The schoolyard looked more like a junkyard and so Jillybean went about looking down for three seconds, searching for a large enough piece of glass, and then looking up for two, afraid she would see the little kid monsters charging at her. Down her head would hang and then up quick—down and then up, repeated over and over.
The man hissed continually for her to leave, however she ignored him and continued her hunt until her greatest fear came into reality. There, on the side of the building, were the little kid monsters and they were horrible.
Stay perfectly still, Ipes warned her. When they start eating the man we’ll slip away and get back to the sewers.
“No,” she said in a stern whisper. It was true the kid monsters were wicked and loathsome in her eyes, and it was also true that they struck fear into her by their very presence. Yet despite her age she was able to comprehend the nature of the fear within her. It was a gut reaction to the possibility of becoming one of them.
It was this understanding that allowed her face her fear and once she did, it became less. And the monsters became less. For the most part they were small and even skinnier than Jillybean. She saw that many were missing hands and some even arms, while most limped.
And they were not particularly bright. With their focus on the pole and the man they did not see her at first. It wasn’t until she purposely drew their attention, going from still rabbit to flying deer that they even saw her. Then their jackal-like instincts took over. Instead of indulging in an easy meal of a bound man they gave chase as Jillybean dropped her backpack and booked it in a dead sprint for the school, hoping to lead them away.
Why on earth did you bring me? Ipes cried from the crook of her arm.
She couldn’t spare the breath to answer him. With the pack hot on her heels she made straight for a door in the building that sat ajar. Someone had stuck a plastic backed chair in the gap to hold it open and Jillybean leapt on it as agile as a monkey and then another leap had her in the decaying school. It was surprisingly and unnervingly dark.
There could be more of them in here, Ipes said. The warning was wasted. With the pack clawing their way over and around the chair she had nowhere else to go. With echoing steps she ran down the main hall looking into every room as she passed. They were empty, each promising to trap her.
Then she ran out of hall. It ended at a set of double doors and her mind guessed: Gymnasium. She was correct. The doors opened into a dark that was as intense as the sewers had been. It was like dashing into a pool of ink and yet, with the pack of kid monsters coming she had no choice but to head in.
Almost immediately she fell forward as her foot struck something. Thankfully it was the beginning of a soft mat, the kind she used to tumble on when she took gymnastics. By feel she knew it.
Get up! Ipes screamed. The gym doors had shut with a reverberating crash which seemed to have woken something in the dark. A moan drifted along the black. It wasn’t the high squeaking moan of a kid monster, it was something more. It was something big.
Its footfalls were heavy thumps that she could feel coming up through the padded mat and when it knocked into things in the dark there were booms and thundering bangs. An all encompassing fright seized the little girl. She leapt up and dashed in the direction she thought was the way out, however the walls and the double doors wouldn’t come to her outstretched hands. They felt nothing but air, while behind, the huge monster came steadily on.
It too was hampered by the lack of light, yet it tracked her, not from the patter of her tiny feet, which made barely a sound—it was her ragged breathing that drew it on. With her overwhelming fear and the dregs of her sprint still on her, Jillybean huffed air like an asthmatic.
Ipes diagnosed the problem, You’re breathing too loud!
Of course knowing what the problem was and being able to do anything about it were two different things. She couldn’t run from the monster and breathe lightly at the same time. No matter how hard she tried, it still heard her and closed the distance between them with each passing second.
Get out a magic marble, Ipes said, though in the dark his voice sounded so much like her father’s that she didn’t question what she thought was a useless demand. What good would a marble do? Given the choice between a following a bouncing marble and a huffing and puffing girl, a zombie would go for the girl every time.
As she ran with shuffled steps she dug out a marble. Listen carefully, Jillybean,” Ipes ordered. I want you to toss that marble gently ahead of us. When it lands I want you to take a deep breath and hold it, then juke to the right.
The term “Juke” wasn’t in her mental dictionary, at least not in her conscious dictionary. Her subconscious was a different story and held thousands of words that she had never uttered, but had memories attached from which she could draw meaning:
Sitting on her father’s lap in front of the TV, while he swigged beer that made his breath funny. She had been small, smaller even than now, small enough that when he jiggled her up and down on his knee, it was like trying to stay upright on a bucking bronco. It made her giggle and she loved him for it, but he was only half paying attention to her. He was such a good dad that he could parent with half his brain tied behind his back. Most of his mind was on the “Game”. Football. It was an unfathomable activity to a four-year-old.
He laughed in joy and hugged her around the middle. “You see that? Mareno just juked that linebacker out of his shoes.”
Someone losing their shoes could be funny and so she turned to the game, only everyone had their shoes on that she could see. A man did catch her attention long enough to affiliate the word juke with this memory. He was cheetah fast and when confronted by a hulking man he dodged to the side making the bigger man stumble and fall.
Juke: The process of changing direction in midstride to avoid a collision with another.
