State of Decay (Omnibus (Parts 1-4)) (21 page)

“I don’t fucking think so,” I said with a growl. Zombies were throwing themselves against the door even harder now and I flinched at the sound. I wondered how long the doors would hold before the zombies broke through.

Ghost stood up from the driver’s seat and swayed as he did. I put a hand out, but he waved me away.

“Sit down, Melody. I want to show you something.” I did as I was told, too tired to question him. “You see these two wires?” he asked. He pointed out two different colored wires—one red and one blue—he’d separated a bit from the others. I nodded. “Tomorrow morning, when you think it is safe, I want you to rub those two wires together lightly. It won’t take much for the bus to start up.” I frowned down at the wires. “Do you understand?” he asked, his voice weaker than before.

“Yes, but …” Ghost knelt down beside me on the bus floor until our faces were even. His normally espresso-colored skin was ashen and a fine line of sweat dotted his brow.

“I’m going to die tonight, Melody,” he stated. “The only way I can make it
mean
anything is to do it my own way,” he added. I suddenly knew he had a plan and that it was going to involve him sacrificing himself for me. I tried to jump from the seat, to talk some sense into him, but his hand landed on my shoulder and his eyes caught mine. They begged me to understand. I wasn’t sure I could. I’d come to love Ghost like a brother and I couldn’t let him do this.

“Please, Ghost. Don’t.” My voice could barely be heard over the noise that the zombies were making. Ghost smiled and brought a shaking hand to my face, tipping my chin up.

“Ah, this won’t be so bad. Dying for those I love. Plus, I’d hate to think of Jude being left all alone. Who’d watch his back and save his ass if both of us were dead?” he asked. A tiny burst of laughter left my lips. “Ah. That’s better. Just don’t forget me, Melody Carter.”

“I’d never forget you,” I said truthfully. Ghost smiled a huge grin, his white teeth shining in the final light of the day.

“What else can a man ask for when he faces death?” he asked seriously. My tears kept flowing as he outlined his plan. It was crazy. It was brilliant. It was my only hope.

In the end, I didn’t beg him to reconsider. I didn’t make a huge scene or blubber all over him. I wanted him to have his final moments of glory, wanted to him to know how much I respected and loved him. I wanted him to know how much I owed to him for everything he was about to do. In the end, his death would be a death of honor for those he loved and who was I to diminish his legacy?

Ghost got down on his hands and knees and made his way to the back of the bus where only a few zombies seemed to have figured out that they could see us from there. I followed him and crawled as well. When we got the back door, Ghost turned and looked at me one final time.

“Until we meet again a very, very long time from now, Melody Carter.” He kissed me on my forehead and then launched the back door open. I took out two zombies with my rifle to give him a little more time. I pulled the backdoor shut behind him, locked it, and then flattened myself against the floor as Ghost had instructed me. I could see him take out the few zombies in the back of the bus before he moved around to the side of the bus with a war cry. Even though I couldn’t see what happened, I could imagine it all as I heard him.

He screamed his anger into the night as he ran. He took shots as he went, taking down more zombies than could be counted. When the pounding on the bus stopped, I knew he’d been right. The zombies had forgotten all about me as they focused in on him and the noise he was making. He bellowed his rage, yelling obscenities as he went, his voice growing more distant as he drew the zombie horde further away from the bus. My tears poured down my face and made a small pool on the floor where I laid as still as possible. And then, when he thought he’d led them far enough away and when he had them clawing at him and biting into his flesh, he dropped his gun. He then released two pins that he’d pulled from the grenades that he’d had strapped to his vest. The explosions rocked the city street, destroying the zombies closest to him, and drawing the rest of the zombies to that spot.

Ghost’s sacrifice would never be forgotten so long as I lived. I did what Ghost told me to. I was to wait until morning to start the bus. I stayed on the ground, crying until I could cry no more. Still, I laid there until exhaustion swept over me and I slept.

I
didn’t sleep long, even
with exhaustion plaguing my heart and body, I still had a job to do. I had to get the bus to the school. I moved slowly from the floor to my knees and stretched until I could peer over the seats and out into the parking lot. The day was clear, the sun already rising quickly, and the area was relatively clear of the zombie multitudes that had been surrounding the bus the night before. I moved quickly, not wanting to take a chance that I would lose too much time and the undead would take over the area again.

I threw my bag on the ground near the front of the bus and plopped down into the driver’s seat. The bus was freaking huge and I’d never driven anything larger than an SUV. I gulped back my fears and took the two wires Ghost had pointed out the night before in my hands. The spark surprised me, but the bus didn’t start right away. With a sinking feeling, I spoke to the bus in hushed tones, coaxing it like a lover would to make it turn on. I
touched the wires together a third time … and finally, the bus roared to life. My relief bowed my shoulders.

