Dead Outside (Book 1) (15 page)

He
gave me a look of disappointment, “I think we’ve been friends long enough for
you to come to me about stuff like this.”

He
was right, I made an unfair assumption. I couldn’t do anything but shrug. I
already said I was sorry, so I walked back over to the four-wheeler Sarah was
standing next to.

12:00
PM, July 7

We
parked our four-wheelers in the driveway of Sarah’s house. I wished I had
cleaned it up before I brought Sarah here. I could feel her heart rate go up as
we pulled in, even over the rumbling of the four-wheeler engine.

Sarah
hopped off as soon as we stopped, but I put my hand on her shoulder in hopes of
stopping her. She shrugged my hand off and kept walking, regardless. I hopped
off and sprinted after her, grabbing her before she set foot on the porch.

She
tried to struggle out of my grip, but I didn’t let go. “Sarah, no, you don’t
want to go in there,” I tried to warn her, “Trust me, you don’t want to see the
inside.”

She
didn’t say anything, she just started crying. She could see the dried blood on
the porch, and knew the inside was probably the same.

I
looked back at Roxie, and motioned her over with my eyes, she understood right
away and came over. I let Sarah go once Roxie got there. She would be able to
keep her calm. I needed Nick to help me carry Jerry’s body anyway.

I
motioned to Nick and he followed me to the garage. We stared at the tarp
covered body for a few minutes silently. Nick looked up at me before I looked
up, “Where do we dig the hole?”

I
already knew where. Sarah’s Mom was buried under a tree in the backyard. It was
only fitting that we bury him next to her, the only issue was the tree was
about a hundred yards from the garage.

“Next
to her Mom’s grave,” I told him. He had never been here before, and was
probably cursing me in his head the whole way to the burial sight, though he
never said anything to me I could see it in his face.

Nick
went back to the garage for shovels while I stared at Sarah’s Mom’s headstone.
I’d been here before, but never without Sarah. I looked around to make sure
nobody was there, and then said, “Hi, Mrs. W. This is Sam. It’s been a long
time.” I felt like a fool, and looked around again to make sure Roxie, Sarah
and Nick were still up by the house.

“I
don’t know if you knew how much I loved your daughter while you were alive, or
if you figured it out afterward.” I shook my head, I barely believed in an
afterlife before the dead began to rise, but this felt right, “I promise I’ll
do whatever it takes to keep her safe, and happy. And if you can tell Jerry I’m
sorry it took me so long to get here that would be great.”

I
shook my head, I was apologizing to a tombstone. For half a second I felt like
an idiot, but it felt good to say out loud what I felt. I glanced back at the
house and saw Nick coming back with shovels. I knelt down and placed my hand on
the headstone, “I promise.”

I
didn’t realize how long I knelt next to the grave until Nick cleared his throat
behind me. I stood up and grabbed one of the shovels from him.

We
started digging the grave, it was tedious, the ground was mostly sand, so the
hole kept trying to fill itself in. We didn’t talk for a while, but I had to
break the silence. I stopped digging, took my hat off and wiped the sweat off
my forehead and then looked at him, “Why won’t you leave your Uncle’s house?” I
asked him. He didn’t stop digging, he just kept shoveling the dirt out of the
hole, and then he started talking.

“They
didn’t screen the people they let into the school, they let dozens of people in
that were infected.” He let out a sigh, then set the shovel down, and looked at
me with empty eyes. “You saw the bodies outside, that wasn’t even a quarter of
the people inside. Shit, that couldn’t have been a quarter the number of
zombies inside the school. You weren’t there, it was a goddamned nightmare.”

I
may have seen some shit on the road, but I wasn’t going to dismiss what they
went through. I wasn’t outside in the opening days of the outbreak. I didn’t
say anything, I just listened.

Nick
didn’t say anything for a bit, he just stood there and looked at the grave,
“They let people in that had bites,” he said, “The police let anyone in, but
once the army got there, they tried to filter people in who were clean, but it
was too late. We were in one of the science classrooms when people started
dying. Doctors argued with the army officers, saying they had to burn the
bodies, but the Army officers said they were told to just bag and tag the
bodies.” He paused, I didn’t say anything, and I knew he just needed a minute
to figure out how to describe what happened.