The marble left her hand, gently as ordered, and as it did she sucked in a huge breath and juked to the right. The marble went clack, clack. The huge beast went stomp, stomp. And Jillybean trembled in fear with her lungs burning and her stomach beginning to pain her once more. The monster brushed by, its slow mind focusing on the only noise left to it. Second after second slipped away until ten had passed and the giant thing was well away.
Slowly, Jillybean let out her breath and, with a feeling akin to triumph, she sucked in air covering her mouth to muffle the noise. She had done it. The monster was at the far end of the gym scrambling around after a silly marble; and if she was to knock into something else, she had more marbles to confuse him.
Going slow and careful—in her mind like a blind three-toed sloth—she walked directly away from the creature until she came to the wall of the gym and then she hurried despite the danger. The wall, if followed far enough, would lead to an exit. There would be two if not three in a gym of this size.
And there it was! Jillybean’s face lit up as her hands felt the smooth, cool metal of the door; and there were the handles…and something else. Hard as steel, with consecutive roundish loops. Jilly’s heart sunk. It was a chain, and next her hand felt what could only be a padlock. There was no getting through this door. And if this one was chained that meant they all were.
There was only one way out, the way she came in. Almost at that second, the little kid monsters, who had been for all this time struggling to open the gym door with their near useless brains had stumbled on the concept of pull instead of push and the gym door swung open. The school hall had seemed dark before, but compared to the pitch of the gym it was practically aglow and enough light fell inwards to show Jillybean standing there looking tiny and vulnerable.
It also showed the giant monster at the far end of the gym. It was huge, over six and half feet tall, and wide as one those football players her daddy had liked to watch. Yes it was big and scary, but it was the strange fact that the monster was completely naked that sickened Jillybean. It was a subconscious revulsion that manifested itself with another sharp pain deep in her intestines, which brought a
groan from her lips.
You gotta suck it up, Jillybean, Ipes told her.
Tears welled and threatened, but Jilly didn’t seem to notice, her fear was too great. “I can’t,” she whispered in the single second left before the monsters charged and she fell to her knees in surrender.
Chapter 9
Jillybean
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The pain in her tummy sent a shiver running along her limbs and a moan that was somewhat zombie-like escaped her lips.
Please Jillybean, Ipes begged her. Get up. They’re coming! They’re coming!
Across the gym from her the kid zombies stormed through the double doors, while the giant monster at the other end of the rectangular room let a low bellow of a moan, and charged, shaking the floor as he came.
“I can’t,” she whispered. Her muscles had gone limp and sweat beaded under the brown wisps of hair at her forehead. She felt like crying and she did. The monsters were going to eat her no matter what, and crying felt like the best thing to do at the moment.
In his terrific anxiety Ipes was squirming like mad against her chest. At least throw a magic marble, please.
It was all she had the strength and will to do. The marble flew through the air, landing at the feet of the nearest child monster and released its magic. Just as it clacked on the wood the last of the kid monsters came through the gym doors, which shut behind it, halting the stream of light. The dark was so complete, it was as if she had blinked and forgot to open her eyes again.
After the sewers the dark no longer frightened her, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to say she gained strength in the comforting safety of it. The monsters were as blind as she and their headlong rush became a jumble as monster ran into monster. When this occurred, there would be a savage thrashing noise intermixed with growls, and then just as quickly the two would part again, only to run into another of their kind, seconds later.
Now will you go? Ipes begged.
The very idea of crossing forty yards of open floor with monsters flying all about had her sagging again. It would be a deadly game of blind man’s bluff and she couldn’t see herself coming out the winner. And yet she had no choice and so she stood, leaning against the chained door trying to force herself to leave the meager safety of it.
Her magic marbles had been so effective that before making the dash across the gym she chucked one to the far end of the gym where she had last seen the big monster. If there was magic in this marble it wasn’t apparent. Above the roaring and the moaning, and the constant crashes that shook the walls, the sound of the marble was a little thing and if any of the monsters were distracted there was no way to tell.
We don’t have a choice, Ipes told her. You have to make a run for it. Just don’t drop me, whatever you do.
With a deep breath Jillybean plunged into the chaos. After a bare two steps she plowed directly into something huge and fleshy, and bounced off again, losing her footing in the process and thumping to the hard wood floor.
It was the giant. Above her the air roiled with its stink and swished with the passing of his clawed hands as it swept at the dark, hunting for its meal. Madly she kicked away from it only to have another of the monsters trip over her in the dark. She could hear its nails scraping at the wood as it tried to right itself in time to get her, however fear had a good hold of Jillybean's mind and she jumped up and began running with her hands outstretched, going in the wrong direction, but thinking that any moment she would find the right doors.
Instead her lead foot struck something hard and unyielding. Whatever it was had an awkward shape like strange stairs, only there weren't any stairs in the gym.
They're bleachers, Ipes said. You went the wrong way! She turned to her right feeling the old wood with her left hand, running her fingers over carved letters and splintered boards; though it was only for a few steps and then Ipes was pounding his soft hoof onto her arm and saying, No. The other way. Go back the other way.
