“Where are the other stairs that lead to the second floor?” he asked his guide.
“There’s a set behind us,” she answered. “It’s beyond the dark area.”
Metzger wondered how he missed a set of stairs, but he’d spent most of his time in the school either hurried or running for his life.
“There’s another set further up this hallway.”
He pressed forward to the next stairwell, finding the front office nearby, along with a large area used for shop class. Beyond that, the hallway went on for quite a while, lined with a mix of opened and closed lockers. Stopping just short of the stairs, he decided to wait for the young man to return with news, which took less than two minutes before he dashed ahead of the group to inform Metzger directly.
“I did what you said and didn’t see anyone up there in either direction.”
“Good,” Metzger replied. “We’re going to press forward. Can you stay at the end of the line and shout at me if you see anyone coming behind us?”
“Done,” the young man said without another word before darting to the rear.
Metzger rather liked him. He followed orders without question and didn’t waste time.
Knowing silence wasn’t possible, Metzger decided to move quickly with his elephant herd in tow. Heading straightforward just short of a jog in terms of speed, he passed the lockers rather quickly before a sharp right turn led them down a short hallway directly to a set of closed and secured double doors. Motioning for everyone to stay put, he walked to the doors, finding no keys along the wall like he had within the gym. Every cafeteria he ever entered was filled with natural light, even in hospitals, so he knew either the cafeteria area was secured somehow, or someone guarded the prisoners inside the confinement. Windows provided too easy an escape route if captives were left to wander within the cafeteria walls.
He returned to the group without even touching the door, looking to the woman who guided him most of the way there.
“Who’s in there besides the prisoners?”
“There’s usually one or two of the Wardens,” a man beside her answered. “They have some secret knock they use to let one another in.”
“Does anyone remember it?”
A woman in the middle of the line raised her hand reluctantly.
“I think I can do it.”
Metzger nodded, concerned that portions of the enemy group had already radioed one another, revealing the fact that their sanctum wasn’t safe. He also didn’t want to cause an unnecessary hostage situation if they didn’t simply open the door after the knock, but the secret knock seemed like his best option at the moment.
With no one else in the group armed, he ordered everyone to stay back, at the end of the hallway and around the corner, until the coast was clear. Only he and the woman who thought she knew the sequence approached the door, standing there momentarily to collect their thoughts. Swallowing hard, she looked to Metzger and nodded, indicating she felt ready to give the knock a try.
Each of them stood to the side of one door, and the woman carried out a series of knocks with a particular rhythm and varied numbers between the silent breaks. Once she finished, Metzger motioned for her to step back a little bit further as they waited. Seconds passed with no sound from inside the cafeteria, and he wondered if the knocks weren’t right, everyone inside was already dead, or perhaps the prisoners overtook their captors, simply waiting for more Wardens to step inside for target practice.
In essence, he felt centered in a stalemate.
Both doors had single-grip handles with a thumb latch that opened them once a key unlocked them along the side. He wondered if any of the imprisoned or killed Wardens possessed keys to the doors throughout the school. The thought of sending someone back to look at the bodies and the captured men occurred to him, but the sound of footsteps from behind the door caught his attention before he reached a decision.
He realized only a few steps separated him from the person coming toward the door, leaving him with a fight or flight decision. Knowing he didn’t have enough time to retreat, Metzger slid his back against the wall beside the left side door, hoping the person opened the opposite door. His luck held as the man on the other side did just that, appearing confused when he stuck his head out just long enough for Metzger to strike before the man could react. Using the butt of the automatic weapon, Metzger struck the man in the side of the skull, sending him falling into the cafeteria.
Catching the door before it closed completely, Metzger ducked down for a look inside, seeing no one else awaiting his arrival. The scene before him, however, gave him pause because he couldn’t believe the cruelty that existed within the human race.
Before he could examine the cage centered within the large cafeteria, he needed to deal with the lone guardian who tried sitting up after the stunning blow to his head. Metzger took a swift soccer kick at the man’s head, sending him into an unconscious state this time before peering around the entry door at the woman who assisted him.
“Stay with the others back there,” he said, pointing to the corner. “I’ll clear this place and let you all know when it’s safe to come inside.”
Much of the square footage where kids once ate lunch was now cleared, with tables and chairs stacked in every corner of the common area. Like much of the school, the windows remained covered with cloth, paper, and whatever other spare materials the Wardens found that could do the job. Although it remained dim inside the cafeteria, Metzger was able to immediately see the payoff he so desperately wanted to find. Confined within a large custom-built cage centered in the room, people looked desperately in his direction, beginning to realize that he wasn’t one of their captors, and he might be their opportunity for freedom.
