As they passed out the doorway, she heard Ponytail and Red Bandana start shouting at each other. Even Devo hurried along. The two women joined him, Jessica stumbling as she tripped on an unforeseen object.
“Faster,” Devo said. “We don’t want to be here for this.”
The shouting turned into screaming. Other voices joined the yelling. Then a single shot barked loudly and the voices stopped. Devo looked back over his shoulder but didn’t halt. Juliet didn’t know who had fired the shot, but she hoped it was Red Bandana.
2
Devo held the door open and nodded towards the inside of the tank. Juliet stepped through, glancing at his downturned face as she passed. She hoped the asshole got whatever was waiting back in the building. Perhaps this was what Skoota had talked about—groups imploding over power struggles. There was a strange satisfaction in the disagreement between Ponytail and Red Bandana. It might just be the key to any potential freedom.
When Jessica was inside, Devo closed the door without speaking a word. Juliet listened as his footsteps faded into the distance. She wondered whether Devo might not just leave without going back in order to avoid the conflict between the two leaders. Not likely. People like Devo needed stronger characters to survive. They had no initiative or leadership themselves and relied on others to tell them what to do or how to live.
“What happened?” Meg asked.
Jessica burst into tears. Juliet reached out, found her arm and guided the other woman towards her. She wrapped her arms around her back and let Jessica’s head rest against her shoulder. Juliet held her tight as she gave a long moan of anguish then sobbed.
“Give her a moment,” Lory whispered. “I was assaulted after they killed my friends.”
It had been a close call. Juliet shuddered when she thought how it might have gone. All those men… but it hadn’t. Red Bandana’s arrival had saved them, but Juliet wasn’t sure why. He had behaved so badly earlier. It didn’t make sense. At least with Ponytail, they knew he was bad. The question of Red Bandana now was how he would act the next time they saw him?
Jessica pulled away. “You all right?” Juliet asked, hands on her shoulders.
“Yeah,” Jessica said. Juliet dropped her arms. “Now. Thanks to you.” She squeezed Juliet’s hand.
“What…” Meg began, clearing her throat. “Happened?”
Juliet didn’t know how to explain. Then Jessica spoke. “I can’t thank you enough, Juliet. What you did…”
“We made it, that’s all that matters. It could have been so much worse.”
Jessica recapped, leaving no detail out. “All I can think about now is my husband, and if it had gone further how he would feel.” Her tone became almost distant. “He would have killed them all with his bare hands.”
“I don’t understand,” Meg said. “I mean, Red Bandana was the one who threw us into the vault. Why would he stop the others assaulting you?”
“I kept waiting for him to tell us it was a joke,” Juliet said. “It was strange the way he acted. You’re right. It was such a contradiction to how he’d behaved earlier.”
“And Sam was there?”
“Yes. Sitting in the corner. He looked terrible. They’d beaten him. One eye was swollen like a plumb. There was blood all around his nose and his face was bruised.
Meg said, “He didn’t try to stop them? Didn’t say anything?”
“He didn’t do that when I was there,” Lory said, recalling her assault days earlier.
Juliet felt she should defend Sam. By her measure, so far, he had done the best he could by them. “He couldn’t. He was already suffering. If he’d spoken up, I have no doubt they’d have punished him again, and maybe the next time it would end in more than a swollen face.
“What now then?” Meg asked. “Is there any chance Red Bandana will let us go?”
It was a fair question, but one Juliet had considered already in the short time since Red Bandana had saved them. Saved them. It was a strange way to look at it, but true. Still, she didn’t think it changed the longer-term view of what would become of them.
“He won’t let us go,” she said.
“Why not?”
“Because he’s fucking crazy.” She waited for them to respond. “His actions are both ends of the extreme. Okay, he saved us from being sexually assaulted. If it wasn’t for him, I’d be lying on the ground in that building in a mess. But he’s still holding us against our wishes. We aren’t free to leave on our own.”
