CHAPTER 2
Resident Sissy
Or
An American Zombie in Paris
◊
The entire cafeteria was nothing short of a mess. The floor was a swamp of trampled food, blood, broken furniture and a few misplaced limbs here and there. What remained of the student body headed for the doors to the courtyard, despite the fact that the swarm of the undead were blocking it. The wave of panicked living trampled over some of them to get to the exit. The weaker few amongst them were grabbed by the creatures and pulled under to their gruesome demise. Yumi and the rest, however, knew better.
"Well," Odd spoke, "It looks like we're not going to go that way."
"We need to find another way out!" Yumi shouted, "Let's get to higher ground and see if we can escape from the roof!"
The group agreed. Getting an eyeful of their fellow classmates getting their flesh stripped from their bodies was evidence enough to convince Sissy and the others to find another means of escaping. The entire entourage headed for the set of double doors near the back of the cafeteria next to the kitchen where no one sits. Almost everyone else seemed to forget that it was there, fixating their sights on the main entrance. A few of them remembered it, but they were still fixating their sights on the main entrance. Eventually, the stampede of terrified kids made their way out of the cafeteria and into the main hall, racing for the main entrance.
◊
Yumi & the rest barged through a set of double doors amongst a small crowd of other panicking kids. While the others raced towards the main entrance, the gang went and searched for the staircase over on the other side of the school, just a few yards away from them.
"We can get up to the roof from here!" Ulrich shouted pointing at the flight of stairs.
Everyone agreed and wasted no time in beginning their ascent to the roof. Sissy's gang trailed a little behind since they were already a little exhausted from their race to the cafeteria, but the adrenaline in their system kept the aches in their legs from slowing them down too significantly. Almost halfway up the set of stairs, Herb stopped for a moment. He had heard steps and moans from down the hall just behind him. He found this strange since he remembered that all of the zombies were in the cafeteria.
"Wait," Herb interrupted, "Did any of you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Odd asked.
"That sound. It sounds like someone's following us."
The sound of feet treading on tile floor could be heard around the corner behind him.
"It's probably just another student Herb." Sissy replied, aggravated and terrified, "Quit bothering us with it and keep moving!"
"No," Herb replied, "I think it's something else."
Isaiah slouched from around the corner, moaning. He was the only zombie that had followed the rest of the kids out through the doors in the back of the cafeteria. He noticed Sissy & the rest first and had promptly followed them. His face was splattered with blood and his eyes were wild and open. He turned his head to see the entire group of youngsters, standing on the staircase, looking right back at him.
"Alright," Odd said, "Now I know that's not another student."
"RUN!" Yumi screamed, and everyone complied.
The stairwell was filled with the rumble of feet running up them as the group hurried to the second floor. Isaiah followed just behind them, increasing his speed to a light jog, the most his decomposing brain would allow his dead body. Sissy, Nicholas, and Herb's adrenaline level shot to maximum capacity, any pain that was left in their legs had now completely subsided. Gasping for breath and sweating buckets, the group finally made it to the second floor, Isaiah following right behind them, snarling and hissing.
"What in the Hell are these things Herb?" Ulrich shouted.
"I don't know!" Herb answered, "Like I said, we were almost attacked by one in the hall and then it killed some girl!"
"Less talkie, more runnie!" yelled Odd, looking behind him to see Isaiah starting to gain on them.
Yumi pointed to a storage closet in the distance, "We can lock ourselves in there!"
Yumi got the closet, kicking in the door. She held it open for the rest of the group, who wasted no time in crowding into the dark, small room. Boxes of old, unused equipment were stacked-up high. Many containing old textbooks, gym equipment, and other school supplies. Where the rest of the space was concerned rested damaged and outdated desks. What remained of walking room was barely enough for the entire group, who was now all inside the room and struggling with the door.