With a shaking hand, I put the bus in gear, pushed the gas gently, and pulled out into the parking lot. The dozen or so zombies in the area had already taken note of the moving bus. Time to get the hell out of dodge. I was pretty proud of myself when I got closer to the school. I’d only run over a few zombies, pushed a smaller car out of my way, and had done minimal damage to the ginormous yellow school bus. Very proud indeed. I circled the school two times, to make sure someone would see me, before driving to the loading area in the school. Someone would be looking out for us … of that I was positive. When I pulled up to the gates, several people were there to take out the zombies milling about as Manuel and Jude opened the gates wide for me to enter.

I parked as close to the school as I dared. Someone else could back it up to be loaded—I would have probably taken out a building if I’d tried. I opened the door to the bus and picked up my pack before exiting. When Jude, Manuel, and the others ran up, their eyes searching the bus for the others, the night before rose up again to slap me in the face. Jude walked over to me, his eyes searching my face.

“Ghost?” he asked softly. A sob escaped my lips as he pulled me into his arms, shushing me and murmuring nonsense.
It was okay
.
Everything was okay
. Manuel led the others into the building to start bringing the supplies out and to begin removing several of the seats from the back of the bus to make more room for the supplies.  Jude grabbed my hand and pulled me along a sidewalk at the back of the school. I numbly followed him.

When we entered a locker room, I tugged on his hand. “Wait a sec, what are we doing?” I asked. We went through another door and then we were facing shower stalls. Jude walked over and turned one on and miraculously, water shot out. I looked him, puzzled.  He smiled shyly and walked over to me and took my weapon off of me.

“The school has a small backup generator. There’s water.” I breathed in deeply, trying to feel as good as I should about that. Jude’s hand ran down my arm until he caught my hand in his. He squeezed it lightly and then pulled me into his embrace. “Take your clothes off, Mel,” he whispered into my hair. “Let me show you what you have left to
fight
for.” He pulled my shirt over my head and then pulled his own off. “Let me show what you have left to
live
for,” he murmured huskily. His mouth found mine as we both stumbled toward the showers, our hands seeking, our hearts and bodies joining. I let him show me. I let him wash away my pain and sorrow with love and passion. I let him help me forget … even it was only for an hour.

΅

W
hen we emerged from the
showers, clean and sated, with our hair still dripping wet, the group had already managed to remove four seats from the back of the bus. Supplies were being brought out in boxes and on a dolly the group found at the school. I was told that it would take another hour or two to remove the four more seats and then to fill the bus so that we could leave. I kept myself busy by scouting the rest of the school for anything that we could use.

I didn’t find much of anything that I thought we could use even though I walked through classrooms, offices, and the gymnasium. I did find a snack machine in the gym and considered shooting it to get the candy out. I was pretty sure that would have been a stupid idea though.
If only Ghost were here to pick the lock
, I thought. I took my anger out on the machine, punching it until I tired myself out and left smears of blood along the front of it. When I was ready and had myself under better control an hour had passed. I decided to head back and join the rest of the group. They were probably close to being ready to go.

I was watching the ground as I walked when heard something that made me stop in my tracks.  The sound of metal being crushed and … a gunshot. My first instinct was to run toward the sound and to see what was going on so I could help the group, but then I heard the shouting. I pulled my rifle off of my back and ran behind a huge cement pillar that blocked me from the view of the bus area.

“You stupid son of a …” I heard shouting again and then another shot. With my heart pounding, I knelt down and slowly peeked from behind the pillar that I was hiding behind. An armed group of about eighteen men and women had the rest of my group at gun point, their huge trucks had torn down the back gates of the school. I scanned the group and found Jude alive and … angry as hell. Manuel was also on his knees, his hands behind his head, as the man who appeared to be the leader of the group shouted and asked a bunch of questions. I took a moment to breathe and to try and figure out what I could do to get us out of the situation without losing more people or having to kill the living.

I glanced back around the pillar and searched the group that had broken into the school. I quickly realized that only a couple of them were military or had probably ever used a gun before the outbreak. Several of them couldn’t have been older than fifteen or sixteen.
Shit
. I couldn’t kill a bunch of kids. I started thinking through all the possible ways I could get us out of the mess we were in when the decision was taken out of my hands. Someone screamed and a few shots sounded, echoing in the area, loudly ringing the proverbial dinner bell. I cursed beneath my breath and stood up quickly. I raised my gun, pointing it at the head of the guy who had been doing the talking. No one even noticed me at first … the morons had been making too much noise and had shattered an opening in our fence, letting dozens of the undead shuffle into the school yard.

“Hey, Jackass!” I shouted over the melee. Jude swung his gaze to me just as the man with hair pulled back into a greasy pony tail and a goatee did. I held up my left hand in hope that he would see that I really didn’t
want
to mean them any harm, but my scope remained trained on his head. His gun turned in my direction as he shouted at me.

