Orpheus: Homecoming (The Orpheus Trilogy Book 2) (8 page)

"Then, uh," he paused and scratched his temple, "two dozen left inside?"

"Awesome," Ethan sighed. "You want me to spread the word?"

Orpheus nodded.

He cleared his throat and transmitted. "All units, this is Lieutenant Holt. We have good intel that there may be targets inside the school. The number is believed to be four dozen. Stand by for further instructions." He ended the transmission. "Better to overestimate."

"I'm impressed," Orpheus said. "You sounded like you've been military for years."

Ethan theatrically dusted off his lieutenant bars. "Gotta play the role, Captain. Gotta play the role."

The caravan arrived at the high school. Less than a dozen zombies were waiting at the front. Orpheus ordered all of the vehicles but Zulu 2 to stage in the cul-de-sac and hold tight. The zombies scrambled over and beat ineffectively against the vehicles. The occupants of the Jeeps were safely behind reinforced glass. And the Rhinos? Unless the undead had a rocket launcher, they were set. "I know it's going to be real tempting to shoot them or just run them over, but it's not necessary. I want to attract as little attention as possible right now. If more show up, and you think there's any risk, kill them and we'll figure it out later."

"What about us?" Tino asked over the radio.

"Let's do a sweep of the perimeter. Head counterclockwise and we'll meet in the back. If you see any hazards ... a big herd of zombies, a downed tree, mud ... anything that may impede your progress, pull back."

"Copy."

Zulu One and Two headed in opposite directions. Orpheus eased over the curb and onto the school lawn. The zombies were still massed around the other vehicles. The grass, now nearly knee-high, was the only obvious indicator that it had been abandoned. There was only one broken window, right by the front door, and Orpheus had been there for that. Otherwise, the school had been spared the fate of nearly every other abandoned building he had ever seen. The windows were intact, the walls were free of spray paint, and the grounds were free of the detritus of squatters and partiers.

"Doesn't look any different than when we left," Rachel said.

"We should be able to take it back without too much of a problem," Orpheus said. "I'd just be more comfortable if I knew how many are inside, and where." The Jeep drove along the side of the school and passed the external fire escape.

Ethan said, "Dad, stop for a sec."

Orpheus brought them to a stop and sat, waiting.

"The people in this car are four of the five people in the world who have the most experience with the zombies. So here's a stupid question: Has anyone ever seen a zombie just wander up a set of stairs? We've all seen them go up when there was something to chase, but randomly? Never seen it myself."

"You're suggesting clearing the school from the top down?"

"Hey, that sounds familiar," Fish added.

"He's got a point," Rachel said. "We're not sure how many are on the first floor, but we can be reasonably certain that few, if any, are on the second."

"Let's finish our sweep, and if nothing pops up to make us change our minds, that's the play."

Nothing that they saw on their reconnaissance made Orpheus think of a better plan. They met up with Zulu 2 at the back of the school. Orpheus put his window down, and Tim did the same. He said, "Nothing much to report. We couldn't really make out if anything is going on inside, though."

"Neither could we." He filled Zulu 2 in on the proposed plan.

Tim thought for a second and said, "Nope, I can't say that I've seen any of them go up a set of stairs just for funsies. The plan sounds solid."

Orpheus addressed the group. "Downsides?"

German was the first to vocalize his opinion, and his was that he didn't have one. "I'm going to go with the experience on this one. So will he." He pointed to Tino, who nodded.

"All right." He glanced at his watch. "We're burning daylight." He put his window up, pulled a U-turn, and led Zulu 2 back to the cul-de-sac.

When the rest of the force came in sight, Orpheus noticed that the amount of zombies had nearly doubled in their absence. The vehicles still weren't in jeopardy, but the zombies could create a problem for him when he breached the school. He looked at Ethan. "Give the order."

Ethan held the mike to his mouth, then dropped it a few inches. "Are we getting some of this?"

"No, we're hanging back. Tell the Jeeps to stay sealed up, too."

