Heather was the first to the door. She found it unlocked and opened it, keeping her hockey stick in front of her. Joe followed half carrying Lee. Melissa, Rachel, and Nicholas wasted no time getting inside the house and locking the door.
The stench of rotten vegetables and meat greeted them as they huddled inside. Joe signaled for Rachel and Nicholas to keep watch as he pulled Lee deeper into the house. Heather and Melissa bracketed them, keeping their weapons at the ready.
Lee gritted his teeth together in an effort to keep from screaming as every movement ground wood into flesh. He panted through clenched teeth as Joe lowered him into a kitchen chair. Keeping his voice to a low mumble that would not carry, Joe said, “Heather, you, me, clear the house and get a first aid kit. Melissa, keep him quiet.”
With a nod Melissa took Joe’s place at Lee’s side as the other two left the room. “Shh…” she murmured, holding his uninjured hand. “It’ll be out soon.”
Lee slowed his panting breaths as he looked over at the piece of wood sticking out of his shoulder. “Sugar water. Keep energy up in blood loss.”
Even though the words were barely audible Melissa understood and reacted. She left her hockey stick on the kitchen table and began rummaging through the cabinets looking for what she needed as Lee watched. Neither of them saw the pantry door slowly swing open.
The zombie lunged and latched onto Lee’s injured arm, ripping the flesh with savage teeth. Lee couldn’t stop the cry of pain and alarm that erupted from his mouth as the dead child yanked his injured arm towards it. Melissa dropped the bag of sugar, whirling in surprised panic. Her shout of “No!” mingled with Lee’s continuing yells as he punched at the zombie kid’s head.
Melissa grabbed her hockey stick and brought down on the zombie’s head with a sharp crack. Even as the zombie let go of Lee’s arm, stumbling back, Melissa advanced, beating the zombie as hard as she could. Every strike was punctuated with her sobbing, “No! No!” She didn’t stop pummeling the zombie when it fell and the gore splattered about the kitchen. She didn’t stop when Joe and Heather returned in alarm. Nor did she stop when Joe gave warning, “The blood!” and pulled Heather from the kitchen.
It took Lee grabbing her by the arm to halt her crazed denial of what had just happened. “It’s done, Mel. It’s dead.” His soft voice took on a note of alarm. “Melissa, your face.”
Melissa touched her face. It was covered in the dead zombie’s blood. “Oh God.”
Joe and Heather peeked back in. “We’ve got to move to the basement. I’ve cleared it. Now.” The strained looks on their faces and the louder sounds of moaning outside the house spurred Lee and Melissa into action and the six survivors hurried to the relative safety of the basement.
The basement, fully underground with no windows, had been stocked with emergency gear along with boxes and unused exercise equipment. In short order Heather had Melissa to the side and had cleaned all of the gore off her face with wet wipes while Nicholas and Joe tended to Lee, getting the wood out of his shoulder and bandaging up both it and the bite wound.
Lee grabbed Joe’s arm before he could move off. “We’ve got to stay here for at least a day.” He continued at Joe unasked question. “If was just me I’d deal with myself and have you make sure I was dead. But Melissa…she might be infected, she might not. We don’t know for sure. We’ve got to know before you continue on.”
Denial and resignation warred on Joe’s face. “Well, we can’t leave until the rabble calms down anyway. And there’s food and some supplies here.”
“We should manifest symptoms at the same time. If she’s infected, we were infected at the same time.” Lee didn’t let go of Joe’s arm. He pulled his friend closer. “If she’s infected I’ll do it. If she’s not you’ve got to make sure she goes with you. And don’t let her see me. You know the rule: We don’t leave injured behind. Only dead.”
Joe wanted to deny Lee but his wrapped arm refused them a happy ending. He put a hand over Lee’s. “Promise.”
#
Pria and Maya slept back to back in twin-sized bed with Maya closest to the wall. Pria knew what the rest would say if they saw this. Lewd jokes and offers for a threesome probably. She didn’t care. Things were falling apart. “I think we should consider separating ourselves from the rest. Just to be sure. Father said that crowds were dangerous. Now we’re all crowded in here.”