Just as the last person entered, Yumi quickly went to close the door but Isaiah was still able to get this left hand into the small crack of the door. Yumi, Ulrich and Odd were struggling to close the door. If they wanted too, they might have tried just pushing his hand out, but no one was exactly up to making and physical contact with him. Instead, they just tried to push on the door some more, hoping that maybe Isaiah would lose his grip or, just possibly, they would be able to break his hand right off. The skin on Isaiah's was already beginning to break, his cold blood running down the crack of the door and into a small puddle on the floor. Regardless, his grip remained unbending.
"Dammit!" Ulrich hollered, "If we don't do something fast, he'll break right through this door!"
"Push harder!" Yumi yelled back at Ulrich.
"I don't think we can Yumi!" Odd answered. They were all putting their weight onto the door, but Isaiah, still screaming and howling like a madman, was beginning to slam his own weight onto the door. The trio's hold on the door was about to give way. Sissy, sweating and preparing to lose her sanity took notice. Her hair was standing on end at the sight of Isaiah's bloody hand emerging from the bright hallway as he hissed and screamed. Sissy began looking around the room for anything she could possibly use to kill it. If it was going to break in and kill them all, at last she wasn't going to go down without a fight. Her eyes fixated on a box of gym equipment. She dove for the cardboard box and began rummaging through it. Eventually she came across an aluminum bat. Gripping it tightly with both hands, she jerked the weapon out of the box, spilling it on the floor; it's other various contents hitting the tile with loud clanks as they rolled about the closet.
"Try it," Sissy quietly hissed to herself, "I'd just like to see you try it."
Isaiah slammed his mass against the door once more, sending Yumi, Odd, and Ulrich to the floor. Isaiah stood there in the threshold hissing, his shadow casting itself over the others in the room.
"DIE!" Sissy screamed as she jumped over Odd and charged at Isaiah. Ping! She swung the bat with all her strength, the force of the blow sending Isaiah to the floor. He began to hiss and screech loudly at Sissy. The force of the bat had created a small crater at the top-left side of his soft, rotting skull, blood gushing out of it in a profusely manner. Sissy, her eyes now closed and screaming at the top of her lungs for his death, brought the bat down on top of him once more and then again, and again. Fueled solely on adrenaline, she continued to bring the aluminum bat down onto Isaiah's skull with a relentless and unearthly force. After about the sixth or seventh blow, Isaiah finally went limp and quiet, but Sissy's screaming and closed eyes had prevented her from noticing this. Instead, she continued to pound on Isaiah's skull, or at least what remained of it as everyone in the room behind her watched in horror.
"Sweet Jesus, does she even know that it's dead yet?" Nicholas asked Herb.
"I don't know," Herb responded, "But I think I'm going to be sick."
By this time Isaiah's skull had caved-in completely. His face was reduced to skull fragments, eyes, crushed to jelly, and his brain, a splattered wad of pulp. Still, Sissy continued to her assault.
"Someone should really try to stop her." Odd said.
"Heh, don't look at me!" Jeremy responded. Yumi got up to her feet and slowly approached Sissy from behind, trying to avoid getting hit by the bat. She decided not to touch Sissy in fear that she may think her to be a zombie too and come at her with her feminine fists of fury. Instead, she stood about two feet behind her, cupped her mouth with her hands, and yelled at Sissy.
"Sissy!" Yumi hollered. No response.
"SISSY!" Yumi tried again. Sissy, opening her eyes, pivoted and turned to Yumi, clenching the bat and staring angrily at her.
"What?!" she yelled. Yumi uncupped her mouth, but continued to yell at her.
"I think it's safe to say that you killed it!"
Sissy's angry physiognomy subsided and was replaced with a look of disbelief. She turned to Isaiah's now re-dead body and looked at what remained of his skull. One minute ago, it was armed with an angry face, jagged teeth and bleached eyes. Now all that remained was a curry of shattered skull fragments and gray matter. Sissy dropped her bat and placed her hand over her mouth in disgust at what she saw. A flow of vomit peaked to the top of her throat, but to avoid embarrassment, was able to choke it down before she regurgitated it back up. She took a few steps back into the room and tripped over Ulrich's leg, falling to the floor. She seemed unfazed at this however, still covering her mouth and gazing in disbelief at her work.
