Dark Days (Book 4): Refuge

by Lukens, Mark

  They would go to those buildings. Hopefully the trees would give them some cover as they ran.

  The Dark Angels were still shooting outside, rapid-fire shots that rattled through the air, accompanied by random pistol shots here and there. Luke hated to admit it, but he hoped the Dark Angels were winning the battle out there and killing as many rippers as they could—one threat was better to deal with than two.

  He ran his fingers around the edge of the window, which was large and looked like it opened up sideways, probably for fire safety. He found the lock and thumbed the plastic lever down. He pushed gently on the window, opening it all the way up.

  Good enough, easy enough for them to crawl out of.

  He ran back out of the office and through the maze of cubicles, back to the hole in the wall. Mike had already helped Emma through the ragged opening, and Ray was standing beside them. All of their backpacks had already been passed through the hole in the wall, piled in a heap on the floor.

  “I found a window in an office back there,” Luke told Ray. “Down that hall over there. First door on the left. Window’s already open.”

  “Where to after that?” Ray asked.

  “There’s some trees just past the hedges. Cover for us. There’s some big buildings beyond the trees. Maybe three or four hundred yards away.”

  “Guys,” Josh called from the other side of the hole in the wall. “We need to hurry. The rippers are trying to get in. They’re pushing the tables and chairs away from the doors.”

  Luke figured the rippers were panicking now, trying to get away from the barrage of gunfire out there. How much ammo did the Dark Angels have with them?

  “Does he have the Molotovs ready?” Luke asked Ray.

  Ray nodded.

  “It’s time to see if his idea is going to work. Is his arm okay to throw them?”

  “Seems to be,” Ray said. “It’s going to have to be.” He was done talking, already grabbing two of the backpacks and ushering Mike and Emma towards the office Luke had pointed out.

  Luke poked his head back through the hole in the wall. He looked at the front windows and glass door. One ripper was climbing through a shattered window. Four more were at the door, pushing the barricade of tables and chairs back. The street outside was littered with dead rippers. But now the live ones had seen the rippers trying to get into the Christine’s Country Kitchen, and more were coming this way, following their lead like a herd of scared cattle.

  Josh had a lighter in one hand, a Molotov cocktail in the other. He lit the rag that stuck out of the glass bottle, the rag catching fire immediately.

  Luke couldn’t smell the gas from the stoves and ovens that Josh had turned on. He didn’t think there was going to be enough gas in this room to start a fire, but at least the Molotov cocktails might hold the rippers back for a minute so he and Josh could get to the office next door and out through the window.

  Josh threw his firebomb at the front door, hitting the first ripper that had gotten through the barricade. He hit the ripper square in the chest, the glass jar exploding on impact, the flames erupting. The ripper screamed, falling back into the collection of tables and chairs he and the others had just pushed aside.

  The guy has a good arm, Luke thought. Even if it was injured.

  Josh lit a second Molotov cocktail and threw that one towards the kitchen, then he darted through the hole in the wall as Luke backed up. He already had his backpack on, and he handed Josh his pack.

  “Gotta go!” Josh yelled.

  Luke and Josh ran through the maze of cubicles to the office.

  They hadn’t even made it to the office door before there was a thundering boom from next door. The explosion shook the walls and floor, a rumbling thrumming through Luke’s body.

  In the manager’s office, Ray was already out through the window. He and Mike were helping Emma get out the window, and then Mike was up and over the window sill in a flash. Luke jumped through the window next, landing in the grass, his gun already in his hand.

  Three rippers spotted their escape, the three of them running down the side lawn of the building, coming their way: a man, a woman, and a teenager.

  Spit. Spit. Spit.

  Luke dropped all three of the rippers with headshots.

  Josh crawled out through the window and then he was on his feet with his backpack on and his shotgun in his hands.

