My Teacher is a Zombie (Supernatural Learning Book 1) (5 page)

A cheer erupted from the crowd. "Touchdown Ashland!"

"We'd better get going." Stanley turned and walked quickly, adrenaline pushing him faster than he would normally walk. Even though killing Mr. Burstein still had him shaken up, knowing Mrs. Applebaum had become a zombie and now threatened Ashland drove him forward despite his fear.

The rest followed along and they made their way under the bleachers. They had come in from the side opposite the parking lot and as far as they knew, no one had noticed them. No one that is, except...

"Hey girls. I thought I told you to stay away from here."

Rex Ruffington, still wearing the same Misfits t-shit, torn jeans, and steel toed boots, stood at the bottom of one of the ramps. He took a toothpick from his mouth and flicked it into the dark.

"Look, Rex. People here are in danger," Stanley said.

"I'd say there are what looks like five that are in big trouble. Did you think that if you brought friends I'd go easy on you or something? Or maybe you just didn't hear me when I said to stay away from here." Rex stomped in the dirt and made a lunging motion toward them.

Stanley didn't flinch. He'd killed one zombie tonight. That was all the scaring he could take. Rex was only in their way of getting their job done. At this point, no one was going to get in the way.

"Look, Rex. We've got something to take care of. If you're not going to help, just stay out of the way."

Rex's eyes widened as he noticed the machete in Stanley's hand. "What the hell is that?"

"This is what I need to take care of the business at hand. Now if you don't mind getting out of our way, we're got a teacher to find."

Stanley looked back at his friends. They had all moved back, leaving him in front alone. When he looked back toward Rex, he saw Mrs. Applebaum had appeared from nowhere and reached for Rex.

"Rex! Look out behind you." Bert yelled.

"I don't care if you've got a bat and he's got a machete. I'm not falling for that old trick."

Mrs. Applebaum grabbed Rex's shoulder and the boy nearly flipped out of his skin. He might have succeeded if her grip had not brought him to his knees. Her face, covered in blood, no longer looked even remotely human. The mushroom on her neck had grown even larger and several smaller ones appeared to be growing from other parts of her body. She forced Rex down and leaned in to bite him.

Stanley, not thinking, but just acting, lunged forward and swung the machete down onto Mrs. Applebaum's arm. Thick, dark gore poured out of her arm and she hissed. The smell from her mouth had a physical presence that caused Stanley's eyes to start to water. Rex jumped up and knocked Stanley down as he rushed over to stand with the other kids.

"Stanley! Get up! She's heading up the ramp. People are up there."

He didn't need William telling him what to do. "William, set off the fire alarm. Polly, Zita, get up to the..."

Another cheer rose up from the crowd. "Touchdown Ashland. That brings the score to thirteen, zero." The band sounded up and muffled out all other noise.

Stanley pointed to Polly and Zita and made a motion of a talking into a microphone using the handle of the machete. The girls nodded and ran down to the tower stairs. Off in the distance, the fire alarm sounded, but with the crowd noise and the band, it was nearly impossible to hear.

Motioning for William to stay put, Stanley waved for Bert to follow him. With the machete he pointed to Rex and to the severed arm on the ground. Rex, quite possibly for the first time in his life, looked scared. It made Stanley feel good to know that the bully was able to be frightened just like anyone else.

The first screams came from up above and the sounds of the band went from the Ashland High School fight song to disparate toots, tweets, and crashes. Footsteps stomped and rattled as people cleared the stands. With a glance back to Bert, the two boys ran up the stairs. They knew what needed to be done.

Mrs. Applebaum stood at the top of the ramp holding someone's father with her remaining arm. The man fought and his eyes pleaded with the boys to free him. Stanley, just as he had done with Rex, slashed down with the machete. The man fled, screaming hysterically. Again Mrs. Applebaum hissed her disapproval.

"I guess she's not going to give us an 'A' this semester,"

"Let's just get this done with." Bert put his hand on Stanley's back and gave him a gentle nudge forward.

Stanley raised the machete and prepared to cut off his teacher's head. He'd done it once before. It wasn't easy, but it needed to be done. Only he could do it.

Mrs. Applebaum vomited on him. The smell of rotting blood and death made him retch and slip on the mess on the floor. She somehow knew what they were trying to do and she started up the stairs, away from them. Bert started after her, but he also slipped on the gory, steel flooring and fell on top of Stanley.

A curious pain flared in his shoulder. When Bert got up he reached down and held out his hand to help Stanley get to his feet.

"What are you two doing up there? You need to get her!" William yelled from the bottom of the ramp.

"Yeah, get her!" Rex yelled, his voice squeaking as he did.

Stanley moved his arm and the pain became more intense. He tried not to cry out, but he couldn't help himself.

"What is it?" Bert rolled him over. "Oh dang!"

The machete had dug into Stanley's shoulder making his right arm almost useless. Pain and blood and steel all fell back to the ramp.

"I can't. I can't do it."

Bert paled. "Stanley, you have to get up. I can't do this without you."

"Everyone, please try remain calm. We have the situation under control." Polly's amplified voice echoed across the now empty field.

There were only a few footsteps still rumbling across the bleachers. Sirens blared off in the distance. Stanley's vision came in and out of focus as the pain also ebbed and flowed.

"Come on, you have to get up. I don't think I can do this myself. I need you."