Yumi poke her head out of the door for a moment and looked around. Noticing that no one else was there, she reached for the blood and tissue stained bat and quickly slammed the door shut, locking it. Everyone sat back down on the floor as their heartbeats slowed back down to a normal pace. With the exception of a few gasps for air, the room was mostly silent. No one knew exactly what to say in regards to what they just saw Sissy do. Not did she do what was possibly the most violent thing they ever had witnessed, but she actually had just saved all their lives. After a moment of recovery, Odd turned to Sissy and spoke up.
"Damn, you go girl."
◊
Panicked, confused, and a little bloody, the remainder of the student body raced down the halls; Some with complete disregard for others, trampling and shoving other students out of the way as they attempted to elude the entourage of zombies chasing them only a few yards behind them. Jim, who was also running with the group, shouted requests to "remain calm" and "exit in an orderly fashion". His attempts were futile of course. The students were screaming far too loudly to hear him and even if they could, they wouldn't comply anyway.
Still being trailed by the hoard of the undead, the group of panicked students turned the corner and headed further down the hall towards the main entrance, only to find it blocked off by a second, and equally massive, group of zombies. They caught them on sight and the group screamed in terror at their presence. The hoard at the entrance lunged towards them as the group that had trailed them from the cafeteria closed in.
The student's dismay was only rivaled by their confusion. Many were unsure what to do. They clearly hadn't counted on there being a second group awaiting them at the exit, but alas there was, and now their fate was sealed. Some of the student's tried the previous tactic of trampling the zombies, but some went towards the zombies at the front while others did a complete 180 and try to overtake the zombies behind them. Both were caught in the mess and were promptly torn to pieces, screaming and bleeding madly in front of their peers. Some clawed at the walls, desperately trying to crawl through the ceiling tiles and somehow out the zombies reach, but they were closing in way too fast.
Each and everyone of them were gnawed, torn, butchered, and dismembered screaming. In a matter of seconds, the floor below them turned into a pool of blood and flesh.
◊
The screams reached the closet where the survivors were holed-up in. There was nothing in the room to drown them out other than Sissy's frantic panting. Swearing, screaming, and even the sounds of torn limbs rose up from the floor and flooded the room. It was impossible to ignore and it sent a chill down everyone's spine. After a moment of listening to the mass murder, Ulrich became fed up with it and decided to break the silence between them.
"My God. They're killing them all down there!"
"Gee, brilliant observation Captain Obvious." Herb replied with a scowl.
"Hey, eat me Herb!" Ulrich shot back.
"Both of you shut up!" Yumi interrupted, "We need to stop concerning ourselves with what's going on downstairs and start thinking of way to get to the roof from here without being detected."
"Excuse me?!" Sissy responded, "Are you implying that we actual go out there?!" Sissy let out a sarcastic laugh, "Like Hell! No, we're not going to do that."
"Well then Houdini, mind telling me your plan on how to get us out of here?" Yumi asked.
Sissy pointed to a small window in the room, "How about out that window?"
Nicholas got up and went to the window and tried to open it.
"No good, it's bolted down."
"Crap," Odd responded, "Looks like we're going to have to take the roof."
By this time, the screaming from downstairs had stopped. It was safe to say that everyone on the first floor had been killed.
"It's stopped." Jeremy whispered.
"Jesus," Ulrich said to himself, "They're all dead!"
"Did I not just tell you to shut up about that?!" Yumi responded, "If we're going to get out of this mess then we're going to have to drop that pessimistic attitude."
"Hey!" Nicholas interrupted, "There's a police car out here!"
Everyone got to their feet and crowded around the window. A police cruiser pulled into the school and stopped slowly just a short distance away from the main entrance.
"Someone must have called the police before those things downstairs took them over!" Sissy added.
Two officers emerged from their vehicles. Closing the doors to the cruiser shut, they walked casually to the front entrance, completely unaware of what was inside.
