Glory (Book 5)

by Michael McManamon

  The teacher's eyes were still open, looking straight at Adam.

  Adam shivered.

  "Let's keep moving," Claire said.

  They left the classroom and continued their search.

  At the next room they came upon, Adam raised his hand and motioned for the women to stop. He turned to look at them, placing his finger to his lips.

  Claire eyes opened wide, asking him what was wrong.

  He pointed to his ear.He thought he had heard something.

  Adam moved closer to the door and looked inside. He couldn't see anything. But he could definitely hear it now. And he knew what it was:it was one of the creatures…and it was eating.

  Adam backed up.

  He didn't notice Claire so close behind him and he pushed her into the door. The butt of her gun knocked against it. With a slight gasp, she pulled the gun away from the door. It had been too late.

  The creature stood up - a young man - and looked at them. Blood dripped from its mouth. A piece of flesh dangled in its hand.

  Without any hesitation, it charged.

  Adam didn't hesitate, either. He raised his gun and pulled the trigger. He hadn't had any time to line up his shot, but the bullet flew out of the barrel and slammed into the creature's chest. Spots of blood coated the man's shirt.

  The creature kept coming.

  Adam pulled the trigger again and another bullet shot into its chest.

  The creature didn't stop.

  Adam pulled once more. This time, nothing happened.

  Empty.

  "Damn!" he shouted.

  Again, Adam didn't hesitate. He turned the gun around in his hands and slammed the butt of it into the creature’s face. He knew that his hit wouldn't kill it, but it would help.

  The creature stumbled back.

  Adam hit him again. And again.

  It fell to the ground.

  Adam raised his gun over his head.

  But, as he readied himself, there was a blast from another gun. The creature's face was pushed in and shot out of the back of its head. It slumped to the floor.

  Adam looked at it for a moment, to make sure that it was dead. Then he turned to the Claire and Jane.

  Jane was standing there with the gun pressed to her shoulder.She had been the one to shoot.

  Adam opened his mouth to thank her, but his words were silenced by a scream.

  "More of them?" Claire asked.

  They could hear footsteps.

  Adam rushed to the classroom door and looked out into the hallway. Two children rounded a corner.Two things. They rushed toward him.

  A man followed behind. Dressed in the blue clothes of a janitor. A set of keys jangled against his hip as he ran.

  Adam slammed the door shut. The door didn't lock, but he was able to keep the knob from turning.

  "More of them?" Claire asked again.

  "Yes!"

  "How many?"

  "Three."

  The creatures got to the door and started slamming it with their fists. Adam could see them through the window.

  Claire took a step toward the door to help him hold it shut. "Children?" she asked.

  "Yeah, there are."

  "What should we do?"

  Adam didn't answer straight away. He knew that the creatures weren't going to be able to get in. But that meant that he, Claire and Jane weren't going to be able to getout. Being on the second floor didn't help. They weren't going to be able to jump out of the window and run away.

  "We have to shoot them," he said.

  "How do we do that?" Claire asked. "Do we just let them in and start shooting?"

  "No, I think that we should shoot them from where we are."

  "Through the window?"

  Adam nodded. "I'm going to bend down," he explained, "and keep my hand on the door knob. I want one of you to shoot the janitor. Right in the face." He needed to make sure that the janitor wasn't going to be a problem. Once the window shattered, the creatures would have a chance to grab him and get in. The janitor would have the most strength, the longest reach.He had to go down first.

  "I'll do it," Jane said, her voice surprisingly steady.

  "All right," Adam said. He bent down and kept a hold on the door knob. He watched Jane level her gun at the window. "On the count of three."

  One, two, three.

  Jane pulled the trigger. The gun blasted. The window shattered and spilled down on top of Adam.

  The shot found its mark, entering the face of the janitor and coming out the back of his head. Blood spurted in all directions. It even squirted through the door and landed on Adam's hand and cheeks.

  The janitor fell.

  The children continued to scream and tried to grab through the broken window. Adam looked up and saw a small hand reach for him. He saw the little arm scrape on the broken window and cut itself open. He saw the fingers trying to grasp his own.

  Then he heard another shot. The child fell.

  One child left.

  Jane shot again.

  The third creature went down.

  When it was all over, Jane stood there staring at the door. She didn't lower her gun.

  Adam stood up and tried to listen for any other sounds.

  There was nothing. The screaming had stopped. The creatures had been killed.

  He looked at Jane, gun still levelled toward the broken window.

  "It's over," he said.

  She didn't move.

  Adam placed his hand on the barrel of the gun and pushed it down. The gun moved slowly.

  "It's okay," he said. "They're dead."

  Again, Jane didn't move. She continued to look at the broken window. Tears running down her cheeks.

  Claire stepped forward and put her arm around her. "Are you okay?" she asked, her voice soft and comforting.

  Jane didn't answer.

  Adam and Claire exchanged looks. Neither were sure of what to do. It was clear that Jane was going into some type of shock. And they didn't know how to deal with it.

