Storm of the Dead

by D. P. Sloan

  “What the -,” Michaels murmured.

  The man leaning over the body of Tam turned his decaying head, meat from Tams’ head hanging from the split greyish lips. A snarl and a groan came from the parting lips. Michaels stepped back, looking left and then looking right, looking for a weapon. The decaying man stood up and shuffled towards Michaels. Michaels put his hands up to defend himself and was about to strike the dead guy when from out of nowhere the decaying man fell to his knees, blood oozing from his caved in skull, Michaels looked on in shock and awe as standing behind the fallen dead guy was his wife Michelle holding a metal pole in both hands.

  “With force babe,” Michelle told her husband smiling, “With force. Now let’s go!”

  They all climbed into the car, closed the doors and Michaels drove away.

  “Dad,” Max began, “where are we going?”

  Michaels looked into the rear-view mirror, “We are going to head to Drumchapel. I have to see a family. I have to put my mind at rest and tell this women’s family that she died fighting the dead.”

  “What?” Michelle asked, “The security officer?”

  Michaels shook his head, “No this guy made this girl fall to her death but I returned the favour and left him for the dead to feast on. It wasn’t my best moment but he deserved it. But her family don’t need to know that she fell to her death, I’ll make up a story that she battled the dead.” He reached a hand over and grabbed his wife’s hand and smiled.

  Michelle smiled back. “Do you know where she lived?”

  Michaels pulled a purse out of his pocket and opened it up. It was Maria’s purse, inside the purse contained a wage slip with her name and address on it. Michaels showed his wife the payslip. She nodded and smiled.

  “Then where daddy?” Mads leaned over.

  Michaels turned briefly and smiled at his daughter, “Then we head to the airport, get on our plane and get the Hell out of this city.”

  They all smiled and headed along the expressway towards Drumchapel bypassing the new Hydro concert arena and the SECC looking out the window at the once, ‘new Glasgow,’ seeing the death and destruction caused by the outbreak.

  CHAPTER 18

  DECEMBER 11TH – 0530HRS

  RUNNING THE HALLS

  Katy stood amongst the group of school pupils waiting for the right time for Lee-Ann to make a break for the school corridors. Charlene kept glancing up at Mr Roberts and the rest of the teachers which were all sitting on the edge of the stage overlooking the room, making sure all windows were boarded up and secure.

  Lee-Ann turned to the group of pupils, “Okay it’s time. Let’s just make it myself and Charlene to go out in the corridor first and then we all start heading out later. Katy, you, Mike and Sandra distract the teachers and myself and Charlene will make a break for the doors.”

  “How are you going to get through the doors? Are they not secured well?” Katy asked.

  Lee-Ann shook her head, “Nope, I told Duncan to make sure there was enough space for me to duck under and push the door open. At first he said no chance but I used my persuasive techniques!” she smiled and winked at the rest of the group. Then signalled to Katy to start the distraction.

  Katy and the other two got up and made their way to the teachers. As soon as they climbed the stairs to the stage. The teachers all stood up and turned to them.

  “Everything ok kids?” Mr Roberts asked.

  Katy nodded, which gave the go ahead for Lee-Ann and Charlene to move to the school corridor doors. The rest of students looked on but just continued making sure none of the undead got in through the windows.

  Lee-Ann got to the doors first, had a quick look at the stage; saw that the teachers were still pre-occupied, so she ducked down and pushed the door open behind the boards, she turned her head and nodded to Charlene who then followed her.

  Once they were both out in the corridor, they closed the door over and stood up. They both scanned the hallway and all was silent. There was nobody, no dead, no nothing. Both Lee-Ann and Charlene looked at each other and breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Right are you ready?” Lee-Ann asked her friend.

  Charlene nodded and they both walked down the hallway together, side by side. Taken slow steps as they inched their way down towards the main exit at the end of the hall. They kept silent themselves as they walked together.

  As the neared the neared the Janitors office, a noise startled them. They both stopped dead in their tracks and listened, listened to the scratching noise coming from inside the office. Lee-Ann decided to be the braver one and investigate. As she neared the door and was about to open it, through the window came a man snapping his jaws, glass shattered as he grabbed frantically at Lee-Ann. Lee-Ann screamed as the undead man grabbed her by the hair and pulled her towards him, towards the shards of glass hanging from the smashed window.

  Closer. Closer. Closer to the shards of glass as Lee-Ann continued to scream for help but Charlene just looked on, not moving. It was as though she was glued to the same spot. Charlene watched as her friend got closer and closer to the smashed window. Then the decaying man started forcing Lee-Ann’s head down, down onto the shard of glass. Lee-Ann screamed one final time before she was pushed face first onto the glass shard. The shard pierced her right eyeball making a sickening, ‘pop,’ noise as it went into her eye socket. She was forced right down until the glass shard snapped and was left embedded in her eye socket. Lee-Ann stood up screaming before the decaying man bite into her left side of her throat, tearing the flesh away. Lee-Ann reached up to her throat, scratching and clawing at it before falling to the ground – dead.

