Class of 2013 - 8

Chapter Eight

The night passed without any further incident after we loaded the truck with supplies and the reloading bench, though Chien and I did have dinner and talk about how things might end up going from here on out. We came to the basic conclusion that until the military showed up, any survivors were going to be on their own. Thankfully, the survivors of P.M.A. at least had weapons and plenty of ammunition due to the School’s own stock, and all the weapons and ammo that was at my place. Chien’s place had given us some ammo, but not too much more than we had. The stock that was at my house probably increased our total ammunition count by five to ten percent. Once we were able to raid Big 5 and Wal-Mart, I was sure that we’d have at least enough ammunition to clear the city, with any luck. We could hope, at least.

The next morning we made ourselves breakfast with what was left in the house, and we actually had something akin to a buffet being that we knew after a week or two, all the frozen food was going to go to waste. A thought had come to me though. There were likely a lot of refrigerators and freezers that were stocked, and I was sure that the freezer at the school had plenty of space in it. Better, there were plenty of outlets at the school if we needed to plug things in. In theory, we had ways to increase our maximum amount of supplies a great deal, but we had to act fast. Our duty right now was to get back to the school, but I was going to advise Sweet to let us start some reclamation work in the outlying areas of town. James and I always argued about it, but I had never been one to just be willing to survive. I had always wanted to thrive.

Once we were finished with breakfast, we grabbed the weapons and loaded them into the Suburban. There were a lot of them, too: besides the bats and training swords, there were also three Colt 1911’s, two Beretta 9mm pistols, two Ruger twenty-two caliber single action revolvers, two Ruger twenty-two caliber semi-automatic pistols, a .357 magnum, two Remington 870 shotguns, a semi-automatic twenty-two caliber rifle, a bolt action twenty-two caliber rifle, and finally a scoped AR-15. If you’re wondering why we had fifteen guns at my house, it wasn’t because we thought there were going to be zombies. No, actually, my father served in Vietnam as a United States Marine – and he was from Kansas. Top that off, when he was given a medical discharge and forced out, he became a Riverside County sheriff and an N.R.A. member.

After he got out of the sheriff’s department, he ended up doing security work, and then started his own security company – Chordata Private Contracting – and providing armed guard training. He’d also made sure that, growing up, I knew how to handle weapons – at least to the point where I wouldn’t shoot myself or someone else on accident. Well… that, and so I could actually shoot, and shoot well. Truth told, the AR-15 was one of the main reasons I wanted to come to my place. The food, water, and ammunition was a good enough excuse to get us here, but that AR-15 was what I really wanted. I knew I could shoot damn well with it, and hit targets out to about two hundred yards. I wasn’t the best shot ever, but I was good enough not to get eaten by zombies.

Once we had everything loaded and I snagged the keys out of the kitchen, we headed down to the gate, Chien going out first, followed by me. Once we were out, he got out with that long barreled shotgun of his to stand guard while I locked the gate. There was nothing even remotely close to us, but it did feel good to have a gun out, just in case. Gate locked, we got back in our vehicles and headed back toward town. Most places seemed empty, deserted, but here and there we could see the roaming corpses. Most of the way there wasn’t anywhere near the center of town, but there were still enough residences close by that we were able to spot some of them. It looked like a lot of people had tried leaving town. I couldn’t help but wonder how far they had gotten in the attempt. I doubted it was very far, sadly enough.

Pulling into the front visitor parking area, in front of the gated off student/teacher parking lot, we did a quick check around us to make sure there were no zombies nearby, and then opened the gate. Chien drove in first while I stood guard with my AR-15, and then he stood guard with his shotgun as I drove in. Once we were in, we closed the gate and then drove both vehicles over to the interior gate that we’d tried to pick the day before. From this side we didn’t need to use a key to open the gate, it had push bars on it, but erring on the side of caution I gave Chien the radio. A moment later he had climbed up on top of the Suburban to make sure he had a better signal.

“Commandant Sweet? James? Lea? Any of you awake in there?” Chien called over the radio. It was quiet for a couple of moments before we got an answer.

“We’re all in the back.” It was James that answered. “You guys gotta get back here. There’s some freaky shit that you’ve got to see.”

