by Dana Fredsti
Lily grinned at me, a wild light in her eyes, turning a wholesome prettiness into kind of a scary beauty. Like, imagine Melanie Wilkes from Gone with the Wind possessed by Kali. “I've always hated those stupid Juicy clothes. I mean, who wants to have Juicy stamped on their butts? That's just kind of gross. I mean, right?”
“Totally,” I agreed, conveniently ignoring the fact I had a favorite pair of teal Juicy sweatpants in my closet.
A yell brought our attention back to the matter at hand, i.e. Kai being attacked by three ex-jock zombies that must have come staggering around the corner of the gymnasium, football uniforms and helmets still intact. Shit.
The helmets were going to make it hard to take out their brains, which still seemed to hold some remnant of their former lives, at least as far as the instinct and ability to tackle went. All three of them piled on Kai as if he were about to score a touchdown for the opposing team. Kai went down with another yell and what had to be a bone-jarring thud, his crowbar falling uselessly to the sidewalk.
Gabriel had already rounded the corner of the Fine Arts building, so no help there. Lily and I looked at each other, shrugged, and dove right in, each of us grabbing one of the jock zombies and peeling them off Kai with our cool Wild Card-enhanced strength. My zombie snapped at me, but I'll be damned if it didn't still have a mouth guard in there. Between that and the faceguard, no way this zombie was taking a bite out of anyone. Its hands, on the other hand, threatened to rip off one of my arms if I didn't take it down quickly. Fine.
There'd be no easy headshots here, but no law against using my shortened katana to whack a head off. And yeah, I know it takes a lot of strength to decapitate a human, but Wild Card here.
Lily, in the meantime, used the flat edge of her pickaxe to crack her jock zombie's helmet open like a hard-boiled egg before flipping the weapon in her hands and bringing the sharp pick down to penetrate the brain.
This left one beefy zombie still pinning Kai to the ground with its bulk, its face buried in his neck, Kai hollering at the top of his lungs. Lily and I each grabbed the zom by a shoulder and hauled it backwards. Gotta say shoulder pads make for great leverage. It took both of us to throw it on its back, where it thrashed like an upended turtle. I reached down and gave Kai an arm up while Lily dispatched what I thought was once Big Red's star fullback.
“Thanks, Ash.” Kai looked a little shaken. He ran a hand over his neck and grimaced. “Zombie drool. Ah, that's just nasty.”
“Big wuss,” said Lily as she pulled her pickaxe out of her latest kill.
Kai looked offended. “You say that after one of these pus bags macks down all over your neck, Miss Thing.”
Lily wrinkled her nose at him, wiping the business end of her weapon on the now-twice-dead zombie's football jersey. “Couldn't be any grosser than my first boyfriend.”
Kai shook his head and patted her on the back. “Girl, that is just sad.”
The walkie-talkie at my belt gave a sudden squawk. “Ashley?”
Gabriel.
I grabbed the walkie-talkie and hit the relay button. “Here, Red Leader!” Was I supposed to say “over” or something official like that?
I might have heard a muffled snort. “Where the hell are you and the rest of the squad?”
“Peeling what's left of Big Red's offense off Kai.”
“He okay?”
I found myself nodding, even as I realized Gabriel wouldn't see it. “Yeah. We're all fine.”
“Good. Then get your asses to the Biology building, stat.”
I couldn't resist it. “Just our asses?”
Another snort or maybe just a burst of static.
I smirked at the rest of Team A. “Our fearless leader wants us at the Bio building. Stat, he says.”
Kai shrugged. “Gabriel wants stat, we give him stat.”
The three of us took off at a run, rounding the corner to find Gabriel waiting at the entrance of the Biology building, M4 in hand.
He nodded towards the doors as we drew close to him. “I heard screams inside.”
“Survivors?” I looked up at the building, featureless institutional windows dark and foreboding.
“I hope so. It would be much safer to tackle this in the daytime, but if we wait that long—”
“It might be too late,” Lily broke in.
Gabriel nodded again. “You guys up for this?”
