When the Dead Rise (Book 1): The Beginning (11 page)

"That's what I was trying to tell you," Marcus snapped, peeling the mic from Maria's hands. He depressed the button, which would activate the system and spoke quickly. "Attention students. There is an emergency outside and we need everyone assemble quickly, but safely, in the gymnasium. We will explain once we have the school secured. If you see anyone acting strangely or attacking someone, please do not approach them. Do not go near the windows. Do not go outside. If you find yourself unable to get to the gym, please take cover in the nearest classroom and someone will be by to collect you as soon as the situation is under control."

Another scream from outside broke the silence in the still hallway. Chaos erupted as students began to push past one another beyond the office doors. "Mr. Tanners?" Maria's voice quavered.

He glared at her. If she'd just allowed him to make his announcement a few moments earlier, perhaps this could have been avoided. "What?" he snapped.

"What do you need me to do?"

"I heard screams. What is going on?" Mr. Hansfield burst from his office.

"I don't have time to explain," Marcus said over his shoulder, turning back to Maria. "I need you to gather any medical supplies you have and head to the gym; contact the school nurse and tell her to do the same. I'm going to run up to the third floor and close all the fire doors I can on my way down. They don't seem to know how doors work, so I'm hoping we can keep them from completely overrunning the school."

"What are you talking about? Who are 'they'?" Mr. Hansfield asked angrily. Marcus turned, ready to explain as best as he could, but his expression must have said enough. Mr. Hansfield's face paled and he waved Marcus away. "Go do what you must, but there'd better be a damn good reason for this Marcus. My school is in chaos because of you."

"Oh there's a good reason," Marcus said, as he hurried back around the counter and out into the chaotic hallway. Some students still stood searching through their lockers while others tried to run through the crowd. "Get to the gym now!" he shouted over the din, as he pushed his way towards the end of the hall.

"Mr. Tanners," someone called from behind him; he spun, searching the pressing crowd for the voice. "Can I do anything to help?"

Marcus spotted Tyler, the basketball team's center, waving over the sea of students. "Close all the fire doors on this level and then get to the gym." Tyler saluted and turned into the crowd around him.

Releasing the doors at the end of the hallway, he pushed through the flood of students coming down the stairs from the third floor. Again, he closed the fire doors at the top of the stairs before heading into the now silent third floor hall. Some of the classroom doors were closed and he could hear hushed voices talking inside. For a moment, he thought about telling the hiding students to go to the gym, but quickly decided that if they felt safer in a classroom, rather than being crowded into the gym, he was okay with that.

After closing the three other fire doors on the third floor, Marcus ran down the steps, which would let him out of the stairwell on the bottom floor's common area outside of the cafeteria. He was unprepared for the situation he found himself walking into. The large room was bathed in blood; arms severed at the elbow, disembodied fingers, discarded shoes and chunks of gore lay strewn across the linoleum floor. There were pockets of students hunched over prone figures, while others rushed through the open expanse, trying not to look too closely at the grisly scenes around them.

Cameron, Zach and Noah, three football players, stood at the end of the common area, guarding the hallway to the gym; each of them holding one of the school's baseball bats. When one of those things, which had once been a student but no longer was, came too close, they'd swing their makeshift weapons. The football players already had a small pile of twitching bodies lying around them.
Ex-students,
Marcus thought as his guts churned sickly. One of the ex-students struggled to pull itself from beneath the pile and Cameron brought the bat down on its head with a sickening crunch.

"How many are in the gym?" Marcus called to the boys who moved aside for two girls. One limped from a wound in her thigh while the other had an arm around the wounded girl's waist, helping her along.

"Maybe two hundred," Noah called back. "There are a lot of people hurt in there Mr. T."

"Are Maria and the school nurse helping the injured students?" A bloody ex-student stumbled towards Marcus. He sidestepped her reaching grasp, and she tumbled over a dismembered body lying at her feet.

