by Grivante
He kicked forward, sending Bobbie hurtling against the wall. She hit it with a crunch and fell to her knees, his severed member slipping from her mouth in an ooze of blood and spit.
Principal Hotchkins looked down between his legs as liquid scarlet poured from the little nubbin that remained. “You bitch!” He pushed himself up on his desk with his left hand and pulled his pants up with his right. Turning away, he stumbled from his office. Blood soaked his underwear and ran down his legs, leaving a crimson trail that zig-zagged toward the nurse's office.
His hand trembled on the locked door handle. Head spinning, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the large ring of school keys and fumbled through them until he found the right one.
Behind the door, the cot lay empty and the small shape of a young boy pawed at the locked entry.
Principal Hotchkins slammed the door open, not noticing the small shape he knocked back against the wall, and limped to the first aid cabinet. He opened it, letting go of his pants, and threw items onto the counter.
“Where the fuck is the gauze?” He slammed his fist on the counter as his pants slumped around his ankles. A small pool of blood formed at his feet from the river rushing from his crotch. Behind the principal, Tommy crawled across the floor, got behind him and took a chunk out of the exposed ankle.
“Ahhh!” the principal cried out, spun around and slipped in his own pooling blood.
Bobbie sat on the floor in the principal’s office, thoughtlessly masticating on the fleshy member she’d picked up off the floor after Principal Hotchkins had fled. Her jaw moved up and down, her lips stained with crimson. She swallowed his python with a gurgling squish and then perked her head up as faint sounds from down the hall stirred her hunger. She stood, shuffling in the direction of the conference room.
As she passed the nurse’s open office door, a bloody-faced Tommy emerged and followed her. A few moments later a half-naked and very bloody Principal Hotchkins also followed. They arrived together at the closed door, from behind which many voices were coming and started clawing at it.
The PTA conference was ready to begin.
10:20AM
The brothers’ red Prius pulled to a stop in front of the school, the electric engine of the car turning off automatically.
“I’ll never get used to that,” Jonah said.
“I know what you mean,” Judas nodded as he turned the ignition off and removed the keys. “It sure is easier to drive than Sasha though.”
Jonah opened his door, “True, but once you learn on a stick, you’ll be able to drive anything.”
“How long until she's fixed, do ya think?” Judas asked as he stepped from the car.
“A while. She’s in pretty bad shape after that tumble at Winter Oaks. Besides all the body damage, the tranny's shot.”
“I miss her.”
“Yeah, me too.” Jonah looked at his little brother, nodding. “Pop the trunk and let’s load up.”
“Jonah, we can’t take our guns in there. It’s a school.” Judas reached up and adjusted his hat.
“So?”
“It’s filled with kids. It’s against the law.”
“If we don’t take our guns, it will be filled with zombies.”
“Is that against the law?”
Jonah looked at Judas and raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“Well, having a firearm on the school grounds is a felony.”
“Fine. Leave yours here. There’s bail money in the shoebox on top of my dresser.”
“Which one?”
“Which one what?”
“Which shoebox, Nike or Reebok?” Judas asked.
“Nike.”
“Ok, good.” Judas put his gun on the seat and closed his door.
Jonah stared at him. “What do you mean, good?”
“Well,” Judas stammered, “JJ and I spent the money in the Reebok's box.”
“You what?” Jonah glowered.
“I can’t tell you.”
Jonah’s hand swung to his head, rubbing his temple. “You can’t tell me?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“It’s a surprise. We ordered you something.”
Jonah’s mouth hung open. “You what?”
“You can’t tell JJ I told you. She’ll be pissed if she knew the surprise was ruined."
“What surprise?”
“Jonah, please!”
Jonah studied his brother, then nodded. “Ok, but make sure neither of you ever touch the Nike box unless it’s for bail.”
“Sure thing, Jonah.”
“And while we’re at it, don’t touch the money taped to the underside of my dresser, either.”