  Luke gestured at Josh to hold his fire, and then he pointed at the trees. Luke didn’t want Josh to shoot; he didn’t even want to shout at him. He was worried that any other noises might draw rippers their way, and he hoped that the Dark Angels believed that he, Ray, and the rest of them were still inside the restaurant when it had blown up.

  They crossed the row of hedges through a large gap that Mike found, and then they were running through the stand of trees, all of them with their backpacks on, slowing them down just a little. Josh held his shotgun in one hand and Ray had his pistol out now.

  After emerging from the woods, Luke realized that the building he’d seen through the trees was a large three-story brick building with playing fields between the trees and the building; it was some kind of school. They had to climb a chain-link fence to get to the playing fields, which slowed them down. Josh and Ray helped Emma get over the fence, but she almost seemed capable of doing it herself.

  They all waited on the other side of the fence for a few seconds, catching their breath and looking across the fields for any rippers or Dark Angels before they bolted across the grass to the building. Luke could still hear the gunfire from the street, and it was probably going to push some of the rippers this way.

  “Let’s see if we can get into the building,” Luke suggested.

  Ray nodded, and a second later they were running across a soccer field. Luke’s head was on a swivel as he ran, looking for any rippers.

  Ray got to the back entrance of the school first, entering an alcove where the two metal doors were set deep inside. Luke waited at the edge of the alcove as Josh, Mike, and Emma hurried to catch up with Ray, who was already testing the door to see if it was locked.

  Luke spotted four rippers running across the field towards them from a different direction. It would only be a matter of time before the rippers got inside the schoolhouse.

  There were more gunshots, closer this time. Were the Dark Angels chasing the rippers? Then, as if to answer Luke’s question, one of the military vehicles came roaring from the other side of the fields, speeding across the grass.

  “It’s unlocked!” Ray yelled, pushing the doors open.

  “We got rippers and angels coming,” Luke said, backing up into the alcove, hiding from view as a Dark Angel perched on top of the tank-like vehicle picked off the four rippers easily with his rifle.

  Ray rushed inside the school. Josh helped Mike and Emma inside. And Luke was right behind them. Ray hoped the Dark Angels in the vehicle hadn’t seen them going inside the school.

  CHAPTER 29

  Ray

  Ray ran down the hallway, checking the doorhandles to the classrooms along the way, looking for one that was unlocked. He was hoping to find a room they could get into here on the first floor; he didn’t want to go up to the second or third floors unless they really needed to. He tried to be quiet as he hurried down the hall in case there were rippers or Dark Angels inside the school, but the footfalls from his sneakers were echoing back to him, bouncing off the walls and ceilings. He passed a line of tall metal lockers painted yellow and blue—obviously the school colors. He tried the next door to the right. It was unlocked.

  He opened the door and peeked inside, making sure no one was inside the classroom. Then he ran back to the others. “I found a room. Come on.”

  “What about the rippers out there?” Josh asked.

  “The Dark Angels shot them down,” Luke answered him.

  “Did they see us?” Ray asked Luke.

  Luke shook his head no. “I don’t think so, but I can’t be sure.”

  Ray led the
m down the hall to the fifth door on the right. He went in first, followed by the others. Luke closed the door and locked it. The door was made of metal and seemed sturdy. But it had a small rectangular window in it just above the doorhandle where someone could peek inside the classroom.

  They were safe for the moment, locked inside what looked like an elementary school room. It was a typical schoolroom with a teacher’s desk in front of a blackboard that took up most of the wall. There was a filing cabinet in the corner by the desk along the far wall where the row of windows was. Two dying potted plants and a goldfish bowl were on top of the filing cabinet. The dead goldfish floated at the top of the water in the bowl. Rows of desks, which were seats and desks molded together into one piece of furniture, were arranged in six rows of eight desks in each row, the rows only a little out of order. The windows looked out onto the soccer and playing fields they had just run across moments ago. The other three walls had posters all over them, and at the top of the wall there was a border repeating the alphabet with a cartoon drawing for each letter: an apple for the letter A, a ball for the letter B, and on and on, until it started over again. The back wall of the classroom was a line of cabinets with a countertop and another row of cabinets above those.

