“Don’t die.”
“Good tip.”
Warren ran and blew the air horn drawing the zombies’ attention while yelling. The zombies growled and ran after Warren as he zipped through all the turns. After he’d gotten past the propane tanks, we shot them and the gas was coming out. Ashley threw an incendiary grenade igniting the gas. Zombies bunched up against the fence while the others in the tent were burning. We ran through the parking lot to the front doors, but a group of zombies burst through a fence gate toward us. We were all firing our rifles at them as we headed for the front doors.
“Get those doors open!” Ashley yelled.
I tried opening them, but they were locked.
“It’s locked,” I said.
“What?!” Sarah asked.
“It’s fucking locked!”
“What do we do?!” Shaun asked, while firing.
We were all firing our rifles full auto at the zombies as they were charging. I was shooting at every zombie coming at us and frantically reloading my rifle. Our backs were against the doors and I was scanning everywhere for a way out.
I started, “Hey! To our right, we can run behind the hedges to that—"
Then, all of a sudden, the doors opened and we fell in.
“What the hell? Who opened the door?” I asked.
Then I saw the backs of three people as they barricaded the doors before turning around with their weapons ready – it was our people! Michael, McKenzie, and Kate! Kate was standing in the middle with her long brush axe that was almost like a spear and the boys standing on both her right and left – Michael had a machete and McKenzie had a bat.
“Ellen? What the—?! You guys?! What are you idiots doing here?!” Kate demanded.
“Kate! You’re alive!” I said with a smile.
“Uh, duh! Of course, I am!”
The barricades were moving as the zombies were ramming against the doors. Their aggression and hunger could be seen even through the windows. They were like mad dogs that wanted to feed on their hunt.
“But maybe not for long. That’s not gonna hold. Come on!” Kate said grabbing my arm and leading us to the second-floor balcony.
There were ropes tied to the rails. The ropes led to big, heavy-looking bags that looked to be stuffed with bricks.
“Get into position, boys!” Kate ordered.
Michael, McKenzie, and Peter ran to the balcony on the other side of the room with their knives out ready to cut the rope. We looked over and saw the floor had duct tape ‘X’ marks at various different areas at the bottom floor directly under the bags – they were traps. The zombies broke through the doors and started walking through the barricades and the old metal detectors.
“Waaaait . . . waaaait,” Kate said.
The zombies got closer and closer to the stairs. It didn’t take long for the zombies to cover all the ‘X’ marks.
“Now!” Kate ordered, while cutting her rope.
The others did the same and the bags fell. When they did, we saw the bags were filled with everything hard and heavy, things like bricks and metal which absolutely crushed their unfortunate prey. Some of the bags had sharp spikes pointed downward to do more damage on the zombies and it did. The traps helped, but the zombies were still coming. Kate led us to the main hall on the second floor.
“Light the carts!” Kate ordered.
The boys lit some laundry carts that were dosed in paint thinner and alcohol. When they were burning, they pushed them to the stairs and they fell on the zombies. The zombies trying to go up the stairs fell down with the burning laundry on top of them – some of the other zombies fell and caught fire. However, as effective as it was, it only slowed them but didn’t stop them. They were still coming.
“This way!” Kate ordered.
We ran down the hall and took a left. Kate was keeping me close as the others followed behind.
“Hug the walls!” Kate called out.
“What?!” I asked.
Kate pressed me against the wall and I saw why she wanted me to the sides, because the middle of the floor was gone and there were long spikes on the floor below. Ashley slipped and almost fell, but Sarah caught her and pulled her up. The zombies following behind us fell into the middle of the floor and got impaled by the spikes. Some of their heads got impaled killing them, but others were still growling for only their torsos were impaled.
“Kate, did you do all this?!” I asked, running with her.
“No, the bandits did! We’re in their den,” Kate answered.
“You ran into their den?!” Ashley asked.
“We didn’t run into shit! They kidnapped our guys and we went after them! The zombies heard the gunshots and swarmed in! It’s their fault!” McKenzie stated.
