Glory (Book 5)

by Michael McManamon

  He lowered himself onto the ground. The stones burned his flesh. They poked into him too.But, no, he wasn't going to stand. He crawled over to the edge of the roof.

  As he peeked over the end, he saw the men. They were talking to themselves. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but he figured it was probably something about what they were going to do to the women (and maybe the men) once they got into the school.

  He didn't care to hear it.

  He placed his gun on the ledge of the roof and felt a moment of sadness that it wasn't his axe. He had left it in the library, knowing it wasn't going to do him any good from up here. He needed the gun. It was the only way that he was going to be able to kill the men from where he was.

  Still, he wished that he had his axe.

  Scooter moved up closer to the edge of the roof and looked down the barrel of his rifle. He had never shot one before. And he wasn't too confident that he'd do all that good of a job. But he'd try. That was all that he could do.

  *

  Claire wanted to look out of the window, but she was frightened that they'd start shooting again.

  She looked over at Shelly. The young woman had gone over to the door and was standing guard, looking both directions in the hall, gun in hand.

  She looked over at Charles and Julie. They were still with the little ones. Buster and Cookie were there too.

  She caught Charles's eye and he smiled at her. Then he nodded his head to assure her that everything would be okay, that'd they'd come out of this all right.

  She smiled back.

  She thought once more about looking out of the window, once more knowing that it wasn't a good idea. They'd be watching the library, waiting for any sign of movement. As soon as they saw something, they'd start shooting.

  But still…

  Another idea came to her. She went to the library door and spoke to Shelly. "I want you to keep an eye on the windows as well," she said.

  "Why? Where are you going?"

  "I want to go into one of the other rooms to see if I can get a better look at those men."

  "You want to dowhat?"

  "I want to know who we're dealing with."

  "I…I don't know if you should," Shelly said, shaking her head.

  "It'll be okay. I'm not going to be long. Only a minute."

  "Only a minute?" Shelly asked, sounding like she wanted to believe her.

  "Yeah, only a minute. Just keep an eye on the windows. If anyone tries to get in, call me. I'll be back before you know it."

  Shelly nodded.

  Claire walked down the hallway and went into one of the rooms. She crouched down so that no one from outside would be able to see her. She tried to be as quiet as possible.

  She passed a few knocked over desks. Papers had been scattered on the floor as well.

  Then she got to the window. It had been shattered and she had to make sure not to step on the pieces of glass. Carefully, she pressed her back against the wall and slid to the edge of the sill.

  She took a deep breath, but couldn't get herself to look.

  Now that she was there, she wasn't all that sure why she wanted to see who was outside anyway.It didn't matter what they looked like, or who they were.

  Another deep breath.

  When she let it out, she realized that she could hear them talking.

  "What should we do?" one man asked.

  "We've gotta get in there?" another replied.

  "How?"

  "Fuckin' blow our way in there!"

  "They've got guns too."

  "We'll blow the ones with the guns away first."

  "I can't wait."

  "To blow 'em away?"

  "Naw. To fuck 'em."

  Laughter.

  She decided to look.

  As her eyes peeked around the edge, there were four men straight in front of her. She could see the fronts of two, and the backs of two others. Their bodies jerked up and down as they continued to laugh. They were all holding guns.

  Then one of them turned toward her.

  Claire froze. Not because he had seen her. He hadn't. But because she knew the man standing in front of her. It was Big Mike.

  Claire had thought a lot about Big Mike, but hadn't actually thought that she was ever going to meet him again. To her, he had been a part of her past.A part best forgotten. Yet, there he was.

  The sight of him caused her to lose her breath in panic. When it came back, she felt an uncontrollable urge rise up through her -the urge to kill.

  She placed the shotgun through the open window.

  Part of her wanted to scream out, to tell him that his life was over, that she was coming to take it. But she also didn't want to give him any warning, a chance to get away.

  When she thought she had him in line with the barrel, she grinned and pulled the trigger.

  *

  Adam heard the shot.

  He didn't know where it had come from, but someone had started shooting.

  The battle was on.

  *

  Marianne heard the shot.

  At first, she thought that maybe it had been from her own gun. She had been so close to pulling the trigger, she thought that maybe she had.

  When she realized that she hadn't, she knew that now was the time to start.

  She pulled it.

  Again. And again.

  *

  Scooter heard the shot. Then there were several more.

  He didn't know where they were coming from. And he didn't care. He pulled the trigger on his own rifle and watched as the bullet blasted from the barrel.

  Then he took out the cartridges he had gotten from Adam's backpack and reloaded his gun.

  He fired again.

  *

  Claire wasn't sure if she had hit Big Mike. The gun blast had taken her by surprise. It had pushed her back. The sound had nearly deafened her. But when she had regained her wits, she started shooting once more.

  *

  Adam kept pulling the trigger. He didn't know if he was hitting anyone. He saw the men outside start to run away. He tried to follow them with the sight of the gun. It wasn't as easy as they made it look in the movies. It was hard to see where a moving target was running off to. But he tried his best.He really did.

