The Last Days of Salton Academy

by Jennifer Brozek

  Kimberly’s eyes fluttered open as he cut her right wrist in a single long slash. “Wha…?”

  “Shh. You’ve had an accident, Mrs. Hood. Don’t move. Stay put.” Ron’s voice was soft and caring. Her eyes rolled in her head and she slumped forward again. “Good girl. It’ll be okay.” He cleaned the knife off on her jacket.

  Jeff looked down at Mrs. Hood’s purse, feeling sick to his stomach. But what he saw, pushed that to the side. He hunkered over her purse and opened. “Whoa. What’s this?” He pulled out an empty syringe, a full syringe, and a full bottle of morphine. “Well, looks like the Harridan was a drug addict. Interesting.” He put the empty syringe back in the purse and considered the morphine for a long time.

  “Playtime for another day.” Ron stepped back from the growing puddle of blood. “Blood flow’s slowing. She’s dead soon.”

  “You head to Bonny. Tell everyone I’m checking the Commons and I’ll be there soon with some food. We need to make a plan to deal with the zombies.” Jeff stood and moved the purse into the closet. He put the full syringe and morphine in a pocket. “If we’re lucky, the zombies are only in the gym. But we can’t count on it.”

  “You want me to watch your back?” Ron closed the closet door.

  Jeff shook his head. “No. Get control of Bonny. Help Krenshaw and Leeds if you have to. We need to get every living person in one place for a headcount. I need to know how many zombies we have to kill. We’re not leaving a single one of them alive this time.”

  Ten

  Nancy closed her eyes in a brief prayer after Ken—quiet, dependable Ken—burst into the infirmary and told her what had happened to Evan, Athena, and Ross. Lord knows how the dog got free but it was clear what happened next. Even as these thoughts flitted through her mind she was packing the last of her necessary infirmary gear into her medical bag. “Did anyone else get bit?”

  “No, ma’am. Not that I know of. It was a close call for Aaron, I heard.” Ken shifted from foot to foot, keeping his dark, almond shaped eyes on Nurse Krenshaw. “That’s why Jeff said we should all get to Bonny Hall and shelter in place. Get a headcount and all.”

  “What did Mrs. Hood say?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t seen her. I came straight here.”

  “All right. Let’s get going. Carry that bag for me and keep your weapon handy.” Nancy held her own weapon, a guard baton that she had gotten from Shin, at the ready.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  #

  The Bonny Hall common room boiled over with excited, fearful chatter as the boys, ordered to come, milled about with the girls, talking with Shane and Aaron about what had happened in the gymnasium. It all stopped when Nurse Krenshaw came in with Ken. She took one look at the group and nodded.

  “Sophia, Rose. Take these to the makeshift infirmary.” Nancy’s voice was quavery but confident as she gestured to the bags she and Ken were holding. “Then come back here. Make it quick.” She looked around the room. “The rest of you, have a seat.”

  Nancy waited until the girls had returned and everyone had settled. “All right. Who are we missing?” She waved her hands for quiet as voices started calling out names. “I need a roll sheet.”

  Pria raised her hand. “I have a list. It’s not complete.” She held out a notebook.

  “Read out the girl’s names.”

  “Toni. Rose. Sophia. Maya.” As she read each name, the girl raised her hand to be counted. “Pria.” Pria raised her own hand. “Melissa is out. And Athena…they said…she was in the gym.”

  Nancy nodded. “Shane or Aaron? Is that true?”

  Shane nodded, rubbing the side of his mouth. “Evan and Athena were there. They got Ross.”

  The old woman sighed. “All right. The boys?” she prompted Pria.

  “John. Ken. Aaron. Shane. Ron. Caleb. Jeff.” She paused when she got to Jeff’s name and there was no raised hand.

  “He’s at the Commons, getting us food. He’ll be here soon.” Ron shifted in his seat. “He said we should get a headcount to see who is missing and if there are more zombies than in the gym.”

  “Very good.” Nancy gestured to Pria again.

  The Indian girl looked at her list. “I know Nick, Lee, and Joe are out. Evan and Ross…are dead. But I’m missing someone.”

