I quickly rolled up the map and shoved it in my pocket, strapping on my pack and tossing the bag of noodles away before crouching and moving slowly through the front door. Recalling my directions, I turned left and moved down the street, staying on the walkway to move faster and hopefully get out of view. I could still hear arguing behind me as I made it past the intersection, giving me a brief sense of relief, but then I heard the engines roar to life. I guess they realized whoever started the fire might still be close, which meant they’d be driving around that corner anytime.
Forgetting the stealth option, as they wouldn’t hear me running over the sound of those V8’s, I sprinted down the walkway, jumping into the snow after the walk ended and moving as quickly as the ground would allow. At the end of the street, I hooked another left and felt my heart lurch.
Before me was a sign for Brookville Elementary, several bloody smears across it, with several handprints visible on the windows from where I stood. I realized that some of those prints were too small to be adult as a chill ran down my spine, hoping they were there from the outside.
I could hear the trucks rolling down the street and, having no other option, ran for the closest door to the school. As my feet pounded through the snow and my calves burned, I prayed that my sanity could handle what I might encounter beyond those doors.
Chapter 59
Unknown Date +8
The short version of this chapter is that I was wrong. Everyone is wrong sometimes, of course, but this is the kind of wrong where you say it’s a good idea to go on a road trip and end up stranded in the forest while being chased by a serial killer and a gang of rednecks who want to make you squeal like a pig. Maybe I took that one a little far, but you get the idea. Still, I’m sure some of you more detail-oriented readers aren’t satisfied with the short version, so you’re welcome for the following recollection of my pain.
I pulled on the front doors, expecting resistance and getting none, before entering the building. The fact that the doors were unlocked meant either the school was broken into, some of the people got out, or I was about to be faced with my worst nightmare. I was not looking forward to the latter, as I had wrestled all the demons I wanted to in this lifetime already. Not just demons that dragged their broken legs behind them and tried to make me their main course, but a few internal ones as well.
The interior of the building was pitch black and the power was out so I couldn’t see much. I withdrew the lighter from my pocket again and flicked it on, waving it around while listening intently for any signs that I wasn’t alone. Honestly, I’m not sure if it was more or less saddening to be alone, as it meant I’d be alone with the thoughts of recent discoveries. While I was curious who locked the people inside that house, I was more concerned with who took the time to sew their mouths shut beforehand, because that person was a true psychopath.
A pair of double doors separated me from the rest of the building, so I looked around. To my right was the entrance to the front office, so I decided to try the door. Just as my hand touched the cold steel of the handle, I saw a flash of headlights and heard tires treading into the snow outside. I could either stage a firefight with the school as my defensive position, a plan that would potentially leave me fighting two fronts if I wasn’t in fact alone, or I could hurry to move deeper into the school and try to lose them again.
I wasn’t a big fan of either option, but knowing I was outnumbered and outgunned, I chose to try my luck deeper inside the school and just hope for the best. With my Ka-bar in my other hand, the blade inverted to rest along my forearm, I opened the door.
The office was dead silent, so I rushed through the various rooms checking for useful supplies. I didn’t expect to find much, but as many times as I got in trouble as a kid, there was some smugness as I rifled through the principal’s desk.
Paranoia was creeping into my mind, as I kept one ear trained on what was going on outside and the other attuned to my surroundings inside. Every now and then I’d hear a sound down the hall from the office and I’d stop what I was doing, but when it didn’t happen again, I just chalked that up to losing my sanity. I mean, I was hallucinating before, right? I’m not in denial, I know I’m barely keeping my shit together.
What wasn’t a hallucination, however, was the murmured conversation taking place outside and getting closer, so I made another gut decision and moved toward the door that led to the main building. On the way out of the office, though, I did do a quick check for keys and grabbed a handful. I’m guessing the parking lot was in the back, and, if I wasn’t alone, I might also be able to turn my awful luck into getting some wheels and expediting my search for my group.
Due to my caution going down the hallway, I was only twenty feet from the office and just coming to an intersection when I heard the front doors begin to open. I flipped the lighter shut and shoved it into my pocket, spinning in a crouch, my Sig up and ready in my left hand. Of course, the darkness worked both ways. They couldn’t see me, and I sure as hell couldn’t see them.
“It’s dark as shit in here, Ray. You really think he’d be in here?”
“I think that if you keep talking and giving away our position, I’m going to put a bullet in you myself and say he shot you.”
Their voices echoed down the hall and the hair on the back of my neck stood up as I continued to creep backwards, keeping my eyes locked on the front entrance. I had come to trust my instincts, but I also knew that paranoia was becoming a real problem, so I wasn’t sure what to do until I heard papers shuffling on the floor nearby. I was either surrounded or at an intersection with a high ceiling, because it felt like the sound came from all directions.
Either way, I needed to get out of the halls so I started angling myself to the right. I stretched out my hand to find a wall and felt my way along until I felt the crease of a door frame. Just a little further—
Too late.
