“Here, let me wrap it up for you.” Caylee gently kisses my wrist before tightening the bandage around it. I have to admit, her lips do help. “What if he’s right? What if they put us in camps and we’re all separated and nothing is ever like it was before? What if we’re better off on our own?”
“We can’t keep doing what we did out there,” Tyrone answers for me. “We can’t. That was too close. You haven’t been out there like we have. We can’t do this many more times and live.”
“Not like this, no,” she whispers over me, “but with weapons. With some kind of base, like the bus driver said. We can protect it. Build walls. Collect weapons. With enough of us, I don’t know, we can take turns on guard duty and find more survivors to help out. We have this whole bus. We can fit a lot of people on here, enough to start over.”
“Start over?” Darius hisses. “Start over? That’s not on us. We’re freakin’ high school kids who got caught in the middle of this. There are people out there with the means to rebuild and beat these things. Those people are not us. Look at him,” he says, motioning towards me. “Look what one day has done to him. We can’t keep relying on Noah to rescue us.”
“I’m not suggesting we do,” Caylee says, pulling me closer. “I say we get weapons and fight beside him. Not bats and golf clubs, real weapons, something we stand a chance with. We all know what happens when the government steps in. We’ll be herded like sheep into some underground encampment, forced to live under their rules and follow their decisions even if they’re not right. Watch, you give it a few years and we’ll all be competing in the Hunger Games. Noah can save us, I know he can, like he already has. But he can’t do it alone. He needs us.”
“Noah,” Tyrone says in that deep voice of his that rattles your soul, “is this what you want? To fight? Because if it is…”
“I don’t know,” I say finally, with a shake of my head. “I don’t know right now. This is all too much to think about. When I woke up this morning, it was just any other day. I’m not ready for all this. You guys are asking if I want to rebuild society. Let’s just, let’s get through tonight first. If we wake up tomorrow, we’ll decide what we wanna do then.”
I lean my head back against the seat and close my eyes. My heart still hasn’t stopped racing. I’m more confused than I’ve ever been in my entire life. A couple minutes ago I was ready to leave all of this, run into the woods with Felecia and never look back.
God, Caylee is amazing. What am I supposed to do? She was my choice for my old life, hands down, she was perfect. But this life, this life that started today when the school nurse threw herself against the classroom door and started eating people, this life wasn’t meant for me and Caylee. I need someone stronger. Someone who could fight by my side and be entrusted with my life.
Felecia. There is no doubt in my mind, that girl is Felecia. Until thirty seconds ago. Caylee gets it. She gets me. She gets the situation. And I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with any of this.
Caylee’s looking at me with loving eyes, I can feel it before I open them a sliver to confirm my suspicions. I smile at her and mouth a silent ‘thank you’ while reaching for her hand. They’re right, I know they are. Her and Marty. That evacuation center is the last place we want to be. With all my heart I want them to be wrong. But they’re not. If anyone comes to help, it’s not going to be the kind of help we need. We’re survivors, we’ve proven that already. And we’ll continue to do what survivors do. Survive.
CHAPTER 3
I’ve never longed for complete and total silence before, the kind that makes you question if the world has ceased to exist around you. It’s too loud to go to sleep, not the wind that races across the open fields and shakes the bus, but the screams, the groans and the blood draining from open wounds. They haunt me. Every time I think maybe I can block it out, some random sound brings back the memories. Their soft snores become screams. My own heartbeat becomes their groaning. The raindrops that build up over time and fall from nearby trees, splashing off one another as they bead up on the roof, it makes me cringe because all I hear is the rhythmic flow of blood pumping itself out of lifeless bodies past their prime. Every sight, every sound, every scent, they bring me back to the war that will end all wars. Unless mankind survives, in which case we’ll do what we always do, zombies or not, and kill each other. On behalf of us all, I pray this is it.
Tomorrow won’t be any different. The only thing that might make it easier is the fact that most of our friends and family are already dead. At least we won’t need to go through that again. Comforting thought, I know my loved ones can’t die because they already did.
