We pulled past a basketball post with a rusted metal hoop and strings dangling from a half-broken backboard. My eyes landed on what remained of an aged white tent as a loose flap slapped back and forth in the wind. The tent had black spots of mold multiplying over a prominently displayed red cross that sat along a set of crippled plastic doors.
“Looks like a medical tent,”Kyle whispered, as if something was listening in the distance.
“Whatever it is, it’s long since been abandoned,”Jarvis said, peering out of the passenger side window.
Parking the Hummer, we waited until the pickup pulled up next to us. Mr. Mullet was already hopping out of the passenger seat, which he’d crammed himself into after the field incident, and up into the bed of the pickup. After briefly glancing down at the dried pool of blood at his feet, he yanked a lever on the weapon turret and pointed the barrel directly toward the front door of the school.
I reached down to place my hand on the hammer resting firmly in my belt. The sky was bright, but this place had a darkness that was clawing at my skin. Something horrible had happened here.
“You were right…”I finally let slip from my mouth, nodding over toward Rodgers.
Kyle and I had made a conscious decision to avoid places like this in the first weeks of the apocalypse. We’d heard radio broadcasts telling people to head to designated areas for food and safety. At the time, we’d figured these“Safe Zones”would just wind up being a giant meat grinder, churning up the masses for the dead to sink their teeth into. By the looks of this place now, I feared that we were once again right.
Not taking his eyes off the school, Kyle said,“No telling what’s still left stumbling around behind those walls.”
“Where did you say the medical supplies are located?”I asked, looking back at Rodgers.
“My guess is the nurse’s office…but I haven’t been inside, so we may have to do some digging.”
There was something off about Rodgers. He sat there, bouncing his oversized glove across his leg. Maybe his face was a shade paler, or his eyes were slightly wider. Either way, I hadn’t seen Rodgers look this anxious or worried before. He, usually, just had two emotions: Happy and rage. This new look on his face set my mind racing as I realized that we’d have a hell of a fight ahead of us if this place were anything like the last Safe Zone we’d encountered.
With a clear sense of alarm shadowing his face, Kyle jolted forward, propping himself up in the seat to get a better view, fixing his eyes on the front entrance to the building.
“What? What do you see?”I asked, squinting my eyes, trying to find what had him spooked.
Lifting his arm, Kyle pointed toward the front door of the school.“Look, the door is open a crack. It looks like the chain that was holding it shut has been cut…”
“Is that blood?”Jarvis said as he squinted his eyes and leaned closer to the window.
There was what appeared to be a dark red liquid running down the sidewalk leading up to the school. From the distance, I could also see some of the windows were busted in, and what looked to be bullet holes chipped into the brick surrounding the front door.
“What the hell happened here?”Rodgers spoke the question that burned in all of our minds. His oversized glove continued to rattle atop his leg.
Jarvis lifted his hand over to the door lock and pulled it up.“Let’s make this quick, boys. In and out.”
“Extreme caution. No one rushes in. Let’s make sure that there’s nobody else here…dead or living,”Kyle added sternly before yanking his door latch and moving out onto the step guard of the Hummer.
Looking over his shoulder, he signaled to the three men still sitting in the pickup behind us and pointed over toward the small swarm of creatures that were slowly lumbering toward our vehicles.“Take care of that. Make it quiet,”Kyle loudly whispered.
I watched as the Three Amigos hopped out of the doors of their pickup, knives in hand. They moved in on the handful of rotting dead, which had clearly been stumbling for quite some time. In just moments, the Zs had puncture holes in their skulls, dark black brain matter spilling out over the cracked pavement.
A stain. It’s all that’s left of us when we’re gone.
Weapons drawn; Kyle, Jarvis, Rodgers, and I were now out of the car as well, cautiously moving toward the school. Looking back at the second team, Kyle held his hand out in a fist and pointed back toward our rides. The three of them scurried over to join Mr. Mullet as lookouts—prepared for anything. They had our backs, and we were trusting them with our lives.
