Zombie High Chronicles (Book 1) (11 page)

A slow smile stretches across his face and I know that I’ve got him hook line and sinker. The kid may be slow at times and insanely annoying pretty much around the clock but he’s loyal. I gotta give it to him for that.

“Whatcha need, Roan?”

“You see those teachers over there?”  I point to the far corner where a couple of them have returned to their cots to rest while four others sit huddled together.

There are few things that would motivate Sammy to become the full-blown nuisance that I need at this moment and one of those is Teegan. Maybe Sammy lost a younger brother or sister in his past life or maybe he’s just soft hearted. Whatever has caused his extreme sympathies toward the pregnant girl is about to come in handy.

“I’m betting they don't even realize that Teegan isn’t eating, but you did, didn’t you? I saw you eyeing her stash earlier.”

Sammy’s eyes widen. “I wasn’t going to take it. I mean, I was really hungry but I’d never. You know how far along she is and that can’t be good for the baby. I tried talking to her myself—”

“I know that Sammy and I wasn’t meaning to imply that you would. I’m just worried about her. She has to eat for the baby’s health but she’s not exactly going to listen to me so I was thinking…”

“Right. I’m on it!” Sammy salutes with a purpose-filled smile and waddles off.

“You know, I almost believed that you cared for a second,” Ember whispers beside me and then moves off. I grit my teeth to stop from biting back at her.

The truth is that I do care and that’s that a serious problem.

“Austin,” I grab the boy around the shoulder. “I need you to hang back for a few and make sure Sammy does his job. Join back up with us the instant we have control.”

He nods and meanders closer to Sammy’s location. I see him say hi to a couple of people and then sinks down to join a small group of kids that I don’t know. They smile and welcome him into their group. The ease with which he infiltrates pains me. I’ve never been like that. I never wanted to be but there are times when I wonder what my life would have been like if I hadn’t always been a loner.

Waiting until Sammy has firmly gripped the teacher’s attention I head straight toward the door while the others converge from different angles, pausing to chat along the way to remain casual. Although I’m usually more of a balls to the wall sort of planner, I know this path is the best to avoid a complete panic.

Tyrel and Lathan will remain behind to tie up the teachers and explain to the students what is happening once we have breached the blast door. Tyrel has a way with people that will be both authoritative and calming while Lathan...well, I just hope he doesn’t flake out.

Austin and his partner will help to clear the top floor after we have reached the armory to weapon up. Vaughn and his friend, Smith will work to clear the second. Flynn, Ember, Coleman and I will clean out the weapon’s locker and take out anyone on the first floor. Then work will begin to barricade the school while the others finish with the remaining floors.

After that, we will seal off the gym. It is located at the rear of the building, closest to the lower grade school and least likely to attract immediate attention. If all goes well we will have the school secured before anyone on the outside realizes what is happening.

Then...we hunker down and wait.

In a perfect world, that might have worked. Of course, the perfect world would never include a Sammy in the mix.

“Hey, Roan! Aren’t you coming?” He calls as two teachers rise to make their way toward Teegan.

I am within striking distance of Ugly Face when Sammy’s yell catches his attention and he turns. “Well, well, well. Looks like this kid just never learns, Jacobson.”

“Go!” I shout.

The teams instantly converge on the soldiers before the two even have a chance to raise their weapons. Flynn takes out Clockman’s legs with a killer sliding kick and the lumbering oaf crashes hard onto the ground. Vaughn follows up with a flying elbow drop straight from a WWE smack down area onto Clockman’s chest and winds the soldier. Ugly Face curls inward when Vaughn rolls off and gasps for air.

Ember leaps over Vaughn and leaps onto Jacobson’s back, spinning him around and throwing him off balance. Together they crash to the ground. I turn to see him on top of her and give a swift kick to his hip to shove him off her.

“You ok?” I reach out a hand to help her up.

“It was a better idea in my head than in reality.” She rubs at the back of her head as she stands up.