“A
few hours later they started waking up,” he started up again. “At first, people
tried to tie them up, but we knew they had to be put down. Some of the military
guys knew it too, but before long people who didn’t admit to bites started
coming back in other parts of the school and biting others. It didn’t take long
for gunshots to be going off from all over the school. That’s when people just
started running for the exits.”

He
pulled his pistol out of its holster and held it up. “People pulled these out
and started firing in all directions, shooting people who weren’t even bitten.
I don’t know how we got out of there without getting shot, let alone bitten. We
fought our way through the flow of people, and just barely made it to the
parking lot when Sarah lost her grip on Roxie’s hand.”

I
opened my mouth to say it wasn’t his fault, but he continued without letting me
get a word out. “Outside wasn’t any better, by then there were more infected
people then not. The military didn’t know what to do either, some of them tried
to help people out of the carnage, some bailed, and some just started firing
into the crowd. We ran into the woods, a lot of people did. The injured ones
didn’t get far, after a while it was only us and two other people, but they
went another way once we finally hit a road.”

He
started digging again. I could see the tears rolling down his face. I grabbed
his shovel, “It’s not your fault.”

He
looked at me with hurt eyes and said with a hostile voice, “What do you mean
it’s not my fault?”

I
was speechless for a few seconds. “You did what you could,” I reassured him. “I
don’t blame you for losing Sarah.”

He
looked like he was going to hit me, but he glanced over to the house. I don’t
know if seeing Roxie or Sarah shifted his mood, but he calmed down almost
instantly. He just looked at the grave and said rather cryptically, “Yeah, you
do.”

Before
I could say anything Roxie and Sarah arrived at the gravesite. Nick and I
climbed out of the hole that had to be at least four or five feet deep. Sarah
saw the tarp wrapped around her father’s body and started crying again.

I
walked over and grabbed her in a hug. She kept saying the same thing muffled
against my chest, “I’m not ready.”

I
pulled her hair away from her eyes and behind her ear. She looked up at me,
that moment in my mind lasted forever, though it couldn’t have lasted more then
a few seconds. “Yes, you are,” was all I said.

I’d
been to plenty of funerals in my life, mostly for great uncles, friend’s
grandparents, even a classmate who was in a car accident, but this was by far
the most emotional. Nick and I lifted Jerry’s tarp wrapped body and placed it
into the grave we dug as gently as we could.

Nick
and I started filling in the grave with dirt. Sarah and Roxie just stood there
silently, watching. They both had tears flowing as we piled on the last bit of
earth onto the grave.

We
all stood there for what felt like forever. I took my hat off in respect and
then broke the silence, “I loved Jerry.” My words seemed to startle everyone
else, but I didn’t care, the silence was killing me. “He was like a second
Father to me. I will always cherish the advice he gave me, and I hope I will
live up to the expectations he had of me.”

I
looked over to Sarah, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the photo Jerry
had in his hands when he died. I held it out in front of her. She stared at it
for a few moments, and then took it from my hand.

She
looked back up from the photo, and her eyes were still bloodshot from crying,
but she was finally ready. “My Dad didn’t deserve to go like this,” she wiped
the tears from her eyes, “But he did everything he could to survive.” She
looked at me for a moment, then to Roxie and Nick. “He didn’t give up, he
fought to the last breath, hoping, knowing I would survive this, we should
honor that, as long as we can.”

She
started choking up, and looked to me again, then down to the freshly packed
grave, “I love you Daddy,”

We
all had tears in our eyes. It wasn’t just a funeral for Sarah’s Dad, this was a
funeral for all of our parents. Sarah wasn’t just burying her Dad, Roxie and I
were burying our parents and Nick was burying his. The sun was beginning to dip
toward the horizon when we decided to head back to Nick’s Uncle George’s house.

On
the way back to the four-wheelers Nick looked over at me, I met his gaze for a
while before he said anything. “You’re right,” he said, finally agreeing with
me. “We can’t stay at my Uncle’s house forever.”

