Journal of the Undead (Book 1): Littleville Uprising (18 page)

Emma nodded though she was not entirely sure she’d be strong enough. Turning, Evan signaled for Tyler and Emma to follow him. A blockade of students had lined up in front of the door in an effort to keep anyone, or anything,
from entering the stairwell.

“Let us through,” Evan ordered.

“Are you nuts? Do you know what’s out there?”

“Do you know what’s upstairs? Just let us pass and you can go right back to your barricade, okay?”

A few students stepped aside, unblocking only one of the double doors. Evan, Emma, and Tyler squeezed through a tiny crack in the doorway to the main floor hall.

“We’ve got to find Matt.” Emma’s voice sounded determined, in spite of her fears.

She clutched the ax so tightly her knuckles turned white as she tiptoed down the hall. Evan and Tyler flanked her on either side. An eerie moan echoed down the hall, the telltale sign that they were about to encounter more zombies.

“Stay close, Emma, and remember what I told you. Destroy the brain.”

Half-eaten, mangled remains of unfortunate victims were splattered across the hallway. Slipping on what appeared to be a partially chewed kidney, Tyler fell into the lockers with a crash. Looking down, he noticed slimy guts caked into the tread of his shoes. His face lost color and he closed his eyes. Unable to hold it back, he leaned forward and a flood of vomit splashed to the floor.

“Are you alright?” Emma said with concern.

“Yeah, fine. Thanks.” Tyler wiped his mouth and tried to smile.

From an adjacent hallway, the undead shuffled into sight. All wearing the same vacant expression as Mr. Raybach and Ms. Collins, they shambled toward their prey.

“This was a bad idea. Let’s go back to the stairs,” Tyler suggested. As the only one without a weapon, he did not consider it to be a cowardly statement.

“We can’t. Look.” Evan pointed out two more zombies who had caught their scent and were on the way from behind the trio.

“We can outrun them. Emma, take my hand. We’ll cut down the hallway, past the teacher’s lounge and out the emergency exit,” Tyler strategized as he reached for Emma’s hand, but she jerked away.

“I’m not leaving without Matt. If you want to leave, be my guest.”

“Emma, be reasonable. We don’t know where Matt is or if he’s even still ali… .” Tyler’s voice trailed off as he saw Emma’s look of determination had melted into horror.

Tears trickled down her cheeks. Angry with Tyler, Evan spun Emma around and looked deep into her eyes.

“Don’t listen to him. Matt knows what to do and he’s probably looking for us right now. You and I will find him. But right now, you’ve got to focus because we’ve got company.”

Evan pushed her behind him and lunged forward, swinging his crowbar at the head of the largest zombie. Knocking the reanimated corpse to the ground, Evan unleashed a flurry of crushing blows to its head. Eventually the crunching sounds were replaced with a soft, thick thud. Having the height advantage on the next zombie, Evan’s blows were quick to penetrate the skull.

“I think he’s a teller at my bank,” Tyler muttered incredulously, pointing at the man.

Emma charged at the teller and, swinging her ax like a baseball bat, managed to slice off the top of his scalp. The chunk of skull soared through the air like a bloody foul tip. The force of the blow sent the uncoordinated creature reeling into Evan. Both fell to the floor as Evan’s crowbar flew from his hands and clanked down the hall. The bank teller’s jaws snapped hungrily and Evan used all of his might to try to push the rotund man away. Tyler had snatched the ax from Emma’s hands and battled what was once a UPS driver.

“Tyler! You have to help Evan!”

“I’m a little busy right now.”

Emma riffled through her bag looking for something to use as a weapon. Interlacing car keys between her fingers, as she had learned in self-defense class, Emma charged at the bank teller. Mustering every ounce of strength, she punched as hard as she could at the section of pulsing brain left exposed by her ax blow. With a squelching
thunk
, Emma’s fist connected and her keys lodged into the sponge-like tissue. The body dropped lifelessly as Emma pulled her keys from its brain. A dark, viscous fluid oozed from the wound and puddled on the recently waxed floor.

Emma struggled to roll the cumbersome body over as Evan wriggled out from underneath the dead weight. Evan sprang to his feet, picked up his crowbar, and scanned the area.

