Alive

by Ashley Shannon

  “She’s infected.”

  Laura, or what was left of her, growled, moving toward the redheaded guard. He panic and began to reach for his gun. His fingers fumbled over the holster, unable to pull it out to take a shot. Laura kept crawling toward him, slowly but with intent to reach him. She was stalking him, hunting her prey.

  “Palen, take your shot.” The other solider had his gun in his hand but didn’t take the shot. Sada didn’t understand why no one was doing anything. Palen kept trying to get his gun out, but Laura was almost touching him now.

  “No, you can’t, she’s my wife!” Laura’s husband yelled, his hands reaching out to her.

  “Don’t touch her!” The other solider tried to hold her husband back, but he was fighting to get to her. Sada watched in happen in slow motion, her eyes blinking, her mind trying to understand. Laura looked at her husband with intensity building in her amber tinted eyes. For a moment, her head turned and it looked like she recognized the man she loved. Sada’s hands went to her mouth, hope rising inside her. Maybe this terrible thing that everyone was saying was going to destroy their world, wasn’t what they thought it was. Palen’s arms lowered, letting the gun rest at his side. Everyone seemed to exhale after holding their breath since the small woman had reanimated.

  Laura reached out her arms in an almost loving way, moving to her husband. He took her hands in his, smiling, seeing the human life still inside his wife. When her hands grasped his, he stopped crying, mumbling words of love, pulling her in close. Then with no warning, Laura bit down on her husband’s throat. Sticky red blood flowed down her mouth and covered her teeth. The crimson liquid fell in heavy droplets, smearing it her across her face as she turned her husband into her first meal postmortem.

  Sada screamed, her mouth opening wide in horror. All she could see was the blood. It was everywhere, soaking through the white collared shirt of her husband as Laura treated him like a mid afternoon snack. The noises coming from the attack made Sada’s stomach twist and churn. She felt like she was going to be sick. Laura sounded like the loudest chewer imaginable and the entire thing made Sada want to vomit.

  “Palen!” The other solider shouted, trying to get him to take the shot. Sada could see that it was complicated. If he took the shot carelessly, he would hit Laura’s husband, but if he didn’t take a shot soon, it wouldn’t matter. It might not even matter now, Sada wasn’t sure there was any chance of saving him from Laura’s attack.

  “Frankie!” Palen yelled at the other solider, a sort of signal of defeat. He couldn’t take the shot and someone else would have to. The other solider ran over, stepping beside Palen, his arms stretched out as he took aim. He shot twice, both bullets hitting the infected Laura directly in the chest. She fell backwards, stumbling, hissing in the direction of the soldiers. But unlike a normal human, she kept coming at them, only slightly deterred by the bullets flying into her chest. Her husband’s body fell to the ground and he didn’t move. Those shots should have laid down any human, keeping them from being able to get back up again, but not Laura. Frankie took another shot, hitting her in the left shoulder, causing that side of her body to pull backwards. But still she moved toward them.

  The fourth bullet was the one that ended her. Frankie took another shot and hit her right between the eyes. Instantly, Laura was on the ground, blood pooling underneath her skull on the floor. Her hand rested close to her husband’s hand. He was laying beside her, body askew, face down against the hardwood floor. Frankie took three steps forward and pointed the gun at Laura’s husband. He pulled the trigger once, putting a bullet in-between his eyes.

  Urgency flooded the room. Sada watched as everyone began to panic, but her own fear kept her rooted in place. Yelling began, as they rushed in all directions to find weapons and pushed to the door. Discarding the idea of coming up with a plan, Sada watched as her father opened the door and began to rush out into the already full hallway, her mother right behind him.

  “Dad, wait!” Sada ran back from where she stood, to get her things. Her hand fumbled with her phone charger. The child safety plug stuck, she pulled and tugged, finally twisting it a bit to get it out of the outlet. She swung her backpack on her shoulder and ran up to the door, stopping five feet from it.

  The infected swarmed on them before anyone could get more than a few feet away from the door. The soldiers tried to get into the group as they left, but they couldn’t even get past the doorframe. The infected mixed with the uninfected civilians, creating confusion.

  “We have to shut the door,” Palen yelled at Frankie.

  “No!” Sada yelled, “My parents are out there, we have to help them!” Sada couldn’t even see them anymore, but she had to try and get to them.

  “We can’t,” a kid yelled pushing past her, “No one can help them now.”

  The kid and the two soldiers positioned themselves on the inside of the door and began to push it closed. Against the uninfected and infected, people trying to get to a safe place, they slowly moved the door. The boys were struggling, barely able to get the door to move against the flow of bodies in the hallway. The others jumped to their aid. It took all of them that were still alive, besides Sada, to push the door shut and lock it before agains the weight of the infected. She couldn’t bring herself to help lock her parents away from safety. The door shut with a slam, the lock clicking shut. Out of the thirteen people who had left the room, only six of them were still alive.

