by A. M. Keen
Stank did the same to Lacey and Miss Greene, who both still sobbed.
“On the count of three I want you to open your hands. Ready? One… two… three.”
Bucky peered into his blood drenched hand. A crimson mass sat there. He cried even more. It was Mr Peterson’s eye. The girls continued their crying. Miss Greene had an eye. Lacey had his tongue.
“Rules of this game are simple. One at a time you eat what you have. That is all.”
“What?” Lacey shrieked.
“Starting with you, miss. Eat it and you go free. If you choose not to, you join your teacher on that pile over there when we’re finished.”
Lacey grimaced. Bucky watched as she lifted it upwards. As if accepting her fate, she turned her palm down and dropped the tongue to the floor. “I can’t. I cannot do it.”
The clown lunged at her.
“No!” Lawro leapt out, grabbing the arm that carried the knife. From his sleeve fell the hammer he’d hidden, right into his palm. A smash to the skull had sent the clown reeling. Lawro turned behind the clown’s body, dragged him back and reached down to the fallen knife. He took the handle and lifted the blade to Stank’s throat.
“Let them go,” he ordered, pushing the blade against his captive’s skin. The three clowns stood motionless. He jabbed the blade into the skin again. “Tell them.”
“Step away,” Stank ordered. The clowns backed down.
“Further away. Tell them to leave.”
“They’ll kill you for this.”
“Maybe, but not before I take you with me. One last time.” Lawro jabbed the blade into the clown’s neck. Stank growled as the blade pierced into his skin.
“Alright! Alright! Go! All three of you!” The clowns looked to each other. “I said go! He’s going to kill me unless you all leave! Go back! Now!”
The clowns rescinded, backing away before turning and walking the way they had arrived. They turned to look back, but continued walking. Lawro kept the blade inside Stank’s neck the whole time. Soon they had vanished, leaving the once strong lunatic all on his own.
“What are you going to do?”
“Shut up!” Lawro yelled, silencing Miss Greene with immediate effect. “Now, tell me,” he growled, turning his attention to Stank, “how far are we from the football stadium?”
“The football stadium?” the clown sighed.
Lawro jammed the knife further into his neck. “Don’t mess with me. I won’t ask you again.”
“Seven miles. About seven miles. Ten at most. Follow the dual carriageway, it’s signposted.”
Lawro turned his attention back to the school team. Bucky noticed Lawro’s aura change. He somehow appeared more chaotic, crazier, even. Had he been pushed over the edge?
“All of you, back in the van. Miss Greene, you drive.”
“Wait, wait,” the clown blurted, “you can’t leave in your van.”
“Why the hell not?” Lawro asked, still embracing the lunatic.
“Your tires. We slashed them.”
Bucky closed his eyes. They were done for. There’s no way they’d make it ten miles with a population of crazies haunting the area. He looked to Lawro. His fellow pupil and cricket assistant had turned into something far worse than a zombie. He grimaced.
“Asshole!” he yelled before plunging the knife fully into the clown’s neck. Stank cried out, piercing the silence with a scream. The knife repeatedly plunged into his body. The sound of slicing flesh engulfed the silent area. Again and again the blade entered the clown’s body. Stank lurched to the floor and yet still Lawro continued. The knife plunged into his abdomen and dragged down toward his pelvis, again and again. Lawro’s anger finally vented, he stood upright, kicking the lifeless corpse of the clown to the side. The clown’s digestive system slumped onto the tarmac.
“Oh, God,” Aaron blurted. Johnny hacked then vomited onto the road.
“What? What the hell is wrong with you?” Lawro shouted. His face contained the erratic splatter of blood. “He’d have done the same thing to us!”
“I know. I know,” Miss Greene began, reaching out to him. “Give me the knife, Peter. You did what you needed to do. It’s done now. Come on.” Lawro looked to the knife in his hand, then back to his teacher. “Come on. We need to find somewhere to stop for the night, now. Look, the daylight is fading.”
The moment had been so intense that Bucky hadn’t even acknowledged the change in lighting.
“Yeah, and I guess we’re not going to be on our own for too long,” Aaron added. He was right. Bucky knew that in situations like this, in the movies anyway, the area would soon be crawling with infected.
“Peter, let’s go,” Miss Greene ordered. He reached out and offered the knife. She took it, placed it in her tracksuit pocket and used her leg to wipe the blood from her hand. “Are you okay?”
Lawro nodded. “Yeah. I did what I had to do.”
“You did. Now come on. All of you. We need to get going.”
“Where to?” Lacey asked.
“Anywhere. Right now, I think it’s important we just keep moving. Come on. This way.”
Miss Greene headed the kids as they walked past the van. Bucky paused a moment.
“What?” Johnny said, noticing he’d stopped.
“I’ll just be a moment.”
He wandered across to the brutalised clown, noticing that the sword hilt still lay intact. Holding his breath, Bucky pulled the leather strap down the body, through the innards and past the legs which had fallen together. He removed the leather sheath, and even though bloody, threw it over his shoulder, marking his cricket jumper. He then jogged across to the sword and placed it inside the hilt with a swift move, first time. Its handle jutted out just above his right shoulder.
