He stood up and shouted. He threw the empty gun against the school’s brick wall as hard as he could. He was numb as walkers moved around him to get to the storeroom doors. They pulled on the handles, but the doors didn’t move. Other walkers feasted on fresh kills littered about the field.
Aaron thought for a moment he might have lost his mind, as he could have sworn he heard crying.
He scanned the field, and thought he saw something through the horde of undead, not too far from the fence. It was a small figure laying on the ground in a fetal position.
Aaron ran through the walkers, pushing them out of the way. He was stunned when he saw who it was.
Amanda hugged her knees to her chest and cried. The backpack she’d taken from the storeroom with Derek and Nikki lay just next to her. She kept her eyes shut tight, not wanting to look at the horror around her. A corpse picked at a fresh dead body not too far away.
“Amanda?”
He bent down to touch her shoulder. The little girl flinched and hugged herself tighter. She reminded him of himself just after his family died.
He looked up at a corpse as it walked by, ignoring both of them.
He pulled the girl into a sitting position and checked for any injuries. She still kept her head buried in between her knees.
“It’s me, Aaron,” he said. He gave the girl a hug. “You’re gonna be okay.”
She pulled her head up enough just to reveal her eyes. “The monsters-”
“Listen to me. You’re like me, sweetie. The monsters won’t hurt you. Remember last night at the Pit? It’s the same with you.”
Amanda sniffled. “Where is everybody?”
“Don’t worry about that. Let’s get you out of here.”
He picked her up in his arms. She opened her eyes just enough to point at the backpack on the ground.
“I got that for you.”
He picked it up off the ground and heard metal clanging against metal. He carried her to one of the trucks parked near the gate. He opened the door and slid her into the passenger’s seat.
“Okay, Amanda. I want you to stay here, okay? I’ll shut the door and crack the window for you a little. You’ll be safe here.” He heard the metal in the backpack one more time. “What’s in here?”
Aaron opened the backpack to see it was full of knives. One of them had a striking resemblance to the blade Sam was so fond of.
“Did you take this from Sam’s room?”
She nodded.
Aaron patted her on the head. He surveyed the schoolyard again. Walkers beat on every door they saw, while others wandered in through the open front door. Some of the former residents of Lexington stood up and searched for fresh meat.
He clutched the backpack in his hand.
“Amanda, you might have saved everyone.”
She smiled proudly.
“You’re gonna hear a lot of noises. Just stay in here, and don’t come out till I get you.”
She hugged him around the neck. “Please don’t die.”
“No chance of that.”
He closed the truck door.
Aaron had a lot of work ahead of him.
* * *
Sam looked at Larry as he nearly pushed the storeroom doors open. She ran to his side and grabbed his wrist.
“We can’t go out there,” she said.
“Richardson is out there.”
“Richardson is dead.”
Derek looked at the both of them from behind. “What about Amanda?”
There was more light as candles were passed around and lit. Sam turned to look at the teenagers and slowly shook her head. Derek held Nikki in his arms as she cried against his chest. Behind them, Sam could see the rest of Lexington’s survivors. Six months ago, she barely knew any of them. Now, the only ones she didn’t know were the former slaves they just brought home. People huddled together and cried. Others were too shocked to do anything, just leaning up against the walls. James walked around and checked everyone.
Sam knew lives had been lost, but the storeroom was still packed full of people. Larry stood next to her. Carrie sat on the floor with the kids. She tried to climb to her feet, wounded leg and all. Mary was locking the other entrance to the storeroom that led inside the school’s halls. Travis checked and reloaded his gun.
Somewhere, she knew Aaron was still alive.
The fight hadn’t been lost yet.
They all looked to her.
“Okay,” she said. “First things first. Secure both exits. Make sure they can’t open. Wrap chains around the handles, whatever you gotta do. Do we have anything to nail some tables to the doors?”
Travis lowered his eyes. “Uh, no. I took all the nails to work on the smokehouse. They’re out there.”
Sam sighed. She grabbed her gun from her waistband. “Fine. Now, who here has been bitten?”
No one said a word. They went to work following Sam’s orders. Larry’s hands shook as he wrapped a chain around the outside exit’s handles. He could hear the corpses on the other side, pounding on the door.
“I’ll take that as no one is hurt. But if someone is, and they’re hiding it, all you’ll end up doing is killing us all. So please, last time, is anyone injured?”
Silence. Derek and Nikki stepped up to Sam.
“What do you want us to do?” he asked.
“Take the kids and Carrie. Go to the girls’ locker room. Take some of these tables, barricade yourselves in.”
“It’s gonna get dark soon,” Nikki said.
“I know. If they get that far back, it means we’re dead. If it’s dark, they won’t be able to see. You’ll have a chance to maybe get out.”
Nikki wanted to cry more, but she held it in. “Okay.” She turned toward the children and tried to put on her best smile. “Let’s go guys. We’re gonna go in another room.”
Carrie leaned against the wall with her weight on one leg. “I’m not going,” she said. “I’m staying here and fighting.”
Sam never had liked Carrie, but now she had a new respect for the woman.
