head to look down the road when he saw the white speck of the van disappearing to the right at what seemed to be the end. Wesley’s heart was racing with fear of allowing this monster to get away with kidnapping Kyra. He hit the gas again and turned down the road.

  The street seemed to be entering a neighborhood as both sides had houses on them, but once Wesley got closer to the end of the road he realized that he was entering a school zone. He passed the last house on the right side of the street and around the corner revealed to be a high school track. The reddish color was glowing with the late morning sun beginning to hit it with all of its heat.

  Wesley found himself turning right onto the same road that was now curving around a small parking lot. Passed the parking lot was a big building and as Wesley kept driving, a two story high school became clearer. Wesley kept driving, following the road to an end not much farther past the school. He now had two options: Go left or right. As he looked both ways, he could no longer see the van.

  “There’s no way,” he said to himself. Wesley knew that the van couldn’t have been driving as fast as he was. He would’ve been able to see it, even if it was a little bit down the road, that’s how clear the roads were. Then, Wesley realized something.

  He looked over his shoulder, in the direction of the school, and noticed not just one, but multiple white vans sitting in a parking lot that was hidden behind the building of the high school. It made sense. The building had no way in and no way out except the doors. If anybody wanted to be safe and had access to locking the building up, a high school would be a good place to hide out.

  Wesley looked back out the windshield and began to think. What was he going to do? Break into the school, machine gun blazing, and try to find whoever took her? That probably wasn’t the smartest idea.

  “Think, Wes, think,” he said to himself. He had a tendency to do that often, especially as of late. There weren’t many people around to talk with and he had only run into a few on his journey so far. Instead, he just spoke out loud because it helped him think. He continued, “If I pull into the parking lot, he’ll have me in his territory and I won’t have much protection. What if there’s more than just him, too? Okay. Okay. We’ll hide out and watch to see if anybody comes in or out.”

  Wesley pulled the car to the left and parked it on the side of the road. He grabbed the duffle bag that he had placed in the backseat and made sure to bring it with him in case anybody found the sedan while he was out. He then crossed the street and began to make his way across a big field that was in between the school and the road that he parked on. It had to be a few acres in size and gave him plenty of distance to find a spot to hide.

  At the far corner of the field, there was a small softball diamond that had dugouts and a backboard that gave Wesley some good cover. Just behind the dugouts were some trees and Wesley made sure to hide the bag of ammunition just behind them so that they would’ve been out of sight for anybody that was passing by.

  Wesley didn’t really have a plan. He was just waiting for a good enough opportunity to enter the building and find Kyra. Truthfully, he wasn’t even sure when that opportunity would present itself. Was it just the one man inside the school or were there others? If so, how many people was he going up against?

  He waited there, laying in the dirt behind the fence, for hours. Wesley’s body was hidden by the back board and the barrel of his rifle was poking through the fence as he used the scope on it to look at the doors and windows that were visible.

  From the outside, the school looked old. The exterior of the walls were dirty and in some parts they were even falling apart. It seemed hard to believe that this high school was even in use when the world fell apart three months ago. It definitely seemed out of its prime days as a high school.

  The hours kept going by and Wesley was beginning to believe that he had made a mistake. Maybe this wasn’t the place the van had taken her, despite there being multiple replicas of that exact van parked in the parking lot that he was staring at in that very moment. It was completely possible that the man lived somewhere else.

  It wasn’t a decision that he wanted to make, but Wesley couldn’t afford to wait around much longer. He decided that once the sun was completely down and darkness was beginning to set in, he would enter the school in search of Kyra. If he found that it was empty, then it would be time for him to move on from Albany. He had people waiting for him in Montreal and he had wasted enough time as it was.

  The sun began to set to Wesley’s right, but he kept his eyes focused on the school. Finally, after hours of waiting in the sun, he had had enough. Just as he was preparing to take his eye out of the scope and make his approach, however, the doors opened.

  Wesley wasn’t sure what to expect if somebody actually exited the building, but he definitely wasn’t expecting two teenage boys to exit. The boys walked across the parking lot and it took a moment before Wesley realized that they were headed in his direction. His entire plan about catching whoever was inside off-guard was now out the window. He needed to improvise and that was something that Wesley had become rather good at as of late.

  The two teenagers were talking amongst themselves in low voices as they tried to not attract any outside attention. One of them laughed rather loudly and the other quickly smacked him on the arm to quiet him down. As they approached, Wesley continued to hide behind the backboard in wait. He questioned why these two kids would be leaving the school. There must’ve been more people in there than he had previously thought, but even if there was why would they let these two teenagers just walk outside?

  Wesley had to assume that the kids were armed and dangerous in this scenario. Otherwise they woul
dn’t be walking around freely outside. The two kids continued to make their approach until they were too close for comfort. Wesley took a good grip of his rifle and was just about to take aim when the kids got distracted.

  “Look over here!” one of them said. Wesley slowly peaked around the corner and watched as the kids made their way towards the location that Wesley had hidden his bag of ammunition.

  “Great,” Wesley whispered to himself as his simultaneously rolled his eyes. Preparing had only gone so far and now it was completely off of impulse as he stood up, rounding the corner, and aimed his rifle at the two kids.

