Closed Campus

by Gayle Katz

  “Wait. What about Wyatt? We won’t be able to talk to him if he needs us or we need him,” I say.

  “Don’t worry. We’ll switch them back as soon as possible. OK?” He says.

  I nod. As soon as I go to take out the batteries the walkie-talkie clicks on.

  “Hello, Jane.” It’s Wyatt’s voice.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “How’s it going over there?”

  “Slow. We’ve run into a few more snags, but we’re still alive and a couple steps closer to finding help.”

  “That’s good. The sooner you get help, the better. Being at the station alone with Connor and Abigail on the floor... the zombies walking around the station and banging into the windows and doors. I’m kinda freaking out a little. Not to mention the people calling in are hysterical. I’m not sure how much longer I’m gonna last.”

  “Play some mellow music, Wyatt. Maybe some Enya or Boston? And then just chill. All right?”

  “Yeah. I can do that.”

  “That’s good. Listen, Wyatt. Jack and I are in a pinch and need to use the batteries from the walkie-talkie for the flashlight for a short time. I promise we’ll be back online soon. I promise.”

  “OK.”

  “You gonna be OK?”

  “Yeah. Yeah. I’ll be fine. Thanks for letting me know.”

  “I’ll talk to you soon, Wyatt.”

  “Wait a second. I think I hear a car pulling up.”

  “A car? See if you can keep tabs on it, but stay safe. We’ll be back soon. We gotta keep moving.”

  After hanging up with Wyatt, Jack and I walk around the roof trying to decide the best and the quietest entry point. We find the side of the dorms that has balconies.

  We stoop down on the roof, peering down on the balcony below us. Making sure we have a clear area to jump down onto without zombies trying to eat us, we sit on the side of the roof and dangle our legs over the edge. We then lower ourselves softly onto one of the balconies on the top floor.

  “What dorm is this anyway?” he asks.

  “I believe it’s Lincoln Hall. Ugh. That jerk Lance from the police station lives here.”

  “He isn’t the nicest fellow. And that’s putting it mildly. I can see why you don’t like him.”

  “You got that right. Hmmm. But...”

  “But what?”

  “But he plays sports.”

  “Yeah, hockey.”

  “And others.”

  “Which others?”

  “I don’t know. All of them? He probably has lots of sports equipment in his dorm room. Crap like bats and stuff.”

  “We better hope he didn’t snag them or else it might not be the windfall we’re hoping for. But, yeah. A bat would make a nice weapon.”

  “Yes, it would. Easier to grip than these metal desk legs we’ve been toting around. My hands are killing me.” I stretch out my fingers with a groan.

  “Shh,” Jack hisses as he turns his attention to the sliding glass door in front of us. He carefully opens it to gain entrance to the dorm. He goes in. I follow.

  Flashlight in one hand, desk leg in the other, we tiptoe through the dorm room. We open the door to see what we can see of the hallway. It’s just as dark, if not darker than the dorm rooms.

  Once in the hallway, Jack whispers to me, “Use your flashlight. Check the doors. Most of these rooms will have a sign telling who lives there—at least they did when I lived in the dorms.”

  “Right. Good thinking. I forgot about that. They do that in my dorm too.”

  “Look for his name on the doors so we can find his room.”

  “I can do better than that,” I say. “He’s in room 342.”

  “OK. Let’s go down the hall and look at each door. You take the left. I’ll take the right. Keep your eyes peeled. We don’t want to run into any surprises.”

  The two of us start down the dark hallway looking at the room numbers and names on the doors.

  “No.”

  “Nope.”

  “OK, keep moving.”

  We get to the second set of doors.

  “Not this one.”

  “No.”

  We’re half way down the hall before I spot his name and room number.

  “Found it!”

  “Shh!” Jack says.

  He grabs the doorknob, “It’s not locked. Get inside.”

  We rush inside Lance’s dorm room and close the door behind us.