Chien and I looked at one another for a moment, and then Chien radioed back. “Freakier shit than zombies? You sure you’re not high, James?”

“Shut the fuck up, Chien. I’m not high, and I’m not kidding. Get back here and see for yourselves!” We looked at each other once more and I shrugged a bit. I couldn’t imagine what it was that he thought was freakier than zombies, but I had to admit that I was curious.

Climbing down off of the SUV, Chien handed the radio back to me, and we headed into the school – taking our weapons with us; Chien with his shotgun and bat, and me with the AR-15 and bokken. Of course we had the obligatory chat about what it could possibly be, but neither of us had that good of an imagination. After all, what was freakier than zombies? Heading back to the parade deck, we soon discovered just what our answer was: zombie corpses. Why were they stranger than actual zombies? Because they were the opposite of what one would expect. Instead of being bloated or giving off some sort of horrible odor… they looked mummified.

Corpses from around the school had been collected and were lined up and even stacked on top of one another, with piles of clothing and shoes off to one side. Sweet was directing our merry band of survivors with what to do, but it was obvious that the cadets weren’t exactly fond of stripping down mummified corpses. Stepping over to Sweet, our eyes rarely left the mound of corpses… though I was detecting something in the air the closer that we got to it. I couldn’t place what exactly it was until we were close to the mound of them. Strange as it was, it was the smell of oxygen. I looked at Chien questioningly, and he looked back at me with a look of confirmation. He smelled it too. Whatever was going on, I wasn’t just fooling myself. It was definitely real, and, indeed, freakier than zombies.

“Ah, there you two are.” Sweet spoke as he met us half way, having been helping move a body the moment before. Thankfully he had the good sense to have everyone wear gloves for this work. “How did the supply gathering go? Well, I hope?”

“Better than expected, actually.” I said as I forced my eyes away from the mound of, for lack of a better single word, mummies. “We got about double the supplies that we expected. We used one of the vehicles at my place to carry more supplies and ammunition. We also grabbed my dad’s reloading bench.”

“A reloading bench?” Sweet’s brows raised in half surprise. “That’s good. We’ll be able to reload ammunition, or at least some of it.”

“Indeed. Better, we were also able to get all the weapons from our houses; a total of ten pistols and eight long guns, plus a bunch of melee weapons – few thousand rounds of ammunition in total too for all the various calibers that we have to deal with now.” I replied, and then Sweet was quiet for a moment, looking between Chien and I.

“What about your parents? Were they around at all?”

Chien and I looked to one another, and then away, Chien answering with a shake of his head and then a short sentence. “Probably dead somewhere.”

“I’m sorry, boys.” He said softly, but the subject didn’t stay there for long.

“What about everyone here? Everyone accounted for?” Chien asked, and Sweet nodded.

“We made sure to take a count at dawn when we started moving the bodies here. All accounted for, though we have no idea who most of them are with what’s happened to their bodies. Clothes aren’t enough of an identifying factor.” He sighed softly and then shook his head. “Speaking of clothes, removing them wasn’t my idea, in case you were at all curious.” He looked toward the pile, where Lea and Molly (the latter being the more skittish) were moving a body. “It was Lea’s. I don’t know what’s gotten into her, but she seems… cold. Indifferent to all of this somehow. It worries me that she’s like this.”

It was then that I realized that Sweet didn’t know what had happened the day before. He hadn’t been there when Lea ended the cheerleader. I debated with myself a moment about telling him, but decided to take a different route and simply told him not to worry; she had a reason, but she was going to need time to get over things. He just nodded and left it at that, but I could tell that he was still worried about her. Truth was, I was worried about her too, but there wasn’t really anything that I could do for her. She was a tough girl, and she would be fine in time. How long it would take was the thing that I didn’t know. Deciding to change the subject, I looked over toward the growing mound of desiccated dead.

“So, any idea what caused them all to shrivel up like that? They look like they all just got pulled out of some burial chamber.” Sweet looked to the mound then as well, and shrugged a bit.

“Couldn’t tell you. Must’ve happened overnight, that’s all I can say for it.” Sweet answered, though he did seem to be pondering something. “That, and it could be a side effect of the infection. Maybe some sort of natural way to try and keep it from spreading via the bodies of the deceased.”

