Dog Eat Dog, page 6
Her mind scrambled as she tried to think of some sort of plan for their safe escape from the school if, god forbid, it were to be entirely overrun. Why hadn’t she thought about this more before? She asked herself in a very scolding fashion. And, she continued to mentally kick herself for not devising a better course of action while they seemingly had more time to think of one.
The slamming of doors and screeching metal of chairs and desks being scraped across the tile floor of the hallway around the corner filled the air with the mingled collective shouting of her students as they called out urgent instructions to each other. Evelyn tried to strain her hearing far enough into the muddled interference of the rising chaos to see if she could make out their individual voices. At this point, she could only hope that every one of them had escaped the onslaught and were on their way to meet her very soon. Standing here alone in this hall just now next to the room with a mad woman pounding herself against the other side of the door did little to put her nerves at ease. But just now her fear frozen body gave her no choice but to stand there waiting for the inevitability of all of their terrible fates.
The sight of shadowy human figures of varying heights came into view at the end of the dark hallway that was only barely lit by the two torches they had managed to spare for her nightly residence here. They told her they didn’t really need that much light where they were anyway. She loved how these now adult-like children tried to care for her as much as she did them.
Once they seemed confident enough that their new defenses would hold, at least for the moment, they came barreling towards her.
“What’s going on?” Evelyn asked, in a quieter and hoarser voice than she expected. Clearing her throat, she repeated herself to the oncoming Patrick who led the group’s way with a torch in his hand and readily brandishing a red fire ax in the other. “Patrick, what’s going on? Is everyone okay?”
He came closer to her, holding the blazing flame between them. The light from it illuminating his pale dirt covered face as well as his fading aquamarine hair. “Yes, Evelyn.” Patrick motioned to the crew behind him as if he were recounting everyone. “Everyone is unharmed and present and accounted for.”
“Good, good,” she replied, calming slightly as her eyes panned over all of their panicked and inquiring faces. Evelyn knew that all of their silent questions were the same. They were looking to her for an answer, a plan that would get them another chance of at least surviving the night. “So, what have we got?” Evelyn asked Patrick.
“Well, so far as we know, something has gotten them unusually riled up. There are more of them out there than there have been before and the packs seem to be more coordinated in their attacks. They knew which of the boards’ integrity had been compromised from when we had to take them down earlier today. I knew we shouldn’t have messed with them,” answered Patrick.
“Oh, so you would have gathered me or Casey got killed by one of those monsters?!” yelled Darren, stepping forward with an air of hostility in his voice.
“No, that’s not what I’m saying at all. I am just saying that some people should take more care when using the correct entrances that have been set up for the purpose of our safety. You know like the service ladder on the side of the building,” Patrick countered, stepping to Darren with the torch in front of him.
“Oh, yeah! You try and carry a nearly dead woman on your shoulders up a rickety ass service ladder, being chased by a bunch of blood hungry dogs, small fry!” Darren shouted, stomping his heavily booted door in front of Patrick and doing his best to tower over him; even though, he was not that much taller than he.
Evelyn stepped her short wide frame in between the two young boys and pushed them apart. “Stop this! We don’t have time to quarrel amongst ourselves!” Evelyn called out harshly. “Now we need to just calm down and try our best to assess the situation, so that we can come up with an effective escape plan. Or something to keep them from making it into the rest of the school until we can figure out somewhere else to go,” Evelyn explained.
“Yes, ma’am.” Both of the boys said, almost in unison like two little boys who had been caught getting into the cookie jar by their mother.
“So, what do you think we should do, Miss Bullock?” Daniel piped in, stepping forward into the flickering light of the torch that was still in Patrick’s hand.
Evely n’s mind ran through multiple patterns of frantic thought as she tried to develop some kind of checklist that would be most effective in this situation. She could hear the breathing of those around her almost slow to a holding along with hers as they eagerly awaited her response.
“Alright, well, I think what our best course of action would be right now, is to have you Daniel and Darren go up to the roof through the service hatch and scope out how bad the damages are to our defenses. Also, see just exactly how many we are up against so that we can determine whether we should stay here tonight, or if it will be safe for us to try and move to another location before morning rather than try to stay and hold the fort down here so to speak,” Evelyn instructed them.
“Alright, we’re on it,” replied Daniel, patting Darren on the shoulder and beginning to lead him down the other end of the hallway in the direction of the janitor’s storeroom where their only safe exit was.
“You guys be careful and keep your walkies open so that we can make sure we know where you are,” Evelyn called out over her shoulder.
“Yes, ma’am, will do,” Daniel called back, while Darren held his walkie talkie over his head to show that he had it.
“Alrighty, now for us, we need to make our way to the center of the school. I think if we can get ourselves set up on the second level running track in the gym that may be our best option, to be higher up where they can’t get to us. Until we can come up with a better plan once we have had the chance to regroup and weigh all of our options. Patrick, do you still have the radio on you?” Evelyn said to the four students that remained in the hall with her. They all nodded and began to make their way towards the gym. Patrick slowed his pace just enough to stay in stride with Evelyn as she followed the three girls that walked a few steps ahead of them and around the corner.