  “If the radio station taught us anything, it’s that these zombies will find us eventually. We have to move quickly. Shine the light around and pray we find a baseball bat or a hockey stick or something we can use.”

  As I spin around shining my light, I spy something in bed against the wall. I walk over to the bed and shine my light on the ceiling to illuminate the room.

  “Bingo! There are a couple of metal baseball bats over here,” Jack says as he picks one up and grips it. “Aw, this feels much better.”

  “Oh, my God,” I mumble as I cover my mouth.

  “What?”

  “It’s Stefan.”

  “Who’s that?”

  “Lance’s drunk, asshole roommate. He’s here.”

  “Is he alive?”

  “I don’t know.” I giggle. “He’s not moving.”

  “What’s so funny?” Jack asks.

  “Lance said he wanted me to come to his room, and now I’m here, and he’s not. It’s just funny is all,” I say.

  My attention turns to the door. “Did you hear that?”

  “Hear what? No. Just focus, Jane. Search the room for more sports equipment. We might have hit the jackpot here.”

  I go to the closet and find a couple hockey sticks, a wooden baseball bat, and a lacrosse stick.

  “Check under the bed too.”

  I get on my hands and knees and shine the flashlight under the bed.

  “There’s another baseball bat and a duffle bag under here,” I say.

  “OK, let’s get going. I think we’ve found just about everything that can help us here.”

  A moaning noise comes from the bed right above me.

  “Oh shit,” I say as I look up slowly, “That’s Stefan. Stefan?”

  No answer.

  Again, I try to speak to him.

  “Stefan? Are you OK?”

  He turns his head toward me and makes a horrible shrieking sound.

  He goes to bite me, and I recoil. Pivoting around, I pick up Lance’s metal bat and swing, smashing his head apart.

  “Wow! That is impressive! What got into you?”

  “He was a complete asshole to me earlier and then tries to give me a hickey on a first date? No way.”

  “Uh. Are you OK?”

  “Yeah. All this zombie stuff is just—I just need to get some sleep and recharge. My nerves are frazzled.”

  “Are you ready to go back out there?”

  “Ready? No, but we can’t stay here. We have to get to the basement, right?”

  “Wait,” he says. “Give me the duffle bag. Put everything in the bag, and I’ll strap it to my back so we can take all this stuff with us. The guys should appreciate our windfall.”

  We open the door and peek both ways down the hall.

  “Coast is clear,” Jack says, giving me a thumbs up. We tiptoe quickly to the end of the hallway and take the stairs all the way down to the basement. With flashlights in hand, we find the entrance to the tunnel and make our way across to the other building.

  The tunnel is clear too. No zombies. Nothing to trip us up, which is a nice change. Once we reach the basement of the adjacent building, we run as fast as we can to the stairwell on the side of the building.

  Halfway up the stairs, I need to stop and catch my breath.

  “Hold on. Give me a minute.” I’m panting and bent over, trying to get as much oxygen as possible into my lungs.

  “We can stop for a minute or two, but that’s it until we hit the roof. I don’t want to find out what’s going on in this dorm.”r />
  “OK. I’m good,” I say. “Let’s go.”

  We wind our way around the stairwell and are on the top floor. Bats in hand, we peek inside one of the dorm rooms and find it empty. We run across the room to the balcony and open the sliding glass doors. Once outside, we’re able to pull ourselves up to the roof and rejoin our group.

  “You made it!” Logan says.

  We smile and then something dawns on me.

  “Crap! Put the batteries back in the walkie-talkie.”

  9:30 p.m.

  I click the talk button.

  “Wyatt. Are you there? Wyatt?”

  No answer.

  “Hey! Are you OK over there?” I say louder.

  “Yes. Yes. I’m here. I’ve been trying to reach you.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “Listen. Good news and bad news. The good news is that the military is monitoring our communication and they’re coming to rescue us here, and they’re gonna go help you next.”

  “Oh, my gosh! That’s amazing. And the bad news?”