  *

  After reloading her gun a couple of times, Marianne ran out of ammunition.

  She turned around and leaned her back against the wall.There was nothing more that she could do.

  She wasn't sure if she had hit anyone. She hadn't been able to see. Everything had happened so fast. It had been so loud. Her ears were still ringing. But she hoped that she had.She hoped she had killed them all.

  *

  Scooter had a two more shots left, but he couldn't see the men anymore. They had run away and he wasn't sure where.

  *

  Adam stopped. Everyone else had too.

  He took a deep breath and looked out the window. No one was there. They had all scattered.

  He didn't think that the men had gone far. But at least they were scared. They knew that Adam and his group meant business.

  They weren't going to go out without a fight.

  *

  Claire looked out the window. Big Mike was nowhere to be seen. She hadn't hit him. She hadn't gotten any of them. No one was there.

  It was upsetting. She had wanted to kill Big Mike, had wanted to kill them all.

  But she had missed.

  Theyallhad.

  *

  Adam went to get Marianne. "Are you okay?" he asked.

  "I'm fine," she said, her breathing shallow. "But I don't think that I got any of them."

  "No, none of us did." He hadn't seen any of the men lying outside. "At least we scared them."

  "We did," Marianne agreed. "But I think we scaredme too."

  Adam chuckled. "Come on. We did a good job. Let's get the others.

  *

  Scooter was climbing down the ladder when they got to the top of the stairs. He loo
ked excited. A bit like a child after coming off of a roller coaster.

  "That was amazing!" he said.

  Adam patted his shoulder. "We did a good job."

  "Fuck yeah, we didgreat!"

  "But we didn't shoot anyone," Marianne said.

  Scooter wasn't to be brought down by that. "Doesn't matter," he said. “We let 'em know that we're not going to come quietly!"

  Adam nodded. That's what he thought too.

  *

  Adam and the others walked down the stairs. They came upon Shelly. She was guarding the door. The gun gripped tightly in her hands.

  "It's okay," Adam said. "They're gone. At least for now."

  "It's not that," Shelly said. "It's Claire."

  Adam's heart dropped. He wanted to run past Shelly and get into the library. He could imagine her there, lying on the ground with bullet holes riddled through her.

  Shelly spoke again before he had a chance to move. "She went into the other room. And she hasn't come back."

  "What room?"

  "The one down the hall. There." She pointed.

  Adam ran.

  *

  He came upon the classroom and barged into it. It might not have been the safest thing to do, but he couldn't help himself. He needed to make sure that Claire was okay.

  "Claire," he said, looking around to find her. She didn't answer. But he could see her leaning up against the wall. "Claire!"

  He ran over to her and knelt down beside her. "Are you okay?"

  He shook her shoulders.

  When she looked up at him, he could see tears in her eyes. Luckily, that was all. There were no wounds. No blood. He took her in his arms and hugged her.

  "Claire," he said. "It's all right. Everything's okay."

  "No," she said. "It's not."

  "Itis. We've scared them. It'll give us some time. Make them think twice."

  "But we didn't kill them. We didn't kill…him."

  Adam didn't know who Claire was talking about. "You mean the guy we saw yesterday at the playground?"

  "No, not him."

  "Then who?"

  More tears came to her eyes. "Big Mike," she said. "I saw him out there. And we didn't kill him!"

  Adam couldn't find anything to say to that. He had heard of Big Mike so many times before, but had never actually thought that he was going to meet him. In his imagination, he had killed him every way possible. Now Claire was saying that he was one of the men outside, and he had missed his chance.

  "It's okay," he finally uttered. "We can figure it out after. Let's go back to the library and talk about what we're going to do."

  Claire's eyes zeroed in on his own. "We're going to kill him," she said. "That's what we're going to do."

  "We can talk about that in the library."

  Adam stood up. Claire didn't.

  "Promise me," she said. "Promise me that we'll kill him."

  "I promise," he said.He looked forward to it.

  *

  Adam and Claire walked into the library.

  "Is everything all right?" Shelly asked.

  "It's fine," Adam said. He was going to say more, then realized that it might frighten Shelly. She had been in that cage with Claire. She knew who Big Mike was. She knew what those guys outside wanted. And what they'd do to get it.

  "I saw Big Mike," Claire said. Adam turned to look at her. Her voice was calm. Almost robotic.

  Shelly turned to her. "Outside?"

  "Yes."

  "Was Sam with him?"

  Claire shook her head. "I didn't see him. I don't think so."

  Shelly looked relieved, but also a bit upset. As though she wished he had been there so she could kill him.

  That thought danced on the edge of Adam’s thoughts before Scooter interrupted it.

  "What are we going to do?" the young man asked.

  Adam turned to him. "I think that we should wait.”

  "I think that we should kill them," Claire disagreed. "We shouldn't wait. Let's do it now while they're on the run."

