When The Light Goes Out

by Jack Thompson

  Apparently zombies don't feel pain. "Come on!"

  The growling seemed amplified. "Come on!"

  And it slammed closed.

  My fingers hurt like hell, and I wasn't sure if I broke any of them when they got caught, but I barely got the second I needed to pull them out before the first dog was running at the glass. Still, we were outside, and it was inside, so we were sa

  "The door's locked!"

  There was panic in Lila's tone. "The door is locked!"

  Oh I could have ripped my hair out in frustration as I went with her to pull on the knob. The thing didn't budge. Now we were trapped outside with whatever was wandering around. The sneaky devils could have been spying on us as we struggled, and we couldn't do a goddamned thing about it.

  There was more growling. "What do we do?"

  I didn't know.

  "What do we do, Excel?!" I had no clue.

  Footsteps.

  Running footsteps.

  We needed to get away. "Excel?!"

  I'm sure my frantic movements were freaking the girl out, but that didn't matter quite so much as finding a place to go. No doors, no open windows. We'd sealed the place up damn well, and I just couldn't think of anywhere we could go but away. And I didn't want to do that. I was quite sure Lila didn't want to either. We didn't want to leave relative safety.

  "Up." "What?" "Up."

  "What're you talking about?"

  "There's a fire escape!"

  And there was. Relief. Sure, the ladder wasn't down, but that was an easy fix. A flipped garbage can and a hand to Lila got her high enough to grab hold and begin climbing. It was a bit of a slow process, probably just as difficult as the age old "climb the rope in gym class." Except the fire escape's rungs looked rusted, and brittle.

  I could only hope they didn't give way. The footsteps were getting louder. "Hurry up Lila!"

  "I'm trying!" "Try harder!" And I meant it.

  A glance told me that there was a zombie rounding the corner. Quickly.

  "Fuck this."

  I was tired of waiting.

  I pulled myself on top of the garbage can, grabbed the ladder, and knocked the metal thing from under my own two feet. On purpose, mind. I didn't know if zombies could climb,

  but I wasn't going to offer them a way to get to the ladder. Oh hell no, I wasn't. I was below Lila by one or two rungs, and couldn't get any higher as the zombie got close enough to touch my foot.

  I shrieked.

  Lila screamed.

  Her foot missed a rung. I almost lost my grip. "What happened?!"

  "He grabbed me!" "Oh shit.."

  And he was pulling.

  I just chose not to mention that last bit. "Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit."

  It was my new mantra. Then bam.

  And the zombie let go.

  And I felt a hand wrapped around either wrist, pulling me up onto the more stable looking part of the fire escape. I could have kissed the two boys lifting me up, but figured neither of them would have appreciated it and held off. The first thing Malachi did was knock me on my ass, and pull my ankle up for inspection, calling me an idiot for not wearing shoes and socks.

  "They were sort of drying in the sink." I commented bitterly. "I didn't exactly have time to get them before getting the dogs attention off of you guys, sorry." I was only trying to make him feel a little guilty.

  It got me hit in the head with Blaz's cane.

  "Get yer bottom's in 'ere, b'fore you attract more of them thing's attention to ye."

  It was a pretty sound piece of advice.

  "Come on, let's get inside already. Who knows, they may learn how to cli" "Don't even think it!"

  "Sorry."

  "Inside, inside. All of ye!" "Yes father."

  "Why I"

  "Blaz, not until we get inside." "Yeah, nice defending me, 'Kai'." "Who said I was defending you?" "Arrg!"

  "Let's just get inside okay? Where there isn't metal digging into my unmentionable bits." "Jesus. Image I didn't need."

  "Well then, let's get inside. Maybe there the image will go away." "Psht."

  "Yeah right." "Just go, okay?" "Yeah, yeah."

  Slowly, but surely, we got inside. All of us mumbling one unfortunate thing about one person or another. I, myself, had taken to mumbling about Blaz. He was just such an easy target to complain to myself about. So I did. Rubbing the spot where he hit, because the damned cane really did pack a punch.

  I considered grabbing it, and dropping it onto the zombies gathering below. I figured that not being tossed down after the cane would be good though, and refrained from any throwing I'd been planning. I really didn't put it past the old guy to throw me. Especially not if I tried to do away with his precious cane.

  Fucking cane.

  I suddenly remembered why I hated the damned thing so bad, as I was developing a headache. "Why'd you have to hit me?" I admit, I was whining.

  "Ye were bein' a smart ass."

  "I think I deserve to be a smart ass after saving your asses." "Did we not just save yer's?"

  I refused to acknowledge the question.

  "Now stop complainin' and get yerself situated. We may be 'ere for a while, now." "Really?"

  "Zombies are surrounding the building, Excel," Malachi spoke as if I'd just asked the dumbest question in existence. "The lobby's practically overflowing. There's no way out. Unfortunately, we're stuck here."

  "Not stuck." "Not stuck?"

  "Halted until we can formulate an escape route." "However you want to put it."

