'It looks like the good luck fairy is smiling on you today.'
'Huh?'
'Well, you just went in there and got your stuff.'
'So?' Maisie shrugged again. 'Like I said. I saw it, went in, got it, came out.'
'So, sweetheart, we'd like you to go in there and get ours for us, as you're the lightest and prettiest.'
'Oh, Rachel, do you think so?' Maisie said, smiling happily.
'I don't need no girl to get my bag,' Fred said as he took a step into the room. Then he thought better of it, turned and came back. 'Actually, I don't need my bag. It's only got school books in it. I'm not allowed to have my phone in school.'
'Not allowed?' Rachel said, her voice getting more shrill at each syllable.
'Er, well, no. Not since…' He looked around at the others. 'OK,' he shrugged, 'they thought I might have been sending a text once in an exam.'
Rachel chuckled. 'Idiot!' But then switching tone in an instant, she turned to Maisie. 'So, Maisie, you think you can help us out here?'
'Sure,' she said standing up. 'I can show you how I fooled you all into thinking I'm not very smart.'
With that, she stepped into the room and, skipping from one table to the next, she scooped up Rachel's sparkly pink bag and coat, Alex's black shoulder bag and red hoody, and Steve's rucksack from where he'd dropped it next to the teacher's desk. There was an ominous grinding noise from behind her as she stood in the doorway passing round the coats and bags. Alex looked over Maisie's shoulder and saw the floor beginning to go. She grabbed Maisie and pulled her into the corridor.
The grinding noise became a dreadful ripping sound. Without a second's pause the group snatched up all their stuff and beat a hasty retreat back to the stairwell as most of the classroom floor fell away, crashing down into the one below, taking all the tables and chairs with it. When they looked back, a cloud of dust billowed out of the doorway they'd all been standing in moments before.
'See, I told you I could do it,' Maisie said.
'Now we've survived another deadly danger,' Fred said, zipping up his jacket. 'I have to say I'm feeling rather hungry.'
'We could try the canteen if it's still standing,' Alex said.
They took a left out of the quad, through the left hand side of the ground floor corridor and from there out to the back of the school yard. Outside the canteen was an abandoned grocer's delivery van. Its back doors were wide open and a box of chocolate bars was lying on the ground where the delivery guy had dropped it when he ran away.
'Could be useful,' Alex said, glancing at the contents of the van as they went past. 'Let's try inside the canteen.'
Chapter 13: A Smell Of Burning
The canteen was deserted and empty of bodies but there was a smell of burning.'
'What is that?' Rachel said wrinkling her nose and hanging back by the door.
Alex went through into the food preparation area.
'The dinner ladies must have scarpered when the klaxon went off. They left something cooking but it's just a charred mess now.'
Alex turned off the gas supply to the vat that had held the makings of a meat stew.
'It might be burnt but that food smell is driving me crazy,' Steve said. 'What else is there apart from cinderised stew?'
'There'll be rabbit food,' Maisie said.
'What?' Alex said.
Maisy pointed at a pile of chopped iceberg lettuce. 'You know, like, salad.'
'French fries that only got half cooked before the power went off, sitting in cold fat. Cold peas, cold cabbage…'
'What about the hot cupboard over there?' Steve said. They usually keep pies in it.'
'Oh, pies!' Fred said. 'That's worth a try.'
Fred was already nearest. He opened the door to what looked like a heavily insulated stainless steel box on legs. A delicious smell wafted out. Fred was about to reach in when Alex stopped him.
'Use the oven gloves, we don't know how hot the trays are.'
It turned out the pies were only warm but highly edible all the same.
The five friends gathered round a tray of twenty pies. There were beef pies with a little pastry bull's head on the top and chicken pies with a small pastry chicken on. They were made by a well-known supermarket. Rachel dumped a pile of plates on the worktop and they grabbed a stack of pies each, then went and sat round one of the big round tables in the dining area. One by one they went back and forth to the drinks dispenser as the need arose.
Finally, they pushed their plates away and sat back in their seats. Rachel looked round the small group then burst out laughing.
'What's the matter?'
'Just look at us. Think what we've been through this morning and here we are, lounging around covered in pie crumbs, too full to move even if a whole herd of zombies came through the door.'