“Thanks,”
I nodded. Nick didn’t give in willingly, and I knew he didn’t want to leave his
Uncle’s house, but he knew everyone else did, and gave in for all of us, and
that was good enough for me.

Chapter Fifteen: Game Plan

7:00
AM, July 8

I
was lying awake with my eyes still closed. I could feel the sun shining on my
eyelids. Sarah was still asleep, I could tell by her breathing. Nick and Roxie
were still upstairs, and probably asleep because I would be able to hear them
arguing if they were awake.

We
had originally planned on gathering supplies while we were out, but after the
funeral we were done for the day. We went straight back to Nick’s Uncle
George’s house. Nobody spoke the entire way back. The yard outside the house
was oddly clear of any zombies. It was almost like we were getting a reprieve.

I
finally opened my eyes. The ceiling fan was motionless, which was unfortunate
considering how hot it was. I didn’t even have a sheet on my and I was
sweating.

I
sat up and wiped the sweat off my face. It still felt odd waking up early. Sure
when I was working I had to be up early, but I needed an alarm clock for that.
Now my body was just on alert I guess. I got dressed and put my hat on. I
wasn’t trying to stay quiet, we had a lot to do today and everyone needed to
get up, including Sarah.

The
hardwood floor squeaked as I walked into the kitchen. The funeral was still
heavy on my mind. Nick may have finally agreed to leave his Uncle’s house, but
he did it reluctantly. I filled up a glass with water. Luckily His Uncle’s
house had well water, and the pump still worked.

I
could hear movement upstairs, somebody was awake. I sat down at the table and
took a sip of my water. Whoever it was would either go back to bed or come
downstairs. I would rather everyone got up and got to work so we could get out
of this house, than get lazy and get stuck here, but I didn’t want to make a
habit of having to wake everybody up.

Heavy
footsteps came down the stairs, too heavy for Roxie, which meant Nick was up.
He walked into the kitchen, squinting at the light shining between the boards
on the windows. “Morning.” He grunted more then spoke, his voice was pretty
scratchy in the morning.

“Pretty
early for you to be up,” I joked as he filled up a glass with water, “Hell it’s
pretty early for me to be up for that matter.”

“Ain’t
that the damn truth,” he sighed. “I miss the days when we could sleep in till
noon, then party until late in the night.”

I
rolled my eyes. He was trying to avoid the conversation we had to have, about
how we would go about getting out of here. “So what’s the game plan?” I asked
him, breaking the charade.

He
stopped mid sip, then set his glass down on the table and sat down across from
me, “I don’t know, this was your idea. How do you plan on doing this?”

“To
be honest I have no idea.” I felt like an idiot, I’d been preaching this idea
for days, and had no clue how to execute it. “But we can find a way, we’ll just
have to sit down and figure it out.”

He
looked upset that I hadn’t thought this idea through, and I didn’t blame him,
but he didn’t explode into argument like I thought he would, he just sighed and
looked at the table. “How infested was it when you stopped there the other
day?”

“Not
that bad,” I thought back to that day. “I walked the grounds and didn’t have to
fire a shot. Sure they were there, but not in the kind of numbers you remember,
we just have to block off the exits and clear it out.”

“How
are we going to block off the exits?” he asked. “We won’t exactly have time to
stack cinder blocks.”

“What
about the school buses?” Sarah yawned while standing in the doorway from the
living “They were all parked in the bus loop when were there.”

Nick
nodded, “They used them to pick up people from remote parking locations and
shuttle them to the school. They are big enough to block the hallways, but what
if those things crawl under them?”

“We
could tip them over on their sides, blocking the entries completely,” I
suggested. “All we’d have to do is tie some straps to my truck them pull them
down.”

“Maybe
it would be better to just stuff something under them?” Sarah thought out loud,
“Like file cabinets or something?”

“What
about the stair wells?” Roxie asked as she walked into the kitchen. Her tired
morning face wasn’t much different from her angry face, “How are we supposed to
stop the zombies from climbing up those?”

“We
could fill them up with desks,” Sarah suggested. “It’s not like we’ll need all
those, and there are at least twenty in each classroom. They won’t be able to
squeeze through those to get at us.”

