Survive (14 page)

John sighed. “You’re right, Jose. Look, we have a lot to do today. Let me think about it, okay? It’s a good idea.”

Jose smiled at the praise. He stood up. “Sick! Alright, I gotta find my woman. Catch you later, man.”

As he walked away, John picked up the report again, pushing the plastic armor idea to the back of his mind. Douglas had put together a handwritten report showing at least thirty groups of survivors within a hundred square miles. Two groups were within twenty miles of them. One of those groups consisted of several young children and a school nurse who had managed to lock themselves into an old fallout shelter under the school. They’d found a radio down there and reached out. John sighed as he read the rest of the assessment. The students had no food and very little water. He read the rest of the report. The last part was of special interest.

Alaska reports they have isolated all cases of what we would call Zed Infection and are a safe haven. They have declared themselves independent and are offering safe haven for anyone who can reach them and pay an immigration fee. Also, a survivor in Concord, New Hampshire claims to have been in a shelter with several other survivors when a group of armed men in camouflage attacked them. They demanded information and supplies. They executed most of the survivors before leaving.

John pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to get a handle on everything he’d learned. He was nursing a headache when Sara came up to him, Fish and Princess happily following along. Fish attempted to wag his nonexistent tail when he saw John, but only succeeded in shaking all over. Thwarted, he flopped down on the grass and sighed. Princess mimicked him exactly.

“Why the long face, sweetheart? I mean, other than the end of the world and the living dead eating everyone around us,” Sara said, slipping her arm around John as she sat down next to him.

“Oh you mean besides no internet, no more Whoppers, no more new Mustangs, no more Coca Cola?” John asked, smiling.

“Yeah, that’s what I mean. Who needs Mustangs, anyway?” Her family, or parts of it, arriving had put a new glow on her face that John hadn’t seen for a long time.

“Well, Patrick says we need more people to work on the fence. Jose wants to make plastic armor. We need medicine at some point, and we don’t know how long we’re going to have to be here like this, and oh yeah, there’s a bunch of school kids locked in a fallout shelter nearby dying of hunger.”

Sara absorbed it all silently. She held John tighter. “That’s a lot to take on, John. That isn’t all your responsibility.”

“If I don’t take it on, who will? People seem to be listening to me here. Maybe we can make it until they find a cure or something. But until then, we have to accept the horror of the absurd and survive. But you know damn well I can’t leave kids to die out there.”

“Of course you can’t. So what are you going to do? What are
we
going to do?”

“I’m going to go get them. I’ll take the dump truck and a couple of volunteers. You’re going to stay here and keep morale up. Teach the younger people those campfire songs you tried to teach me.”

“Just like that? You can leave just like that?” Sara asked.

“I don’t know, Sara. I could make a plan, but it would probably just be a waste of time.” John laughed.

“Cut it out. This is serious,” Sara said, her voice cold. “You don’t have to go, John. You could tell someone to go.”

“You know I can’t do that, Sara.” He wrapped his worried wife in his arms.

“You could, but I know you won’t. I’m going with you.”

“I’d really rather you didn’t. Not this time. There’s just so much to do here, and you’re the person I trust the most in this whole dying world.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Other than the songs? Well, we need to get the new people settled somewhere, and hopefully there will be a bunch of kids that need a place to sleep too. We’ve got the old hunting shack that needs to be opened up and cleaned out. The roof is solid, it just needs some cleaning.”

Sara thought for a moment.

“Maybe we could turn it into a dormitory of sorts. Maybe Mom could do something with it. She needs something to do with her time, or she’ll go crazy. She hasn’t said anything and I’m not going to bring it up, but I know she’s been thinking about my dad.”

John nodded. “That’s a great idea! About the dorm, I mean. Can you take care of it? If you need anything...”

“I can handle it, John. Don’t worry. But I’m not happy about you going.”

“I know, Sara. I’m sorry, but I have to.” He pulled Sara against him and kissed her hard on the lips.
No way can I die if this is what I’d be missing
, he thought.

* * *

“I need three volunteers to go rescue some school kids and their nurse from starvation and the Zeds.” John stood on top of the dump truck addressing the Mason clan and their new guests after saying his see-you-laters with Sara.

Several hands went up. John looked down at the crowd.

“Not this time, Jose. You already did your part.”

Jose put his hand down reluctantly. John pointed to Roger, Truck, and Stanley, a newcomer with a last name John couldn’t remember. He was a tall fellow with gangly arms and legs, but he claimed to know his way around a rifle. They grabbed backpacks filled with ammunition and sandwiches Sara had given them and climbed up into the dump truck.

Roger drove the big truck out to the barricade. Marta and Alison were standing on top of the container taking their turn at watch. They climbed down as the truck approached, started the tractor, and pushed the container aside. The big truck drove past the barricade. The large container slid into place as soon as they cleared the area.

The four men drove twenty-three miles through town, up route 5, to Townshend, Vermont. Along the way they ran over several Zeds and pushed a number of cars out of the road. At one point they saw a huge pack of Zeds off in the distance surrounding a barn. Frantic mooing and at least one barking dog could be heard coming from inside the big red building. Roger looked questioningly at John, but he shook his head and indicated they should continue.

They pulled into the parking lot of the elementary school at 3:15 in the afternoon. Cars sat in the parking lot. A big yellow bus had been driven into the wall of the school, causing some of the masonry to crumble around the nose of the bus. At least a dozen Zeds wandered the parking lot. John could see slow, shambling movement through the big windows of the school.

