Zombie High
Page 17
The covering over the window is drawn back, and the girl looks at you for a second, clearly noticing your anxiety, and asks, “You don’t look right. You bit?”
Agitated, you respond, “Not yet, but I will be in about ten seconds if you don’t open this stupid door.”
Asking one last question, she says, “Do you have the first aid kit?”
Hooking a thumb towards your backpack, you say, “Yes, now let me in.”
The girl hesitates for one more agonizing second, and you almost give up and bolt, but then she lets the cover over the window drop and opens the door. Before the door is even wide enough for you to get through, you’re already pushing your way through and yelling, “Close it, close it!” knowing that the undead are right on your tail.
With the door closed and the dead literally slamming themselves against it to get to you, your eyes adjust to the dimly lit interior, and you get your first real look at the room. Two disgusting looking microwaves sit on a table near the door, neither of which look like they’ve been cleaned all year and have multicolored splatters of who knows what on their windows. There are three tables with plastic chairs around them pushed up against one wall, and a refrigerator and sink sit against the one opposite them. Furthest from the door, sitting just under the windows is a two person love seat, and a small end table with a phone on it. Clearly these aren’t the most luxurious accommodations, but it’s good to see that the staff isn’t up here sitting in decadence while the students settle for whatever they get.
Assessing the people in the room, you find the girl who was talking to you at the door. She’s shorter than you and not very intimidating, and then there are the two people on the love seat. A girl with long dark hair sits with her legs tucked up underneath her next to a boy you think might be a senior who is wrapped nearly head to toe in duct tape. Looking back to the girl at the door, you ask, “What the heck is this? Is he infected?”
From the love seat next to the boy wrapped tight in silver adhesive, the other girl answers saying, “Obviously, that’s why we needed the first aid kit,” as she gets up and tries to take the backpack off your shoulders.
Shaking your head in disbelief, you say, “You refused to let me in because you were afraid I might be bitten when all this time you had a zombie in here with you? Unbelievable.”
Looking up to you with her hands still buried in the backpack, the girl says, “First of all, he’s my boyfriend, and second, we ran out of duct tape so if you were bitten, we wouldn’t have anything left to protect ourselves with.”
Angry, you say, “Well, I hate to break it to you, but one, he’s not your boyfriend anymore, he’s one of them,” pointing back towards the door where the three zombies continue to try to enter, “and two, there isn’t anything in that backpack, or any first aid kit in the world for that matter, that’s going to bring him back to life.”
“Shut up,” says the girl, almost in tears as defeat starts to work its way into her mind for the first time.
“You’re being really mean,” says the other girl who still stands next to the door.
Unable to stop yourself, you begin to laugh out loud as you say, “I’m being mean, oh, I’m being mean. Is that right? Why, because I’m telling her the truth?” Then whirling to face her, you say, “What’s mean is sending people out into that hell, holding safety at ransom while you two sit in here doing nothing. What’s mean is having to face down a bunch of people who you used to think of as fellow students and are now forced to beat to death with a freaking two-by-four all because someone, namely you two, wouldn’t let me in here to use the phone. I can’t even tell you how many times I almost died out there, but I’m supposedly mean for being honest with you when I tell you there’s no saving him.”
“How do you know?” says the girl as she takes her hands out of the backpack. “Maybe if we use this alcohol wipe and some of this peroxide, the wound will clear up and he’ll get better.”
Looking back to her, you yell, “Because if it was that easy, then there wouldn’t be a school full of those monsters out there.” Then taking a breath, you say in a calmer voice, “If you look at the tag on the backpack, you’ll see I was down in the science lab. Mr. Ray said that this parasite thing is everywhere, and that there is no cure. All we can do is make sure we don’t get bitten, or let our immune systems drop by getting sick or whatever. That’s how it takes over.”
Stepping away from the door, the girl asks, “You talked to Mr. Ray? Is he okay?”
“Yes, and so is Mr. Castle apparently.” Then looking back to the door and noticing the jarring of the zombies on the other side is starting to have an effect, you add, “Together the two of them have a plan, but we’re going to have to survive if we want find out what it is.”
Facing the door, the girl in front of you says, “They must know we’re in here now. They’ve never acted like this before.”
Taking the opportunity, you step over to the end table, careful to keep as much distance between you and the tape bound individual sitting next to you, and try to make your phone call. As you punch in the last number, you are greeted with a series of chimes and then a voice which announces that all of the lines are currently busy, and that you should try back another time. Frustrated, you slam the phone back into its cradle and stare out the window.
Behind you, the girl backs further away from the door until she stands next to her friend and asks, “What are we going to do?”
That’s when you spot your first potential escape plan, a water pipe which leads up the side of the building to the roof. The pipe appears to be about three inches around and easy to grab hold of if you were to open the window. The only problem is, while you’re confident that you could climb it, you don’t know if the other two will be able to. Luckily, a voice from over your shoulder says, “Yeah, I was thinking about that, too, but I didn’t know if it was safe.”