“And he killed my brother and friend.”
“I don’t know why Red Bandana stopped the men assaulting us. Maybe it’s a power thing with Ponytail, showing he calls the shots.”
“When we left the building, there was a gunshot,” Jessica said. “If Ponytail was the one doing the shooting, you can expect he’s going to burst through that door at any moment for revenge.” That was an excellent point Juliet hadn’t considered.
“Then what are we going to do?” Meg asked.
The others had all slid down the wall and sat with their backs against it. Juliet did the same now. “We’ve got to come up with a plan.”
Meg blew air. “Good luck. How do you suppose we do that?”
“Did you notice on the way to the vault, there’s a part of the fence where the infected are lined up on the outside?” Nobody did. “It’s a narrow gap between a tin shed and another small brick building. Not big, but I spotted a few of them through gaps in the ivy earlier as they were leading us to this vault and heard the infected making noises as Devo took us back tonight.”
Lory cleared her throat. “So?”
“The fence is damaged.”
“Damaged?”
“Yeah. Maybe we can pull the whole section down and let the infected in.”
“Then what?”
Jessica jumped in. “They’ll overrun the place, take on the bad guys, and while they’re occupied, we can escape.”
Meg shifted forward. “What? That’s it? That’s your plan?”
“Has anybody got any other ideas?” Juliet asked. “Because if the best we’ve got is to wait for Red bandana to change his mind and let us out, I don’t think that’s going to cut it.”
That silenced Meg. Neither option was preferred, but letting the infected in was all Juliet could think to engage the men and create a diversion. In the longer term, she couldn’t see Red Bandana suddenly changing his mind about holding them captive, even if, morally, he didn’t condone sexual assault.
“Okay,” Jessica said. “How do we make that happen?”
“We start by coming up with a way to divert the guard the next time someone asks to use the bathroom. Someone needs to find out what we need to take the fence down.”
3
January 11, 2014
8:02 am
Latrobe, Tasmania
Kumiko dreamed again. She was in the passenger seat of a car, beside Dan as he drove down a winding, countryside road. The day was bright and mild. Fields of yellow flowers courted them on both sides of the faded grey highway. Dan’s wide, content smile made her feel happy. Kumiko was happy sitting beside him. With him. He wasn’t like the others she had known. He didn’t have an ego. Wasn’t always angling to show off. He was easy-going. The feeling settled over her, and she knew it was true, as much in the dream as in reality. As they came around a long, sweeping bend, the twisted bodies of a car accident blocked their way ahead. Dan jammed on the brakes. They weren’t going to make it. They were going to—
Footsteps. Banging on the roof. Kumiko woke with a gasp, lifting her head off the pillow on the staffroom sofa to listen. Never in her life had she been able to come awake so quickly. Her mother would have been both surprised and pleased.
Sharply, she said, “Dan?”
“Yeah. I hear.”
“What is it?”
“Not sure.”
The sound of a shouting voice came, probably one of the new military guys who had taken camp in the offices closer to the back end of the build
ing. It was in an urgent, purposeful tone. A cold chill crept over Kumiko.
“What are they saying?”
“They’re in,” Dan said, leaping off the other sofa. “Up, quickly. We have to move.”
More banging sounded from above. In the grey morning light seeping in from the window and hallway beyond, Kumiko looked up at the ceiling. There was a crunch and clunk, as though someone was stepping on the aluminium roof. She knew the sound—her father used to make it climbing up to get the Christmas decorations every December.
“It’s in the celling, Dan.”
He stood fixated to the floor, eyes following the noise. More screaming and yelling came from the back end of the office, the cry of an older woman and the screams of kids. They had their own problems. Kumiko had to get to the door. Before she had taken off, a section of the foam ceiling cracked open and a foot appeared. Kumiko leapt back. The foot became a leg, then two, before an entire lower section of a body. Dan’s expression loosened with shock. Kumiko glanced around at the doors leading outside to the decking and stairs. A handful of infected had congregated there. She turned back, and with a final crash, the thing fell the rest of the way through the ceiling and onto the staffroom table below.