  “Me.” Steve raised his hand. “Steve.”

  “Right.” Pria wrote on her notepad.

  Nancy frowned. “Deceased we know are: Principal Swenson, Evan, Ross, and Athena.” She looked around. “Where are Mrs. Hood, Professor Leeds, and Shin?”

  “Shin is probably patrolling. But he should be back by dark.” This was Caleb. “But I don’t know about the other two.”

  “In that case, we should have someone watching for Shin. We need to intercept him before he goes to patrol the gym.”

  “We put a chain around the gym doors but we couldn’t find the lock for it.” Aaron rubbed at his forearm.

  She nodded to him. The opening of the dorm’s front door stopped what Nancy was going to say next. Jeff entered with a full backpack and Shin following behind with a case of water. The two of them stopped in the entry way and stared at the mass of people looking at them. Nancy noted that several of the students had grabbed their weapons in response to the sudden noise.

  Jeff looked at them, clipped his bat to his belt holster, and shifted the backpack to the floor. “I brought dinner.”

  That broke the growing tension in the room as the ever-hungry kids jumped up to receive whatever dinner was. In this case, it was crackers, a variety of canned meat, canned cheese spread, and bottled water. It was a chaos of distributing the food with paper towels and making sure that everyone got something to eat. As things went, it would be a light meal. But until the threat assessment could be made it was the best Jeff could do.

  Once everyone was eating Nancy beckoned Shin to her. Jeff followed. When she gave him a look he pretended obviousness. “What did we miss?”

  Nancy frowned for a moment then shrugged. “We have accounting of everyone except for Professor Leeds and Mrs. Hood. There are four zombies in the gymnasium—three students and one dog—and we don’t know what happened to the faculty members.”

  “We should post guards tonight. To make sure there are no breaches to security.” Shin kept his voice low and quiet. He turned to Jeff. “Do you think that is something you can organize? Two students a shift, two or three shifts? Interior patrols and 4th floor lookouts?”

  Jeff nodded. “Absolutely. Also, maybe we should organize a quick run to Hadfield for the boys to get stuff they left behind?” He looked at the frown on the Nurse’s face. “Tomorrow. When it’s light and we can see.”

  Shin and Nancy looked at each other. Shin nodded. Then Nancy nodded. “All right. But tonight the boys sleep on the first floor in their clothes. And no wandering. Tell that to your patrols.”

  Jeff nodded and bowed his head for a moment. “Okay. Anything else?” He glanced up at them.

  “Thank you for bringing us dinner.” Nancy smiled a distracted, worried smile. “That was kind of you.”

  “It’s my job. I’m the cook.” Jeff turned and made his way to his knot of close friends. He pulled a can of tuna out of his bag as he sat down.

  For a long moment, the two adults watched the students sit around the common room, eat, joke, and laugh. Aaron’s voice rose as he insisted that mixing spam and tuna on a cracker was good. He bit half of one cracker and made exaggerated noises of pleasure. Toni grinned, accepted the second half, ate it, and looked surprised. Ken, John, Shane, and Rose all laughed and made up their own meat, cheese, and cracker concoctions to share. Pria and Maya sat to the side with their heads together, talking quietly over their food.

  Shin turned to Nancy. “You needed something else?”

  “I’m so glad you’re back. Where’ve you been?” Nancy drew him away from the common room and away from where prying ears could overhear.

  “Michael sen
t me to do a more thorough search of the woods for the missing students. It was a sound enough request. I was just coming back to report when Jeff came out of the boys’ dorm with a backpack and his baseball bat. I knew something was wrong when he hailed me. He told me what had happened, that they couldn’t find Michael, and asked me to help him bring food and to watch his back. I could not refuse.”

  Nancy’s lips pressed into a line of concern before she spoke. “We have a problem.”

  “Michael and Kimberly?”

  She nodded. “Kimberly went to confront Michael about sleeping with Sophia and threatening her when she cut it off. You saw what he did at the assembly.”

  Shin was quiet, thinking. “I see. Do you believe Michael could’ve hurt Kimberly?”

  Nancy hesitated, not willing to tell him the truth. “Maybe. I don’t know.”