“No.” Maya put a hand on the wall, feeling how cold it had gotten. “Not yet. We’ve got our plan, sis, but we don’t need to enact it yet. The zombies are only in the gym.”
“Things are breaking. People are breaking.”
“We won’t break.”
Pria’s voice softened. “I’m afraid others might break and hurt us. I promised Father…”
Maya turned over so she was spooning with her sister. “I know. But now is not the time to run. It’s gotten cold. The fourth floor will be freezing. Literally. We didn’t think about the heat except to get blankets. We should focus on that. Plus, we can’t hide now without everyone figuring out where we’ve gone. Not when the toilet flushes and sounds throughout the building.”
As if to prove her point the sound of rushing water below them, though muffled, told them that someone on the first or second floor had just flushed a toilet.
“All right. I don’t like it but you’re right about the heat. But we don’t separate unless we have to.”
“Agreed.” Maya hugged Pria tight. “We’ll be okay. The zombies are trapped. Shin and the rest will deal with them. Then things will go back to normal. All we’ll really have to worry about is keeping the rest from knowing about our shelter and from turning on us if they do.”
Pria patted Maya’s hand. “They won’t. You’re right. We’ll be okay. I’ll make sure of it.”
“We’ll both make sure of it.” Maya turned back over and scooted closer to the wall to make sure she didn’t accidently push Pria out of bed in the middle of the night.
#
Aaron rolled over and moaned softly. He had the absolute worst headache ever. His rising gorge made him sit up, then make a run for the bathroom in his skivvies. He made it in time to vomit up what was left of his dinner and what had been consumed at the mini-party he’d had with Toni, Rose, and Shane. “A hangover? Really? Damn, I’m a fucking lightweight these days.”
He rinsed his mouth out and sighed, feeling how sore his neck was as he stretched it. As he gulped water from the tap and splashed it over his head he wondered if it really was a hangover or if he’d caught something. The flu. He remembered how bad that was. “Sucks to be all of us,” he muttered to the mirror. If he was actually sick it was a good bet his friends were too after last night.
Shuffling back to Toni’s room he gave a mental shrug. It really didn’t surprise him. Between the principal’s suicide, the zombies in the gym, and the general stress of living in an apocalyptic world, he wondered how it’d been so long since any of the students had gotten really sick.
He snuggled close to Toni, vaguely aware of the heat coming off both of them. Yep. Sick. It wasn’t so bad in the chill of the room. It’d gotten really cold.
#
“What do you think is going to happen to us when the supply team gets back?” Steve pulled his coat closed as the sound of the wind outside was amplified in the front stairwell.
“What do you mean?” Ron paused on the steps and cocked his head to one side, studying Steve. It was just after one in the morning. The two of them were about halfway through the second hour of their six hour watch. They’d just about finished the second walkthrough of their patrol.
“I mean they aren’t going to just let go of what Jeff said about them not getting back in the walls.”
Ron lowered his voice. “Are we really going to have this conversation?”
Normally Steve backed down at the dangerous look in Ron’s eyes but this time he didn’t. It was too serious to let go. Even if it meant that Ron would be mad at him
for a while. “We need to have it.”
For a moment Ron didn’t say anything. Then he nodded. “All right. But not here. Thin walls and big ears. Let’s go to the chapel.” He didn’t wait for a response. He descended to the landing, paused at the door, waiting for Steve to follow, then opened it for the two of them to exit. The two of them moved with quiet speed and Ron made sure to close the door with equal silence.
“It’s snowing.” Steve zipped his jacket closed. “Came early this year.”
“It’s not sticking to the sidewalk yet. This might be a fluke.” Ron led the way to the chapel and opened the door for them. He glanced around after Steve entered, looking for signs of life. Everything was still and quiet. He entered to find Steve in the antechamber. “What’s up?”
“We sure this place is clean?” The slight trembling in Steve’s voice betrayed his nervousness.