Johnny looked to him. “What are you going to do with that?”
“Protect myself,” he replied.
“Think you can take on a crowd of crazies?”
Bucky shook his head. “It’s not the crazies I’m worried about.”
Two
Miss Greene led them across country where human contact would be minimal. They’d bumped into a few infected and managed to dispatch of them with ease. Bucky had taken a few down, much to the dismay of Lawro, who at one point demanded Bucky release the sword to him but, ever cautious, Bucky declined. Lawro had been pissed off, threatening this and threatening that, but the look his teacher flashed at him during these episodes told him his decision had been the correct one.
“Over there. What’s that?” Johnny stated, pointing to a large barn of some kind in the middle of a field. The light had dwindled even more during their journey, and now stars twinkled in the dying blue sky.
“That has to be our place,” Bucky said. “We can’t stay out here any longer.”
“Agreed. Let’s go and see,” Miss Greene added.
“What if it’s occupied and they say no?” Lawro asked. “What then?”
Miss Greene shrugged her shoulders. “Let’s jump that bridge when we get to it.”
The kids followed her through a field full of vibrant coloured rape yellow. The warm breeze felt pleasant against Bucky’s skin. If the world hadn’t gone to hell, this would have been one of those perfect summer evenings, the ones on a Friday night after school where you walked the dog through the fields behind your house not caring a shit about anything because school was out for two days.
“Be careful in case anyone is around,” Miss Greene ordered as they approached the structure. Its bottom half had been constructed of breeze blocks, above them wooden slats ran vertical towards its roof.
“We must be on some kind of farm,” Johnny guessed.
“How long did it take you to figure that out, genius?” Lawro quipped.
Bucky noticed Johnny about to offer
some kind of witty comeback and shook his head. His friend took note and didn’t reply.
They wandered around the side to the barn door. Miss Greene pushed it open as they stood there peering into the poor light.
“Alright. Everyone in,” she ordered after a moment. “Jacob, check the place out. Aaron, here.” She handed Aaron the knife. “Go with him.”
“Wait, hold on just a god damn minute. Two thirteen-year-old kids get weapons, but someone in his last year of sixth form doesn’t get anything? After I saved your asses?”
“Not now,” Miss Greene said, shaking her head. “Let’s make sure it’s safe, then we can discuss this.”
Lawro snorted and stormed inside. To say Bucky wasn’t afraid would be a lie. He followed the sword’s tip inside the barn. The structure itself appeared like a barn and workshop hybrid. A rusty old tractor sat neglected in the first half of the structure. Past it existed a workshop full of tools and appliances. Lawro would have no problem finding a weapon here if he wanted one. Above the workshop, another floor could be reached by a ladder running up to its level on the left hand side. Bucky couldn’t see what was up there, though, as it was hidden by more wooden walls and partitions.
“Empty down here,” he said, checking the last nook of the barn. Lawro ascended the ladder, unarmed. If anyone was hiding up there, he’d be an easy target. After a moment or so of rumbling and banging, he emerged from the ladder and began his descent.
“Nothing up here, just storage. Suitcases, chairs, that kind of thing.”
“Okay, let’s barricade the door,” their teacher ordered. Funny, Bucky thought to himself as Miss Greene barked out her orders. She was never this confident, not even in school.
Lawro grabbed a bike chain that rested on a pushbike next to the ladder. The key still sat in the lock. He made his way across to the barn door, threaded it through the metal handles as tight as he could make it before engaging the lock.
“Will that hold?” Miss Greene asked.
“It’ll do for now.”
“This is it, then,” Johnny said, peering around at their surroundings. “Home for the night.”
“It could be worse,” Aaron replied.
But the night would get worse. Much worse.
Bucky’s doubts would be justified.
Three
Distant thunder rumbled across the vast open countryside. In the last of the daylight, Bucky studied the open fields for any sign of movement. Their encounters with the infected had been minimal since their incident with the clowns.
He shuffled on the small wooden stool he’d found on the barn’s upper level and peered out of a simple glass window that looked out across the openness. In a day, he’d turned from average geek to sword wielding badass. The people he’d killed sat uncomfortably with him, but the justification became apparent the more he thought about the new world they found themselves in. It was kill or be killed. Allies were going to be tough to find. All he could do was hope they’d make it to the safe zone at the football stadium. At least he’d be able to think things through in a safe environment and decide what they should do next.
Aaron ascended the ladder and sat on the floor next to him.
“Anything?” he asked.
Bucky shook his head. “Not much. We have a whole bunch of black clouds approaching us, but nothing else.”
They sat in silence for awhile as Bucky peered into the openness.
“You got family back home?” Aaron enquired.
Bucky looked down from the window a moment. “Yes,” he replied, remembering them all.
“Who you got?”
Bucky hesitated a moment. “There’s my mum, my dad and my dog.”
“No brothers or sisters?” Aaron enquired.
“No. I have a few cousins down in Bournemouth, and an aunty and uncle, but that’s it.”
“You’re an only child? I never knew.”
