Rise (20 page)

On the roof we looked, and spotted the plane overhead. We waved and jumped around for a while before the plane leveled out and flew straight towards us, and the pilot waggled its wings back and forth as he went over, then he turned and came back, and waved at us out the window. Something fell from his hand, a shiny cylinder with something hanging from it. It fell towards us, and we saw a small parachute open. The cylinder still fell pretty quickly, but it landed gently enough that it didn’t break anything. It fell on the roof near us (a really good shot), and proved to be a short cardboard tube wrapped in bubble wrap, with a mini parachute strapped around it. Inside, after peeling away some tape, we found a radio! There was a note handwritten on loose-leaf paper that read “Set the radio to Channel 6. Range is short, so conserve battery power!”

We set the radio to 6 and turned it on. Immediately a voice was talking to us. He identified himself as Gavin Thompson, a civilian pilot working for the military in Cold Lake, and asked us if we were all alright. We told him we were fine, and who we were. He asked if we could hold on a day or so, since that would be the quickest he could get a unit from Cold Lake here to bail us out. We told him about the Jeep. He advised us that the area was heavily infested, and travel in anything less than a military convoy was very dangerous. Apparently there was an SAR (Search and Rescue) unit nearby, and could be here by midmorning tomorrow. We told him we could wait for the military, and he told us that they’d call us when they got into town. With that he flew off.

Salvation comes in the strangest forms.

I wasn’t sure at first that this was a good idea, but they’ve let us have our gear and weapons back, as well as my computer, and a hot shower can do wonders for my state of mind.

Late on the night of the 2nd Phillipa and I were walking through the lower halls of the school, checking the doors quietly and making sure all the windows were secure. Three times a day we did this, just to be safe. We were walking silently down the main hallway when we heard a crash from the far end, and I thought it was from the room where we had come in through the window. I told Phillipa to go upstairs and tell Jess what we heard, and then come back. I’d wait for her right there in the hall. She took off, and was back in a few minutes. We went down the hall, guns out and pointed towards the noise, and I waved her to the far side so we were both walking along opposite walls. There was another crash, this time sounding like a table falling over, maybe? I thought one of the things might have gotten in the window. We got to the corner, and I looked around it with the flashlight. I was glad to see that the hallway was clear, and the door to the office was still shut. I had been half expecting to come around the corner and see a pack of the damned things.

Phillipa looked pretty scared. I was too, but I think I’ve seen enough of these things to know what their limits are. There were a few more sounds from the office. Shuffling and some papers falling. I suspected only one had gotten in, though how? Had they pushed the van clear of the window finally? Or had one gone through it? We had to know. If the van was moved then we’d have to secure the window with something bigger and solid. I really didn’t want to open that door, but if it was just the one, then we should be able to handle it. If not, we’d run and shoot as we fled. I whispered all this to Phillipa, and made sure she understood what I had in mind. I told her to let me do the shooting.

I prepared myself, and went to turn the handle. It was locked. Then I remembered we’d locked it when we first came in. I little chuckle escaped me before I could smother it, and even before I could stifle it all the way, the thing in the room was slamming against the door, groaning and trying to break through to us. Me and my big mouth! Phillipa jumped as the thing slammed the door the first time, and looked like she wanted to run away. She actually backed up a step. The door slammed again, and I heard a crack in the frame. Damn, I knew this thing was going to get through. How they do that without breaking bones in their arms is beyond me. Or maybe they do, and just don’t feel it.