Looking back on it, I wish we could have promised them the same.
The world around us was silent. Each step we took toward the front door echoed off the school’s brick walls. Keeping my eyes locked on the broken-in front door as we approached, I raised my arm to wipe a bead of rolling sweat from my brow. My hands were slightly shaking as the fear of the unknown slowly crept up my spine, one vertebrae at a time.
Mostly brick with white trim running around the flat roof, the school was not unlike the one that I’d attended as a child. It seems like they all look like that for some reason. I never really was one much for school, especially as a child. I get the need to learn, but stuffing a bunch of kids into a room, expecting them to sit still and quite all day, seemed like it was going against a child’s very nature. Hell, I could hardly do it as an adult. A small part of me thought back to the second grade teacher I’d had. That bloated bitch always found a reason to send me to the principal’s office. I’m sure I deserved it, but trust me, I wouldn’t exactly choke up if I learned she was stuck in a school someplace, roaming the halls as a Z…forever.
Kyle was the first to reach the broken door. Looking toward Jarvis, who nodded, and then back toward me, he lifted his foot out and hooked the inside of the door, sliding it open. Feeling my shoulders arch up as the rusted hinges creaked open, all three of us took a step back, lifting our weapons and aiming them steadily down the dimly lit halls of the building.
I nearly dropped my rifle as my eyes adjusted to the darkness. Hit with the scent of burnt flesh as we stepped closer, I quickly noticed six neatly stacked piles of rotting corpses, each six or seven Zs deep. All of them were oozing that familiar black gunk across the linoleum.
My foot slid across a few bullet casings that were riddled throughout the hallway. To the right of the entrance, an ashy burn mark ran up the full length of the wall, starting from the charred skeletal remains of a creature that had most its flesh melted off.
Everything in the place remained dead silent.
“Someone’s already cleared this place out, boys,”Jarvis said with a cautious optimism.
“And it’s been within the past twenty-four hours,”Kyle whispered as he slid his foot through the slick black bile while keeping his firearm pointed straight down the hall.
Jarvis looked at Kyle, paused, pulled in a deep breath and then slowly slid his boot through the doorway.
My first instincts were that this was a lucky break. At least, we wouldn’t have to bust through the army of Zs that obviously lurked in the hallways of this school. Someone else had already done the job for us.
“Let’s make this quick. I’ve got a shitty feeling in my gut. Why the hell would someone have done this?”Kyle finally spoke up.
“Maybe whoever did this needed something in the school like we do. Hell, this is what it would have looked like if we had to clear this place out,”Rodgers said while kicking at a creature’s lifeless arm on the ground in front of him.
I just hoped they weren’t looking for meds.
“Could be, but it’s not sitting well with me. Let’s get this shit quick,”Kyle replied.
Jarvis lowered his spear and nodded toward Rodgers.“You’re with me.”Then he looked over toward Kyle and me.“I want you to hit the roof. Get eyes on our surroundings.”
I started to protest when Jarvis cut in.“I need your head straight, John, no rushing through the dark. I know what I’m looking for, and I’
ll signal to you as soon we have it.”
Thinking for a moment, I looked over to Kyle, who nodded his head before saying,“Jarvis will get it. Let’s you and I make sure we don’t have any problems getting out of here once he does.”
Biting on my lower lip, I looked down the hallway toward the piles of the dead. Being outside where the air was fresh would be a welcome relief. Besides, I did trust Jarvis, and I knew he’d get what we needed.
Splitting ways, Kyle and I stepped through the gore-covered linoleum floors, heading toward a rectangular white sign which read“Exit”about midway down the hallway. As we moved through the hall, I realized that there was no rhyme or reason to this group of creatures. Old, young, male, female…they were all people from different strokes of life looking for someone to save them. They had been horribly led astray.
The exit sign had a door sitting beneath it, with another set of severed chains hanging loosely from the handle. Peering through the cracked but re-enforced glass, I could make out a near pitch-black staircase heading up.