Bucky turned to him. “Why would you? You’re in the year above me.” Aaron shrugged. Bucky turned his gaze back through the window. “How about you? Do you have any family to get back to?”
“Yeah, Mum, Dad and a brother at university. God, I can hear my parents now, fretting over him, trying to get in contact and make sure he’s okay.”
“I’m sure they’d be worried about you, too.”
Aaron shook his head. “Nope. Well, I don’t think so, anyway. Not as much as him, at least. He’s always been an achiever. Me? I’m the lost cause. I remember going to a party once and my dad introduced us to a load of people. When he came to introduce me, he told them my name and they all replied with, ‘this is him? Well, don’t worry, every family has one.’”
“Harsh.” Lightning crackled across the sky. Thunder rumbled in the distance a moment or so afterward. “You’re quite popular at school, though,” Bucky added. He wanted to avoid the melancholy direction the conversation was heading in.
“Yes, I seem to have the gift with other kids,” Aaron replied.
“Maybe. I always thought you were a dick, though.”
Aaron smiled. “Really?”
“Yup. Remember the time you triggered the fire alarm at school during winter and we all got evacuated to the tennis courts without our coats on?”
Aaron chuckled. “How did you know that was me?”
“It’s school. Word gets around. You’re something of a legend at Berrington Heights.”
“It’s because I don’t care. Everyone loves that I just do shit and accept the consequences. I’m gonna fail school. I know it. My parents know it, so what the hell? It’s about having fun while I’m there. My brother can carry our family’s good name. And you know what? I don’t even care if they’re all dead. They’ve done nothing for me. Every time I asked for help they turned a blind eye. Every time I tried to do something and just needed that little push they turned away from me. I hope they’re all dead, and that right now they’re rotting in hell.”
“They must have encouraged you somehow? I mean, look, you’re all kitted out in cricket whites. You always brought your own bat, helmet, gloves and shin guards to practice and for our matches. None of that came cheap, you know?”
“You’re right. I know it all cost a fortune, but the more cricket practices I take and the more matches I play, the less time I spend at home. There’s method to the madness. Ka ching.”
Bucky turned to his troubled teammate. “Are you okay?”
Aaron smiled. “Yes, peachy. I just thought I’d come up to see how you were doing, but now I’m gonna go back down and see if I can catch a bit of sleep. See ya.”
Aaron descended the ladder. Bucky watched as he walked across the floor and sat on an old chair. There was trouble in him for sure, but not as much as in Lawro. That guy was a time bomb waiting to explode. Bucky turned back to the window and recalled the incident with the clown. Lawro had brutalised him, hacking him it seemed in a psychotic rage. Lawro made him uneasy. Miss Greene could only keep him tethered for so long.
Lightning flickered across the darkened sky. Bucky leant closer to the window.
“Guys,” he said, speaking across his shoulder.
“What?” Lawro replied.
“I just saw three crazies in the field out there.”
“Where?” Lawro asked, ascending the ladder.
“Just there,” Bucky pointed, waiting a moment until Lawro could see.
“Shit. Alright. Keep a low profile.” Lawro descended to the barn floor and rushed across to the lamp that illuminated part of the darkness. “Need to turn this off,” he said, pressing a button on its base and killing the batteries. The rest of their group had been sat huddled within its glow.
“Is it just three?” Miss Greene asked.
“I don’t know, I didn’t see them, but it’s best to play it safe. Don’t raise your voices
,” he whispered.
Thunder rattled across the distant sky, closing in as it rumbled and quaked the wooden slats beneath Bucky’s feet.
Bucky watched as Lawro engaged in a conversation with Miss Greene. Being so far away he had no idea what they were saying, only that Lawro clasped a hammer in his hand. After a moment, they both peered up to him with Lawro gesturing she should go first. Miss Greene ascended the ladder as another flash of light flickered through the clouds. A few more crazies appeared in the field, but no more than a handful.
“We got a few more out there,” Bucky informed them both as they joined him on the upper floor.
“Just keep an eye out,” Lawro began, turning to the storage room door across the way. “We’re going to see if there’s anything in here we can use to barricade the entrance.”
Bucky’s last conscious thought was of the darkness outside.
* * *
“…hear me? Bucky?”
Bucky roused to a thunderous pain across the side of his head and temple.
“Jesus, man! What the hell? What happened?”
“Keep it down,” Aaron whispered from somewhere close beside him.
Bucky regained his senses. The awareness of his surroundings emerged. He sat against a tyre of the redundant tractor’s wheel. Both hands had been pulled behind his back. The burning sensation around his wrists indicated they had been bound.
“What’s going on?” Bucky asked again, shifting his gaze to the right where Aaron sat, also bound to a tyre. They had both been tied with rope that ran between gaps in the tractor’s wheel.
“That bastard Lawro. He’s got Miss Greene up there in that storage room now,” Aaron replied, flicking his eyebrows towards the upper level.
“What!”
“Keep it down!” Aaron snapped once more, before gesturing toward the barn door behind them. “That ain’t the worst of it, either.”
“The door ain’t gonna hold much longer,” Johnny’s disembodied voice came from the shadows.