“Twenty-six. Five faculty. Twenty-one students.” Joe shrugged. “And I think he’s going to have a fit if we don’t come back with all of his staples and more when we bring you two with us.”
“Fuck him having a fit.” Melissa did not look up but the venom in her voice was clear. “He basically threatened to murder us.”
Rachel nodded to Heather and Heather nodded back before taking a breath. “We may have a solution…but it’s going to be dangerous. Hold on.” Heather got up and retrieved a letter and a map from the kitchen. She spread the map out on the living room table between them. “Okay. Along with the letter, Todd and Sheena left us this map and directions to a prepper’s house.”
“His house or someone else’s?” Lee asked.
“Someone else’s. Rory Meredith. He said that Rory was out hunting and he bet the bunker was empty of people but was filled with supplies.” Heather consulted the letter. “Supplies, weapons, solar power, and a walled yard. We can get to the bunker through the basement of the house. And if Rory is there, he’s the type who is happy to trade for supplies and stuff.”
Lee didn’t want to ask the question because the map seemed to have the answer but he had to confirm his thoughts. “Where is this apocalyptic paradise?”
“That’s the sucky part.” Heather leaned over the map and pointed. “We’re here. The bunker is here.”
The two locations couldn’t have been farther apart without being in another city. It was a good seven miles as the crow flies but that included walking right by the hospital, the mall, and three churches. If they went through the outside edge of the valley it was at least ten. “It’ll take two, maybe three, days to get there. One if it weren’t for zombies.” Lee pointed to the east edge of the valley.
Joe leaned forward. “We could do it. Move steady and quiet. Is this bunker worth it?”
Heather shrugged. “I don’t know for sure. But, yeah. I think so. The way Gina talked, the preppers in the area were well stocked. This could be a really good place to hunker down for the winter.”
Lee shook his head. “We need to get supplies back to the academy. But if this is a good place we can use it as a main staging place for future runs.”
“Or…we could get people who aren’t assholes and bring them back to the bunker.” Melissa’s voice still had a hard edge to it. “We do what we promised but nothing says we have to stay at the academy. I’m not sure I want to after what Jeff’s done.”
Nicholas nodded. “I get you but let’s not count our bunkers before they’re cracked.
“Right.” Lee stood. “We move out in the morning. Heather, Rachel, you don’t have to come with us—” A clamor of disagreement erupted on all sides of him. Lee held up his hands to calm everyone. “I’m just giving them the choice. This is dangerous.”
Rachel and Heather exchanged another glance and nodded to each other. “No. We’re coming. We trust you guys. And really, we never thought we’d see another living soul again. We’re not giving that up.”
“All right. Then we move out in the morning. We’ll spend the rest of the day prepping you two and figuring out our exact plans. Joe, Nick? You help them and teach them our hand signals?”
“Can do.” Joe nodded. “Will do.”
#
The Harridan was the last person Michael expected to have knocking on his door in the late afternoon. More surprising was the fact that she had a half full bottle of whiskey with her. This gift of the gods appeared out of her bag as soon as she sat down on his couch. “I bring an olive branch.”
Michael wasn’t one to look a gift horse—or gift alcohol—in the mouth. He came up with two lowball glasses and set them on the table as she opened the bottle. “What brought this on?”
Kimberly poured him a glass until he smiled. Then she poured her own. She watched him take a healthy swallow and savor the taste. “We both know one of us will need to do the work of running what’s left of the Salton Academy now that Swenson killed himself. It can be you with me helping or me with you helping or not. Either way, I come with a proposal. First…which would rather: you leading or me?”
Michael rubbed his lips, looking at the woman, still surprised at her bluntness. “It depends on the proposal,” he hedged, giving himself time to think. Being in charge would be great but it would mean work, not something he was inclined to do if he could get away with it. Not being in charge meant he could have to listen to her, but then he wouldn’t have to do much of anything he didn’t want to. He took another long swallow of the whiskey. It burned so good all the way down.
“The proposal is separate. I’d rather settle the leadership problem.” Kimberly wet her lips with her whiskey but didn’t drink.