“Well, it looked totally wicked,” Vaughn crows.

Turning away, I kick their guns aside and stomp down on Ugly Face’s hand as he reaches for his, crushing it into the ground. He howls as I bend low and apply a little extra pressure. “Hurts, doesn’t it?”

“When I get out of this, kid, I’m going to mess you up.”

Tyrel and Lathan each take an arm and haul Clockman to his feet. The muscles along his neck cord as he pulls against the two boys, lunging toward me. I slam my fist into his jaw. His head snaps back and his eyes roll before he goes slack, tugging Tyrel and Lathan forward a step as he becomes dead weight in their arms.

“Holy crap! You just knocked him out with a single punch!”  Vaughn bounces on his toes. “I knew you were a badass but that was totally legit, man.”

“Just help Ember with Jacobson, will you?”  I flex my fingers when I turn to pick up a gun.

Within a minute after the attack begins we have both soldiers bound, gagged, stripped of their radios and sat in the corner facing the wall like naughty kids in timeout. Those students closest to our group push toward the back, scrambling over cots to be free of the action.

“What do you think you’re doing?” a man’s voice bellows from the back of the room and I turn to see Mr. Philbeck, my former physical education/cafeteria lunch lady stand in rises from his cot.

“Sit back down, Mr. Philbeck and I’ll explain everything.”

“Like hell, you will!” He starts forward but Austin steps in front of him to block his path. When Mr. Philbeck moves to step over a cot into another aisle, Coleman’s partner is instantly there to reroute him. “Get out of my way!”

“That’s not going to happen,” I shout and then turn away to look at the scared faces of the kids before me.

“Listen up,” I yell and the bustle of the room falls quiet once more. Every eye watches the gun that I hold aloft.  “Our intention is not to hurt any of you. In fact, it's the opposite. We want to liberate you.”

I pause to collect my thoughts. I really should have thought this speech through beforehand.

“I’m not going to lie to you. That seems to be the soldier’s job. We know that some pretty bad things went down last night on the topside. That containment breach was legit and something dangerous tried to get out. That’s why they burned down one of the labs. Now we don’t know exactly what happened, only that we need to keep those things from having a chance at spilling over into this school.

We have supplies, we have weapons and we have shelter. If we hunker down I think we can make it through this. If we don’t...well, at least we can say that we did something to try.”

“He’s lying,” Mr. Philbeck shouts. “He’s nothing more than a troubled kid with a hero complex.”

“Am I?”  I step forward. “Most of you don’t know me and there’s a reason for that. I didn't want to get to know you. In fact, up until two days ago I had plans on escaping this hell hole so I wouldn’t end up in a messed up situation like this.”

“So then why did you stay?” a girl yells out from off to my right.

“Because I did.”  It wasn’t a good explanation but it was the only one I had. I wasn’t about to stand up there in front of them and share my feelings. Screw that!  I am already sticking my neck out for them. That’s going to have to be good enough.

“You’ve all been through a lot. I know that and so do they. The military has used those fears to create homes, fake families, and a school but it’s all a facade. Your group parents and the teachers aren’t like you and me. They don’t care about us. They are monitoring us, keeping us in check and report back.”

“Lies,” Mr. Philbeck shouts.

“Is it?”  I nod toward Austin and before Mr. Philbeck can react, the two teens jump him. After a struggle that leaves Austin with a wicked elbow to the eye and his friend a bit worse for wear, Austin holds up a handgun as proof.

“Why does a teacher need a gun?” I shout.

I watch as students begin to lean in to talk to each other.

“For protection,” Mr. Philbeck replies, wiping at his bloodied nose. Austin knees him and the teacher drops to the floor.

“For protection from whom, Mr. Philbeck? There are soldiers everywhere. The Dead Heads aren’t exactly a threat. And us...what could we possibly do to you?”  I walk closer to the teacher. “If I frisk the other teachers will I find the same thing?”

