Still, how had they blocked out the bottom floors on the main part of the school?
Exiting the tunnel, it was like he had read my mind again. Travis answered my question right away.
There was a pair of heavy doors to our left that was locked with a chain and padlock. To out right was an elevator door with the wall sockets where you would normally push an up or down arrow pulled out of the wall, some wiring exposed and noticeably disconnected.
“The building here is L-shaped, with a widened central portion. There is a set of stairwells at either end and in the middle. The only elevator is right here, and we decommissioned it for now,” Travis said, pointing at the broken elevator.
“We’ve completely blocked off the stairwells with chairs so that any zombies down there can’t get up, they just get trapped in the legs at the bottom. Sometimes we can make line of sight with some of the archery equipment and have been able to kill them from the top here, but most of the time we just leave it, knowing that there is no way they could get to us,” he explained.
I inched up next to the doors and peered through the rectangular window in one of the doors. I could see arms and legs of your typical metal desk chair pointing all which ways. They were packed in intricately on top of each other, probably pushed down to pack in the most amount of chairs possible. Through the narrow space between the two closed doors I thought I could vaguely smell something rotten and pungent, but couldn’t be certain. I pressed my face against the glass to try to peer downwards the chairs suddenly rattled and a distant moan wafted up from below. River started to growl and I jumped back from the doors.
“Yeah. There were a bunch of students and teachers still in those areas of the school when the outbreak happened here. It was pretty bad, and we didn’t have any weapons at the time. Nor did we know how to dispatch of them. So we ended up bringing all the non-infected up here and trapped them all down there.” Travis sounded solemn while he explained this to me, shaking his head.
Another rattle of the chairs against the doors sent shivers down my spine. I wondered how many zombies were down there, right under these people’s feet as they enjoyed their safe life up here on the third floor.
“Come on, let’s go to the cafeteria,” Travis suggested.
I was glad to get away from the one thing in this place that forced me to think about why we were here so far, and turned to follow him.
The cafeteria was located in the area that Travis had described earlier, where the school took a ninety-degree turn to form it’s L-shape, but this central square was much wider then the previous halls they had been in. The halls they had been walking through were lined with classrooms so I wasn’t really sure how much wider this area was.
There was more hustling kids and a couple adults in this area, different people from the ones we had met in the gymnasium. There was a kitchen on the right side, which is where these new people seemed to be preparing a meal. And there was a huge cafeteria with large bay windows on the left in the bend of the building. Not surprisingly there were many fewer chairs than tables in the cafeteria, probably because they had used most of the chairs in the stairwells.
Travis whistled to get all the new people’s attention and repeated the introduction from earlier. River skipped her star-stopping introduction this time and instead started begging some of the children holding food for a scrap. I called her back to my side before she started to annoy anyone since everyone seemed rather protective of the food they were handling.
“Lunch is actually in thirty minutes. Want to sit and talk?” Travis asked me, waving towards the chairs.
I was about to suggest he finish the tour of the remainder of the building we had not seen, but was interrupted by a loud shouting coming from the end of the hallway.
“Where is she? He took her here without me?! Travis! Where the hell are you?!” screamed a loud and palpably irate male voice.
Travis sighed and rolled his eyes just in time to not have it be noticed by the frowning, bearded man storming down the hallway.
Chapter 46
Travis stood up and I followed his lead. It seemed the right thing to do with all the commotion.
“Diana, this is Anthony. Anthony, this is Diana and her dog River,” Travis sounded frustrated, spitting out the words that reeked of impatience.
The man came closer and his eyes pierced through me. He looked me up and down, and I suddenly felt very exposed. He didn’t even glance at River, who was standing alert and sniffing his boots, her hair slightly on edge.
Several people had followed him down the hall, including a couple other large men that looked frankly like bodyguards.
I held out my hand to shake his. He didn’t take it and instead introduced himself. “I’m Anthony, the leader of this school and the reason you’re alive.”
I withdrew my hand realizing it wasn’t about to get shaken. All I could think was why would they let such an asshole be leader?
“Leader is a relative term,” interjected Travis. “We never voted.”
Anthony actually snarled at him. It was such an unbridled display of aggression I actually felt threatened by it.
“Well who’s the one who keeps the weapons coming and fortified the school? You’d all be dead if it weren’t for me,” Anthony retorted.
“We’re a team Anthony. We all provide skills to the group. We all contribute. And until we have a vote there is no true leader,” Travis replied, puffing his chest out.
I felt like I was standing between two male hippos about to go at it like they do on the Mara River. It was unbelievable how much testosterone was rolling off both of their chests. I felt horribly uncomfortable and decided doing nothing was going to be more awkward than doing something.
“Ok boys, I don’t know what all this posturing is about, but I thank you both for saving River and I and letting us join your community,” I said, tentatively stepping closer to being in between them but purposefully turning my chest towards Anthony who seemed to be the worse aggressor of the two.