“Thanks,” he muttered.

When he saw Emma’s fist still clutching the keys spiked through her fingers and dripping with cranial fluid and chunks of brain tissue, he draped his arm over Emma’s shoulders and led her to the water fountain to rinse the gore from her hands.

Larger bits of brain caught in the mesh drain cover bobbed up and down in the water. Evan wet the bottom of his shirt and tried to wipe away some of the caked blood on Emma’s face, but he only managed to smear it more. Tyler joined them at the water fountain. Seeing brain fragments floating in the drain, he opted to skip the drink. Forcefully, Evan tore the ax from Tyler’s hands and gave it back to Emma.

“Go find your own. This one is Emma’s. If you take it from her again I’ll bury it in your skull,” Evan snarled, then calmly turned to Emma and smiled. “You’ve got quite a swing there, slugger. Listen, you’ll have better luck if you come down like you’re chopping wood instead of trying to bat one out of the ballpark, okay?”

Emma blushed and Evan’s smile widened.

“C’mon, let’s go find Matt,” Tyler blurted out, threatened by their chemistry. “Coach had the guys stay behind to help move that truck so maybe he’s near the front lobby.”

With new direction, the three jogged toward the scene of the crash in hopes of finding Matt. As they drew closer to the lobby, there were students and teachers running in every direction. Swelling into a bizarre crescendo, the lobby was filled with a symphony of students’ shrieks, faculty shouting, and guttural moans from the invaders. With the doors shattered, there was no way to keep out the flesh-eating threat.

An authoritative voice coming from the direction of the gym barked orders into the microphone. The voice commanded everyone to climb to the top of the bleachers where they would be safer.

“Matt!” Evan and Emma said simultaneously.

Taking Emma’s hand, Evan sprinted through the lobby to the entrance of the gym. Tyler glumly followed, wishing they had opted to make a run for his car instead. Matt was in the back corner of the gym bludgeoning the undead with his own crowbar. Emma wondered when he and Evan had started hiding crowbars in the school. She assumed they’d stashed a multitude of them around the school for safekeeping.

From the top of the bleachers, Jake saw Emma enter holding Evan’s hand. Outraged, he stormed down shouting profanities and insults the entire way. Fury had blinded him to the blood and gore covering Emma from head to toe. Jake shoved bodies out of his way, attempting to clear the way to his cheating girlfriend. A paunchy, undead construction worker blocked Jake’s path so he punched the monster in the stomach. Jake had fully expected it to crumble, completely unaware zombies cannot feel pain. Instead, the corpse’s massive hands snapped like a steel trap around Jake’s throat. Crushing Jake’s larynx, the thick thumbs of the construction worker plunged through skin and muscle to rip a gaping hole in his throat. It proceeded to shovel flesh into its voracious mouth. A shorter, stockier version of the previous worker joined the feast, sinking his tobacco-stained teeth deep into Jake’s back. It tore strips of flesh off the bone like a rabid pit bull.

“Jake!” Emma gasped.

With an overwhelming need to distance herself from the carnage, Emma raced across the floor. She desperately wanted to grab Matt and get out of there. Evan and Tyler were hot on her heels, shouting for her to wait up. Emma, however, was screaming Matt’s name and could not hear anything but the pounding of her own heart. Matt turned and saw Emma covered with viscera. Tears streamed down her face and Matt feared that she had been attacked. Emma launched herself into Matt’s arms and sobbed.

“Emma! Emma, are you hurt? Were you attacked?”

She was sobbing too hard to answer. Evan and Tyler caught up a moment later and Evan assured him that Emma had not been harmed. Matt nodded.

“Wanna use escape plan A or plan B, Evan?”

“We really need to get outta here … Now!” Tyler insisted.

“We’re working on that!” Evan’s patience with Tyler had reached its limit.

“Enough talk, man! Let’s just go already! This is ridiculous. All we need to do is shuffle and moan right along with them just like in
Shawn of the Dead
, right, Emma?”

“You’re an idiot! You’ll get yourself killed like that.”

“Let’s go, Emma,” Tyler ordered as he firmly gripped her hand.

“If you want to go, no one’s stopping you, but there is
no way
Emma’s going on your suicide mission!” Matt raged.

