Lake Yixa (14 page)

     
"Damn it,
give me some idea where you went, Zoe."

     
Sarah decided to
continue on down the hallway she had already been searching. It wasn't long
before she had tried another two doors and found herself at a T-section in the
hallway. To her left, a short hallway
lead
to a large, glass front
door, with one of the doors slightly open.
Sarah
looked down the dark hall
in front of her
, saw a set of
double doors
,
and moved over
to them. She could make out a chain across them and pulled on the door. It
barely opened an inch or two. Sarah did her best to look inside, but it was
pitch black.

     
"Damn it,
Zoe. Where did you go?" she said softly and moved down the hallway toward
the front door.
Maybe she ran back
outside
, Sarah thought as she made it to the doors. She looked outside and
immediately pushed herself up against the wall to get out of sight. Dozens of
zombies milled about just outside.

     
Sarah held her
breath, listening to see if any zombies had seen or heard her, but none made
their way up to the door. She slowly reached out and pulled the door closed
,
and it
shut with a soft click. She then grabbed a wooden chair that sat outside
a door that read
principal
. She did
her best to slide the legs of the chair through the door handles without
banging the chair on the window. Sarah let out a sigh. She backed slowly away,
and that was when she heard the tiny voice.

     
"Sarah."
Sarah stopped in her tracks and whipped around, not seeing Zoe.

     
"Where are
you, Zoe?" she replied softly.

     
"Over
here," Zoe replied. Still, Sarah didn't see her. She started back up the
hallway. She was almost to the end of the hallway when she saw a small arm
sticking out between the double doors.

     
"Zoe!"
Sarah said in a loud whisper as she grabbed her hand and dropped to her knees
by the doors."Are you okay?"

     
"Yeah."

     
"How did you
get in there?" Sarah asked.

     
"I don't
know. A monster was chasing me."

     
"Damn
it," Sarah said softly, but Zoe heard her.

     
"I'm sorry. I
was scared," Zoe said, and it was clear that she was starting to cry.

     
"It's okay,
Zoe. We all get scared. Please don't cry." But it was too late. Sarah
could hear the soft sobs as she held Zoe’s hand. She patted it softly and tried
her best to comfort her.
Where are you,
Jeremy?
Sarah thought to herself as she looked around.

     
"Zoe, I need
to find a way in, okay? I need you to stay by this door, all right?" Sarah
asked as she stood up.

     
"No! Don't
leave me."

     
"It will be
okay. I just need to find a way in."

     
"I'm
scared."

     
"It will be
all right. I won't be gone for long," Sarah said, starting to let go of
Zoe's hand.

     
"No, don't
go. There
are
weird noises here, and it smells bad," Zoe said.
"Like the monster did."

     
Sarah froze.
No, please no
, Sarah thought to herself.
Please don't be zombies in there. Why
would there be zombies in there?
Sarah got her answer almost immediately.
There, next to the door, a sign read
emergency
shelter
. Sarah’s stomach instantly felt sick, and she slowly squatted down
by the door.

     
"Zoe,"
she said in barely a whisper. "I need you to be as quiet as you can.
Whatever you do, don't make a sound. Squeeze my hand if you can do that for
me." Zoe squeezed Sarah’s hand in reply. Sarah wished she had an axe, a
hammer, or anything to try and open the door quickly.

     
"You're going
to be a big girl for me, right?" Zoe squeezed Sarah’s hand again. Sarah
did her best to fight back tears.

     
"I'm going to
have to try and find a way in, okay? It will only be for a few minutes. Just
stay very quiet." Zoe squeezed much harder this time. Sarah thought she
wasn't going to let go, but then she did.

     
Sarah got up
quickly and moved back down toward the hallway she had past. When she thought
she was far enough away, she started to run. She slid around the corner and
continued to sprint up the hallway. As she passed each door, she pulled on the
door handle. Most were locked, but there were a few that were not. She quickly
looked in to find empty classrooms. She soon found herself at a set of double
doors that went back outside.

     
The distant sound
of Zoe’s scream seemed to bounce around the empty hallways forever. Sarah
turned
and took off at a dead
run. The hallway seemed
longer on the run back.

     
"ZOE!"
Sarah was screaming as she ran. She didn't care anymore. She rounded the corner
and slid
in
to the wall. She pushed herself off and continued to
run.
Sarah
could see Zoe's arm waving.

     
"Sarah! Help
me!" Zoe cried.
"The monsters are
coming toward me."

     
"I'm here,
Zoe
," Sarah said as she slid
to a stop in front of the door
.
 
"
Move your arm in for me. I'm
going to try and break the door open
.
" Zoe
listened
and moved her arm.

     
"Open, damn
you!" she shouted as she pulled and
tugged
at the door.
She stopped
,
and Zoe's hand came back out. Sarah took it.

     
"I'm scared,
Sarah," Zoe said.

     
"It's going
to be okay, Zoe. Can you get away from them?" Sarah asked.

     
"There
are
so many
monsters," Zoe said. Her voice filled with utter fear. Tears streamed down
Sarah’s face.

