by Oliver, Nick
On the way back to the four-wheelers Nick looked over at me, I met his gaze for a while before he said anything. “You’re right,” he said, finally agreeing with me. “We can’t stay at my Uncle’s house forever.”
“Thanks,” I nodded. Nick didn’t give in willingly, and I knew he didn’t want to leave his Uncle’s house, but he knew everyone else did, and gave in for all of us, and that was good enough for me.
Chapter Fifteen: Game Plan
7:00 AM, July 8
I was lying awake with my eyes still closed. I could feel the sun shining on my eyelids. Sarah was still asleep, I could tell by her breathing. Nick and Roxie were still upstairs, and probably asleep because I would be able to hear them arguing if they were awake.
We had originally planned on gathering supplies while we were out, but after the funeral we were done for the day. We went straight back to Nick’s Uncle George’s house. Nobody spoke the entire way back. The yard outside the house was oddly clear of any zombies. It was almost like we were getting a reprieve.
I finally opened my eyes. The ceiling fan was motionless, which was unfortunate considering how hot it was. I didn’t even have a sheet on my and I was sweating.
I sat up and wiped the sweat off my face. It still felt odd waking up early. Sure when I was working I had to be up early, but I needed an alarm clock for that. Now my body was just on alert I guess. I got dressed and put my hat on. I wasn’t trying to stay quiet, we had a lot to do today and everyone needed to get up, including Sarah.
The hardwood floor squeaked as I walked into the kitchen. The funeral was still heavy on my mind. Nick may have finally agreed to leave his Uncle’s house, but he did it reluctantly. I filled up a glass with water. Luckily His Uncle’s house had well water, and the pump still worked.
I could hear movement upstairs, somebody was awake. I sat down at the table and took a sip of my water. Whoever it was would either go back to bed or come downstairs. I would rather everyone got up and got to work so we could get out of this house, than get lazy and get stuck here, but I didn’t want to make a habit of having to wake everybody up.
Heavy footsteps came down the stairs, too heavy for Roxie, which meant Nick was up. He walked into the kitchen, squinting at the light shining between the boards on the windows. “Morning.” He grunted more then spoke, his voice was pretty scratchy in the morning.
“Pretty early for you to be up,” I joked as he filled up a glass with water, “Hell it’s pretty early for me to be up for that matter.”
“Ain’t that the damn truth,” he sighed. “I miss the days when we could sleep in till noon, then party until late in the night.”
I rolled my eyes. He was trying to avoid the conversation we had to have, about how we would go about getting out of here. “So what’s the game plan?” I asked him, breaking the charade.
He stopped mid sip, then set his glass down on the table and sat down across from me, “I don’t know, this was your idea. How do you plan on doing this?”
“To be honest I have no idea.” I felt like an idiot, I’d been preaching this idea for days, and had no clue how to execute it. “But we can find a way, we’ll just have to sit down and figure it out.”
He looked upset that I hadn’t thought this idea through, and I didn’t blame him, but he didn’t explode into argument like I thought he would, he just sighed and looked at the table. “How infested was it when you stopped there the other day?”
“Not that bad,” I thought back to that day. “I walked the grounds and didn’t have to fire a shot. Sure they were there, but not in the kind of numbers you remember, we just have to block off the exits and clear it out.”
“How are we going to block off the exits?” he asked. “We won’t exactly have time to stack cinder blocks.”
“What about the school buses?” Sarah yawned while standing in the doorway from the living “They were all parked in the bus loop when were there.”
Nick nodded, “They used them to pick up people from remote parking locations and shuttle them to the school. They are big enough to block the hallways, but what if those things crawl under them?”
“We could tip them over on their sides, blocking the entries completely,” I suggested. “All we’d have to do is tie some straps to my truck them pull them down.”
“Maybe it would be better to just stuff something under them?” Sarah thought out loud, “Like file cabinets or something?”
“What about the stair wells?” Roxie asked as she walked into the kitchen. Her tired morning face wasn’t much different from her angry face, “How are we supposed to stop the zombies from climbing up those?”
“We could fill them up with desks,” Sarah suggested. “It’s not like we’ll need all those, and there are at least twenty in each classroom. They won’t be able to squeeze through those to get at us.”
I couldn’t help but smile, “You just have an answer for everything don’t you?”
She glanced at me with a smirk and shrugged, “Maybe I do.”
The moment didn’t last long, Nick was either oblivious to it or was just trying to get us focused on the plans. It was honestly probably a little of both.
“So should we set up shop somewhere in one of the neighborhoods outside the school?” Nick asked. “Or do we just drive right in and try to close it off in one day?”
Nick was still hesitant, and I didn’t blame him, blocking off all the exits and then clearing it all out with just the four of us in one day was going to be tough, but it was doable. “Both,” I compromised with him. “We can drive my truck right into the courtyard in the center of the school, and then leave it there while we start driving the busses to the bigger exits. If we can’t clear it in one day we’ll hole up in one of the upstairs classrooms.”
“What about the smaller exits?” Roxie asked. “We’re going to be making a lot of noise setting this all up. They’ll be coming at the school from all around us. How are we going to be able to lock it down before that happens?”