He realized that she was nervous. Swenson offing himself upset her. Michael considered prolonging her nervousness but the whiskey was already getting to him. The pleasant tingling in his arms told him it had been too long since he had had a real drink. “Really, you should lead but only if you’ll listen to the rest of the faculty as your council. Too much work for me but I do have good ideas.”
She sat back and nodded, relaxing, watching him. “All right. I can do that. You can still run Hadfield?”
“Of course.” Michael took a smaller swallow to pace himself. “Now, this proposal?”
Kimberly leaned forward and refilled his glass. Then, she took a breath. “I want you to leave the girls alone. All of them. In exchange…you can have me.”
The anger that had started to boil up stopped. “Have…you?” Michael picked up his glass to cover his confusion. He took another gulp of whiskey. “What do you mean?”
She put her glass down and looked him in the eye. “Have me any way you want—sexually. You want me sweet and begging? I can do that. You want me sassy and fighting you? I can do that. But I’ll surrender to you. You want to tie me up? I’m down. You want me to tie you up? I can do that, too. Blow job, anal beads, pearl necklace? I’m yours anywhere and when as long as you leave the rest alone.” Kimberly smiled as Michael’s eyes got wider and wider.
His mouth had gone dry as she spoke words he never even dreamt she would say. “Starting when?” Michael still couldn’t believe it. He stared at the handsome woman, realizing that everything she said struck a nerve.
“Now.” She stood up and took her jacket off. Still standing, she slowly unbuttoned her shirt until she stood there with her shirt open and lacy white bra showing against her ebon skin. “Do we have a deal?”
“Deal?” Michael threw back the last of his whiskey and carefully put the empty glass on the table. “Hell, yeah. Why do I want a girl when I could have a woman?” He knew he lied in every word but she didn’t have to know that until it was too late. He stood and wavered, suddenly dizzy. “Too much booze.” He sat back down. “C’mere, girl. You said something about a blow job…”
Kimberly pulled the low table out of the way then went down to her hands and knees. She sensuously crawled over to him. As she crawled, she dipped her hand into her purse and grabbed the syringe full of morphine. He lolled his head back as she reached his knees. “You just relax. Let me take care of you.”
Michael mumbled something incoherent and waved a hand at her as she ran a hand up his thigh. Then, he didn’t respond at all.
Kimberly stood and moved around to the side of the chair as Michael began to snore big open-mouthed snores. She shoved his head to the side, found the artery in his neck and pushed the needle in like Nancy showed her. Michael barely reacted. It was just too bad she had had to waste half a bottle of good whiskey to do this, Kimberly thought as she depressed the plunger all the way in.
Sudden shouting in the hallway brought her head up and her heart to her throat.
Nine
“Think Evan’s getting some from Athena?” Aaron snickered at the thought as the three boys headed to the gym for some basketball.
Shane shrugged. “Don’t know. Haven’t seen him.” He paused, stuffing his hands in h
is jean pockets—long gone were the days of academy uniforms—and smirked. “If he is, more power to him. He should get something to hold onto for a bit.”
“If he is, she’d better be careful with him. She’ll break him otherwise.” Aaron grinned the stopped in at the gym door to pantomime having sex, then breaking his back. Shane laughed. Ross didn’t.
“Don’t be like that.” Ross pushed past the other two and opened the gym door. “Evan’s a good guy. Just because his dad was a douche doesn’t mean he has to suffer too.” Ross sped up as Aaron followed close behind. “Shit, I hope he’s balls deep in Athena. He deserves something good.”
Shane lagged back as Aaron and Ross suddenly sprinted, racing each other to the door to the back hallway where the equipment was kept. Not in the equipment cage anymore but in the side hallway lockers. Even with the apocalypse Swenson and Shin had insisted that the gymnasium rules had to be kept and the equipment had to be put away. Shane looked around. “Guys, do you smell something funny?”
Aaron paused as Ross reached for the door. “What? Like that damn dog?”
Ross opened the hallway door and hell came tumbling out in the form of grasping hands, scrabbling claws, and snapping teeth. Athena and Evan grabbed Ross as he yelled, flailing at them. Beauregard leapt for Aaron who put his arm up as a shield against those lethal jaws. Just as the dog bit down on his jacket-covered forearm, Aaron swung himself around, throwing the dog into Athena, causing the entire struggling group to go down.