“Stop fucking moving right now!” I stopped and clenched my jaw.

“How did you survive this long?” I asked loudly. His eyes narrowed. “I mean, how fucking stupid can you be?” I continued, fully aware he could pull the trigger at any moment, or maybe one of his teenage soldier’s shaking fingers could slip and I’d be a goner. “You not only let the zombies in, but you even ring the fucking dinner bell for them? Bravo!” I said with a sneer.

“You better watch you smartass mouth, bitch!” he shouted, his face turning a very unattractive shade of red. Bullets were flying behind me, and several of his soldiers were trying to keep the zombies from ruining his little raid, but I knew it wouldn’t be long before we were overrun. And then we would
all
be dead. Without moving my gun, I jerked my head at the petite woman between me and the goatee dude.

“You okay with him killing a bunch of survivors just to take their supplies?” Her face was full of doubt as she glanced between me, him, and our group on their knees.

“He didn’t say we were going to kill anyone. We just need the supplies,” she said, indecision coloring her voice. She searched his face and I hoped she saw what I saw. He
was
planning on killing everyone. Even if we
gave
him our supplies … we were all dead to him.

“Shut your mouth, Nina,” he practically growled. Nina took a step back. He had followers because he’d probably helped them survive, but it was clear he abused the power he’d taken. None of them were following him because of his sterling personality and morals.

“I don’t want to have to kill you, but I will,” I said loudly, my eyes narrowing in on the guy. He laughed loudly one time, his gun moving away from me for just a second and giving me the exact opening I needed. My bullet entered right between his eyes. When he dropped to the pavement, there was a moment of stunned silence as I ran over to his body and turned quickly, training my gun on Nina. Her mouth was hanging open and she had already lowered her gun.

“I didn’t see that coming,” she said after a pause.

“We don’t have to fight each other,” I shouted out into the crowd, secretly terrified to see so many zombies now pouring through the gates. “We’ll be glad to take all of you with us. We have supplies and shelter.” I took a zombie out that had come within two feet of Nina and then lowered my rifle to jerk my knife from its sheath. Her eyes met mine. They were tired eyes, tired of seeing all the crap we had all been through. Nina shrugged and nodded over to the body on the ground.

“I never like that asshole anyway,” she said as she smiled at me. I smiled back and turned to Jude and winked.

“You guys might want to get your weapons. Shit’s about to get real up in here,” I said. They jumped up and immediately began running to help the other’s fight back the undead. Manuel closed the door to the bus before joining everyone else. We fought hard, we fought for those who had died trying to help the group. But, we were fighting a losing battle. Thirty minutes into the fighting, Jude found my gaze, his face resigned. By shooting his gun and knocking down the gates, the man I’d killed had summoned an entire herd of zombies earlier than their normal routine. We were swarmed. Our only hope was to find a place to hole up and wait out the herd, hoping they’d stick to their routine and move on through the area later. Several young people from the group had already fallen and I was so sick of seeing people die.

“Melody!” Jude shouted over the noise to get my attention. “The cafeteria freezer!” I nodded and ran over to Manuel. He whistled, a sharp ear-piercing sound, to get everyone’s attention. I caught Nina’s eye and made a motion for her to round up her group and follow us into the school. Pretty soon all
of us were making a run for it down the abandoned hallways of the high school. I was surprised when I reached the cafeteria doors to see the majority of our group and Nina’s right behind me. When Jude brought up the rear, Manuel began barking orders for everyone to move tables and chairs up against the doors and windows.

“Is that everyone?” Jude asked between breaths. “Is everyone accounted for?” he snapped. Nina nodded, her eyes raking over what was left of her group. Besides her, only a dozen dirty and hurt people remained.

“What about Mike?” Manuel shouted over the noise. Jude shook his head, a frown between his brows. Manuel cursed and then turned to shout at people. We were down to eight people ourselves. About that time a zombie ran itself into the window that faced the courtyard in front of the cafeteria. Several more immediately joined them. It would just be a matter of time before so many showed up that they broke the glass to get in.

“Let’s go everyone … let’s get to the back storage room where the walk-in freezer is,” Jude announced.

“That’s your plan? To go and hide in the freezer?” A young girls with short, spikey black hair asked, her eyes wide in disbelief.

“As a matter of fact it is,” Jude snapped, his eyes daring anyone to cross him.

“If you all had paid better attention to the zombies and the way they were acting around here, maybe you’d notice how they are moving herd-like,” I said. “We figured it out in the first few hours of coming into the area. It’s our best bet. We wait until the herd, hopefully, moves on after the sun goes down and the rest of the undead masses move through this neighborhood. And then we make a run for the bus and get the fuck out of here.”

“Any other questions?” Jude asked sharply. No one said anything, but the sounds coming from the zombies were growing more desperate by the second, and I was sure the glass would be breaking sooner rather than later. “Good, let’s go.”