by Briana Rain
R
The writing was slow and the suspense and anxiety was quickly rising from its already high point on the scale. I felt as though my heartbeat was breaking the radio silence.
U
She got halfway through what I'm pretty sure was an “N”, then her body was racked with coughs. She pressed her bloodied hand to the window for support. The coughing and shaking turned into spasming, like she was having a seizure while standing up. I could hear her choking on something all the way over here, and the sound of her hand slamming against the glass over and over and over again. I could hear all of this above the pattering of the rain, and I hated it.
None of us moved. Fear paralyzed us. There was nothing we could do. Not for her.
Then she was tackled into the door. Her head ricocheted off the door and she went down. Hard. The thing that tackled her from behind wasn't human. Not anymore.
That sprung us all into action. Mom grabbed the twins’ hands and rushed down the hallway, continuing our mission to the roof. Clyde jump forward and put his body against the door.
I kinda had the same idea as Clyde, and looked around at my feet for something to shove in between the door handles.
In the light I had, which was barely any coming from my dropped flashlight, I picked up something that looked long and thin enough to fit. I could only see the outline of it, so I couldn't really be sure, but it was all I had.
I picked it up, and it was slimy. Slimy. Slimy and gross. Gross gross gross.
It was so gross. I kinda dropped it once I felt this, but got a hold of it a nanosecond later.
Clyde saw or heard me coming and slid out of the way. I shoved the thing behind the handles just as something on the other side barreled into it. Whatever I put as a barricade started to crack.
“Let's go!” Clyde reached down and picked up the light, then yanked my arm and started sprinting.
He clicked off the flashlight, and shoved it into his pocket as we took off.
But right before that, the light illuminated the door, more specifically, the handles of the door. Specifying even more, the bone that I had touched with my own two hands and used as a barricade against the dead. A dead thing against the dead.
A meaty, bloody, bone.
Chapter 19: Sizzle
“Where are they?” I held my bat out in front of me with both hands, so that I wouldn’t run into Clyde in the dark. This, of course, created another problem— hitting him in the back of the head. There was be an exchange of ow’s and sorry’s. Then we continued.
This floor had no light.
“I don't know.” Clyde said.
“We should've run into them by now.”
“I know. Wait. Stop.”
I did, and tried to listen.
We were barely past the top of the stairs on the top floor, and still had the whole hallway to go through. Not to mention, finding the roof access, wherever that was. The access to the roof of my elementary school was a ladder tucked away in the back of a closet in one of the classrooms.
Would it be like that here? Who knows. I hoped not. We wouldn't survive having to search every classrooms.
There was shuffling up ahead. I stopped holding my bat out like a moron and gripped it with an actual intention. To stay alive.
The thunder and lightning had stopped, and the only noise was the rain, still loud even though it had lightened up since we’d all jumped through that window.
Bang!
Clyde swore under his breath. I jumped and almost dropped my bat, but caught it before it hit the floor.
With that bang came the shrieks and inhuman roars of the Crazy hoard, accompanied by various crashes and bangs of them heading towards us.
It was loud enough to wake the dead. That wasn't a pun. I meant it literally.
“Come on!” Clyde yelled, picking up the speed. He probably would've reached back and grabbed my arm, which seemed to be a habit of his, but it was too dark.
I half ran, half jogged after him. He seemed to be having just as much trouble with the absence of light as I was. With what’d happened downstairs, the whole shining the flashlight into the room and the face we got in return, neither of us were really keen on doing that again.
Even though the shrieks below us were deafening, I could distinguish those from the single shriek in front of me. A Crazy bursted out of a classroom, coming right at us so quickly that it even surprised Clyde. How did I know that Clyde was surprised?
Because it overpowered him, and tackled the southerner to the ground, knocking the shovel away with a clatter.
“Clyde!” My voice was high pitched and shrill, like someone who decided to inhale helium from a balloon.
I moved quickly, unlike a balloon, to him, raising my bat with every step, until I got to where he was pinned. I swung it down in a swing that Arnold Palmer would whistle at, and smashed the Crazy’s head in. I think. I followed the noise and then the noise stopped.
I guess I guessed right.
Clyde grunted, and pushed the body away, the corpse hitting the ground with a thump.
“Come on!” It pulled Clyde to his feet and ran ahead. I heard the scrape from him picking up his shovel as we ran.
It was me in the front now. Leading. I didn’t having a clue where I was going. Why? Who let this happen? Letting me decide where we were going, even if it was down a straight hallway, was a terrible idea.
“Over here! O!”
My feet took me towards Vi’s voice before I even realized it was Vi. Apparently, the hallway was not a straight hallway, but had a shorter branch of it towards the end, where we were now.
Clyde's run in with that Crazy put us behind schedule a couple of seconds, and in that couple of seconds, the Crazies from the double doors downstairs had now reached the stairs, and were racing up each step.
It was dark. It was loud. It was chaos. They were moving so much more faster than we were.
There were steps at the end of the corridor. Why would there be more steps? Who knows. Was Clyde still behind me?
A quick glance back told me yes. He was still there, thankfully. My feet pounded up the steps just a tad too hard, pain radiating from my knees.
