It was true I focused on unimportant aspects of the relationships, perhaps put too much emphasis on sex, and not any on building a friendship. Allison was different. I didn’t want to blow it from the start. So I changed my game.
I didn’t think going for burgers on a first date would have been detrimental, but with her, I wanted to play it more safely. It was not a black tie affair, but I wore charcoal grey dress pants with a matching necktie, and cleaners-pressed soft blue-grey shirt. I had to hit a store in the mall for new dress shoes, and went old school with wingtips.
The table was set for two. We were in the center of the place. I understood which fork to use, and all of that. We ordered the surf and turf with soup and salads. Allison looked beautiful. She’d worn her hair down, and smiled most of the night. Conversation was somewhat forced, although I couldn’t remember anything said. The one thing I remember most was making her laugh. A lot.
After my salad, the waitress took my plate with my salad fork. Some of the salad pieces had been large, and I’d cut them up to keep from looking like an animal while eating.
“Oh, wait, wait,” I said. “I still need my knife!”
I pronounced it with a hard “K.” Ka-nife, and retrieved it from the plate as she’d lifted it off the table.
The whole restaurant must have heard me. Allison laughed so hard, she’d snorted. That embarrassed her. I loved it. From that point on, the date was not forced. I didn’t kiss her that night. I didn’t want to ruin a good thing. It seemed like she wanted me to, looked a little disappointed when I left her at her front step and went back to my car after a simple hug and a whisper, “Good night.”
And now, I helped Dave. Charlene had the walk-in freezer door open. We’d wrapped Alley as best we could in tablecloths. I held her under the arms and head. Dave gripped the legs. We set her down on the floor. It seemed wrong. She deserved a burial. We’d taken the time to bury our lost since day one. Allison did not belong locked away in a school freezer but there were far too many zombies still outside. There was no chance of digging a plot. Not today. Not right now. It was why we were putting her in the freezer. If Gene and Andy did not return, and there came a time when the zombies left this building alone, then I would risk it, take the time, and bury Alley properly.
Chapter Twenty-One
1630 hours
“We’ve got a problem.” Melissa panted. She stood bent forward, and rested the palms of her hands on her thighs. “The zombies--they figured out there’s a doorway into the cafeteria.”
That was the worst news I’d heard in a while. Melissa had been assigned to watch the monsters. We stayed out of the cafeteria as much as possible because just the sight of us kept them agitated. And we wanted, no, we needed them to lose interest and wander the school. The herd was too large. There was no safe way to thin it. “They’ve what?”
She waved. We followed her from the kitchen into the cafeteria.
I heard it. A hollow thump. “They’re banging into the door,” she said.
I watched. As one, they took a step back, and then as if one of them counted to three, they surged forward and slammed into the entire glass wall, with a concentration on the double doors. “That is not going to hold,” I said.
“No, it is not,” Megan said.
“Back into the kitchen, everyone.” Dave ushered us through the threshold. He closed the door near where the cash register was. Charlene was at the opposite side of the kitchen closing the other, the one students entered and picked up a food tray before shuffling their way down the cafeteria line for their meals.
“They don’t deadbolt or anything,” Charlene said. “Just a simple lock on the handle.”
“Push everything we can up against the doors,” Megan said. She and Kia moved about the kitchen.
“There really isn’t anything. The counters are bolted. The stoves are commercial. There’s nothing we can use to barricade the doors,” Kia said.
The crash was loud. There was no mistaking what had just happened. The glass had shattered. The zombies stormed the cafeteria.
“Dad!” Charlene had her back pressed to the door.
“We’re going to have to make a run for it,” Dave said.
“A run?” Megan said.
“We’ll be trapped in here,” I said.
“There are just as many out there,” Kia said, she was on the sink counter, looking out the window.
I could hear their feet on the gymnasium-like flooring, squeaking and sliding as they pushed against the closed door, and pounded on the wood.
“Not going to be able to hold this closed,” Dave said. He and Melissa pressed against their door.
“We’re going to have to leave all the supplies?” Megan said.
“Yes,” I said. “I don’t see any other way.”
“But Gene’s not back,” Melissa said. “I can’t leave without Gene.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell her, especially right now, that Gene and Andy probably weren’t going to make it back. They’d been gone hours. If they had not returned yet, there was a good chance they were dead, or worse. “They’ll find us,” is what I said. “If you stay, you’re not going to make it. Gene wants you to live, Melissa. He told me so. He told me to protect you when he wasn’t here. That’s what I’m going to do.” I tried not to think about Cash or Alley. I’d sucked at protecting them. “We can’t stay here. Any of us. We have to make a run for it.”
“Run where?” Megan said. “I mean, we throw open that back door, and fight through the zombies back there, and then what? Run where?”
“We’ve got to go to someplace where Gene can find me, find us,” Melissa said.
“And where is that?” I said.
The door Charlene was backed up to budged. I heard wood split. “Dad!”
Kia ran at the door, arms out. She pressed her weight against it. We needed to move. Now we had a bigger problem. Charlene’s door was busted. If we ran, if Kia and she moved, the zombies would be on us fast. The time to run, to get out the back door safely, had passed. Now we had zombies waiting outside, and zombies about to bust into the kitchen.
“Megan, Melissa, get by the back door,” I said. This was going to have to be fast. Real fast. “Everyone have your weapons ready.”
There was another crashing sound. Dave grunted. “They’re getting in, Chase. We can’t hold them.”
Melissa turned, and like Kia, stood with her hands pressed against the door--pushing her weight to hold it closed.
“It’s going to be on three. The four of you, let go of your doors and run for the exit, I’m going to cover you,” I said, pointing at Dave, Melissa and Charlene and Kia. I held my sword in both hands, ready. “Megan, when I say open that door, you throw it open, and then you and Michelle start clearing a path for us.”
It was not a lot of space to cover. From where Dave and Melissa stood to the back door, it was about twenty-five feet. They had to skirt around counters. Charlene and Kia had a more direct path from point A to point B. Still had some skirting around things, but less of it.
And there would be me, running interference. I nodded at Dave. We’d known each other long enough, been through enough, that he knew I was going to make sure they made it out of the school, that if anything happened to me, Charlene was his responsibility. “On three,” I said.
There was no counting.
The door Charlene and Kia blocked split at the hinges.