  “Perhaps he heard the word ‘zombie’ and decided to remain hidden in his suite.”

  “Maybe. I don’t know. I know it’s getting dark and we don’t know if there are more zombies inside the walls…but would you check?”

  “Of course. Also, I should get a lock on that chain to keep the zombies in the gymnasium until we can safely exterminate them.” Shin zipped up his jacket. “I’ll do that now.”

  Toni nudged Rose as Shin’s departure caught most of the students’ attention. “My room, midnight. You, me, Shane, Aaron, and a bottle of the good stuff.”

  Rose’s eyes widened and she grinned. “You got some left?”

  “A whole bottle of rum. Unopened.” Toni nodded. “It’s as good of a time as any. Tell Shane and bring your mattress.”

  “You bet.”

  The two of them giggled in anticipation of the private party.

  #

  Shin did not use his flashlight as he moved through the twilight of the evening. He kept his baton out and his senses alert for anything unusual and any unidentifiable sound. The only thing he felt was a distinct drop in the temperature. Winter was closing in fast. Again he wondered how the students on the supply run were doing. He hoped they were well and would be back soon.

  He entered Hadfield Hall and went directly to Michael’s door on quiet feet. He stood outside the door for a count of sixty, listening for any movement within the suite. After hearing nothing he knocked politely and listened for a count of thirty. “Professor Leeds, it’s Shin. I’m reporting in.” He knocked a second time. Then he pulled his ring of master keys from his pocket, found the right key, and opened the suite door.

  The room was dark but there was still enough ambient light to see the silhouette of the man sitting in the chair with his head slumped. “Professor Leeds? Michael?” Shin frowned and pulled out his small flashlight. Light sparkled in the glass of the empty whiskey bottle and lowball glass as he shone it on the professor. Shin’s frown deepened as he moved into the room, closing the door behind him.

  He took a close look at the alcohol bottle, then picked up the empty bottle of Percocet. Shin’s frown became a scowl. “Suicide. A real one this time. Coward.” He moved to the body and felt for a pulse at the wrist and neck. Shin wasn’t surprised when he didn’t find one. “What did you do with Kimberly? Hmmm?”

  Two things could have happened. Kimberly confronted Michael, who then killed her and committed suicide or Kimberly confronted Michael, left, and then he committed suicide. But where was the dorm mistress? Shin moved through the suite, opening room and closet doors. Kimberly wasn’t to be found.

  He took the time to do a quick patrol of the entire building, opening every room looking for sign of her, even checking the attic but Kimberly was nowhere around. Then he thought about the gymnasium and shook his head. He prayed she hadn’t gone in there try to do…what? Kill the zombies? Rescue the unreachable? Once bitten the infected was dead and it was up to everyone else to deal with it as quickly and efficiently as possible.

  Shin let out a sigh. Either way he wouldn’t be able to find out tonight. He had to get a lock on the building and figure out how to look inside to see who all was in there. The lock would be tonight. The rest would have to wait until tomorrow.

  #

  The four of them were curled up on mattresses on Toni’s floor. Toni and Aaron were on one mattress. Shane and Rose were on the other one. They all cuddled under comforters in varying states of undress that would become total before the night was through. Who was going to sleep with whom would start with the couples as is. But by the morning it was anyone’s guess. It wasn’t the first time they would experiment with their sexuality but it would be the last.

  “I had to promise Jeff that the four of us would stand watch tomorrow. Otherwise two of us were going to have to do it tonight. He didn’t care that we had plans.” Shane shrugged.

  “Who died and made him God?” Toni asked as she passed the bottle of spiced rum to Aaron.

  Aaron raised the bottle in a mock toast. “Swenson did. And face it, the guy knows his shit. If he wants to do all the work, I say let him.” He took a deep swallow from the bottle before passing it to Rose.

  “Yeah. Whatever.” Toni shook her head. “He’s such a know-it-all.” She took the bottle from Rose and drank. “I don’t like him.”

  Rose took the bottle back. “Don’t worry about it, hon. He’s out there walking a patrol while we’re in here getting drunk.” Rose handed the bottle to Shane.

  “Sucks to be him right now.” Shane took the bottle and a kiss from Rose.

