by Shawn Kass
So relieved are you by their success, that you fail to notice the individual who has just entered the office behind you. You continue to flip back and forth between the first floor and the second watching for any potential problems with either group, not realizing that your new company is inching his way up closer with each passing second.
At the point when the numbers have flipped, and there are only five students left on the first floor while all the others are either in the stairwell or already on the second floor, you notice a door begin to open in the bottom of the screen. You wait for just a second to see if it is a zombie or something else, like maybe that teacher left the window open and the door just blew open, but the girl, Madi, sees it too and reacts. Turning to face the oncoming threat, she takes five giant strides towards the door and thrusts the flagpole she’s been carrying forward. As the zombie drops to the ground, you see that she scored a perfect shot having shoved the pole into its eye. You almost cheer for her before you remind yourself that there are zombies all around the school, and the last thing you want to do right now is call attention to yourself. Instead, you make a mental note to get to know her better in the future because having one more friend who’s totally fierce and capable of kicking zombie butt can always come in handy.
That’s when it happens. That’s when the worst thing that you can think of at that moment occurs. You watch as Madi bends down to retrieve her weapon, the flagpole stuck in the eye socket of the dead zombie. When she pulls on it, it doesn’t come loose. Instead, the head just lifts off the ground a few inches and bounces back hard when she drops it. She looks left and right once more, making sure nothing is sneaking up on her from behind, and you notice she’s the only one left down there. The rest of the students have gone into the stairwell. That’s when she braces her foot against the zombie’s head and yanks on the pole. Somewhere in that move her foot slips, and just before the pole is dislodged, the thing’s head lifts off the ground once more allowing its dead, virus-infected teeth to scrape against her bare shin. You see her wince in pain and grab at the spot, but you can’t tell how bad it is yet, not until she pulls her hand away from the wound and you see blood.
No matter what, in every zombie movie, book, and TV show you have ever seen, no matter how small the cut, the scrape, the gash or whatever, if it was caused by a zombie’s mouth, the person eventually changes. The only ones that don’t become one of the mass of walking dead are the ones who die before the disease fully takes them over. Unfortunately, it looks like she might know this, too, because you watch her reach into her pocket and pull out a tissue. Placing it over the wound, she hikes up her sock to keep it in place, and then pulls up the other sock as well just to no one notices, before she begins to head back to the stairs to rejoin the group.
Put into the difficult position that you are, you decide that you have to warn Mr. Castle. You don’t want him to get everyone to someplace safe only to find out afterwards that she’s infected and chewing on the person next to her. Turning, you move to head for the microphone, only to run into the reanimated corpse of Mr. Beard. His stocky solid barrel chest blocks your path, and the desperately hungry look in his eyes is just enough to make you pause a second too long. That’s when he strikes, teeth tearing into your neck and shoulder, and you go down under the weight of his assault hitting your head on the floor.
* * * When you wake up, you have no idea how much time has gone by, and you have difficulty remembering what happened. You know that there were people you were watching. People on the TV. People who were looking for someplace to go, but where they were going and who they were completely escapes you. From somewhere outside, you think you hear the sound of a helicopter, but you can’t be sure because everything sounds like it’s being filtered down, kind of like when you submerge your head in the bathtub under the water. That’s when you see Mr. Castle rush into the office. He takes one look at you and then steps over to the PA system’s console and flips the switch to ‘off’.
Looking down at you, he says, “I’m sorry. I thought you’d be safe here until I could get to you, but I knew when you screamed, they must have gotten to you. We all heard you go down, and worse was the sound of the zombie chewing on you. I wish I could have gotten to you sooner, but a promise is a promise. Remember, I came back for you.”
To your ears however, none of his words make sense. You know that he is trying to talk to you, but it’s like that part of your hearing is just gone, and as you try to communicate back to him, your voice is gone. All you are able to do is make a low moaning sound. Confused, you reach out to him, and that’s when you see your own hand, covered in your own dark congealing blood, and the hunger pains in your abdomen start.
Willing to be that guy, the one who survives and does the unthinkable when the need arises, Mr. Castle lifts the baseball bat you hadn’t noticed him carrying and swings.
The End
Continue Checking Channels
Deciding that it is better to be safe than sorry, you continue checking the cameras around the school to make sure that no other zombies are going to attack Mr. Castle or the other students. That’s when you see a horrific scene play out. Up on the second floor, at the other end of the hall from where Mr. Castle and his group are about to go up, a zombie stumbles his way into the small school chapel where Father Michael sits with his rosary in one hand and a Bible in the other.
Lifting his head, Father Michael notices the ashen gray face of the student who has just staggered in, and he shakes his head in sadness at the poor lost soul before him. Extending his right hand, allowing the rosary to hang in front of him, Father Michael begins to pray, “God, whose nature is ever merciful and forgiving, accept our prayer that this servant of yours, bound by the fetters of sin, may be pardoned by your loving kindness.” Making the sign of the cross, his rosary swings in its own rhythmic and hypnotic way, he continues, “I hereby command the demon within to depart this child, then, impious one, depart, accursed one, depart with all your deceits, for God has willed that man should be His temple.”