  The first of the teenage boys grabbed the bag and unzipped it while the second boy watched. It was clear to Wesley that the boy checking the bag was the dominant of the two and probably the reason they were out there. The second boy seemed to not care too much and even seemed cautious of the bag.

  “That wasn’t there yesterday, Danny,” the second boy said, “I’m not sure that you should be touching that.”

  If Danny would have looked back at his friend, he would’ve spotted Wesley approaching from behind, but instead he continued to focus in on the ammunition as he responded, “Shut up, Sam.”

  “Actually he’s right,” Wesley spoke out loud catching both of the boys off guard. Sam, the nervous one, jumped as he turned around and upon seeing the rifle immediately put his hands in the air. Danny had a face of shock as he saw Wesley approach and Wesley could tell that the poor kid had no idea what to do, so Wesley continued to explain, “You shouldn’t be touching that. You don’t know who it belongs to or how big of a gun they have.”

  “I’m sorry, man,” Danny immediately said as he stood up and put his arms in the air, “We were just getting some fresh air…”

  “Listen, kid,” Wesley interrupted. He knew that the two boys had to be fourteen at the oldest, so he tried to talk down to them to show that he was in charge. That was something he had learned elsewhere. Wesley continued, “I don’t care why you’re out here. All I care about is where your people took my friend.”

  The second kid is the one who spoke up this time as he said, “We don’t know who your friend is, sir. We were just sneaking out while the school was having an assembly.”

  Assembly? Wesley thought for a moment about what that could mean and how he could take advantage of it. Then he asked the boys, “Whoever is in charge of your school, will they be at this assembly?”

  “Yeah!” Sam said and Danny immediately smacked his shoulder in response. That was obviously something Sam probably shouldn’t have said, but Wesley was grateful.

  “Don’t worry, Danny,” Wesley said, very sarcastically, “I’m not going to hurt you, or your chief, as long as I get my friend back. Now, let’s take a little tour of your school, shall we?”

  Wesley patted the boys down to make sure that they didn’t have any weapons on them before escorting them back in the direction of the school. With the two boys in front leading, Wesley followed them making sure to keep his eyes focused on windows, doors, and keeping his rifle pointed forward just in case.

  Danny and Sam led Wesley back through the doors that he had watched them exit from in the first place. They then led him down multiple empty hallways, but despite being empty, Wesley was able to see that they had been recently used. The lights were off as well which indicated that the school did not have any electricity.

  After multiple turns, they began to head down another hallway except now Wesley was able to hear a voice. It sounded as if the voice was instructing people of something, but he couldn’t be sure because it had been muffled by the doors that they were approaching. Danny and Sam opened the doors and the three of them, together, entered a dimly lit gymnasium.

  Wesley watched as a crowd of hundreds of people looked in horror. He had two kids at gunpoint and he had just walked into a gymnasium where families had gathered. He looked around. There were lanterns being held by individuals as they helped light the bleachers where these families were sitting, but even then it was still quite dark inside without any electricity.

  At the center of the gym floor, there were two men and a young girl. It took Wesley a moment, but he eventually he noticed that the young girl was Kyra. What caught him by surprise, however, was how Kyra didn’t seem scared or threatened. Instead, she was standing in the center of the gym holding a baby in her arms as if she was understanding of what was going on. One of the men that was next to her was holding the other baby in his arms while the second man was in front of Kyra and seemed to be addressing the crowd.

  Wesley continued to move forward with the gun pointing at the two boys. The man that seemed to be addressing the crowd of families put his hands up slowly and then began speaking to Wesley. From Wesley’s location, it was hard to see what the man looked like, but he could tell that the man was tall and strongly built. The man said, in a very firm voice, “You have everybody’s attention. There’s no need to continue pointing that gun at these young boys.”

  “I’ll make you a deal,” Wesley replied. He was definitely surprised by everything that this little high school had presented him with so far, but what actually scared him was the thought that these people may not be a threat at all. Still, Wesley had made a commitment to save Kyra from her kidnapper and he was literally too far in to back down. He continued by saying, “I’ll give you the two boys and you give me Kyra and the two babies back.”

  “Back?” the man in charge asked, “I’m sorry, but the girl and her children are going to be staying with us.”

  Wesley narrowed his eyes as they adjusted to the dark surroundings. He concentrated on Kyra and said to her, “Kyra, let’s go. I can’t be wasting anymore time.”

  Kyra’s expression seemed different to Wesley. It almost seemed like she was afraid of him. Her eyes didn’t make contact with his like they had before and her head just began to shake. She was refusing to leave? Why?

  “You see,” the man interrupted, “when you and all of your friends come to our community and put guns to our heads and force us to give you some of our own, that’s one thing. But this time, you’ve come in here alone.”

  Suddenly, from each corner of the gym, men began to close in on Wesley. In total, there were eight men armed with pistols. They were wearing regular clothes, but these men seemed to have some kind of training. Wesley was completely surrounded within a few minutes and suddenly he didn’t know what was going on anymore.

  “Now,” the man in charge continued, “drop your gun and put your hands where we can see them.”

  Written by broderick johnson

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  'World of Dead' is a short-story series with new issue's being realeased on the first day of every month. For updates on where to find more 'World of Dead,' visit @BroderickWrites on Instagram or www.facebook.com/broderickwrites.