A scream came from the announcer's booth.

"She's up there with the girls. Come on Stanley. Let's go!"

Stanley got pulled to his feet. For a moment the world went dark and he thought he was about to fall down. He reached out with his right arm, but instead fell into the handrail. With his left hand he righted himself.

"Where's the machete? Let's finish this."

Bert put the machete handle in Stanley's left hand. It felt slick with blood and gore. He gave it a test swing. He wasn't even sure if he could perform the killing blow, but there were two girls up there that needed him. Their screams amplified and echoed and grunts and moans of the zombiefied Mrs. Applebaum mixed in.

Bert helped Stanley up the stairs, but the progress was too slow and despite the pain in his shoulder, Stanley forced himself to go as fast as possible up the stairs.

Inside the booth Polly stood with a chair holding Mrs. Applebaum back. The girls' shrill screams didn't seem to have any affect on the undead.

Bert once again raised the machete and swung at Mrs. Applebaum. His target, not one of her arms, but instead her neck. The blow cut, but not deeply enough to sever the head. Mrs. Applebaum spun around quicker than any dead person he had ever known. The machete slipped from his hand and, while still in her neck, banged into the announcer's booth and threatened to become dislodged.

"What do I do now?" Bert asked.

"I need the machete. I don't think I can get it from her. Can you knock it loose?"

No sooner did he ask, the machete fell from her neck. Stanley watched as it fell down and bounced on the bleacher deck. He took a breath as it spun in place and skipped toward the edge. Thirty or forty feet down Rex and William yelled up. Perhaps yelling, perhaps asking how it was going, perhaps just trying to get an update over the screaming girls.

Stanley fell to the deck. He didn't know if he'd be quick enough to grab it, but he had to try. His weight hitting the deck hurt and caused the machete to bounce into the air. He reached out for it as it passed between two safety rails. His fingers missed it at first. The blade hit one of the rails and the handle hit the back of Stanley's hand. With his right arm crushed underneath him, he tried to turn his hand around and grab the handle.

Success. He had a hold of the machete, but the very end of the handle. All he had to do was...

Mrs. Applebaum fell on top of him and he nearly lost his grip. Somehow he managed to clench his left hand enough to keep a hold of his weapon. Her putrid breath neared and he could almost feel her teeth close to his skin.

He rolled. He adjusted his grip to get a better hold on the machete. He swung. He swung and he swung and he swung. It took several tries, but finally the head of his U.S. History teacher fell and rolled down the stairs. Bert chased it with the baseball bat. Polly and Zita emerged from the announcer's booth and rolled the now still body off of Stanley.

The next couple of hours went by in a blur. There were a lot of people all surrounding Stanley and then came the flashing lights. Mostly the red and blue variety, but there was also a number that were distinctly camera flashes. A microphone appeared at some point, but Stanley had lost the ability to talk.

When all the excitement settled down, he and the rest of the kids were in a hospital. The curtain flew back and nurse appeared.

"There are five kids out there that say they're not leaving until you do. Your mother has been contacted and you can wait for her in the waiting room. The rest of them are just causing a ruckus."

Stanley's newly stitched and bandaged arm did him no good. He'd missed everything vital, but the doctor said with something that deep, it would take weeks to heal. He'd lost a lot of blood and that meant he'd be spending the next week at home recuperating.

Walking into the waiting room was like walking into a wall of sound. William, Polly, Bert, and Zita all talked with reporters and police. Each of them talking as loudly as possible and all of them at the same time.

"Hey."

Rex had been standing next to the door. With his brain all fuzzy, he hadn't seen him standing there.

"Hey." Was all Stanley could muster.

"Look, I don't say this too often."

Rex didn't say anything else. Stanley knew what the bully wanted to say. He just nodded and Rex did his best attempt of smiling and left before anyone could ask him any questions.

"That's him! That's the one."

"How do you feel after killing one of your teachers?"

"How long were you aware that she'd been a threat?"

"Has Mrs. Applebaum's family contacted you about this?"

"Do you consider yourself a hero or a killer?"

"Ladies and gentlemen. You'll have time to ask your questions after the police have had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Kodluboy. For now he needs his rest. When he's ready to answer questions we will make him available."

Another police officer put his arm around Stanley. "Come on, son. I'm going to take you home. It's been a rough night and your mother is waiting."

Chapter 7

"I can't believe the entire time you were supposed to stay home they had the entire school closed. You didn't even have to miss any school What a rip!"

Bert and Stanley made their way from lunch to U.S. History. They would have a substitute for the rest of the year.

"It's alright. I mean, my shoulder is healing. At least I don't have any homework to make up."

William rolled up with Polly in tow. "Stanley, I'm glad to see you're up and about. I can't believe the police and the school covered this whole mess up."

"Well, what were they going to do? Give me a zombie killing merit badge and admit those things exist? I think we got lucky that the school and police kept our names out of any reports. I saw some government cars in the parking lot."

"You did?" Polly looked like she wanted to go talk to the officials.

"Hey, it happened. We know what happened. That's all that matters, right? Come on guys. It's not like something like this could ever happen again."

No one said anything. Stanley let out a wry chuckle and the four of them made their way to class.

"Hey girls."

Rex stood in their way. He and Stanley exchanged a long stare. The red-haired boy nodded to Stanley. Stanley smiled and nodded back. The five of them went to U.S. History.

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