No such thoughts ran through Anna’s head. She punched and she kicked and she fought with every ounce of strength in her body. All she saw was the look on John’s face before they dragged him into their midst. The love in his eyes as he watched her friends pull her to safety. Ahead, a pantomime horse swayed toward them, clearly operated by the undead.
Chris gasped.
Anna growled.
Nick attacked first, clubbing the front of the horse with his bat, while Steph and Chris took it in turns to batter the back half. With a primal scream, Anna charged, stabbing it over and over until it stopped fighting back.
“I think it’s done,” Steph said, dragging her off the top of the horse.
“Yeah,” Chris said, kicking the back end just to make sure. “No point beating a dead horse.” That pun was for you, John, he thought.
“We’re not finished yet,” Nick said, pointing at the last obstacle standing between them and the exit. Zombie Santa Claus. “If we all get out of here alive, the first round is on me.”
“When we all get out of here alive,” Anna corrected, charging straight at the deranged Santa. “Mine’s a rum and Coke.”
“I’ll take a Jack Daniel’s, neat,” Steph replied, following close behind.
Chris paused, giving Nick a questioning look.
“What?” he asked as the girls smashed straight into St. Nick, beating it down to its knees.
“I don’t like alcohol,” Chris said. “Can I have an ice cream instead?”
“Sure,” Nick agreed sarcastically as they chased after Anna and Steph. “Full banana split with a cherry on top.”
“Brilliant.” Chris grimaced as he drove the handle of his tennis racket through Father Christmas’s forehead. “Then you’re on.”
22
IT WAS DARK by the time they reached the school, all four of them bloody, battered, and exhausted. But they had made it. Anna couldn’t quite believe it, completely on edge as they stood in front of the main entrance. Was it really only two days since she stood in that exact same spot, arguing with her dad? Didn’t seem possible.
“It’s too quiet,” she said, eyeing the boards nailed to the inside of the windows. Nick slowly pushed at the door with one finger. It was unlocked.
“And I hate to say it, but that’s not a good sign,” Nick agreed as the door creaked rustily on its hinges. “Everyone needs to be on guard, okay?”
Anna nodded. Chris and Steph said nothing.
What if her dad wasn’t here, after everything they’d been through? Anna thought, following Nick up the front steps. Or even worse, what if he was here but he wasn’t her dad anymore.…
“On my mark.” Nick held up a closed fist and the others waited, desperate to know what was on the other side of the door. Anna took hold of one door, Nick took the other. On her nod, Nick lowered his fist and they pulled the doors open together, all four of them charging inside at once.
* * *
Anna thought she was prepared for almost anything: a massacre, her dad turned into a zombie, even an empty, post-evacuation school. She’d run through every possible scenario in her head on the way over, but she had not been ready for this.
Behind the glass partition that separated the school reception from the office, Assistant Principal Savage was sitting in the school’s secretary’s chair, humming along to Christmas carols while he scarfed a cooked turkey dinner from a paper plate.
He looked up at the four students, Chris, hanging on to Steph for dear life, Nick, brandishing his baseball bat, and Anna, of course it was Anna, standing in front, bloody and bruised but still very much alive. Savage swallowed a particularly dry piece of turkey and took a sip of wine before greeting them with a smile.
“What … are … you … doing?” Steph asked. It was a tough call but she had to admit, this was probably the weirdest thing she’d seen all day.
Savage dabbed at the side of his mouth with a freshly starched napkin, straightened his tie, and stood up.
“I’m having my Christmas dinner, Miss North,” he replied, as if it was the most perfectly normal thing in the world. “Ah, Miss Shepherd. I see you’re still with us. Suppose you’ll all be wanting to see your parents. You’re lucky, they almost left without you.”
Anna’s eyes widened at the mention of the word “parents.” Her dad was alive. Excitedly, she followed Savage down the hallway to a locked door. He beckoned for the others to follow, and Chris bounded after them like a happy puppy.
