They Walk (42 page)

My wrists ache as I rub them, and I hope they don’t affect the accuracy of my swing.

Speaking of that, I need my ax back.

Leaving me to my own defenses, my mother goes over to the table with the others and begins digging through all the weapons. Feeling left out, I make my way over there, and I actually don’t yell out when my back tighten up on me.

Yep, that’s me, girl with nerves of steel.

At the table, I see what I need to feel better. Picking up the ax and having its weight back in my hands, I feel oddly safer. Gabe is to my right and my dad on my left, with my mom right beside him and we all continue to grab what we can, and not being picky with getting stuff that wasn’t ours in the first place.

Gabe glances at me briefly, when he straps on a shoulder holster that is already loaded with two new looking glocks. I don’t think he had those yesterday, oh well, finders keepers and all that.

“
We are going to have to fight through all the people out in the hallway you know.” Gabe says quietly.

The three of us still our movements, and we stare at him dumbly. Or I do anyway.

“
There are over thirty people out there. How can we go through them all?” My father admits.

I know what we have to do, and so does Gabe, which is why he keeps his head lowered as he avoids looking at my dad. I don’t avoid such things though, and I give him my best severe glare.

“
What else can we do dad? It’s them or us, and I for one choose us. We don’t really have the time to sit down for tea, and have a chat about letting us leave.”

He does his best to not glare back at me, and I have to give him props when he doesn’t yell at me either. It’s a red letter day when a girl yells at her dad and he lets her do it. My mom however, doesn’t have such qualms and gives me the look of death. It would be a lot scarier if I didn’t know what was waiting for us outside the school.

“
Your both right, it just doesn’t make it any easier.” My dad says, cutting off my mother’s Darth Raider glare.

Glancing away from them, I find that Gabe is rubbing the back of his neck with his hands and too hard too as his knuckles are bone white. He’s thinking about something though, so I don’t interrupt his own attacks on himself. Dropping his hands, he gives us a very guilty and sad look at the same time. Before he even picks up his stolen satchel that he got from Noah’s car, I know what he is intending to do. I have to admit, it’s smart. He pulls out a grenade and holds it out to us.

My mother and father both gasp at about the same time, and give Gabe a disgusted look.

“
We can’t do that Gabriel, that’s murder.” My father says adamantly.

Gabe’s face goes red and I can see his anger form behind his eyes. When he opens his mouth, in what I know to be a verbal attack on my dad, I cut him off.

“
Dad, you have to know that it’s the only way. We tried to tell these men what is coming and they refused to listen. They’re followers aren’t going to listen either, and we don’t have the luxury of time on our side.”

I can see my words sinking into my dad, but he still doesn’t like the idea and neither does my mom for that matter.

“
Mark, it’s a crummy situation I know, but Maggie is right about running out of time. We need to get out of here as fast as we can and get to Daniel. It has to be no stops until go, or we’re screwed.” Gabe offers up quickly.

With a sigh, my dad nods and my mother follows suit, though I do notice she won’t meet my eyes.

We all then gather what we can to stock up, me with my trusty ax and a pretty new little gun, that I’m sure has a name but I don’t know it. I also get a new ankle holster for two wicked looking knives, and I must admit, I feel pretty badass myself. I only hope I can stay standing to use any of this stuff. Gabe has the two guns in the holster as well as his own ankle holsters for some knives, and he now has a shotgun thrown over his shoulder next to the satchel he is already carrying. My dad has his own holsters with guns, and knives and so does my mother.

Fully armed, we all make our way to the double doors of the gym and I am so glad no one has come in to check on the guys. Speaking of the guys, I think I notice Vin struggling to wake up. I pick up my step, and urge the others to do the same. Seeing Vin nearly conscious makes them move quickly, and before I can say Paul Walker, we’re at the doors. Not waiting another second, Gabe gets a grenade in his hands from the satchel and we all hold our breath as Gabe yanks open one of the doors.

There are a dozen men still out there, I guess guarding the doors?

Nice job dudes.

They yell in alarm when they see us and not they’re bosses. Gabe pulls out the clip hastily with ease and tosses the armed grenade out the door and into the mass of people. Ignore they’re cries of terror Gabe steps back quickly into the gym and yanks the door shut with him. As soon as I hear the loud resounding boom, we all fall to the ground, almost expecting the explosion to tear through the doors. It doesn’t though. Instead the whole foundation of the school shutters and groans from the explosion, and the door still stays in one piece.

Nice craftsmanship that.

Chapter Seventy Two

We all get to our feet, when the floor finally stops shaking, and I admit that my ears are ringing again.

Gabe steadies me as I struggle to get my balance, and when he sees that I’m fine, he leaves me for the gym doors. I watch him make his way over to them slowly, and out of the corner of my eyes, I see my parent’s unease over what we will find.

“
Are you all ready for this?” Gabe asks quietly.

When none of us says anything, Gabe opens the door and peers out into the hall, with a heavy sigh, he leaves it open. He turns back to us and steps off to the side, and I get a good look at what we did. There hallway is filled with smoke, and at first I can’t see anything. Once my eyes adjust though, I notice the burnt bodies lining the floor, and most of them are still on fire.

Bile rises up into my throat, and I force myself to not get sick, I mean I’ve seen worse right?

But have I ever cause something like this?

The answer would be no.

I have to breathe through my mouth now too, since the smell of charred flesh is pungent in the hall and it carries quickly towards us. There is no movement from anyone out there, and I guess that would make sense, after all the damage is pretty severe. The lockers are all bent at an awkward angle, and most of the doors were blown open.

Looks like not all the doors were well built.