  Adam supposed that if he was in a movie he'd slap her to snap her out of it. The problem was that he didn't know how effective that would actually be. Plus, she was still holding the loaded rifle and he didn't want to find out what would happen if he took her by surprise.

  He moved directly in front of her, standing between her and the doorway. She couldn't look at the broken window anymore. She had to look at him.

  He noticed her eyes struggling to lookthrough him. Eventually, they gave up. He had her attention now.

  "Are you all right?" he asked.

  "Yes," she said quietly.

  At least she was talking.

  "You did a good job," he said.

  The words sounded strange to him.A good job?She had killed three creatures - two of whom had been children. Yet, he was trying to be supportive. He wasn't sure what else he could have said.

  Jane nodded her head.

  "We have to get moving," Adam continued. "We need to finish checking the school. And I want to get back to the others. They'll wonder what just happened to us."

  Jane nodded her head once more.

  Adam opened the door and walked outside. Claire went next. Once there, they turned around to look at Jane. She hadn't moved.

  "Come on," Claire said gently.

  With slow steps, Jane followed them out into the hall.

  Chapter 6

  Jane looked down at the three bodies.The creatures that she had just killed.

  Her eyes zeroed in on the janitor first. His uniform. The key ring on his belt. She could also see his name tag stitched on his bloodied shirt.Peter.

  Peter? Petey? Just like Robert's brother. The one she had seen in the little store near Robert's house. Crawling to her with his broken legs. Dying as he reached her…

  She felt her head begin to swim and grabbed onto the wall to steady herself.

  "Are you okay?" Adam asked. He seemed to be asking her that a lot lately.

  "I'm…I'm…fine." The words
were difficult coming out. She steadied herself and stood upright.

  The truth was that she wasn’t fine. Not at all. Her husband had killed her daughter while she had hid in a closet.Phil and Becky.Now they haunted her. She had killed her teenage neighbour with a shovel.Harold.She had smashed his face in, nearly decapitated him. Then there was the poor girl who had been strapped to her bed.Elsie. She had smothered her to death.

  Now she had killed again.

  She wanted to tell Adam all about it. To blurt out everything. Right now.

  Yet, in the end, she couldn’t get herself to.She had to be strong. She had to fight this. She simply needed a little more time.

  "I'm fine," she said once more.

  She looked back down and focused on the children.

  So young. So innocent.

  She knew that they weren't really children. Not anymore. They were creatures.Killers. However, that didn't make it any easier.

  She was a teacher. She helped kids. Not killed them.

  But she had had to, she told herself.

  She concentrated on the first child. A boy. He was wearing a pair of blue shorts and a yellow t-shirt. The shirt was covered in blood and brain matter now. Like the janitor, his face had been blown out the back of his head. A direct hit. She could barely make out his nose and mouth.

  She turned to look at the other child. A girl. She could see the long blond hair. That too was covered in blood and brain matter. But, unlike the boy, she could still see part of her face. She had only blown away half of it. One eye stared at her.

  Then it winked.

  Jane gasped and took a step back.

  "What is it?" Adam asked. He had been walking away, but quickly turned back around.

  Jane glanced at him. Then back at the dead girl. The one eye was open.

  "It's…it's nothing," Jane said.

  But it wasn't nothing. She was sure that the young girl had winked at her.

  Chapter 7

  They checked the rest of the school and didn't find any more of the creatures. They didn't even find any more dead bodies.

  "It's safe," Adam declared.

  Claire nodded her head.

  Jane didn't. She didn't reply at all.

  Jane hadn't said much since she had killed the threethings upstairs. Though Adam couldn't blame her. Those creatures had been disturbing. It couldn't have been easy for her to shoot them. Especially the children.

  "Let's get the others," Claire said. "They've been waiting out there for us for a while."

  "They have," Adam agreed. "But I was thinking that we should clear some of these corpses out first. At least, the ones from the library."

  Claire looked disgusted at the thought of that. "Couldn't we just keep Shelly and Robert out of the library?"

  "You know that Shelly's going to want to get in there to read. And I saw some toys that Robert will want to play with."

  "But…"

  "Yeah, I know it's disgusting. But I think it's for the best."

  "Me too," Jane agreed. Adam and Claire turned at her voice, startled that she had spoken. "I want the bodies out. I mean…I think Adam's right, we should clear them out."

  "Then let's do it," Claire said, giving up any other argument.

  They walked to the library.

  "What should we do with them?" Claire asked. She was covering he mouth with her arm, so her words came out a bit muffled.

  Adam didn't like the smell in here either, but he didn't cover his face. "We could carry them out, one by one."

  "Or we could open the window and put them out through it," Jane suggested.

  Adam hadn't thought of that. Putting them out the window. It was more likethrowing them out the window. Like trash. It reminded him of the old people he had taken out of the cafe and thrown into the ditch.

  Except these were kids.

  "I don't know," he said, shaking his head. "I don't really like the sound of that. It's a bit...morbid."

  "It's realistic," Jane countered. "There's no point in walking them through the school. Let's just put them out through the window."

  "And then after that?"

  "We can drag them away."

  "Will we bury them?" Claire asked.