  I put it that way on purpose. I really, really wanted to find a way out. I didn't want to die in a clinic. I didn't want to die in that clinic. I didn't want any of my buddies to die in the fucking clinic. So I was determined to find us a way out of the death trap.

  Who would have figured?

  A clinic was a death trap to us.

  Who would've figured Hollywood lied?

  A lot of things just weren't turning out the way I'd expected them to when I was growing up. When I was a child. When I was a teen. An adult. And I still choke on that word, I

  suppose. I don't feel like an adult. Never have. Never will. And I don't want to die an adult death. If, that is to say, one considers being eaten by a zombie an adult death. No.

  I retract that statement.

  It's the suicide I'd be committing that would be more adult. Not that children have never committed suicide before. I just figure very few of them have done it to save other people. To prevent themselves from eating their friends.

  Now, enough talk of suicide. "How's Ian?"

  "In pain."

  "His chest hurts?"

  "No. He hurts from the rush upstairs." "You guys made him walk?!"

  "No!"

  I stared at them.

  "We.. sorta.. well.. we dropped him."

  Lila beat me to the punch line, screaming, "You did what?" as loudly as she could. I agreed whole heartedly.

  And I smacked Malachi upside his head.

  "Hey!" He sounded outraged. "Why'd you hit me?!" "You're closest."

  "Excel has a point, man." "Shut up!"

  And I could swear there was about to be a scuffle, but I ignored it. I instead shimmied over to Ian, and placed a hand on his face. Noting that he had a bit of a fever, but otherwise looked okay. He smiled up at me when I moved my hand, and I smiled right back, pleased that he felt well enough to do at least that much.

  Unless he was doing it to humor me. "Ian, how are you feeling?"

  "Kinda sick, but alive."

  I just nodded, pleased with the answer. At least he admitted to not feeling well, which was better than a blatant lie if you wanted my personal opinion. It was just way too easy to go, "Oh, I feel great!" and really be dying on the inside. I'd done it once for a while, when I had one infection or another. Lied until my brother stepped on me (literally) and I burst into tears.

  That had been quite a day.

  "At least you are alive. I'll see if I can get you some wate
r." "I want soda."

  "Malachi?" "What?"

  "He wants soda." "Anyone got soda?"

  The boy was given a can of Sprite then. Just to make him happy, maybe because he needed the sugar, I didn't know. I wasn't a doctor. Malachi's opinion was worth much more than my own. I'll be the first to admit that. Let Malachi decide whether a can of soda'll kill the boy or not, I didn't want that hanging over my head.

  "Here you go Ian."

  I was quite pleased that the boy only needed a little help steadying himself comfortably against the wall, and no help at all to drink his soda. I did need to open it for him though. I

  excused this however, since I knew grown adults who couldn't open cans regardless of whether they'd been shot recently of not. I was growing convinced that the boy was going to be okay.

  "You guys hear that?"

  Innocent, however slightly panicked question. I simply needed to ask, "Hear what?"

  "That noise." "What noise?"

  "Shush," soft command. "Listen."

  I vaguely remembered a conversation similar to the one just ending. About listening. Shutting my mouth and listening. That meant one thing; There was something that I needed to hear but currently wasn't. I was blind to a noise that I shouldn't have been. I needed to know exactly what was going on.

  So I listened.

  I closed my eyes, and I listened.

  I just hoped I was quick on the uptake, and realized what it was I was supposed to be listening for. Because I really had no clue. Zombie noise. Human noise. Animal noise. Zombie animal noise. Mechanical noise. All were possible, and I needed to pinpoint which one. Because, with the zombies gathering outside the building, which they were obviously still doing, there were zombie noises. So it couldn't have possibly been that. It was something more than that.

  It had to be. What?

  I squeezed my eyes shut as tightly as I possibly could, listening for something out of the ordinary. Anything.

  Anything at all. Footsteps.

  Shoes on wood.

  Not even halting, stumbling footsteps.

  There was someone moving towards us.

  I felt it best to mention it, "Someone's coming."

  "So I'm not going crazy," Jaden sounded distantly relieved. I could understand why.

  "Was there anyone up here when you guys arrived?" There were various shrugs.

  "You guys didn't check?" More shrugs.

  "Useless bastards." I stood.

  "Who wants to come with me?"

  There was a moment of silence, pained silence, before Malachi pulled out his gun. He checked his bullets I was pretty sure of that shoved a few in, and nodded his head. Volunteering without words. Such a Malachi thing to do. I figured there wouldn't be much talking on our little journey to find whoever was wandering around without our knowing.

  I didn't see why I was always the one to go out and do shit though. Guilt maybe.

  For leaving my brother.

  For killing what was once a human being several times over. For allowing Ian to get hurt.

  It could have been any number of things that drove me to act like a fucking lunatic.

  And we were exiting the little room we'd been in, into a hallway. A quick glance revealed nothing, and I was really beginning to wonder. Because there were definitely footsteps coming from somewhere, once I'd noticed them, I couldn't stop hearing them it seemed. They were coming from somewhere, and Malachi was forcing doors open to see if they were coming from any of the rooms.