  “They’re dropping a bomb to destroy all the infected on campus. Everyone needs to get off campus within two hours. Where are you on North Campus?”

  “Washington Hall. When will they be here?”

  “Soon. Stay put, OK? Everything is gonna be OK, Jane. But, just in case, I’ve patched this walkie-talkie into the radio station’s hard line. Whatever we say on these walkie-talkies now is being transmitted over the air.”

  “Wait. What? Why?”

  “Did you hear what I said?”

  “Yes, Wyatt. I did.”

  “We’re gonna be clearing out soon, but people are still on campus, and we need to continue reaching them. You can let everyone know what’s going on here. Where they can find you. You can get them to safety. Can you do that, Jane?”

  “Yeah. Yeah. I can do that.”

  “Well then, the radio station is yours.”

  “See you soon.”

  The line goes dead. I’m standing on the roof of the dorm holding the walkie-talkie, stunned.

  “Everything is gonna be all right?” I ask.

  “If what he says is true, it seems so,” Jack replies as he high-fives with Bill.

  “Are you fucking serious? We could have stayed at the radio station instead of trekking all across campus?” Logan complains vehemently.

  “We didn’t know what was gonna happen. We just need to chill out and wait here,” Jack says. “Someone will come along to collect us soon.”

  I click in the button again and plead, “Is this thing working? If anyone can hear me. If anyone is still on campus, get off now. Don’t worry about your things; just grab a coat and run. I am told that campus has been completely overrun with zombies and that the only way to clear the area is to destroy it. If you’re on campus you can join us on the roof of Washington Hall on North Campus, and we’ll get you to safety.”

  I take my finger off the talk button and put the walkie-talkie back in my bag.

  Perched high on the roof, I embrace Jack. Bill and Logan shake hands and are patting each other on the back.

  If we stay quiet, we can probably remain on the roof without worry.

  Chapter 16

  ________________________________________

  10:00 p.m.

  Exhausted from not sleeping for over twenty-four hours, I close my weary eyes, just for five minutes. That’s all I need. When I jolt awake, Jack’s arm is wrapped around me. I guess he’s tired too, but my movement startles him. He jumps to his feet.

  “How long have we been asleep?” he asks.

  Bill looks at his watch. “At most twenty-thirty minutes. Don’t worry. We’re fine.”

  “How could you let us sleep for so long? What if a zombie tried to attack?” I ask as I stand up and put on my backpack.

  “Chill out. From what you told me, I don’t think zombies can climb. Plus, no one has come for us yet. I guess things are taking longer than they thought.” Bill looks around. “It’s dark out, but we’re keeping watch as best we can.”

  “Ah!” Logan jumps. All three of them are staring at me.

  “What?” I say as I turn around.

  “You don’t think I would give up that easily, do you?” the professor says.

  “Where did you come from?” Jack blurts out.

  I’m terrified to see the professor standing over me. He looks worse than before. Creepy eyes. Bleeding sores. Gray skin. Not to mention his breath is putrid. I don’t want to think about what he’s been eating.

  I go to the edge of the roof and look down. A swarm of zombies surrounds us. The only way out of this mess is to fight our way out or somehow hit the underground tunnels again, but how will the military rescue us if we leave? The professor caught us totally off guard here. I take a step back to rejoin the guys.

  “Don’t be foolish, Jane.” He steps closer to me. “There’s no escape. No rescue. My minions have the building surrounded. Let’s make a deal, shall we?”

  “What are you talking about? A deal?”

  “Come with me, and I’ll make it easy for them,” he says as he stretches out his hand. “Think of it as one life to save three.”

  So many thoughts are running through my head. I don’t want to go with him, but I also don’t want him to hurt Jack, or anyone else for that matter.

  “Professor. Benjamin. So if I go with you now, you’ll leave them alone?”

  “Yes.”

  Jack is shaking his head. “Don’t do it, Jane. You don’t have to. The military should be here soon, and we can still fight.”

