Dead World (Book 2): Headed North (10 page)

She nods again, as if unaware of the scrape, and then looks down at Chloe whose eyes are shut but she is crying into her lap. “What do we do, Daniel?” Valentine asks. Her eyes are filled with fear and uncertainty.

“I don’t know, Valentine,” Daniel shakes his head, regret and sorrow threatening to overwhelm him. “We can never give up though. We need to protect her,” he says, raising his face to look her in the eyes.

There is a fire there. The utter determination to live despite everything the world has thrown at them. She nods at him gaining strength from him.

“OK. We will protect her,” she says after a long moment.

Terry and peter stand nearby checking their rifles and grabbing ammunition. Terry opts to trade out his rifle for a shotgun and grabs a couple boxes of shells tossing them into a back pack he swings over his shoulder. They wait for Daniel to finish up with Valentine, talking quietly.

“I have to go now,” Daniel says to Chloe, patting her back. “I will be back in just a moment and we can have some food or something. Maybe they have candy left over,” he tries to think of something she would love but fails. She nods slightly keeping her head in Valentines lap. Daniel raises his hand and brushes Valentines hair back from her face. “I will be back,” he says, looking into her eyes and rises to join Peter and Terry to secure the school.

17

Hardin, Montana

“It’s amazing you were able to get so much together,” Daniel says, jogging up to Peter.

They are walking through the abandoned hall of the school. Everywhere there are signs that this was to be a last ditch option. Daniel is put in the mind that maybe they had a sort of communal living arrangement. Those that survived the first few days pooled together their resources so they would be able to better withstand what was to come.

“It’s not nearly enough though,” Peter replies. “It looks like a lot but with a couple hundred people stuck in here it wouldn’t last long.”

The high set windows are crossed over with old iron bars, just beginning to show rust. “This place looks like it was more prison than High School.” Daniel says.

“It’s an old building. Terry and I went to school here when we were young and it was old then. I don’t know why it was designed this way but it saved our asses out here so I can’t complain. There’s only the front door that we came in and a few other doors we will need to check on,” Peter says.

“I think it was always more of a prison than a school. You might be on to something Daniel,” Terry says with a smirk.

“Well whatever it was I’m thankful for it,” Daniel says.

Ahead of them is a door, locked from the inside with a chain and padlock. Outside they can hear the dull roar of all those undead trying to get at them. The zombies slam themselves against the door at irregular intervals, making the chain rattle.

“Why was it already locked?” Daniel asks.

“We decided that having only the one way in or out would be safest. Less chance for something to go wrong you know?” Peter says. Daniel nods at him appreciating the foresight. “I just want to check all these before we call it good.”

They walk around for a while longer. There are a total of six entrances to the school but it only takes them a half hour to go around and check all of the locks. The place is sealed up tight.

The last door they check is the front entrance. There is a long hallway leading to it, littered with debris. They pass the principal’s office as well as other staff rooms.

The front door is a metal double door with small glass windows. Outside the double doors is another set of doors but they are glass. Daniel hadn’t noticed when they made the mad dash in. he approaches the doors with caution. The sound of the dead milling around outside grates his nerves. He pictures Isaiah and Sasha and his stomach clenches. He forces the images down, right now is about surviving. Nothing else.

A hand slaps against the glass window and Daniel sees that the middle finger is missing. The hand slides away leaving a black trail of ichor smeared over the window.

“Pleasant,” says Terry dryly. He walks up to the door, his boots clicking against the ancient tile. The moans of the zombies outside grow louder as they sense him.

Terry rattles the chain link wrapped around the door handle. There comes a slam against the door and the doors swing open as far as they are able before the chain goes taught and the doors get stuck. Dead fingers reach in through the small gap straining to get at them. It’s only a couple inches of opening but the dead are relentless in their desire to get at them.

Daniel can barely see through the crack at the faces beyond. They are stained with blood and rage, most of them missing chunks out of their faces or frostbitten black from the cold nights. A rictus skull pushes at the gap unable to move, the things teeth open and snap shut over and over again.

