The Z Word (A Zombie Novel) (13 page)

Chapter Forty One

We stepped softly on the carpeted floor, and were faced with aisles of tall bookshelves and a huge computer room in the back.

"Stay behind me," I whispered to Clare. We crept down an aisle and I took a quick, nervy look around the corner and down the next aisle. "Where did you see this person?" I continued to whisper.

Clare pointed behind her. "The other side of the room. Under a desk."

I stopped creeping and stood up straight. "So why are we going this way?"

"I dunno." She now looked as confused as I was. "I was just following
you
. I thought you were checking the place out first, in case of any nasty surprises."

I turned around and walked back the way I had come from and got on my knees to look under the tables. And there she was, hiding, cowering under the table.

Clare had eventually managed to entice the frightened woman out from under the table, and once we had given the woman something to drink from the water cooler, she began to calm down a little.

Her name was Janet Garrett; she was fifty years old, and had been hiding in the school since Friday. She had only drank water since the disaster, apart from what was left in her sandwich box, and had used the small library toilet when she needed to.

We sat at a table, on plastic chairs, and watched as her hands shook while she continued telling Clare and I her story.

She continued, "When we heard that kids had been attacked, we thought it was someone with a weapon, not necessarily a gunman. I tried the police, but no one was answering and so I ushered the pupils out of the school, and then I returned to make sure the building was completely clear. But not all of the pupils had gone home."

"Then where did they go to?" I asked.

"While I was trying to get them off the grounds, the caretaker had other ideas. He didn't want them exposed in the open air, which I supposed made sense. He told most of the pupils to go into the assembly hall. By this time, most of the teachers had fled, including my husband."

"Your husband?" I asked.

"My husband is the music teacher. His classroom is downstairs, near the assembly hall."

"He just left you in here?" asked Clare, baffled why the man and wife weren't together.

"He phoned the library, told me to get the hell out and he'd meet me back home, because he was giving first aid to a student that had been attacked. We only live a few streets away from the school, so we don't bother bringing the car. Afterwards, he must have assumed that I'd left the school, but I was too frightened to leave once I ushered everyone out, so I hid."

I questioned her, "So where's this assembly hall?"

"Past the foyer; just below us."

"That's right." I shook my head. "We went past it. So there could be kids in there?"

"There
are
still kids in there," she said. "But they've all turned. I could hear the screams from underneath me on the Friday as they turned on one another." She began to sob.

"There was nothing you could do." Clare tried to comfort the woman. "You would have also died."

I nodded in agreement. "By getting those kids out of the grounds, you managed to save some lives." I then shifted in my seat uncomfortably and thought about the kids in the assembly hall. "Do you know if the hall is locked?"

Janet shook her head. "There
is
no lock. That's another reason why I stayed up here."

"Just like climbing stairs, I don't think opening doors is their strong point, but it doesn't matter anyway," I sighed. "A majority of the assembly doors are made of glass, and I've seen these things force their way through glass when they're in numbers."

"Oh God." Janet placed her hand over her mouth, ready to sob.

Clare flashed me a wicked glare, "Nice one. That'll get her moving."

"She has to know the truth." I then realised it wasn't the best thing to say. "Anyway, they've been in there for a couple of days and they haven't escaped yet. As long as we remain quiet..."

"Probably because nothing has aroused their suspicions yet," Clare sniped back.

It appeared that Clare and I were at the beginning stages of a petty argument, but Janet stepped in. "It's okay," said Janet.

Janet Garrett was a scared woman, but her valour of getting her pupils out of the building at the time had overwhelmed me. She kind of reminded me of Patricia Neilson, who made sure the pupils were as safe as they could be when those crazy bastards, Dylan and Eric walked into the Columbine library, armed to their teeth.

"You can't stay here, Janet." I said to the woman. I then told the school librarian a shortened version of my own story and how I met Clare; we also told Janet that the headmaster was still around in the Anson Block with a friend of ours called Kelly. There was no flicker of emotion when I told her that the caretaker had turned into one of those freaks, and I was the individual responsible for smashing his diseased brain to mush.

Janet finally responded. "I know I have to move. I don't want to stay. I'd like to see my husband, if that is possible."

"It will, eventually. Are you ready to go?" I asked her.

She shook her readily and said, "I'm not a hero. The only reason I stayed was because I was scared of leaving."

"Have you let your husband know that you're still at the school?"

She shook her head. "Before my phone went flat, I tried to call, but he never answered. I then tried his mobile, but I couldn't get through to him via text or Facebook."

"Maybe he dropped his phone while running back to your house," Clare said.

Janet nodded. "Or he could have left it in his desk while the panic was taking place. I know he puts it there during his classes."