Mary walked up to Sam and gave her a hug. “I’m glad you’re alive.”
Sam returned the hug quickly. “You too. Did you get that other door locked up?”
She nodded.
Sam looked over everyone again. “What weapons do we have?”
Travis laughed sarcastically. “Just what we have on us. Most of the rifles are gone.”
Sam saw the knives Nikki and Derek had on them when they ran outside. She picked them up and started handing out what she could.
“Samantha, this is ridiculous,” James said as he took a knife. “Did you see how many of them there were? We’re just waiting to die in here.”
She put a hand on his shoulder. “If we’re gonna die, I want to kill as many of those things as I can.”
He took a breath, then slowly nodded.
The doors that led into the school started shaking. The chain held, but the doors cracked open enough for a hand to slip through.
“Make every shot count,” Sam said. “Use blades first, if you can.”
Sam pointed to the other door leading outside, and several people ran over to watch it. Their numbers were divided fairly evenly. They had a good number of people watching both doors.
The inside door cracked a little further, and more hands slipped through. Travis beat at them with the butt of his empty rifle. Sam and Larry pushed on the doors as hard as they could. A walker managed to get its head halfway through. Larry stabbed it through the forehead, and remembered to pull the knife out. Sam shut the doors completely, but she knew that wouldn’t last long. Even with her and several others pushing against it, the doors shook.
“Wrap that chain tighter! Do we have anything to lock it with?”
Larry shrugged. “No, we don’t. We never kept any locks.”
Sam looked to the other side. “How are you guys doing over there?”
“Not too bad,” Mary called. “This door, they have to pull
to open it. They’re not too good at pulling.”
“Some of you come over here then.”
They kept them out longer than Sam thought they would. The problem was Sam and everyone grew tired, a problem the walkers didn’t have. Weak or not, they could push forever. Sam ended up dividing everyone into shifts to hold the door. Thirty minutes passed.
Hope began to dwindle.
“Samantha, this isn’t working,” Larry said. “We have to run.”
“There isn’t any other way out.”
“We should fight then.”
Before she could respond, the door flew open on the other side. The walkers finally managed to pull it open. There were screams followed by gunfire as walkers flowed into the storeroom.
A few walkers died, but not enough. Sam felt the door shaking at her back as two corpses barely missed grabbing Mary and Carrie.
Sam noticed some walkers moving toward the locker rooms.
Toward the children.
“No!” she shouted. “Everyone get over here! Don’t lead them to the kids.”
The rest of Lexington grouped near Sam, trying to stay as close to the wall as possible while still blocking the door. Her shout drew the corpses’ attention, as the walkers shuffled in their direction. Some still had fresh gore on their faces and hands from earlier kills. Travis and several others opened fire, dropping a few of them.
Sam couldn’t count their numbers. She thought they had a chance to make it out of at least this battle, but they’d lose many people.
She didn’t notice the pounding on the door behind them had stopped.
She jumped when a loud, steady knock came right behind her, followed by a muffled voice she recognized.
“Hello? Got room for one more in there?”
Sam shook as she ripped the chain away. Larry and Travis continued to shoot corpse after corpse, but they kept coming. The low light made it difficult to get a clear head shot.
She threw the doors open. Aaron stood with his bow slung over his chest. He held two long blood-covered knives, one in each hand. Sam recognized one as her own. He had a few more sticking out of his quiver.
She threw herself in his arms. Larry turned from shooting walkers long enough to give him a surprised look.
“Sorry it took so long,” Aaron said.
Sam pulled away and pointed to the storeroom. “They’re inside.”
Aaron squinted to see. It was difficult to see anything with the few people holding candles moving to the door. All he could make out were shadows and moans.
“It’s clear out here. Everybody move out.” He looked at Sam and gave her a quick kiss. “The halls are clear. Just give me five, maybe ten minutes.”
He jogged forward and kicked at the feet of the horde while the rest of Lexington filed out into the school’s halls. The undead tripped and fell over each other, giving everyone precious seconds to get out. Travis and Mary brought up the rear as they helped Carrie walk. The last two standing at the door were Sam and Larry.
Aaron turned around and gave them a nod. “Ten minutes, I think.”
“The kids are in the girls’ locker room.”
“I won’t let anything happen to them. Don’t worry.”
Larry shook his head. “Is he insane?”
Sam smiled. “I used to think so too.”
She closed the door behind her.
* * *
Sam didn’t know how much time had passed, but it felt longer than ten minutes. She stayed by the storeroom doors while everyone else spread out in Lexington’s halls to see Aaron’s work. He had killed every walker he saw. Some had arrows in their heads, but most were killed by blades.
She couldn’t wait anymore. She opened the storeroom doors to see dead corpses everywhere. Aaron emerged from the hall leading to the locker rooms, the children right behind him. He flashed her a bright smile.
She ran to him and they embraced as hard as they could. Sam gave the children a glare as they whistled and made noises over the display of affection.
“Is it over?” she asked.
“I mean, still be careful, but I think I got all of them. Just takes a long time to stab two hundred brains.”
