Deadrise (5 page)

"Sharon we need a radio. How else are we going to know what's happening?"

"But what about those...
things
?" Her face was cracking with fear at the thought of him leaving her.

"We have guns. Those creatures are slow. We can easily outrun them. If-"

"No!" she said sharply, cutting him off. "You’re not going up there! You’re staying down here with your family!"

"Sharon I-"

"FRANK!" this time it was a scream. Everyone fell still. "Please, don't leave us?" she was on the verge of tears.

"I won't." he said softly, resigned. He turned to Zack and Matt. "Sorry guys but you're going to have to do this one without me." There was genuine regret in his eyes. He had been looking forward to going up and getting a look.

"No problem." Zack said, clapping him on the shoulder.

"Are you sure you two can handle it? Maybe you should wait awhile?"

"We'll be fine." Matt said.

"I can go." David said.

"You'll do no such thing!" Sharon bolted right back. "You are going to stay down here!"

"They're going to need help." David retorted. "I can do it." David looked to his father. "Dad? You know they could use the extra hand up there. I know how to handle myself. You know that dad."

"No!" his mother said again. "I don't want any argument. You and your father are staying here!"

"Sharon!" Frank's voice was stern. "If we are going to survive we are going to have to contribute to the effort!" She remained silent. "Matt and Zack had the decency to ask us to come with them. Without them, that bastard Benny and his gang buddies would’ve killed us, or we would have been swarmed by those creatures in the house. But they helped us to escape. We have to contribute our part. We owe them that much at least. If you insist that I stay here with you then I will. But David is a man now. He can take care of himself. I taught him good. He will go with them. They will need his help. Do you understand?" he looked at her long and hard.

"Yes." she said softly.

"Good." he replied. Then he reached out and embraced his wife tightly. She clung to him, heavy sob's wracking her body. He looked up at Matt and Zack as if to ask what am I supposed to do?

David walked up to them, lever action 30.30 in his hands. His eyes were wide, his blond hair a disheveled mess, but there was a nervous smile fronting false bravado etched into his face.

"Are you ready?" Matt asked.

"Yeah." he nodded quickly. He rocked from foot to foot with tension. "I'll be all right."

"We know you will." Zack smiled, clasping him reassuringly on the shoulder. "Piece of cake." Zack looked to Matt. Matt had seen that look a thousand times. It said back my play.

"Listen to Zack," Matt said. "He knows what he's talking about." He smiled widely at the kid. David's face softened, and his smile became more genuine.

"David." His mother called him from the cot. He went to her.

"You be careful baby! Do you understand? You be damn careful!"

"Don't worry Mom." he said, embarrassed. She hugged him tight.

Frank walked up to Matt and Zack. "You take care of my boy up there." He said quietly. His voice was firm, yet his eyes betrayed the emotion's seething within him.

"You got it partner." Matt said, sticking his hand out. Frank took it in both hands, gripping it firmly. Zack put his hand over the top. "You just keep the home fires burning for us." The tension melted away with his remark. David walked over to his father and Frank gripped him by both shoulders. "You watch yourself out there. You hear me son? That isn’t elk or moose out there."

"Don't worry dad. You taught me good. I can handle myself." Father and son looked deep into one another for several long seconds.

"I know you can."

Frank accompanied them up the ladder to the sealed and locked pressure door. Sharon had at least agreed that someone needed to stay near that door to unlock it when they came back. He sealed the large black door behind them, spinning the wheel tight, and throwing the locking lever into place.

Zack took the lead up the stairway, his flashlight probing the darkness above. Emptiness. Before long they found themselves in the same storage room they had come through to go down into the shelter. The engulfing darkness seemed even more menacing with the utter silence.

"Quiet as a tomb." Zack said softly.

"Bad joke." Matt said sourly. "Real bad joke."

"You guys would make terrible hunters." David said. "You make to much noise."

Zack turned off the flashlight, and he peered out into the hall. To the left was the east wing. At the end of its long length were two sets of swinging double doors and a single zombie stumbled about. The light pouring in from outside was dim and hazy, seeming to add to the shadows instead of dispel them. Dusk was approaching. Zack peered to the right, which was west. Twenty feet away the corridor made a T-junction with the main hallway, which was the way they had first entered the school. It too was cast with the same hazy light from the main doors just to the north. A trio of zombies stumbled about through the intersection. Luckily only one was facing their direction, and Zack quickly pulled his head back into the storage room before he could be seen.

"There are three of them out there right around the corner," he whispered, pointing for emphasis.

"Did they see you?" Matt asked.

"I don't think so, but we're going to have to fight to get past them."

"Great." Matt said.

David listened to the banter between the two men, wishing he had their confidence and bravery. His heart was doing a marathon in his chest, and his breath was coming in short quick gasps. He knew if he didn't calm himself, he was going to hyperventilate.

"You wait right here." Matt said, patting his shoulder. "Me and Zack will take care of this."

"I can -" David began to argue in protest but Matt cut him off.

"Your dad told you to listen to us. Right?"

"We have automatic rifles anyway." Zack added. "We can shoot them easier."

"Don't worry," Matt finished." you'll get your turn."