Ron shrugged. “We only know about the zombies in the gym and Shin has that place locked up.”
“What about Mrs. Hood and Professor Leeds?”
“I wouldn’t worry about them. Probably fucking somewhere.”
Steve couldn’t help his grin. “But they hate each other.”
“How else are they going to figure out who’s going to be on top?” Ron leered, remembering the sound of the crowbar hitting Mrs. Hood’s head as he gripped his chosen weapon tighter. He had no idea where Leeds was and, right now, he didn’t care. “Okay. What’s the deal with when the supply team gets back?”
The two of them walked to the back of the chapel where the private apartments of Father Macgregor and Brother Fuller, the two religious leaders on campus, were. Father Macgregor had locked his apartment and no one had been brave enough to risk the faculty’s wrath by breaking into it. Ron gave the locked door a speculative thought before he ducked into the apartment that Brother Fuller used to live in during the school year.
It was a simple but comfortable room with a desk, sitting area, bedroom sectioned off with a standing bamboo privacy screen. The other door led to the bathroom shared by both clergy men. The room had the chill of an abandoned building that had gone too long without heat or people. Steve sat down on the couch. “I mean, when they get back, they’re going to raise a ruckus. We’re going to get in trouble along with Jeff.”
Ron didn’t sit. Instead, he walked around the sitting area to the bookshelf and pretended examined the books on it. “That’s not going to happen.”
“Why not? We all agreed to it. I can’t imagine someone like Joe keeping his mouth shut. Lee, maybe. If he and Jeff managed to have a private conversation before everything blew up. They’re probably going to punish us right along with Jeff.”
“Punish us how?”
Steve looked over his shoulder. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, how is someone like Leeds or Krenshaw or Shin going to punish us? You think anyone’s going to do anything? What we’re doing is for the good of the academy.” Ron kept his back to the other boy as he plucked a book, Age of Reason by Thomas Paine, from the shelf.
Steve turned back around and shook his head. “I don’t think it’s going to be that easy.”
“I don’t think you have your heart in the right place. Jeff would never give us up. If there was a fall he’d take it for the rest of us.” He stuffed the book in his pocket. “I don’t think you believe in Jeff. I know he believes in you.” Ron turned, raising the crowbar over his head. “And think I’m going to have to save him from that.”
Steve turned and got an arm up to ward off the lethal blow. He yelled in surprise and pain as his arm broke. Moving with manic speed Ron came around the couch as Steve tumbled to the side, holding his arm. “No!”
Ron’s next blow hit his intended target and the sound of a melon falling from a second story greeted his ears. Steve fell back, his forehead crumpled in, blood leaking from it. Ron stood over him, panting, exhilarated. This was better than he had imagined. Ron put the crowbar down and crouched next to Steve’s unmoving body.
“Yes,” Ron murmured, exulted, as he felt Steve’s breath on his face. He straddled the smaller boy’s body and gently wrapped his hands around Steve’s throat. Then he began to squeeze. Steve never opened his eyes—too bad—but his body bucked a couple of times. An automatic response the body had when fighting for its life Ron had once read.
When it was over, Ron remained straddling Steve’s dead body for a long time as he savored the sensation of slowly killing someone. Then he got to work, breaking into Macgregor’s apartment through the bathroom door and hiding the body in the trunk amongst Macgregor’s priestly robes. Later, he’d come back and search the room for valuables and interesting items.
#
In the coldest part of the night, when everyone was sleeping, even Ron in his watch chair on the first floor, an old pipe in the Bonny Hall basement boiler room cracked, leaking, then broke. Water poured out in a torrent, making a mess that would soon become a flood.
Twelve
Pria and Maya both yawned and stretched and shivered in the exact same way. Realizing what they had just done they laughed and raced to the communal bathroom. As usual they were up before any of the other students. Maya turned on the faucet. Nothing came out.
“Uh oh.”
Pria, who had paused to gaze out the window at the snow, turned, “Uh-oh what?”
“No water.”
“It snowed last night.”