  “Dad, look,” Mike whispered, staring at the windows.

  Ray saw the rippers running across the fields out there, some of them coming towards the school. A splash of light from headlights washed over two of the rippers in the late-afternoon gloom. Bullets mowed the rippers down as the camouflage Humvee roared into view from the far edge of the windows, driving across the grass, a Dark Angel hanging out of the passenger window like an action-movie hero, spraying gunfire.

  “Get down,” Ray said, guiding Mike and Emma towards the far wall where there was a space between the windows and the edge of the cabinets.

  “The window,” Luke said, nodding back at the door. “Someone’s going to see us through that window in the door.”

  “I’ll look for something to cover it up with,” Ray said and then looked at Mike. “You guys stay here.”

  Ray darted over to the teacher’s desk, staying low as he ran. None of the Dark Angels’ bullets had pierced the row of windows yet, and it even looked like they had driven on past the school for now, but he still wanted to be cautious. He looked through the drawers in the teacher’s desk, but he didn’t find much. There was a tape dispenser on the desk and he thought of taping some paper over the window in the door, but all the paper was white.

  He hurried to the back of the classroom, glancing at Mike, Emma, Josh, and Luke as he went. They were all crouching down by the wall, all of them catching their breath. Ray found a stack of construction paper in one of the cabinets. He grabbed two pieces of black paper. He went back to the door and taped the two pieces over the window.

  Ray went back to the wall and looked at Josh. “Your arm.”

  Josh looked down at his arm. “It’s okay.”

  “It’s bleeding again,” Ray told him.

  Josh studied his right arm cradled in his left one, staring down at the damp sleeve. He looked back at Ray with glassy eyes.

  He’s on something, Ray thought. But he didn’t want to call Josh on it right at this moment. Instead, he looked down at the floor, looking for any drops of blood Josh might have left behind like breadcrumbs for the rippers to follow . . . or the Dark Angels.

  Ray got up and searched the floor, still keeping low even though he didn’t see any Dark Angels out in the playing fields now. He didn’t think anyone could even see them inside this classroom unless they got up close to the windows. He checked the floor on the way to the classroom door; he didn’t see any drops of blood on the floor, but that didn’t mean that there weren’t drops of blood out in the hallway, or at the two metal doors that led outside. He thought about going out into the hall to check; he knew he wasn’t going to be able to relax unless he checked.

  A loud noise sounded out in the hallway, a crashing noise, like the metal doors had just been kicked open. At least one ripper had gotten inside the school.

  Ray froze near the classroom door, listening. He heard the sound of running feet. There was more than one ripper out there in the hall. He stared down at the doorhandle, waiting for it to jiggle. But then the rippers were gone, their footfalls fading.

  Ray hurried back to the others and sat down on the floor with his back against one of the cabinet doors. He just wanted to sit there for a moment and rest. He wanted to close his eyes and try to get his racing heart under control. It was one thing after another, nonstop stress. If he could just get a little time to rest.

  When we get to the cabin we can rest, he told himself.

  “So what’s the plan, boss?” Josh asked Ray.

  Ray opened his eyes and looked at Josh.

  More gunfire erupted outside, but it sounded like it was farther away now.

  “Maybe the Dark Angels will get all of the rippers,” Luke said. “Or at least drive the rest of them back into the woods for a while.”

  “That still leaves the Dark Angels to worry about,” Ray said.

  “Not if they thought we died in the restaurant fire.”

  Ray nodded. “I’m sure they will search the restaurant after the fire goes out.”

  Luke nodded. “Yeah, they might. Or they might just leave. They don’t know if we’re dead or not.”

  “You heard the man on the megaphone,” Ray said. “We’re important to them. They won’t stop looking for us. And they might track us here. Especially if Josh leaked blood all the way here.”

