The Saga Of Tom Stinson (Book 1): Summer School Zombocalypse (10 page)

Anidea panicked, “The door. The back door. We didn’t close the back door. See the light.”

The zombies were on them before they could react, trapping them against the front of the store.

Winston and Emmett charged the closest zombie with their hatchets, swinging wildly. Eddie lunged forward into battle. Tom stepped up and shot it in the head.

Eddie cried, “There’re too many.”

The only direction to go to get away was up the stairs, but there was no way out from there.

Jerrell ran upstairs. “We have to hide!”

“
Don’t run!” Tom called after Jerrell, but it was no time to try to stop him.

Eddie grabbed onto the security gate. “Help me lift this,” he pulled.

Without power, the motor of the gate worked against them, making it difficult to lift.

“
We have to get him,” Winston yelled, and called for Jerrell to come back.

They were only able to lift the gate up a foot. Tom knew that he could squeeze under it, but not Eddie. He had to make a choice; leave with the twins and Anidea or stay and fight. He couldn’t tell how many zombies were coming into the store. Fear made his choice. He called to Winston and Emmett to get out and yelled for Anidea to follow them.

Eddie strained to hold the gate up with one hand. “Give me that gun you got. I’ll keep them busy. Now go, and don’t look back.”

Putting the gun in Eddie’s hand, Tom said he was sorry and started to wiggle under the gate. Zombies fell on Eddie. He held onto the gate as long as he could, but had to let go to fight.

The gate dropped down on Tom’s thighs, pinning him. Tom howled in pain. Anidea and the twins tried to lift the gate, but it was too heavy. There were three zombies on Eddie; he strained to break free. He managed to knock two down and with one holding onto his leg, he lifted the gate up just enough for the twins to pull Tom out.

Eddie screamed in pain as the one on his leg bit him and pulled a out chunk of flesh. “Go!” he yelled to Tom and let go of the gate, sealing the exit. They watched him fight, helpless to do anything.

Switching the gun from one hand to the other, Eddie stomped on the head of the zombie that bit him and then punched the next closest zombie, knocking it back and bowling the third one to the ground.

“
That’s it. Come on, now. Come on, that’s it.” he challenged the zombies. More appeared, coming out of the darkness in the store. He raised his gun and moved. Five shots rang out as he hobbled toward the stairs, disappearing into the darkness with the zombies following him.

“
Go!” Tom yelled to Anidea and the twins.

Half a block away Winston stopped. “We have to go back for Jerrell.”

Tom blocked Winston and shook his head. “We have to keep moving, Winston. We can’t stop now.”

“
You didn’t leave me behind,” Winston was getting more assertive, “You helped me.”

“
There’s nothing that we can do to change Jerrell's decision to run and hide. There’s no way he could have survived. I’m sorry.”

Anidea’s lip trembled, and tears ran down her face.

“
You didn’t even like him, Anidea,” Emmett said.

“
I didn’t, but what if it was me? He ran upstairs. We had to leave him. We didn’t have a choice.”

“
Let’s get him, Tom,” Winston stood his ground.

“
We can’t. There’s too many of them in the store for us to go in after him.”

“
Only a fool would try,” Anidea said. “I wouldn’t risk it.”

“
I’m going to get him,” Winston said, and pushed past Tom.

Tom grabbed Winston by his backpack and pulled him off balance in an attempt to stop him.

Winston half fell, but spun around and broke Tom’s grip. “What about Jerrell?”

“
Don’t be crazy Winston,” Emmett said. “I liked him too.”

“
If Eddie and Jerrell made it into the office they will be safe,” Tom said, “That’s what we have to think.”

“
It’s not fair that you left Jerrell and that guy in the store,” Winston said. “Would you leave us behind too, just to get to your dad?”

“
His name was Eddie,” Tom bellowed in response to Winston. “He was my dad’s best friend. Do you think it was easy for me to leave?”

Emmett stepped close to Winston and put his hands on his shoulders. “You can’t go back there. We’re going to find mom, remember? She’s more important than Jerrell.”

Winston sniffled and nodded.

Anidea’s eyes widened, and she reached out to touch Tom’s arm. “Tom, you’re bleeding.”

“
Doesn’t hurt. Must have gotten cut on the gate.”

“
But it’s bleeding,” Anidea said.

Tom peeled his shirt sleeve back, coagulated blood stuck to the cloth, revealing the gash. “It’s just a scratch.”

“
We need to go someplace safe where we can take care of you.”

“
What about the police station?” Emmett suggested. “Police stations are safe.”

“
I still think we should go back,” Winston said.

Anidea held tightly onto Tom’s arm, and he winced from the pressure. “It’s this way,” she said, pulling him in the direction of the police station.

“
No,” Tom said. “We’re going to the school. That’s where my dad is.”

Anidea’s face twisted, and Tom yelped as she squeezed his arm tighter. “School?” she said, “Not that I have complained much, but we need to run away far far away. Not just charge off back to the school where you think your dad might possibly be. You can’t only think of yourself. We can’t just keep going and going, chasing after your dreams.”