We ran into a classroom and closed the door, while remaining quiet while the zombies ran past us. As soon as they ran past us, we barricaded the door with the desks and chairs.
McKenzie started, “Normally, at this time, I’d be at home—”
He and Michael grunted as they lifted a table, “—doing my homework—”
They sighed and sat down by the wall, “—playing my Nintendo DS or my PSP, eating some grapes and relaxing. Not running away from zombies and crazy fucking bandits!”
“Welcome to the real-world McKenzie . . . or as you call it, ‘The Outside World.’ Now you know what it's like to be an Outsider – like us,” Warren said.
“Oh really? I thought I knew what being an Outsider felt like when your friend Jorgen Von Strangle broke my nose back home two years ago.”
“To be fair, you had that coming for bullying those boys,” I said.
“Thanks, Ellen, you’ve always been a fantastic pillar of support.”
“My pleasure, asshole,” I said, giving him the middle finger.
Kate went to check the windows. I walked over to look with her. We both saw some bandits running for the gym.
“So, you came . . . with them. Why are they here Ellen? Where are the others?” Kate asked.
“Back at the town. As for them, I asked them to help me find you. The Pacific Army isn’t sending anyone, because they want to wait out the storm, there’s a huge storm coming in from the ocean and it’s headed towards us,” I said.
“Hmph, so much for, ‘Leave no one behind.’ If they’re here, does that mean Nate’s here too?”
“Yeah, he went looking for you guys in the fields and concert stage.”
“That’s where Phil, Hanna, and Lewis are at . . . if they’re still alive,” Michael said.
“Shut that shit up! They’re alive and hopefully her brother is helping them as we speak,” Kate stated clearly.
Then Nate called me on the radio, “Ellen, this is Nathan. We got three Black Shadows from the fields. Phil, Hanna, and Lewis. No sign of Campbell or any others. Over.”
“This is Ellen. Campbell’s with me, I found her. We’re on the second floor in the front building with Ashley and the others. Where are you? Over,” I responded.
“We’re in the gym. We just cleared it of the bandits. Over.”
“Alright, we’ll work our way to you. Over.”
“Roger, out.”
“See? Told you they’re alive,” Kate said.
McKenzie started, “So, what the hell do we do now—”
Then we heard gunshots outside. We looked out the window and saw other Black Shadows fighting bandits. It was a gunfight, but the Shadows were losing.
“Run!” a Black Shadow yelled.
Three of them tried to make a run for it, but they got shot as they ran out in the open. We could see their blood spraying out of their chests and backs in the air from here.
“Oh fuck!” McKenzie gasped.
“Shh! Quiet!” Ashley hissed.
The fourth Black Shadow got shot in both of his legs and cried out in pain as he fell. He tried shooting at the bandits from the ground, but ran out of ammo. He pulled out his sidearm as he tried to crawl away. A bandit in his late teens ran up, kicked th
e sidearm out his hand, punched the Shadow hard several times in the face, before pulling out his knife and stabbing him and tearing out his throat. He continued stabbing the dead Shadow in the chest. The bandit was big, had brown hair with hazel eyes, and a knife scar across the bridge of his nose. He was wearing military gear, a vest with ammo pouches, a M4A1 carbine hanging from his back, and a sidearm on his hip.
Another jogged up to him with some others behind him. However, the one talking to the big bandit wasn’t armed like the others. He didn’t have a gun, just a hatchet.
“Greg . . . I think you got him. Chill out,” the small bandit asked the big one.
“Chill out? Fucking chill out?! There are zombies in our place and we still haven’t killed those army brats!” Greg yelled.
“Well, maybe if you didn’t kidnap three of their own, they wouldn’t have come here—”
“Shut up, Chase!” Greg yelled.
Chase didn’t say anything.
“Now you listen to me. We do things my way and my way is how we’ve always done it. We kill them and take their shit. We’re gonna find them and kill them all!” Greg stated with an angry look.
One the armed bandits hollered, “Kill them all!”
“Fuck em up!” another bandit joined in, raising his rifle up.