It wasn’t one of the normal infected though. It was the female that had stood near the edge of the building the previous day and watched as the horde attacked—the one that had sprinted towards Mac’s friend and broken his neck. It stood in a half-crouched position, a tight, dark ponytail poking out from the back of its head. Up close, Kumiko was even more amazed by the bulging muscles in its arms and legs. Black eyes, like obsidian, examined them both.
Kumiko’s stomach dropped. “Oh, shit, Dan.”
She staggered backwards and tripped over a swivel chair, landing on her backside. Dan reached down for something, but the creature’s stare had locked onto Kumiko. It leapt off the table and landed on the brown carpet, nostrils flared, those black eyes like the pits of Hell. It stepped forward, reaching out for her foot. Kumiko scrambled backwards, made it onto her feet, and toppled over one of the desks, crunching her elbow on a corner of wood. Dan moved on her left. A chair struck the infected woman in the face, a chair Dan held between white-knuckled fists. The thing grunted and fell sideways over the clutter, disappearing from immediate view.
“Up!” He reached out for Kumiko, and she took his hand, pulling her onto her feet. Dan broke for the door, but several converging infected blocked the way, their tattered, bloody clothing baggy on their haggard frames.
Kumiko spun around towards the outside porch again and now there were even more pale faces and dark, hungry eyes.
“The roof,” Dan shouted.
The broken plaster hole where the infected had dropped through glared down at her. That was the only way out of the room.
“Dan,” she shouted, climbing up onto the table. The psychotic woman had revived and was drawing to her feet. In the doorway, Dan backpedalled, swinging the fold-up chair as two more infected clamoured for him, but he missed them both.
He joined Kumiko on the table as the female grabbed at his ankles. Still holding the fold-up chair, Dan slammed it down onto the thing’s head. A long, bloody gash opened up on her forehead and she crumpled to the floor again. He dropped the chair onto her and looked up at the roof.
From the bowels of the office building, more yelling sounded.
“I’ll go first,” Dan said, “that way I can pull you up.”
More infected swept into the room.
Dan reached up for the roof and found his hands about a foot short. He bent his knees and leapt, grabbing hold of a roof beam. He hung there a moment, and she realized he didn’t have the strength to pull his weight up. Kumiko made a cup with her hands and stuck them under his foot. Dan put his right sneaker in and Kumiko lifted, the soles of his shoes pinching her soft palms. She pushed him higher, and he disappeared up into the artificial manhole.
The infected woman stirred again. Blood trickled down her angry face from the wound on her head. She pushed the chair aside and growled at Kumiko.
“Jump!” Dan screamed, peering down through the opening, his face pinched with terror.
Kumiko jumped, thankful for all those years on the gymnastics high bar, and reached the beam easier than Dan. She swung for a moment and saw at the bottom of her vision the infected woman climbing onto the table. Dan put his hands under her arms and began to lift her through the hole.
“Pull yourself up,” Dan said. He groaned as he leaned back and dragged her up.
The woman below shrieked. Kumiko kicked her feet up out of the way, but a hand grabbed her left foot. “It’s… got me,” she stammered, trying to lift her legs higher.
“Kick,” Dan said through gritted teeth. “Kick like hell.”
She did and immediately felt her free foot connect with the infected thing’s hands, and it let go. Dan heaved a final time, and Kumiko was able to leverage the ceiling beam to drag herself into the hole. As she climbed in, she peered down into the room and watched the woman staring up at them.
“Jesus, that was close,” Dan breathed.
“Too close.”
The infected woman leapt for the beam and snagged her fingers around it. Dan stomped his foot down on them several times until she slipped off, hissing like an angry cat.