Constructed from wood beams, iron bars, and chicken wire that provided the outer layer for the entire structure, it looked something like an octagon used in cage fighting, only a little bit larger. Without concern for the floor, the people who constructed it drilled into the floor and used concrete or some kind of mix to hold the iron bars in place. Enough metal bore down into the foundation, all the way around, that no one was pushing the structure over, or escaping, particularly with someone standing guard at all times.
“Dan?” someone called out from inside the cage, catching his attention.
He walked toward the sound, recognizing Albert immediately from within the cell as the man pressed his face between two iron poles against the chicken wire.
“Good to see you, Albert,” Metzger said, smiling for the first time the entire day. “Where the hell is the door to this thing?”
“Over there,” Albert said, pointing as best he could from the confines as Luke and Samantha stood just behind him, assuring Metzger they were all safe. “I think that asshole you clocked has a key.”
Thinking the makeshift cell might be repurposed in short order, Metzger decided to check the man for a key rather than shoot the door or began tearing apart the structure. He didn’t have the tools or the time to dismantle the cell anyway, so he frisked the man, removing two firearms and a knife in the process before finding the key.
He also stuck his head out the door momentarily after finding the key.
“It’s safe in here,” he called to the other group of former prisoners, a few of which peeked around the corner to see what happened. “Come on in.”
As the group from the gymnasium entered the cafeteria they immediately ran over, some overjoyed at seeing former prisoners, friends, or family about to discover the freedom they recently came to know. Metzger turned the key, releasing at least two dozen people from the cage, feeling how incredibly sturdy the cage was built when he cupped his hand around the doorway and tried to push on it.
He felt certain his efforts failed to move it even a single millimeter. Someone among the Wardens, or one of the prisoners forced to build the structure, knew a little something about construction and engineering. Standing back to let everyone outside, Metzger received a group hug when his trio fin
ally emerged, feeling a wave of relief and accomplishment crash over him. He reciprocated the hug, wanting the moment to last forever at this point. Seldom did he find more than a few seconds of happiness in the modern world on any given day, but he definitely felt as though he won a battle today.
The war, however, remained heavily in the favor of the undead.
Seeing a few angry ex-prisoners storm toward the unconscious Warden, Metzger quickly broke away from his group, running to intercept them before they mobbed and killed him.
“You can’t,” he said, blocking the path of a few infuriated men.
“Why not?” one of them demanded angrily.
“We don’t know that the school is clear yet, and we may need leverage,” he explained, holding up his right hand, indicating for them to stop in their tracks. “Let’s lock him up for now and deal with him once we know something more.”
Both conceded, probably because they felt they owed Metzger some kind of debt, which they didn’t in his eyes. Still trying to be the voice of reason, he wanted to make smart plays until the entire group knew exactly where they stood.
Albert had made his way through the suddenly crowded cafeteria to take Metzger’s side in case the situation went south. Having suffered with these people, brief as the experience may have been, he could influence them with his words and wisdom.
“We need to get him locked up until we know the whole situation,” Albert said, echoing the words Metzger spoke.
“There are other people clearing the school as we speak,” Metzger added. “We’ve killed a few of them and taken a few captive, but I haven’t heard from the group I came in with in almost fifteen minutes.”
“Fine,” one of the men said as they teamed up to hoist the unconscious man off the ground only to carry him over to the cage and toss him inside unceremoniously.
Metzger followed them to ensure they followed through on their verbal promise, and to lock the door after they threw him inside. Turning around, he tried to regroup with Albert, Luke, and Samantha, but instead found himself surrounded by people who wanted to thank him for his efforts.
He tried to shrug it off as though he hadn’t done much of anything, wanting to stay close to his familiar people, but everyone wanted to shake his hand or hug him. It took several minutes to break away from the group, but when he did, he used his radio to attempt reaching Molly or the others, figuring something either very good or exceptionally bad happened to her and the others by now.
Hearing no replies, Metzger found a spot just outside the door where his former hosts came to join him.
“How the hell did you find us so quickly?” Luke asked, shaking his head in genuine surprise.
Metzger spent a few minutes telling them the tale of his entire day, including how he returned to their house only to get recruited by Molly, refraining from gory details with a child present. From there the entire rescue felt like a whirlwind to him, and he imagined any daylight was fading outside as the afternoon waned. All of the sudden dozens of people were free, but Metzger questioned how many options any of them really possessed. He apologized to the trio because he kept looking to the corner, wondering if someone was going to come around the bend with guns blazing, or if some of Molly’s allies might join them.
“We thought we were goners,” Albert admitted.
“I hope you didn’t think I was behind any of this.”
“Not for a second. We took a chance on you, and you’ve more than returned the favor. Say, did you find anything out about your folks?”
Metzger shook his head negatively, beginning to think traveling to Buffalo took up valuable time he could have spent heading directly to Virginia. He wanted to head that way immediately, but felt a need to ensure the trio before him made it out of the school safely, whether they returned home or not.
“Did they hurt any of you?” he inquired, looking between all three.