“Are you sure you want to keep this up? We lost more than we killed,” Chase said,
Greg grabbed him by the throat, “That sounds like backtalk, Chase. Remember who saved your worthless ass? You still owe us. You still owe me.”
Greg threw Chase to the ground hard and kicked him in the ribs. Chase coughed several times, before slowly getting back up.
Greg turned and saw us through the window. We ducked away from the window.
“Kill those maggot pieces of shits!” Greg ordered.
They fired at us through the windows.
“Get down!” Sarah yelled.
The bullets sprayed all over the windows and the walls until finally, it stopped.
“We need to get out of here. Get that door open, we’ll cover you,” Ashley said.
“On three,” I said, as those of us with guns got into position.
“I want those fuckers dead!” Greg shouted.
“One, two . . . three!” Scarlet said before shooting.
As we’re laying down some cover fire, Kate and the others were moving all the shit out of the way so we could get out of the room. The bandits were on the other side of the courtyard behind some pillars or at least ones that we could see.
“Get that door open!” Shaun yelled.
“We’re trying!” McKenzie shouted back.
I was able to shoot one bandit in the chest a few times until he dropped dead.
“It’s open!” Michael said.
“Come on!” Kate ordered.
As we rushed to the doorway, the bandits threw some kind of plastic tube with a lit fuse on the end. At first, I just stared at it until Kate roughly pulled me out of the room before it exploded. Little bits of debris flew everywhere, even out of the doorway into the hall.
“Pay attention, Ellen! Now let’s move!” Kate said.
We ran down the hall and took a left, but then the floor collapsed and Kate, McKenzie, Michael, and I fell into a classroom below – Ashley and the others were able to stop to prevent themselves from falling.
“Are you guys okay?!” Warren called.
I started, “Nothing broken—”
Bullets flew through the window at us.
I grunted angrily while switching my rifle to full auto.
“Motherfucker!” I roared, while firing at the bandits.
Ashley threw a grenade at the bandits and that got them to scatter into the building on the other side.
“There’s no way out of this! You shit-eating maggots are gonna die! We’re gonna fucking skin you! You hear me?!” Greg yelled, from behind some cover.
“Cocky little son of bitch, isn’t he?” Ashley asked.
“Yeah, that asshole is really getting on my nerves,” Sarah said.
“You’re fucking dead!” Greg called.
“Shut the fuck up and die!” I yelled back, before throwing a grenade.
It was a good throw that killed a bandit behind cover, but not that asshole Greg. Then more zombies showed up.
Then more zombies showed up.
“Zombies!” McKenzie called.
“Go! Go! Go!” Kate ordered.
We ran and ran while Ashley and the others were shooting at both the bandits and the zombies. We ran through the courtyard and then we got close to the gym. When we did, some bandit teens tackled us from around a corner. We were all wrestling with a bandit trying to get the upper hand while grunting angrily and cursing. The bandit I was dealing with had my rifle pressed to my chest, keeping me pinned to the ground. I looked over and Kate was trying her best to keep her brush ax pressed to her bandit. I pulled out my knife and stabbed the bandit repeatedly in the side – he screamed in pain and I felt a lot of blood on my arm. I was able to flip us over so I was on top. I stabbed his chest a few times before stabbing his throat. Before I could shoot any of the other bandits, Kate kicked her bandit off and swung her brush ax into the bandit’s chest before stabbing him in the gut. Then, one bandit that was about to swing his ax at me was shot in the chest – the bullet went through his chest and blood sprayed from his chest and his back.
The other bandits were getting shot as well by Nathan and his friends. Nathan had his Marlin rifle while the others were shooting their pistols. Nate and the others shot the bandits dead. Kate and the boys were out of breath looking at them – Nate and Kate briefly exchanged looks. Then, we heard a Humvee rolling from the road with a machine gun firing at the zombies – is that the army?!
Chapter 19
Nathan/Sonny
“To be a hero, you must be prepared to know that you can save lives, but not everyone.”