More papers shuffled, this time definitely to my left, and I heard the moaning begin. While I don’t think the zombies knew I was there yet, the sound alerted the men at the front and they had guns, so…the shit was very much hitting the fan.
I heard the commotion ahead as the men reacted, before a flashlight turned on and I was momentarily blinded.
“Fuck!” There was a zombie way too close for comfort, especially since I couldn’t see a damn thing, so I blindly fired off a few shots in the direction I knew the men were at and backpedaled. I heard yelling and my vision was returning enough to make out shapes when the gunfire erupted.
The noise level was made even worse with the acoustics of the halls, and it felt like my entire world was shattering as bullets tore into the tiled floors and blew chunks out of the plastered walls. I was able to make out the zombie closest to me and slashed across its throat, bringing my knife back to puncture its skull and pull it close just as I felt two rounds slam into the corpse. Blood spurted out and it felt like I was punched in the gut by a heavyweight boxer, but I stayed up and set my left arm on the corpse’s shoulder.
Another thump to my sternum occurred as I leveled my handgun, but I made the precious seconds count as I squeezed off a round and heard it find a home in one of the men at the entrance. The victory was short-lived, however, as two more men came in from the trucks outside having heard the gunfire.
I dragged the dead weight with me, my knife cutting further into the skull as I went, and I knew I’d have to move faster if I wanted to survive. More zombies were sounding off with their moaning roll call and I needed to get out of the light. Given, the men had more to contend with at this point as the zombies were slapping against the glass doors at the entrance, but it was only buying me time that would soon run out.
I did note, when the lights hit us again, that the zombie currently reminding me of a joke out of Monty Python was wearing a dress shirt and tie, which meant he had probably been a member of the school staff. If the staff was still in the building, at least one of my theories was shot down, so I was hesitant when I found a
door with my shoulder.
I had two choices, then. Wait until the last zombie dropped, all the while fending off countless of the damn things, and then take on an unknown number of well-armed locals, or risk opening a door that could be containing a small army of undead, potential emphasis on small. The shower of plaster that rained down on me as another bullet whizzed past my ear made the decision for me.
Audience, let’s reveal what’s behind door number one.
Chapter 60
Back to school
It took a few tries, but eventually I crashed through the door and landed on my back. Every instinct told me to check my surroundings, but I had my priorities. Pushing the zombie shield off my chest, I kicked the door shut and felt it bang into something, so I kicked again and felt it push into the frame. That wouldn’t last long, though, so I got up and felt along the wall with one hand while pulling out my lighter and flicking it on.
The lighter didn’t provide much illumination, but it did allow me to find a filing cabinet that I quickly pulled over and pushed in front of the door. It wasn’t ideal, as any real effort would get through, but it would buy me some time as I checked back in with my instincts.
Time was of the essence as I scanned the room, moving to the windows to see if they provided an exit. Bars on the exterior let me know that my luck was still as shitty as ever, so I kept moving around the room. I sifted through the desk drawers at the head of the classroom and found a set of keys. What they went to? No idea, but it felt like I had accomplished something so I was going to take it.
Setting the lighter on the desk, I ejected the magazine from my Sig and did an ammo count. I had half a clip, with a full one in my pocket. In other words, any lengthy firefight would be short-lived on my end, which meant any thoughts of waiting were out of the running.
The locals were either going to run and gun their way down the hall, fall back to their vehicles and circle the building, or, my personal favorite, leave and go back to their camp.
Yeah, I wasn’t buying that last one either, but it sure sounded good.
I picked up my lighter and decided to finish my search of the room, hoping to find something I could use. The name of the game now was offense, but with limited ammo and no backup, it was time to get creative.
I might have spoken too soon about my luck, because on the far side of the room I found a door and had hope.
“Please let it be—” The handle was locked, but the key from the desk fit and I pulled the door open without thinking. I could have seriously regretted getting excited if anything hostile had been locked in there, but no boogeymen would get me this night.
In fact, the room was empty except for shelves of random supplies. Looking closer, I realized two things. First, it was a terrible idea to wave an open flame near some of the equipment, but second, I had hit the jackpot. While it was only an elementary school and I was still in a bad situation, I had crashed into a science lab.
As I gathered handfuls of supplies and set them on the desk, I noticed headlights cut through the darkness outside. Some of the guys must have read my mind and started to circle the building, but I could still hear shouting between the staccato of gunfire down the hall, so I was surrounded no matter how I looked at it.
I glanced over the various containers I had assembled on the desk and smirked. Between what I had learned from Special Forces and watching every episode of MacGyver, I was about to blow some shit up.
Chapter 61
The early years from Hell
Much like the novelized version of the film that we do not talk about, I’ve removed the specific combination of explosive ingredients to avoid giving people ideas. You’ll just have to take my word that I know what I’m doing, but for the sake of argument, one piece of the puzzle was Potassium Nitrate. Given, I have noticed that my plans tend to backfire in explosive fashion (pun intended), but here’s to hoping.