     
"I need you
to try and get away from them, Zoe," Sarah said. Zoe had stopped squeezing
Sarah’s hand. She was too scared to do anything but sit there in the dark.
 
Sarah held her hand and squeezed it tight.

     
"You need to
try for me," Sarah said, still squeezing her hand. Finally, after a
moment, Zoe squeezed her hand back.

     
"Please,
Zoe."

     
The high-pitched
scream Zoe let out filled Sarah’s ears with ringing. Her hand went limp and
then jerked a little inward. Sarah dropped Zoe’s hand and scrambled backward a
few feet. Her eyes fixated on the tiny hand sticking out from between the
doors.

     
"Sarah!"
Jeremy’s voice came from the end of the hallway. Sarah never took her eyes off
of Zoe's hand. "Where is she?" Jeremy asked as he ran up. Then he
stopped and looked where Sarah was staring. The small hand jerked and then
vanished between the doors.

     
"No!"
Jeremy screamed and started pulling and kicking the door. The chain rattled and
crashed against the door but never gave way. "Zoe!" Jeremy cried out.

     
Sarah didn't move,
her eyes never leaving the spot where Zoe’s hand used to be. Jeremy continued
to smash at the doors with everything he had.

     
The shattering of
glass behind Sarah snapped her back. She turned and saw the large horde of
zombies breaking down the front door. She got to her feet and put her hand on
Jeremy’s shoulder.

     
"Don't touch
me!" Jeremy shouted, spinning around to face Sarah. Rage filled his eyes.
His breathing was heavy. Sarah stepped back, away from him.

     
"We have to
go," she said. Jeremy didn't reply. He just continued to look at her. The
look in his eyes frightened her. "They are breaking in," she said,
pointing to the front door. Still, Jeremy said nothing. "You still have
Matt. You can't die here, too," she said as she started to move down the
hallway toward the door they had come in from. Sarah reached the doorway and
took one last look at Jeremy. He was on his knees in front of the door, not
moving.

     
Sarah ran as fast
as she could back to the camp. She found Matt crying in the backseat.

     
"Is Zoe ok
ay
?" he asked
when he saw Sarah open the car door. Sarah stopped and looked at him, not sure
what to say. She grabbed the camping pack she had been using and set it on the
hood of the car.

     
"Um,"
was all that came out of her mouth.
Sarah
retrieved
the bag of
canned food and took four out of the eleven cans
, along with
the bag of rice.
Sarah
stuffed them into her bag and then grabbed the remainder of
cat food and set that on
the hood with her pack
. She moved to
the trunk of the car where the box of seeds had been set down.
Sarah
started to pull
the seed packs out
and tossed them into her bag as well.
Sarah
closed the bag
and set it next to the back
wheel
of the car
,
along with the cat food
.

     
"Your dad
should be here soon," Sarah finally said as she paced back and forth by
the fire. Matt curled up inside the backseat and continued to cry.
Come on, Jeremy. Don't you do this to Matt.
Don't do this to me
, she thought to herself. Time seemed to go by slowly.
The sun climbed
the sky and began to make its
journey downward
toward the horizon.

     
Sarah was sitting
on a stump by the fire when the sounds of rustling bushes made her stand up,
axe in hand. Jeremy stepped through, covered in blood. Sarah looked at him. He
did not return the look to her. He started to strip down, throwing the bloody
clothes onto the ground. Sarah didn't wait any longer. She moved over to her
pack and put it on
, slinging the
rifle over her shoulder and
carrying
the axe in
one
hand.
Sarah
snapped her
finger once, and Tux came out from under the car.
Sarah picked up the cat food
bag,
turned and started back the way they had come.

     
Sarah made it back
to Liam's faster than she thought she would.
Sarah
didn't stop very much
because she
wanted to put as much space between her and that town as she
could.
Sarah
tried not to think about Jeremy and Matt. She missed
Matt, but she didn't want any more people to die.
 
Plus, the way Jeremy had looked scared her.

     
She still had two
cans of food and a bag of rice when she got back. She spent the next few days
searching the woods around the house for berries and other plants she could
eat. She found a few wild things to eat, and when she didn't, she made a tiny
bit of the rice while saving the canned food as long as she could. She had read
the back of each seed pack and planted the ones that would be best for the time
of year.

     
It wasn't long
before tiny plants started to come up through the ground. Sarah had also gone
back and re-searched the house, adding a few cans of food and a box of oatmeal
to her food supply. She had found Liam's friend, Frank’s house. She buried the
family because she felt Liam would have done so if he had a chance.

     
They must have
been canners. Sarah found a large amount of home-canned foods, along with a
handgun. It was a revolver and was easy to load and clean. She made sure to
carry it with her at all times now, along with the axe.

     
Sarah was sitting
in the kitchen eating a bit of canned pears when a voice came from outside. She
stood up and looked out one of the slits in a window. A man stood about ten
yards from the front of the house. He was dressed in all camo. Sarah pulled the
revolver from its holster and went outside.

     
"Hello?"
the man said.

     
"Can I help
you?" Sarah
asked.
She looked him over from head to toe. He was decked
out in full camo and held a small handgun in his hand.