Roger pulled the dump truck as close to the main entrance of the school as he could get. He climbed up onto the roof of the truck and began firing at the Zeds in the parking lot. He took a deep breath between each shot, lined up his target, and squeezed the trigger. Each shot dropped a Zed to the pavement.

John, Truck, and Stanley entered the school with Truck in the lead, John in the middle, and Stanley bringing up the rear. The interior of the school lay in shadows as the trio walked through the halls, weapons held in front of them. Truck flicked on his Maglite as he walked.

Suddenly a Zed dressed in a white food service uniform jumped out of an open doorway and reached for Truck. The creature grabbed Truck in its dead fingers and opened its jaws, lunging for Truck’s neck. Truck raised his left arm to block the creature as he yelled. Just as the Zed’s jaws were about to snap closed on Truck’s arm, John brought his MP5 up and pulled the trigger. A quick three round burst blew the Zed’s head clean off moments before its fangs would have ripped into Truck’s arm. Instead, blood and brain matter splattered all over the wall behind the Zed, a few splatters hitting Truck in the face. The Zed’s body dropped like a stone.

Truck stood motionless for a moment, then lifted his hand up to his face. As he felt the wetness there, he dropped his gun and Maglite and ripped his shirt off. He began wiping his face frantically with the shirt.

“Oh god, get it off me!” he yelled.

John grabbed Truck and took the shirt from him. “Hold still, I’ll get it.”

Truck calmed himself while John finished wiping the blood splatters off his cousin’s face. When he was done, he dropped the shirt onto the floor.

“All done. Let’s go.”

“Are you sure? Did you get it all? Oh Jesus, I don’t want to turn into one of those things!” Truck said, verging on hysteria.

“Relax, Truck. I got it. You’re going to be fine. Besides, we don’t know if it comes from the blood or not.”

“I don’t want to be the first one to find out, either!” Truck’s hands trembled as he picked up his rifle and flashlight. John pushed past him and took the lead, allowing Truck to take the more protected middle position.

They walked until they found a door marked BASEMENT. They pushed the door open as they heard more shots from outside. The door opened onto a stairwell leading down into darkness.

As they reached the bottom they faced another door. This one had the old fallout shelter symbol on it. John pushed the door, but it wouldn’t budge.

“It’s locked from the other side.” John said. He pointed to Stanley to watch the stairs. Then he knocked on the door several times.

A female voice answered, saying “Hello? Is anyone there?”

“We’re here, we’ve come to get you out of here.” John said as loudly as he dared, hoping not to attract any more Zeds to their position.

The door rattled for a moment before slowly opening outward. John stood facing an older woman wearing a light blue nurses uniform. She had a name tag that proclaimed her as Margaret, R.N.

“Are you the police?” she asked.

“No ma’am, but we’re as close as you’re going to get. We’re here to rescue you. We have a safe place to take you.”

“Safe? What is going on out there?” Margaret asked as she peered at the men holding guns in her school.

“I promise we’ll fill you in later, but we have to get out of here. Our radioman heard you had children in here.”

Margaret motioned for John to come into the room. As he entered, the red of the emergency lights lit up a room filled with children. John blinked in astonishment. “How many children are in here with you?”

“Thirty one. I tried to help the rest but...” Margaret broke down, holding her head in her hands.

John took her arm and started guiding her toward the door. “It’s ok. You did great. Let’s get you all out of here, though. Trust me, you’ll be much safer where we’re going.”

Margaret looked at John, trying to judge whether or not she could trust her children with him. John saw this in the look of her eye, and knew he needed to tip the balance in his favor.

“We could really use your medical knowledge in our camp. My mother used to be a nurse too. And we even have a teacher, my wife, Sara, to look after the children.”

The school nurse seemed to be reassured by that and called to the kids. She made them line up behind her. John motioned for Stanley to take the lead, followed by Truck, then the nurse and the students, with John bringing up the rear.

Stanley quickly led the group back through the halls to the entrance. Roger stood on top of the truck watching for Zeds. The parking lot was littered with the dead bodies of his targets. None moved. Truck began helping the students up into the back of the truck, far above the reach of any Zeds. Most of the children were safely in the truck when a Zed wearing a cardigan sweater and flannel tie came running out of the school.

It ran right past Stanley and attacked one of the children before anyone knew it was there. Stanley screamed as it bit the child savagely, killing the little boy instantly. John swung around, trying to get a bead on the Zed. The Zed pushed the dead boy out of its way and reached for a little girl in a yellow dress. Stanley screamed in outrage and rushed at the Zed, not willing to risk a shot into the crowd of children. He tackled the Zed from behind. They went down in a heap. Truck started picking up the remaining children and throwing them bodily into the back of the truck, one after the other.

John ran to where Stanley and the Zed were rolling on the ground. The Zed had his teeth firmly set into Stanley’s neck, but the brave survivor wouldn’t let go. John pressed the barrel of his rifle against the head of the Zed and fired. It finally stopped moving as Stanley’s lifeblood flowed from his severed jugular.

Stanley stopped moving. The last child made it into the back of the dump truck. John’s eyes were blurry when he put a bullet into Stanley’s head.

* * *

The ride back to the Mason compound was relatively uneventful. John filled Margaret in on what had happened to the world, as much as he knew, on the way. She took the news in stride, more concerned with her children than with her own fate. The children for the most part were more fascinated by the ride in the big dump truck and not having to wear seatbelts than anything else.

Good thing kids bounce,
John thought to himself.

They reached the barricade just before dark. As they drove through the pass and into the family driveway, a small crowd of people came out to meet them. Douglas ran in the lead and met John as he hopped down off the truck.

“John, we’ve got a big problem.”

Chapter 10