“Guess that’s possible.” Chien said, and then tilted his head. “But why does it smell like there’s oxygen coming off of them? Smells almost like there’s suddenly a lot of plants around.”

“I’m not sure about that either. I didn’t notice it until today.” Sweet answered, “If it is oxygen, I’ve got no idea why they’re putting it off. No way to test if it is or not, either.”

“I have a way.” I said and stepped forward, toward Lea and Molly. “Ladies, if you’d please grab one of our stiffs and bring them along?” The both looked at me strangely, but I didn’t pause to explain. I just motioned for the four to follow me and headed toward the baseball diamond. As I went, I snapped a dead twig off of a tree. Once out there, I waited for them all to arrive, and when they did I motioned for Lea and Molly to put the corpse down on the pitcher’s mound. Before anyone could say anything, I looked to Chien. “Got your lighter?”

“Yeah…” He answered, looking at me strangely, as if questioning why I wanted to know if he had it on him.

When I motioned for it, he tossed it to me, and I slipped it into my pocked before I took out my wallet and started putting a few old receipts on the twig like marshmallows. After I had a few on it, I slipped my wallet back into my pocket and took out the lighter, flicking it a couple times and shooting sparks. It was then that Lea seemed to catch what I was going to do.

“Roy!” She snapped, glaring at me. “You can’t just burn it! That isn’t right; not at all!”

“Lea…” I said softly, looking at her, “…this is a corpse. Just a corpse. A nameless corpse. We don’t know who this was. We don’t know what name to put on a grave marker. At least this way they serve one final purpose and they can be laid to rest respectfully.”

“I…” She took a breath and bowed her head. “You’re right, but just… don’t make it nothing but some experiment, alright?” She asked softly, her arms crossed – but more to hold herself than to show any sort of malice.

“Of course.” I nodded, and then blew out a breath. “Thy power hath descended from thy hand, that we may swiftly carry out they command, and so we shall flow a river forth to thee, and teeming with souls shall it ever be. E nomini Patri, et Fili, et Spiritus Sancti, Amen.” Okay, so it was from a movie, but it was the only prayer that I knew by heart and felt fit. Granted, that was a pretty sad thing considering that I had gone to a Christian private school from kindergarten through seventh grade. I only started at P.M.A. in the eighth, and worse… the school I’d gone to was Baptist-based. That prayer had a Catholic ending! Guess that went to show just how much I really cared about what religion did what, huh?

After the prayer was said, I lit the receipts on the twig, made the sign of the cross, and then tossed the twig on top of the corpse. Immediately there was a flash as the oxygen coming off of the body fueled the fire, and the flames caught the dried flesh quickly; burning high and hot. We all had to step back from the flames due to the heat, but I continued to look on. No human body should burn like that. I mean, when a person’s body ignited, it was hard to put it out, and it burned damn hot, but it was never as simple as just tossing a burning twig on a body and getting a campfire. These bodies, at least once they were dead, were giving off damn near pure oxygen; the reasons for which I couldn’t seem to grasp, despite wanting to so very badly.

As the body burned, I reached into my pocket, gasping something that most would be curious at, though James would have known the meaning of… had he been anywhere nearby. I was rather curious to his whereabouts, but I supposed that it could wait momentarily. What I had gasped was a small packet of salt, like we were given with our lunches sometimes. I had picked one up earlier on the day before, before everything started going downhill, and had stuck it in my pocket. I’d done it without thinking, and I was sure that had things gone normally I would have tossed it in the trash when I got home, but now I took it from my pocket and opened it. As the flames began to die down, I sprinkled the salt over the body as it continued to burn away.

It was an old way of sending off the dead, something James had told me about not overly long ago. Burning a body and salting the remains was a way to release a spirit and ensure that it didn’t return. Superstition at its best, really, but I suppose it was symbolic. We had to do at least one right, in some sense, didn’t we? Of course, tossing the little salt packet into the flames may or may not have been disrespectful, but I’m not going to get into the little things right now. I had what information that I wanted: they produced oxygen. The question now was why, and that was the thing that I couldn’t quite figure out, no matter how hard I tried. They should have given off methane and other such things, but not oxygen. That was only given off by plants and algae. I couldn’t think of an animal that breathed out oxygen, or gave it off any other way either.

