“Neal?”
He waved a hand of skinny fingers in front of his face. I could tell that he wanted me to let it go. Because it was too much to tell. But it wasn’t too much for me to hear. And if Neal was keeping a lid on things, I’d turn my sort of interrogation to another witness.
Gabby.
I stood and hobbled over to the sink. Gabby folded her arms across her big chest and smirked.
“Curious. Aren’t you?” she said.
I nodded and asked the question that someone had to answer.
“So what went down the second night?”
Gabby reached for a rag and twisted it in her hands as she spoke.
“We got everything that we thought we’d need down here. Your boy Tom sure knows how to organize things.”
When she was right, she was right. I’d seen Tom unload and stack every item from one of his mom’s massive care packages so that he still had room under her bed for his skateboard and hiking junk. I never thought I’d wish for his smelly MRE rations ; even the skateboard might have proven useful if I needed to leave the safe zone.
“Hey!”
Gabby snapped her fingers in my face.
“You listening?”
I forgot the blades and the babes and quickly nodded.
“Good. So we… we were all down here. And it was kind of dark and small.”
It still was.
“And everyone’s like freaking out and crying and screaming and all how did this happen ? And what do we do now ? And then we hear them.”
I swallowed.
“The zombies.”
It wasn’t a question.
“Yeah. Everyone just wants to go home or wake up or whatever. And they’re … like they had to be scaling the walls and smashing the windows.”
That explained the broken glass.
“And we didn’t know what to do. So… so we just shut up. And pretty soon everything was quiet. We’ve been trying to keep it that way.”
Gabby threw the last bit at me like a sharp rock. I knew she was ordering me to get in line if I wanted to stay. Even Tom couldn’t protect me if I made the wrong move.
I walked back to Neal and the milk crates like the floor was a carpet of eggshells. I would stay quiet. I would not scream. But I still had another question.
“And no one knows how this happened?”
Neal finally opened his eyes.
“There… there are rumors. Something arrived on the day everything… shifted.”
I had to ask a follow-up question.
“Something … arrived? What?”
I could see already see in Neal’s face that he wasn’t going to be able to give me much more than that.
“I… a specimen. From Columbia I believe. Something that was supposed to be tested.”
“I saw it!”
I shot out of my chair and looked to the sound of Lana’s voice. She was back! She hadn’t forgotten the good times we’d had bashing and spraying and melting the zombies. And now she had intel. I grabbed her hands and carefully kept my voice just above a whisper.
“You saw… what is it?”
I believed that she held the key to the entire mystery.
“I---”
“How did you---?”
“I’m pre-med,” she said.
Huh. Guess she was in the Economics building for an elective or something.
“Pre-med?” I repeated.
“Uh huh. I saw the package on my way to class. It… it was guarded and in a locked box.”
She was on to something. She really was.
“And what was it for ?” I asked.
Lana threw up her hands.
“All I got, Sam.”
Well that was a major help. But it was the only variable in one in a line of ordinary days on campus. Lana had no more evidence to present. Maybe what she had already given was enough.
Neal stood and placed one arm around Lana’s shoulders and one arm around mine.
“Does it really matter how ? It happened. We have to wait it out.”
He looked to Gabby.
“Right. Let’s find you guys some rack,” she said.
I started to ask another question but suddenly realized that I was too tired to wonder about anything but a nap on a finally full stomach.
Four days went by. We had to conserve the hash and the cream corn and the beets. I split cans with Tom and Gabby and Neal. Morgan had no appetite. More for me when we were paired together. I looked for Lana who stuck close to the crew from her former life. If I wasn’t staring down an apocalyptic barrel, I’d accept it and get back to studying for a statistics quiz. But present circumstances meant Lana stayed just close enough and far enough away for it to hurt.
Until Josh wouldn’t share.
He was a big guy. Guess it was natural that he needed or thought he needed more. He downed an entire helping of green beans like it was a Foster’s and left Lana with no share of the spoils. I could see she was ready to cry or scream or give the zombies a run for their money and tear his meaty head off his thick shoulders. I started up to stop her. Even if I was hurt, I didn’t want the others to find an excuse to send her out. She could have some of my room temperature Chef Boyardee. But before I could play the hero, Neal took her by the arm and led her to our corner.
“Here,” he said.
He offered her the lion’s share of his applesauce. I kind of hated that the old dude beat me to the punch, but at least Lana was getting fed. And when she wiped what was left of the sauce away from her lips with her fingers, she smiled. I was just glad that she had switched sides to my crew. Maybe we were two dorks and a fat chick and a spaz and someone middle-aged. But we were solid and fair, and someone smart like Lana would only enhance our ranks.
We’d need all the help we could get to put the plan into action.
We retreated to one of the back rooms and spoke in what couldn’t even be called whispers.
“Sam, I just don’t know,” Neal said.
“But we don’t know if it spread,” I answered. “Maybe this is the end of the world, but… but there’s a whole lotta world left off campus. Maybe we can… I don’t know… like… like warn them or something. Get help for the others.”