  “We don’t know when they’re gonna get here. And last time, we barely got away alive.”

  I sigh. How can I trust anything my professor says? Do I even really have a choice at this point? After a few minutes of thinking over my choices, I blurt out, “Fine. I’ll go with you.”

  “No!” Jack yells.

  “That’s music to my ears!” the professor says as he grabs me and throws me over his shoulder like I weigh nothing. With all the commotion, I forget that I still have my backpack, and yet I’m still as light as a feather to him.

  The professor proceeds to run over to the emergency escape ladder and slide down into a group of his minions, all with me on his back. He starts running in the direction of his building. His zombie hordes are keeping pace right alongside us.

  I open my eyes and look back at the rooftop. I can see Jack standing there staring, bat in hand, trying to comprehend what just happened. Some of the zombies remain around the building, surrounding it.

  “You said you’d leave them alone!” I yell at the professor. “Tell your zombies to leave my friends alone.”

  “I’m not doing anything to them. I can’t help it if they’re hungry and it’s past their dinner time.”

  “You lied to me. Let me go. The deal is off!” I say as I try to kick him.

  “That’s one of the reasons why I want you, Jane. You’re quite the feisty one.”

  Before I lose the building in the distance, I see a camouflaged helicopter fly over the dorm. It reminds me of the military vehicle I saw earlier. I wonder what is happening to Jack.

  I don’t know what is happening to me. I feel sick to my stomach being with the professor. I don’t know what he is capable of.

  As the professor marches back to his classroom, his zombies continue to follow like he is their leader in some sick, perverted army.

  Part way back, we stop.

  “I must rest for a minute,” he says as he puts me down. We are surrounded by infected, so I’m not going anywhere. The professor then pulls out a cylindrical container from his pocket and clicks on a needle. He injects some sort of fluid into his neck.

  “What’s that for?” I ask.

  “You know what it’s for. It’s so I can keep my faculties and function.”

  “So why not give it to all your zombies here and help them?”

  “It’s much too late for them. Besides, I can’t possibly make tha
t much.”

  He stands up straight. Whatever that stuff is seems to give him a boost.

  “OK. Question and answer time is over,” he says.

  He picks me back up, throws me over his shoulder again, and he sprints forward.

  “Where are you taking me?”

  “Back to my classroom, of course. You won’t have to worry about anything from now on.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means that once we’re joined, you’ll be mine for all eternity.”

  “Wait! I didn’t agree to that!”

  “You agreed to come with me so I wouldn’t hurt your friends.”

  “Which you didn’t do.”

  “If you remember, I didn’t do anything to them.”

  “You’re such a liar. And there’s no way I’m gonna be with you.”

  “We’ll see about that.”

  As I’m being jostled around on his shoulder, I’m thinking about Jack. I should have stayed and fought instead of giving myself up so easily, but I was trying to save him.

  The professor's zombie entourage is getting larger as we continue back to Roosevelt Hall. He’s hauling me with him to the gates of hell, his demon minions closing around us. Perched on the devil's shoulder, I am powerless to fight or flee.

  Chapter 17

  ________________________________________

  11:00 p.m.

  I open my eyes. As I look around, I can tell I’m face down on the professor’s classroom floor. The moonlight peeks through the windows, illuminating his dark and odious hideaway. Did I pass out? As I look up, I see zombies surrounding me. Oddly enough, my backpack is still on my back. Trying not to move or attract attention, I slide a hand inside my bag for my walkie-talkie.

  And that’s when it hits me. The smell. It’s horrible. Nauseating and vile, but familiar. It’s so bad I have trouble breathing through my nose. I do my best to just use my mouth to suppress my gag reflex.

  It’s then that I feel something sticky on my hands and face. Is it my blood? Am I bleeding? Or is it from the professor? I can’t tell. Are these zombies students just like me who got tangled up in the professor’s sick game? I don’t know.