The door frame splintered, and the door started to open. It got stuck a few inches open, and we backed off to the corner. The walking corpse inside shoved its arms through the gap and pushed, and the door flew open. The smell hit us almost instantly, and the gag reflex was nasty, but I fought it down. The zombie that appeared looked terrible in the light from my flashlight. A businessman by the looks of the shredded clothes he wore, his torso was nearly bare, covered only by the tattered remnants of a white shirt. There were long bloody scratches down his chest, and a lot of blood had leaked onto his pants. He was missing one shoe. He was also missing one eye, and a big chunk of his cheek, so we could see teeth inside his jaw. He turned around towards us and his one eye locked on me. I raised the Glock as he took a step forward, and I fired once. The bullet smashed into his face just under the remaining eye, and pummeled his head sideways. He fell, and started to get up again. Shit! I stepped forward and took aim, and fired as he started to stand again. This one took him in the top of the head, went though, and exited out where his spine met his skull. A spray of black blood and rotten grey matter went splashing across the floor, and he went limp. I turned to Phillipa and assured her that there was nothing to worry about, and then a second zombie lurched out the door and grabbed my left arm.

It raised my arm before I had time to react, and bit down hard. The cast took the bite, cracking in one spot, but protecting me pretty well. I didn’t have time to aim, so I just shoved and took three steps forward, driving the rotten thing before me. It fell, and I landed on top of it. Immediately it was trying to bite my face, and I forced the cast under its chin and shoved down. The teeth missed me by an inch. I pinned its neck to the ground and raised the gun, while its arms tried to pull me closer. Damn it was strong! I forced the gun up between us, and shoved the barrel onto its face. One shot and it was done, but the sound was deafening. My ears were ringing as I rolled off the corpse. I checked for Phillipa, and she was about a dozen paces away down the hall, shaking and crying. She shrieked then, and raised her gun and shot over my head. I just scrambled forward, and got up as she shot again. A quick look over my shoulder showed me a few more zombies had made it inside, and there were probably more out there attracted by the gunfire. They’d be inside soon enough. I yelled, “Run!” to her, and she turned and fled. I was right behind her.

Phillipa made it to the stairs ahead of me, and I stopped once she’d gotten through. I turned and saw four of the fuckers walking towards me. A fifth turned the corner behind them. God damn it! I took careful aim with the Glock and fired at the leader twice. He went down as his brains were scrambled. I waited a few seconds to aim again, and shot the next one down too. Three more had entered behind them, so there were six in the hall now still animated. I wasn’t going to have enough ammo.

I went through the door, and as I closed it I threw the locks and barred the door with the 2x4’s we’d placed there for just this possibility. I heard scraping from up above, and I looked up to see Jess hauling a huge desk to the edge of the stairs. I climbed up to her and she and I hauled the desk down as well as we could, and used it to blockade the doors at the bottom. We threw more furniture down as well to make it harder and harder to get through. Finally, we retreated back through to the upper hall, closed and barred the upper doors, and went back down to the classroom we’d adopted as home. I used some water to clean the rotten corpse goo off me, and Jess checked me carefully for bites or scratches. I was clear, much to my relief. My cast had saved me. I could see the tooth marks on the cast, and it took some scrubbing to get all the rotten flesh off. My ears were still ringing, but I could still hear the thumping and pounding down below. The vast host of walking dead was inside now. This was bad news. The Jeep was down there. Our way out was down there.

We spent the night hardly sleeping. The noise kept the kids awake and scared, and we spent some time reassuring them. Megan came and sat with me, and I wrapped her in a blanket and settled her next to me for the night. Once in a while one of us would get up and go listen at the stairwell, to make sure they weren’t getting through the piled furniture. They appeared to settle down a bit after a few hours, though the moans and groans didn’t let up at all.

By the time dawn rolled around, we were all exhausted and fighting to stay awake. The children had all managed to sleep, but the adults (myself included) were weary and relying on cans of Coke raided from the vending machines to stay awake. The undead assault continued. They knew we were in here, and they were hungry.