“No one said you can stay yet missy,” Anthony said. I cringed, realizing being called missy might be more offensive than princess or lady, but I wasn’t quite sure. It might just have seemed that way coming from this man, full of condescension and disgust.
“That’s part of the tour. I normally give all newbies the tour after quizzing them about their allegiances, skill sets, and what they can bring to the table for us. Make sure they won’t be an intentional or unintentional risk. Since we want to know what you can bring to the table, let’s go sit at one,” Anthony explained, gesturing towards the table.
“Ok, well, I don’t think we are a threat. And we might be able to contribute,” I said. I started walking towards the table.
I sat down and Travis followed, but Anthony tried to block him from sitting down at the table. “I didn’t say we needed your help Travis.”
Travis was about to retort but got interrupted by someone nearby.
“Trav! It’s ok, let them have their talk. I need help with the gear downstairs,” Daniel shouted from across the hall.
Travis looked less than pleased, but after Daniel widened his eyes and tilted his head sideways towards him he seemed to reluctantly agree. He had to say one last thing before leaving though, reaching over and touching my arm as he did so.
“Di, we’ll be back in a bit for lunch. Hopefully I can introduce you to more of the crew then,” he said with a strained smile.
I nodded and he turned to walk away. I turned back towards Anthony and saw him glaring at my arm where Travis had just been touching it. I instinctively pulled away and crossed my arms, feeling the again strange vulnerability his scrutiny elicited in me. The whole interaction between Travis and Anthony had been quite unsettling, making me feel more like a piece of meat than anything else. I thought Travis had the best of intentions, but he might not have realized that he was treating me poorly in his own way, just in a different way then the in your face, no doubt about it Anthony appro
ach.
River went to jump up on to my lap so I uncrossed my arms to let her do so.
“We haven’t had any dogs here,” Anthony said.
“I’m sorry to hear that. I am sure they would help morale and might even be able to perform some working dog duties depending on the canine.”
“Maybe. But it means more mouths to feed, and more of a chance they can’t pull their weight. We’re not going to open an account for your dog. If you stay, anything it eats comes out of your rations.”
“Sounds fine with me. And River is a girl by the way. Not an it,” I responded. He glared back at me. This conversation was not going well, and I certainly wasn’t making any effort to palliate it.
“Well now you’ve seen the place. We’ve got women and children mostly running the laundry and cooking. We’ve got most of the men doing the raids outside. And we have a mixed bag performing sentry duty on the roof,” he explained. I cocked an eyebrow when he mentioned the roof so he continued for me.
“There’s a maintenance office on this floor with a stairwell to the roof. It’s how we make sure we are always safe coming in through the loading bay. If there are rotters around sometimes we can sniper them out of the way, but in a pinch we can also create all hell of a lot of noise on the part of the building furthest from the approaching vehicles, letting them slip in through the garage doors before any rotters get close to them.”
That was the first time I had heard the term rotters used in reference to the zombies, but it made sense and seemed appropriate.
“You got any friends out there that you’ll be trying to get through the doors, or worse, stage some sort of coup?” he asked.
I wondered for a second how a guy like him knew what the word coup meant. From the grin on his face I suspected he had just been eagerly awaiting the moment he got to use the word and look ten times smarter than he actually was.
“Nope,” I replied. “Or at least none that I know of. I had been traveling with a friend until this morning when the zombies got her.” I winced a little as I said it.
“That was by the cornfield, wasn’t it?” he asked, and I nodded. “Those jock rotters were some of the original infected from here. Glad you guys made it easy to spot you and head that way. Got myself some nice revenge on those football players. And we made off good with the supplies in another truck a ways down from the rest area.” He was twisting a fist in his other hand as he reminisced about the morning’s events. I figured he had been the one with the ski mask with a skull on it. Seemed only fitting. I noticed a tattoo on his bulging right bicep with a skull in flames on it.
“Glad I was able to provide you with some amusement,” I said sarcastically. It seemed to snap him back in to what his purpose here was.
“We’ve had a couple people come in here and then get their friends to come try and take over. And you know what’s happened to them? They’ve ended up on the ground floor. After flying off the roof. Great distraction to get all the rotters in one place for a good old massacre,” he said all the while continuing to stare at me intensely. I stared back, figuring the last thing I wanted to do with this guy was look weak.
“Now that’s the deal if you’re caught doing any thing suspicious or that might be a threat to this nice little community we got going here. The other part of joining us is that you have to contribute. You have to have a job. What did you do before this?” he asked.
“I was a veterinary surgeon. What about you?”
“Ha! Guess that explains the dog. And you’re not the one asking questions missy, that’s my job. But since you asked, I was a prison guard. So I know how to keep people in line and safe. I know how to keep us locked up tight in here. It’s the natural reason why I’m in charge.” I swear he puffed out his chest again before continuing. What I wouldn’t give to knock this guy off his high horse.
“Surgeon, eh? Your buddies Travis and Daniel are the only two medical peeps we got, but they hadn’t even finished their first year of med school when this all happened. Maybe you could teach them the ropes. Course there’s no need to practice any surgery when it comes to bite wounds, which is the most common battle injury we deal with. But other wound care and medical crap would be helpful.” Anthony seemed to be contemplating something serious as he looked up at the ceiling briefly.