"There's only two of them?!" Sissy shouted.
"My God!" Jeremy gasped, "They're going to kill both of them!"
The survivors began banging their fists on the glass of the window and yelling, trying to get the attention of the police officers heading towards the main entrance, but they didn't seem to notice. Instead, they continued onto the main entrance. Suddenly, the officers quickly jumped back and reached for their weapons. All the zombies on the first floor flooded into the courtyard and charged at the officers. They fired a few rounds at the crowd, but it only fazed a few zombies that we shot in the limbs. The men then made a hasty retreat to the cruiser, but were quickly overtaken by the mass of undead that tackled them to the ground. One officer was sent to the ground were the zombies quickly bore their hands into his back and proceeded to pull out whatever organ they could muster; Kidneys, intestines, whatever they got to first. The other poor sap quickly ran out of ammo and was meet with a small girl jumping up to take a chunk out of his throat. As the cop dropped to his knees, the others surrounded him and quickly proceeded to dismantle him.
Many of the survivors, namely Sissy turned away from the window and closed their ears. They didn't want to see, hear, or even imagine what fate awaited the men outside. All they knew was that they were now dead and that was more than enough for them.
"Well," Odd commented, "It looks like we won't be escaping through the roof."
"Sweet Jesus!" Herb yelled, "This must be some kind of nightmare!" He pulled himself away from the window and fell to his knees. He felt like vomiting as he laid their choking and gasping, but he only spat up a little. The remaining amount of adrenaline in his system was keeping his stomach from purging itself, some sort of subconscious way of keeping itself in control.
Ulrich walked away from the window and sat down on one the old desks. "Now what? Odd's right, we can't get out through the roof! Those…things have taken over the courtyard. Going out there now would be suicide."
"It's futile!" Herb screamed as he got back to his feet, "There's no way out! We're trapped in here! Game over man! Game over!"
Sissy walked up to Herb, grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. "Shut up Herb! Your negative attitude is beginning to seriously piss me off!"
Nicholas broke the two up. "Sissy, calm down! I'm sure there's a way out of this. We'll figure it out."
Jeremy turned to Yumi, who was the only person still looking outside the window at the damage below. "Any ideas?"
"I just thought of something." Yumi spoke. Everyone turned to listen to her. It was clear that she was the dominant one in this operation. "It looks like all the zombies are out on the courtyard now."
"So?" Sissy angrily implied. Yumi turned to her with a stern look on her face.
"So, that means that there's none of them left in the building. We can go downstairs, lock them out, and search the school for anything that might help us out of here."
"What!?" Sissy responded, "Go downstairs, where those things can see us!?"
"Yeah," Nicholas added, "And what if there's still a few down there?"
"If there's only a few, we could probably take them out." Yumi answered optimistically, "We have bats and things in here."
"Yeah," Odd added, "We all saw how Sissy took out that one outside the door! If Sissy can kill one, I'm sure I can bag me a few!"
"Good," Yumi said smiling. She handed Odd a bat, "Then you can go down there with me."
Odd stared at the bat. "Me and my big mouth." Odd grudgingly took the bat from Yumi. Yumi lifted her head and faced the rest of the group.
"There's only so many bats in here," she addressed to the group, "So Ulrich, Jeremy, Nicholas, Herb, you're coming with us. Everyone else stay here."
"I'm not going down there!" Herb pleaded.
"Don't be such a pansy." Ulrich shouted, "Be a man about it."
"If not wanting to get torn apart by some blood-sucking freak means that I'm a pansy then sign me up because there's no way in Hell I'm going down there."
"Fine." Yumi answered, "Be worthless. We're going down there."
The group each grabbed a bat from the floor and prepared to head outside. Just as Yumi was about to turn the knob, Herb spoke up.
"Yumi!"
"Yes Herb?"
Herb was silent for a moment. He was hurt by Yumi's comments, but he knew that she was right. He didn't want to feel useless. More importantly, he didn't want to be useless. He quickly though of something he could do to help out the group, but he didn't want to go downstairs. Suddenly, he remembered a radio that was in one of the classrooms down the hall from here on the second floor.
