When The Light Goes Out

by Jack Thompson

  "We've all been pretty unlucky, if you ask me. But, go ahead, let it all out." "What are you, a shrink?"

  "Maybe."

  "My brother died and converted on my arm, and then I smashed up his face with a table lamp when he tried to eat me. I crashed his bike trying to get away, killed my first zombie

  on my face, with a chain. Then I almost got Mala" "Sob story. Sob story. Sob story."

  "Bite me kid."

  The little bastard bit me. "What the fuck?!"

  "You told me to bite you," he whispered innocently. Actually having the audacity to flutter his eyelashes at me. "Guys!" Both George and I turned towards the bellowing voice. "We got the ladder across!"

  "So much for being unlucky."

  "Don't you go turning my words against me."

  And the two of us walked up to the ladder. It was at that point that we needed to figure out who went across first because if you wanted complete honesty the thing didn't look very stable. Jeremy suggested the kid go because he was lightest, but Jaden argued that the kid was the lightest so we wouldn't know if the heavier of us could get across.

  "Fine, I'll do it ye brats. I'll do it." "Thanks Blaz."

  "Hn."

  I held my breath when the old man started crossing because the ladder could go down at any moment. Blaz wasn't my favorite person by any means, but I didn't want him plummeting to his death at the hands of a horde of hungry zombies. I wasn't nearly that cruel. And I didn't hate him nearly that much. The half rusted metal shifted under the mans weight, and every time his arms moved to balance him my heart jumped to my throat.

  Then he was on the other side.

  Seeing the others go was just as nerve wracking, especially when they argued with me. I was injured, I should go so I was safely on the other side before anything bad happened. I merely argued back that yes I was injured, which made me a liability. Lila carried George across. Jeremy and Jaden somehow managed to hobble Ian across, which really got my heart pounding, and then it was just me and Malachi.

  "Go." "You go."

  "Not until you go."

  "Bite me, I'm not going." "So, you're going to stay?"

  "Hell no! But you're going first!" "Make me!"

  The door crashed to the ground and my eyes met light brown eyes. "Okay, okay, I'm going."

  And the boy followed me closely behind.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  The sigh of relief I breathed when I reached the other side was rather airy. I'm not ashamed to admit I'd been holding my breath the entire way across our "bridge", because I was convinced that I was about to plummet to my death. I didn't want to. Somehow my mind decided that depriving my body of oxygen would help matters. It was entirely foolish, I know, but it gave me something to do when I got to the other side and prayed fucking prayed that Malachi made it across before the rusted piece of metal completely caved. Because that was what it was doing. It was bending more and more, finally giving out under the abuse we'd just put it through.

  "Hurry up Malachi!" I screamed, noting that the zombies were making their way over to the ladder. That led to a terrifying thought. Would they figure out how to make it across? Would they move to follow Malachi? Would they catch up with him? I heard a series of gasps, because suddenly Malachi seemed unsteady on his feet. Like he was losing his balance. We'd completely forgotten that his head had been wrapped up earlier. I hadn't noticed him take off the bandages. But.. Dammit. It was throwing him off.

  "I'm going to help him." "Jeremy, don't."

  "If he's not, I am."

  "Jaden, don't be an idiot. Please."

  "Than who's going to go? He needs help."

  "Malachi?" I called, getting no more than a grunt as a reply. "Do you need help?" The look he shot me would have been humorous under different circumstances. "Okay, so we're all in agreement that he needs assistance.."

  "That's it" But Lila grabbed hold of Jeremy right as he started moving. "Let go of me Lila." "No!"

  "Yes! He saved us. Now it's our turn to save him." "There has to be another way."

  The zombies couldn't seem to figure out the contraption Malachi was stumbling on, so they settled for using what few skills they had. They were slamming their bodies into it, trying to knock it down, making Malachi seem even more unsteady than he had been. George whimpered, and grabbed hold of my leg, right as Ian groaned.

  "What's goin' on?" "Ian?"

  "Where am I?"

  "On the roof across from the clinic."