Unfortunately, the one thing Father Michael clearly doesn’t know is that zombies aren’t the work of the devil, at least not in any spiritual means. They are reanimated corpses, controlled by a virus and or parasites of one kind or another, and no prayer or exorcism known on earth or in heaven can cure them. Unable to do anything to help, you watch as the zombie lunges forward and bites the priest’s outstretched hand.
Turning away from the TV, you begin to head back towards the microphone but stop as you see a zombie enter the office door. It’s the reanimated corpse of Mr. Beard, your English teacher from your freshman year. Unwilling to give it a chance to attack, you grab for the biggest, heaviest thing you can find, the paper cutter. The paper cutter is one of the old solid kinds made some time back in the fifties with a large flat tabletop attached to a bladed arm. Typically, teachers just lift the arm, slide whatever paper they have beneath it, and then push the arm down to cut it. Towards the end of the school year, however, after dozens of impatient teachers have tried cutting twenty and thirty sheets at once, the blade tends to get a bit dull. That’s why this one has a convenient pin that the maintenance man can pull to detach the arm and take it to be sharpened. When you try to lift the heavy device, table and all, you realize that you’ll never be able to swing it accurately. That’s when you notice the pin.
With only a second to spare, you rip the pin from its holding and twist, bringing the bladed handle up over your head like a lumberjack and split the zombified Mr. Beard’s skull in two. The black blood and decaying brain matter splatter everywhere, and you can’t help but get hit by some as well. The good news is that while some of it did get on your face and clothes, your mouth was closed at the time.
You take a moment to wipe away some of the excess gore and then walk over to the microphone and say, “Mr. Castle, you should be good to go, but be careful. I just had an unwelcome visitor myself.”
Looking back to the TV, you see the carn
age left over in the school chapel and the zombie in the corner of the room on all fours dipping his head into something you would rather not think about. You quickly step over and change the channel back to the group you said you’d help. Mr. Castle pokes his head out of the second floor stairwell carefully and slowly, slicing the pie as a trained military person would. When the coast is clear, he zips across the hall to take up a point within the recess of the wall and then begins to wave students towards him and directs them to take up positions nearby.
Flipping back to the first floor, you watch as the number of students remaining diminishes. Things are looking up, and you are beginning to believe that you might just make it out of there alive. That’s when you see the door to one of the classrooms begin to open. At first you hold out hope that the teacher in there might have just left a window open and a breeze caused it to move, but then you see the gray flesh and poor gross motor functions of the person/thing coming out. If the screen were a little blurry, you might be able to fool yourself into thinking Bartnicki, one of the school’s tennis players, was just having a bad hair day after waking up late, but on this screen, there is no denying the fact that he’s infected, and he intends to take a bite out of the group’s last member.
Reaching for the microphone, you press the button and call out, “Tanner, behind you!”
On the screen, Nick Tanner commits his last mistake as he looks up to the speakers in the ceiling before he turns around to defend himself. When he does finally spin around, it’s too late for him to run, and you notice he’s one of the few who didn’t find anything useful to use as a weapon. Without any other option, Tanner slugs the zombie with a hard right, and you can just make out teeth as they go flying before the zombie falls. That’s when two more come out of the same classroom moving faster than Bartnicki did. As Tanner prepares himself for what maybe his last stand, the zombies close in, and a second later they slam into him. Tanner struggles with the two of them, and you watch as they gouge their fingernails into his skin, and their teeth rake into his exposed forearms.
Squirming on the bottom of the pile, Tanner tries to find leverage to kick them off, but that’s when the first one, Bartnicki, bites into his calf with the few teeth he has remaining, and Tanner yells, “No! Not like this!” The brain dead zombies, however, don’t care about his words and show no sign of stopping as they continue feasting on his arms and legs even despite his thrashing about. They’re all too busy enjoying their fresh meal.
From the stairwell door, Mr. Castle and two other students come bounding out, each one with a weapon raised, and in a matter of two seconds, the three zombies that were on poor Tanner are all lying on the floor with their heads caved in. Mr. Castle looks Tanner over, and you know he sees what you do. The zombies got him, and he’s going to turn.
Talking to the other two students, Mr. Castle says something in a low whisper you can’t make out, but it seems like the other students agree as they both nod before heading back to the stairs to stand ready. Next, Mr. Castle lifts up Tanner and takes him into the closest room, out of view of the cameras. He only stays in there for just under a minute, but when he comes out, he comes out alone and closes the door behind him, letting his hand rest against the frame for an extra few seconds before he returns to the stairs.
Flipping the channel, you watch as Mr. Castle and the other two students walk out of the stairwell, and with the coast clear, they all proceed quickly towards the closet he mentioned. It doesn’t take long, and once he’s there, he pulls on the Marvel lanyard hanging from his back pocket and uses his school keys to unlock the door.
You flip through a couple nearby channels, but you don’t see any more zombies, and you can’t find an angle that lets you see into the closet. The only thing you do notice is that after a minute or so, there is more light coming out than a light bulb would be able to produce, and everyone is somehow able to file into the tiny room. Clearly, they were able to open the roof access and climbed up, otherwise, they would never have all fit in there.