"They're in the gym," one of the boys replied.

Marcus glanced around the common area one last time, not understanding how it had spread so quickly. There'd been eight outside and none inside but now, there had to be at least thirty in the common area alone and he could see more carnage through the open doors of the cafeteria. Someone beyond the caf doors screamed and the three boys started forwards, but Marcus waved them back. "They can't be helped; you'll only get yourself killed." He turned to the boys and saw fear in their eyes. They'd seen terrible things happen to their friends but had been brave enough to keep the entrance to the gym secure, giving others a chance to make it to safety.

Moans echoed down the hall and the heads of the ex-students looked up, answering the moan with a chorus of their own. Chills ran down Marcus' spine at the unnatural sound. "I think we'd better get into the gym and secure the doors," he said to the boys in an unsteady voice.

"Wait," Zach said; the sound of running footsteps from the hall beyond the common area grew louder. "Come on!" he shouted to the runner in encouragement.

A petite girl in a cheerleading uniform ran into the room. "Vickie!" Zach cried as he broke from the line, rushing towards the girl who slipped on the slick floor.

"Zach," she squeaked, flinging her arms out towards the football player just as she lost her balance and went sprawling. Her momentum and the blood-slicked floor propelled Vickie right into the leg of an ex-student who was chewing on a severed arm. The ex-student looked down, puffed up and moaned. The dismembered arm fell from its hands, thudding to the floor. It reached out and tangled its fingers into the cheerleader's long ponytail. It jerked her towards its dripping teeth. Vickie cried out in pain and struggled to her knees, trying to back away from the thing, but the blood-drenched floor beneath her made retreat impossible.

Zach darted around a cluster, swatting away the arms that reached for him. He was almost to Vickie when the thing holding her bent down and bit into her shoulder. Vickie screamed. When Zach reached her, he grabbed a fistful of the ex-students hair and pulled it to its feet. Vickie screamed again as a chunk of flesh was torn from her shoulder and her hair, which was still entwined in the things fingers, yanked her backwards. Marcus stood with his mouth hanging open. With a roar of anger, Zach punched the thing in the face before tossing it to the floor. He swung the bat in an arc over his head and brought it down on the skull of the ex-student. Its fingers went limp, allowing Zach to free Vickie's hair. The commotion drew a lot of attention from those feasting around them. The football player quickly scooped up the cheerleader and barreled towards the hall, shouting for his friends to clear the way.

Marcus finally came back to his senses and rushed after Zach while the ex-students stumbled to their feet around them. "Here." Marcus held out his hand when he reached Zach's side. "Give me the bat." With a weapon in hand, Marcus cleared the way through the stumbling ex-students. Bones crunched under the force of each blow but those not hit in the head, didn't stop their progress towards the retreating trio - they didn't even cry out in pain when the bat broke rib cages or arms. Noah and Cameron still stood guarding the hallway but were being driven further back into the hall under a fresh assault from the ex-students.

"Take Vickie Mr. T, I can clear through this group," Zach said, holding out the sobbing girl. He settled Vickie into Marcus' arms just as another group stumbled into the room from the opposite hall with a loud chorus of moans. "Let's go," Zach said and charged into the group, clearing a path for Marcus to follow.

Just as he cleared the last of the ex-students, something pulled Vickie's leg and Marcus almost lost his hold on the girl. Thankfully, Cameron was nearby and brought the bat down on the clutching arm. The bone splintered and the grip slackened just enough for Marcus to pull Vickie free. Ahead of them, Noah reached the fire doors at the top of the gymnasium steps. He pulled the door open and held it as Zach, Marcus and Vickie dashed through.

"Come on Cameron!" Noah shouted to his teammate who still stood in the hall, swinging the bat at the advancing ex-students. Cameron turned and ran. Noah waited, holding the door for his friend.

Marcus handed Vickie back to Zach, opening the lower set of doors for the boy. "Take her into the gym and have the nurse look at her."