“Shit they’re ugly,” Terry says with a chuckle.

Peter throws himself at the door and slams it forward but the press of bodies makes it impossible to get it shut again. “We need something to brace the door,” he says looking at Daniel. “Go check in one of the offices see if you can find anything.”

Daniel nods and runs to the first office. Terry and Peter are leaning against the door, grunting and smashing dead fingers in the process. But the zombies don’t recoil in pain. They don’t cry out. They simply moan at the meal so close to them. Daniel’s stomach lurches, nothing should be unable to feel pain.

He runs into the principal’s office. Paper and debris are strewn everywhere. Apparently the good people of Hardin didn’t have quite enough time to take care of everything. Looks like they used the place as a storage facility, a place to get rid of anything they didn’t need.

Shuffling through the stacks of boxes and old desks as quickly as he can Daniel finds a heavy lamp stand. The shaft is solid oak, the light is smashed into uselessness but it will provide the perfect brace for the door. Daniel runs back out to Peter and Terry who are heaving against the door as the dead try to press it open.

“Try to hold it closed,” Daniel says, with the brace in his hands.

“We can’t push it any further,” Peter says with a grunt.

Daniel throws his weight into the door and they are able to force it mostly closed for just a fraction of a second. But it is enough time for Daniel to slide the heavy oak brace through the door handles. The dead ram into the door again with renewed furry but the door barely budges this time.

“Looks like it will hold for now,” Peter says. “Good thing we got it secured before they were able to force through anymore.”

Looking at the crude brace Daniel is reminded of the cross section castle books he loved as a child. They always depicted castle doors being braced with heavy wooden boards to prevent intruders.

“We should probably get back,” Daniel says.

“Well the place is as tight as its going to get.” Terry says. “All we have now is our prayers.”

***

Valentine holds Chloe close to her chest. Her mind is still racing. The little girl cried herself to sleep a little while ago. Valentine tried to calm her down, tried to say everything would be OK. But even she couldn’t believe it.

Her parents just died.

How would she ever recover? Her chest aches with tears she can’t seem to find as she watches Chloe sleep. Chloe’s face is smeared with soot, charcoal black against her dark skin. Her hair is a wild tangle and a scrape on her chin is scabbed over. No seven year old should look this way.

They’d all been together since the beginning and to think that Sasha and Isaiah could just die like that breaks her. Valentine wants to cry. She reaches into the well of pain that seems unending. But she can find nothing, save for a bone deep sorrow that weighs on her like a millstone.

She shifts her weight trying to find a more comfortable spot. Chloe has her head in her lap and Valentine is leaning her own head against the wall. She continues to run her hands through Chloe’s hair. As much for herself as the little girl.

Valentine used to believe in the good in things. But after everything she has seen she knows there is no good. There is only a cold uncaring universe.

The memory of Sasha and Isaiah keeps playing in her mind, she can’t erase the horrible images seared into her heart. Sasha was pulled under with a chorus of screams and moaning, both in pain and terror of what was to come. She watched as her closest friend these past weeks was dragged into the crowd that surrounded them so quickly.

Isaiah dove into the crowd to save his wife. He was wielding the small hand axe and he took off skulls and smashed his way through to her. But there were too many. It was like trying to fight back the ocean tide with nothing but a toy shovel. There was nothing he could do.

Daniel was firing into the crowd the whole time. He tried to save both of them. Valentine had watched as he turned from a man seemingly afraid of everything to someone who just doesn’t know how to give up. Who will keep fighting after everything is gone because all there is left is the fight. She had watched him do it that night that he saved them all and nearly died for it. Then he was about to do the same out there.

That’s when Valentine saw what needed to happen. Her heart wrenches for being unable to save Sasha or Isaiah, but in the end it was not a choice she could make. Chloe was knocked to the ground in the brawl and she was crying. It seemed like all she could ever do these past weeks. Weep for the way the world was crashing around her innocence.