"He's probably at home, waiting for you."

"I hope so."

Chapter Forty Two

All three of us left the library, and Janet insisted on leaving a different way to the way we arrived. We went though a different set of doors and went down a flight of stairs that led straight into the foyer. To our right was a classroom door. Noticing I was looking at it, a nervous Janet told me that it was the music room where her husband worked.

I tried the door but it was locked.

"Like I said," she said with sadness. "He must have eventually fled home, thinking
I
was there."

"So what are you going to do?" I asked. "You can't go back home alone. You might not make it."

Janet shook with fear and I could see that she wasn't sure that she had the courage to go home anyway. It appeared that her bravery had dissipated once she had helped the kids escape. Once the kids had gone, it was then she began to fear for her life. Maybe it was just the adrenaline at the time. If she really was brave enough to go home, she wouldn't have been hiding in the library in the first place.

We kept our voices to a whisper while in the foyer, and were about to creep out of the main doors of the building, when we heard a thud coming from the music-room door.

At first I thought it had come from the assembly doors to the left of the music room, but it was hard to tell what was happening at all, as we couldn't see a thing. The music-room door was a wooden number and the assembly doors were fitted with glass, but black curtains were drawn from the inside so it was impossible to see in.

Still paranoid that the doors to the assembly area were swing doors, and could be simply opened by giving them a good push, I was eager to move.

I actually thought that putting a load of pupils in a large room that couldn't be locked was a little silly, especially if they thought the school was under attack by gunmen. Maybe the caretaker was only going to use it as a temporary base before phoning the police. I had no idea the thinking behind it, and put his decision down to sheer panic and having limited options at the time.

Another thud could be heard and this time I knew it was coming from the music room. We all glared at it in fright, but nothing more happened.

"Okay, let's go," I whispered.

"Wait," Janet spoke. "There's a small chance that my husband could still be in there. Give me your keys."

I looked at Clare who shook her head. "It's too dangerous, there—"

"Please," begged Janet. "Just have a look. I need to know what's behind the door. I need to know for definite if he went home."

"Right." I lowered my head in defeat, gripping the crowbar tightly. "But if any of them are in there, we're out of here. A quick peep inside and that's it."

I walked over to the door belonging to the music room; it was locked and I took out my keys. Clare and Janet were ten yards behind me, holding hands. When I finally found the key, I tried to be as quiet as I could while opening the lock. I then placed my hand on the metal door handle and winced when it gave off a loud squeak once I had pressed the handle down.

I released a rapid breath then opened the door, only to be immediately startled by a rotting hand scratching at my face, forcing me to release a frightened yelp. The thing groaned at the same time and I dropped the crowbar that hit the wooden floor, which made a loud clatter that echoed through the huge foyer.

I tried to shut the door, but the arm was stopping me from doing so. I released the door, allowing it to open fully, revealing the creature, and I picked up the crowbar and used the straight end to push the thing back into the classroom so I could close the door. But instead, the metal went straight through its stomach.

I quickly pulled it out, trying to ignore the horrible squelching noise, and pushed it over. It groaned louder than ever, which echoed through the foyer and I had now managed to shut the door. I could then hear a dull sound like a swarm of bees, but it was moaning that I could really here. And it was coming from the assembly hall.

"Who was in there, in the music room?" asked Janet.

"Does your husband have a beard, wears glasses?"

"Yes."

"Then Janet, your husband is dead."

I crept away from the music room door and back into the foyer, near where the girls were standing. Instead of running outside and locking up the main doors, all three of us stood in a shocked silence and watched as the cracks appeared in the glass of the assembly doors, and some of them were being slowly pushed open, probably by the sheer force of the numbers from inside.

We should have ran straight away, but it wasn't until the glass shattered, almost in unison, that we ran as the things spilled out through the doors in their dozens.

As soon as we fled and had got outside, I turned to lock the main doors, but there were already fifty or so in the foyer, and more were behind.

We ran from the main building and headed back to the Anson Block. We were only yards away from the Anson Block when Janet stopped running. "I need to go home."

"You can't go now," I pleaded.

Clare snarled, "Hurry the fuck up, those cunts are coming out in their hundreds."

I looked over Janet's shoulder to see a horde of the dead coming through the main doors, dressed in school uniforms, and now shambling in our direction.

"I'm sorry," Janet said, and ran away from us, heading for the school gates.

"Leave her," Clare said. "She might distract them."

We entered the block with our full bags and I knew that the doors were going to have to be sorted soon. Some headed our way, but others did actually follow Janet towards the gates as Clare predicted, which helped to dilute the crowd.