– Unknown
We were running through the courtyard. The storm was on us as the rain came down in sheets. Hanna and Lewis were able to get Michael, Patch, and Jess inside the gym, but had to close the doors to prevent the zombies from getting in. It was just me, Molly, Carrie, Ellen, Danny, Helga, Kate, and McKenzie.
“There! That building!” Molly pointed.
“Get inside!” Carrie yelled.
The building had a revolving door and four big windows on both sides of the door. Carrie, Molly, and I were the first to get in and the rest followed in after, but there were zombies already waiting inside. They attacked us and we all drew swords to fight them. McKenzie entered in after Ellen, but tried to escape out the door and then immediately went back as Kate tried to get in. They were now stuck on opposite sides of the door space, trapped as both zombies outside and inside were trying to get in and kill them.
The rain was now a monsoon with thunder and lightning. The flash from the lightning lit up everything each time it struck. The flash of the lightning gave only a brief bright light to illuminate the zombies inside. The girls and I were already cutting heads off and splitting skulls with our Chisa Katanas. Ellen was amazed, because her Wakizashi was cutting through the zombie’s heads like butter. She swung at a zombie’s skull right at its ear and it went through cutting its head in half. We dealt with the zombies in less than two minutes – getting blood all over ourselves and the floor. Ellen was the first to rush over to Kate and McKenzie. They were both scared, and pressed against the glass like wild animals. She tried opening the door just a crack for Kate, but it was opening for the zombies on McKenzie.
“Stop! Stop! The zombies are getting in!” McKenzie yelled.
“How the fuck do we get them out?!” Ellen shouted.
“Out of the way,” Carrie ordered, as she pulled out her sidearm.
Carrie fired three rounds at the glass of the revolving door, but it barely made a dent, let alone a crack.
“What the hell?” Carrie asked, surprised.
“What the fuck?! What the fuck kind of school has
bulletproof glass?!” Ellen demanded.
“Probably one that was willing to pay to protect their kids from a school shooting,” Molly answered.
“That would explain all the fucking metal detectors,” Carrie added.
“Well shit! What the fu—you know what? Fine! Just . . . how the fuck do we get them out?!” Ellen asked.
“Bulletproof revolving door, a shit load of zombies. What to do?” Helga said to herself.
Carrie turned to me and asked, “Nate, any ideas?”
I stood there thinking as they all stared at me.
“Nate! Time is a bit of a factor here!” Kate hollered.
“You’re not helping!” Danny snapped.
“Neither are you, pencil dick!”
“Save her first! Whatever plan you’re developing, save her first!” McKenzie stated.
“No fucking way McKenzie! We’re all—”
“There’s no argument Campbell! Just do it!!”
After ten seconds of thinking, I said, “Girls, go to the edge of those windows. Make as much noise as you can. Draw their attention.”
Molly, Carrie, and Helga went to the far side and started banging against the windows to make noise.
“That’s not gonna do much. There’s too many of them,” Ellen said.
“You got any better ideas, I’m all ears,” I replied.
Some zombies went to Molly and Carrie, but there were still a lot pressed against the revolving door. McKenzie, Danny, and I carefully moved the door inch by inch to get enough space for Kate to squeeze through. Kate was skinnier than McKenzie and she took off her gear to squeeze through easier. As the door moved, and Kate tried to squeeze through, the zombies were now reaching their arms through, trying to claw at McKenzie. The door handle was wet from the rain and there was water dripping on our hands making us lose friction on the door handle.
“Guys!” McKenzie alerted.
“We know! We see them! Just a little more! Hold on!” Danny said.
The door moved a little more and Kate was halfway through. Ellen was holding onto her arm tightly. Then finally she got through, but the zombies were pressing hard to get through to McKenzie. I was pulling as hard as I could as McKenzie was pushing. Ellen ran up and pulled me from behind – we all grunted angrily as we pulled. However, the zombies pushed through the gap and we lost my grip and we fell backwards to the floor. I fell backwards with my back on top of Ellen. The zombies were all over McKenzie.
The Dark Days Series | Book 2 | Sanctuary Page 34