Whamp!
I ran right smack into a closed door. I couldn't even tell which part of me hit it first, because they all hurt. I reeled back, stumbling, confused. Clyde grabbed my forearm with an iron grip before I managed to pitch myself down those six steps.
Way to go, O.
I heard the door open. He dragged me in after him. In my momentarily dazed state, I caught a glimpse of the first Crazies rounding the corner.
Things were all happening simultaneously. Too quickly, too much. I slammed the door behind me and looked forward at my next task. Clyde wasn't there. We were in a small room. A closet. The setup was strikingly similar to the one I was trapped in with Jamie, the night this all started.
Where the hell could he—
I looked up and Clyde was already nearing the top of the ladder which was right under my nose.
Damn it Ophelia, get your head in the game!
I grabbed the first of many rungs and hauled myself off the ground, still a little dazed from that run-in with the door, but only slightly.
I slammed my right knee into a rung and did a weird hissing breathing thing before I continued upwards. Onward and upwards, wherever that sayings from.
“Ophelia!” Clyde was leaning down dangerously, stretching his hand out to help me.
How did he get to the top so quick? Was I just slow?
There was a crash from below. Then a second crash. Then a scream. The scream was mine, by the way. I didn't look down to see what the crashes were, because I already knew. Instead, I grabbed hold of Clyde’s strong hand and let him pull me up as my feet ran up the rings at double speed.
I was in the open again. On the roof, sprawled out in a puddle, Clyde next to me, our hands still crushing the others. The rain drizzled down, and I couldn't see his face.
I scrambled up as Mom slammed down the hatch and kept her weight on it.
“Can they climb ladders?” She asked.
The panic in her voice filled me with dread, even more anxiety, panic, etc. The idea that we weren't yet safe from those monsters was a horrible one.
We waited. We waited in silence, staring at that metal slab which muffled the horrible sounds of those in between life and death. Five seconds. Ten. Thirty.
“I don't think they're coming.” Lucky announced in a small, unsure whisper.
Mom slowly took her weight off the hatch and then ran over to me. Her tight hug was awkward, with both of us being out of breath and our packs and weapons getting in the way, but it was still a good hug.
After that, I walked away from the noise and found a slight overhang that kind of protected me from a majority of the rain, and sat down. My heart couldn't take anymore close calls like that. At least not so many in such a short period of time.
Breath in, breath out.
“You know what the symptoms of a heart attack are?” Clyde asked, joining me on the wet rooftop as I slipped my pack off.
I brushed bare skin on my left ear. The duct tape must’ve come off at some point. My money's on when I was knocked to the ground by that nun in the classroom.
“Yeah. Whatever's going on with mine right now.”
My chest felt like the weight of that Narnia wardrobe was on it.
He sat next to me, and I angled my pack so that it would get the least amount of rain on it. My bat, which I've begun tucking between my back and my pack, I balanced across my crossed legs, paranoid that if I set it on the roof, it would roll away, and I would lose the only weapon that I was comfortable with and could handle somewhat capably. With my pack out of the way, I was able to lean against the brick wall of whatever this was and that's exactly what I did. It felt good to take a break.
I really hope I didn't just jinx this.
“Oh, hey, here's this back.” Clyde dug in his pocket for a moment before coming up with my turtle flashlight.
I smiled.
“Thanks. I… wait, hang on.” I remembered that I had something that belonged to him, too. I reached into my back pocket and pulled out the picture I’d stolen from Addeline’s apartment.
Some rain got on it, smearing the ink a tad on the edges, but the center was still clear.
“I wanted to give it to you when Addeline wasn't looking. She doesn't seem to like me very much…”
He took it, and I shined the flashlight on it. He seemed both grateful and hecka sad by the picture, and stared at it with a sad smile. I wondered what the backstory for the photograph was, but didn't ask. I looked at his face and shone the flashlight near it.
“Holy shit.” I almost dropped the flashlight.
Blood was splattered, like, everywhere. Little pinpoints of it covered his entire face.
Gross.
“What? What's wrong?” He asked, panicked.
“You’ve got something…” Everywhere.
I shone the flashlight in his face again and waved it in a circle. He closed his eyes and flinched away from the light.
“There.”
He exhaled dramatically and stuck his hands out where the overhang ended. He caught the steady dribble of water and splashed his face several times.
“Is it off?” He flinched again as I aimed the light at his face.
“Yeah, most of it.” He nodded, glanced away into the rain, and got up, grimacing. His back still probably hurt from that fall, and now that we were safe for a moment, the pain was probably flooding in. At least, that's what was happening to me. He mumbled something, probably what he was going to do, but his words were lost in the rhythm of the rain.
But, as I rested my head against the scratching brick wall, I listened to the pattern of the rain. I thought about my knees, my ear, how I’d idiotically ran into a closed door. I thought about those two guys from the woods, who’d so easily pointed their weapons at us, and just as easily lowered them. How they could have just as easily used them on us. I thought about Addeline, Clyde, my family.
And I thought about how I’d never learn to hotwire a car and how that'll probably come back to bite me soon.
I thought about sleep.
And then I actually went to sleep.