Once everyone is in, Mr. Castle pokes his head back out, makes sure the coast is clear, and then closes the door before he begins to run back down the hall carrying what looks like a broomstick. You try to track him as makes his way back to the stairs and then turns and heads up towards the office where you are, but the channels on the TV aren’t all in a row like that, and you find that he is just slipping out of view on some screens by the time you get there.
When he arrives, he looks at the floor where the dead zombie lies and then up to you, and asks, “You ready to get out of here?”
If you demand to know about Tanner, turn to page … 143 If you say you’re ready, turn to page ………………………… 145
Demand to Know What Happened to Tanner
“Almost,” you begin. “But I want you to tell me what you did to Tanner back there.”
Shaking his head, Mr. Castle says, “No, you don’t.”
Folding your arms in front of you defiantly, you say, “If you want me to come with you, you have to tell me what you did.”
Looking at you now, you see some anger in his eyes, as he says, “Look, kid. I came back for you because I promised you I would in exchange for you helping me get everyone to safety. If you don’t want to come with me, then that’s up to you. I upheld my end of the bargain.”
Latching on to that one phrase, you respond with your own anger saying, “That’s right. You were supposed to get everyone to safety, and you didn’t. So tell me what you did to Tanner.”
Raising his hands, Mr. Castle says, ‘WHAT DO YOU WANT TO HEAR? You obviously know that I don’t have the cure to this infection, so what it really comes down to is two options. Either I took him in there and left him locked up to change into one of those things out there, or I did what I had to do to ensure that he wouldn’t change. Is either of those answers something you really want to know the details on?”
Your breath catches in your throat for a second before you can respond, and you realize that he’s right. You don’t really want the answer. The man did what needed to be done at the time, just like he probably did back when he was in the military. For years, kids had asked him what his job was, and if he had ever killed anyone, and no matter what, the only answer he ever gave was, “I did my job.” Now, in this time, in this war against death, this struggle against the apocalypse, you realize you don’t need to know how. What you need is someone who is willing to do just that, get the job done.
Looking down, you shake your head and say, “No.”
Letting the anger out of his voice, Mr. Castle says, “I’m sorry if he was a friend of yours.”
“It’s not that. I didn’t even know him that well. It’s just that he was, I don’t know, a good guy, and he didn’t deserve that to happen to him. I mean, one minute he’s there and the next, they were on him.”
Nodding, Mr. Castle says, “Sometimes it’s like that, but the ones who make it are the ones who are willing to go on.” Then after a beat, he asks, “Are you ready?”
When you’re ready to go, turn the page.
Tell Him You’re Ready
Answering him, you say “Just one second, Mr. Castle,” and then turn back to the TV and flip through a half dozen channels to make sure the coast is clear. Seeing nothing on the screens, you say, “Okay, I think we’re clear.”
“Great, follow me, keep up, and if we find a zombie, don’t be a hero.”
Doing as you’re told, you follow Mr. Castle out of the office and up the hall. When he reaches the stairs, you are right on his heels, and the two of you ascend together. When you get to the top, Mr. Castle scopes out the hallway just like he did before and then turns back to you to say something. He pauses for just a second as he looks at you, and you feel like you must have something on your face like you did that one time right after lunch. Whatever it is, he seems to dismiss it and says in a low whisper, “I think someone or something is in the art room across the hall. If they’re alive and not injured, we’
ll bring them with us. If not, we’ll try to avoid them.”
Nodding once, you watch as he slips across the hall, and then when he gives you the all clear, you follow him to the door which stands ajar. As Mr. Castle eases the door open, you catch a glimpse of Mr. Mike, the new art teacher with the ponytail, standing at an easel in the front of the room. Cautiously, Mr. Castle steps in, still remaining in a crouch, and tries to assess the situation. From over his shoulder, you do the same, but aside from Mr. Mike, you don’t see anyone, and Mr. Mike has his back towards you so you can’t tell if he is infected or not.
Mr. Castle gives you two hand gestures which you recognize. You are to go around to the right while he goes around to the left. If Mr. Mike does turn out to be a zombie, then with its focus split between two directions, it should be slower to decide on a target and react. Understanding, you silently nod, and then begin heading to the right.
As you come around the side of the room, you begin to see what Mr. Mike is doing. Using blood red, and a dark black, it appears as if he is painting something. It takes you several more steps before you notice that he’s not using a brush, and that his finger painting project now just appears to be a series of streaks from where he has been pawing at the canvas. Even on his worse day, he would never consider this to be art, and as you come even, your suspicions are confirmed. Mr. Mike is one of them.
Across the room from you, Mr. Castle gets into position, and it’s obvious from the look on his face that he’s seen the same things you have. Still using hand gestures, Mr. Castle tries to tell you to back away slowly and head back for the door. Clearly, he doesn’t want to get into another fight with an infected person if he came avoid it, but just as you turn to leave, your hip bumps into a desk causing a loud scraping noise.