  Charlene still stood in one place and peed herself with fear, before turning around and high-tailing it up the hallway, she looked over her shoulder and watched as her friend began to twitch and move, resulting in her arching her back and walking towards her like a crab. Charlene also saw the decaying man slithering out of the smashed office window, followed by two other dead people. Charlene got to the assembly doors, opened the doors then ducked down, pushing the boards but couldn’t budge them.

  “Please someone help me!” Charlene cried out loud. She pounded and pounded on the boards but no one listened. She glanced back over her shoulder and saw the undead including Lee-Ann get closer and closer to her and the doors. She turned and began banging her fists on the boards again; tears began streaming down her face.

  From inside the assembly hall, pupils and teachers all stopped what they were doing and listened to the assembly door being banged. Mr Roberts jumped down from the stage and ran over to the door, “Who’s out there?” however no answer came just continuous screaming. He turned around to the assembly hall and asked again, “Who’s out there guys?”

  Katy and the rest of the group that stood on the stage next to the teachers all shouted in unison, “Its Lee-Ann and Charlene!”

  Mr Roberts’s eyebrows raised high on his forehead, “Right everybody help me move things let’s get them back in here quickly!”

  From outside in the hallway came another almighty scream from Charlene.

  “Quickly kids help!” Mr Roberts yelled.

  The school pupils and teachers all began moving the boards and furniture from the assembly doors.

  Outside in the hallway, Charlene banged and battered the wood trying to get in. She looked over her shoulder and watched the dead got closer and closer to her. Another few feet and they would be on top of her. She turned back to boards and banged again with all her might. She looked over her shoulder one last time, but it would be her last time as the now dead Lee-Ann pounced on her, ripping into her neck with her teeth, pulling the flesh away from the bone. Blood spurted everywhere as she let out a gurgled cry before she was feasted on by her friend and the decaying man.

  Within seconds of the undead Lee-Ann’s saliva touching the bloodstream of Charlene, she began to convulse and then opened her eyes, groaned loud and started ripping and tearing at the boards on the door. Herself along with C
harlene and the other dead man; banged and banged until the boards cracked and gave way. The dead were breaking through.

  Inside the assembly hall, people began screaming and running. But with no place to hide, they were trapped like sitting ducks waiting. With all the commotion coming from the hallway, the pupils and teachers were distracted with the windows as the dead outside began ripping through the boards and began climbing through. The school kids screamed and the teachers began ushering up the stage and through the curtains.

  Once through the curtains Mr Roberts informed them to all hide and he pulled out the radio, “Hello this is Graham Roberts at Drumchapel High School. This is an emergency over.”

  He waited patiently for a response and then it came.

  “This is Sergeant James Lomax, what seems to be the problem Graham? Over.”

  “They have breached the hall. I repeat the dead have breached the hall, over,” Graham responded.

  Silence for around a minute and then the radio kicked in.

  “The safety perimeter is in place around Drumchapel as we said; no one is getting in or out unless we say so. The Health Organisation has said that one bite from these….these zombies will indeed infect you causing instant death at first then within a minute or so you become one of them, I will be sending a squad in to the school in two minutes. Please let us do our job and we will escort you out of the premises safely and soundly. Right now, hide. Over,” Lomax replied.

  “We have nowhere to hide Sergeant. Over,” Graham spoke into the radio.

  Silence again then came the reply.

  “Graham, my team is coming through the main entrance, I have eyes on them. They are now at the assembly doors. I will stay on this radio until they have secured the hall and yourselves. Please stay exactly where you are. Over,” Lomax replied.

  Then from behind the curtains the pupils and the teachers heard gunfire and the dead screaming. Graham ushered the kids back and then peeked through the curtain. In the assembly hall, he saw soldiers fighting and shooting dead people. He saw dead people attack and eat soldiers. It was a bloodbath. He turned to the pupils and teachers. “When I say run, we are all towards the assembly doors okay?”

  Everyone nodded together as Graham ushered them through the curtains, “RUN!!!!!”

  Amongst all the carnage taken place in front of them the kids and teachers ran towards the doors. They ducked and dived and dodged bullets. Some were shot by stray bullets and some were attacked by the dead. Only a few made it to the hallway – Katy was one of them along with two other school pupils and the teachers Mr Roberts and Miss King. They got out into the hall and continued to run down to the main doors.

  Katy looked about for Lee-Ann and Charlene, but didn’t see them either lying dead or fighting the soldiers.

  “Graham where are? Over,” came Lomax’s voice through the radio.

  Huffing and puffing, Graham responded, “We are at the main doors, it’s…..it’s…..its total carnage in here. Over.”

  “Okay Graham,” Lomax replied, “I’ll get one of my team to meet you there, stay indoors until I say come out okay? Over.”

  “Understood,” Graham responded.

  Just then from out of the shadows and in front of them came someone very familiar to Katy. Katy’s eyes went wide with fright as she saw this person joined with a few more people. All lined up in front of them. Katy gulped trying to get saliva to coat her dry mouth.

  The person moved forward along with their group.

  Katy and her group moved backwards. There was no way they were leaving the school. Katy done a quick head count and counted at least fifteen people were in front of them including the person she knew. They stood there growling, screaming one word only, ‘Fooooooooooodddddddddd.’