“No,” Albert answered. “But we heard some terrible stories. These guys didn’t waste any time after things went bad. They were treating these poor people like a disposable commodity.”
Metzger figured that was one way to ration food, but incredibly inhumane. He knew such atrocities had occurred since the beginnings of human life, but thought the modern world cured much of it. Americans lived good lives, often ignoring the suffering and oppression in other parts of the world as though it didn’t exist. Now the entire planet didn’t discriminate against wealth, race, or social status.
The sound of running footsteps reached Metzger’s ears from the hallway around the bend. He stood, holding the automatic weapon in a ready position until he saw Ryan round the corner with a broad smile upon seeing the prisoners freed from their bonds.
“It’s over,” he announced to Metzger in particular. “The entire school was searched and all of the Wardens are captured, dead, or gone. We tried to reach you on the radio but you didn’t respond, so we were beginning to fear the worst.”
Metzger looked down at his radio’s screen, finding no LED writing, which indicated the device lost power at some point.
“Did everyone from Molly’s group survive?” he asked Ryan.
“Everyone but the one guy who got shot earlier.”
Metzger nodded, feeling complete relief knowing that everyone had refuge for the night without fear of attack from the undead or evil human beings.
“She asked for you to come back,” Ryan added. “And there’s something Molly wants you to see.”
Metzger turned to Albert.
“I want you three to come with me,” he said, not wishing to leave them alone for a minute after so much effort and risk was expended to free them.
“We’re coming,” Albert said as they began following Metzger and Ryan toward the other end of the school.
Many of the released prisoners were already making their way through the halls as though trying to assure themselves they weren’t inside a dream. Metzger figured some of Molly’s group would meet up with them soon enough while searching for their friends and family. He wondered what ends remained for him to tie up before he headed east with hopes of finding his brother.
Ten
Ryan led the foursome all the way back to the gymnasium where they found Molly standing over a bound prisoner. While Metzger felt a little surprised to see the man alive, seated on the ground with his hands tied behind him, he wasn’t shocked to see bloody streaks and bruises along his face. Already they had begun torturing him for information, or for payment of his sins.
“Glad to see you’re alive,” Molly said, breaking away from the bound prisoner momentarily.
“Likewise,” Metzger answered. “I see you’re leaving one alive for your own amusement.”
Molly gave a cagy grin.
“Actually he’s being rather cooperative. It seems there are a few of his buddies unaccounted for, but they’re not anywhere in the school. A few of the guys saw your efforts in the cafeteria and hurried back to tell me, so we’ve covered every inch of this place.”
“They could’ve stayed to help.”
“They said you had everything under control.”
Metzger wouldn’t have minded some assistance with the excitable freed prisoners, but he was never in any real danger from them.
“There’s a very solid cell in the cafeteria if you need somewhere to keep prisoners until you sort everything out.”
Molly looked at him inquisitively.
“You sound like you’re not staying long.”
“I’ve accomplished what I needed to, and I’ll be heading east shortly.”
He introduced her to Albert, Luke, and Samantha, who’d all been standing patiently behind him. Only a few other people remained within the gymnasium, and with a glance to his left he spied a few bodies beside the locker room door closer to the main entrance.
“We cleared out that room just in case,” Molly said. “A few of the dead were known to a few of my group.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Metzger said sincerely.
“Thank you.”
“Ryan told me you said there was something I should see?”
“I know you think I’ve been merciless about this entire expedition,” Molly said, motioning for the group to follow her to the main door, “but there’s something you should see that confirms the depravity of the Wardens.”
A few minutes later they arrived at the formerly darkened area where a few hallways intersected, still smelling of death. At least it appeared somewhat brighter after coverings were removed from nearby windows inside classrooms. Metzger found a single door that led into a sizeable classroom at the far end of where the darkness once ruled the hallway. Stepping closer, he peered inside the only window uncovered to the room itself, seeing beakers, test tubes, and solid epoxy resin countertops complete with sinks. He knew immediately the former lab found later use in a far more disturbing way.
“They kept their dead in here until they could bury them,” Molly said, opening the door for them to enter. “There wasn’t anything in here when we searched the place, but we suspected as much, even before that asshole in the gym told us.”
Stains lined the tile floor on the left as Metzger stepped inside, finding the smell a bit more pungent. Dust floated through the air like pixie dust, and only one window was now uncovered to the right, illuminating the room just enough to see details when one drew close to solid objects. Slowly stepping through the room, Metzger wondered what on earth he was supposed to see that was so life-altering.
His eyes finally went from the floors to the countertops before landing on the back wall, which held a mammoth mounted activity board with lots of little white rectangles pinned to it. Above it was a mounted fluorescent light that maintained power like the rest of the school, and it created a trophy case appearance for the wall that would have shone like a beacon in the darkened room.
The Undead Chronicles_Book 1_Home and Back Again Page 13