A muffled cry came from inside, frantic and hopeless at the same time. “Let's go,” I said, and ran through the doors almost before Gabriel pushed them open. He grabbed my shoulder as I ran past, jerking me to a halt.
“Don't be an idiot,” he growled. “Get out your flashlight. It's not like you need the element of surprise here.”
I stopped and pulled a small olive-drab LED flashlight out of my belt pouch. I hit the on switch and a surprisingly bright blue light emanated from the head. What it revealed was not good.
Blood, lots of it, smeared the floor and the walls of the main hallway. Bits and pieces of stuff I didn't even want to think about littered the hall.
“Oh God, please help me!” A female voice with the same notes of frantic despair as the previous cry carried down a flight of stairs off the main hallway.
“We're coming!” I screamed the words at the top of my lungs, hoping the zombies would be drawn by the sound of fresh meat. Moans answered me.
Hot diggity, it worked.
I took off down the hall towards the stairs seconds before Gabriel's “Go!” I'd probably catch hell for it later, but oh well.
Skidding on a patch of blood or something even worse, I nearly slid past the stairs. Catching myself on the polished brass banister, I took the stairs two at a time, the reassuring thuds of my teammates’ footsteps close behind me as I rounded the bend in the stairs towards the second floor.
The moans increased in volume. I saw why as soon as I hit the second-floor hall, which, if not quite seething with zombies, was at the very least crawling with them. In some cases quite literally; there were a few partial corpses with entrails and shattered limbs trailing behind them as they dragged themselves along the tiled floor. Looking at what oozed out, I was profoundly grateful for my nose plugs.
At least half of the zombies were focused on me, already making their way towards the stairs, following the sound of my voice. The other half were gathered around a closed door, scratching, pounding, clawing in a frenzied yet single-minded goal to get to whoever had taken refuge on the other side.
I could hear sobbing coming from behind the door, uncontrollable wrenching sobs from someone fully expecting the worst. Time to improve their expectations
“Hey! Dead things!” Okay, so my witty repartee is kind of lame. “Over here! You don't want whoever's in that room. Free dinner this way!”
“What the hell are you doing?” Kai reached the top of the stairs in time to hear my attempts at zombie whispering.
“Drawing them off of that room so we can kill them and rescue whoever's inside.”
“How about kill them while their attention's on the door?”
Oh. Yeah.
Lily and Gabriel joined us. “He has a point,” said Gabriel neutrally.
Lily snorted, almost dislodging her nose plugs. “What fun is that?”
Gabriel rolled his eyes. “I can see I'll have to keep you two separated.”
Lily and I grinned at each other.
“Fine. Let's clear the hall.”
The three Wild Cards started to charge forward, but Gabriel stepped in front of us. “I'll start.” Raising his M4, he opened fire with a precision I could only admire and aspire to someday. There were no wasted shots; each bullet hit its zombie brain target. When Gabriel finally ceased fire, the hall was littered with twice-dead corpses.
Team A stared silently at the carnage.
“Wow,” said Kai, finally breaking the silence.
Lily pouted. “You didn't save any for us.”
Gabriel gave her a look. “There'll be plenty more. Ashley, you, a
nd I will see who's behind door number one. Lily, Kai, check either end of the hall and the unlocked rooms. We might as well clear this floor while we're here.”
Lily ran down the far end of the hall with a little war whoop while Kai made his way with a bit more stealth in the opposite direction. Gabriel and I approached the door that had been under siege, shoving corpses out of the way to clear a path. I tried not to look at any of the faces of the fallen zombies; seeing the faces of former classmates and/or teachers had gotten old. Maybe I was just tired, but I could feel myself losing my much-needed detachment. Killing a monster was one thing, but killing someone I'd shared a class with, maybe liked, was another. Okay. Except for Acne Boy.
“Thanks,” I said to Gabriel as we muscled a particularly hefty male zombie in jeans and a flannel shirt out of the way.
“For what?”
“Taking care of this last batch. I think I'm on overload here.”