  Aaron rubbed his arm. The muscles were sore. “Fucking dog.”

  “You okay?” Toni looked at his arm.

  “Yeah. It was just a heavy dog.” Aaron shrugged. “Not every day I have to throw a sixty pound mutt off me.” He and Shane exchanged a look that said neither of them would ever tell he threw the dog into the rest, making it impossible for Ross to escape.

  Toni kissed his arm. “Does that make it feel better?”

  “C’mere. I’ll show you what’ll make me feel a lot better.” He grabbed her in a bear hug and pulled her giggling to the mattress.

  Rose and Shane turned from them and focused on each other.

  #

  Outside, the first snow of the year began to fall.

  PLAN FOR THE FUTURE

  Eleven

  Lee’s face was grey with fear as he climbed down from the water tower. He looked at his five companions. None of them said anything at his expression but he saw that they suddenly mirrored his fear. Lee swallowed. He knew he needed to keep it together. “Well, there’s good news and there’s bad news…and there’s worse news.”

  “Lay it on us.” Nicholas pulled Rachel to him to comfort and receive comfort. The rest nodded.

  Melissa moved to Lee’s side as he spoke. “Good news: I think I see our target. It’s got actual stone walls all the way around the place and I didn’t see any zombies within them. We’ll be there in the next hour or so. Bad news: There’s zombies between us and it. We might be able to sneak by. Worse news: I think half of the city is clustered around the mall. There is no way we can get into it or the hospital. It would be suicide.”

  Melissa glanced up at to the top of the water tower. “I thought we might’ve had a chance to save Evan.”

  Lee shook his head, his voice sad. “No. We wouldn’t make it. I wish…”

  Joe furrowed his brow, keeping his voice low. “But our current target isn’t impossible?”

  “No. It’s not. We’ve been lucky, moving slow and steady. Most of the zombies died in the city center and not on the edges. The ones we’ve dealt with were people who’d been bitten, probably hidden it, then died out here.” Lee glanced up at the water tower before meeting Joe’s eyes. “This last bit is going to be bad.”

  “How bad?” Heather raised her chin, gripping her hockey stick tight.

  “There’s at least a dozen zombies on the edges we need to pass through. That I could see.” Lee looked to each member of his little band. “If we can’t sneak past them, we’d have to kill every
single one that sees us without alerting any of the others.”

  Nicholas pulled out the map and looked at it. “What about traveling through the creek?” He pointed to the creek on the map. “I know it’s cold but…”

  Lee shook his head. “No. Too slippery. Too hemmed in. Too easy to be ambushed. I couldn’t see who or what was down there because of the tree cover. We’re going to have to go from yard to yard.” He looked around the group again. “Are we ready?” When no one dissented he stood straight. “Right. Scout, over the wall, sneak through. Scout. If we see an easier way to get into a yard we take it.”

  The plan worked for the first three yards.

  Joe took point on the fourth yard. There was no easy way in. The six foot wooden fence felt sturdy enough but it had the look of age to it—unpainted, sun bleached, and split boards. The wood creaked as he clambered over and landed on the other side. Everyone waited and held their collective breath for the signal that all was well.

  “C’mon.” The word was whispered through two of the boards.

  Nicholas laced his fingers together to give Lee a boost over. Lee pushed off and transferred his weight to his hands on the top of the fence, his momentum carrying him over. That’s what should have happened. Instead, at the apex of Lee’s leap as he pushed down, the dilapidated fence cracked in half and collapsed to the ground with Lee on top of it. The crashing of the broken fence was tremendous in the silence of the dead world.

  No one moved as Lee stayed where he was on the ground, the tang of blood suddenly scenting the air. The sound of rising moans from the other side of the houses spurred the group to action. Joe grabbed Lee, pulling him to his feet. The rest could see him gritting his teeth to keep from crying out at the foot long shard of wood, as thick as a man’s finger, piercing his shoulder.

  “The house!” Melissa’s voice was a harsh whisper. Everyone obeyed. No one wanted to be out in the open around fresh blood after the cacophony they’d just made. With the section of fence gone, it was only a matter of scrabbling over splintered wood to get into the yard.