"Lets do it partner." Zack said. They stepped out the door and into the hall, taking quick aim at the three creatures. The roar of the guns was deafening inside the empty hallway. The zombies crumpled to the ground.

"I hope there aren't many more in here. We could run out of ammo real fast."

"How much do you have?" Matt asked.

"I got two full clips with me. You?"

"What's loaded and one extra. We still have that box of fifty down stairs."

"That won't last long." Zack said flatly. Sensing David staring at him, Zack quickly shifted his mood. "Which way to the office?" he asked.

"North down the main hall." They moved quickly and silently to the large double Plexiglas main office doors. Zack tried to pull them open.

"Locked!" he exclaimed. "It figures."

"Step aside." Matt said. Zack moved and Matt took aim at the lock. He squeezed off two quick rounds and the Plexiglas starred halfway up its length, but the door swung open a few inches.

"We're getting to make this a habit." Zack said.

The main office was large and spacious with windows wrapping around the west and north walls. Drab brown drapes were pulled halfway down, but enough light spilled in from outside to make the office bright enough to see without the flashlight. The office was meticulously clean; the desk's all nice and tidy, the floor vacuumed, the waste bins emptied. It looked like it would on any normal evening after the cleaning staff had gone home. Only the wilted plants and flowers gave away the illusion, indicating that the office had not seen a cleaner, let alone any human habitation for several weeks. They moved behind the main counter and began inspecting the desks.

Matt picked up one of the phones and listened… Dead silence. He went back to his rummaging.

David moved over to the window, peering under the blinds. Beyond was the vast expanse of main lawn at the northwest corner of campus. There were at least fifteen zombies stumbling aimlessly across the grass. The main intersection beyond was cluttered with a handful of wrecked vehicles, long abandoned by their owners. There too the dead walked.

"Look at all of them." He said, more to himself than anyone else.

"Don't think about them right now." Matt said. "Start searching these other desks. I'm going to see what’s back here." He headed down the south wing of the office, down a narrow hallway. By the time David pulled himself away from the window, Zack had searched all of the desks.

"Not a radio to be found." he muttered.

"The lockers." David said.

"What?" Zack asked.

"The lockers. The last day of school was like a normal day. We all went home, expecting to come back the next day. But then all of our parents got a call. And they broadcast it on the news that all the schools had been shut down for an undetermined time. That means the lockers are still full. And a lot of students had radios in their lockers."

"Good thinking David." Zack clapped him on the shoulder. "Hey Matt! Lets go!"

Matt came back down the hallway. "Just a conference room back there. No radio."

"No worries. David here has solved the problem." Zack repeated what David had told him.

"But how are we going to get in the lockers?" Matt asked.

"Leave that to me." David said. He went over to one of the large desks and turned the power onto the computer. The screen flashed to life, casting an eerie glow across David's face.

"What are you doing?" Matt asked.

"I'm accessing the schools database. I can get a printout of all locker combinations."

"How do you know how to do that?"

David smiled up at them. "I was an office assistant. I used the system everyday." He turned back to the computer. "Besides, computer's are my
Thing.
"

He waited a moment while the system booted before his fingers began to move rapidly across the keyboard.

"Got it." The printer on the small table beside him kicked to life, and began rapidly printing out the information displayed on the screen.

"Where would we be without you?" Zack asked. David smiled with pride.

"Try and log onto the 'net." Matt suggested.

David clicked the appropriate icon and after several seconds an UNABLE TO CONNECT message popped up.

"No good. It's down."

"Lets get checking those lockers." Zack said.

They began at the lockers just outside the main office. It took them fifteen tries, but at last they found a radio. A small transistor tucked up on the top shelf of the locker. Matt pulled it down and turned the power knob. White noise burst through the speakers. He turned the dial up and down the FM band. Every station carried the whistle of the Emergency Broadcast System. AM was the same thing.

"At least they’re sending a signal." Zack said. "They have set broadcast times."

"Let's get back down to the shelter." Matt said.

They moved quickly, Zack leading, David in the middle and Matt bringing up the rear. Back into the storage room, and down the stairs to the sealed pressure door. Zack banged the pre-arranged signal with the palm of his hand and a few seconds later the door opened, and Frank stood pointing his rifle at them.

"That was quick." Frank said.

"Thanks to David. We'd still be up there knocking our heads together if he hadn't been with us." Zack clapped his shoulder again, and recounted the tale to Frank while he closed and sealed the door.

"Good work, son." Frank said, smiling at his boy.

The radio signal became garbled with static as the door was sealed, but still audible. After they had descended the ladder and were back into the main shelter, the reception was almost nothing.

"Is that all you can pick up on that thing?" Frank asked.

"Every station up and down both bands." Matt said. "And with this shitty reception, we'll be lucky of we pick up the transmission when they do broadcast."

"Dad you should have seen all of those things out there." David's voice was filled with disgust.

"How many were there?" Frank asked.

"I didn't get an exact count but there was at least twenty. Just on the front lawn."

"Jesus." muttered Frank.

"It's like we were saying earlier. There's more and more of them every day. And we're just waiting in here to die." Zack said solemnly. They all remained silent, hanging on Zack’s words…