“I can’t stand here all day doing this.” He spun around, searching the vast ceiling space. Wooden trusses interlocked the breadth, and at some point, the gap had been used for storage. Flat MDF panels had been laid across the joists, and boxes of paperwork had been stacked on them.
Dan spotted a loose MDF board and used the joists as steps to reach it. He hurried back to the hole with it, finding the infected woman had latched onto the beam again. He stomped hard on her fingers, and she slid off for the second time. As Dan prepared to fix the board over the gap, she stood staring up through the broken hole at him, her black eyes watchful. After a moment, she disappeared.
“Where’s she gone?” Kumiko asked.
“Don’t know.” Dan laid the board in place then hurried over to a pile of boxes and began to carry them back to the board. “Should hold her back for a bit.”
When there were half a dozen boxes piled onto the MDF, Dan stepped away and listened. Loud footsteps and banging sounded below, suggesting the infected had infiltrated the entire office building. Kumiko wondered what had happened to the others and hoped they were all right.
“Let’s go.” Dan started off towards the other end of the building. He pointed. “See that?” Kumiko narrowed her eyes. A patch of light poked in through the roof about thirty yards ahead. “That’s where it got in, and that’s where we get out.”
Kumiko followed, edging her way over the flat boards and then along the joists, holding onto the trusses for balance. In some places, Dan had to squeeze his way through tighter bracing, but Kumiko had no problems squeezing her lithe body between the gaps. Eventually, they reached the section where the infected had pulled the iron roofing back and entered the ceiling space.
“Have a look at this,” Dan said. The iron was twisted and misshapen, like the peeled-back edge of a baked beans can. “It must be ridiculously strong to do that.”
Kumiko spotted drops of blood around the edges of the roofing. Dan poked his head out through the hole momentarily, then slipped it back. His expression was grim. “I can see them on the ground, but if we get out onto the roof we may be able to find a spot to climb down.”
Kumiko glanced back the way they had come, expecting to see the infected woman, but when she narrowed her gaze, the boxes were still in place. She didn’t think that was the last they had seen of her though.
“Are we going to die?”
Dan’s face pinched into disbelief. “What? Don’t be silly. We can think our way out of this.”
“How many times have we almost died? Surely our luck’s got to run out sooner or later.”
Dan stared at her. “I’ll look after you, I promise.” Kumiko smiled. Dan
smiled back and climbed out the gap onto the roof.
It was nice to have someone looking out for her again. Dan might not have been the first guy she’d choose based on looks, but he had a lot of appealing qualities. She was really beginning to like him.
Kumiko climbed up onto the trusses then stepped out through the gap, brushing the edge of the twisted iron, and onto the angled roof sheeting. The incline of the roof was quite steep, and the height of their position surprised her. If they took one wrong step they’d fall and end up either broken or dead on the ground below. Notwithstanding the horde of infected that was waiting for them.
Dan seemed to read her mind. “We’ve been in worse than this.”
She looked down at the infected still wandering in eternal motion between the trees and wooden seats in the playground. He was right. She had been solid at times, proud of her actions. There was no rulebook surviving the end of the world, and they were doing their best.
She gave a quick nod, as if making up her mind. “You’re right.”
“I’m thinking we work our way around the roof until we can find a place to make a break for it. We’ve got to get to those main gates and onto the road. That’s where Mac and the others are parked. They’ll try and do the same thing. I don’t think they can see us up here, so if we can sneak down, we might have a chance.”
“Where do we start?”
Dan nodded towards a tree growing near the roofing in the left corner. “That thing had to climb up here somehow.”
“You think it climbed that tree?”
Dan shrugged.
Scanning the grounds below, Kumiko said, “You know, I don’t think I want to stay around this school anymore.”
“I don’t think we have a choice,” Dan said. “They’re inside the building and unless Mac has unlimited ammo back in his car, we won’t be able clear it out.”
Kumiko started down the corrugated sheeting towards the tree. “Jim isn’t going to like that.”
Invasion of the Dead (Book 5): Resolve Page 3