A few hours later the radio chirped, and we found ourselves talking to Captain Ingram, an Army officer who was in charge of the SAR unit that was coming to get us out. We told him of the situation, and the probable numbers of undead involved, and he told us to sit tight. About five minutes later we heard vehicles. Looking out the window we could see several small wheeled tank-like vehicles, and a few jeep-like cars. Soldiers drove these around the school, disappearing from our sight. Finally, after another few minutes, we heard shooting. Lots of shooting. It went on for some time. After that, the Captain came on the radio again and asked where we were in the building. I told him. He said that a squad would be in to get us out in a few minutes, so be ready to move. He also told us to surrender any weapons we had, “for security reasons”, but that we’d get them back once the situation was under control. Jess looked a little miffed, and I was sure I didn’t want to give up my Glock, but what choice did we have?

Downstairs we heard shooting. Automatic weapons, it sounded like. The gunfire came in short bursts, and then there was a pause, then a series of single shots. Finally, we heard the crunch of the doors downstairs being removed, and furniture falling out. We started down the hallway to see if we could help, and ended up hauling away a fair bit of the crap we’d thrown down so that a clear path could be formed. Once I could see a live soldier through the tangle, I called out, and a live face appeared at the hole. He asked how we were doing, and I said we were ok. He told us to back away for a minute; they were going to haul the entire remaining blockade away. I went back upstairs then and told the others to grab their bags. On the way back I heard the rumble of the rest of the furniture being hauled away, and then soldiers were coming up the stairs. They stopped us where we were and asked for our guns. They had us outnumbered by a lot, and they
had
just rescued us, so we turned over our weapons. They took our bags as well, then escorted us downstairs and outside. On the way through the hallway below I saw about fifteen zombies lying destroyed in the hallway. They had been pushed aside, and more soldiers were looking in other rooms, presumably for salvage and more undead. A few said hello when we went by, but most of the men and women just gave us a curious look before getting back to business.

Outside, we met Captain Ingram, a short bulky man with a thick moustache and grey hair. He asked us to stand beside a large 8-wheeled tank-like vehicle with a cannon on top. Our escort of soldiers stood off to our right. Another man approached us, this one in uniform also, but with a red cross on him, so I assumed he was a medic. He stopped a few feet away and asked if any of us were bitten. He then asked each of us to come with him to a tent quickly set up nearby, where we could be checked. We told him none of us were infected, but he insisted, and the Captain asked us to please cooperate. Fine. I went first. A soldier came with us. I stepped into the tent and he asked me to remove my shirt and pants. I did so, and the bloody, gore-encrusted clothes were placed in a plastic bag. He looked me over carefully, asked about my wrist and a few other abrasions I had, and pronounced me clean. The soldier who had come in with us took his hand away from his gun then, and handed me a new set of clothes. These were military issue, and fit pretty well. I asked him if they had a female medic here, and he said they didn’t. I told him about Janice, and asked if it would be okay for her to be either skipped or have her teacher Phillipa there to help reassure her. He said he’d talk to the CO. I was shown back outside, and ushered over to Ingram. He shook my hand as he introduced himself, and asked me to wait until everyone else had been cleared, and then he’d tell me what was going on. In the meantime, I was offered coffee! There was no milk or sugar, but what the hell!

Around us, the undead were showing up still, and soldiers were destroying them. They’d let a single undead come fairly close before killing it, but groups they destroyed at a distance. Soldiers were dragging the bodies into a pile in the center of the field and dousing them with fuel, for a cremation, I supposed. Others were watching the perimeter, or scouting the inside of the school. I asked the Captain if I could get some supplies out of the Odyssey and transfer them to the Jeep we had inside. He thought it over and said I could, after the others were cleared. We wouldn’t have long to do it though, as he wanted to get out of this town and get back to his base before lunch.

Jess was next to be cleared, then Michael. They both came out wearing new clothes, but Michael’s were civilian kids’ clothes. Phillipa went next, then Megan, and then they asked Phillipa to come back in with a female soldier and the medic for Janice’s exam. She went, and then came out dressed in slightly-too-large army clothes. She seemed ok, and the medic reported to the Captain that we were all clear and in good health. He sat us all down at a table while the bodies in the field were piled up, coffee and fruit juice were handed out, and he told us what was going on.