by T. Gault
I picked up my Glock from the window sill and started to move into the hallway. So many thoughts were running through my head.
How could they have broken into the building? Who was shooting? Why were they shooting instead of using impact weapons? How many were inside?
I checked the magazine in my Glock one more time.
I turned on my flashlight and peered down the dark hallway. There was nothing moving and I didn’t hear anyone talking either. BOOM! The sound was getting closer. I stopped and listened. I could hear plastic shell casings dropping on the floor in the first-level hallway. I inched my way down the steps and turned off my flashlight. I looked across the hall but didn’t see any hoard or even a small group of carriers. I didn’t see anything that made me think a door had been breached.
I stood on the steps watching the hall for any movement. I saw a shadowy figure come out of what looked like the doors to the auditorium. It wasn’t a carrier. They moved quickly over to the room Jim had been staying in and kicked open the door. BOOM! POP, POP, POP! They walked further inside and fired again. I was very confused about what I was seeing. I turned on my flashlight to see who it was. The individual came out of Jim’s room and was holding a double-barrel shotgun, trying to reload it. He looked up and me and dropped the spent shells onto the floor and quickly scrambled to pull more shells from his pocket. It was Curtis.
“Where are they? Are there more inside?” I said to Curtis but he didn’t answer. He just continued to hurriedly cram the ammunition into the shotgun.
“Where are they coming from?” I said louder than the first time. Curtis flipped up the barrels of the shotgun and raised it toward me.
My heart sank as I realized what was happening.
I jumped up and started to run up the stairs.
BOOM! I heard the pellets hit the steps behind me. I ran faster from Curtis than I had ever run trying to get away from the corpses. I ducked into one of the rooms off to the right side of the hallway. I heard Curtis coming up the stairs behind me. I sat as still and quiet as I could. I heard Curtis step out into the hallway and stop.
“You all brought this on yourselves,” said Curtis.
I said nothing. I wasn’t going to give away my hiding place.
“Sid...Jim...the Reverend...Matt. They’ve already been taken care of. I just need to find you and that girl,” said Curtis.
I couldn’t believe him. I couldn’t see how he could have killed all of them already and if he already got Matt, Beth would have been there. I still tried to remain motionless and quiet as Curtis started to walk down the hallway. I could hear him walk up to the door of the room across the hallway from me and stop.
“I know you’re in here. Just give up. There isn’t anything left to fight for,” said Curtis.
I looked up over the desk I was sitting behind and saw him standing across the hall. He started to walk into the room. I stood up and slowly moved toward the wall next to the door. I waited by the door for Curtis to come into the room. I put my gun away and pulled out my sword. I listened closely for his footsteps. He stepped out of the room across the hall and stopped in the hallway again.
“You should have gone to get that medicine when I said to go the first time. She died, and every single one of you are to blame,” said Curtis.
I could hear him walking again and started to see the barrel of the shotgun coming into the room. His foot stepped into the room. I couldn’t breathe, but I was ready to strike as soon as I saw his head.
BOOM! I heard a shotgun blast from the far end of the hallway. Curtis backed out of the room and took off running. I wasn’t sure what had just happened, but I didn’t want to waste my chance. I came out of the room behind Curtis, dropped my sword and struggled to pull my Glock back out of the holster. I could see him at a full sprint, almost at the other end of the hall. He came up on a room to the left and leveled out his shotgun again. BOOM! He started shooting again. I looked down the sights of my gun and aimed for his head. My hands were shaking and my lack of sleep was getting to me. I took the shot, but my round hit the wall next to him. Curtis whipped the shotgun in my direction. BOOM! The drywall to my right exploded as the pellets impacted, throwing dust into the air. When I realized he had missed, I emptied my magazine down that hallway. I picked my sword back up and pulled out the magazine. I put it into my pocket as I stood and started to run back into the stairwell.
I heard another shotgun blast from the other end of the hallway, followed by a whizzing metal noise coming from behind me. I felt my right leg jerk. I stumbled and rolled down the stairs. I started to stand up, but I could feel that there was something wrong with my right leg. I had taken a pellet to the side of my leg. It was painful, but I stood on the leg and started to run down the dark hallway. I wanted to check on the others as I ran past their rooms, but I knew that Curtis was probably close behind me. As I passed the room where Curtis had been sleeping I noticed someone’s feet sticking out from the darkness and a pool of blood on the floor around them. The boots looked like Sid’s. I also noticed something else scattered across the floor.
I could hear the massive gathering of carriers outside clawing and shoving the walls and doors. All of the noise from inside the church had attracted all of the surrounding corpses. I thought about trying for the van or the beat-up sedan outside, but I could see the front doors flexing in and out from the dead weight outside. There was no way that I could force my way through that. I looked all around the hall for some kind of escape and remembered the ladder to the roof. I ran for the ladder and grabbed onto it just as I heard another set of feet running on the tile in the hallway.