There was a zombie who noticed her in the fray. It was leaning towards her, its half ruined face drooling black ichor. Valentine didn’t have time to think. She just acted. She threw herself at the undead horror and bashed him aside with sheer force of will. The thing went sprawling backwards to be trampled by others who were in the killing frenzy attacking Sasha.

Sasha still screamed under the mass of bodies.              Through little glimpses Valentine could still see her swinging at the crowd too. She was bleeding horribly from so many places but she refused to give in.

Valentine grabbed Chloe then. With strength she didn’t know she possessed she snagged her off the ground throwing her over her shoulder and sprinting for the door. Terry was there waving them to hurry up. Peter was running back towards Daniel firing off shots that saved both of their lives.

After that flight through the chaos, trying to save Chloe, everything blurs together. Her adrenaline washes out of her, her body succumbing to the bone numbing tiredness that they were all feeling.  Valentine closes her eyes just for a moment and she is gone.

A hand on her arm snaps her out of her slumber. Her eyes go wide and she instinctively wraps her arms around Chloe. Her heart thunders in her chest.

“Hey, hey it’s OK,” Daniel says, kneeling beside her. “Everything is OK.”

She nods at him still becoming aware of the world around her. She is in the gym still. Covered in blankets. Chloe sleeps against her lap. She isn’t sure what time it is. The sun is still casting dirty orange light through the windows so it couldn’t have been too long.

“What happened?” she asks.

“We just checked on all the doors,” Daniel says, “Everything is bolted down tight. We could stay here for a while and be safe I think.”

“What if they get in?” she asks. All she can see is the image of Sasha being dragged down by the horde. Her sweet eyes filled with terror.

“They won’t. The doors are safe. There is no way they can break through those padlocks,” he says.

She nods at him again. “So what do we do then?”

“I’m not sure,” he looks down for a moment. “We are going to talk through it. See what options we have. I think we need to stay with Terry and Peter though. We can’t leave here and they know the town better than we do. If we are going to make it out, it will be with them.”

Valentine wishes she had more to add but she feels herself clinging to him like a lighthouse in a storm. She needs him more than ever right now. “What are we going to do with Chloe?” she rubs Chloe’s back. She is curled up into a ball that seems so small and frail.

“We need to talk to her when she wakes up. We need to explain what happened as best we can,” Daniel says, looking at the girl. His eyes are dark, trying to hold in the sorrow that could drown them both.

“Can you explain this to her?” Valentine asks, harsher than she intended.

Daniel looks stung for a moment, he recoils but then he shakes his head. “I don’t know what we can do but we need to do our best. She deserves that,” he says, “We will take care of her. You’re great with her.”

Valentine shakes her head. “No,” she says weakly. “I’m not ready for this. I can’t protect her.” She stares down at the small child again and feels the tears coming back. Her heart aches for the little girl. They have all lost so much but to see it happen to a child is breaking her up inside.

“We will get her to the safe zone,” Daniel says, “I don’t care what it takes but I will get you both there,” he forces a smile for her. “You’re stronger than you think, Valentine. You saved her out there. The rest of us didn’t know what to do but you saved her,” he touches her face, gently brushing her cheek with his hand. “You will do great.”

She nods at him again. “I’m so scared Daniel.”

“I am too,” he says. “We just can’t give up. Ever. We are going to get this girl somewhere safe. Where she can grow up and have a life. You are the last thing she has Valentine. Everything else has been taken from her. You are the one who has to be strong for her.”

There is a long moment of silence, Daniel watches her and Valentine tries to read his eyes. He is stronger than she could ever have imagined, and he is relying on her. “You promise me right now. Promise me you won’t ever give up. No matter what,” he says.

“I promise,” she says, her voice breaking just for a moment. A tear rolls down her cheek.

“Everything is going to be OK, Val,” Daniel says and leans in brushing a light kiss on her cheek. “Lie down for a little while.”

She lets herself lay back. Emotions war inside her but she refuses to give up. She fully intends to keep the promise she made to him.