"And what about the doors to
our
block?" Clare asked.

"I don't think they have the ability to open doors."

"You don't
think
?"

"Let's go upstairs and see Ellis and Kelly, then we can see if there's a way to block them off. Don't forget they're swing doors, and they swing out the way. So even if we block the two entrances off from the inside, it doesn't prevent them from opening the door and forcing their way through whatever barricade we put up."

"I thought you said they can't open doors. Make up your fucking mind."

I sniped back at Clare, "I know about the same as you, potty mouth."

Clare stormed off up the stairs to the first floor, and I followed her.

Chapter Forty Three

As soon as I knocked the door and told Ellis and Kelly we were back, the door was opened.

We'd only been away for thirty minutes but Kelly insisted on giving the pair of us a hug and said, "Thank fuck for tha'. I thought for a minute you two were zombie-lunch. I spent the whole time sittin' against the door since ye crow-barred the lock. For the last few minutes I had a lump in my throat, and not in a good way, I can tell ye."

I looked over to Ellis and said, "Has she been behaving herself?"

He struggled to answer my question, but Kelly took over. It was clear that the return of Clare and I had given her a shot in the arm, and she snickered, "Me and Ellis were talkin' about our favourite sexual positions."

"Well," Ellis stammered. "
You
were."

I laughed. I didn't believe for a second that an elderly, well-educated gentleman like Ellis could be involved in such a conversation, and I came to the conclusion that the tête-à-tête that Kelly was talking about had been one-sided.

Kelly added, "Ellis likes the cowgirl position, but I told him that I like to look at the face o' the man when I'm rockin' his world."

Ellis looked over to me and protested weakly, "I have no idea what a
cowgirl
is, I was just going along with the conversation."

Clare spoke out, "Look we have more things to worry about than sexual positions."

"Why? What is it?" asked Ellis.

Clare looked at me and nodded over to Ellis and Kelly who were standing next to one another. "
You
tell them."

I said, "We've got a bit of bother...."

"A bit?"

Clare wasn't being helpful in this situation, but I tried to continue without making the situation sound too unpromising. I added, "We met a librarian called Janet."

Ellis' eyes widened and a smile was formed on his face; he obviously knew the woman, but never asked where she was.

Kelly shook her head. "I'm confused."

I tried to explain, "Janet told us that the caretaker had put a load of pupils in the assembly hall, because he may have thought that the attacks were from a lone, disgruntled adult or adults of some sort. One of the kids, or more, must have been infected and then they must have turned on one another. Janet then said that she could hear the screaming from underneath her."

Ellis stared wide-eyed in disbelief. "I don't think the assembly hall can be locked."

"No. it wasn't."

"So there was a few of the infected in the hall? Did any pupils escape the school itself?"

I nodded. "Janet said initially that a lot had escaped, but the caretaker had persuaded some to go into the hall at the height of the panic."

"Surely when they began to bite one another in the assembly hall, more must have fled in panic." Clare added, "And didn't the caretaker lock up the doors to the main building?"

I answered, "The pupils that were unharmed must have escaped another way, through a window or another door."

"It is all very confusing," Ellis sighed sadly.

"So what are ye sayin'?" Kelly knew that that wasn't the end of the story; I could tell by the consternation on her face. "There's a shitload of zombie-kids in the main building?"

"Well, this is the strange thing," I paused for a second. "Clare and I never saw any during our trip to the woodwork room and the library. A lot of them came crashing through the assembly hall, into the foyer, and then went through the main doors."

"Meaning?" asked Ellis.

"Meaning, they are outside this block. They followed us back here."

"Well fuck me with a hedgehog," Kelly blurted out. "And what the frig are we supposed to do now?"

Ellis added, "The Anson doors swing out, so it'd be pointless barricading."

"Isn't there anyone with a set of keys for those doors?" asked Clare.

"I don't have keys on me for the Anson Block, but the caretaker should have a set on him," responded Ellis, "wherever he is."

"He's downstairs." It came to me that I still hadn't informed Ellis that I had killed him earlier. "He'd turned. One of the pupils must have got him earlier on."

"So he's in the building?"

"Yep. Downstairs, with half his head missing. We killed him...
it
as soon as we entered the block."

Taking the information in, Ellis spoke with a quaver in his voice. The man looked broken, distraught. "So this situation is hopeless."

"It'll be okay. I'll nip down and get the keys, then lock up the doors." I then turned to Clare, and asked, "Wanna come? Could do with some company."

Clare shrugged, put her hand in the bag and pulled out one of the claw hammers we had taken from the woodwork room. She looked at me and said, "Just in case."

I nodded in agreement. "Better to have something and not need it, than not have something and need it."