As we crept up each stair through the darkness, visions of some unseen creature patiently waiting in the shadows danced around my mind. With my whole body inadvertently tensing up, as each boot squeaked across the next step ahead, I couldn’t help but leap up two steps at time as our accent came to an end.
Bursting through the door at the top of the staircase, I found myself standing on gravel as my eyes re-adjusted to the sunlight on the exposed roof. The entire thing was covered in small white rock chips, clearly used to cover the melting black tar spread across the whole of the roof. Pulling my fists tight, I flinched as each step forward crunched into the open air as if we were stepping across a sea of fortune cookies.
Kyle nodded to me before taking off to the far side of the building to survey our surroundings while I moved toward the drop-off directly in front of us.
Digging my nails into my rifle, I edged toward the two-story drop. My eyes almost immediately landed on the waving arms of a creature plopped down against the far wall across from where I was perched. Ducking down a bit, I first thought the damn thing was pointing toward me, trying to signal that there was a bite-sized snack up on the roof.
Cursing myself for being caught, once again, on a goddamned roof, I squinted to get a better look at the courtyard. Not finding any other creatures below, my eyes fell on a double barrel shotgun lying just feet from the Z. Looking more closely at the creature slumped against the wall, I winced as I realized it very clearly had a hole blown through its stomach.
The pebbles below me cracked in place as I slid slightly closer to the edge of the building. Leaning forward a bit, I could just barely make out that its arms were twisting around its body in a circling motion, moving back and forth from its missing stomach to its head.
Lifting the rifle to my face, I peered down the scope on the weapon to get a little more up-close-and-personal with the thing. Leveling the sight on its head, I watched in horror as I realized what the monster was doing. It was lying there, perfectly content, shoveling chunks of regurgitated flesh into its mouth, only to have them pushed down its throat and out the cavity that used to be its stomach. Then it was reaching down, grabbing the same chunks of meat, and shovel them back into its lifeless jaws again.
Feeling a bit of vomit hit the back of my throat; I slid my index finger toward the trigger. Taking a deep breath, I lifted the barrel slightly to move the crosshairs along the gray flesh left on its forehead. Its hair had all but fallen out, and a dark cavity was all that remained in place of an eye that had long ago been plucked from its mangled face. I found it slightly amazing that I could get sick after everything I’d seen. Guess that means I still actually felt something back then.
“I wouldn’t do that,”Kyle whispered, walking up behind me.“We don’t want to draw their attention just yet. Besides, you’re an awful shot…”
Exhaling the deep breath, I’d been holding for too long, I blinked my eyes, lowered the rifle, and turned around to see him grinning at me.
Deciding he was right, but not wanting to acknowledge it, I shifted my shoulders while reaching into a side pocket on my vest. Pulling out my cell phone, I slid the unlock feature on the screen and pulled it to my face to see the time. We’d already been gone for hours. Time was slipping away like specks of sand through an hourglass. Looking past my phone, blankly staring at the white pebbles on the roof, I found myself simply hoping that there would be enough specks for us to get home.
Glancing at my phone, Kyle asked,“Why do you carry that thing…waiting for cell service to flip back on?”
“It’s my only clock. I don’t have an old-ass wristwatch like you.”
Like so many others before the apocalypse, I’d had my face constantly plastered to the thing. I’d be more panicked if I left the house without my phone than my wallet. Of course, now it didn’t have cell service or Internet access. Yet, there I was, still tethered to the damn thing.
I once read that amputees often experience what they call“phantom sensations”in their lost appendages. Better put, they continue to feel pain in an arm or leg that has been removed as if it was still there. In the same sense, I couldn’t help but tap on the email or browser apps from time-to-time…searching for a sensation of normalcy that had long ago been torn away.
However, I did have a few other valid reasons for carting it around, but I didn’t want to bring up the fact that the hard drive also contained the last remaining pictures of my wife. My wife.