"I…I think there's a radio in one of the classrooms near here. Maybe I could go and get it? It may help."
Yumi stared at Herb. She had seen right through this. She knew that Herb just wanted to seem useful, but didn't want to put himself in the line of fire. Yumi, however, had a soft spot. She wasn't going to shut Herb down, she just wasn't like that. However, she didn't want to come off soft and let him off the hook. She turned to Jeremy.
"Jeremy," she commanded, "You go with him. If you see a zombie, you know what to do."
Jeremy nodded and turned to Herb. "Grab your bat."
Herb nodded back at Jeremy and reached for an aluminum bat lying near the box. Yumi turned to Sissy.
"Sissy, stay here and keep the door open for us in case we need to retreat back."
Sissy, who was now sitting on the floor, nodded. Normally she would have protested Yumi ordering her around, but her recent run-ins with the living dead had left her ability to argue rather wanting.
Yumi slowly turned the door to reveal an empty hall, aside from the cold, dead, headless body in front of the door.
◊
Yumi and the rest slowly set foot down on the floor at the bottom of the stairs. They were tightly clenching their bats, fearing some surprise attack from the flesh eating creeps, but they found the halls around them to be rather quiet and vacant. Yumi turned to the rest of the group who were standing close behind her.
"It's clear." She whispered, "Let's move out."
The group nodded as they crept down the halls behind her and made their way to the corner. Yumi peeked around it to find a messy hallway, stained with gallons upon gallons of lukewarm blood, entrails, and dismembered bodies that were beyond the hope of reanimation. As she expected, all of the zombies poured out onto the courtyard and the entrance doors were closed. It was relatively bright outside as it was still afternoon, but Yumi was still able to make out some of what had been going on outside. Most of the zombies were a reasonable distance away from the door as they surrounded the police cruisers in the courtyard, and furthermore, the vast majority had their backs turned to them. Yumi turned her head and faced the group.
"Alright. It's clear down there and all the zombies seemed to be a good distance from the doors. I must warn you though, it's really messy down there. Try not to slip and fall on all the blood."
The group nodded in response. They were clearly a little distraught over Yumi's blood comment, but decided not to dwell on it. Besides, they were going to have a lot of time for that in a moment.
They turned slowly and descended down the hall Yumi squinted, trying to keep the tattered bodies out of her field of vision. Nicholas and Ulrich did the same thing. Odd walked past the dismembered body of an unfamiliar student whose arm was clearly torn off at the elbow. He then spoke to it.
"What's the matter pal? Need a hand?" Odd then laughed, "Oh man, I'm going to have to write that one down."
"Quit joking around Odd!" Ulrich said turning to Odd. Odd shrugged and turned towards the door.
Eventually, the group made it to the doors and quickly locked them, without being detected by the creatures looking outside.
"Wow, that was easy." Nicholas exclaimed.
"Yeah," Ulrich added, "I don't see what Herb was so scared off. He's about as gutless as these cold, rotting corpses."
"Damn!" Odd responded, "I'm going to have to write that one down too!"
"Enough chit-chat," Yumi interrupted, "Let's get back to the closet upstairs and inform everyone. It's now safe to move around."
Everyone turned in agreement and walked back upstairs, treading bloody footmarks behind them.
◊
"So Herb," Jeremy asked, "You like Sissy huh?"
Herb didn't respond. Instead he kept on walking.
"Don't act like you didn't hear me. I'm asking you a question."
"I don't think that's any of your business." Herb responded.
"You don't have to act like a jerk, I'm only trying to be friendly."
"I don't care, it's still none of your business."
"Y'know," Jeremy implied, "It's that attitude that keeps her from liking you back."
"What?!" Herb shouted, turning to Jeremy. His commentary clearly annoyed him.
"Hey, don't get mad at me! I'm not the one acting like a wuss! Y'know why Sissy likes Ulrich so much?"