Judas cocked his head to the side. “What do you mean, under your dresser? When did you start that?”
Jonah laughed. “Right after we met JJ. I had a feeling doubling our bail stash might be necessary. That woman’s a fireball.”
“A beautiful fireball,” Judas blurted, then laughed. “But yeah, you’re probably right.”
The phone in Jonah’s back pocket let out a beep.
“What was that?” Judas asked.
“I don’t know, I’ve never heard it make that kind of noise before.” He pulled it out and looked at the screen.
1 New Message
“It says I have a new message.”
“Who’s it from, Jonah?”
He clicked the button that said ‘read message’ and read it aloud. “It’s from JJ. Hi cuties! Be safe and don’t get into any trouble without me.”
Judas laughed, “She knows us pretty well already, huh?”
Jonah clicked at buttons on his phone.
“What are you doing?”
“Trying to send a reply.”
Judas watched as Jonah pushed button after button on the flip phone. “You heard what she said, she doesn’t want us getting in trouble without her!”
Jonah glanced at his brother with a glare and continued pushing buttons. Finally, he slapped it shut and put it away in his pocket. He undid the buckle on Brutus’s holster and put his trusty revolver on the floor of the car, locked the door and headed toward the school.
“What did you say back, Jonah?”
“I said, Ok.”
“Ok? That’s it?”
“Yeah, that was it.”
“But what about all those buttons you pressed?”
“That’s how many buttons it took to type it.”
“You need a new phone, Jonah.”
They walked up the stairs toward the school’s front door.
“What did she say the principal’s name was?”
“Mr. Hotchkins.”
“I bet he’s a strict principal.”
Jonah gave him a sideways glance. “What makes you say that?”
“Kids make fun of a name like that. Hootchykins. Hot Chickens.”
“Hot chickens?” Jonah rolled his eyes and shook his head.
“Yeah.” Judas nodded like it was an obvious conclusion.
“And you think that scarred him for life?”
“It would me.” Judas spat out his chew and, getting a curious eye raise from Jonah, explained, “No tobacco on campus, plus I need to quit.”
Jonah threw his hands into the air as they approached the school entrance. “When did you start paying attention enough to learn what was legal at schools - and why would you need to quit?”
“They have signs everywhere, Jonah. See?” he pointed directly ahead of them to the front door where a big sign in yellow read, ‘No Firearms, Drugs, Alcohol or Tobacco allowed on school premises.’ It was next to another sign which read, ‘Halloween Party 10/29’. Judas ignored the second half of Jonah’s question and slipped a hard white candy into his mouth.
Jonah shook his head. “They certainly take the fun out of school these days.”
“Not really,” Judas pulled a machete from a pocket of his cargo pants. “They don’t say nothing about knives.”
Jonah stared at the twelve inch bla
de Judas held before him. “How can you think that’s okay?”
Judas opened the front door and held it open with his foot, he waved Jonah through the entrance. “I’ll keep it hidden.” He lifted his shirt, slid the blade down the inside of his pants and put his shirt over the hilt. “I’m just glad Halloween is still two weeks away.”
Jonah stepped inside the quiet school hallway, passing through the metal detectors, and headed toward the sign marked ‘Office’ a little ways down on the left. “We wouldn’t be here if it was Halloween. We’d be holed up at home, ignoring all the pranksters calling our number. Plus, you’ve got your driving test November 1st.”
Judas followed. “I know that, no way in hell we are exterminating on Halloween. I'm not going to jail for shooting someone in zombie make-up, again.” He adjusted the hilt of the knife so it was less visible under his shirt. “There Jonah, see, it’s out of sight. No one will even notice.” He passed through the metal detector.
BRANG! BRANG! A loud metallic alarm sounded and red lights flashed up and down the hallway.
“Oh crap!”
Jonah turned, glaring. “Judas! What did you do?”
Judas pulled the knife back out from under his shirt. “What do I do, Jonah?”
“Quick, toss it back outside!”
