Zombie High Chronicles (Book 1) (13 page)

“Yeah, well you’re not funny.”

“No,” I look him over and he swallows hard when he sees me staring. “He’s not. What do you know?”

“Nothing!”

I grab onto his arm. “Tell me.”

“Honesty, I don’t really know anything. Just stuff that I’ve overheard the teachers talking about last night when they thought we were all asleep. I finally broke down and took a piss in that bucket but I kinda had stage fright, you know. I’m not so good at peeing in front of people.”

“Get to the point,” I growl.

“Alright!  Well, Mr. Tanner and Philbeck were talking about the lab. I assume it was the one that burned down. Anyways, they were talking about how the most recent trials were a failure, but not in the normal sense. I guess they sort of...created something.”

Ember turns to look back at us. “What sort of something?”

“A stiff who isn’t so stiff anymore, if you know what I mean.”

My grip on his arm tightens. “What did they say?”

Austin swallows again. It’s hard to tell in the dim light but I would swear that he’s gone ghostly white. “Look, my sister is out there. She skipped school today because she wasn’t feeling so hot. I gotta get to her, man.”

“Why?” Ember says.

He lowers his head to look at the floor. “Those Stiffs out there aren’t right. Not anymore. Something is changing them. You noticed it with that lady at the fence. That’s why I came over to listen, but I think it's more than that. Not just an awareness but something worse…I think they are getting hungry now.”

If I’d had anything substantial in my stomach I’m sure I would have thrown up by now. As it stands, I feel numb.

“You’re joking right?” Ember turns to look at me. “He is joking, isn’t he?”

I stare Austin in the eye for a moment, sizing him up. Now it makes sense why he’s willing to risk his life to make it to the armory. He’s fighting for someone he loves.

“No. I don’t think that he is. Ember, don’t miss and Austin...run like the wind, man. We’ll cover you from here.”

Ember looks shaken as Austin moves to replace her in the doorway. “Do you think it’s true? Have the Dead Heads finally gone apocalyptic on us?”

“Seems that way.” Ember shudders as I look around Austin’s shoulder and realize that there’s no good line of sight for me to help cover him once Ember starts shooting. I’m going to have to follow behind him.

Checking the magazine I realize that I am down to a single bullet.

“One three, Austin.”  I mouth the countdown and then dive out into the hallway behind him, sliding on my shoulder as he races full out down the right side of the hall. To his credit, he really is fast. He has nearly made it to the gun room door when a bullet pierces through his calf and sends him crashing to the ground.

“Shoot, Ember!”  I scream and fire off my one round.

10

I just killed a dead man!

I hear a thud and know that I’ve hit something as I barrel into Austin and slam us into the metal cage. A line of pain grazes my shoulder and I curl around him.  “Give me the keys!”

I flinch as a bullet zings past my hand as I reach up and fumble with the keys in the lock. Several responding bullets fly erratically over me from somewhere behind and I find myself more alarmed by my own men than by the soldiers.

With a loud click, the lock turns and I shove Austin inside.

“Well, that sucked,” he hisses as he draws his left up, cupping his hand over his wound. Blood seeps from between his fingers. I yank my belt off and hand it to him.

“Tie that around your leg until we can clean it.” I hear Ember shout for someone to stay put and then her scream as that person drops hard somewhere behind us.

Pushing up to my feet I am invited into a gun lovers heaven. Handguns, sniper rifles, AK’s, ammo cans filled with bullets, a collection of grenades, flares, a stash of smoke bombs and something that I really hoped us tear gas lines shelves above me. Grabbing two gas masks, I shove one over my face and the other toward Austin.

“I’d put this on if I were you.”  Grabbing the tear gas, I rush to the door. “Ember, get everyone inside.”

“What?” she shouts back.

“Get inside a room and cover your face.”

“I can’t hear what you’re saying,” she yells as another round of gunfire spits plaster and tile into the air.

“You’re my witness that I tried to warn them, right?”

“Totally,” Austin grunts as he tightens the belt around his calf.

“Here goes nothing.” I pull the pin and chuck the canister as far down the hallway as I can then duck for cover.  

I wait until I hear grunts of pain and a lull in gunfire before grabbing a loaded gun and doing a kamikaze run down the hall. I take out two soldiers less than fifteen feet from where we were stationed in the bathroom with Ember. They had been sneaking up on us. If Austin hadn’t gone all super track star for us, we’d have been goners within a few minutes, picked off one by one.

I work quickly to clear the foyer, downing one soldier near the door. When I arrive at the front doors, I see the newly unlocked chain in one hand and a radio in the other. The transmission is nothing more than static but I know for sure now that we were in trouble.