“Something’s wrong,” Nick whispered to Steph. “He’s never this nice.”
They already knew their parents weren’t inside, and neither of them trusted this new, reasonable Mr. Savage.
“Maybe the end of the world brought out his good side,” she suggested, following Chris, Anna, and the assistant principal cautiously.
“Hell on Earth couldn’t make this guy civil,” Nick said, shaking his head. “I don’t like it.”
“In you go,” Savage said with a smile, opening the door to the cafeteria with a flourish. “So glad you were able to join us in time for dinner.”
Anna and Chris rushed inside with Nick and Steph following. Steph flashed Savage a look as she passed, but he just smiled down at her, a happy twinkle in his blue eyes.
“Merry Christmas,” he whispered as he closed the door behind them.
* * *
It was dark in the cafeteria, nothing but little strings of battery-powered Christmas lights picking out spots of brightness in the pitch-black. Anna blinked, waiting for her eyes to adjust, searching the seemingly empty room for her dad. Suddenly, the Christmas music they’d heard in reception began playing through the cafeteria speakers and they saw someone move at the back of the room. It was the parents, surrounding a table and far too preoccupied to notice the newcomers.
“What the…” Steph breathed as Savage appeared on the other side of a metal-shuttered service window where the hair-netted cafeteria workers usually served food. He had a manic grin on his face as he raced to the next one and pulled down the last mesh guard between them. She reached out to try the door they’d entered through, but it was locked. There was no way out. Savage looked at her and shrugged happily. One by one, the parents turned to face them, and Steph saw what was on the table.
It was John’s mom, Julie, her guts spilling out from the inside and smeared all over the hands and faces of her friends.
They’d been turned, every single one of them.
Behind the serving hatch, Savage flicked the switch on a little portable lamp, illuminating a fresh plate of turkey and all the trimmings. Anna felt her legs go weak and reached for the wall to steady herself. Forcing herself to look, she searched for her dad but he wasn’t there. She didn’t know whether to be thankful or not.
“What the fuck?” Steph finally finished her sentence, her stomach churning at the scene in front of her.
“You know, Miss North,” Savage said, tucking in to a roasted potato. “For such a serious journalist as yourself, your vocabulary leaves a lot to be desired.”
“He’s gone full Britney,” Steph muttered. “Shaved head, 2007, umbrella-wielding Britney.”
Inside the kitchen, Savage giggled and spun around on his office chair.
Chris leaned across to whisper to Anna, unable to take his eyes off the macabre scene at the other end of the room.
“I don’t see Lisa,” he said, voice thick with the same fear and relief she felt. “Or my gran.”
“My dad isn’t here, either,” Anna replied, shaking. “But I think that’s John’s mom on the table.…”
Savage leaned forward, pressing against the mesh divider to follow their gaze.
“Oh yes,” he said, sitting back down and tucking his napkin into his collar. “It turns out if you kill people before they’re bitten, they don’t come back as zombies. Interesting, isn’t it?”
He crunched a Brussels sprout, still grinning.
It took Anna a moment to understand what he was saying and it was a moment
too long. Savage’s noisy crunching was beginning to attract the attention of the former parents.
“You killed Julie?” she breathed.
“Accidents happen,” Savage replied casually, chomping away. “Where’s that boy of hers? Seems as though he is always following you around like a puppy that needs to be put down.”
Anna’s heart ached at the very mention of John.
“Ahh.” Savage paused, took a sip of wine, and then continued. “From the look on your face, someone already took care of that part.”
“Shut up,” she whispered.
“Anna, stay calm,” Nick whispered, eyes still fixed on the horror in front of him. He had to get them out of there; his dad would expect him to get them out of there, but there was no escape route. No windows, no fire exits. The only way out was through the kitchen and Psycho Savage had taken care of that.
“Tell me,” Savage said, leaning forward once again. “Did you see it happen? Did you even try to help him?”