Shane looked around. He saw no weapons he could use to help anyone. Ross screamed a wordless sound of agony as Evan and Athena both ripped into his flesh. Aaron scrambled backwards as Beauregard was distracted by vulnerable, trapped flesh.
“Run!” Shane, already following his own advice, sprinted back to the gym door.
“Go! Go! Go!” Aaron ran as fast as his stout legs would carry him, not looking to see if the dog was chasing him or not.
They both got out of the before Ross quit screaming in pain. “Holy fuck. Holy fuck! Holy fuck!” Aaron grabbed chain that used to lock the gym at night and wrapped it around the door handles.
“Did it get you? Are you bit?” Shane stood back from Aaron, looking like he was ready to run from his friend.
Aaron looked at his leather jacket sleeve. There were tears but no blood. He shook his head. “No. It didn’t get through my jacket.” He looked up at the sky. “Thank you, Mom!”
“C’mon. We gotta tell everyone. Fuck. Evan…Athena. Ross…”
“I know. I know.”
The two boys sprinted across the quad. All the while Aaron tried not to think about the fact that he caused his friend’s death. Ross might have gotten away if he hadn’t knocked them all over. The pain of Aaron’s guilt, and the adrenaline coursing through his system, masked the small pain where a single canine tooth broke the skin on his arm in a small scratch less than an inch long.
“Zombies!” Shane yelled as he burst through the front door of Hadfield Hall. “Zombies in the gymnasium! Zombies!” As he yelled, the boys who could hear him scrambled for weapons. Some came tumbling down the stairs. Others immediately hid.
Aaron didn’t bother to yell. He ran up the stairs to his room to get his baseball bat. He wondered how in the hell he could’ve ever stopped carrying at least one weapon at all times.
#
Kimberly listened to the shouts in the hallway. The only word she could make out was zombie and it was a bad word to hear any time of day or night. She pulled the syringe from Michael’s neck and hid it in her purse. A firm touch to his neck looking for a pulse told her that the first syringe had done its job. Michael was dead and she didn’t need to use the second syringe. That was a relief.
After a moment’s pause she locked Michael’s door. She didn’t want the students to see her in here. She took her glass and the whiskey bottle to the kitchenette. As she dumped the rest of the whiskey out with one hand, she emptied her full glass with the other. She could hear kids running above her. Putting the glass to the side, she returned to the living room and pushed the low table back in front of Michael.
While she moved with smooth efficiency, inside she was screaming in terror. Zombies. Inside the walls. It was a terror she stomped on as she arranged the empty whiskey bottle, the empty glass, and the empty Percocet bottle on its side with the cap tossed artfully next to it. Kimberly stood back as she buttoned up her blouse, surveying the scene. Unable to deal with the mantle of responsibility Professor Michael Leeds decided to take the coward’s way out…just like the principal had.
After putting on her jacket and picking up her purse, Kimberly crept to the door and listened. The expected pounding on the door came. “Professor Leeds! Professor Leeds!” She couldn’t tell which panicked boy was calling for the dead man. The pounding came again. “Professor Leeds! There’s zombies in the gymnasium!”
Suddenly Kimberly could see what had happened to Evan, and maybe Athena. Evan had gone to see his dog…and the dog escaped, turning him. She bowed her head. She knew she should’ve insisted on that dog being killed but she felt so sorry for Evan. Shaking her head Kimberly knew her sympathy was at fault. She had been too soft.
“You! Go to Swenson’s office. Leeds might be there. You! Go to Bonny Hall. Tell Mrs. Hood. You, go to the Nurse, let her know.” Kimberly recognized this voice. Jeff. Mr. Eagle Scout himself. Bless the kid who had sense enough to keep his head in a crisis. “Get everyone inside and to shelter in place. Bonny Hall. We’ll meet at Bonny Hall common room. I’m going to see if I can find Shin. Weapons, everyone!”