Boom
Crack
Sizzle
Sizzle?
I woke up flailing l like an idiot, again. My head snapped back as my eyes jumped open, and I hit the back of my head on the brick wall.
Ouch.
Thankfully, no one was paying any attention to me. They were all looking over at something.
Wait, I could see them?
Yes. I could see the others silhouettes, outlined by…
I stood up, ignoring the aches and groans of my creaking bones and the popping of my knees. I ducked my head, careful not to hit it against the overhang thing.
The light source, no longer blocked by an AC unit thing, was a fire.
What in the world did I miss?
Boom!
I nearly jumped out of my skin, and looked to where the sound came from, which was where the others’ focus was, and my eyes were greeted with a bright, nearly blinding light. Tendrils of smoke and burning light snaked away from the center with the noise of an explosion that I heard seconds before. The dozens of burning orbs in the sky exploded with a crack, and rained down an array of captivating colors before the whole thing disappeared. More fireworks followed.
The whistling firework was my favorite. I heard it the sound and spotted it among the three other fireworks in the sky. It cascaded a shower of shimmering gold in the sky. It was beautiful. For a moment, I smiled.
But then it disappeared, and I was forced to remember that the world was in turmoil and that pretty things can no longer last.
“What's going on?” I asked anyone who was listening. Anyone who could hear me over the sizzling of colors dazzling all who had a decent view of the sky.
Clyde turned around briefly and shrugged, raising his eyebrows. Good. At least everyone else was as confused as I was. I was out of the loop, but so was everyone else. This means that I was in the loop.
I think.
“Look at that one! Look!” The twins were having a blast. Ha. Get it? A blast… Fireworks… Ha.
Vi was gripping her brothers sleeve and pointing at a stunning purple in the sky. The purple, more of a violet color, flashed green before somehow ending up violet again. Like magic.
At that moment Clyde moved very quickly. He abandoned the pretty lights and sprinted to the hatch that led into the school. He yanked it up, ignoring the creak of the metal protesting, and looked down. I took a few wary steps towards the loon and stopped when the chatter of the Crazies below got louder, no longer muffled by three inches of solid metal. Clyde hunched his shoulders and dropped both his head and the hatch. A firework covered the bang of the metal on metal.
“I thought, for a second, that Ads could be settin’ off those… Signaling us, or—“ He shook his head, cutting himself off. “But it doesn't matter, because we're stuck here on this damn roof.” He let go of the handle and stood up straight again.
“Is there another way to get off? Like a fire escape or—” I tried to be helpful. I really did. But that didn't matter. Trying to help didn't matter when there was no help to give.
“No. I checked while you were out.” He cut me off, sounding cranky.
And hopeless.
“How long was I out?”
A firework lit up his face for a second and he looked like he was thinking. Face scrunched up slightly, eyebrows tilted down towards his nose, lips pressed together a little bit. He was looking down and had his arm bent in front of him, reading his watch.
“A couple hours. Somewhere around four, maybe five.” Oh... OH.
“Clyde, what’s the date today?”
Another firework went off behind me, and he was looking at me like I was a weirdo, like he didn't just act like a loon. Oki
e dokie then, Clyde.
“Well, it's just past midnight, so it's the 25th. Why?”
This is either very good, or very bad.
“Come here.” I motioned him closer and looked back to make sure the others weren't listening. They weren't. The fireworks were pretty distracting.
Wait.
The fireworks were distracting. Very distracting. I mean, ever since we were all kids we would all stop what we were doing and watch the fireworks. Maybe even move closer to get a better look.
“Hang on.” I yelled over a particularly loud, angry blast of blue, then turned away from him, and hurried to the ledge. Running to the ledge would be more accurate. Who's the loon now? Me.
I ran past my siblings and my mother, and, managed not to collide with the brick ledge wrapped around the roof’s perimeter.
What I’d suspected was happening, was actually happening.
Wow. I can't believe I figured this one out. That's really cool.
“Ophelia!” My mom was next to me, looking down as I was. Clyde, Viola, and Lucky filled in on either side of us.
“That's genius!” I was amazed. Really, truly in awe of the plan that was unfolding here. Another reason for me smiling and suddenly being what one would describe as chipper is that I figured this out before Clyde. Ha. Not too bad for the local loon, huh?
“What is?” Vi and Lucky asked at the same time, doing their weird twin thing.
“Look.” I pointed down at what was going on in the street below.
All of the Crazies that had surrounded our Jeep were leaving. One by one. Two by two. Oh look, there's a big cluster of them. A dozen, at least.
Once the fireworks went off a few more times, letting everyone take in the information, I continued.
“It's not just fireworks.” I said. “Or a signal. It's a distraction. A diversion. It's drawing I’m all the Crazies for miles, to that one spot, and more importantly, away from us. We can use it to get out. Once it's light, we can get off this roof.” I felt smart, like Bill Nye. Bill Nye the Zombie Guy.
Ha.
“Yeah… yeah I think she's right.” Clyde said. “I don't know how we're gonna do it, but it'll work.”
There was hope once again in his voice. He stared intensely in the distance, like he was trying to pinpoint where exactly the fireworks were being set off from.