“
Eddie said that’s where my dad went and that’s where we are going.”

Anidea let go of Tom’s arm, wiped his blood off her hands onto his shirt, and turned and walked away toward the police station. “I’ve had it. You’re too self-centered to deal with.”

“
I’m going to the station too,” Emmett said and turned to go with Anidea. “She’s right. We need to rest.”

“
We have to stick together,” Tom said to Winston. “Come on then, help me get this bandaged, and we’ll go get Jerrell.”
Winston was the one who followed directions. Winston wouldn’t leave him.
“
I took you guys to your house to get your dad. Anidea, I saved you from your grandpa, you all owe me.”

Winston shook his head at Tom and handed him the first aid kit. “We voted. This is a democracy,” he said then turned and jogged after Emmett and Anidea.

Tom blew up. “After all I have done for you. All I sacrificed to make sure you survived. If I hadn’t put you first, I would have found my dad by now. Serves me right for trusting you. Go ahead, then. Now it’s time to get down to business and make things happen. No more slowing me down!”

If he was going to get to the school alone, he would need another car. It would be safer. There were plenty of cars, just not enough keys. He went to the first car and then the next in search, but he didn’t find any keys. The third car’s driver’s side door was open, and he hopped in and checked under the visor and the seat. He came up with nothing. A bike, he thought, he could just ride past the zombies and get to school, but the bike store was six blocks back.

In the distance the unmistakable chopping of a helicopter’s blades cut the air. Tom got out. “Wait,” he shouted after Anidea and the twins. “Helicopter!”

They were half a block away and stopped. Emmett was the first one to see as two helicopters flew into view. They emerged, flying low and slow just above the trees. He jumped up and down and waved his arms to get their attention. Anidea and the twins ran back. “Over here! Over here!”

“
Are they here to rescue us?” Anidea asked, hopefully. Visions of rescue and of being in a comfortable bed with people waiting on her clouded her eyes. How they would comfort her,
‘
Oh, you poor dear.’

She imagined all the things that they would give her, because she was one of the only survivors of the
Incident at Taylorville
. The helicopters flew within two blocks of them and stopped, hovering just above the buildings. Fire and smoke erupted from missile racks at their sides. The roar was intense, they fired what Tom thought must be everything they had.

“
They’re shooting in the direction of the school,” Emmett said.

“
What are they shooting at?” Winston yelled.

“
Over here! Over here!” Anidea waved her arms in the air, hoping to get their attention.

“
They’re not going to see us. They are too busy to notice us kids,” Emmett said.

The air tinged green around the helicopters and dark beams streaked across the sky, hitting them. They both disappeared in a single flash of darkness.

“
What was that?” Anidea said, her voice sounding out over the sudden silence. The helicopters disappeared so fast that all that remained was the cloud of smoke from the weapons fire rolling away on the breeze.

“
Well, they’re not going to rescue us now,” Tom said. “The police station is a good idea.”

“
It is aliens,” Emmett said. “Everything Jerrell said makes sense now.”

Anidea’s voice cracked, “They were going to rescue us.”

Tom shook his head. “Anidea, no. I’m sorry, but no one has any idea that we are alive.”

Throwing her pack on the ground, she said, “They were. I know they were.”

She had nowhere to turn for comfort, and with her grandpa gone, she had no one left. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she reached out for Tom.

“
Don’t,” he said, and stepped back.

She ran straight to him, threw her arms around him and held onto him tightly. “You’re the only person I know left alive.”

With no real choice, Tom put an uncertain arm around her. It was uncomfortable, and she blubbered uncontrollably. It was also gross. Her nose ran and her tears made his shirt wet. She was the first girl that he ever held as close, and she was a mess.

Instinctively he looked around to see if anyone could see. He hoped that the twins wouldn’t laugh at him. It was embarrassing, and he let go of her. He didn’t know what to do in this type of situation. Then he thought that he should say something, girls like to talk. That’s what his dad told him once. He breathed deeply and tried to think of something nice to say.

Cupping her face in his hands, he caught her eyes with his and whispered to her. “We’re going to give this a shot. We’re going to make it through. I don’t know how, but we are. I promise you that.”

“
Really?” she hiccuped-sniffed and brushed her hair back.

“
Yes,” he said, keeping his answer as short as possible. Anything to quiet her. “Your idea is good. Let’s go to the station.”

The police station was two blocks away and also served as the county lock up. They stood in front; abandoned police cars blocked steps to the main entrance. It wasn’t good. The public entrance door was held open by a wheelchair. Tom grasped the handles and pulled it free, holding the door open with his foot. A cloud of flies billowed out. Tom leaned into the police station, “Hello?”

“
What are you doing?” Emmett pulled Tom back.

“
It’s our plan. If there are any zombies there, they’ll come and greet us. We won’t be trapped inside.”

“
I suppose,” Winston said.