Herb didn't respond, knowing the question was rhetorical.
"Because he went downstairs with Yumi and the rest!" Jeremy continued, "He didn't complain or whine about it like you did. He has courage and guts and when you whined and moped back there in front of Sissy, you practically just submitted to him. Heck, even Nicholas went down there!"
"Hey! For all you know, they're down there getting killed by those things!" Herb answered.
"Maybe so, but you could be down there helping them out right now! Heck, even I could be down there helping them out too! But no, you insist on going after this worthless radio that we're not even sure is here! The only reason Yumi didn't tear you down is because she didn't want to make you look even worse than you made yourself look in front of Sissy. She has shame, something else you don't have."
Herb clammed-up. He was now infuriated with Jeremy, but didn't have anything to say in his defense. Jeremy had him all figured out and it got under his skin.
"Shut up and help me find that radio!" Herb insisted.
"Whatever," Jeremy replied sarcastically, "You're the leader."
The both of them trekked down the hall a little more until they got to an empty classroom with the lights turned out. Herb slowly opened up the door and turned on the lights. He scanned the room and found the radio sitting on a metal TV cart in the corner. He turned to Jeremy.
"HA! See, there it is! Just like I said." A small victory for Herb.
They both walked into the room and, as Herb approached the radio, he turned the knobs on it and it clicked on, letting out a hiss of static.
"And it still works! I told you!"
Jeremy rolled his eyes. "C'mon, let's just get this thing back to the closet."
Both boys headed for the door, making sure to turn the lights back off as they left.
◊
A knock came at the closet door, which Sissy was sitting only a few feet away from. It startled her for a moment, but a voice came through ensured her comfort.
"Sissy," Yumi exclaimed, "It's us and we're back. Open up."
Sissy got to her feet and slowly approached the door, slightly cracking it open and looking outside.
"Let us in Sissy," Ulrich demanded, "We're all here."
Sissy opened up the door for them to come in. "Well thank God you're back! So what's it like down there?"
"It was clear," Ulrich answered, "We locked the doors so no one can get it. Just like Yumi expected, nobody was down there."
"Well," Odd added, "There were some bodies down there, but they were mostly just scattered all over the place."
Nicholas let out a slight chuckle as Yumi turned to Odd with a scowl.
"Not funny." She whispered.
"We're back!" Jeremy yelled to them from the distance, "And we found Herb's radio."
"Yeah, and it still works!" Herb added happily. "Look!"
Herb messed with the tuner on the radio as he surfed through seas of static past pieces of pop songs and commercials. Eventually, Herb got to a station and the words "dead" and "walking" came through the speakers.
"Stop!" Yumi demanded, "Stop it on that station."
Herb took his hand off of the tuner and everyone closed in around the radio to listen in.
"…reports of gray-skinned people roaming the countryside and attacking people at random…"
"Turn it up." Odd asked. Herb reached for the volume control and turned it up for everyone to clearly hear,
"Witnesses have claimed that these unusual-looking assailants have a 'dead-like appearance' and attack random, nearby people with their bare hands and…" there was a rustle of papers and a moment of silence, "…consume the flesh of their attackers. Reported sightings of these bizarre attackers have been made all through out northern France, in both the city and country. The French government have urged citizens to stay inside their homes and not approach one of these strange attackers if one is spotted, instead, to contact the local authorities."
"Good Lord!" Ulrich responded, "It's not just here!"
◊
Though most of them had already been consumed, there were still a few zombies left crowding around the officer's dead bodies, picking off what little they could from the already mangled bodies. The radio from the cruiser suddenly clicked-on as the sound of a woman's voice came through the other side.
"Will Car 54 please respond with a status report. I repeat, Car 54, where are you?"
One of the zombies near the open door of the cruiser took notice to this and crept his way into the cruiser. He slowly extended his hand outward, grasping it with its bony hand. He pressed the receiver up to his greasy, blood-soaked mouth and spoke into it.
"Send…more…cops…"