  "Why?"

  "The zombies invaded?"

  "Oh shit." The boy seemed wide awake, and sat up, looking around. Immediately he noticed our dilemma and cursed, "What the fuck?!" "We don't know what to do.."

  "Go help him!" "How?!"

  The sound of metal scraping against stone made all of us look at the way that the zombies were successfully shimmying the ladder to the point of falling. Everyone was flinching, and looking scared. Malachi was starting to look desperate, which was new to me. Until Blaz suddenly seemed to have an idea.

  "Ev'ryone get in a line!" He commanded. "The strongest of ye come here to the back, the weakest to the front. 'Cept you guys; Ian, George."

  Believe it or not, everyone seemed to listen to him without question, standing in a line that (starting from the back) went Jaden, Jeremy, Blaz, Lila, and me. But Lila looked extremely confused. She even asked me why I was going to the front, so I smiled weakly at her.

  "I'll got a broken wrist." "Oh yeah."

  "Ev'ryone 'old hands, alrighty?"

  And we all held hands. Lila and I exchanging glances before she took a tight hold of my forearm instead. I really had no clue what the man was trying to do. I didn't know what he was thinking. But it was definitely better than what I was coming up with nothing. At least he had a plan. A good one, I hoped. I didn't want to lose Malachi in such an unfortunate way. I didn't want to hear him scream if he fell.

  "Alright everyone, now ye walk over to the ladder. Excel, ye go on it, and take Malachi's hand. Help 'em across, right?" "Ookay."

  "Why're we holding hands?"

  "If the ladder gives way and falls while they're on it, we'll be holdin' onto 'em so they won't fall." "Then shouldn't the strongest be in the front?"

  "No, ye dimwit! If we're in the front, and they're in the back, then they can't be holdin' onto nothin'. If they're in the back, and lose their grip, we're screwed. If they're in the front

  and lose their grip, only they're screwed." "Good point."

  I shook a bit over the fact that even I, the one in the front, agreed with the man. The point he made was very good. Very good, although I didn't fancy the thought of falling to my death. Being allowed to fall to my death. I knew the decision was only logical, and began moving when the ladder swayed, and I heard Malachi gasp.

  "Don't worry man!" I heard one of the boys call. "We're coming to get you."

  The walk over to Malachi was even worse than the walk to the roof had been. I could swear I didn't breathe at all, and squeezed my eyes shut several times because I felt the panic rising. But I did keep moving, and finally felt my hand grabbed. It took everything in my power to open my eyes and make sure his grip was tight, before I turned, and started walking back.

  We hadn't quite gotten there when the ladder went, and Malachi and I went tumbling right past the ledge of the other building. We'd been there. We'd been right there, off by only a couple of inches maybe a half a foot. I could swear to it, and my hand snapped straight as I tried to grab onto Lila's arm. Her grip was secure, I'd give her that, but I let out a howl of agony as the splint shifted. I could almost feel the bones scraping against each other as our human rope started slowly lifting us up.

  It was perhaps the most painful thing I'd ever experienced. Even more so than actually breaking the damned thing in the first place (once I'd realized it was broken of course.) I screamed once again as I felt my body being lifted pulled in opposite directions by two different forced. Dead weight from Malachi, and four people worth of forc
e from the others. It was uncomfortable, and not natural in anyway. But I put up with it.

  It felt like a lifetime and a half to me, but I was sure it wasn't more than a couple of minutes before the two of us were safely on the roof. Malachi was trembling as I'd really never witnessed from him before he was obviously extremely frightened, his mortality proven by his near death experience. I merely sat on the ledge of the roof, nursing my throbbing wrist, because I didn't want to do anything else at that moment. I didn't want to do anything but wait for the hurt to go away.

  "Excel?" "Yeah, Ia"

  There were a series of bangs, and chunks of cement and stone from the ledge around me chipped, and went flying through the air. I was being shot at. I was being fucking shot at, and before I could react by myself I was physically dragged to the ground by Jeremy. Everyone was screaming. The boys were all covering someone. Jared covered Lila. Malachi covered George, Blaz half protected Ian, but he was obviously insulted by it.