  The screams of pain and terror from the other side of the door wracked Sada with pain and guilt. Her mother and father were out there, dying, and she couldn’t do anything about it. She wanted to scream and bang her fists on the door, yelling at them to come back or to let her out, but she didn’t move. It didn’t make sense for her father to lose his cool like that, to not think his way through the situation, but she had never seen him under this amount of pressure. Tears filled her eyes, sadness overwhelming all of her sense. Weakened by the surge of dark emotions, Sada’s knees gave way and she fell to the floor. Whatever was left of her family, was gone, pulled away from her screaming in pain. Sobs echoed from her and her body shook as she cried for the parents she had seen killed before her very own eyes.

  A blond girl a little older than her knelt down beside her. She placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and didn’t say anything. The girl didn’t have to, she knew what had happened, who Sada had lost, and knew their was nothing to say. It felt a little better, to have someone who cared about her, even if Sada didn’t even know her name. Compassion and humanity was what she needed to feel on this side of the door, when it seemed like those things didn’t even exist on the other side.

  “We can’t leave.” Sada choked out the words between sobs. “We can’t let that happen to us, what just happened to my…” Her voice trailed away. She couldn’t stop crying. “To my parents,” she finished after taking a deep breath to try and calm herself.

  “Not through the door, but there are other exits in this classroom. State law requires there to be more than one exit in all classrooms incase of fire.” The boy who had spoken up was standing by the windows looking out. His words were calm and it was easy to tell that he was trying to put together a plan as if he were piecing together a puzzle.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Levi paced the room, his hands twisting at his side, remembering just how much he hated being around real people in the real world. IRL or in real life, was his least favorite place to be. But his plan could work, though there were some finer details that needed to be worked out. It was just like the time his raid team needed to find a work around in the dungeon they were raiding. It had actually been Char’s idea. Instead of going through the invested area, she suggest to go around. It had worked for their raid team then and Levi was confident it could work for them now, in the real world. While the logistics of going around were trickier, it could ultimately be safer.

  “What are you talking about? There isn’t another door.”

  Levi looked up, his concentr
ation ruined. The girl that was talking to him was the one who had just lost her family. Her mother and father made the wrong choice to open the door without a plan and now they were more than likely dead. It was a choice he himself, wouldn’t have made. Her father had not weighed out the consequences of his choice. He had thought it through, something Levi never did. Acting on impulse ultimately always lead to bad resolution.

  “What’s your name?” Levi asked, addressing the girl who’s family left without her. She was actually lucky she hadn’t followed them, but Levi knew not to say that to her.

  “What?” The girl looked at him. Her eyes were big, bigger than most people’s eyes, which gave her an expression of surprise at almost all times. Tears ran from her eyes that were rimmed red with distraught.

  “We are about to embark on somewhat of an adventure, not unlike in Lord of the Rings trilogy or something equally similar. We should know each others names. Like when Bilbo meets the dwarves who become his travel companions. It will make the process of coming up with a plan of escape much simpler.”

  There were six of them left. Two girls and four guys. Levi thought this would work out in their favor. Its not that he thought girls were the weaker sex or anything, but when it came to physical strength guys had the upper hand.

  “He kind of has a point,” Palen said, looking around the room at the few of them that were left.

  “Your name is Palen, though I’m unsure if that is your first name or last, since soldiers often refer to others in their unit by their last name.”

  “It’s my first name, and this is Frankie, also his first name.” He gestured to the other solider in fatigues.

  “I’m Sada,” the girl with the big eyes said, “Like Sara but with a d.” Levi thought she was pretty, in a very obvious way, but pretty nonetheless, though that probably wouldn’t help them much.

  “I’m Becky,” a blond girl spoke up. Levi thought she looked kind and she comforted Sada when her parents were taken from the room even though she didn’t seem to know her before hand.

  “Johnny.”

  The voice came from across the room in a corner and was quiet. He was built like a solider thought he wasn’t wearing fatigues. He was wearing a different kind of camouflage.

  “You’re a hunter,” Levi said, not posing a question, but instead stating a fact that he assumed from the clothing he was wearing.

  “Yeah, I am.”

  “That’s good, you know how to use weapons. Does anyone else know how to use weapons? That knowledge could come in handy.”

  Johnny nodded, a puzzled look on his face. Levi was use to that look. A look of confusion and misunderstanding was often on the faces of people who talked with Levi and didn’t understand him. Really no one understood him, except maybe Char and that was probably because they mostly talked in game. Inside of the game, Levi didn’t hesitate or distract the people he was talking to. When he talked to Char she didn’t see the way his hands twisted or they way he didn’t make eye contact. She didn’t see his Aspergers like people in the real world did.

  “Sorry, I know I’m not explaining this very well. We need to exit through the windows and walk along the roof.” Levi pointed to the roof and began to explain his plan, “If we can lower each other down onto the awning above the back entrance then we can lower one another to the ground. The only problem will be the person who is last. They will have to lower down themselves. It’s a considerable height and could result in ankle or leg injuries. More than likely it would result in ankle injuries, that is the most common injury reported amongst doctors when someone jumps from a considerable height.”

  He was met with more looks of confusion. As he often did, Levi was giving more information than was necessary to the situation.