Maya joined her sister at the window. “Oh boy. We need to find Shin.”
“Yeah. No showers or toilets.” Pria shrugged. “That’s what the honey pots are for. Mrs. Hood was right. But that means the pipes froze last night.”
The two of them hurried back to their room to dress and hunt down Shin, the one person they knew could solve just about any maintenance issue.
#
Nurse Krenshaw stood in the makeshift infirmary next to the desk she’d converted into a nurse’s station. She had not slept well, too keyed up over what Shin might find out about Kimberly and Michael. She had expected him to come back to her when he was done doing whatever he usually did. Unfortunately, he had not. Now, here she was, waiting, and listening to the faint, echoing sounds of students waking up. She paced the room to get her blood moving and to ward off the chill.
“Nancy.”
She jerked in surprise, turning towards the door at the unexpected sound of Shin’s voice. “Shin! You startled me.”
“My apologies. I wanted to speak with you before the children woke.” He moved into the infirmary. “I found Michael. Dead.”
Nancy’s eyes widened. “How?”
“Suicide. Drugs. Alcohol.”
“And Kimberly?” Nancy didn’t want to think of what might have happened to her friend.
Shin shook his head. “I don’t know. I haven’t found her. At least, not in the Admin building or Hadfield Hall. I need to do a more thorough search to see if—”
“If he killed her.” Nancy debated again about telling Shin the whole truth.
Shin turned and gaze up at the ceiling, his impassive face frowning. Nancy tilted her head. Then she heard it: running feet down the stairs. She picked up her baton. Shin shifted into a ready stance. There wasn’t any screaming, just running. But running right now could mean danger.
Maya and Pria skidded to a halt in the doorway, eyes going wide at the tenseness of the two adults. The girls ducked their heads and Maya stepped behind Pria.
“I trust you have a good reason for acting like a herd of wild elephants.” Nancy’s voice was stern with disapproval.
“Yes, Nurse Krenshaw. We’re sorry,” Pria said. “But we came looking for you to find Shin. The water isn’t working and it snowed last night.”
It took a moment for Nancy and Shin to process what the student said and what she actually meant. Finally, Shin asked, “Have you seen flooding?”
The girls shook their heads.
“The basement.” Nancy made shooing motions at them.
“Girls, you help him if it’s what we all think it might be.”
Shin nodded to Nancy and headed off towards the basement stairs with the sisters trailing after. As they left Julie hurried into the infirmary.
Nancy took a breath. “I know about the water. It’s being looked into.”
Julie shook her head in confusion. “Toni and Rose are sick. So’s Aaron and Shane.” The redhead shifted uncomfortably. “They all spent the night together in Toni’s room. I went there to borrow a shirt and she wouldn’t let me in. Told me she thought they all had the flu.”
“Oh goodness gracious. Isn’t this just the way of things?” Nancy began gathering medicine and supplies in a pack. “We’ll leave them in there for now. If they’ve infected Toni’s room, we might as well contain it to that.”
“You aren’t mad?”
Nancy gave the girl a knowing look. “Who do you think has been giving them condoms all this time? No. I’m not mad. Mrs. Hood on the other hand…”
Julie flushed at the thought.
If she’d still alive. Nancy pushed the thought away and followed Julie to Toni’s room.
#
They could hear the rushing of water the moment Shin opened the basement door. “Damn.” Shin gestured to the sisters. “Wait here. I’m going to turn off the water from the outside.” He sprinted back up the stairs, leaving them behind.
Maya opened the basement door and saw that the building foundation must have a slight slope to it. She could see water stretch across the basement hall floor, filling the west end of the building, and all its rooms, including the root cellar, the boiler room, the honey pot room and loading area. The water was still about five feet from this end of the building.
Pria poked her head in and wrinkled her nose. “This is going to suck. Maybe we can get the rest in the building to help fix it. After all, we all need to use the honey pot.”
The sound of running, splashing water cut off, signaling that Shin had found the main water cutoff and had successfully used it.
The Last Days of Salton Academy Page 10