I showed the picture to Duncan and he winced. “Not pretty. Wonder if that was her mother.”
I hadn’t thought of that. Not a good thing for a kid to see, but it was a rare thing to find anyone not scarred by the Upheaval.
“What’s that at the bottom?” Duncan asked.
I looked and there appeared to be some sort of writing at the bottom. It was just a string of the letter ‘E’, whatever that was supposed to mean. I put the pictures down and we moved back into the hall. Duncan was ahead of me and at a dead stop, so I bumped into his back.
“What?” I whispered, looking left and right.
“I saw something move,” he replied, aiming his rifle down the hall. The signs on the walls indicated the media center was that way. There was more light up here because the windows weren’t covered and I could see a window through the double doors that led to the library. I was about to kid Duncan when a shadow moved across the window.
“Roger that. I just saw it too.” I brought my rifle up and watched the door window closely.
Tommy sidled out into the hall and saw us with our guns up. He covered the opposite direction and asked, “What’s up?”
“Movement in the library.” Duncan moved forward and headed to the doors. I covered him and Tommy stayed back to watch the hallway. We moved silently across the carpet, checking the classrooms quickly but finding nothing.
About ten feet from the door, I realized the doors opened outward, so anything in there could easily get out if the way wasn’t blocked. We closed the distance and that’s when our luck ran out. Duncan was so focused on the door that he didn’t watch where he was walking and managed to kick a small truck across the floor and into the door.
BANG! went the truck and all of us hunched down as if we had been struck. We froze in silence and Duncan shook his head in apology. I waved him off as a new sound emerged from behind the doors.
It was an eerie, high pitched noise, like someone was playing with a mangled chew toy. It was a wheezing sound and very unnerving. I looked over at Duncan just as his face fell and backed up a step.
“Oh God. We gotta go,” he said as he continued to back up.
“What? What aren’t you telling me?” I said, gripping my gun tighter.
“Remember the picture? Remember the letters on the bottom?”
Then it hit me. The letters were the sound that particular zombie made, the sound we were hearing right now. The sound coming from behind those doors.
Just as I stepped back, the door burst open. About ten zombies fell out of the opening and more were behind. In front of them was a small girl, about ten years old and as dead as they come. But she glared at us with yellowed, glowing eyes and her blackened lips were split to reveal dark and bloodied teeth. She saw us and quickly moved forward, her fetid breath wheezing through her teeth, causing that high-pitched song of death. Behind her, several zombies got to their feet and moved forward, not making a sound. To a person, they had all had their throats ripped out, compliments of the little demon in front of us.
“Go. Now,” I said as I turned and bolted at Tommy. Duncan didn’t need to be told twice. He pivoted and ran and Tommy led the way as the horde came after us. The little girl zombie was by far the quickest and she moved with a speed that was scary. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how all these people died. Probably the kid was a rescue that came in infected and when she turned, which was probably at night, she started tearing apart her saviors.
That revelation didn’t help me run any faster, or give me a good position to fight her off. By the time I was done dealing with the little monster, the others, who I saw were fairly fast themselves, would be on me.
We literally jumped down the stairs and tried to secure the doors, but they had no handles at all and swung both ways. The delay in checking the doors was costly, because the little zombie slammed against them as we tried to find a way to secure them. I held the two doors and shouted at the others.
“Get out, don’t waste your time grabbing anything. Just get to a safe position to cover me!” I yelled.
“Ain’t leaving you, man. We don’t work that way,” Duncan said as he held the other door. Tommy nodded as he gripped his rifle.
“Get your asses out, I ain’t planning on dying today. I’m just gonna time this to knock the little bastard on her ass and buy us some room.” I didn’t have much, as I could hear the other zombies falling down the stairs in their pursuit. The little Z scrabbled at the door and I could hear her frenzied wheezing as she tried to get us. “Go! Make a path for me, I’ll be along in second.”
Duncan nodded and pulled Tommy along with him. Part of me was touched that they were reluctant to go, but I was heartened they thought enough of me to figure I’d be okay. But I needed to give them time to get out and they needed to make sure I had a clear path to get away as well.
No sooner had they moved away then the door shook as the little Z ran into it again. I could see the top of her dead head through the small square window and for whatever reason, she chose that moment to stare up at me. I looked into those dead eyes and realized once again how people could fall prey to these things. Looking into those eyes was looking at death, both figuratively and literally. But they were lethal in their intent and that was what kept me from succumbing.
The little Z hissed at me and pounded at the door. Behind her the first of the horde was picking themselves up off the floor after they had fallen down the stairs. Some of them had broken bones, so arms were at awkward angles and some feet were twisted in crazy directions.
I had one shot at this so I waited on the other side of the door and watched as the little Z charged again. Just as she hit the door I kicked it with everything I had, slamming her back and into the feet of the followers. I didn’t bother to check my handiwork, I just turned and ran.
As I cleared the gym doors I heard the sound of a door slamming open and the dreaded wheezing again. I ran as hard as I could across the gym and through the open P.E. office doors. I swung them shut behind me, but as the door nearly closed, a thin hand shot through the opening and began to pull the door back open. I bolted up the stairs and had the distinct pleasure of hearing that awful wheezing following me up.
I had no room to stop and fight and so I kept moving, charging up the next flight of stairs with that little demon right on my heels. I swore to myself that as soon as I got some distance and a little room, I was going to unsling my pickaxe and let that little bitch have it right between the eyes.
I jumped through the roof access door and flung it closed behind me, but sure enough, the little stinker hit the door just as I thought it was going to close and started squirming her way out onto the roof. I jumped down into the dumpster and in a spectacular display of agility, managed to trip off the dumpster and land sprawling onto the ground. I picked myself up as the dumpster banged again, this time with the wet sound of a zombie landing on its face. I looked over my shoulder to see the little Z getting back to its feet only to fall off the dumpster onto its face again. I didn’t waste time and ran like hell to the front of the building, closely pursued by the zombie. If it wasn’t the fastest zombie I had ever seen, it was pretty darn close.
I managed to get a little ahead of the Z and was vastly relieved to see the RV idling in the parking lot. I sprinted for the open door and dove through, letting Tommy slam the door shut behind me.
I lay on the kitchen floor panting heavily as the sound of little fists pounding on the door reverberated through the RV. I looked over at Tommy and Duncan and grinned.
“Thanks for the pathway. If I had to stop to open the doors, that little shit would have taken a chunk out of my ass, no pun intended,” I said between gulps of air.
Tommy smirked. “Any more of those little monsters and we all would have been meat.”