I saw Tom mulling over my idea, and I knew where his thoughts were headed.
“But what if it’s worse?” Neal asked. “What if it’s everywhere and we can’t get back in?”
I started to counter his argument when Gabby leaned forward where she sat.
“And if we just stay here, we’re going to starve to death. And then we’ll be the ones eating each other. Guys, I’m like super hungry. But even I’m not down for that.”
I liked Gabby. If I’d run into her before the zombies hit, we’d have been friends. I couldn’t say the same for Lana, but when I saw her nod, I knew that now she was on my side, too.
“I’m with her,” Lana said. “We can’t just sit here and wait to die. What about you?”
All eyes turned to Morgan. She tried to say something without crying, but she started to shake and threatened to burst into loud tears. Neal steadied her where she sat and held her face in his hands.
“I’ll keep an eye out for you,” he said. “Okay?”
I wasn’t sure if Morgan actually agreed or if it was just a reflex. But she nodded.
“Look, we’ll go for like a day. At most. If it’s really bad, we’ll come back.”
“And then?” Gabby asked.
I could hear her stomach growling.
“Plan B. I guess. So?”
I saw everyone nod. Everyone but Tom. He was still lost in thoughts that I knew all too well.
“Tom?” I asked.
But I didn’t really have to. All his organizing of supplies into the dank basement was about survival. And I knew he wanted to survive so he could fine Leslie.
Leslie was Tom’s girl. She was a townie and saved room and board money by staying with her cousin off campus. He told me that he had tried to call her w
hen the carnage started. When his iPhone still had some juice. The only way he’d know now, one way or the other, was to leave the safe zone and try to make it to her place. He nodded, and I knew he was with us.
So we were decided.
I got up first, and the group followed me into the main room. All eyes were on us as Tom started to unlock the door.
Clay charged forward and grabbed Tom’s arm.
“When did we agree on another recon run?” Clay asked.
His dad had to be some kind of military.
“We didn’t,” Tom said. He acknowledged the band that stood with him just in front of the door.
“We did.”
I started to step forward and call Clay out on his posing when Lana and Gabby jumped in. They would not have been friends in pre-apocalyptic times. But they were allies now, and I saw Clay shrink away from their combined stare.
“Fine,” he said with a sneer. “But don’t come crying to me if you can’t make it back.”
“Clay,” Neal said, “that doesn’t make any sense. If we come crying to you, then we obviously have made it back.”
That shut Clay up.
Tom unlocked the door, and our group of six ascended the steps towards the light. When we reached the top of the steps, Tom undid the padlock. We stepped into the morning.
Everything was still. I had lost track of the days, but this felt like a Sunday morning when no classes were in session and everyone was holed up in their dorms, hungover. Maybe they were. I imagined the zombies as a party that had just gotten way too out of hand. We’d take a few steps and see the zombies growing warm again as they sobered up. The only thing they’d be hungry for was coffee, coffee, and more coffee. The safe zone could barely help them there, but if they were back to normal, we’d head into town and clean out Dunkin Donuts. That’d make everything alright again.
Tom took slow steps, and Gabby was right on his heels. Lana took my arm and supported my bad leg with all of her weight. I kind of hated her having to do that. But I was still grateful. Neal was at the rear. Morgan trembled at this side.
I could hear the leaves crunching under our feet. My eyes darted in every direction. Each second without a zombie meant that the nightmare was over or had been imagined. And even if it was real, we were making tracks and heading off campus for the rest of the story. I relaxed against Lana as we walked and---
And then I saw them.
The wraparound porch at the front of the main building came alive with drooling mouths and stained teeth. I stopped where I stood and heard Morgan cry out. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Neal press her behind him as Gabby and Tom looked to one another then to the main gate that was just a few feet away.
Lana gripped my hand.
“Oh no!”
That was Morgan again. Neal pressed his hand to her mouth and tried to silence her screams, but they seemed to fuel the zombie appetite in our midst. I reached back for Neal’s sleeve and pulled him forward as I barreled into Tom and Gabby.
“Run !”
No one argued.
We raced for the gate. I could hear the zombies’ pursuit and even feel their rank breath running down my neck. Despite her size, Gabby gained ground and took the lead from Tom. They pressed their bodies against the gate, but it didn’t budge. I wondered if there was another safe zone locking the plague out. Or had someone locked us in? Tom and Gabby didn’t waste time weighing the options at the front of my mind and sprinted off in another direction.
“Where are you going, man?” I cried out.
“It’s not a way out!” Tom yelled. “Come on!”
Neal didn’t need to be told twice. He lifted Morgan off the ground and carried her down the path that Tom and Gabby quickly cut. One pull on my arm from Lana was enough to send me running with the others.
We curved back to the courtyard just beyond the cafeteria. I looked up at the building and saw nothing but faces pressed against the glass. I thought I recognized some of the eyes. They belonged to the zombies I’d smote with the sun. But the moon had revived them, and they could deal with dawn. One by one the figures peeled away from the windows, and I could hear them descending to where we stood. I looked around for something to hold them off. Anything.
And then I saw my bat.