I
couldn’t help but smile, “You just have an answer for everything don’t you?”

She
glanced at me with a smirk and shrugged, “Maybe I do.”

 The
moment didn’t last long, Nick was either oblivious to it or was just trying to
get us focused on the plans. It was honestly probably a little of both.

“So
should we set up shop somewhere in one of the neighborhoods outside the
school?” Nick asked. “Or do we just drive right in and try to close it off in
one day?”

Nick
was still hesitant, and I didn’t blame him, blocking off all the exits and then
clearing it all out with just the four of us in one day was going to be tough,
but it was doable. “Both,” I compromised with him. “We can drive my truck right
into the courtyard in the center of the school, and then leave it there while
we start driving the busses to the bigger exits. If we can’t clear it in one
day we’ll hole up in one of the upstairs classrooms.”

“What
about the smaller exits?” Roxie asked. “We’re going to be making a lot of noise
setting this all up. They’ll be coming at the school from all around us. How
are we going to be able to lock it down before that happens?”

“Those
have steel doors already, all we’d have to do is lock them,” I reminded her.
“If we have to we can stack heavy stuff behind them to reinforce them, but they
should hold against almost anything for the time being. After we settle in we
can clear it all out.”

“I
have an idea,” Sarah spoke up again. “They’re attracted to noise right? Why
don’t we set up some stereos away from the school to draw them away while we do
this?”

“That
just might work,” Roxie agreed. “One on the road leading to the school and
another in the neighborhood behind it should work.”

“Okay,
we have our plan. We need to get everything into the truck that we can use from
this house, and all the sheds and whatnot.” I stood up. I didn’t want to sit
there all day talking. We needed to get shit done.  “Nick, you and I are gonna
go through the sheds and then the garage for any tools we might need.”

Nick
shot me an odd look, like he didn’t agree with something, but I ignored it. If
it was important he’d say something.

 “Roxie,
Sarah, I want you guys to clear out this house, kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms,
anything we can use in here, grab it and put it in the garage.” I could tell
they weren’t entirely pleased with just digging through the cabinets, but they
didn’t object verbally.

“Sam,
can I talk to you for a second, before we get started?” Sarah asked as I was
about to leave the room.

I
turned to Nick, “I’ll be right out.” He just rolled his eyes and headed
outside, shaking his head.

Roxie
stood up, “I’ll go upstairs and start clearing out the bathrooms.” She sounded
like she already knew what we were going to talk about, which wasn’t outside
the realm of possibilities.

Sarah
waited until Roxie was all the way upstairs before she said anything. “About
the other night…”

I
had been dreading this conversation, but I knew it was inevitable. “It’s not
your fault, I understand.”

“No,
I need to tell you,” she looked down at the table for a few seconds. “I know
what you were expecting that night.”

“That’s
not fair,” I cut her off. “I wasn’t expecting anything, I didn’t plan that, it
just happened, I just didn’t expect that.”

“The
way you were kissing me, I just thought…” she trailed off. “I thought you
wanted to…”

“Sarah,”
I sat down next to her at the table and grabbed her hand, “I’m not going to
make you to do anything. When you’re ready then whatever is going to happen
will happen.”

I
could see the tears rolling down her cheeks. “After what he did I don’t know if
I’ll ever be able to do those things again.”

I
could feel my heart begin to race, it didn’t matter that he was already dead,
seeing her like this made me want to kill the son of a bitch again. “I’m
willing to wait. I’ve waited all these years already, what’s a little longer?”

I
knew I worded that wrong the second after I said it. She pulled her hands away
from mine, “You’ve waited for years just to sleep with me?” I opened my mouth
to say no but she cut me off. “Well sorry to disappoint you. And here I thought
it was more than that.”

She
stormed off upstairs to Roxie.

I
stood up and went outside, no sense in sitting there like an idiot. Nick was
breathing heavily with a stern look on his face. I could tell he was pissed at
me, and I knew it was going to be bad.

I
braced myself as we reached the closest shed door. Luckily I did, because Nick
didn’t waste any time.

“What
gives you the right?” he demanded right away.

I
sighed, “Right to what?”