I pulled out a few jars from a nearby cabinet and set them on the desk, going to work crafting a variety of traps to use. It took longer than I would have liked, as I couldn’t see very well keeping the open flame of the lighter at a good distance, but I made use of my time and took a step back to admire my work. Two smoke bombs and a few actual bombs sat in front of me, and I was about to introduce them to my new friends.
I checked the hallway first, noting three distinct voices getting closer. I slid a scrap of metal under the door, ensuring that opening the door would scrape the metal across the floor and create a spark that would ignite my trap. Double-checking my handiwork, I went into the closet by the desk and quickly scaled a shelf unit to push up the ceiling tiles and get into the crawl-space.
I picked a direction and slid my body across the ceiling, knowing that time was of the essence as any second now an explosion could go off behind me. Estimating my distance from the science lab, I pried up the next tile and listened. There was shuffling beneath me, so I flicked on the lighter and waved it in the air to barely illuminate three adult zombies staring up at the pretty lights.
I could have kept going and tried for a room with better odds, but the element of surprise for the vehicles outside would be lost the second my plan went off so I was in a hurry. Of course, that didn’t mean I couldn’t play it smart. I slid myself another ten feet until I would drop next to the door and pulled up the tile, keeping the lighter closed. While it would mean I’d drop without knowing where the ground was, the zombies’ attention was still focused on the location of the mysterious fire.
Easing my body over the lip of the hole, I lowered myself until I was dangling from the ceiling and the braces groaned in protest. I released my grip and landed with my knees bent, absorbing the impact so I could quickly move for the door. By the time I was turning the handle, I finally heard the first moan from somewhere behind me. A brief check of the hallway let me know it was clear, so I shut the door behind me and started jogging to the next intersection. Glancing to my left, I could make out a window without bars in whatever classroom I was facing and decided to risk it.
Opening the door and going inside, I had no idea how much I would regret my decision.
I heard something unfamiliar across the room to my right, but I hesitated to give away my position just yet. Curiosity wasn’t worth sacrificing stealth, but something definitely felt wrong.
Taking a few steps into the room, I stopped moving when I heard the sound again. This time, I actually placed it, closing my eyes and knowing I shouldn’t have come in here. A third time and I was sure, it was the sound of a child’s toy. The same kind that Phillip used to play with when I was home.
“Please, God, let me be wrong…” I muttered, flicking on my lighter and knowing my mind was playing tricks again. Like I was in a separate reality, my son sat on the ground ten feet away from me, a smile on his pudgy face as he rolled around his stuffed bear with a rattle inside. Part of me knew it couldn’t possibly be real and that I was still on a time limit, but there was that tiny part of me that allowed an instant of doubt. And that instant was all it took for me to call out to him.
“Phillip?” I didn’t step closer, having seen too many horror films in my lifetime, but I didn’t run despite my gut screaming at me. I couldn’t stand anymore and I collapsed, my knees hitting the floor as memories flooded my mind.
He turned his head and saw me, standing up on his small legs and slowly walking toward me. His stubby legs barely held his weight, which left his canter off as he got closer. In fact, it was almost like he was…shuffling.
“Phillip?” I asked, confused, as something deep in my subconscious told me to move. Almost simultaneously, the colorful walls around us faded to darkness as I realized the child in front of me wasn’t, couldn’t be, my son. What was a mere three feet away was an undead child, his pants torn where a ragged bite mark was visible amongst the dried blood. Beyond him were several more children, clothes torn, blank expressions on their lifeless faces, all bearing the same fate.
“Stop…” I needed to move, needed
to get up, or do anything, but I was frozen. Reminding myself that this was no longer a child, it was almost on me and I felt my Sig pressed against my palm instinctively. “Please, stop…” Tears burned my eyes as I fought with myself, fought the guilt rising inside. Raising my handgun, I pressed the barrel against its small skull.
“I’m so sorry.” But as much as I knew what had to be done, I couldn’t bring myself to pull the trigger and, instead, ran back toward the hallway. Shutting the door behind me, I sealed the memories and feelings of guilt in there with the rest of the children until I had time to revisit what the hell just happened in there, and what the hell was happening to me. It felt like I was losing my fucking mind, but I needed to keep it together, at least until I found Kat and Jessica.
Chapter 62
Bomb Voyage
After taking a moment to collect myself as much as could be expected, I resumed my jog down the dark corridor and found hope. Thanks to the sliver of moonlight breaking through the clouds outside, I could see the window of the exit door down the hall and maneuvered myself past the shadows of zombies in my path.
I made it to the doors in maybe twenty seconds, waiting for the headlights to disappear from view before pushing down the handle and heading out into the snow. From the door, I was able to judge the distance to the path of the trucks, which meant I had around thirty seconds until they circled the school and spotted me. The cool air helped clear my head as well, which provided a much-needed reprieve of lingering thoughts that haunted me.
Keeping a mental countdown in my head, I urged my legs forward through the nearly three feet of snow that had built up in the open weather. After trudging ahead, it was easy to tell where the trucks had driven through because it was suddenly easier to walk. Unfortunately, my count was at twenty-two and I could hear engines about to round the corner of the school.
A Broken World (Book 2): Shattered Paradise Page 5