Maisie had been falling asleep but she shook herself awake. 'You heard zombies?' she said, grabbing Rachel's arm.
Alex smiled, brushing her pie crumbs onto the floor. 'No. No zombies, Maisie. But we probably should make a plan.'
A sudden noise made them all duck under the tables.
'I bet they're in here,' Janet's voice wafted through from outside of the canteen.
'Mum?' Steve called out, raising his head above the table top as she pushed the door aside.
Steve didn't pay any attention to the four adults behind his mother, he simply ran towards her and flung his arms around her.
'Mum, mum, you're safe.'
'Yes, darling and so are you,' she said, tears rolling down her cheeks.
'But what about dad?' Steve said, with a shiver of apprehension.
'Dad?' Janet held her son at arm's length and stared into his eyes. 'Your dad's on a course. You've forgotten already that we drove him to the station?'
'Oh, yeah, yeah,' he nodded, slumping into a chair, relief getting the better of him.
Janet looked over his shoulder at the other kids, who were peeking out over the table tops to see if it was safe. 'I see you've brought some friends. I hope none of you are…'
'We're all clean,' Rachael said, standing up. 'I guess you're all clean, too?'
'Yes, Graham said, we've been tracking you for ages but we couldn't get near because of all the activity out there.'
'Rachel's got like a plan,' Maisie said.
'Oh?' Graham said.
Rachel rolled her eyes. 'I didn't say I had a plan, it was Alex and she said we needed one.'
'Does the plan include anything to do with food?' Bill said, moving toward the tables the kids had been eating at and looking longingly at the remaining empty pie crusts.
'There's more pies in the oven and plenty of cold food,' Steve said.
'I'm very proud of you, Stevie,' Janet said giving her son another hug.
'Mum, don't call me that in front of people,' he whispered, 'I've only just got them to stop calling me Fats.'
'Oh, yes? And which of you kids has been calling him that?'
'Steve's our friend, Mrs Raymond,' Alex said. 'Right from the start he put us straight about calling him names and then he saved us from the zombies because he knew about the castle. If it wasn't for him, we'd all be dead.'
'Alright. Thank you dear. It's good to see you're all safe.'
'There's all sorts back here,' Bill called from the kitchen. He emerged with platters of pies, sliced ham and salad.
The kids watched the adults eat. Steve filled up a big jug of water for them. Maisie got some glasses. Alex paced nervously and kept a lookout by the door. At one point she went outside and returned a few minutes later.
'Alex,' Janet said, 'you look like you're hatching a plan.'
'There's a truck loaded with catering supplies out there. The key's in the ignition and I checked the fuel gauge. It's over half full.'
'Kid's right,' Graham said. 'Either the Ministry or the army will do a head count and find out we're missing. That means they'll come looking for us.'
'Why can't they just like leave us alone,' Maisi
e said.
'Because we might be infected.'
'But we all know we're not.'
'Is the truck big enough for ten of us?' Janet said.
'Yes, if we take out some of the catering stuff.'
'So the plan is we all pile in the truck and take off?'
'Yeah, we keep out the way of the army…'
'And the zombies.'
'Of course the zombies,' Janet said. Then we get past the quarantine barrier somehow, find Stevie's dad and match the rest of you up with your parents.'
'But what if we like get caught?'
'That,' Janet said, standing up and speaking in the sort of voice she used to instruct rogue fishing captains to take their catch elsewhere, 'Is not going to happen.'
***
If you enjoyed this story by Peter Salisbury, you can find more by him at:
Spirit in the Circuits (anthology of 6 non-gory horror/ghost short stories; 18,000 words)
The Old Store: A Science Fiction Anthology (26 post-apocalyptic SF short stories based around the same group of survivors; 54,000 words)
The First Completely Electronic Robot and Science Fiction Limerick Book (50 limerick rhymes having an SF theme)
Phantoms of the Quantum Rift (SF – a longer short story; 12,000 words)
Passengers to Sentience (110,000 word SF novel)
Passengers to Zeta Nine (102,000 words; the second Passengers novel)
British Zombie Breakout: Part One Page 5