As I started up the ladder, I looked and saw Curtis. He didn’t seem to have noticed me climbing the ladder as he ran through the hall. I continued to climb, hoping to reach the roof before Curtis noticed me. I heard his shoes screech on the tile floor. I looked and saw him open the breach of the shotgun and begin to reload. I threw my sword through the opening onto the roof, adrenaline bursting as I knew that I was an easy target from down on the ground. I reached for the top of the ladder just knowing he was about to fire. I rolled my shoulders out of my backpack and dropped the heavy bag. I heard Curtis stumble back and out of the way of the bag and he fired one shell into the wall. I had just enough time to climb onto the roof before he fired the second shell.
The roof was very sparse with only a couple of vents and one air conditioning unit on top. The rain had started to let up but the roof was covered in puddles. I looked for any means of escape only to realize I was trapped. I couldn’t take the twenty-foot drop to the ground only to be consumed by the crowd. I could have tried for the fenced-in playground, but I would most likely have broken my leg and become a slower target. My only option was to fight him. I ran back over to the hatch to the roof and peered over the side to see if Curtis was trying to climb up after me…and found myself looking down the barrels of his shotgun. I quickly lunged back just as he fired again.
“If you want me, you’re going to have to come up here and get me. If you’ve killed everyone else like you say, I have no reason to come back down there,” I yelled down to Curtis.
“That’s just fine. You just dropped your backpack. You’ve got all of your extra ammunition in there if I remember right,” said Curtis.
I patted my pockets only to realize he was right. The only magazine I had was the empty one in my pocket. But I still had my sword, and he didn’t know for sure that I was out of bullets.
“So you think I’m out of ammo? Why don’t you come up here and find out?” I yelled back.
I heard him start to climb the ladder. I lay on my back next to the opening, waiting to swing my sword at his head as soon as it came into view. Just when I thought he was close to the top, he stopped. I waited for him to pop up, but he never did. The barrel of his shotgun extended from the opening in my direction, BOOM! The shotgun had gone off only inches from my head. I was disoriented and couldn’t hear anything but my ears ringing. I rolled back o
ver and through blurred vision saw Curtis scrambling up onto the roof. I stood up as quickly as I could and lunged toward him. He tried to aim the weapon in my direction, but I hit the end of the barrel with my left hand as I tried to swing my sword. Curtis fired the second shot, sending the pellets out into the darkness. I struck Curtis in the left shoulder with a crooked blow from my sword. Curtis did not seem to be affected by the blow and began to start backing away from me and digging in his pockets.
I was still trying to fully recover from the ringing in my ears, but I knew that I had to do something. I ran at Curtis with everything I had and tried to swing my sword. Curtis stepped to the side and shoved me. The dull edge of the sword struck Curtis’ left forearm, causing him to drop the two shells. I heard a crunch when my blade made contact and he let out a yelp. I saw the red shotgun shells bounce across the gravel roof into a puddle. I scrambled over to them and picked them up. Curtis began to dig in his pocket again, but I could tell that his left arm was badly hurt. He fought through the pain until he realized that I was holding his last two shells. Once I realized the same thing, I threw the shells off of the roof into the sea of shuffling feet below.
I turned back to Curtis and I could see panic on his face. I started to walk toward him with my sword in hand. He opened the breach of the shotgun and looked at the two spent shells inside of it. He let out a yell and closed the breach. He grabbed the shotgun by the barrel and started to swing it from side to side as he charged at me. I backpedaled to avoid being struck as Curtis swung again and again. I looked over my shoulder and realized that I was being backed right up to the edge of the roof.
I tried to deflect one of the blows from the weapon with my sword, but his shotgun was heavier and easily knocked my sword away. I was almost to the edge and Curtis started to swing more wildly. I looked backward over the edge and back at Curtis again. Curtis looked almost like he was winding up for the swing that would shove me off the roof. Curtis let the weapon fly through the air toward me. I got down as low as I could to the gravel as the wooden butt stock barely missed the top of my head. I stood up and ran past Curtis as he turned to start swinging again. I lunged toward him with the point of my sword and buried the tip in his stomach. The shotgun came out of his hand, skipped on the rocks and went over the side. Curtis grabbed onto the blade as I pushed the sword in further and pushed him toward the edge.
I could see on his face that he knew what was about to happen. He tried to stop moving toward the edge but the small rocks beneath his feet would not let him gain any traction. I gave him one last push and watched him trip over the ledge. My sword was stuck and was pulled out of my hand as he fell. Curtis managed to grab onto the edge of the roof by his right hand. He repeatedly tried to grab on with his left hand, but the broken bone in his arm would not allow him to. He looked up at me with utter fear on his face. I could see the carriers below becoming more agitated at the sight of him dangling over top of them.
“Don’t...eh, let me...fall!” Curtis gasped.
I looked him in the eyes. “You know, if someone had asked me what I would do in this situation a week ago, my answer would have been very different,” I said.
“I’m sorry...gah, I...my sister...don’t let them...” Curtis pleaded.
“I don’t see this as murder. I see it more as...correcting a mistake. I’m putting you right back where you would have been if I hadn’t pulled you out of that car,” I responded.
“No...no!” screamed Curtis as I pried his fingers from the edge.