Gabriel nodded. “I get that. But you know we're not finished yet. I mean, tonight.”
“I get that.” I broke eye contact. The intensity in his gaze flustered me and that was the last thing I needed in this situation. I hate books when the heroine and hero are in these life-or-death situations and keep getting distracted by hormones and it pissed me off that I found myself responding to Gabriel's undeniable hotness while knee deep in zombie parts. Talk about a necrophiliac's wet dream.
Okay, I just totally grossed myself out.
Getting back to the business at hand, I rapped on the door. “Hello?”
Silence, then a muffled whimper.
“It's okay,” I said. “It's safe now. You can open the door.”
Another pause. Then, “They'll get me.” The voice was feminine, barely above a whisper.
I shook my head, then stopped. Not like the person could see me. “No, they won't. We killed them.”
“But—” There was infinite horror in her next words. “They're already dead.”
I shivered despite the warmth of my armor and all the adrenaline coursing through my system. She was right. These things went against all known laws of nature. And if the dead could walk, what other nasties from our nightmares might also be real, waiting for the right time to manifest?
I mentally shook my head. That was enough of that shit. Job to do, right? “I know. But now they're really dead. We shot them in the head. And we'll take care of you.”
“Promise?”
“You bet.”
I heard the rasp of metal on metal, probably a deadbolt being drawn back, and then the door slowly opened outward. I angled my flashlight so the beam wouldn't shine directly on the face of the person timidly emerging from what looked like a large storage closet. The dim light made it hard to get a good look at her, but our rescue-ee appeared to be middle-aged, probably a teacher, and dressed in the remnants of what was once a sensible dark jacket with matching skirt and a light-colored blouse, now ripped in places and spattered with what had to be blood. I hoped for her sake it wasn't infected with the virus. She took a tentative step outside the closet, legs so wobbly she nearly fell. I shouldered my M4 and held out an arm for support.
“Thank you.” Her voice was raspy, probably ripped raw from screaming, but the depth of her gratitude came through loud and clear. I didn't think she was just thanking me for the arm to lean on.
“Are you all right?” Okay, stupid question. “I mean, did any of them bite or scratch you?”
She shook her head. “No … at least, I don't think so.”
“Ashley, check her for any open wounds.” Gabriel turned back to the woman. “You don't want to get any blood in there or near your mouth, nose, or eyes. It's infected.”
I did a quick scan of all exposed flesh. I wasn't going to ask her to strip. “She looks clean.”
“How long have you been up here?” I asked gently.
“Two … no, three days.”
“In this closet?” A borderline claustrophobic, the thought horrified me.
She shook her head. “I was hiding in one of the classrooms with a fellow teacher, Professor Gough. We found a couple of energy bars and a bottle of water in the podium, but it wasn't enough. They—” She made a vague gesture towards the dead undead. “They'd stopped moaning and clawing at the classroom door a little while ago. Something else had caught their attention.” Her voice was almost eerily calm, probably overlaid with the shock of her ordeal.
“We thought it would be safe to try to reach one of the bathrooms, get some water. We were so thirsty…” She swallowed. It looked like it hurt. “We made it to the men's room, but there were more of those things inside. They grabbed Professor Gough before he could even scream. He screamed plenty after that, though. I could hear him even through the walls.” She shook her head as if trying to dislodge the memory. “When I backed out of the men's room, those things were just … just flooding the halls again. Ian's screams … they heard him. This”—she gestured towards the closet—”was the closest door.”
I shone my flashlight beam at the closet door. Sure enough, there was a deadbolt on the inside. “Why would anyone put a deadbolt on the inside of a storage closet?” I asked no one in particular.
The woman gave a faint laugh, surprising me. “We had a janitor who liked to take a tipple once in a while during his shifts, so he installed deadbolts on the inside of a few closets around campus so he wouldn't be disturbed. People would just assume the door was locked from the outside.” She reached out and fingered the bolt almost lovingly. “He was eventually fired, but the administration never got around to removing the deadbolts. Lucky thing, that.”
