I’d only made it down a few steps when the gun went off behind me, and I ducked. Plaster dropped from the wall, and when my heart started beating again, I looked back at Harlow. She was half-sitting on one of the steps, and her wide eyes were apologetic and terrified. She’d slipped on the blood and accidentally pulled the trigger.
“I’m sorry,” Harlow said, and she righted herself and stood up straighter. Presuming she learned her lesson about being careful with firearms, she’d do more good with a gun then without one.
“Well, at least we know you can take care of any zombies on the ceiling,” I said, then turned and hurried down the stairs.
Civilians were housed on the second floor, and the first floor was for army personnel and government officials. The medical facilities were in the gymnasium, and I had to get there for Max.
Blood covered the stairwell door-frame, and I leaned against it, looking down the halls of the main level. Zombie corpses littered the floor, but I saw enough swatches of green camouflage in the bodies to know that they weren’t the only fatalities down here.
Even with dead zombies and soldier on the steps, I couldn’t really believe the zombies had made it in this far. I had thought that the infected would be too crazed to formulate a real attack plan. I was probably right about that, but if there were enough zombies charging, then it didn’t really matter how well thought out it was.
The lights on the first floor flashed red. Things looked deserted, so I stepped out into the hall. I noticed movement a few meters down, something crouched on the ground. My stomach turned when I realized it was a zombie gnawing on a dead body.
I raised the gun and pulled the trigger mid-bite. Its head jerked back, blood sprayed, and it collapsed. Sommer screamed, and I cringed. She wasn’t cut out for this, and I wondered if I’d made a mistake letting her come with. I didn’t want to get her – or the rest of us – killed.
“Sommer, maybe you should go back to the room,” I said, looking back at her. “I can’t have you screaming every time something happens.”
“I’m sorry!” Tears welled in her eyes. “Maybe you could give me a warning.”
“As soon as the zombies let me know when they’re about to attack, I’ll make sure to pass the message along to you.”
“They’ll never let me in.” Sommer gestured to herself. Infected blood had gotten on her clothes, and I knew she was right. None of us would be allowed back in that room. The virus was transmitted the same as rabies, through blood and saliva, but people got paranoid whenever they saw zombie blood anywhere.
“You have to be quiet, alright?” I told her as gently as I could. “I don’t want you attracting any more attention than you need to.”
Biting her lip, Sommer nodded quickly, and I turned and walked down the hall. The ground squished under my feet, and I had to look down without really looking. I didn’t want to step on something that would bite me, but I didn’t want to see what we were walking through. I especially didn’t want to see the soldiers. A lot of them had been my friends, and they died trying to protect us.
Gun blasts echoed from around the corner, and I heard men shouting. I took a step back, pressing myself against the wall so I was hidden behind a trophy case. Harlow followed suit, but I had to physically push Sommer to get her back.
Something was happening, and I couldn’t see anything. I just heard a lot of yelling, death groans, and gun fire.
When the guns fell silent, I leaned forward so I could see around the trophy case. About a dozen or more zombies lurched up the stairs. They moved in a pack, something I’d never seen them do before.
But that’s not what made my stomach twist up. They had gotten past whoever was shooting at them, meaning that the soldiers we’d heard yelling were already dead.
“They’re going upstairs!” Harlow whispered frantically. “Everyone is hiding up there!”
I pursed my lips but didn’t say anything. The gun felt heavy in my hands. If I fired at them, I might kill one or two, but I couldn’t kill them all. The soldiers hadn’t been a match for them. A couple kids with guns wouldn’t stand a chance.
“They’re going to kill everyone!” Harlow looked at me, and I shook my head. We were lucky they were going upstairs and not down here after us.
“Getting ourselves killed won’t save them,” I said thickly. “Besides, they locked the door. They might be safe.”
Once all of the zombies had disappeared up the stairs, I walked the opposite way down the hall. I didn’t want to hear everyone upstairs dying. And everyone up there was dead. They didn’t have any guns or any real protection. Eventually, the zombies would break down the doors. They always did.
I felt sick but I kept walking, stepping carefully over the bodies. I’d never seen a massacre this bad.
When the virus popped up almost a year ago, it spread like wild fire, but I had never seen so many zombies together. Even the ones that had gotten my mom and dad had only been in a group of three. This had to be hundreds. Something different was happening.
We had to round another corner before we made it to the gym. I heard one gun shot, and then silence. I raised my gun and slowly turned the corner, afraid to find another pack of the infected.
Instead, I saw a single soldier. He stood in the middle of the hall, his gun pointed down at the zombie corpses. He watched to see if they were still alive, and then he killed them if they were.
I lowered my weapon and stepped out.
“Hey!” I announced myself before he shot us.
He turned to me, automatically pointing the rifle at me, and my heart surged. Even at that distance with a gun in front of his face, I’d recognize him anywhere.
“Remy?” Beck asked, sounding just as relieved and surprised as I felt, and he lowered the gun. “What are you doing?”
“I heard the zombies knocking, so I thought I’d come down and let them in,” I said with a wry smirk. I walked down the hall, fighting the urge to run to him, and checked behind to make sure Harlow and Sommer were following me quickly.
“Your brother’s fine,” Beck said, knowing exactly what had drawn me out. “They already evacuated him.”
“What do you mean they evacuated Max?” I asked, not sure if I should feel relieved or anxious. This wasn’t the safest place anymore, but the open road wasn’t that great either.
“As soon as the quarantine was compromised, they got all the medical out,” Beck said and looked uneasily at Harlow and Sommer. “You shouldn’t be out here. You should’ve stayed in your rooms.”
“The second floor has been compromised too.” I lowered my eyes. “We just saw the zombies rush up there.”
Beck stared down the hall towards the stairwell, debating whether or not he should go help them, or if he should stay to help us. If I’d been a more selfless person, I would’ve sent him up there. But I needed his help, and I didn’t want him on a suicide mission.
“You’ve got to get out of here,” Beck said. He nodded in the other direction and put his hand on my back to usher us away.
“Where are they taking Max? I need to go with him.” I looked up at Beck, but he didn’t answer. He was too focused on getting us out of the school alive.
Three zombies stood by the exit. They hung out there, as if they were waiting to stop people from escaping. Since there was only three of them, Beck shot them down quickly.
“What are they doing?” Harlow asked, referring to the zombies’ unusual behavior.
“I don’t know,” Beck said, his voice cracking.
I looked up at him, sensing something more than the trauma going on around us. In the months I had known him, I’d never seen anything rattle him.
The glass doors had been broken in, blood staining the remaining shards poking out from the frame. Beck leaned out first, but I heard the death groans. I looked past his shoulder, and I could see them, massed around the outside of the school, moving like a very slow mosh pit.
“What the hell is going on?” I asked.
“It’s like they were drawn here or something.” Beck straightened up and looked at me. “They’ve trampled the fence for the most part. If I distract them, you can make a run for it.”
“You can’t stay here,” I said. “Zombies have overtaken the place.”
“It’s my job,” Beck brushed me off. “I’m not entirely sure where they took your brother. There is another quarantine near Wyoming, so maybe there. If you keep going north from here, you’ll find something.”
“I don’t even really know where north is.” I was only half-lying. I wasn’t great at directions, but I didn’t want to leave Beck behind to die here.