I try not to think about it but I know Mom didn’t make it. In all honesty, she was probably dead by the time I got to school. By the sounds of it, the hospital was hit first. The early morning phone call, the lockdown, the SWAT team, they all make sense now. Where’s the SWAT team when you really need them? Oh who am I kidding? Their bullets are useless. I tried. We might as well be holding squirt guns.
I wonder if Dad has Max and Brittany. He’s got access to a private plane, maybe he got them out before it was too late. The selfish side of my heart hopes he didn’t, that’d mean he never bothered trying to get a hold of me. The phones were still working at that point, I called Caylee. Still, no, what am I saying, I wouldn’t wish harm on my family. My family who want nothing to do with me because I sided with Mom. I’m sorry, if I was her, I would have cheated on Dad too. Maybe not with his best friend, that’s kind of messed up, but that’s not something any of us can judge until we’ve been in the same position. I’ve had a crush on Caylee for months and never in a million years thought that I would risk blowing it by harboring feelings for someone else. Yet look at me, a couple hours into my new relationship and thinking about another girl. We’re always so quick to judge but when placed in the same situation, would our actions truly be any different?
I close my eyes tighter, hoping to block out images I don’t want to see. I fight the tears, not wanting to wake anyone up. It’s all gone. Everything. Everything we worked for, every decision we’ve made for our future, every hope and dream we thought someday might come true. They’re all gone. In the blink of an eye it’s all changed. What mattered when we woke up this morning, no longer does. We were thinking about colleges, careers, what to do this weekend. Things that seemed so important at the time.
The gentle gusts of wind almost rock me to sleep but every time I doze for even a second, my eyes burst open, expecting the inevitable. I swear I hear them banging at the windows, breathing, eating, chasing me. I can see their emotionless eyes. I can feel their blood on my skin. At times, I can feel it in my veins, like I’m turning into one of them. It’s a feeling I can’t shake. I can’t blink away the gruesome images that plague my subconscious. I won’t be able to sleep ever again.
“Hey, are you awake?”
I slowly turn to face the quiet voice. It’s Neil’s little brother, Scott. He takes a seat across the aisle, one row back. Darius and Tyrone are right in front of him but they don’t stir at all. Instinctually I look around in search of Felecia but I can’t see her all the way in the back. I bet that spineless prick has her tied to his wrist.
“Yeah, I’m awake. I don’t think I’ll be sleeping anymore. How you holding up?”
“You’re doing a good job,” he says, ignoring my question in a fragile yet strong voice, like all weakness has been scared out of him. “If you weren’t here, we’d all be dead by now. But I gotta ask, why do you hate my brother?”
Oh come on, how am I supposed to answer that? He’s a kid, what is he, twelve? Yeah, he’s gotta be sixth grade by now. How do I tell him that I don’t hate his older brother, his older brother hates me? It’s a hatred built on our moral standings and jealousy. Jealousy because he simply had to be better than me, but no matter how hard he tried he just couldn’t do it. Jealousy because my dad liked Neil more than me. Neil could shoot things. Neil could talk about the girls he kissed a
round the campfire while the dads relived their glory days. Neil could talk sports and cars and all that manly crap that doesn’t make you a man when you cower in the face of adversity. I don’t hate Neil, I hate the fact that everyone loves him.
“I don’t hate your brother.”
“But you didn’t want him getting back on the bus. What did he do? I know my brother, I know he did something bad so just tell me what it is.”
“Scott, your brother’s not a bad person–”
“He pulled a gun on you. He sent you out there to die. If his girlfriend didn’t step in, you wouldn’t be here right now. What happened out there? Where’s Jesse? I need to know.”
His girlfriend? Why does Scott think Felecia is his brother’s girlfriend? It shouldn’t bother me as much as it does but I can’t help it.
Jesse? That must be Ornburg, the kid with the mohawk. “They got him,” I say after a long silence. “And I let them.”
“What did he do? I know they did something bad, I just don’t know if it’s bad enough for me to leave Neil’s side. He’s all I got left.”