“Austin, get out here!”

“Where are you?” I see him emerge from the smoke and gas that hangs in the air.

“Head back the way we came and make sure the others are ok. That stuff packs quite a punch so get them in the bathroom and flush their eyes. Take the spare masks with you and give them to the ones that you know you can trust. The others can tie shirts around their eyes for now.”

I stare down at the man convulsing at my feet with wracking coughs and tears streaming from his reddened eyes. I put a bullet between his eyes and grab the chain, locking it back into place. Just as I am about to turn and grab his radio I see the first red laser beam of light pierce through the gas cloud.

“Everyone get down!”

The bullet slams through the glass just over my head as I dive to the floor. I land hard, gasping at the shock of pain inflicted to my already bruised ribs. I belly crawl back to the hallway. “Austin?”

“I’m here. The others have barricaded themselves in the bathroom down the hall. Vaughn sounds pretty cheerful, though. I guess Ember took off her shirt to shove into the bottom of the door to keep the gas out.”

I smile at her cunning, both for survival and distraction. “Smart girl.”

“Help me clear the rest of this floor then we need to arm everyone. We’ve got company so keep your head down and move fast.”

As the rumble of engines begins to grow in the distance, Austin limps beside me as we check each room. We find seven guards in total but only three are left alive.

“Go out into the hall and wait for me.”

Austin starts to protest when I press my gun to a soldier's head, but he turns and walks out as the first of three shots ring out.  Austin may have been a fast runner but he is no killer.

“Alright,” I say as I close the door behind me, sealing the bodies inside.  There is a slight tremor in my hands but I grip my gun tighter and force myself to focus. “Go grab those masks for the others and load them up with ammo. You are going to need to barricade this floor before the whole base comes down on top of us.”

“What about you?”

“I’m going to clear the upper floors.”

“I don’t think it’s such a good idea to do that on your own.”

I nod and check my magazine then slam it back into place. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

Racing down the hall, I peer out through the front door. I count three separate beams of laser light searching the windows of the first floor as I crawl my way up the stairs, keeping well out of reach of the strobe lights littering campus. So far reinforcements have yet to arrive but they are on their way.

Already the sky to the east has begun to show pastel colors of daylight’s approach but the time no longer matters. We no longer have the shift change to worry about. We have the whole military on its way to wipe us out.

The second floor is darker than the first as I move away from the stairs and into the hall. Every shadow seems to move, growing and expanding to swallow a hidden soldier whole. It takes longer than I want to clear the floor but I have to be thorough or risk having a bullet pierce one of our heads from the back if we leave a single enemy alive.

Making my way to the third floor, I start in the western wing, ducking low to look under the science tables, checking inside closets and searching every ceiling tile to make sure none have been shifted in an attempt to escape. When I enter the first classroom on the eastern wing I know that I’m not alone. I can smell something different in the air.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” I call out and hear a scuffling sound and turn instinctively toward the sound. It comes after a moment near the rear of the room. From downstairs I hear shouting and the scrapping of tables. Austin must have assembled the troops and begun operation “save our asses with piles of school desks blocking the entrance.”

“If you come out with your hands up, I promise not to shoot.” This time, I hear the scuffling off to my left.

How did he manage to get way over there so fast?

Removing my mask, I test the air but none of the gas fumes have made its way up to the third floor. After a moment of breathing fresh air, I set my mask on a desk and make my way down the aisle, using all of my senses to locate the hidden soldier.

“Come on, man. I don’t want to have to do this. I’m tired of killing you people. Just come out nice and peaceful and we can settle this.”

This time, there is no sound to give away the man’s location. I wait through several long breaths, trying to get my bearings when I hear an engine pull up to the gate out front. Muffled shouts are followed by the clanking of the metal gate opening.

“I’m running out of patience, man.” My shoe slides and I throw out my arms to keep my balance as I recover. Lifting my foot, I feel something sticky on the sole of my shoe. “If you don’t come out on the count of five I will just start shooting.”

This time, the sound comes from my immediate right and I swing my gun just in time to see a man diving toward me. I barely have a chance to note the wide expanse of blood across his chest before he strikes and takes me down hard.

The man’s fingers dig into my neck as I fight against him. He is crazy strong and his breath is rank. I lose my grip on my gun when he smashes my head into the ground hard enough for lights to flash before my eyes.

I grunt and fight back, trying to land punches into his side but he barely reacts except to lash back out at me.

“Roan, kick out!”