"Should we -”

Orpheus anticipated his son's concern. "The team leaders can handle it."

"Got it." Ethan cleared his throat and went through the call signs. He ended up with, "Romeos One and Two, engage when ready."

No movement came from the Rhinos. The team leaders were no doubt going over the instructions and safety protocols. After about a minute, the first of the hatches opened. Soldiers clambered onto the roof and took up firing positions. Ethan looked at each man and confirmed that each one had a safety tether attached. The tethers only had two feet of give and would prevent any of them from falling off the roof. The team leaders motioned to the soldiers in turn, and each one responded with a thumbs up.

A single word came over the radio. "Engaging."

Everything was quickly drowned out by the rapid reports of men who were shooting at will. Zombies shook and danced as non-lethal shots racked their bodies, until the headshots put them down for good.

Ethan, once as carefree as a young man could be, kept a wary eye on his surroundings, looking to see if any more mobs had been attracted by the gunfire. A few stragglers found their way to the kill zone, but they posed no threat to the overwhelming firepower.

It was over quickly.

Ethan cast a sideways glance at his father, who was smiling as he said, "Our turn."

O

Orpheus ordered the Jeeps to be parked at the base of the fire escape. They were arranged so that they would block any approaching zombies from ascending the stairs if they managed to spot any of the team, but would allow for easy access for the team if things went wrong inside the school and they needed to beat a hasty retreat.

The eight of them climbed out. "Whoa, whoa, not you two," Orpheus said to the two newest members. "You wait here and get ready to drive if we need you. Lena, start mapping it."

"Gimme one sec." She took a reinforced laptop out of her bag and booted it up. Once the map of the school was loaded, she gave him a thumbs up.

"What? Why?" German sounded indignant, demanding a response, which came in the form of more than one angry glare.

Tino was wise enough to take up residence on one of the vehicle hoods. He grabbed his friend by the arm and pulled him backwards. "You got it, sir."

Satisfied, Orpheus led his people up the fire escape. The last thing he could make out was Tino asking, "Have you lost your fucking mind?"

That made him chuckle.

They reached the top of the fire escape. As expected, the window was locked from the inside. Orpheus brought his arm across his body, intending to break the glass with his elbow.

Ethan pulled out a glass cutter and smirked. "Seriously?"

Orpheus dropped his arm and moved aside. "Since when are you the subtle type?"

Ethan attached a small suction cup to the glass and made several revolutions with the cutter. He popped out the cut piece with only a modest effort. Tim shined his light through the hole and surveyed the hallways, while the remaining three trained their weapons on the window.

All of this happened with no cues from Orpheus, no talking at all.
Now that's a team,
he thought.
I wish I could take credit for it.

Tim rapped on the glass several times, not loud enough to carry to the first floor, but it would attract anything close. After a moment, he said, "Nothing," and flipped the lock. He slid the window up and nimbly vaulted through.

Fish, who had been uncharacteristically quiet during the entrance, stage whispered, "Ninja!" and followed him.

Rachel went next. Ethan said, "You go last, Cap. It'll take all four of us to help you through, anyway."

Orpheus found that he had no witty retort chambered.
God, getting old sucks.

He climbed through the window, no assistance necessary, thank you very much.

O

Orpheus reached into his pocket and pulled out a small coil of neon orange rope and duct tape of the same color. During their strategy session, they went over how to clear the school as a group and still be sure that no zombies had gotten behind them. Ethan and Rachel had proven to be a tremendous resource, especially regarding the school. They'd come up with answers for things when Orpheus hadn't even known some of the questions.

He tied an end of the rope to a fire extinguisher and ran it across the hall, where he attached the rope to other wall via duct tape. He repeated the process several more times, making a net. By the time they'd completed clearing the top floor and came back to the starting point, there would be no chance of them missing a random zombie due to nothing more than bad luck or timing.

He took a few tugs on the net, and was confident that it would hold up under its own weight. He transmitted to Lena that they were starting their sweep. "All right, you two. Your show."