Spinning around you see that the girls are both huddled together on the other side of the room, and then it hits you that the voice sounded masculine rather than feminine. You almost turn to look at the zombie wrapped in duct tape when you hear the voice again, “I’m up here,” and look to find a face staring back at you from the air duct.
Recognizing his features, you know it’s one of the Day brothers, but you can’t remember if it’s Chris, Rob, or Pat. Dismissing the need for a first name, you simply ask, “Day, what are you doing in there?”
“Same as you, just trying to stay safe.”
“You look like you’re trying out for the remake of Die Hard. What’s it like in there?’
With a shrug, he admits, “It’s a little tight, but I’ve been able to get almost everywhere in the school.”
Across the room, the door receives another jarring impact from the zombies, and the glass window breaks, littering shards all over the floor as the two girls scream. It won’t be long now, and they’ll be on top of you. It’s time to make a decision. You can either climb out of the window and use the pipe to go up to the roof, or you can get inside the air duct with Day and try to crawl for safety.
If you go out the window, turn to page …………………. 252 If you get in the air duct, turn to page …………………. 255
Going Out the Window
Deciding that you don’t want to be stuck inside this school any longer and having nightmarish visions of infected creatures crawling after you through a labyrinth of dark air ducts, you tell the rest of the students, “Come on, there’s a pipe attached to the side of the building, we can use it to climb up to the roof and wait for help there.”
Not waiting for a reply, you climb up on the other end of the love seat, the end away from the shiny wrapped mummy boyfriend, and begin to open the window as the girls step closer to see what you’re doing and how to follow you. That’s when the older girl says, “But what about my boyfriend? How are we supposed to get him up there?”
Looking over your shoulder at her with a ‘you’ve got to be kidding’ face, you say, “Trus
t me, the zombies don’t eat each other. They only want the living. He’ll be fine. Besides it would take an hour to unwrap him, and I don’t know anyone who has the patience for that.”
She begins to say something snarky in return, but her voice is drowned out when you open the window and hear the voices of the hundred or so walking dead below, moaning as they cross the front lawn of the school. The distance from where you are to their outstretched hands is over fifteen feet, but you know that it will only take one slip, and you’ll be in their hungry embrace all too quickly. Reaching out, you grab hold of the pipe and yank on it a couple of time just to make sure that it holds. When it doesn’t budge, you decide it’s safe and tell the others, “Look, I know this is risky, but I also know those things are coming. Now we can use the air vents like Day, but so can they. I’m going up this pipe because I know it’s the one way they can’t follow us.”
“How do you know?” asks the younger girl. “How do you know they can’t follow you?”
“Simple, the pipe runs all the way to the ground. If they could climb it, then they would be on their way up here already.”
“Well, I’m not going,” says the older one. “I would rather follow Day through the vent than have a bunch of creatures looking up my skirt while I climb out there.”
With a sad shake of your head, you say, “You do know that they’re not interested in seeing what you’ve got as much as they are in eating your flesh, don’t you?” Then, not waiting for a reply, you say, “Fine, follow whoever you want,” and climb out the window.
Grabbing the pipe easily, you swing yourself out and set your feet into the brick face of the building the best you can while leaning back to give your shoes the best grip you can. Then, doing your best not to look down, you reach up and take your first tentative step towards the roof. It becomes a careful four step process as you reach up with one hand and then the other, and then step up with one foot and then the other. All the while you keep your eyes on the bricks in front of you and your fingers in the tightest death grip you can manage on the pipe. When you are about six feet from the edge of the roof, that’s when you feel the first sign of trouble. Apparently, whoever installed this pipe didn’t count on someone like you to be climbing it, or it was put in fifty years ago when the school was built, and the bolts holding it in place have rusted out. Either way, you feel the distance between you and the wall growing a little at a time. Not sure if you should climb quicker or freeze and wait for it to stop, the choice is ripped away from you as the gut-wrenching creak of metal finally gives way, and you begin to fall back.
As you plummet to the ground below, you pray that you’ll land on your head and be knocked out or worse, so long as you don’t have to feel the crowd below tearing into your body. Your prayers, however, go unanswered this time, and you end up landing on your side, breaking your arm and seriously hurting your leg. As the tears come, so do the zombies, and it only takes them a moment for them to circle around your limp form. From up above, you hear the voices of the girls screaming, but you can’t make out if they’re under attack or if they’re screaming words of encouragement to you to keep fighting over the sound of the crowd’s anguishes of hunger and chattering teeth. Your only solace is that with this many of them here, it won’t take long, and there probably won’t be enough of you left to reanimate later.
The End
Air Duct Escape
Looking up to Day, you say, “All right, move over Bruce Willis. We’re coming up.”
From behind you, the older girl says, “I don’t see how we’re all going to fit in there. Just look, he basically takes up the whole space.”
Deeply saddened that this girl was actually on track for graduation, you say, “You do realize that the air ducts keep going, right?”
Going up on her tip toes, she tries to look in as Day removes the cover and says, “Of course I do,” in a non convincing tone.