  Both Jane and Adam looked at her. It was a valid question. Most people buried the dead. At least before there were so many deaths.

  "No," Adam said. "We can't."

  "Why not?"

  "We don't have a shovel. And we don't have the time." The sun was still shining brightly outside, but it wouldn't be long before it started to set.

  "We could look for a shovel. What doyou think?" Claire turned to Jane.

  Jane thought of a shovel - the one she had used to beat in her teenage neighbour's head. "No," she said. "I don't think that we should."

  "We just leave them outside?"

  "We take them away from the school," Jane replied. "Far away."

  Adam walked over to a window. He turned the latch on top of it and pushed it open. A fresh breeze came into the room. He took a deep breath of it.

  "Okay," he said, turning back to the women. "Let's do this. We can start withher." He pointed at one across the room to a little girl. She had long black hair, a pretty sundress. Both were covered in blood. She was face-down so Adam couldn't see the damage that had been done to her. He wasn't looking forward to it.

  He walked over to the little girl. Claire and Jane followed.

  "I'll turn her over," Adam said. "Then we carry her out."

  Adam put his hand on the young girl's shoulder and prepared himself. He took a deep breath and counted to three. Then he pulled against her.

  "Oh my god," Claire said.

  "Shit," he added.

  The little girl's face had been completely torn off. Maggots were eating their way through the muscle and tissue.

  He stood up and felt the need to retch. Claire and Jane looked as though they were about to as well.

  Claire held her hand back to her mouth. "I don't know if I can do this."

  Adam wasn't so sure about it anymore, either. "Should we leave them?"

  Jane shook her head. "No." Her voice was stern.

  "What?" Claire asked. "Why not?"

  Jane's eyes shot to the ground. Red flushed her cheeks, as though she had regretted her outburst. "I…well…like Adam said, Shelly and Robert might come in here. We don't want them to see this."

  "We'll just make sure that they don't," Claire responded.

  "I…uh…we might not be able to stop them. What happens if…"

  Adam knew that this wasn't the real reason that Jane wanted them out. She was making excuses. "What's the matter?" he asked.

  Jane looked at him. "What? What do you mean?"

  "Why do you really want these bodies out?"

  "I…uh…" She wanted to answer his question. More than that, she wanted to tell him that the little girl upstairs had winked at her.To tell him everything. In the end, she couldn't say any of it. "They…well…I just think we should."

  To Adam, Jane looked frightened, and sad. These children were taking their toll.Clearing them out might not even help her,he thought. "We don't have to stay here," he said.

  Jane appeared to think about that for a moment. The look in her eyes told Adam that she couldn't have wished for anything else. Her words told another story. "No," she said. "It's a good place to stay. Shelly and Robert will like it here. Charles needs some time to rest. But I don't want these bodies in here. That's all."

  "Then let's throw them out."

  Adam bent down and grabbed at the little girl's shoulders once more. Jane and Claire took her feet. They lifted her slowly and walked her over to the window.

  Once they got there, Adam needed to adjust himself so that he could get the little girl out. He turned his body, moved his hands. Then he placed the little girl's shoulders against the bottom of the window. He looked at the two women, "Now push."

  They did as he said. The little girl moved forward a little bit. Then a little more. />
  As the body dropped out of sight, the little girl's legs lifted up into the air. There was a dull thud as she landed on the pavement.

  Again, it reminded Adam of garbage.

  No,he told himself.This wasn't garbage. It was a little girl.

  "Come on," he said. "Let's get the others."

  It took a little bit longer than they had expected, but they were able to get all of the bodies out of the library. They made a pile underneath the window.

  "Now we have to move them away from the school," Jane said.

  "What about the Shelly, Charles and Robert?" Claire asked. "We have to tell them what we're doing, that we're okay. They're going to wonder what happened to us. Besides, now that the bodies are out there, are they really going to cause any problems?"

  Adam didn't think that they would. Surely, they could leave the bodies there for the night and move them in the morning. But something in Jane's eyes told him that she wasn't going to agree.

  "We can move them," he said. "Claire, you can go and tell the others that everything's all right."

  "Okay, I'll tell them. Then I'll come back to help you. But what if they want to join?"

  "Tell them that we're almost done." He didn't want them coming to help. He didn't want them to see this.

  Claire left the room.

  Adam and Jane could have followed her out the door, but instead they decided to go out through the window.

  "This isreally morbid," Adam said.

  He stepped through first, placing his hands on the window and hoisting himself over the pane. His feet landed on the bodies. When he was steady, he held out his hand to help Jane. She came through the window, but didn't take it. She was too busy watching her step. Too busy trying not to look at the corpses. Too busy hoping that none of them would move.

  She stepped onto the pavement.

  They grabbed a body -the librarian -and began to walk away from the school.

  "Where should we take her?" Adam asked.

  "Over there," Jane replied. She used her head to point toward a small ditch. It dropped away from the school. That way they wouldn't have to see the bodies.

  Just like the ditch at the cafe,they both thought.

  They took the librarian over to the edge of it.

  "On the count of three," Adam said.