Stepping away again, I began to walk toward the parade deck once more, but paused and looked back to Sweet. “Uh… Sir? Just in case, you should probably have those bodies moved away from between the locker rooms. They go up pretty easy, and stacked like they are, that’s probably some sort of action movie explosion waiting to happen.”

Sweet nodded. “You’re right. Hell of a safety hazard.” He looked to Molly, Lea, and Chien. “Come on you three, we need to go move that heap of bodies to more open ground. Somewhere away from a possible fire.”

“I think the basket ball courts could work. They’re open and they’re paved, so there’s nothing around them to ignite the bodies. Plenty of cross-breeze to make sure they’re well ventilated too.” Molly spoke up, and then Sweet looked at me.

“Make it happen, Lieutenant.”

“Yes Sir!” I nodded and turned to head over to the mound to get the moving process started, but then stopped and paused for a moment. Turning around, I looked to our Commandant questioningly. “Sir… where’s James at?”

Sweet grinned a little and shook his head. “Always look up, Lieutenant.” Then he pointed upward in the direction of the boy’s locker room – and when I turned to look, there was James sitting atop the roof of the locker room building. I stared for a moment and then looked to the rest of the group behind me.

“He never came down after he got up there, did he?” I asked.

“Nope. Stayed up there all night. He’s too afraid to try and come down until we get a ladder to him, or at least a rope. He’s like a cat that climbed a tree – can get up it just fine so long as he doesn’t look down, but get him to the top and let him look at how high up he is, and he’ll never want to try and come back down.” Lea chuckled as she looked up at him.

“Or,” Chien cut in, “he’s just trying to get out of helping clean up. It’s kinda hard to tell, really.” He looked at me then. “Fuck it, I’m getting a ladder. He’s not sitting this one out. If we have to pick up and move a bunch of corpses, he’s definitely gonna be helping us.”

==X==X==X==

Eight hours later the bodies had all been moved and the El Camino and Suburban had been unloaded. The cafeteria was completely stocked – overstocked really, considering we had to stuff things in every nook and cranny that we could find – and we didn’t have any fear of running out of food, water, or ammunition any time soon. Among the supplies we had grabbed from both homes was a limited amount of medical supplies – so limited in fact that it was hardly worth mention, aside from the fact that we did in fact have just a little bit more to work with: basic stuff really, but better than nothing. For the first time today, it was actually time for everyone to rest. Once again we had all wound up in Mr. Malone’s classroom, but our core group – Sweet, Chien, James, Lea, and myself – had left after making sure everyone was alright and the air conditioning was on. Electricity was still flowing, so we might as well make the best of it.

Meanwhile, the five of us had made our way to the office. It had been locked ever since yesterday when the office workers left for lunch, and Sweet’s stuff was still in there. The primary things he was worried about were his keys and his cell phone. I hadn’t really thought about it, none of us had, but Sweet had a family and he had no idea how they were. A wife and two daughters; they were his life. We always kinda liked to think that we were like a second family to him, the four of us kids, but we knew he had a real family to worry about too, and couldn’t always be looking out for us. He did try to be there for us, but his real family came first, and we all certainly knew that. Sure enough, too, as soon as Chien popped that lock it was Sweet that rushed inside to his office in the back.

While he’d practically run to his office, the rest of us walked back; not sure if he would want to be alone when he first found the phone. However, when we came in he was all smiles, aside from the tears of joy in his eyes. He was on the phone, talking to his wife on the other end. Apparently she had asked about things at the school, for Sweet suddenly grew more sullen.