Stepping on the end table, you hoist yourself up so that you can see into the vent just as the door to the teachers’ lounge begins to splinter. Dropping back down, you look back to find the younger girl right behind you ready to follow. Being nice, and knowing that you should be last so that you can put the cover back on once everyone is inside, you give her a boost and help her into the duct. Turning back once more, you say, “Are you coming or what?” to the older girl who is trying to wrestle with the mummified figure on the love seat. Realizing her intent, you say, “We’re not bringing him.”
Putting her hands on her hips, and looking as ridiculous as any five year old with her lower lip trembling, she says, “Well, I’m not going without him.”
Just then the door to the teachers’ lounge bursts open, and the three zombies fall into the room, landing on the floor. You have about one second to make a decision. Do you grab the girl and try to save her, or do you leave her?
If you try to save the girl, turn to page ………………… 257 If you leave the girl, turn to page …………………………… 259
Save the Girl
Whether it’s because you are a saint with a heart of gold or just really stupid is going to be left to you decide. In either case, though, you decide to try to save the annoying love-sick girl whose boyfriend was turned into a zombie. Hopping off the table, you reach out and grab her wrist, pulling her towards the vent. At first, it doesn’t seem like she’s willing to come with you, and you find yourself seriously thinking about letting go and leaving her here, but then the self-preservation gene finally kicks in, and she stops resisting.
When you get her up on the table, she manages to hoist herself up and begins climbing on hands and knees through the vent. Not willing to give the three zombies who are closing in any more time, you follow her and squirm into the opening as well. Once inside, however, you find that you are too big to turn around, and you can’t get the cover up to close the opening. Yelling into the darkness of the vent, you tell the others to hurry, and that there is no way to block them from coming.
You hear a loud curse word from Day, but nothing else as the first of the three zombies manages to find the duct’s opening. You crawl as fast as you can, faster in fact than the girl you just saved, and wind up with your head hitting her in the butt. That’s when you realize two things. First, the zombies with their poor coordination and inability to climb stairs have no way of getting into the vent, and you all could actually take a minute to decide where you’re going. The other thing, which happens to be far more relevant, is the fact that as you have now stopped to give the older girl a moment to move forward so that you can avoid any more embarrassments, you can feel the entire air shaft you’re crawling through swinging.
Opening your mouth to say as much, you suddenly find yourself biting down on your own tongue as the entire thing drops from whatever had been keeping it suspended, and you, along with the other three students, crash through the ceiling tiles and onto the hallway floor. Dazed by the sudden fall and deafened by the crash, you take a second to realize what’s happened. By the time you figure out that the air ducts couldn’t hold the weight of four teenagers in them and that they began to move, it’s already too late.
The three zombies that managed to follow you into the teachers’ lounge are coming out, and several more, already in the hallway, are on their way. You manage to stand up, which is better than Day who lies unconscious in the broken vent, but are quickly tackled by the closest zombies. The last things you hear are the screams of your own voice as your throat is torn out by a pair of teeth belonging to one of the teachers which look like they haven’t been brushed since the Reagan administration, followed by the gurgling sound you make as blood pours into your trachea.
The End
Leave the Girl
Looking back from the zombies to the older girl, you shake your head at her stubbornness before abandoning her. The phrase, God helps those who help themselves, floats through your head and while it may or may not be purely scripture, in this case it seems fitting. Clambering your way up, y
ou crawl into the vent and begin to make your way down when you realize that you never got to put the cover on the opening. You tell yourself that the zombies are probably not coordinated enough to climb up if they can’t even do something as simple as use stairs, and then you hear something behind you. Looking back, you see the face of the older girl, and think for just a second that perhaps she is putting the cover on. Instead, she begins to climb her way up as well.
Grateful that her face won’t haunt your nightmares as someone whom you might have been able to help, you look forward into the inky darkness and begin to crawl again. That’s when you hear the girl behind you scream. Apparently, she didn’t get in far enough before the zombies recovered, and they now have her leg. You try to think of something you can do to help, but she quickly takes that option away from you as she latches onto your ankle and pulls. Somewhere inside, you know she was just trying to find purchase on something to pull herself in, and your leg just happened to be the thing she grabbed, but part of you feels like she’s doing this just to get back at you. That’s when you feel your leg go out from under you, and like a table with only three legs, you fall.
From there it only takes a few seconds, but the zombies in the teachers’ lounge begin to yank on the fresh meat of her leg, dragging her back to their makeshift dinner table, and she brings you along as her plus one. To the zombies, it must have seemed like a magic show where the handkerchiefs are tied together and pulling on one gets the others to come out, because within a minute they find themselves with two tasty treats instead of just the one they pulled on.
The End
Wait for Mr. Castle
Heeding the advice of everyone around you, you decide to wait for Mr. Castle to arrive. The waiting only takes about fifteen minutes and when you hear a knocking at the door, you realize it’s in a familiar pattern you recognize from the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Rushing to the door, you help Mr. Ray move the stuff blocking the entrance and then watch in amazement as Mr. Castle comes in with nearly thirty students behind him. Thinking back, there were plenty of times you almost got caught, but somehow this group was able to stay together and not get infected despite the fact that they must have looked like a food train to the zombies as they went through the halls.