  The others were in agreement.

  "But we'll have to go out there," Adam pointed out. "It'll be dangerous. In here, we're protected. In here, we can hide."

  "But I don't want to hide anymore," Claire declared. "I'm sick of it. I want to get out there!"

  If Adam was being honest with himself, he wanted to as well.Go out and kill them all! But they needed to think this through.

  "We can't be stupid," he said. "We have to think about it."

  Claire looked like she was going to argue about it, but didn't. "Then what can we do?" she asked.

  *

  They talked for a while. No one knew the best way to go about attacking the men outside. They weren't even sure that the men were still out there. Adam walked over to the window to check. He couldn't see anyone.

  "They might have gone," he said.

  "Or they might be hiding," Scooter said.

  Claire pointed to the hallway. "Or coming into the school." That thought was frightening. It would be much harder for them to fight off the men if they werein the school. "We should check.”

  Though he didn't feel too comfortable about it, Adam admitted that it was a good idea. "We can split up in to groups," he said. "Then we could..."

  "Hey!" a voice came from outside. "You fuckers still in there? When are you coming out? We're not going to be able to keep our old deal, though. You shot at us. So the best we can promise is to kill you quickly. Then we'll take your women. How about it?"

  This was followed by laughter.

  Adam walked back over to the window. He peered out of it, but couldn't see anyone.

  "Fuck you!" Scooter yelled.

  Once more, laughter came from outside.

  Adam turned to Scooter. "That's not helping. I know that you're mad. I'm mad too. But it doesn't do anything to shout at them. We need to think about how to kill them. Nothing else!"

  Scooter's face reddened.

  "Look," Adam continued. "I know you're worked up. We all are. But we need to…"

  "What do you say?" the man outside cut him off. "You gonna come out peacefully?"

  "Why would we do that?" Adam asked. "You can't get us from out there. You've already tried. It won't work."

  "Then we'll come in!"

  "If you were going to do that, you would have already."

  There was no response. Adam knew that he was right.

  "All right…we'll just wait out here," the man replied. He didn't sound as sure as he had, but his words made sense. If they waited, then Adam and his group wouldn't be able to get any more food. It might take a week or so for that to happen. But it would happen eventually.

  Adam opened his mouth to reply. He wasn't sure what he was going to say. In the end, he didn't have to.

  He heard a scream. It wasthem. The creatures were coming.

  Chapter 4

  Adam turned away from the window and looked at those around him. "Thosethings must've heard the gunshots," he said.

  "At least they'll get rid of those guys out there," Scooter said.

  Charles shook his head slowly. "But when they're finished, they're going to come after us.”

  Scooter turned to the old man. He knew that Charles was right. Theall did. And they had to think of what to do about it.

  "Maybe we could just keep quiet," Julie suggested, holding Emily in her arms. The little girl had gone back to burying her face in the woman’s neck, as she had done so many times before. "They might just go after the men and never know that we're here."

  "But if theydo find out we're here?" Claire asked. "What then?"

  A few answers were tossed around before Adam raised his hands to quiet everyone.There were too many people talking. Too many opinions.

  "Julie's right," he said. "We should try to hide…and hope for the best."

  They hurried over to grab what was left of the ammo, then found cover. Some crouched down low against the racks of books. Others hid behind some knocked over tabl
es.

  Adam had his gun in his hand. Well, nothisgun. He thought of the shotgun ashis. But he had given that to Claire and he hadn't asked for it back. Since the shotgun was better at close quarters, he wanted her to have it.

  The rifle was good enough.

  When everyone was in position, Adam turned to Shelly and Claire.He'd never let anything happen to them, he told himself.

  They waited. And waited.

  The screaming got closer.

  *

  Scooter glanced at his axe on the far wall. He felt stronger with that then the gun he was holding, but the creatures were coming; he didn't want to risk being seen. He turned his eyes away from the axe to tried to look out the window.

  While he could hear the screaming, he couldn't see any of the creatures.

  It wouldn't be long, he knew.It wouldn't be long at all.

  *

  The screaming got louder and louder. As did the footsteps.

  It sounded like there were a lot of them out there.

  *

  A few creatures passed by, their arms flailing, their screams continuing.

  Adam tore his eyes away from the window and caught Claire's attention.It didn't look as though the creatures knew where they was hiding. He nodded his head to tell her that he thought that everything was going to be all right, that they were going to be safe.

  But it was then that one of the creatures stopped and looked through the window. A young man. Dirt and blood upon its face. Its breathing was ragged. It growled and shouted in what sounded like a bark.

  As the creature grabbed at the window, Adam was certain that it was going to try to come through.

  It didn't.

  Instead, its head shifted from left to right as it sniffed the air. Its eyes scanned the library. It mumbled a few things in between the other noises it made.

  Adam put his finger on his gun's trigger and steadied himself. He didn't want to make too much movement in case the creature saw him. But he needed to get ready in case it attacked.