“Yes, Evelyn, I still have the radio in my backpack. I have been trying to get others on the outside for the last few days but either the pool of survivors is getting smaller and smaller, or their power reserves are slowly going out, one by one. Because I haven’t been able to get anyone to respond,” Patrick stated.
“Well, keep trying. Surely, there has to be someone else out there that has somewhere safe for us to go,” she replied more in a way to try and renew her own dwindling hopes than his.
“I will, Evelyn, don’t worry. I’ll keep trying. And, who knows, maybe this doctor will have a way to get us back to the hospital with those survivors there,” Patrick added, placing an encouraging hand on her shoulder. “Which reminds me…” he paused his steps for a moment and looked back down the corridor they had just come out of. “What are we going to do about her? Should we try and bring her with us, just now?”
Evelyn looked down the hall as well, listening to the mingled sounds of the woman still raving behind the door along with the pounding of the dogs’ heavy bodies against the barricades the students had just constructed at the other end. She felt a conflicting sensation pass between her mind and her heart as she knew that every decision she made now would mean their life or death. She wasn’t sure if it would be best to risk all of their safety to save this one woman who was already too far gone. Evelyn knew deep down that she should’ve put her down at the first signs of madness, but had decided against her better judgment to wait to leave the decision for the woman’s husband; who looked like he may come altogether too late or not at all. Her foot stepped out in the direction of the hall they had just departed seemingly quite involuntarily as her mind urged her to go end the woman’s life now or retrieve her from the room and try to bring her with them to the gym. But the images flashed through her mind of how difficult the latter idea would be and for some reason also the former. She was not completely certain why decisions like this were still difficult ones for her to make at this point in the game, considering she had had to put several people out of their misery and even organized the burning of their bodies; where she was present and watched as their remains were reduced to nothing but charred mounds of ash. Yet somehow the events of the last few weeks had not desensitized Evely n’s heart enough for her to readily kill another human being, even though she knew their inevitable fate was to die anyway.
Evely n’s foot slowly slinked back to its previous stance beside her other, and she turned to continue their march down the opposite side of the hall towards the gym. She had made her decision, and she knew that if she was going to ensure the safety of her new family circle that she could not allow herself to waver or falter in making it. There should only be one goal in mind. A single solitary priority, their survival and right now poor Madeline in her illness ravaged state of mind was too much of a liability to become a part of that equation. “We can’t worry about that right now. She’s too much of a risk. I suppose we will just have to let fate decide and nature take its course. Our safety right now is number one priority. And, if I find that at another time we have the time to concern ourselves with her’s as well, I will do so. Just not now, staying focused is what is going to keep us alive; at least, for tonight,” Evelyn said, once again, feeling as if she were speaking more to herself than telling Patrick what they should do.
“Understood,” Patrick very simply replied.
Upon entering the gym, Evelyn looked up and observed that the three young women had the foresight to gather the other lanterns from the other areas of the school and strategically placed them along the track that ran like a crown around the top of the room over hers and Patrick’s head. They had also made makeshift torches to set along the walls as well without even having to be told to do so. It was moments like these that filled her with the renewing help she needed. I hope that told her they would be able to survive some time, perhaps even outlast this thing should anything tragic befall her.
The walkie-talkie on Evely n’s belt suddenly began to crackle and screech with static and interference, pulling her full attention back to the situation at hand. She hastily pulled it from her belt and opened the antenna to fall extension. Pressing down on the red button on the side she called out, “Come in, Daniel, do you read me? Over.”
“Loud and clear, Miss Bullock,” Daniel’s voice came over the radio receiver slightly garbled from the static almost as if he were trying to speak under water. “We have a little bit of a… well, kind of a lot of a situation up here,” he said before a loud noise came over the receiver stopping his words.
“What’s going on out there?” Evelyn asked, her brow furrowing with blind concern. When she heard statements such as those, she could only imagine the events taking place on the other side of the walkies, and her heart automatically jumped into her throat making it hard for her to take complete breaths or even swallow past it at times. In the world they lived in now, there was nothing left to conclude but the worst possible case scenario with the most fucked up outcome. They were all living their own worst nightmare, and she wished desperately that someone would find a way to wake them all very soon.
“I know this sounds really stupid, but I am just going to say it anyway. It looks like they are all coordinating like Patrick said and they have found a way through the doors on the side of the school,” Daniel informed her. “So I hope you have all made it away from the center hallway because from the looks of things up here they’re piling in fast, and we only have enough propane cans up here to hold them off for a little while,” Daniel continued.
A shudder ran through Evelyn, and she had to take a moment before she answered. She needed to sound strong for him, she could not let on through the shakiness she felt would come through in her voice the pangs of fear that were now ravaging her nerves. Letting out a heavy sigh, she shored up her inner resolve before answering. “We’re fine, don’t worry about us. We have moved to the gym, so you will have to come through the vents.”