Zach nodded, "Thanks Mr. T."

Marcus spun back to the short set of stairs when Noah and Cameron tumbled through the door. They turned in unison, pulling on the handlebars so the door closed before grasping hands could reach them.

Marcus blew out a breath as he stared at the thick, solid steel doors at the top of the steps. "Good job boys," he said, making his way back up the stairs to secure the top and bottom locks of each door.

Noah, who'd sunk to the top step and covered his face with his hands, looked up at Marcus' approach. "What's going on Mr. Tanners?" he asked, his eyes brimming with tears.

"I don't know," Marcus replied, patting the boy on his shoulder. When the snick of the bolts sliding into place echoed in the small space, relief washed over him. Finally, they were safe.

"Didn't you see Noah?" Cameron asked wide-eyed. "They were dead. They were walking. They were eating other people..." He trailed off and sighed. It seemed to Marcus that he didn't want to say what they were all thinking.

"They were zombies," Noah finally whispered.

A loud bang shook the doors, making them all jump. Marcus glanced warily over his shoulder. "We'd better get into the gym."

Hopefully, with two sets of steel doors between the living and the dead, the ex-students...
call them what they really are Marcus,
he chided himself even as his mind reeled in disbelief.
I hope that the zombies lose interest and wander back to the common area, giving us time to deal with wounded and come up with a plan.

Horrifying questions...

It would be a gross understatement to say the gym was chaotic. Students, who'd been injured in the rush to get to the gym, sat on the bleachers to the left of the entrance while able bodied students pulled mats out of the storage room for the seriously injured to lie down on. The school nurse worked her way through the crowd, tending to those wounded in order of severity. Some students sat in groups attempting to comfort one another; their reactions ranged from shell-shocked to hysterical. Marcus could barely hear himself think over the din. With a student population of over one thousand, Marcus felt dismayed when he realized there couldn't be more than two hundred students and teachers who'd made it to the gym.

"We need to regain some semblance of order," Mr. Hansfield spoke from beside him.

Marcus turned to face the principal. "Is that," he pointed to the sealed doors of the gym, "a good enough reason for what I did?"

Mr. Hansfield's face turned scarlet; he cleared his throat and loosened the tie around his neck. "You acted quickly and appropriately, Mr. Tanners. I appreciate your quick thinking in the situation. We do need to calm the students and regain control of the remaining student population before determining our next course of action."

Marcus gritted his teeth; hadn't he done enough? Wasn't it now the principal's responsibility to address and deal with the situation? He studied Mr. Hansfield and knew the tall, bird-like man would be of no help to him. "Gather the teachers in my office and get me a clipboard with some paper on it. We need to get a proper headcount. We also need to know who's been wounded and the cause of their wounds." Mr. Hansfield gave Marcus a curious look, "I'm afraid this isn't over yet." With a wary look and a curt nod the principal turned, hurrying across the gym to Marcus' office.

Scanning the bleachers, Marcus soon found Anita, the school nurse, wrapping Zach's hand with gauze. He made his way over to them and asked, "What happened?" as he approached. Zach met Marcus' gaze only briefly before dropping it to Vickie who lay on a nearby mat.

"Oh it's nothing serious," Anita replied, not looking up as she taped the gauze. "He's just cut his knuckles on something. What did you say it was dear?"

Zach flinched as the nurse pressed down to secure the tape. "I think it was the teeth of that student I punched."

The sick feeling he'd had since discovering the bodies of Trina, Eddie and Mark, grew. If this situation was like the movies, which seemed likely given the rapid infestation of the school, anyone bitten could be infected. The transfer of the saliva into the bloodstream through any open wound could also mean infection.
I suppose the answer would depend on the communicability of whatever this thing is.
Marcus shivered and Zach met his eyes, giving him a sickly, knowing smile.
He's asking himself the same thing and believes he knows the answer.
He swallowed hard, turning to Anita. "And Vickie?"