Judas opened the door and tossed the blade onto the steps.
The alarm continued.
BRANG!
“Crap, that didn’t work,” Judas said.
The noise from the alarm down-shifted, becoming quieter, but continuing. A head popped out from a classroom down the hall, looked at the brothers and disappeared again.
“Better just pick it back up, Judas. The lights aren’t on for the metal detectors. I think that’s for something else.”
An automated voice sounded over the loud speakers. “School lockdown commencing. Return to your classrooms or report to a safe room immediately. Remain calm and await further instructions.” There was a series of bolts clicking as classroom doors locked automatically and then silence as the alarm became only the flashing red lights lining the hallways.
Judas turned to go back out the door, but as he did so, there was a loud rattle. A metal barrier slid down from above them.
“Lockdown in progress,” the automated voice said.
The barrier slammed shut right in front of Judas, cutting off the light from outside. Similar barriers slid down over windows and doors around the school. Soon, the brothers found themselves standing in a dimly lit hallway with nothing but the flashing red alarm lights.
“Let’s get to the office,” Jonah said. “We need to find out what’s going on.”
They rushed down the hallway, but came to a stop as they saw blood smeared hand prints on the window in the door. The door was sliding open. Crawling from the room, hands covered in blood, a short thick brunette woman pulled her body through the entryway. Clutching onto her left leg, a young girl, no older than ten, with sunken skin, a bloody face and blond hair in pigtails, gnawed on the woman’s ankle.
“Ah—, get it off me!” the woman cried.
Judas stepped over the brunette’s body, whose screams echoed down the empty hallways. He grabbed the little blonde girl by the pigtails and yanked her off the woman.
The brunette screamed even louder as the little girl scratched at the woman’s legs trying to hold onto her meal, but she only managed to tear a chunk of calf free, instead.
Judas held the girl before him in the air by her pigtails. Her face carried a green pallor and blood dripped from her chin. Her small mouth gnawed on the chunk of flesh as she tried to twist around for Judas.
“Jonah?” Judas looked at his brother, “She’s...”
“Yea...” Jonah too was at a loss for words.
“Help me,” the brunette said, grasping at the gushing wound on her leg. “They came in the conference room and started biting people. I think they killed them all!”
“Who did?” Jonah asked.
“Principal Hotchkins, that bimbo receptionist and one of the students. They came through the door right as Mr. Ross, the art teacher, turned to say something and Principal Hotchkins just bit right into his neck. Blood sprayed everywhere. I made it out and went to hide in a closet, but,” she stopped and pointed at the little monster now grasping and trying to turn on Judas, “that thing was in there waiting for me.”
She lost her train of thought for a moment and stared at the blood running from her leg. “What possessed them to do this? Why?” She looked back up at Judas. “What’s the matter with them?”
Judas stared at her, uncertain what to say or do. Her skin was pale and taking on the same green tint as the girl in his arms.
“I got out and hit the lockdown button in the office, but she was clinging to my leg.”
“Ma’am,” Jonah bent down next to her and took her hand in his. “Where is this conference room?”
She looked at him, the light in her eyes dimming, lids fluttering. “Down the hall at the back of the office.”
Judas, who still held the little blonde zombie by her pigtails, pushed the door open with his hip and scooted into the office to glance down the hall. The conference room door stood open, inside was a bloodbath.
Part IV - Kick Ball
Inside the conference room, Tommy’s small form knelt beside the body of a bald man with a rotund belly who lay on the floor. The boy had his hands deep inside the fallen man’s abdomen, his right hand emerged, tugging a long tubular piece of intestine. He stuck it in his mouth and chewed on it with zeal.
Further past him, a woman’s body sat up, eyes closed. Freshly turned, Judas thought. The little girl hanging from her pigtails in his hands groaned and reached up to grab at him but came up short. The woman’s eyes popped open at the sound and she growled in Judas’s direction. A mass of shadows within the conference room danced along the wall behind her.