“Will do, be safe, Miss Bullock. We need you, mama,” Daniel said, with a tone of affection in his voice that Evelyn had never heard before. It filled her with a whole new wave of overwhelming emotions that washed away her fears with a wave of tears that welled up in the spillway of her eyes and threatened to pour out onto her cheeks. She looked away from the walkie talkie as if she was trying to keep him from seeing the emotion on her face. Even though she knew full well that he was not able to see her from the other side. She was also grateful that Patrick, who had only a moment ago been at her side, was now completely preoccupied with the task of moving the folded bleachers in front of all of the entryways into the gym.
“You too, honey,” Evelyn finally uttered. “Come back to us soon,”
Chapter 4
The muscles in Will’s leg began to scream in protest after spending so long in the same position. He had spent the better part of the last several hours with his foot firmly pressing the gas pedal into the carpet of the floorboard. He watched as his windshield wiper blades slid slowly one behind the other from one side of the windscreen to the other threatening to go out under the gathering weight of the sludge that was building up. A mass of various types of matter from brains, blood, and even teeth that had been spattered across the front of his small vehicle from the onslaught of attacking ravenous canines that in their madness were determined to take on the front of his car as it raced full speed down the highway on the way to the high school, just to get to him.
He did his best to readjust the position of his to relieve the growing cramp without slowing the speed of the car, for he knew that the slightest decrease of speed could very well mean his demise. The cracks in his windshield and windows told him as they splintered even further like the sprawl of many spiderwebs with every crashing impact that they were not going to last much longer, leaving him utterly exposed and vulnerable to their gnashing bloody teeth and powerful gripping jaws.
The only thing that gave Will any indication of other signs of human life was the jarring ring of massive explosions a short distance from him down the road. He could only guess that he had made it to the high school when he saw the flying limbs and innards of dogs being blown to pieces by falling propane cans that had been set a light and tossed from the top of a two-story brick building.
Will pressed the pedal even further into the floor and let out a loud cry as if he were running at full speed and quickly having to whip himself into the narrow entrance of the high school rather than actually being behind the wheel of a vehicle. The crunch of bones under the wheels resounded throughout the cab as the jostling car rocking jar of driving over large bodies caused the beamer to jump from one side to the other so violently it almost threw Will into the passenger seat. He was surprised to find that the car’s transmission was not in his lap by now or that his axel had not given out or snapped from the impact alone of riding as such a high racing speed over their muscly mutated bodies. But, unfortunately, he thought too soon, for there was the sudden and very loud explosive sound of his axel being torn asunder, and his only defense against these beasts came to a crashing and all too sudden halt. All of his limbs shook, and his teeth began to chatter as the icy tendrils of fear began to dance its fingers up every nerve ending in Will’s body. He could feel his eyes widening in growing terror and the salt from the buckets of sweat that were now pouring down his face, blurred his precious vision as it burned his eyes. The only thing he could see through his now compromised sight was that the whiteness of his knuckles was spreading rapidly to the rest of his hands as his grip of the steering wheel continued to tighten in his ever-growing terror. Will could almost hear the synapsis in his brain firing one by one like the blasts from the falling propane cans as his mind scrambled for any solution that would get him out of this alive. But it was to no avail. He couldn’t think of anything. The pressure that rippled out over the inside of his chest also told him that he had even for this span of a few minutes, or seconds he wasn’t sure, he had completely lost all memory of how to breathe or even blink. He was utterly frozen, like someone waking from a nightmare into yet another terror that was brought on by sleep paralysis.
Will tried to count backward from five and breath slowly in through his nostrils and out through pursed lips, just like they had been trained to instruct people having a panic attack to keep them from passing out, or worse dying. Madeline was in there, and he knew that he would certainly be kicking himself for the rest of eternity, if there was one, if he were to have survived all of this to save her only to be foiled in his efforts by getting taken out by a mere panic attack. Will knew that in all reality and seriousness that panic attacks were nothing to sneeze at or think of as a minor situation but in comparison to the scope of the danger of everything he had had to endure in the last few weeks it certainly looked almost insignificant when you stood them side by side.
Another blast sounded even closer to the outside of his car flinging more guts onto his windows. A ringing in Will’s ears and a searing pain throughout his skull that rattled his jaw even harder than his chattering teeth. He feared he would chip a tooth from the pounding.
The driver’s side window shattered unexpectedly, startling Will into a panic. He was very certain that he was about to be mauled to death by one of the many beasts that awaited him outside in the parking lot. The only thing he felt there was left to do was kick at whatever was coming at him through the window. Will grunted and growled like one of the animals he thought was attacking him as he wildly opened and closed the door, batting away at the strange creature that was surrounded by darkness and flames as if the door was some sort of medieval shield. He was taken aback suddenly amidst the fray of his panic when the madly flying door was halted with a loud slapping thud, and he saw what looked like gloved fingers gripping the door through the now broken window.