She listened to running feet and waited until there was silence. Slowly opening the door, Kimberly peeked out. The hallway was empty. She slipped out of Michael’s suite and closed it behind her, making sure to close it all the way, engaging the latch and the lock. She tried the doorknob. It wouldn’t budge.
Just as Kimberly was about to leave, she heard running feet on the stairs. She didn’t want to be caught loitering here. Instead, she knocked firmly on Michael’s door. “Michael. Michael! It’s is an emergency!” She struggled with the locked doorknob. She turned and hurried to Shin’s room and knocked there. “Shin! Are you there? Shin!” She tried his doorknob and wasn’t surprised to find it locked. “Damnit.” Kimberly allowed herself to feel some of the pent up panic.
“We can’t find them.”
Kimberly looked up. Ron. One of Jeff’s friends. She hurried towards him. “Shin must be on perimeter patrol. I don’t know where Professor Leeds is. He’s not answering his door.”
Ron shook his head, looking scared. He held a crowbar in a white-knuckled grip. “You gotta come upstairs. It’s Shane.”
She felt the blood drain from her face. “What happened? Did he get bit? Is he okay?”
Ron shook his head. “I don’t know.” Then he took off running up the stairs.
Kimberly didn’t say anything, tried not to think of anything, but knew if a student was alive but had been bitten they would have to be put down for the good of all. It was a worst case scenario.
Ron led her up to the third floor and stopped before a closed door. He pointed at it. “In there.”
Kimberly nodded and squared her shoulders, preparing herself for everything except for what happened next. She opened the door and stepped into the room. Jeff looked up from his preparations—he was buckling on a homemade weapon holster over a heavy jacket. “Mrs. Hood?”
“Where’s Shane? What’s—” Kimberly’s words were cut off as Ron hit her as hard as he could in the back of the head. She crumpled to the ground without a word, part of her head caved in.
“Jesus mother pussbucket!” Jeff jumped back.
“Nope. But close.” Ron grinned. “Let’s get her somewhere and finish her off. No time like the present with everyone panicking.
“What the hell?” Jeff gave him a long, considering look. This wasn’t what he had planned.
“What? She was on the list.” Ron looked put o
ut. “She was right there. Everyone else is gone like you told them to be. It was too good to pass up.” When Jeff still didn’t say anything, Ron shifted, his voice persuasive. “Look, one less mouth to feed. I think that’s all we needed anyway if what Shane and Aaron said were true.”
This snapped Jeff out of his stunned judgment of Ron’s sanity. He nodded. “You’re right and she was on the list. Right after Leeds. And I think we can manage him so he doesn’t have to die, too.” Jeff looked down at Mrs. Hood’s unmoving body to avoid looking at Ron’s satisfied leer. Right now they had to get the body out of his room before it leaked all over the place. “4th floor? No one is using any of those rooms.”
Ron nodded and helped put the dorm mistress’s unresisting body over Jeff’s shoulder. “Didn’t even get much blood on your floor either. But, hold on.” Ron took the bottle of cough syrup off Jeff’s desk, spilled it on the floor, then threw a towel on top of the mess, before putting the open container back on the desk.
Jeff shrugged. It was a good enough cover for now. “Spot for me.”
Ron nodded and grabbed Mrs. Hood’s dropped purse before he made sure there was no one in the hallway.
Ron and Jeff hurried up to the fourth floor and chose one of the rooms at random. Jeff dropped her to the floor. “How do you want to do it?”
“Strangle her?” Ron suggested.
Jeff shook his head. “Too likely to wake up. Slit her throat. Or rather, just cut one of the arteries. Make it look like she came up here to suicide.”
“I like it.” Ron grinned. “Make it look like she was hiding and couldn’t hack it.” He manhandled her body into the closet and she moaned but didn’t wake up. Ron pulled his buck knife from his pocket, flipped it open, and offered it handle first to Jeff. “Want the honors?”
Jeff shook his head. “Nah. You go ahead.”
Ron gave him a long look then shrugged. He grabbed her left wrist and sliced her deep up the arm. “Down, not across,” he murmured, his eyes far away. He licked his lips as he watched the blood well up and spill over.
The Last Days of Salton Academy Page 8