He spits at my shoes and I step back.

I jerk my head toward Ember and she releases her hold on Jacobson and joins me. “You want proof of what I’m saying? Fine.”

Sammy scuttles out of the way as we approach the two female teachers behind him. Teegan shifts aside on her cot, unable to stand.

“Now Mrs. Simpson, I’ve always hated your Shakespeare lectures but you seem like a decent lady,” I say as I come to stand in front of her. “Let’s do this the easy way so I don’t have to hurt you.”

Behind her thick spectacles, I see a widening of fear in her eyes. With a trembling hand, she reaches behind her and lifts her shirt.  

“Pam, don’t!” Mrs. Thorpe hisses from beside her.

“What’s the point now, Trisha?  They are going to frisk us either way.”

I hold out my hand and accept Mrs. Simpson’s gun and hold it high into the air. “Do you need further proof? You’ve been tricked.”

“So what do we do?” a guy about my age stands up a few aisles over.

“You help us.”  I turn to glare at Mrs. Thorpe but she stares back with defiance. “You can start by disarming the teachers.”

At first, no one moves. Wary glances are shared around but then the boy who spoke heads my way. Several more rise to follow and as Ember and I walk away from the two female teachers I am confident that I have won over many of the kids in this room.

The others may take more time, whether out of fear or denial but eventually, they will come around. They will have to.

“Stay here behind this locked door and you will be safe. Once we leave, Tyrel will seal the door behind us and stay with you. You all know him so trust that what he is doing is right. We will clear the school and once the coast is clear we will return for you.”

“Now hang on just a moment,” a man with wire-rimmed glasses, a seriously outdated tweed jacket, and wrinkled khakis says as he pushes up to his feet. I recognized him as Mr. Tanner, the political science teacher whose room was directly across from my home room. “Even if what you are saying is true, and I deny that forcefully, how do you expect a group of kids to take charge? We’re the adults here.”

“And what exactly have you done for us besides lie to us the entire time?”

Mr. Tanner blinks. “Excuse me?”

Ignoring the warning glance that Tyrel shoots my way as he grips the second gun tightly in hand, I approach Mr. Tanner. We are running out of time and I know it but my command has to be established fully before I walk back out through that door.

“Look me in the eye and tell me that you’re not one of them.”

“One of who?”

“The people in charge. Call them the government or military, it’s all the same these days.”  

Mr. Tanner took off his glasses and chuckles as he cleans his lenses on his undershirt. “Roan Sterling, that’s your name, right? I remember seeing you around. You’ve got quite the reputation for causing trouble. I imagine lying comes second nature to a kid like you.”

“You’re stalling.” I raise my gun a little higher.

“Perhaps, but the fact remains that no one in this room should trust a word that comes out of your mouth. You seem hell bent on making us out to be the bad guys? Fine. Maybe we are. But what if we aren’t? Have you stopped to ask yourself that? What if we are the only chance you have of getting out of this mess alive?”

“Roan,” someone hisses from behind me as I chamber a round.

Mr. Tanner replaces his glasses onto the bridge of his nose. “We aren’t the bad guys, Roan. We’re on your side. I promise.”

“Yeah, that’s what they all—” An explosion of sound hits me a split second before Mr. Tanner flies backward. He crashes into the wall and slumps on top of Mrs. Simpson, whose screech makes students all around cover their ears. Blood spills out from his chest wound as I whip around to take in the scene behind me.

Tyrel is poking his newly fattened lip just behind where Ember stands with the gun still held up at eye level. “What the hell did you do that for?”

“He was pulling a gun on you.” She shoves the gun back to Tyrel and turns to look at me with a cool and collected expression. Obviously, I seriously misjudged the girl. “Are we doing this or not, ladies?”

I stare at the chaos around me that Ember’s kill shot has induced. Any chance of avoiding a panic has gone right out of the window as students back away from the dead body.