“
See, all’s quiet,” Tom said. Anidea and the twins hesitated as he ushered them in. “You can’t be afraid, this is what you wanted.”

It wasn’t the safe haven that they thought it would be. Inside the door they reeled from the smell. In the dim light they saw that there had been a massacre. Both Winston and Emmett’s hands went to their mouths as they buckled over and spewed their lunches out between their fingers. Anidea gasped and wretched as she turned toward the door. Tom held her hair.

Emmett wiped his mouth, “We can’t stay here.”

“
At least it smells better in here now,” Tom laughed. “This was your guys’ plan. You want to try mine now?”

“
If you could put yourself in my shoes for one second you’d know that I’m leaving,” Anidea said.

“
We’re sticking to it. Don’t you leave.”

“
I want to leave town, not hide in a mortuary.”

Across the room bodies lay, together and apart. The room was divided into individual scenes of horror, each one telling its own story. Some held onto the grips of their guns with the barrels still in their mouths, their bodies lay crumpled where they had fallen. Others seemed to have collapsed holding onto each other in a deathly embraces, arms over each other’s shoulder with guns in their hands. Several that were not in uniform were lined up kneeling against the wall, their hands bound with zip ties.

In a corner, one body’s head was missing completely, Tom read the blood stained name tag pinned to its chest: J. Rick. If Officer Rick hadn’t given him a break after the garage door incident this could have been him. “You shouldn’t have ended up like this,” Tom said to Rick’s corpse,” and felt himself tearing up. “Thank you for not busting me.”

His toes wiggled uncontrollably in his shoes, and his arms shook. He couldn’t let the others see, he had to be strong. He was going to make them work as payback for his unrecognized sacrifices. No matter how terrified they were, they would have to do as he said. The room was full of tools that they needed.

Pointing to the figures on the floor in torn blue uniforms he set them to work. “Get it together,” he ordered. “Don’t leave. There’s a pistol, so grab it. Get the gear. We need as much as you can carry. See the bullets on their belts, get them too. Those are the most important.”

Tom picked up a police radio and turned it on; it hissed with static. He felt like a silent observer as he watched Anidea and the twins go through the bodies’ pockets. He dropped the radio on the floor and walked around the room looking at the dead.

“
Why didn’t the police turn into zombies?” Emmett asked.

“
We need to hurry, something here isn’t right,” Tom said. “See how their bodies are spread out.”

Then he realized with horror that the police actually shot themselves and each other. What thoughts ran through their minds? Were they scared into doing this, or had they just given up? Had they been remembering the people who they loved the most and known that what they were doing was better than becoming zombies? Some of the bodies eyes were wide open, like they might have begged to be spared from the decision. But in the end, as a group they decided that it was their way out. They had killed each other seeking the ultimate escape.

A gunshot rang out in the room. Tom ducked reactively. He spun around to locate the shooter. “Who fired?” he asked as Anidea and the twins ran to the door. They were shaking their heads that it wasn’t them. “If you didn’t, then who did?” Tom held them at the door with his question.

“
Someone else must be here,” Emmett said.

Another shot rang out. Ducking, Emmett, Anidea, and Winston ran to the door.

Tom saw it had come from Rick’s body. Rick’s gun was still in his hand, his finger wrapped around the trigger. His body twitched and his gun fired again.

Tom jumped back as the bullet flew wild, then stepped forward and kicked the gun away. He needed to know how it was able to fire a gun when he had been dead for days. He poked Rick’s body with his foot. Escaping gas hissed and popped as purple and green tendrils covered in jellied pus writhed out from the stump of Rick’s neck.

The tendrils shivered on the floor and the neck stump pulsed. Tom covered his mouth, and he held his breath as waves of putrid tuna hot pockets hooked into his nose.

Worms, the biggest worms he had ever seen, wound out onto the floor. His stomach clenched sending its contents to the back of his throat. He held his mouth shut and resisted the urge to throw up. He turned away and closed his eyes for a second to steady himself.

Anidea and the twins were outlined by the light from beyond the doorway. “What did you see?”

Standing up straight, he stepped out of the shadows, “Come look at this.”

Winston called from the door. “No way. I’m not stupid.”

“
We can go now, right?” Anidea held her pack across her chest like a baby, it bristled with guns and ammunition. “Did we get what you wanted from here?”

“
The better plan is to leave,” Emmett said.

They had gathered an abundance of guns and ammunition. Winston was weighed down from all that he had taken; he struggled to stand.

“
You still have to run, Winston,” Tom pulled Winston’s pack from his shoulders. “Put down a couple of those guns.”

Outside, with gun belts crisscrossing their chests and their pockets filled with ammunition, they were fully armed and ready to go.

The trees shifted from a sudden squall of cool wind and the smell of rain cut through the heat. Tom breathed deeply in the cooling air. Winston held up and jingled a set of keys to get Tom’s attention. “I bet these will work on one of the cruisers here.”

“
Good thinking,” Tom nodded to Winston and pointed down the street with his gun. “Now we go to school.”