Enough light seeped through both the external windows and the smaller ones in the classroom doors that the hall wasn't in complete darkness, so they used the flashlights sparingly.

They began a room-to-room sweep. Ethan remarked to his father that they'd already done this once before, and there was no reason to believe that there were any zombies in any of these rooms, but agreed that not even the slightest risk was acceptable. Ethan and Rachel led the way, he on the left, she on the right. Tim was with Rachel, Fish with Ethan. Orpheus stayed in the middle to ensure that the halls were clear. He marked each door with a piece of duct tape as it was cleared, and radioed in to Lena so she could electronically mark their progress, as well.

Everything they did had a redundancy somewhere, because Orpheus was tired of taking chances.

They worked in relative silence, breaking it only occasionally to acknowledge that a room was clear. As suspected, the second floor was as Rachel and Ethan had left it during their evacuation.

Orpheus had just finished marking a door when he heard Fish blurt, "What the fuck happened in here?" He trotted to where Fish and Ethan were standing. Fish seemed to be embarrassed that he'd lost his noise discipline, whereas Ethan just looked stunned.

Rachel joined them and quickly understood. "This is where Denise ...?”

"Yeah. I'd, uh ... I'd forgotten about this. Damn."

"Who?" Orpheus asked.

Ethan responded, "Might as well show you."

O

The first thing that Orpheus noticed was the odd white substance that covered half the room. At first he assumed that it was flour, and that they had walked into a Home Ec classroom, but the assorted beakers and microscopes told him that he was wrong. "I give, what is that?"

"It's from a fire extinguisher. There was a bad guy here. And there's a body on the other side of that table."

Orpheus leaned his weapon up against a sink and went around the other side. Ethan was correct. A body lay under a clear plastic tarp. Orpheus was pretty sure that it was a female, but he had no inclination to lift up the tarp to confirm it. There was almost no odor of decomposition now, but under the tarp was a completely different story. "You never told me anything about this."

"I never told you about a couple of things. That whole day was just fucking awful." Still, Ethan managed to relate the details of Trent's betrayal and Denise's death.

When he was finished, Orpheus advised Lena of the situation in the science room. He put a hand on his son's shoulder and said, "Hey, we'll make sure she gets a real burial. Is, uh, there anyone else that we need to take care of?"

Ethan took a moment to answer. "No one who still has anything left to bury. Let's just keep moving."

Ethan led them back out, and they continued clearing the floor.

They circled the entire floor without incident and ended up on the other side of Orpheus' net, which was fully intact. "Okay, down we go."

The group stood at the top of the stairwell. The first flight of stairs and landing were clear, but the stairs took two ninety-degree turns before they reached the bottom floor. "We're blind here, so be careful," Orpheus said.

Fish asked, "Hey, guys? What music do you think zombies would hate the most?"

Tim and Ethan answered simultaneously. "Country."

Rachel rolled her eyes. "You guys just don't know good music."

Fish fiddled with his cell phone. "Country ... it ... is." He looked at Orpheus. "Try something?"

"Go nuts."

"Cover me."

Tim crept down the stairs and rounded the corner slowly, making sure that he wasn't going to run into a zombie. He motioned for Fish to follow. Fish whispered, "Here, zombie-zombie. Come chow down on some hoedown." He pressed a button on his phone once more and then flung the cell phone the rest of the way, like a Frisbee. The hard protective case slapped the tile floor and continued to spin as the opening notes of a recent country hit began to play at top volume. He held his palm backwards, indicating that everyone should wait.

They were rewarded with the sounds of pounding footsteps. Orpheus estimated that there were maybe seven or eight sets of footfalls, although it was impossible to know for sure, because they were all in close proximity to one another and moving at something just shy of a dead run. The shapes came into view, mostly in shadow, but somewhat illuminated by the glow of the telephone's screen. The shapes whipped their heads back and forth, seemingly unable to find the source of the sound that drew them.