He fell through the crowd to the ground and landed on his back, in the grass outside the front of the church. I could see the handle of my sword wiggling as the massive crowd overwhelmed him. I turned away and sat down on the roof. I didn’t understand how I could have possibly won, but I was alive. Just as I felt relief and wanted to break down—to rest—I thought of all the others still downstairs. I still wasn’t sure if Curtis had even been telling the truth about everyone.
I needed to check on them.
I walked over to the ladder and slowly made my way to ground level. I knew if there was anyone still alive, they would need my help quickly. I still felt hesitant to move for the fear of seeing the others dead. I had to make myself move. I could see the door to the room where Sid had been sitting. I was sure he was dead, but I had to know.
I ran to the room and turned on my flashlight. I couldn’t see his face, but I could see Curtis’ rock-climbing pick handle extending from his head. The pool of blood and his pale skin told me what I needed to know. I also took a closer look at the medicine bottles on the floor of the room and noticed that they were all prescription pain medicines. Curtis must have taken them before he started his rampage. That would explain why nothing seemed to hurt him much. I turned and ran across the hall to the room Jim had been sleeping in. He was in the back of the room slumped against the wall with his .45 in his hand. The wall to his left was peppered with shotgun pellets and his chest was soaked in blood. I checked for a pulse and tried nudging him, but he was undoubtedly gone.
I ran to the sanctuary to find Rev, but I could see him lying in the middle aisle with a massive head wound. I was never able to find Deandre after all the shooting started.
I couldn’t guess which room Matt had stayed in that night. He had changed rooms every night, but I never knew if he moved because he didn’t trust anyone or if he moved just because there were so many unused rooms. I wasn’t sure if the person shooting at Curtis upstairs was him or Beth, but I that would be a good place to start.
I went back to that hallway and shined my light on the other end of the hall. I could see the ten scattered bullet holes from my Glock in the wall and the other holes from the shotgun blast including the one that had struck my leg. Suddenly I could feel the pain in my leg again and the steps to get to the other end of the hall were more labored. I peered into the room and could see Beth’s boots and some blood spray on the wall.
I started to back away from the door when I heard her make a gagging noise. I ran into the room and took a closer look at her. She was still alive, but she had taken a round to the left arm and to her right side. She didn’t have long.
“Where’s Matt? Is he dead?” I asked as I tried to apply pressure to the wound on her side.
“Ahh! Curtis...is trying to kill everyone!” Beth struggled to say.
“I know, I got him. He’s dead. Where’s Matt?” I asked again.
“We were in...another room...first floor,” Beth said as she began to fade.
“Is he dead?” I asked.
“Curtis...shot...” Beth said as her eyes became vacant.
“Beth...Beth!” I yelled. I started to try CPR, but the more I pumped her chest I could see that I was just pushing more blood out of her wounds. I stopped and closed Beth’s eyes. I picked up the shotgun she had been carrying and checked it for shells. It still had three shells in the tube and it was definitely Matt’s.
I stood up and limped down the hall to the stairs and made my way to the other hall. I could see one other room in the hall with the door partially opened. I didn’t want to see my friend dead, but I had to keep telling myself that he might be alive. I stood outside of the room and took a deep breath. I looked around the doorframe and could see Matt lying on the floor with a small blood spray on the wall behind him. I couldn’t see any bodily injury so I assumed that he was shot in the head on the side I couldn’t see.
“Matt?” I said, but there was no answer. I could see his machete on the floor next to him and his backpack that contained his shotgun shells. I slowly walked into the room and kicked his foot. He didn’t move. I started to walk further into the room, but stopped myself. I couldn’t stand the thought of seeing my friend’s face torn to pieces. I leaned in and took the bag and the machete.
I stepped out into the hall and suddenly realized that for the first time since it had started, I was completely alone. I didn’t know of a single person anywhere that was alive. I wanted to lock myself in a room just let the
nervous breakdown happen. I was in a building surrounded by corpses that desperately wanted to tear me apart and rooms full of my dead friends. I couldn’t stay there. I picked up my red backpack from the floor under the ladder and started to walk toward the kitchen. One thought kept resonating: whether Curtis was still outside on the ground. He wasn’t dead when he hit the ground and I was sure that he had at least been bitten. I turned and hobbled as quickly as I could toward the ladder and climbed to the roof. As I walked to the edge I pulled out my Glock and pulled out another magazine from my bag. I loaded the weapon and looked over the edge.
The sun was just starting to come up in the distance and the first morning rays allowed me to see just how large the crowd had become. I could barely see the surrounding streets through the sea of swaying, stumbling corpses. Curtis was still pinned to the grass by the blade of my sword. The corpses had defiantly taken what they wanted from him. He was missing both arms and a leg, but he had still been infected and changed. His snarling corpse looked up at me from the grass and struggled to get free of the blade. I pointed the Glock at his head and looked into his dead eyes. I made the shot that I should have made in the hallway and Curtis finally stopped moving. The massive crowd erupted with moans and frantic movement after the shot rang out.