I didn’t know how it had made its way from the place Lana at left it to inches away from my line of sight. But I picked it up and smiled at Lana as it found its way home in my grip.
“Come on!” Gabby screamed.
We were off again.
So much flashed by. I saw abandoned dorms and trash cans that were used to too many fast food wrappers overflowing with limbs and brain matter. I looked back to Neal as he tried to shield Morgan’s eyes from the entire scene. Tom and Gabby turned a corner.
And then we were cornered.
There were only two of them. We were six. And I had my bat back. We could take them. I started to charge forward when my leg gave out, and I was on ground, eating dirt that tasted like blood.
“Sam!” Lana cried.
“Get up, dude!” Tom said.
I tried to crawl away from the danger when they started to bare down. I was barely able to look up when Gabby made like a plus-sized ninja and batted the zombies back. Tom followed her lead and grabbed a stray branch to aid her efforts. The zombies still looked ready to eat, but they backed off as Tom and Gabby swatted with all their strength. Lana helped me to my feet as Neal pointed. Morgan was still in his arms.
“There!” Neal yelled. “Under the security gate. Come on!”
Lana dragged me in the direction of Neal’s voice, and I could feel Tom and Gabby right behind me. We made like the most desperate limbo dancers in history and scooted under the gate before we started off again, free of the campus. I had to look back, and I saw the zombies confused by the wooden bar. It wouldn’t last. I believed that. But we had bought time.
And Morgan pointed at the first house we saw. It was enough for Neal. He led the charge to the porch and eased Morgan into one of the wicker chairs as he waved the rest of us forward. When we were all on the porch, everyone started inspecting one another for any sign of injury.
That’s when we saw that Gabby’s wrist was torn.
She held her bleeding arm in front of her face and tried to wipe the bite away. We all knew that it was no good. The apocalypse was already leaking into the rest of her body. She’d be one of them in a matter of minutes. Then she’d be the enemy.
It was bad.
Tom grabbed her arm. I saw Gabby tremble as Tom’s face seemed to accept the inevitable. His hands were nearly round her throat when I spied a saw and reached for it with all the strength I had left. I pushed Tom away and pressed Gabby into the porch. She struggled as I lifted her arm above her head and held her bleeding, infected wrist fast just beside her eyes.
Gabby took in the saw and looked up at me with a pleading stare.
“Sam?” she begged.
“Sam!”
That was Lana.
“Sam, what are you---?”
I tuned Tom out and sawed off Gabby’s hand with a series of clumsy slashes. She screamed like the world was ending (and in some ways it was ), but I still sawed until her hand until it left her arm. Morgan of all people fell out of her chair and stripped off her top. She wound the discarded fabric around what was now Gabby’s throbbing stump, and she pressed against my slicing as the blood continued to flow.
I looked back at Lana. Her no eye contact told me that she didn’t get what I had done.
If the point of the bite was removed, the body would stay human. It might bleed out. Gabby might bleed out. But she’d die a person.
She wouldn’t turn. She couldn’t.
Gabby continued to scream as the blood continued to pour. And when I looked over my shoulder again, I saw more zombies coming.
***
“What is wrong with you?” Neal demanded.
He wasn’t the only one.
They all looked at me like I had
lost it.
“I thought… I thought that if I got rid of it before… before whatever this is, you know, like infected her, she might be okay.”
Tom was at Morgan’s side. He tore off a piece of his shirt and added it to the bandage that grew redder by the second. Gabby’s screams weren’t as loud as more and more blood left her arm. She was already starting to lose consciousness.
“Not your best hour, dude,” Tom said.
When I looked at Lana again, I could see that she was Team Tom on this one. I couldn’t look at any of them. But I could see the zombies growing closer.
I had to do something.
“Everybody inside!”
I tried the front door. It wouldn’t budge. So I lifted my bat to bash in one of the windows. Neal grabbed my arm. I was so surprised by his hand on my sleeve that I almost took the bat to his head.
“Are you insane ?”
“But we have to get in!”
“And you just thought you’d leave the windows open for them ?”
I hadn’t thought of that. As soon as we slipped through the broken glass, the zombies would be on the porch. They’d claw the rest of the way inside and treat themselves to Sunday brunch.
Tom left Gabby and rammed his shoulder against the door.
“Maybe we can pick the lock or something,” he said.
He started to search his pockets for a paperclip or a nail or something. Lana quickly shook her head.
“No time. Let’s try the back.”
She led the way. Me and Tom followed. I still had the bat, and I thought to grab the saw in case we needed it for something else. Neal and Morgan helped Gabby, still bleeding and still moaning, to her feet. We climbed down from the porch, leaving Gabby’s hand for the zombies.
There had to be like thirty of them approaching the house. We cut around the side of the house and found another door behind a screen. Lana opened the screen door like it was nothing. Everyone held their breath as Lana grabbed the second door knob.
Lana started to turn it. Barely moved an inch. Lana tried it again and again. Nothing. She slammed her fists against the door.
Zombie University (The Complete Series): How I Survived the Zombie Apocalypse Page 4