My parents both look like they are going to be sick, but thankfully neither one does, I wouldn’t be able to take if they were either. Looking grave, Gabe faces the open gym door again and this time he pulls out one of the guns.

“
Let’s get out of here.”

He raises it up defensively and immediately heads for the opening. With nothing else to do, my parents and I follow close behind him. I grip my ax tightly in my hands, and pray that I don’t drop it because of my sweating palms. I’m directly behind Gabe, with my parents behind me, and I’m glad that they too have drawn out their guns. We can’t know for sure if everyone is down for the count, not that it’s a good thing to hope that they are, we’re not complete monsters.

When I cross the threshold of the gym doors, I hold my breath and follow Gabe as he weaves around the bodies. Staying close to him, I don’t glance behind me to see if my parents are keeping up, I’m too busy looking down. As I don’t want to step on anyone and I wish I didn’t have to, all it does is give me a better view of what we’ve done and it’s not pretty by any means. The hallway seems longer this time, and it feels like it takes forever just to go a couple steps. But eventually, Gabe is reaching the exit doors, and my entire being gears up in relief and I let myself relax a little. I watch as Gabe is reaching for the doors, and when he is just pushing them open I hear the popping sound of gunfire.

It radiates through the silent hallway, and it makes Gabe and I spin around in alarm to face behind us.

I am halfway turned around preparing to search out who shot at us, when I see something that pulls me up short. It’s my mother. She is the only one of us, who isn’t turning around, and instead her body is arched up and her eyes are wide in surprise. I notice then that there is a red spot swelling through her shirt on her right shoulder, and for a moment I don’t know who is more confused her or me.

Gabe and my father are both yelling and shooting back down the hall. And I realize there is movement at the end of the hallway where we just came from, but I don’t pay it any attention. Because my mother suddenly begins to wheeze and she jerks as if she is just getting shot now, and she falls towards me.

I catch her to me and look up in time to see that one of Gabe or my dad’s bullets took out the shooter, who happened to be Vin Diesel. They hurry back to my mother and me, as he falls to the ground motionless.

“
What was that? Karen, are you alright?” My dad says.

All she does in response is to groan in pain, and as I support her still, I can start to feel her blood soaking through my hoody. I share a frightened look with my dad, and I know he is just as worried as I am.

“
She was shot.” Gabe says darkly. “How bad is it Maggie?”

He and my father get closer to my mother and I, and she is quivering in my arms now.

Feeling tears in my eyes, I let them help me ease her back so we can check the damage. She cries out from the movement and I can’t stop the tears as they fall in waves, when I see all the blood coating her shoulder. It is running down her arm, and already is pooling at her feet, and it can’t be good that she is paling quickly. Sharing a look with the guys, it pretty much goes unsaid that it is bad, and we need to get the hell out of dodge and fast.

“
I don’t feel very good.” My mom whispers, oh so quietly.

She is leaning on my dad now, and he and Gabe are just standing there is shock, so I rip off my hoody and gently press it to her bleeding shoulder. She cries out again, but doesn’t pull away, her eyes droop a little though and I know it’s a matter of time before she passes out. Gabe wakes up all of a sudden and heads for the exit door again.

“
We have to get to the car before she passes out. I’ll take point, just everyone stay close. Mark can you take the back?” Gabe says over his shoulder, as he doesn’t slow down to wait.

As gently as he can, my dad supports her, while I position myself on her left side and put her arm over my shoulder. She is limp in my arms, but manages to stay standing while I hold on to her tightly. Gabe pushes open the exit door then, and the dark hallway is filled with late afternoon sunlight. My dad wraps my hoody around moms shoulder, and she jerks in pain as he makes sure it’s tight enough to stay on. He then gets behind us, and raises his gun high and waits for Gabe to move. Who is out the door quickly then with his gun raised, and making sure my mother is secure in my arms, we follow close behind him.

I don’t bother wiping away the tears that are still falling.

Just like I try to not let it bother me that my own mother’s blood is soaking through my clothes already.

Chapter Seventy Three

I walk out of the school, while holding onto my mother and force myself to keep it together, as she grows limp in my arms. We follow Gabe down steps and I thank any who watch over us, that there aren’t any other people alive out here, at least in the courtyard. I keep thinking over and over what happened and I can’t help beating myself up for not making sure Vin was knocked out for good. I remember seeing him stir a bit before we even let loose the grenade and we should have done something, and now my mom is shot.

I know one thing for sure, I can’t even think about her not being alright. It has to be right?

All of THIS can’t be for nothing, life isn’t that cruel. Or maybe I’m just being naive, and this is what life really is like. Just one hump after another, and we’re nothing but games pieces that get moved around without a care.

Every step I take into the courtyard and closer to the fence, my arms and legs get weaker. It gets to the point where I’m not sure who is shaking worse, me or my mom. I can’t stop moving though, and I can’t leave her, it’s not even an option. When my head begins to throb like a bongo drum, I bite the inside of my cheek until I taste the metallic tang of my blood.

The instant sting of my cheek takes my mind of my aching body, and securing a better hold, I carry my mother and me after Gabe where he finally reached the fence. Only, we have a new set of problems. Apparently, while we have been inside fighting with the living, the dead have gathered at the fence.

Gabe stops right in front of the fence, and covers his face with his hands and hunches over on himself. Just from being so close, the dead are already rushing at the fence, and the whole thing quivers under their attacks. I don’t know what we are going to do here, there has to be over twenty of them out there. My dad catches up while hovering over my mother, and takes some of her weight off of me. When Gabe turns back to us with worried eyes, my dad takes his own worry from my mother and glares at Gabe.

“
What are we waiting for, we have more grenades right?”