  I was in pain.

  There was this fire in the lower half of my body, and I didn't know why. Had some skin been scrapped away when I was dragged to the floor? I wasn't sure, and tried to force

  Jeremy off of me when I heard the shooting stop. Why anyone was shooting at us, I couldn't figure out. Couldn't they tell we were human? As in, not flesh eating so to speak? Did zombies learn how to fire guns?

  The thought got my heart in my throat, and I must have made some kind of noise because everyone looked at me all of a sudden. I waved my hand dismissively, and it seemed to work, until I knew I cried out when I tried to stand up. Everyone turned again, but this time they didn't turn away when I tried to wave them off. Instead they moved closer to me, and all seemed to gasp in unison.

  "Oh my God, Excel. Your back." "My back?"

  "I don't know. You got shot or.. or pieces of stone or.." "Shit, we need to get that stuff out of you."

  "No, guys," I protested, smiling at them. "I'm fine. I feel fine. Let's just make sure this building it secure, and get going. We obviously can't stay here forever. The zombies know we're here. They seem smart. They'll find a way up."

  "Yeah."

  It was weak agreement, but it was an agreement all the same.

  There were maybe two seconds in which the group hesitated. They looked at me, glanced across the way at the clinic, and started moving. Malachi moved toward Ian, Lila picked up George, and the others moved towards the doorway. It took me a surprisingly long time to get up, and the more I moved the more fiery pain shot up my spine and to every single point in my body not previously occupied with its own pain. It was distressing, but I didn't say anything and forced myself forward.

  At least I wouldn't be dying from zombies. Not at the rate I was going.

  I just seemed to have the worst damn luck. Everything, and everyone just seemed to want to hurt me. I figured, the way I was going, I'd end up being reborn as a cockroach or something. Yeah. That would most definitely be fitting. Some lowly bug that lives a day, has a million siblings, and gets stomped on with one wrong move. Have you honestly ever seen a cockroach die of old age? No. Because it never happens. It just doesn't.

  "Come on, Excel." "I'm coming."

  I was trying to at least. At first my feet didn't want to move at all, then they just didn't want to move straight so I swerved for a few moments until I managed to get it under control. I just.. angled myself slightly so that the swerving appeared to be more or less straight. It was a dirty trick, but everyone else seemed pleased that I was walking, so I just kept at it.

  Damn but my ass hurt.

  I could fucking swear something was going to die if I'd been shot in the ass.

  Some muffle noise came from the stair well, and everyone looked at me expectantly. As if to say, "Well, aren't you coming?" Like I wasn't moving fast enough. I, personally, thought I was making very good time, especially as I felt blood running down my back, into my pants, down my legs. I'd been scuffed up bad during the fall to the ground, and it was impairing my ability to walk like an adult. A young adult who'd been running since before walking was learned. I still didn't want to complain, figuring that both Ian, and George, were harmed far worse than myself. I could handle it. So I just shrugged my shoulders at them in an indifferent gesture.

  "You okay, Excel?"

  "Yeah, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be fine?" "You're walking sort of funny."

  "Just hurt myself during the fall before. I'll be fine in a couple minutes." "Well, come on, the top floor's clear."

  "Oh. Good! Yeah, let's.. let's go."

  It was Lila who kept a weird, disapproving expression on her face, but she certainly didn't push the subject. She merely mumbled something about not liking liars when I walked past her. I responded simply by mumbling something about not liking nosy cheerleaders. The result was simple, but unexpected; I was practically pushed down the stairs.

  "Lila!" Malachi snapped at the girl, managing to reach forward, and grab the back of my shirt, without dropping Ian. Given, he barely managed it, but he did manage. Somehow. "Oops."

  "Bite me." "Fuck off."

  "Shut up both of you."

  The two of us promptly shut up, and I crab walked down the stairs, in extreme pain. Something must have wrenched when Malachi caught me. I absolutely wanted to kill Lila. But I managed to push the absolute anger aside and continue the descent. The descent that had tears in my eyes by the time we got to the floor below us, where Jaden immediately looked at me funny.