“You’re a teacher, for God’s sake,” Anna replied, vibrating with rage. “What is wrong with you?”
“Not so cocky now, are we, Miss Shepherd?” His little smile turned into a wide, teeth-baring grin. Savage raised his shiny silver whistle to his lips before lowering his voice to a hateful whisper. “I can’t wait to show your dad what’s left of you.”
“NO!” Steph yelled as he blew the whistle hard. The shrill, high-pitched sound grabbed the zombies’ attention and they turned toward the light. Behind the mesh guard, Savaged pointed to the four students, nothing in his eyes but complete and utter insanity.
“Where’s my dad?” Anna yelled as the zombies charged.
“Anna, on your left!” Nick shouted, swiping at Jake’s dad with his baseball bat. Anna looked up to see the local milkman bearing down on her with considerably more speed than he managed in his milk deliveries. She pulled back her candy cane and hammered him through the neck.
“You little shits!” Savage barked, clawing at the mesh guard like an animal. “You should have listened to me, you should have all listened to me!”
“What a fantastic time for a psychotic meltdown,” Steph barked, kicking some random kid’s mom in the face. “You couldn’t have lost it during spring break?’
“No time for wisecracks now, Miss North,” he replied as he spun around in his chair. “You foul little gits had this coming. You think you’re so important, that everyone ought to listen to every thought that goes through your vacuous heads. Well, guess what? No one cares anymore! You’re a wasted generation. I’ve always known it and now it’s time for the cull!”
“You sick bastard!” Steph grabbed the handle of the door one more time, rattling it with all her might as Chris delivered his best forehand on his next-door neighbor with his tennis racquet. It was no use, he’d locked it from the outside and there was no way to break the door down.
“Up here!” Nick yelled from on top of a table. Chris and Anna clambered up beside him, looking for an escape route, but Steph tripped, rolling straight into the barrier between Savage and the zombies.
“I’ve been biting my tongue forever,” he hissed, pressing his face up alongside her own. Steph winced, not certain as to which was worse—Savage’s breath or being peed on by an undead nana. “And now retribution is here. They say youth is wasted on the young, don’t they, Miss North? At least you won’t be a waste; more like a nutritious meal.”
Steph struck the barrier with her fist, but he pulled back, dodging her blow with a cackle and picking up his wine, safe in his tiny prison. He smiled as a zombie reached down and grabbed Steph’s face with a bloody hand. She screamed, swiping with her mannequin leg, kicking, punching, anything to get it off her, but it was so strong, too strong. A chair flew through the air, toppling the zombie. Steph looked up to see Anna holding out a hand, ready to pull her to her feet.
But saving Steph had been a risky maneuver. All four of them pressed their backs against the mesh guard, Savage behind them, zombies in front. It was impossible to say which was a more dangerous situation.
“Hey, kids.” Savage marched up and down the line, crowing into their ears. “School’s not boring anymore, is it? I’ve been calling you zombies for years. Looks like I was right!”
“The only way out is through the kitchen,” Nick said as all four fought off zombie after zombie after zombie. They were relentless, and Anna was already so tired. They couldn’t keep this up forever. “We have to try to break the screen down.”
“Agreed,” Anna said with a firm nod. While Steph and Chris kept the undead threat at bay, Anna and Nick hurled themselves at the mesh partition, throwing their entire weight at it over and over. But nothing happened.
“Good try,” Savage called from inside. “More initiative than I’d have expected from you, Miss Shepherd. I’ll be sure to mention that to your father when I deliver the bad news.”
That was when Anna noticed the lock. The barrier was only held down by a small padlock, a tiny thing, almost like the kind of lock she’d put on her diary when she was a little girl. And most importantly, it was on their side of the barrier.
“Nick, keep them off us,” she commanded, wedging the pointy end of her candy cane into the padlock. Savage peered closer at what she was doing, the smile on his face faltering for a second.