  I took a cue from his actions, forcing doors of my own open. "Hello?"

  I decided calling out would be a nice way to tell if the thing was living or not. "Hello? Is there anybody there?"

  "Of course there's somebody there." "Oh, shut up Malachi."

  "Make me."

  I had half a mind to spin around and deck him. "I'm here."

  It was either a short haired girl, or a boy who was approaching us, but whoever it was, was soft spoken. It was running one hand along the wall, walking over to us, its steps only slightly unsteady. It seemed to be looking at its feet, perhaps afraid that it would fall otherwise, its head was down.

  "You alright kid?" "Yeah, mister."

  I started to step forward, and was halted by Malachi's hand on my shoulder. He just shook his head at me when I looked, but said nothing further. Perhaps simply not wanting to explain. Maybe he thought it was so obvious he shouldn't have to. Regardless I didn't make any attempt to move towards the kid again.

  "Are you hurt?" "A little."

  "Were you bitten?" "Nuhuh."

  "Good." "I'd say." "Why?"

  "I know what happens when you get bit. You get bit and you turn into one of them, right?" "Yeah."

  I scooped it up the moment it got close enough. It was bleeding.

  "Who hurt you?"

  The boy, it was definitely a boy, shrugged.

  "You'll be okay, baby," Malachi shock, shock ran a hand through the boys hair. Ruffled it gently. "You'll be okay."

  I agreed, "Yeah. He's as good as any doctor. Fixed up one of our friends he's in the other room, recovering just fine!" I tried to be as reassuring as possible the boy was shaking pretty bad. Whether he was nervous, to just in pain and nothing else was a mystery to me.

  "We'll have you fixed up in no time." "No time at all."

  "Promise."

  "Guys!" I half shouted it when we walked back into the room the group was in. "We've got a little visi" Why the hell were there zombies on the fire escape?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  I winced at the break. Stared at it.

  Refused to admit it existed. I didn't want to believe.

  But there it was, my wrist bent at an odd angle. An angle that was so unnatural I wanted to poke it, but I knew the pain that would come with that, so I didn't. I just stared. Malachi was rushing around, trying to find something to bind it with. Or at least that was his claim. I myself was pretty sure that he just didn't want to set it.

  I couldn't blame him. I was a crier.

  I didn't have a very high threshold for pain. I didn't.

  How did I get into this position you ask? Well..

  After the entire group had spent a moment staring at the zombies on the fire escape, we all high tailed it out of the room, and up the stairs. I'd still had the child in my arms, promising him that he'd be safe. He'd be perfectly safe because I wouldn't let anything get him. I hadn't realized how bad my balance had been thrown off until I was up the third flight of stairs.

  That was when I'd tripped.

  I'd been moving in the front, giving the orders with Malachi to make sure there was nothing in the way as Jared and Jeremy carried Ian as quickly as they could. Blaz stood in the back ready to kill, and Lila was somewhere in the group doing.. something. I didn't know. I didn't care. I was just making sure that the kid was safe, and there was nothing in the way.

  I'd just leaned too far forward.

  I hadn't heard the bone snap at first; the bone in the wrist of the hand that I shoved down to catch myself. It was my right wrist. My strong wrist. But I'd managed, by some strange stroke of luck, to push myself back into an upright position so I was able to keep moving. And I did keep moving, all the way to the roof with the others, young boy still in my arms.

  I hadn't noticed the pain.

  The adrenaline had numbed it or something.

  The little boy pointed it out with a simple, "What's wrong with your hand?"

  That was when Malachi started rushing around, and I realized that the snap I'd distantly heard on our trip up the stairs was not, in fact, a door being broken down. That was when I

  wanted to, but refused to poke it, because I knew better. Blaz didn't.

  Bastard poked it.

  The pain came in full force.

  "Holy fucking Jesus. Mother of God."

  "I never knew Jesus was the mother of God." "Shut the fuck up Jeremy."

  "Sorry."

  "That hurt. That hurt. That hurt. That hurt. You fucking
bastard why the hell did you do that little boy don't you ever let me catch you repeating any of those words, you got that?!" "Can do," the boy sounded amused.

  "I wanted to see if ye'd yell when I poked it." "Pleased with the result?"

  "Indeed."

  "Fucking bastard." "I got wood!"

  I choked, "Wood?!"

  Malachi was rushing back over to us, oblivious to the fact that I wanted to kill the old man who was standing there grinning at me. He did indeed had a couple chunks of wood in his hands, dashing towards me like a mad man. I didn't comment. Didn't ask any questions.

  Man I had a dirty mind.

  I hoped it took a while for the zombies to realize we were on the roof.

  "Wood? Man, what for?" I spoke around the pain shooting up my arm. It started in my wrist and traveled up from there. Up my arm, across my shoulders, down my spine. It went through my entire body and I just stared at the wood.

  "To make a splint." "Excuse me?"

  "A splint. Set the bone, keep it immobile, it heals. It doesn't hurt anymore." "Set the bone?"