  "Excel?"

  "My back hurts. When Jeremy dragged me down before. You guys saw blood right? I must've got cut up or something." "Want I should take a"

  "NO!" I almost jumped at the conviction in my own voice. "No. I'm sure I'll be fine." "But if you're in pain"

  "Shut up. Is the next floor clear?"

  "Yeah, but the others are checking the lower floors next. We're not going any lower yet. Are you sure you're" "Just peachy."

  "Excel"

  "I said, 'peachy!'" "Okay. Okay. 'Peachy.'" "Atta boy."

  "Fuck off."

  Maybe twenty seconds later I was pinned face down on the floor with Jaden holding my legs down, and Malachi practically sitting on my neck. Both were forcing my shirt up amidst my struggles. I was yelling everything from "Rape!" to "Fire!" to "Oh my God, look at the monkey!" But none of it seemed to be working very well. No. None of it was really working well at all. Especially since the only people around to help me were the same people attacking me.

  "Jesus that looks horrible." "What?"

  "Excel, you're missing chunks of flesh." "What?"

  "It looks sort of like someone went at you with a meat cleaver."

  "A meat cleaver?" "Ooh, dramatic." "I fucking swear."

  "Will you guys just grow up?" "Look who's talking!"

  "What are you like nine?" "What are you, like thirty?"

  "I should fucking smack you." "Bite me!"

  I still couldn't get over the 'meat cleaver' bit. "A meat cleaver?"

  "Yes, Excel! A meat cleaver!" "Are you deaf or something?" "Will you get off of me?!" "Malachi, what're you doing?"

  Malachi shot up like a bolt, and so did Jaden. I didn't know why, as I didn't recognize the voice at all. Not even a little bit. It was definitely female, but not Lila. No. There was far too much confidence, and knowledge for it to be Lila. But then who? A glance up got me no closer to an acceptable answer, expect there were a handful of people I just didn't know and

  "Excel!" "Pixie?!"

  I'm not entirely sure which of the following events happened first, but they all ended up happening. I was kissing her forehead, and cheeks, clutching her small frame to me for dear life. I was on my back, in extreme pain. Pixie was on my chest, clutching at me for dear life. Both of us were crying, and no one knew who started up first. And I was thanking a very, very spiteful God for doing something nice for once. I'd never been happier to see anyone in my life.

  "I think yer crushin' her kiddo."

  "Well then let me crush her Blaz, I'
ve been worried sick." "Indeed ye have been, but so'ave I. Hand 'er over now."

  It was reluctant, and took about ten minutes, but I did hand the little girl over. Everyone seemed overjoyed to see her, except for George. I couldn't place the look on his face and was about to say something, but didn't because he glared and looked away when he realized I was staring. Wiping my eyes, I suddenly felt extremely embarrassed. I'd been weeping like a child over the little girl. My face actually started to get hot until I realized that Lila was actually doing the same thing. That was a bit of a relief.

  "Missed us?"

  I could swear my heart stopped. "Dustin?"

  The man was most certainly a sight for sore eyes. He looked sort of.. well.. let's say rugged. The short stubble he'd had about his face when I last remembered seeing him had progressed into what was practically a full fledged beard. His hair had gotten longer, and he was dirty. There was mud, possibly blood, and some unidentifiable substances smeared on every bit of exposed flesh, but his eyes still had the same twinkle, and I couldn't help but hug him as well. A tight hug that had him gasping, but smiling into my neck. I could

  feel it. And he hugged back, obviously just as relieved to see me as I was to see him, even if he was a bit more subtle.

  He'd been the first person I met during the goddamned zombie invasion. I was damned glad that he was okay. Especially since I knew he had a son out there. Suddenly thinking about my little journal, I remembered I'd have to mark them as found, and safe. Which was definitely a bit of a relief for me. I didn't want them to remain missing until I was dead, and the journal was left for the next person. I really didn't.