“You got field experience?” he asked.
“Do you mean before or after the outbreak. If by before, nope. I was your typical gun control preaching, pro choice, hippie vegan.” It was all true, but I was saying it this way on purpose to try to piss the guy off. I figured all those adjectives were things he hated before and after the apocalypse. Guess I could be just as immature as the boys when it came to posturing.
“But if you’re talking after, well…I still hate guns and prefer a crow bar or bat, but I’ve been on my own for the entire time and faring just fine. On my own with River that is.”
“How many rotters you kill?”
“Somewhere in the couple dozen range. Several of them with River’s help,” it was a little of an exaggeration. A more accurate estimate would have been ten to twelve, but this guy wanted me to prove myself and my worth, and this seemed the way to go about it. And all of them were partially thanks to River. Well, if you included all the zombies our entire group back by the veterinary school had handled it would have been a more accurate estimate.
“Good,” he nodded with approval. “Then you won’t mind going on a raid with us tomorrow. I’ll have to think about whether or not the dog can come.”
“Sounds like fun,” I responded without hesitation.
And just like that the interrogation was over. Anthony looked me up and down for another minute, then got up out of his chair and shouted “Lunch time!” to everyone who had accumulated in the hallway since we had started talking.
Chapter 47
Lunch was like Travis predicted: a time of meet and greets. I met over three dozen people and was struggling to keep them all straight. Most of the kids had more interest in meeting River, who was already a huge hit.
The meal was meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and peas. Boring but filling. Well, all I ate was the mashed potatoes and peas, and it was filling enough. I gave River my meatloaf. That was part of the deal that Anthony had explained.
Daniel and Travis came in during the middle of the meal but seeing my constantly rotating audience they held back until lunchtime was over before joining me.
I met a couple men who had not been on the “raid” earlier today that resulted in me being saved. Lance was an engineer, and Tom was an electrician. They both spent their time maintaining the power in the building as well as rerouting the power to the areas of the buildings that needed it most at different times of the days to conserve energy. The school had a bunch of solar panels installed a couple years ago, so they were able to supply most of the electricity through that.
I met a woman named Sam who worked with both of them on communications. She had been an IT director before the outbreak and with the help of Tom and Lance had been trying to maintain intermittent communications with nearby groups of survivors. She had wanted to broadcast their location so that individual survivors could come join them, but Anthony and his friends had vetoed the suggestion.
I didn’t meet them, but was told who Anthony’s goons were when I innocently asked who the men with him were. There was Vince who was one of Anthony’s childhood friends that had owned a liquor store. There was Dave who had been a local fire fighter. There had been another older fire fighter in the beginning but he had been bitten in one of their earlier trips outside before Anthony enforced all his rules and regulations on their outings, or at least that is what they had told me. And there was Bill, the prematurely balding physical education teacher from the school. It was like they were screaming to be type cast as bullies, and happy to fill those shoes.
There were also a lot of teachers from the high school who were trying to fulfill various roles now that their teaching position was worthless. Or at l
east temporarily worthless. I liked to imagine that some day we would need teachers again.
Maria was the school’s guidance counselor, but she was also an avid food critic outside of work so she had made herself the head chef. Ricky the janitor had become her assistant. The former history teacher Marcus had become their main mechanic on the cars that they had acquired. And Liza the English teacher had for some reason taken over control of laundry. She announced her position with pride, but I deep down felt sorry for her since she probably got a lot more self-fulfillment back when she had been teaching English. Maybe I was wrong and shouldn’t be jumping to conclusions.
The gaggle of math teachers was the hardest for me to remember individually, so I didn’t bother trying.
The last group of adults that came to introduce themselves were Walter and Mary, a banker and archeologist respectively. They reminded me most of myself back at the veterinary school. Since they were both in good shape and smart thinkers they were regular party members of the groups that went on raids. They were clearly a couple, and I wondered if that had happened before or after the apocalypse. They seemed very odd professionals to have crossed paths naturally. They were also the only interracial couple in the school. In fact, Walter was one of the few African Americans I had met. I wondered if that had to do with the mid west surroundings and just hoped it was not on purpose. Of everyone I met they were definitely my favorites, and River naturally took a liking to them too.
I followed Walter and Mary to return our dirty trays when Travis and Daniel caught up with me. I was trying very hard to remember all the names and faces I had just learned in the back of my head. I hadn’t even tried with the children, of which I had met at least three times as many as I had adults. I wanted to make the suggestion of nametags to everyone, since that was something I always loved in the hospitals I worked at where I was notoriously terrible with names.
“Now I hope you took notes, cause there’s gonna be a quiz later today to see how many people you remember,” Travis joked. It was like he had been reading my mind again, seeing the wheels turn in my head as I struggled to solidify everyone’s identities in my brain.
Eves of the Outbreak Page 24