Sam locked eyes with Derek and Nikki, who stood right behind Aaron. She saw the sadness in their eyes.
“We lost some of us. Richardson and Amanda are gone,” Sam explained.
Aaron nodded and put a hand on Derek’s shoulder. “I’ll miss Richardson. But you’re only half right.”
He led everyone through the storeroom to the outside. They had to step over corpses as they walked. He waved to the truck near the gate, and Amanda climbed out.
Derek almost knocked Aaron over as he ran to the girl he thought of as his little sister. Nikki stopped just long enough to give Aaron a kiss on the cheek, then ran to Amanda as well.
Aaron put his arm around Sam’s shoulders as she watched the three embrace. He wasn’t surprised when Derek gave Nikki a long kiss.
“That’s not a bad idea,” Aaron said, pulling Sam close to him.
Sam wrapped her arms around his neck. “We thought Amanda was out here with the walkers.”
“She was.”
It took a moment to understand his meaning. She looked over at Amanda as she hugged Nikki’s leg. “You mean-”
Aaron nodded.
Slowly, the people of Lexington started to gather around Aaron. They looked at the dead corpses with stunned surprise. Larry was the first one to talk.
“Aaron, how the hell did you do this?”
“Richardson’s gone. What are we gonna do?”
“Aaron and Samantha should be in charge now.”
“Are more walkers coming?”
Aaron held up his hand to get everyone’s attention. He still held Sam’s hand. People started to light candles as it grew darker. He was surprised at how fast everyone quieted down and looked at him.
“Okay, we have a lot to talk about,” Aaron said. “Between last night and today, it’s been pretty shitty lately.”
“You can say that again,” Travis said.
“But I’ve got a plan. It’ll take work from all of us, but things will get better around here.”
The questions came at a fast pace.
“How did you kill all the walkers?”
“What do you have in mind?”
“I heard you got bit by a walker.”
“What do we do now?”
Aaron laughed. “First thing out of the way, about me and the walkers…”
Epilogue
Six months later . . .
Aaron hoisted the last generator onto the back of the truck while Amanda dragged two pillowcases of supplies behind her. He took them from her and placed them neatly near the back.
He took a quick drink of water from his canteen and handed it to her.
“You doing okay?”
The young girl nodded, although Aaron could see she was tired. Amanda was definitely a tough little girl. She pushed a lock of blond hair out of her eyes. She would need a haircut soon, something Aaron wasn’t looking forward to. When Mary cut her hair three months ago she cried for almost an entire day. It took two showings of an old movie called The Lion King to calm her down.
“What do you think?”
He gestured to the back of the truck. It had been a long four days from home, but it was a productive four days. The truck was full of wood, water, blankets, light clothes, tools.
Amanda smiled. “We got a lot of stuff.”
“Damn right we did. Put her there.”
They gave each other a high-five.
“What are we doing next?”
He pulled the sliding gate down.
“Now it’s time to go home. Mission accomplished.”
Her eyes lit up. “Really? We’re going home?”
“Yup.” He felt guilty at her enthusiasm. “You know you don’t have to come out here with me, right?”
“I have to help you.”
He laughed. Amanda watche
d him kill corpse after corpse, what she called monsters. He didn’t really want her to watch, but it didn’t seem to bother her. She was growing up too fast.
He hopped over a dead corpse as he climbed behind the wheel. Amanda sat next to him and buckled her seat belt. They started the drive away from Home Depot back to Lexington High School.
“Next time we come out, can we bring a sleeping bag? Sleeping on these seats is hard.”
Aaron smiled. He’d tell her later that this was the last excursion away from home.
They drove with the windows down. The winter was finally over. It was a beautiful spring day. Aaron was going to enjoy the next few months.
He enjoyed keeping Sam warm during the winter. He’d enjoy cooling her off in the summer too.
They heard activity as they drove down Honeyton Road and made the turn into the high school. Aaron glanced at Amanda to see the girl was almost bouncing on the seat with excitement.
The windmill on top of the school was steadily turning in the breeze. Mary shouted Aaron’s name and waved before disappearing into the greenhouse near the second garden. He heard the sounds of chickens clucking. It was good to be home.
Travis, James, and Carrie were chatting near the front gate. They gave Aaron and his young partner a wave as they drove by. They were already peering into the back of the truck as they got out.
“Aaron, you guys got a haul here,” James said.
Aaron walked to greet them, Amanda at his side.
“I couldn’t have done it without my sidekick here.”
Amanda smiled proudly, then looked up at Aaron. “Can I go find Derek and Nikki?”
“Sure.”
Carrie smiled. “I saw them over by the bleachers. But be careful. They were tongue-touching the last time I saw them.”
“Tongue-touching?”
“Kissing.”
“Yuck!”
Amanda ran away. The adults laughed. Others joined in near the back, ready to help unload. Aaron saw Larry jogging their way.
“Did it go okay?” Larry asked.
They walked together inside the school. Kids played in the halls. Some of them stopped long enough to give Aaron a hug. Everyone missed him.
Dead Living Page 27
