Chapter Eighteen
It looked like it might come down to a vicious game of Rocks, Paper, Scissors. Gene was an automatic because it was his car, and his bus we were going to retrieve. Initially, Robert called shotgun, but Andy wanted to go, too. Seemed safer if all three went. We figured the rest of us would be safe in the school until they returned.
“You be careful, okay?” Melissa said. She hugged her man tight. I knew she wasn’t comfortable with him going on this quest without her. “If those roads are bad, you drive on lawns, you got me? No getting out of the car, at all.”
“I’ll be gone and back before you know it.” He patted her back and rested his chin on top of her head.
“I love you.” She looked up into his eyes and kissed him.
“Love you more,” he said.
I felt odd watching the exchange. The cafeteria was only so large. I turned away, but it was after the fact, and shook hands with Andy and Robert. I planned to do the same with Gene, but he pulled me in for a hug.
“If we don’t return, you watch over these people. You take care of my Melissa.” He pulled out of the hug and clapped me on the shoulders.
I nodded, letting him know I understood. There was no use in telling him not to worry, that he’d return, and we’d all be reunited. In truth, the chances of them returning with the bus were not good. Not good at all. He knew it. I knew it. Everyone here knew it. I still had to say something. “You just hurry back. No joy riding with that crazy bus of yours. I’m anxious to see this thing.”
“You got it!” Gene laughed. “And you’re going to love it. Tell him, Melissa, tell him how much he’s going to love it.”
“You’re going to love it,” she said. Her words were not convincing. She barely made eye contact. I didn’t think it had anything to do with the bus.
# # #
Kia and Michelle held rifles. They sat perched on the sink counter in the kitchen, just under the small rectangle windows.
“This is going to sound so damned obvious, but when I give the word, you two start shooting. Hit as many as you can in the head. The gunshots are going to attract more to the back of the school over here,” Dave said. He made a gun with his fingers and aimed it at his own skull. “Don’t stop until there’s either none left as a threat, or you’re out of ammo. Got it?”
I wished there was more I could do. We only had the two windows over the sink. They were small. Rectangle. Wasn’t room enough for more than one person stationed at each.
Charlene stood at the back door, her hand on the knob. This was her idea. She wanted to be part of the execution as well. I couldn’t blame her.
“Then, when I say so, Charlene, you pull open the door.” Dave pointed at Gene, Andy and Robert. “You three run like the fucking wind to the car. Gene, you have the keys?” Dave said.
“Yes.”
“Check,” Dave said.
“Sorry,” Gene said. “Check.”
“No,” Dave shook his head. “I mean, check. Physically check.”
Gene held up a key ring. “Check.”
Dave took a deep breath, held it and sighed. He nodded toward Kia and Michelle. “Ladies, start shooting…now!”
Kia and Michelle fired their rifles. The recoil kicked their bodies back after each shot fired. They didn’t stop or complain. They kept shooting. I hoped they were hitting targets. I could hear the creatures. The moaning and groaning was loud, hollow. It ate through me, pierced my skin. I couldn’t take much more of it, of them, of all of this.
“And, Charlene, now!” Dave said, and she pulled open the door. “Run Gene, run!”
I watched Gene, Andy and Robert flee out the doorway. Kia and Michelle fired more rapidly. Megan and Melissa loaded secondary rifles with ammo.
“I’m out,” Kia said. She held out her rifle. Melissa swapped the empty out with the one she’d just loaded.
“Me, too,” Michelle said. Megan gave her a loaded rifle, too.
“They’re at the car,” Kia said, and resumed firing.
I needed to see what was happening. Events being fed to me was not cutting it. It was like listening to a ballgame on the radio when there was a TV right in the next room.
“Robert!” Michelle said.
“I got him, I got him!” Kia squeezed off shot after shot. She leaned back, shook hair out of her face and fired again. “Robert!”
“Dad?”
“I don’t know what’s going on,” I said.
“Charlene, no!” Allison said.
Dave reached for my daughter as Char opened the door and disappeared outside.
“What the fuck is she doing?” I ran around the register, past the ladies perched on the sink, and followed both Allison and Dave outside.
Charlene had her sword drawn and was chopping into zombies. There were so many, too many.
Robert was down. The things encircled him. Gene and Andy were inside the car already.
“Go,” Dave yelled at Gene, vigorously waving them off. “Get out of here!”
The engine revved.
I used my sword, too. Allison, Char and I fought the things on Robert. We weren’t going to be able to save him. I heard continuous shots fired from the windows. I kept waiting for a stray bullet to rip through my back. I felt that fate was inevitable at this point, and that I was a heartbeat away from dying.
“Robert!” Kia’s yelling only added to the confusion. Her shouts would attract even more zombies to the back of the school.
“Back inside!” Dave pulled the remaining things off Robert. “Inside, now!”
I swung my sword around and beheaded a female zombie. Her hands kept reaching out for me. Her fingers curled in and out as if silently beckoning me forward. “Charlene!”
She continued to fight.
“Chase!” Allison called me.
“Alley?” She was not beside me. I could not see her. “Alley?”
“Over there,” Dave said. “She’s over there!”
I couldn’t look around. Charlene and I defended our space, but that did not stop more zombies from closing in on us. Robert was gone, eaten. Dead. We’d managed to throw creatures off of him, but not before he’d been bitten repeatedly. His entire throat was ripped off of his neck.
“We have to get back in the school,” I said. It was going to be easier said than done. I didn’t want to be around when Robert re-animated. I didn’t have it in me right now to drive a blade into his brain. “Charlene, make a break for the school!”
“Not without you!”
“I’m right behind you,” I said. I wouldn’t be. I needed to get to Allison. She’d been backed up against the dumpster. She used her sidearm and was shooting zombies in the head. There were too many. I couldn’t worry about both of them at the same time. “Dave, get Char!”
“I got her!” Dave used a cinderblock as a weapon and crushed skulls with single blows. “Get to the school. Go. Go. I’ll get her!”
Charlene was not listening to me. I was not listening to Dave.
Thankfully, Michelle and Kia continued dropping zombies with each shot they fired. I gave up worrying about being accidentally hit by friendly-fire. I needed to trust them right now, so I did. As best I could. With that one less thing to worry about, I was able to concentrate on my fight. “Charlene!”
She didn’t answer me. Instead, she let out yells and grunts in bursts as she swung her sword, cutting legs off at the knees. She sliced off arms and hands, noses, ears and heads, as she made her way toward Dave, who kept getting closer to Allison.
I followed my daughter’s lead, both with wild sword swings, and moving toward Allison.
It snowed large white flakes. The temperature must have dropped drastically in the last day or so, and it felt like twice as cold since the fight started. The wind felt painful against exposed flesh. It bit my hands to the point they felt numb. I could smell winter. Pine trees and fireplaces. Only it wasn’t lit fireplaces that I smelled. More than likely it was just Pennsylvania burning.