  Mr Roberts tried to shield the rest of the group but Katy knew they couldn’t stand and fight. Yes, the soldiers were behind them but they were dealing with their own task. Mr Roberts looked to his right and then his left. Just off to his left was another room. The head teachers’ room. The door was open. Graham nodded with his head to the room; the group knew what he meant. Just as they were about to run for it. Katy looked again at the person in front of her, covered in blood surrounded by a group of undead humans, bearing their teeth, screaming. The person standing in front of her was poised to run and grab her.

  That person was her dad.

  Steve glared at her with his dead soulless eyes before running towards them.

  “RUN!!!!!!!” Graham yelled.

  The group high-tailed it into the headmasters’ office. Graham closed the door over just in the nick of the time before Steve and the rest of the undead got to it. They started banging on the door as Graham and the group barricaded themselves into the office by moving the desk and filing cabinet over to the door. The banging continued in the hallway, the screams and moaning getting louder and louder and then to add to the mix the gun fire from the soldiers.

  Katy looked about for a weapon or an escape route. Saw the window and motioned for Mr Roberts and the others to follow her. She opened the window and peered out, it was a small jump to the ground outside. She scanned the area noticed that it was clear of any undead and began to climb out.

  “Katy!” Graham shouted, “What are you doing?”

  Katy looked back at her teacher, “Well I don’t know about you. But I am not staying in a locked room for those things to eat me!”

  “Katy!” Graham exclaimed, “As your teacher and adult in charge don’t go out there. We are safer in here what with the soldiers doing their duty.”

  “In all due respect Mr Roberts,” Katy began, “School is out and you say we are safer in here? What? As safe as the secrets you and the teachers kept to yourselves? What are you keeping from us Mr Roberts? What do you know about this outbreak? This….this virus? Because I’ll tell you what I know that man out there – that man banging on that very door. That man that came running towards us. That was my dad! I say was, because he isn’t a man now. The last I saw of my dad was when he came home from work, you know the next day I said goodbye to a very sick man it looked like he had the cold and now that man – my dad is out in the hallway trying to break in to this office. Trying to break into this office to EAT US!”

  Mr Roberts stood with his mouth wide open and was unable to answer. Then after a few minutes of silence he came up with a response, “Listen, Katy. It wasn’t just this school that was told about the outbreak straight away. Every public building. Every Government building. Everyone, we were told to put the buildings on lockdown because of the storm and –“

  He was cut off by Katy’s outburst.

  “Bullshit Roberts and you know its bullshit! Whatever was in that storm is what put places like this in lockdown. Did you know my boyfriend Gregg Summers snuck out of here a long time ago to get home to his mum who was attacked by his father?”

  Roberts shook his head.

  “According to his mother, his dad wanted to eat her flesh! EAT HER FLESH ROBERTS!!! We’re not dealing with a simple storm or hurricane here. Something is in the air or possibly was in the air out there and is turning normal people – NORMAL PEOPLE into blood thirsty killers. Call them what you like but they look dead to me and they are hungry. So yet again I’m not staying here to be feasted on Mr Roberts, you and the rest can.”

  She turned back to the window and began to climb out of it.

  “Katy,” Mr Roberts began, “listen its safer in here than out there. We are better sticking together in a group.”

  “Look sir,” Katy began, “I understand where you are coming from. But I think we would be able to survive as a group much better in the open area outside than in an enclosed office like here!”

  A few mumbles came from the rest of the group.

  “I’m with her sir!” came the voice of young Rosie. A fourth-year pupil with a bright future ahead of her.

  “Me too!” Cody, a fifth-year pupil, happy-go-lucky young man chimed in.

  Graham sighed, “Okay. If you w
ant to go, go! I’m not stopping you. I can’t be arsed with people that just don’t want to listen anymore. So, go and die!” He then turned to the other teacher Miss King, “You going as well?”

  Miss King looked at the pupils then back at Graham, “I’m staying Graham. It’s safer here what with the soldiers….” She trailed off as she watched Katy just shake her head from side to side.

  Katy looked at Rosie and Cody, “Ready?”

  Both nodded in unison. Firstly, Rosie climbed up and out of the window and dropped down to the ground. Then Cody followed.

  Katy turned and looked at the teachers, the teachers that were supposed to keep them safe, but kept things from the students. Things that would have helped if told earlier.

  “Last chance sir? Miss?” Katy asked again.

  Both teachers bowed their heads; Katy shrugged her shoulders, “Good luck Mr Roberts and Miss King.” She then climbed up and out the window and dropped to the ground next to Cody and Rosie.

  The three teenagers looked about the area they were in. No one was about. No army, no undead and definitely no humans. They were about to run around to the main entrance where Lomax said he would be waiting for them when they heard the headmasters’ office door break under pressure from the dead in the hallway including Katy’s dad.

  Screams echoed loud as all three of the teenagers looked up at the window. Within seconds a body was thrown at the window, and then pulled back into the room, and then the teenagers watched as half a body was thrown out the window landing at least two feet away from them. The teenagers kept their cool and decided it was time to run around to the main entrance, get Lomax and his team. Let him know that the dead are winning.