Making sure to keep at least one hand on the bleachers, she turned but was forced to pause as there came a violent shaking along the wood. The vibrations grew in intensity, coming closer, and all she could do was cringe, but then they stopped altogether and Ipes urged her forward. She ran in a shuffle until the bleachers became air beneath her trailing fingers.
To the right, Ipes said with excitement.
She did as she was told, moving right until she hit the wall, where she splayed her fingers and swept her small hands all around. Seconds later the metal of the door was against her palm, and there was the bar, that when depressed would...
Yes! Ipes cried in joy as the light struck them full force. At that moment the chaos behind them ceased as though a switch had been thrown. Run and don't look back, Ipes ordered.
Running wasn't going to be a problem. Jillybean stretched out her skinny legs and bolted. Behind her the door closed, but not a moment later it thumped and then shuddered under the fists of the giant. This only spurred her on until she found the door to the outside; she leapt the plastic-backed chair and then she paused as a new wind struck her in the face. It was brisk and bewildering, having brought with it dark clouds.
How long was I in there? she wondered. It couldn't have been long because there was the same man tied to the pole. At the sight of him she stopped, remembering she had been looking for glass before the monsters had come back. She bent over the trash strewn grounds once again; unfortunately the only glass she could find was from the school windows, which had shattered into thousands of little cube-like pieces that reminded her of diamonds.
Forget the glass, Ipes suggested. Look for scissors or a knife. But hurry, they'll figure out how to get out of the gym soon.
With her head wagging from side to side, Jillybean searched the playground, dashing from pile of refuse to pile of crap. At the bottom of a plastic blue cube that looked like the sort of crate that milk was delivered in she found a pair of scissors. They were safety scissors and were small enough to fit her hand.
"I've got some scissors," she told the man. She held them up for him to see as she ran to him and tried to smile encouragingly, hiding her doubt. In her experience safety scissors were too safe. Most of the time they could barely cut construction paper and now she was going to have to try to scissor through thick laces.
He started to shake his head, but after a quick glance at the school he changed his mind. "Ok...ok, give it a shot, but hurry. And if the stiffs come back, promise me you'll leave. You run away and don't look back." Sweat gleaned on his misshapen face and there was such a wild cast to his eyes that Jillybean couldn't find words to answer him, though she did nod in a small way before skirting around to his back. He spun on the pole and demanded, "Promise me that you'll leave."
"I promise," she said in a voice as small as she was. Satisfied, he turned and she began a vain struggle with the plastic handled scissors. Even if they had been sharp, which Jillybean doubted very much they had ever been, her hands were far too weak for the job and not one thread parted from the rest. She even tried sawing with the blunt metal. Back and forth her hands went in a blur until she slipped and fumbled the scissors.
"Stop," the man told her. He spun, shuffling his feet so that he had turned halfway. "It's not working. Just go. Get out of here, before..." A sadness swept him, stopping his words and now his head hung so that his brown eyes stared only at the cracked asphalt.
Take his advice, Jillybean, Ipes said with a sigh. There's just no getting him off that pole, not unless that giant comes out and lifts him off.
"I guess, but..." she started to say, however the image of the naked monster grabbing the man and pulling him off the pole and then eating him, stopped her. It was a horrible vision, nevertheless it spawned an idea. "What if we lift him off?" she mumbled to Ipes. "Or what if we get some stuff for him to stand on and he can, you know, climb off?"
Thinking she was speaking to him, the man asked, "What are you talking about?"
"Getting you off the pole,"
Jillybean replied, scanning the rubbish for something sturdy enough for the man to stand on. There were a couple of chairs that were too short, and a teacher's desk that was too big for her to lug over, and a number of weak plastic bins of the sort that Jillybean had as a kindergartener. They held pencils and crayons, and her shoes or her lunch, and it fit snuggly into her cubby—one of these could support her weight, but certainly not the man's, he was just too big.
The man took in the trash excited at first, but with fading hope as he turned in a slow circle and saw little in the refuse that could help him. "Just go," he said again, and now he slunk down to an awkward sitting position.
Jillybean wouldn't be defeated without a try and so she put Ipes on the ground next to the man and then ran for one of the chairs. Seconds later she scraped it back to him making more noise than she wished. She stood it next to him against the pole and said, "Try this."
He made a face after glancing at it and then the height of the pole. "It's too short. Please, you said you would go. You promised."
"The monsters aren't here yet," she reminded him, and then went for the second chair and after she pulled it over she stood there staring, as her brain tried to work out some configuration of the two that would get him high up enough to allow him to slip his arms over the top of the pole.
In a moment she made a noise of desperation. She couldn't see how it would work. "Help me, Ipes, please. We have to get him up high enough so he can get over the top."
As the man looked at her in a funny way, Ipes considered things. We need to make a stair for him that is at least, let's see...he's about six foot, and the pole is seven. With his hands behind his back, I'd say the stair needs to be four feet tall at a minimum.
"Stairs? We don't have time to make stairs," Jillybean said. "And asides he can't leave the pole to go walking up stairs."
The Undead World (Book 2): The Apocalypse Survivors Page 8