He
stared at me for a few seconds before laughing almost hysterically, “You know
what I mean asshole. Why are you in charge? Why am I not in charge?”

“You
want to be in charge?” I asked, as seriously as I could. “You’re in charge,
what’s the plan, sir?”

“Sir?”
he looked at me perplexed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You
know what it means, you just graduated the police academy, so that makes you a
cop right?” I stared at him intently. “So obviously you should lead us to
safety.”

He
didn’t respond right away, just stared, angrily. “Of course, the Substitute
Teacher should lead, because you lead children when their real teachers were
sick?”

I
just smiled. I knew he didn’t take my chosen profession seriously, “Because I
didn’t lead those kids while I was there, I didn’t inspire them. I was a fly on
the wall, an insignificant relief from their normal routine?”

“Nope,
you were a joke, a momentary reprieve. Don’t make yourself out to be a leader,”
he sighed. “You were a sub, not a real teacher.”

“Well
at least I had a job, not just waiting for one to come.” It was a low blow. He
was on the verge of being hired when I left for Ohio, but I was mad at myself
for screwing things up with Sarah, so taking it out on Nick felt good, plus it
wasn’t like he wasn’t holding back any punches.

He
glared at me, his fists were clenched. I was expecting a punch, but he didn’t
swing. “You think I’m a bad leader don’t you?”

I
glared back, I wanted to say no, but I couldn’t. I wasn’t going to lie to him.
“Yes, I do.” His jaw dropped almost instantly. “You’re lazy, putting things off
until the last second, and when you aren’t lazy you are too rash, and don’t
think things out, I do, so I can get things done right.”

“Lazy?
Rash?” he demanded. “I do what I need to, how is that bad?”

I
sighed, “It’s not, but it is bad if you do the wrong things, and I’m not trying
to undermine your authority. I’m not some power hungry dictator, you know me
better than that. Come on dude, we’ve been best friends since grade school.
What’s changed?”

“I
just think this should be a group thing, not just based on what you want or
think we should do.” He had a valid point, but I knew how he could get.

“If
I make a decision that is bad for us, call me on it, but until then I think we
need someone to call the shots. We can’t sit around and discuss things in a
committee all the time, especially when shit has to get done.” Nick wasn’t
going to take this lightly, but he would, it would just take time. “And whether
you like it or not, you know I am more level headed then you.”

He
just shook his head. “I’ll take this shed, the other one is back there,” he
gestured towards it before opening the door and walking into the one we were
standing in front of.

“I
know where it is,” I managed to get out before he slammed the door behind him.

The
backyard was pretty dense. There were vehicles all over the place, from cars to
boats, even a pair of dump trucks. And in between all those were trees and
bushes that made it look like nobody had been back here in years.

The
outbuilding was covered in vines, and had a particularly thick shrub next to
it. Travelling alone for so long had made me cautious. I drew my sidearm and
clicked off the safety. Something was rustling the leaves in the shrub. I gave
it a wide birth, keeping my ears and eyes open in case something else snuck up
on me.

I
took another step and saw it was a squirrel eating something. I let out a sigh,
but then immediately did a 360 to make sure nothing else would grab me in my
moment of relief. Maybe I’d just seen too many movies.

The
shed was packed, but most of the tools were rusted out and probably older then
my dad. I did see a couple of machetes that might come in handy. I spent a few
more minutes digging through the tools, but there was nothing that we needed.

I
shut the shed door behind me and walked up to the shed Nick was digging
through. He opened the door as I reached for the handle. We both jumped in
surprise. “I found the bolt cutters,” he held them up to show me. He sounded a
bit defeated, but it was probably because of our argument.

 “Look
man, we’re all stressed out here,” I half apologized. “I didn’t mean to,”

“Yeah
you did,” he cut me off. “It’s not like anything’s changed, we argued before
all of this, why wouldn’t we now?”

He
was right, we didn’t always agree on everything, but we never let it get to us
like it was now. “There wasn’t much in the other shed that we could use, just a
couple of old machetes that need sharpening. I’m headed to the garage next, and
keep an eye out. Don’t let one of them sneak up on you.”