“They watched from inside when we needed help. I think Mohawk stopped him, they just stood there watching. We broke free and went after them, we all did despicable things. Neil’s desire to lead is going to get us all killed. I know he thinks what he’s doing is right but he’s acting out of fear and desperation.”
“And you’re not? You’re just scared the government won’t be able to protect us so you don’t want to go to the evacuation center.”
“No, I’m scared we won’t be alive by the time the evacuation center is set up. I want nothing more than to let someone else do the fighting that I’ve been doing all day, but unfortunately there is no one else, not yet. In three days, maybe, but right now, right now we’re alone. And they can say whatever they want about me,” I say pointing to the back of the bus, “but we cannot put our lives in the hands of people who don’t even exist. When soldiers with weapons better than ours arrive, then we can consider entrusting our lives to them, not until then.”
“I think you’re right Noah, but none of them do. They’re all starting to crack, even the teacher. I heard her trying to get Neil to shoot you. The only reason he doesn’t is because of Felecia. And I think the rest of them are trying to figure out a way to get rid of her behind Neil’s back so that she won’t stop him from getting rid of you. And that guy right there,” he says pointing at Darius, “he’s gonna try to convince you to side with us by getting in your girlfriend’s head. He said so at the gas station. You gotta do something before it’s too late. Neil is just like our dad, he’s smart but if things don’t go his way, he’ll get mad and do something stupid, I know him. And he’s gonna do something stupid.”
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”
“I’m on guard duty right now. We’re taking turns. They’re all asleep. He’s got the gun in his hand. You can take it from him. I know you don’t want to but you gotta get them off the bus.”
“Scott, do you hear what you’re saying? They’ll die out there. Why are you doing this?”
“Because it’s him or you, and he’s gonna get us all killed. We didn’t go through all this to die now. The sun’s starting to come up, if we’re gonna do this, we gotta do it now, before it’s too late.”
This is a setup, isn’t it? Neil couldn’t get me off the bus so he’s having his little brother lure me to the back. He’s going to shoot me. He can say I crossed over to his half of the bus and tried to kill him, he was only protecting himself. They’ll all believe it because he’s Neil, and his little brother, who’s on guard duty, will corroborate his story.
I’m not paranoid, they’re Buckleys. They learned from their father. I can’t count how many plans I foiled on our little hunting trips when I was supposed to be sleeping. They couldn’t just track an animal normally, no, they had to trick them in order to kill them. Never traps or anything illegal, it was about setting up their prey, outsmarting it, not because they had to but because they could.
I remember our first trip when Dad found it reprehensible. And I remember my last when he pitched some of his own ideas. When Mr. Buckley caught me removing his trail of bait and backhanded me damn near out of my shoes, Dad told me I had it coming. My little brother agreed. The rest of the guys decided I was no longer invited. They made me stay back at camp that weekend, Scott pretended to twist his ankle and stayed with me. We found a swimming hole along the river and hung out there all day. That was a couple years ago. Is it him I’m talking to? Or is it a Buckley?
I gently slide out of the seat, trying my hardest not to wake Caylee, and cautiously follow Neil’s brother to the back of the bus. They’re all asleep. Either that, or they’re faking it because this is all part of the plan. Scott was right, the gun’s in his hand, resting on his lap. He’s got the aisle seat, keeping Felecia boxed in between him and the window. She’s awake. Her penetrating gaze stops me in my tracks, sending my heart into a whirlwind of emotions. Caylee is amazing in every way humanly possible, she’s perfect, I mean that with every fiber of my being but I think I’m in love with Felecia. No, stop it, what is wrong with you? Shut the fuck up and do what needs to be done.
Her eyes shift from me to the gun on his lap. Why hasn’t she taken it from him already? He’s asleep. She’s had plenty of opportunity. Is she… no. No, could she be in on it? No, she can’t be. She was gonna leave with me. She tried to stop him from getting on the bus, she tried to kill him. Unless, what if he came through on his threat? He said he would tell her anything he had to in order to make her hate me. Did he succeed already? Is she on his side now?