“Those have steel doors already, all we’d have to do is lock them,” I reminded her. “If we have to we can stack heavy stuff behind them to reinforce them, but they should hold against almost anything for the time being. After we settle in we can clear it all out.”
“I have an idea,” Sarah spoke up again. “They’re attracted to noise right? Why don’t we set up some stereos away from the school to draw them away while we do this?”
“That just might work,” Roxie agreed. “One on the road leading to the school and another in the neighborhood behind it should work.”
“Okay, we have our plan. We need to get everything into the truck that we can use from this house, and all the sheds and whatnot.” I stood up. I didn’t want to sit there all day talking. We needed to get shit done. “Nick, you and I are gonna go through the sheds and then the garage for any tools we might need.”
Nick shot me an odd look, like he didn’t agree with something, but I ignored it. If it was important he’d say something.
“Roxie, Sarah, I want you guys to clear out this house, kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms, anything we can use in here, grab it and put it in the garage.” I could tell they weren’t entirely pleased with just digging through the cabinets, but they didn’t object verbally.
“Sam, can I talk to you for a second, before we get started?” Sarah asked as I was about to leave the room.
I turned to Nick, “I’ll be right out.” He just rolled his eyes and headed outside, shaking his head.
Roxie stood up, “I’ll go upstairs and start clearing out the bathrooms.” She sounded like she already knew what we were going to talk about, which wasn’t outside the realm of possibilities.
Sarah waited until Roxie was all the way upstairs before she said anything. “About the other night…”
I had been dreading this conversation, but I knew it was inevitable. “It’s not your fault, I understand.”
“No, I need to tell you,” she looked down at the table for a
few seconds. “I know what you were expecting that night.”
“That’s not fair,” I cut her off. “I wasn’t expecting anything, I didn’t plan that, it just happened, I just didn’t expect that.”
“The way you were kissing me, I just thought…” she trailed off. “I thought you wanted to…”
“Sarah,” I sat down next to her at the table and grabbed her hand, “I’m not going to make you to do anything. When you’re ready then whatever is going to happen will happen.”
I could see the tears rolling down her cheeks. “After what he did I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to do those things again.”
I could feel my heart begin to race, it didn’t matter that he was already dead, seeing her like this made me want to kill the son of a bitch again. “I’m willing to wait. I’ve waited all these years already, what’s a little longer?”
I knew I worded that wrong the second after I said it. She pulled her hands away from mine, “You’ve waited for years just to sleep with me?” I opened my mouth to say no but she cut me off. “Well sorry to disappoint you. And here I thought it was more than that.”
She stormed off upstairs to Roxie.
I stood up and went outside, no sense in sitting there like an idiot. Nick was breathing heavily with a stern look on his face. I could tell he was pissed at me, and I knew it was going to be bad.
I braced myself as we reached the closest shed door. Luckily I did, because Nick didn’t waste any time.
“What gives you the right?” he demanded right away.
I sighed, “Right to what?”
He stared at me for a few seconds before laughing almost hysterically, “You know what I mean asshole. Why are you in charge? Why am I not in charge?”
“You want to be in charge?” I asked, as seriously as I could. “You’re in charge, what’s the plan, sir?”
“Sir?” he looked at me perplexed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know what it means, you just graduated the police academy, so that makes you a cop right?” I stared at him intently. “So obviously you should lead us to safety.”
He didn’t respond right away, just stared, angrily. “Of course, the Substitute Teacher should lead, because you lead children when their real teachers were sick?”
I just smiled. I knew he didn’t take my chosen profession seriously, “Because I didn’t lead those kids while I was there, I didn’t inspire them. I was a fly on the wall, an insignificant relief from their normal routine?”
“Nope, you were a joke, a momentary reprieve. Don’t make yourself out to be a leader,” he sighed. “You were a sub, not a real teacher.”
“Well at least I had a job, not just waiting for one to come.” It was a low blow. He was on the verge of being hired when I left for Ohio, but I was mad at myself for screwing things up with Sarah, so taking it out on Nick felt good, plus it wasn’t like he wasn’t holding back any punches.
He glared at me, his fists were clenched. I was expecting a punch, but he didn’t swing. “You think I’m a bad leader don’t you?”
I glared back, I wanted to say no, but I couldn’t. I wasn’t going to lie to him. “Yes, I do.” His jaw dropped almost instantly. “You’re lazy, putting things off until the last second, and when you aren’t lazy you are too rash, and don’t think things out, I do, so I can get things done right.”
“Lazy? Rash?” he demanded. “I do what I need to, how is that bad?”
I sighed, “It’s not, but it is bad if you do the wrong things, and I’m not trying to undermine your authority. I’m not some power hungry dictator, you know me better than that. Come on dude, we’ve been best friends since grade school. What’s changed?”
“I just think this should be a group thing, not just based on what you want or think we should do.” He had a valid point, but I knew how he could get.
“If I make a decision that is bad for us, call me on it, but until then I think we need someone to call the shots. We can’t sit around and discuss things in a committee all the time, especially when shit has to get done.” Nick wasn’t going to take this lightly, but he would, it would just take time. “And whether you like it or not, you know I am more level headed then you.”