“Jonah!” Judas stepped back into the hall and saw his brother kneeling down beside the now motionless woman. “Crap,” he muttered, then spoke up. “Jonah, there’s a bunch of ‘em and I think they know we’re here.”
Jonah looked up. “We need to find some weapons.”
“But where?”
“Maybe there’s something we can use in the office.”
“Like what, a stapler?”
“Let’s take a look.”
“Ok, but there’s not much time. They’re coming. What do I do with this one?” He lifted her a little higher by her pigtails.
“Use her as a shield and push them back down the hall, try to buy us some time.”
The brothers entered the office and walked behind the counter. Looking down the hall they could see the newly turned woman using the wall to pull herself to her feet. Two dead men were already on their way. The boy still ate.
Jonah opened drawer after drawer. Stationary, rubber bands, paper clips, not so much as a sharpened pencil. He glanced up as the shapes from down the hall neared Judas. “Nothing yet, keep them back!”
Judas set the girl down and grabbed her arms, pushing them to her sides and using his large hands to pin them against her. He picked her back up and ran at the nearest man, knocking him back.
“If this is all there is, we might be able to contain this by keeping them in here,” Judas shouted, backing up to evaluate what might happen next. More shapes were crowding into the doorway and the man’s body the young boy ate from sat up and rolled over, tugging the piece of intestine from the child zombie’s grasp.
The boy reached up and yanked on it, pulling out a couple more wet, red feet, shoving them in his mouth and grasping the rest like he was doing a rope climb. The large man stood and walked toward Judas. The boy stayed put a moment as several feet of entrails pulled free, then the momentum of the man yanked him forward.
Jonah opened a drawer at the receptionist’s desk and rummaged through it. He pulled out a large pair of scissors and set them on the counter next to a large commercial paper cutter. The next drawer included fashion
magazines and a bag of candy, and finally a sharpened jumbo pencil. He set it on the counter as well and opened the bottom drawer which included a purse and, for a moment, he thought it held promise. Ever since they had met JJ, they had learned a lot about all the places a woman could hide a gun. Unfortunately, the only potential weapon it contained was a can of mace, which he’d never thought to try before on a zombie but doubted it would do much good.
He looked up and saw Judas pushing the bald man with the spewing large intestine back with the pig-tailed shield. Behind the fat zombie, quite a few forms moved into the space. “There’s not enough to use here.” Jonah grabbed the scissors and held them up. “Just these and a jumbo sized pencil; they won’t work on fresh skulls very well, only through the eyes, ears and base of the skull.”
The throng of zombies in the hall surged forward again, rushing at Judas.
A tall thin zombie with glasses and a blood soaked dress shirt charged past the fat zombie with the hole in his stomach but tripped over the taut-trail of intestines. They stretched all the way back to the boy who remained in the conference room. The fat zombie growled as the force of it pulled another long stretch of tubular flesh and blood from inside him. He looked around, slamming a fist against the wall.
The tripped zombie fell at Judas’s feet. Judas stepped back, bumping against the counter and almost dropping the little girl gnawing at the air in his arms.
“Bro, it’s time to roll. We gotta go.”
Jonah slammed a drawer shut. “Dammit!”
The fat zombie lumbered forward and Judas sidestepped, slamming the little girl’s body against the undead giant’s meaty arm. Judas shoved, knocking the hulking form over. The zombie screeched as it fell, a large mass of intestine bursting out from the hole, liquid and ooze splattering on the floor.
Judas and the little girl fell forward, carried by the momentum of his thrust. His feet slipped in the muck and they ended up in a dog pile, with Judas on top.
“Aww crap!” Jonah saw the calamity and grabbed the scissors from the counter top.
The zombies in the hall tripped over the tall thin one that had fallen and were piling up. That bought them a moment, but trouble was getting close. The big zombie was on his side with the little girl pressed up against his arm, pinning it down. Her head twisted at an odd angle, very near Judas’s own arm. She nipped and growled at him.