I instantly do as I am commanded and I send the man toppling off of me. A second later a bullet pierces through his brain, splattering me with warm mush and he falls still, his legs and hands going limp against the floor.

Breathing hard, I sit up and tug at the collar of my shirt. Even though it is not pulled tight around my neck, I still feel as if the man’s hands are suffocating me.

“You ok?” Flynn asks, dropping down beside me.

“You...you shot him?”

“Nah, that was Ember. I was already on my way to join you in the fray when she grabbed me and told me to stay out of her way. I gotta say, man, she’s a good person to keep around.”

Rubbing my neck, I look up to see her watching me from the doorway. One again there is no fear or guilt in her gaze, just determination. Flynn is right. She is a total badass that has most likely just saved my skin for the second time. I’m never going to live that one down.

“Thanks,” I rasp.

“Don’t mention it. You already cleared the rest of the floor or should we expect more freak like that to show up?”

“I just started this wing.” Gripping onto Flynn’s shoulder I push upright but feel a wave of dizziness wash over me.

“Stay with him. I’ll take care of it.”  With that, Ember is gone. I grit my teeth in annoyance. It isn’t her job to clear the floor. It is mine.

“Dude, are you seeing this?”

I turn to look back and see Flynn crouched down beside the downed soldier. “You never saw a dead guy before?”

“Not one that’s been killed twice.”

“What?”  I crawl over to him and feel as if I’ve just jumped into one of those polar ice plunge pools for those stupid enough to dare each other to see how long they can stay in. Flynn is right. The guys throat has been torn away, almost like something snacked on him. Bits of flesh dangle down his neck and spread out on the floor in a gruesome fan of gore.

“Oh man, he is ripe!” Flynn covers his mouth and turns away, his stomach making retching sounds as he moves to the corner.

“How is this possible?” I say to no one in particular. Yes, the guy smells like rotten eggs left out in high summer for a month but I need to see more. Grabbing a pen from off a desk, I spread his lips and wrench back when I see a finger wedged between his teeth.

“Holy mother of spaghetti!” Flynn upchucks on that one in the corner.  He is shaking when he cleans his mouth and looks back at me. “Whose finger was that?”

“I don’t know.”

Flynn slowly walks back over to me, skirting around the man’s legs until he’s closer to his torso. He leans in closer to the man’s face. “Dude, his eyes are really messed up.”

“Well, he’s dead. I’m sure that has something to do with it.”

“No, seriously, Roan. Come and take a look.”

Despite my better judgment and the raging headache that I seem incapable of escaping today, I move close and notice that the man’s eyes are indeed weird. The outer edges of the whites are streaked with red like every blood vessel has suddenly imploded and spilled blood out of his eye sockets. The rest are solid white.

“So let me get this straight,” Flynn rubs his temples as he begins to pace. “The dude gets mauled by some whacked out dog or something while on his rounds, somehow makes his way past a group of highly armed soldiers and up three flights of stairs and then what...waits in hiding for you to attack? What gives?”

I start to speak when I hear a scream followed by gunfire.  Shoving Flynn back as I lurch to my feet, I race down the hall and find Ember huddled in the corner of the classroom at the far end of the hallway.

Her shirt is torn and her face bloody when I arrive. Her chest rises and falls as she sucks in great gulps of air.

“Are you ok?” I drop to my knees in front of her.

She raises one hand and points behind her. There, lying slumped over the back of a table is a very dead Bo Thompkins, still covered in the spaghetti sauce  spilled on him earlier. “He...he growled at me and then just fly out of the dark. I didn’t think I would get him off in time.”

Ember clings to me when I wrap an arm around her. “He tried to bite me, Roan. I...I think he was going for my throat.”

Flynn arrives in the doorway a moment later and stops short when he spies Thompkins. “What the hell is going on around here?”

“Nothing good,” I mutter and look back at the soldier. I hadn’t seen him in the bunker. I should have suspected something was wrong earlier. I just assumed he was off duty or called away during the breach but something else happened to him.

There, on the right side of his neck, I can see a distinctive bite mark and it doesn’t look like it came from an animal.

“Has the rest of the school been locked down?” I ask Flynn.

“Yeah, all apart from the gym but the doors were shut so we assumed—”

“Don’t assume,” I interrupt him. “Get back downstairs and grab Vaughn and Coleman. Got check it out and chain up the doors when you are done. Something did this to them and we need to make sure it’s not still here.”

Flynn hesitates, struggling to pull his eyes away from Thompkins. “So we are rolling with the zombie theory now?”

“You see any other choice?”

“Nope.” He shakes his head. “Just checking. I’ll be downstairs if you need me.”