I don’t know what to do.
She nods at me. I know what she’s telling me to do but is it a trap? I don’t see deceit in her eyes. Oh give me a break Noah, deceit, really. Yeah, because you can see that in someone’s eyes. They’re either playing you or they aren’t and you better make a decision pretty quickly because if he wakes up and sees you standing over him, he’s going to shoot first and ask questions later.
I go for the gun.
CHAPTER 4
What the hell is that? Is that a phone ringing?
Shit, the sound of his cell woke him up. I try to rip the gun out of his hand before he registers what’s going on but it’s too late. Reflexes kick in and he tightens his grip. It takes him a second to figure out what’s going on but when he does, he aims the gun in my direction while we wrestle for control. If his finger hits that trigger, I’m done. Why the hell isn’t Felecia helping?
I thrust my body out of the way, crashing against his shoulder. The gun goes off. If everyone wasn’t already woken up by the ringing cellphone, the deafening blast sure did it. The sound of metal on metal means he hit the roof. Son of a bitch, we can’t go destroying our only means of protection. If it goes off again and hits a window or some integral part of the bus, we’re screwed.
He tries to aim at me again but we’re too close. Felecia lunges towards him and latches her teeth onto his ear. He screams in pain and tries to smack her away with his free hand but she takes the hit to the face and remains clamped on. There’s blood.
I go for the gun again. My hands are wrapped around his, if I dig my nails into him, it might force him to let go. Over the sounds of people screaming I can still hear ringing. It could be an alarm but if it’s an incoming call, this is the first time the phones have worked since the beginning of this mess. It was too much for the towers to handle. If phones are working again, maybe we can find out what the hell is going on and get ourselves rescued.
The gun fires again. Followed by a scream. We hit someone. Shit. That was definitely a girl’s scream. Felecia! In that split second, Neil takes control of the weapon and smashes it against my face.
Blackness.
What happened? Was I unconscious? I’m on the floor. It doesn’t feel like any time has passed. The phone’s still ringing. Everyone’s still screaming. Oh no, Felecia. I gotta make sure she’s alright.
>
I scramble to my knees just in time to see Neil hit her twice with the gun in order for her to let go of her death grip on his ear. There’s blood pouring down the side of his face. Her eyes flutter shut and she falls against the window like deadweight.
Neil’s foot connects with my face and I go down again. He definitely shot a hole through the roof, I can see light coming through. Oh shit, no no no, Scott’s got blood on him. Did Scott get hit? He’s young, his scream might sound like a girl’s.
Someone’s dragging me back. I can feel their hands beneath my armpits. Marty, Marty’s got me. Neil’s standing in the aisle in front of me, pointing the gun in every which direction, not sure who to aim at. Caylee’s standing on a seat with my bat in her hands, ready to swing as if she can deflect bullets with it. The rest of them are in hysterics, full on hyperventilating. The quiet girl covers her mouth with both hands but it isn’t enough to stop her vomit from exploding all over herself, seeping out from between her fingers.
Oh my god. Ms. Higgins. We shot Ms. Higgins. Her body’s slumped against the O’Connor kid that Felecia threatened yesterday. A streak of chunky blood is slowly dripping down the window. She’s dead. Oh my god we just killed Ms. Higgins. The bullet must have caught her near the eye, part of her skull is dangling there, tangled in her red stained gray hair and glasses. The O’Connor kid is too in shock to do anything. He’s just sitting there beneath the weight of our teacher’s body until Felecia’s ex finally comes to his aid when it’s clear Neil isn’t.
“He fucking killed her,” Blake chokes out, pointing in my direction. “He just murdered Ms. Higgins.”
Son of a bitch. I think I just launched this bus into a civil war we can’t come back from. I didn’t shoot her, I wasn’t even holding the gun, I was trying to get it away from Neil so nothing like this would happen. If I didn’t move when I did, that’d be me right now and not her. She died because of me. But I certainly didn’t murder her. This isn’t good, this isn’t good at all.
Blood Type Infected (Book 2): Fallen To The Flame Page 2