“That's an understatement.” How many more people might still be alive because of an alcoholic janitor? It was, if you'll excuse the pun, a sobering thought. “What's your name?”
She took a deep shuddering breath before responding. “Jan Blandsford.”
“Jan, I'm Ashley. And we're going to need to get you out of here to safety. Can you run?”
Another deep breath, this one determined. “Yes. Yes, I believe I can.” She took another step forward and skidded on a piece of, well, some body part or another.
“Here, let me help you.” Gabriel stepped forward and put an arm around her to help her navigate through the mess.
“Thank you,” she said again, this time with what I could swear was a slight note of coquettishness to her voice. Gabriel might not have been a Wild Card, but he sure had his own variety of amazing super powers. Life-or-death situation, ma'am? Just look into my gorgeous blue eyes and you'll forget all about it.
Gabriel looked back at me over one shoulder and I rolled my eyes at him. His mouth quirked up in a small, self-aware grin. Oh well, at least he was using his powers for good instead of evil.
Lily dashed back along the hallway, pickaxe dripping with gore. She skidded to a halt next to us. “Found some in the men's room,” she said, only a little out of breath. “A couple more in a few of the classrooms.” She hefted her axe with a satisfied grin. “I took care of them.”
Gabriel nodded. “Good job. Let's find Kai and get out of here.”
Kai appeared around the corner of the opposite end of the hallway, the pronged end of his crowbar as gore-encrusted as Lily's weapon. He grinned at us. “Did I hear my name?”
Jan lifted a hand and smoothed a stray strand of hair out of her face. Obviously Kai had the same superpower as Gabriel, but I doubt he'd paid attention to the bit about “with great powers comes great responsibility.”
“Everything clear down there?”
“Yup.” Kai smacked his crowbar against his open palm. “Not a lot of Z action, but what there was is permanently out for the count.”
Jan screamed as a lone female zombie staggered out from a doorway behind him, clawed hands clutching at his back and shoulders, black fluid running out of its mouth as its jaws gaped open. Kai gave a high-pitched yelp and whirled around, smashing the thing over the head once, twice, then a third time with his crowbar. There was an audible crack on t
he third hit as the thing's skull shattered under the impact and it went down to the floor. Kai lifted the crowbar above his head like a spear and thrust the pointy end into the zombie's head. “Except for that one. Now we can go.”
Lil and I looked at each other as Kai turned to walk away, two minds with the same thought: payback. We both smacked him on his undeniably nice ass as hard as we could. He raised an eyebrow and grinned. “Why, thank you, ladies. Normally I have to pay for that kind of action.”
“Hey, Kai?”
“Yeah, Ashley?”
I smiled at him. “You scream like a girl.”
Chapter Thirteen
After what seemed like hours later, we made it back to DBP Hall, exhausted, covered in layers of the nastiest stuff imaginable, and totally exhilarated. I ached in muscles I didn't even know I had, but we'd done it, completed our first mission without any casualties or significant injuries. Just a few bruises here and there, and a chipped tooth on Kai's part. Gabriel looked crappy again, his skin pale and running with sweat, but he seemed to be okay. We hadn't run into Team B, but Gabriel got confirmation via walkie-talkie that they'd completed their sweep and headed back to DBP themselves.
“Well done,” said Simone as we staggered through the front doors.
Colonel Paxton beamed at us as best as his permanent tragedy mask of a face would allow. “How many zeds do you think are still in the campus itself?”
“Hard to say, sir,” said Gabriel. “We'll need to go out tomorrow and clear the buildings. I figure we can take the buildings two at a time, one per team, open the main points of entry, and lure out as many as we can outside for easy dispatching before doing a room-by-room check for zoms and survivors.”
Paxton nodded. “Excellent. B Team came back an hour ago with several survivors. Unfortunately some were bitten, but two were uninjured. I see you have a survivor as well?”
Kai had his arm around a now nearly comatose Jan Blandsford. She'd done her best to keep up with us on the rest of our sweep, the four of us doing our best to shield her from any harm, but three days without any real food or water had taken their toll.
