I rode up to the front again, and Jakey was starting to get really fussy. I knew I was going to have to stop somewhere and feed him. Trouble was I couldn’t stop until I knew we were safe, and we still had a little ways to go. I quieted him with a binky and rode on.
I passed the Turley Park Police Station and quickly rode around the building. I wanted to check out the armory to see if there was anything worth taking. Tommy caught up to me and started checking the cars in the parking lot. After about two minutes, he had broken into three of them, and the unarmed men in our group managed to secure more AR-15’s, more ammo, and a couple of shotguns. I couldn’t find a way into the building, but I figured we’d be back.
I turned south on the next cross street and headed for the I-80 overpass. I felt a little like Moses leading people to the Promised Land, although unlike Moses, I wasn’t exactly happy with God these days. I swung back to Tommy and gave him some directions.
“I’m heading to another school. It’s roughly a mile down this road on the left. If you can get the people moving quickly enough, the dead might just pass us by. If not, we’ll be in a pretty defensible position. I’m going to scout it out and try to open a way in for us. The place is Watson School. The homes surrounding it have fenced back yards, so there hopefully won’t be too many on the welcoming committee.” I said quickly, spinning around and heading back over the bridge.
I rode as quickly as I could, and for the most part the passage was nearly silent except for the sound of my tires on the road. In a way it was kind of nice. In another way, it creeped the hell out of me.
I spun down the driveway to the school and headed towards the back of the building. I didn’t see any signs of activity or damage, so I was hopeful that the inside was undamaged as well. I pulled up to the garage door and pulled out my crowbar, snapping the padlock that secured the door shut. I pulled it up and scanned the garage with my SIG out. Lately, I have learned I do not like surprises. Seeing it clear, I pulled the bike inside and pulled the door down. I picked up Jake out of his seat and grabbed a bottle. He was getting really antsy. I decided to feed him now while I knew this area was safe and just listen for a little while. I figured I had about half an hour before the groups showed up.
Jake immediately became quiet when I started to feed him, and I sat back on a pile of bags of sidewalk salt. I reflected on the past two days, and I just had to shake my head. All I wanted to do was head south and start over. I never expected to be trying to save a hundred people in an abandoned school.
Jake finished his bottle and promptly fell asleep. I wasn’t surprised, given the morning we had. I unwrapped the towel from the Enfield and laid him down on it. I took several of the salt bags and made a little fence to keep him safe in case he woke up when I wasn’t there. I needed to check the building and I hoped like hell I wasn’t walking into a crowd of infected dead. I reloaded my magazines for my SIG, and topped off the magazine for my M1. I made my way to the door and stepped into the hallway.
Immediately I smelled something. It wasn’t heavy, but something was definitely dead in here. Great. Here we go. I decided to work my way from the back to the front, so I went down towards where I thought the gym was. I passed a glass doorway, which let in a lot of light, and went towards a commons area. The smell was stronger, but I didn’t hear anything moving around. I checked the bathrooms on the way, but they were clear. The commons was clear, but the smell was definitely coming from the kitchen area. I moved towards the door and opened it, jumping back to give myself room.
Nothing came out, and I poked my head around the corner. It smelled awful, but the room was unoccupied. Weird. I moved towards the fridge and noticed the smell was coming from the refrigerator. I smiled to myself and figured some teacher’s lunches had gone bad. I opened the fridge and jumped back cursing as a body fell out at me and thudded to the floor.
“Jesus!” I said loudly, quickly sighting the corpse’s head with my guns. I needn’t have bothered. This one had been seriously dead for a long time. It was a young girl, probably about fifteen, but it was hard to tell. How she managed to get into the fridge, I had no idea. I watched her for a second to see if there was any movement, then I grabbed her shirt and dragged her to the door. There was an awkward moment when I tried to throw her outside, but after a little heaving, I managed to toss her out.
The gym and locker rooms were clear, and I worked my way through the building. I didn’t find anything out of order and I was more and more impressed with the building as I went through it. We had a lot of room for all the people we had with us, and there was minimal access to cover. The weak point was the front door, being all glass, but could be secured with materials in the building.
Circling the outside of the building, I was thrilled to see a creek off to one side, so our water supply would be assured. I headed towards the back of the building and got a shock. The corpse I had thrown outside was gone.
I spun around with my carbine at the ready and saw nothing. Did she get up on her own, or did someone come and get her? Her walking away actually made me more comfortable than the thought of someone coming to get a corpse. I thought about Jake and ran towards the garage. If someone had seen me enter, they might have gotten in the same way. I skidded to a stop in front of the door and opened the garage. Light flooded the garage and I ran in to check on Jake. He was still sleeping in his area, and relief flooded through me.
To be completely replaced by adrenaline when a voice behind me said “I didn’t know there was someone with us. I wish I had.”
I jumped and spun around, rifle coming up. In the corner near the door, a thin figure was sitting on the floor, the corpse of the girl cradled in his lap. He was all pale skin and bones, and his black hair hung in greasy strips on his head. His clothes were filthy, and his long nose accented his rat-like face. He was stroking the dead girl’s hair, and ran a hand down her chest.
“She got away from me, but I got her back.” His voice was a whisper, but it carried to my horrified ears like he had shouted. I had to get this thing away from my son.
“Maybe you two need to go for a walk, and get reacquainted.” I said lowering the carbine but keeping the barrel on him.
“No, no, no, she might run again, make me chase her again, make me be mad again.” He looked up at me and I saw in his eyes he was completely insane. He had a feral look about him, and every instinct was screaming at me to kill him.
I decided to skip being nice. “You need to leave. Take your girlfriend and go. By the way, she’s dead. Get out.” I raised the gun again to punctuate my words.
He hissed at me and bared his teeth. “She’s not dead, not dead, not dead. No, no, no, no. Not dead, not like the walking sleepy ones, not like them. No, she’s sleeping, my beautiful is sleeping, sleeping, sleeping.”
I was out of patience. This thing had been too close to my son for too long. I stepped forward quickly and punched the lunatic in the head, stunning him. I then grabbed the girl by the ankle. I moved fast and dragged her outside again before the freak realized what I had done.
When he came around, he howled and lunged at me. I was ready for him and slammed the stock of my carbine in his face. His nose spurted blood and he went down in a heap. I grabbed him by the hand and threw him outside on top of his beloved. “Good luck, slick.” I said as I closed the door. I threw the deadbolt and went to the front of the building in time to see a large group of people moving across the parking lot.
Opening the door I waved to Tommy and Duncan. They waved back and started to jog towards me.
When they got close I shook their hands and smiled. “You guys make it okay? No more losses?”