“Give up, Miss Shepherd,” he said, waving his key ring at her. “You’re only delaying the inevitable. The kindest thing would be to end your friends’ suffering before you all end up meeting the same end. I have to tell you, it doesn’t look like a pleasant way to go.”
Ignoring the psychopath in the kitchen, Anna strained against her candy cane, screaming as she pushed the blade down on the lock with every ounce of energy left in her. And then, it popped open.
Savage blinked in shock as the lock fell to the floor with a clink. Anna looked at Nick, turned to kick the village postmaster in the balls, and then pushed up the barrier, dragging Nick, Chris, and Steph through to the other side.
23
“WHERE’S MY DAD?” Anna screamed as the sound of Savage’s footsteps echoed through the kitchen. He was gone before they’d even hit the floor.
“The barrier!” Chris wailed as zombie hands began to creep over the counter. Steph grabbed the mesh guard and hauled it down, chopping off fingers and leaving bloody stumps littered all over Savage’s cooking.
“Still more appetizing than anything that man cooked,” she said, jamming a knife through the guard to keep the guard down and the furious undead on the other side of the mesh. “We’ll get my car keys from his office,” she said, pointing at herself and Chris. “You guys go find your dad and we’ll meet outside.”
Anna nodded and ran off, adrenaline pushing her on.
“I’m with you,” Nick said, suddenly at her side.
She nodded but didn’t say anything. The only thing that mattered now was finding her dad and getting the hell out of there.
The first open door they found led them into the workshop. It looked the same as it always did: dusty, gloomy, and not somewhere Anna wanted to be.
“He must have come through here,” Anna said as they prowled through the room, checking underneath the benches. “All the other doors were locked.”
Nick didn’t reply. He stopped in front of a bench and traced his fingers along the surface. His own name was carved into the wood, along with three others. JAKE, TIBBSY, GRAHAM. He stared at the letters, remembering the day he carved them with his compass. They were supposed to be making bird boxes, but who cared about birds? No one now, that was for sure. If there even were any birds after all this was over.
“Nick?”
He looked up to see Anna, still wielding her candy cane.
“Yeah,” he said, wiping his face with his sleeve and snapping back to attention. “You got something?”
“He’s not here.” She kicked a box full of wood shavings. “He must have gone the other way, just forgot to lock this room.”
“Or unlocked it
to trick us,” he suggested. “We’ll get the crazy bastard, don’t worry. We’re the dream team, me and you.”
Anna let out a deep breath.
“We might be a lot of things, Nick,” she said, combing her hands through her knotted hair. “But we’ve never been a team.”
She headed for the door, frustrated and exhausted and ready for all this to be over.
“It wasn’t me, you know,” Nick called, stopping her in her tracks. “After you stayed at my place. I didn’t say nothing to no one.”
Anna turned back to look him in the eye.
“Wait, you think that’s why I’m angry with you?” she asked, incredulous at the forced innocence on his face.
“Well, obviously,” he answered.
“Nick, I don’t care about the sex and who knows about it,” Anna said, finally saying the words out loud. “I’m angry with you because we shared all that stuff about our dads, and our future, and you acted like it meant something. Then you just ignored me. I opened up and trusted you and you just used me.”
“Oh,” Nick replied, looking oddly relieved. “Right.”
“That’s it?” She couldn’t believe him. But still, it was strangely pleasant to still be surprised by someone’s behavior after the forty-eight hours she’d had. “You’re such a prick.”
She turned to leave, no longer concerned whether he was with her or not.
“Just because your little fuck buddy died, don’t go taking it out on—”
But Anna didn’t give him a chance to finish his sentence.
“Don’t you dare talk about my best friend like that!” she roared, shoving him backward against a bench. “He sacrificed his life for us. What have you ever done that wasn’t just about yourself?”
Nick stuck out his chin, defiant, staring her down where she stood.
“Killed my dad,” he said.
Anna took a step back. It would be a terrible thing to lie about.
Anna and the Apocalypse Page 14