  “Hey, I can’t help it my arm’s bleeding again,” Josh said.

  “You could have checked it.”

  “You’re right,” Josh said with a sarcastic smile. “I should have stopped while we were running for our lives and rewrapped it with fresh bandages.”

  “You could have kept pressure on it,” Ray said.

  “I was holding my shotgun.”

  “Stop it!” Mike yelled.

  Ray looked at his son. He looked like he was about to burst into tears. And for a moment, Ray couldn’t say anything.

  “Even if they think we’re dead now,” Emma said, breaking the tense silence, “it won’t last long. He will know we’re not dead.”

  No one had to ask Emma who she was talking about.

  “When the gunfire dies down out there, we need to get out of this school,” Ray said. “Get back out there and find a vehicle. Get out of this town.”

  “And go where?” Luke asked.

  Ray shrugged. “Away from here.”

  “And then what? I guess you know by now that the camp is out of the question.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Ray said. “We were on our way to a cabin.”

  “A cabin?”

  “A friend of mine has a cabin around here. He told me about the cabin when the collapse began. He invited me and my family there.”

  “Okay,” Luke said, but he didn’t look so sure about it.

  “First, we need to get a vehicle,” Ray said. “Something big enough to carry all of us.”

  Luke got up and went to the window, crouching down by the bottom of it. He watched the playing fields for a moment.

  “Anything out there?” Ray asked him.

  Luke shook his head no, but he kept on watching. “A few dead rippers laying out there. That’s all.”

  “We should go now before it gets dark, while there’s still enough light to see,” Ray said.

  Luke finally looked at Ray. “It would be faster if I went by myself.” His eyes shifted to Mike and Emma, like he didn’t want to point out the obvious—that Mike and Emma would slow him down.

  Ray knew Luke was right—it would be faster if he went by himself. But he would need some help, someone to watch his back. “I’ll go with you.”

  “Dad,” Mike whispered in horror.

  “I can go,” Josh offered. “You could stay here with Mike and Emma.”

  Mike looked hopeful that his dad would agree. />
  Ray thought about it for a minute. It would be better if someone went with Luke, and maybe leaving Josh here with Mike and Emma wasn’t the best idea, Josh who was flying high right now on whatever pills he had popped. He nodded at Josh. “Okay. You go with him.”

  Luke didn’t look happy about Josh going with him, but he didn’t argue. He cut his eyes to Josh’s shotgun. “Leave your shotgun with them. And leave your backpack here. We’ll travel faster without them.”

  Ray could tell that Josh didn’t like the idea of leaving his backpack behind.

  “I need some kind of weapon with me,” Josh said as he leaned his shotgun against the wall.

  Luke pulled his spare pistol out of his backpack and handed it to Josh. “Here take this.”

  “What, I don’t get a silencer?” Josh asked with a smirk.

  Luke didn’t respond.

  Josh looked at Ray. “What if you guys need to leave?”

  “Just hurry back so we don’t have to,” Ray told him.

  Luke was already back at the window, unlocking the closest window to them and sliding it up with some effort. He squeezed through the opening and dropped down to the grass below. Josh followed Luke out through the window.

  Ray was up and at the window a second later, closing it and locking it. He watched as Josh followed Luke down the side the building, keeping close to the wall until they were at the end of it and out of view. He went back to the cabinets and sat down next to Mike and Emma.

  “They’ll be okay,” Emma said.

  “You think they’ll come back?” Ray asked her.

  “Why wouldn’t they come back?” Mike asked, suddenly alarmed.

  Ray shrugged. “Sometimes people look out for themselves rather than others. Especially now.”

  “Josh saved our lives in that town,” Emma said. “And Luke just helped save our lives in this town. They won’t leave us.”

  Ray didn’t answer. He didn’t feel like arguing about it—he knew the two of them were criminals, not ones to be trusted. “We should eat something,” he said, changing the subject. “And drink something.”