He just shook his head. “I’ll take this shed, the other one is back there,” he gestured towards it before opening the door and walking into the one we were standing in front of.
“I know where it is,” I managed to get out before he slammed the door behind him.
The backyard was pretty dense. There were vehicles all over the place, from cars to boats, even a pair of dump trucks. And in between all those were trees and bushes that made it look like nobody had been back here in years.
The outbuilding was covered in vines, and had a particularly thick shrub next to it. Travelling alone for so long had made me cautious. I drew my sidearm and clicked off the safety. Something was rustling the leaves in the shrub. I gave it a wide birth, keeping my ears and eyes open in case something else snuck up on me.
I took another step and saw it was a squirrel eating something. I let out a sigh, but then immediately did a 360 to make sure nothing else would grab me in my moment of relief. Maybe I’d just seen too many movies.
The shed was packed, but most of the tools were rusted out and probably older then my dad. I did see a couple of machetes that might come in handy. I spent a few more minutes digging through the tools, but there was nothing that we needed.
I shut the shed door behind me and walked up to the shed Nick was digging through. He opened the door as I reached for the handle. We both jumped in surprise. “I found the bolt cutters,” he held them up to show me. He sounded a bit defeated, but it was probably because of our argument.
“Look man, we’re all stressed out here,” I half apologized. “I didn’t mean to,”
“Yeah you did,” he cut me off. “It’s not like anything’s changed, we argued before all of this, why wouldn’t we now?”
He was right, we didn’t always agree on everything, but we never let it get to us like it was now. “There wasn’t much in the other shed that we could use, just a couple of old machetes that need sharpening. I’m headed to the garage next, and keep an eye out. Don’t let one of them sneak up on you.”
He just saluted me sarcastically and went back inside the shed.
I flipped him off as I walked away, even though he probably didn’t see it, it did make me feel a little better.
By the time I got back to the house Sarah and Roxie were folding up blankets and sheets in the living room, despite Sarah probably still being mad at me. It wasn’t like I could avoid her. “How’s the food and medicine gathering going?”
“Already finished,” Roxie answered. “We’re packing up bedding now, and that’ll be everything we need from here.”
I probably shouldn’t have been surprised. There wasn’t much left here, and it was still not even ten o’clock yet, which gave us plenty of time to block off that school today. “Good, then we leave in an hour.”
Chapter Sixteen: School
11:30 AM, July 8
Nick wasn’t entirely pleased about leaving today, but I wasn’t going to sit around and waste another day when we could be safer somewhere else.
I was driving my truck with Sarah riding shotgun, which was more than just a figure of speech now. She didn’t seem as mad at me by the time we left, and I wasn’t going to remind her, so I just drove silently. Nick and Roxie were following close behind us on the four-wheelers.
We found two stereos in the house to use as distractions. Sarah was holding one, and Nick had the other. I stopped at the crossroad leading to the school to drop ours off. Nick and Roxie continued on past us to drop the other stereo off on the opposite side of the school.
I flipped it on, cranked the volume all the way up, then pressed play. It was so loud I almost fell over. In retrospect I probably should have used some ear plugs or something. I didn’t waste any time getting back in the truck.
My ears were ringing something awful, but I could still hear the rock and roll. Sarah looked over at me and laughed, “You would play AC/DC.”
“Well I wasn’t exactly going to blast Katy Perry,” I said sarcastically.
“Yeah, you wouldn’t want to leave behind your favorite album would you?” she teased.
“You know it,” I responded sarcastically rolling my eyes. “Now let’s focus, this ain’t exactly going to be easy.”
I drove slowly in front of the school. I went here for four years as a student, and had been working here as a substitute teacher for almost three years.
I knew the hallways better then anybody, every classroom and closet was committed to memory. The school’s main building was horseshoe shape around a central courtyard with the open side facing east. The fourth side of the courtyard had three smaller buildings closing it in. The Gym was the building furthest north, then the Library in the middle, then the cafeteria to the south. The auto garage and wood shop building was behind the library and cafeteria. The student parking lot was on the north side of the school, and the bus loop was on the south side.
All we had to do was drive buses into the walkways between the buildings, lock all the doors and it would be completely enclosed.
We stopped in front of the entrance to the student parking lot which was just north of the school. Nick and Roxie were already on their way back from dropping off their stereo.
I glanced over at Sarah. She looked back and gave me a reassuring smile, “Everything alright?”
“Yeah I’m fine,” I shrugged. “How about you? Coming back here must be pretty tough.”
She also shrugged, “Alright I guess. I did see a lot of death here, but I have to move on eventually right?”
I nodded, and then noticed Nick and Roxie were pulling up next to us. Nick was gesturing toward the open gate, so I rolled down the window, “What’s up?”
“The road is blocked,” he pointed out. The parking lot was packed full, and not just the spaces, cars filled up the aisles in between as well. I noticed that the sidewalk was clear though. “We can’t exactly drive over those cars, and there are a lot of those things in there.”