Tyler rolled his eyes before turning his back on them. He shuffled off, moaning like the monsters surrounding them. Picturing an Academy Award in his future, Tyler lumbered past a few zombies unnoticed. Shaking his head, Matt pointed.

“No way! It’s working.”

“No, it’s not. Tyler! RUN!” Emma shrieked but it was too late.

Tyler had meandered deep into the horde and was completely surrounded. Emma buried her face in Matt’s shoulder and wept as Tyler’s screams echoed through the gymnasium. Certain that Tyler’s death had been her fault, Emma’s knees buckled. Feeling wobbly, she sat on the floor to catch her breath.

“My fault, it’s all my fault,” Emma sobbed, hugging her knees tightly to her chest. Ever since the death of her mother, dealing with that one inevitable part of life had always been a struggle for her. It was one of the main reasons the Wexley twins had never had any pets.

Dropping to a crouch beside her, Evan and Matt both tried to reassure her that she could not be blamed for Tyler’s stupidity. Hoisting Emma to her feet, the boys worked on a new escape plan. Knowing she had nothing to contribute, she stared blankly at the monsters terrorizing her school, tears streaming down her cheeks. Evan feared if they didn’t get out of there soon, Emma might go into shock. She hadn’t been warned about the possibilities of a real uprising, instead believing it was just a horror movie theme.

Together the three of them slipped through the door to the boys’ locker room and down the narrow hall to the parking lot. By then the parking lot was packed with fire trucks and police cars trying to organize the chaos.

“You there, get back inside!” a burly police officer shouted.

Breaking into a sprint, they bounded through the parking lot. The officer started to chase them, but was deterred by terrified freshmen pleading for his help. Matt jumped into the car and revved the engine to life. Evan climbed into the passenger seat then pulled Emma onto his lap. Once the door slammed shut, Matt shot out of the parking lot and, ignoring all traffic signs, raced home.

Not waiting for the car to stop, Emma leaped out once the tires touched the driveway. Evan shouted and Matt was so startled that he crashed into the garage door.

“Damn! Emma, wait,” Matt shouted, charging after her.

He was so worried he didn’t even bother turning the engine off. Without knowing what horrors could be inside, Matt and Evan had planned to secure their surrounding first. By charging inside Emma had thwarted their careful plans. They had no choice but to throw caution to the wind and chase after her.

Alarmed by the loud crash, Dr. Wexley had cautiously crept down the stairs to investigate. A wave of relief washed over Emma at the sight of her father. She ran up the stairs, throwing her trembling body into his arms. Seeing his daughter covered in gore terrified him.

“Oh no! Emma, honey? No ... not you too!” Alan groaned. “Not my baby.”

“No sir, she’s okay. That’s not her blood,” Evan quickly explained.

“Oh, thank God!”

“Um, Dad what did you mean,
not
you too
?”

“Well, apparently it wasn’t a mugger that attacked Jillian the other day. She’s … she’s gone.”

“Jillian is gone?” Emma raced up the stairs, unable to believe the news.

“Emma, NO!” all three shouted after her.

Emma stood over the bed where Jillian lay with a single bullet hole through her forehead. The familiar-looking viscous fluid oozed from the wound, matted Jillian’s hair, and stained the sheets.

Not again,
Emma moaned in silent grief.
For the first time since her mother died, Emma had finally allowed a motherly figure into her life and now she’d lost two maternal members of her family.

Feeling her legs turn to jelly, Emma eased herself onto the edge of the bed. Only then, when Alan reached the room, did Emma notice the small handgun clenched in her father’s hand.

“Daddy?” Emma’s voice trembled as she gawked at the gun in his hand.

Waiting until Matt and Evan joined them, Alan explained what had happened before they had arrived.

“I had gone to the base early this morning to get a head start. Jillian was still sleeping when I left. I was in the middle of testing when Colonel Ripley and a pair of MPs came in. He told me I needed to evacuate the lab and until further notice; non-military personnel would not be permitted on base. Apparently, the entire base was being deployed to fight these
things.
Evan, your dad was sent out with the first squad. The MPs stood there waiting for me to pack up my belongings to escort me off the premises. The colonel is a fine man though; he’s the one who gave me this gun.”