Continuing, I dug my foot into the pebbles and said,“Besides, it’s got a compass and a few apps that still work just fine. Don’t know what the hell I’d do without Angry Birds.”
Nodding toward me, Kyle replied,“Gotcha, that makes sense…”then with a fake scowl, he asked,“Now why would you go pick on my old-ass watch?”
“Don’t know, guess it’s just kinda out of place on you.”
He paused for a moment and lifted the watch, still on his wrist, toward the sky.“Yeah, I guess it is. I like to think of it as vintage.”Lowering his arm, he brushed the scratched faceplate with his thumb and continued,“Old thing was actually my grandfather’s.”
Sliding the cell phone back into my vest pocket, I leaned in to look a little closer at the rust growing across the golden casing and worn leather band, cocking my head sideways. Kyle saw I was curious for more.
“When he gave me this watch, he told me he wore it because it reminded him of where he came from. That proud old man grew up on a farm. Humble beginning for sure. Told me that he saved up forever as a child to buy it.”Kyle paused and smiled slightly as if thinking back to a memory or a conversation that had happened long ago.
“My grandfather eventually broke away from the farm…building a small empire. Old bugger was a genius when it came to finances, but I can honestly say he never let it get to his head. He wore this old thing until just about the end. Seeing how his son, my father, turned out, I think he wanted it to be the same reminder to me…that money doesn’t make you special. You’re not suddenly someone different because you have a few extra bucks in the bank.”
Thinking of the fact that Kyle probably could have lived the easy life instead of heading off to the Army, I couldn’t help but admire the guy. I can’t say I would have done the same thing before the world went to shit. Thinking of Tyler, I could only hope that I’d be able to impart the right lessons about what was really important in this new life now.
A squelch from the radio on my shoulder sounded before I could hear Jarvis. Raising my eyebrows, I waiting in anticipation. It was time to find out if this trip was worth it.
“John, I wanted to let you know we’ve hit the nurse’s office, and it’s a gold mine. Everything we need is here.”
Looking up at the sky, I slowly nodded my head and double checked.“They have the right meds?”
“Yes, boys, and plenty of them. I’ve got the pack filled up. Meet us up front in two minutes!”
Feeling like a boulder had been l
ifted off my chest, I looked up at Kyle. My face must have radiated relief.
However, his face looked grimmer. Things changed so quickly in this world…
The hair on the back of my neck spiked as, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a movement at the edge of the building across from the creature playing the human recycling game.
Looking out across the building, Kyle perked up and asked,“Do you see that?”
Blinking to make sure I saw what I thought I did, I leaned forward to see the giant, rounded torso of a fat man’s body lying on the ground, shaking violently. Even from the distance, I could see the wiggle of its half-eaten love handles. Its legs were not visible. They were hidden behind the corner of the wall.
“Was that there before?”I asked.
Lifting my rifle and focusing my scope down on the corner of the building, I could see a number of rotting arms reaching from behind the wall and tearing into that Thanksgiving Day feast of a man. The gore from his stomach was spread across the grass-filled playground just to their right, a lost reminder of the youthful bliss that once decorated this school.
“I didn’t see it before…”Kyle said as he quietly ducked.
Following his cue, I sank down the rooftop. It took me a moment before I noticed Kyle's eyebrows had arched down. He was looking all around as if trying to find some piece of evidence to prove his hunch was right.
“Whoever shot up this place, just did it. Those Zs would have made mincemeat of that guy by now if this happened longer than an hour ago,”he finally whispered.
“Shit,”I replied in an equally low voice as I realized what that meant.
In the same instant, a crack of gunfire tore me from the revelation, dropping my heart into my stomach. I already knew who it was. We heard the unmistakable noise from the weapon turret atop the pickup. Mr. Mullet sure as hell wouldn’t be blasting the dead with that thing…which meant we had company.
Chapter 9
Sometimes pawns are sacrificed. Sometimes they are just enough to change the game.
900 Miles (Book 2): 900 Minutes Page 6