  “I’m sorry, I know that you didn’t need to know that.” Nerves wriggled through his body, causing his hands to shake again. His fingers twisted, pushing his thumb against each of the knuckles, but without cracking them. Cracking your knuckles caused arthritis in old age, which is why he never cracked them. But he liked the feeling of putting pressure against them.

  “You think we could actually make it from the roof?”

  “The estimated height of the awning is twelve feet, on average we are about half of that meaning, we will have to lower each other down until they are three or four feet from the ground. That will greatly lower the risk of injury when we hit the ground.”

  Palen and Frankie looked at one another, then to Johnny. The girls were huddled together, and would more than likely follow whatever the guys decided. They looked like they were having a secret conversation, wordlessly looking at at one another.

  “We should make a decision quickly however, I don’t believe the zombies will wait.”

  “Zombies?” Each person looked at him in shock. Levi brushed his hair out of his eyes, his fingers wiggling again.

  “It’s obvious, isn’t it? A disease is taking over their body, more than likely affecting their brain stem. It’s killing them and then they are reanimating, with none of their humanity intact. They are affectively the living dead, undead, however you want to put it. They are zombies. Just like the ones you shoot in Left 4 Dead.”

  “This isn’t a video game, man.” Frankie said, shifting from one foot to the other.

  “No, I know that, that was just a comparison.”

  “Is that really what they are?” Sada asked, no longer crying. Levi admired how tough she was. Her whole family was just eaten alive but she was still standing.

  “Seems legit.” Johnny said, “My brother texted me and said the same thing before I got here. But what they’re called isn’t really the issue right now. We need to get as far away from them as we possibly can.”

  “Yeah, so we get out of here and then what?” Becky asked, finally speaking up.

  “I don’t know.” Levi had to admit that he hadn’t gotten that far in the plan. “We’re going to have to get a car.”

  “No, we’re going to have to steal a car, unless someone has one we can get to.”

  “My truck is in the parking lot, but there is no way we can all fit in it,” Johnny offered.

  “The front parking lot is filled with those, things, zombies or whatever,” Palen said.

  “So we’re going to have to steal a car,” Frankie stated and no one had any other suggestions.

  “There were an estimated 721,053 thefts of motor vehicles nationwide in the past year according to the FBI database.” Levi wasn’t sure what to say, so he said the first thing that came to his mind.

  “Good to know were going to be just another statistic,” Johnny said with a small chuckle.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Johnny knew, he shouldn’t be here. When he had left the buck he was hunting earlier that morning behind, he had been on his way to his mother’s house. Driving into town, the roads were congested. Police barricades were set up and traffic was being directed toward safe zones. He couldn’t make it across town to his mother’s house, but was instead was routed to East High School. Johnny could only hope that his brothers were making sure his mother was safe. The whole thing seemed like an entire year ago, but it had only been mere hours.

  The plan was laid out and everyone left in the room had agreed. Johnny didn’t know if it would work. Levi, the kid who thought of the plan, seemed a little odd, but he also seemed incredibly smart. For some reason, he had convinced them all to traipse across a snow covered roof in the middle of winter. It did seem like the safer option, but the too much hinged on the fact that they would be able to find a vehicle to get them away from the overrun school.

  The roof was covered in a light snow and it made the plan even more complicated. Even with his hunting boots on, it was hard to find his footing and for some ungodly reason, he had volunteered to be the first out of the window.

  With one hand holding on to the window, Johnny climbed out of the high school classroom. When he had been in high school, he had thought about doing this on more than one occasion. Sitt
ing in an english class, listening to the teacher discuss a book he hadn’t read, Johnny would stare out the window. Sometimes he would think about just climbing out the window, running to his truck, and driving to the farm. He would rather have been at the farm than school any given day.

  “Is it going to work?” One of the girls asked as he was trying to find his footing.

  “I don’t know yet. Let me get out here and then we can have a conversation about it.” His tone was snarky. She had broken his concentration and that annoyed him. People mostly annoyed him in general. How needy they were, how indecisive. Another reason he preferred the farm, no one was ever there.

  His hunting boots finally found a little bit of traction and he lifted the rest of his body onto the roof. The wind wasn’t too bad, swirling a few snowflakes around his face and in his eyes.

  After getting his bearings, Johnny turned around and held out his hand to the girl behind him. Sada, like Sara but with a d, was the name she gave them when they were trading names. He liked that her name was different. She was tough. He had watched her parents die just as she had, getting torn apart by the zombies, and after a few tears, she put on her game face. Johnny couldn’t help but admire that. He would have done the same thing, though probably wouldn’t have cried at all.

  “Give me your hand, then climb out. Don’t take any steps until you have your footing, okay?”

  Sada nodded, her eyes meeting his, for only mere seconds. Then, in a flash of blue, her gaze fell somewhere else. It was Johnny’s turn to move forward and her turn to help the next person onto the roof, but he didn’t want to look away quiet yet.

  “Ready?” he smiled a little when he asked, still holding her hand.

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  With that she turned around and held out her hand to the nerdy kid Levi. The one who planned their escape and who probably had the least hand-eye coordination. He was going to need the most help, his feet moving weakly, like a baby deer taking its first steps.