“P.M.A. is secure, but… we lost a lot. Hell, we lost almost everyone. There’s thirteen here, including me.” He spoke softly, then smiled ever so slightly toward the four of us. “They’re all here. James, Roy, Chien, and Lea – all safe, all fine. I’m fine too, don’t worry.” I could only assume that she had asked about the four of us specifically; we were the only students that she’d seen on a consistent basis. The Boss’s face soon looked panicked though. “No! Don’t come here; not on your own. I’ll come and get you. Right now you have food and water, and the three of my guns in the house, along with ammunition.” He had a repeating rifle, shotgun, and a .44 Magnum – we’d seen them a couple times in the past. “Just stay put until I come and get you. Please, stay put…” A sigh of relief came from him then. “Alright, good. Just keep the house locked. I have my keys and phone now, so I can contact you and get inside when I get there. Until then, just keep the door locked and please… stay inside.” I saw him smile then. “I love you too, dear. I’ll be there as soon as I possibly can. Adieu.” His wife was actually French.

After he hung up the phone, Sweet looked at us all for a moment, and I could see… hell, we all could see… that he was trying to decide what to do. He had his family that needed him, but the rest of us needed him too. I was about to speak, but James beat me to it.

“They’re your family, Boss. You gotta go make sure they’re okay. We’ll all be fine. You go on, and we’ll stay here. We’ll make sure nothing happens.” Sweet smiled softly after James spoke, about to say something back, but this time it was me that cut in.

“No.” I said firmly, and looked at each person that was there. “You’re not going alone, Colonel.” I certainly did know his rank – or rather, me and Lea were the ones that remembered it. He’d told us a long time ago to refer to him as Commandant while at school, but I think we were past that by now. “Take James and Lea with you. You’ll need backup, just in case something goes wrong. James’s the best at close-in, and Lea’s the best at long range. They’ll make one hell of a team for you to utilize. Lea has her own car too, so you’ll all have enough room to get there and back – maybe enough to get some supplies while you’re there, if possible.”

“And what about you and Chien? What about all the other cadets that are still here? Am I supposed to just leave you guys?” Sweet looked at me, brow raised.

“P.M.A. is a fortress. We’ll all be fine. While you, James, and Lea go get your wife and daughters, Chien and I can go over to the Big 5 with the Suburban and load it full of weapons and ammunition. I’d say Wal-Mart too, but it’s too far to go without more backup. A much less scouted area and no way to get out quick.” I replied, grinning a little.

“Dude! Stop volunteering us for things!” Chien snapped at me, looking as if he was ready to strangle me. “But I guess it is the best idea so far. We can’t let you go by yourself, and we can’t ask you to stay here just because of all of us.”

Sweet looked to James and Lea then. “How do the two of you feel about this?”

“I’m in, Boss.” James said with a grin, putting his trusty slicer over his shoulder. “You just tell me where to go and what zombies you want dead.”

“It’s a chance to save people. You can bet I’m onboard.” Lea added with a smile. “I need to get my rifle and ammunition, but I’ll be ready to go as soon as I’ve got that.”

Sweet looked to Chien and I then. “Are you two sure you can handle things here while we’re gone? You’ll be three people short.”

“Piece of cake. Just gotta keep the gates locked.” Chien shrugged.

“Besides, we’re the ones that have already gone out of here and survived. What can possibly…” I paused. “Fuck that, I’m not going to say those words. I’m not going to jinx myself. Hell no.” I shook my head a little. “Anyway… yeah, we got this. When you get back we can all sit down and talk about the current state of affairs. Chien and I got some intel along with the supplies while we were gone. It can wait though.”

We were about to split up, but James stopped us. “Hey guys, wait a minute! I have something I need to tell you all!”

“Okay, what is it, James…?” Sweet asked as we all looked toward him.

“When I first went out to run distraction I found something out about them. These zombies can’t see. Totally blind. They have the senses of hearing and touch, it seems like, but they can’t see – and I’m not sure about taste or smell either.” James looked at me and Chien, “Figured you guys could use that info when you go to Big 5. Probably more over there.”

“Yeah, that’s good to know.” Chien nodded. “Anything else?”

“No, unfortunately. That’s all I’ve got.” He paused, “Though… maybe take the megaphone that Molly had. If you get in a tight spot, you might be able to stun them with that high-pitched alarm it has. That’s what Molly was doing.”

“Good idea.” I said, “Good luck you three. Get everyone back safe.”

Sweet grinned as he walked over to his desk, opening a drawer. All our eyes shot wide when he pulled out the Smith & Wesson Model 629 from that drawer. “I intend to.”