XXVI. Teamwork
'Even in our police state someone dares to demonstrate. Well we fight in our own ways but nothing ever changes.' — First Aid Kit, 'Our Own Pretty Ways'
Checking the area, Chris could hear the faint sound of lazy moaning coming from a few yards off. With his back pressed up against the brick wall, he leaned to see past the corner of the deserted shopping center. From where he stood, he could see the Jimmy Carter Elementary building less than half a mile away. Maybe with a five minute jog, he'd make it to the door of the school. But holding him back was the small but growing crowd of the infected roaming about the parking lot. He'd have to weave around stores and other buildings around to make it to the doors, but first and foremost, he'd have to find Sheva.
"Sheva, where are you?" he spoke into his headset.
It was quiet for a moment, intensifying his worry as more and more zombies seem to gather outside the school. He was sure she wasn't going to answer when all he heard for a minute was pure quietness over their shared channel. But as he was beginning to find a new route to the school, her voice came through with a whisper.
"I'm next to the gym right outside the school," she informed, sounding out of breath.
Peeking again past the corner of the building he stood next to, he could see the gym on the far left of the school. He'd have to either cross a street carefully or take a long walk around the tool store further away to go unnoticed from the zombies. Crossing the street and risk getting caught was at least seven minutes quicker. He wasn't sure what the number of infected was around the tool store, but it had to be somewhat safer.
"Sheva, can you see the tool store? What's it like? How many are there?" he requested, still weighing his options. There was another wait until her reply.
"There looks to be about ten or so zombies. Not nearly as much as there is in the parking lot."
"Copy that. I'm going around the tool store and I'll be at your location in ten minutes tops. Hold tight and keep quiet."
He checked his handgun, choosing a smaller weapon for a smaller crowd. He was about to start his small travel around the stores when Sheva had one more thing to say.
"I see a few windows open on the school. I can make it without getting caught. I'll clear a way for you at the north entrance, it looks the most clear."
Chris felt a heavy weight on his shoulders as he crouched down and spoke sternly into the earpiece. "Stay where you are, Sheva. You don't know how many there are in the school. Wait till I get to you then we'll enter the building together."
"Chris, I can hear them getting closer to me around the gym. If I wait for you I'll be eaten by that point with a spent magazine. I'm going through the window. I'll let you know when I get in and get to a safe area. Out and over," she finished, not giving him a chance to tell her to stay put again.
"Goddammit," he cursed to himself, knowing she couldn't hear him at that point. Taking a quick moment to steady his heartbeat and run his fingers through his hair, he switched his handgun for his SMG and scanned the parking lot outside the school for a quick moment, then took off on the route that he had intentionally opted out of for the tool store.
"Why'd you have to you run off so fast?" he asked no one but meant it for Sheva. If she hadn't been so fast with her sprint to the school, then he would have caught up to her long ago. But she had to be her stubborn self and run like the wind to get to the two survivors left. He cursed the situation another time when he made it a lone truck and hid behind it, hearing the moaning of the infected become louder.
The only sound heard was the soft click of her boots on the linoleum floor as Sheva walked slowly with bent knees around the room she just snuck into. It was clear, the first thing she noticed, but it was ransacked. The stainless steel tables and plentiful empty food trays told Sheva she was in the kitchen to the cafeteria. The shelves were empty of foods and ingredients, there was no blood, and everything seemed to be eerily quiet.
Looking around, Sheva grabbed the school map by the entrance to the halls of the school. The classrooms for first graders were on the same side of the building but on the other end. Sheva found Mrs. Armstrong's room in the middle of the rest, making it clear enough way for her to get to it quickly. She began folding the map into a small rectangle and slipped it into her pocket. But as she was pulling her hand back to her handgun, her body jumped when she felt something grab her.
She was about to let out a reflexive yelp until a hand clamped over her mouth to stop any loud alert for any infected to hear that might be roaming outside the kitchen. Feeling the heat of the hand warm her lips, she turned slightly to see Chris behind her as he gave her a firm look that reminded her of the look a parent would give to their misbehaving child. Grasping his wrist and pulling his hand away, Sheva felt like she was about to throw up her entire stomach after that unexpected scare.
"Why did you have to do that?" she probed with a harsh whisper. "You nearly scared me to death, Chris. Why didn't you call me over the headset? And how did you get here so fast?"
Without saying anything, he reached his hand behind her ear, grabbed the loose wire and brought it to connect to the one that was hanging off her holster. Once he connected the two wires, a low hum came through Sheva's ear piece. She held back the urge to slap a hand to her forehead when she realized she must have disconnected the wires as she was jumping through the open window, cutting off her connection to Chris.
"Maybe next time you should make sure the cord on your earpiece is long enough and connected before you go on your own in the middle of an outbreak," he claimed, scanning the room they stood in.
"Whatever," she mumbled. "You could have at least said something when you got in here. You didn't have to grab me like that. And you didn't answer my question. How did you get here so fast?"
"I didn't grab you. I tapped your shoulder and you freaked out. And I went through the parking lot. It was faster."
"And a lot more dangerous. You could have gotten killed," she told him, going to the closed door to the halls and listened for any noise.
He gave her a humorous look. "We can get killed at any point in this line of work. What was dangerous was you going in here alone. I told you to wait."
She stood and watched as he listened where she had just a second ago, trying to detect how many zombies were in the halls close to them. "Well I'm safe, aren't I? And we're in the school. Now we have to get to the classroom."
Deciding the halls were a better choice over the cafeteria, Chris took the map Sheva had collected and gave her the plan to get to Mrs. Armstrong's classroom and the survivors and past the few zombies outside. Guns were not optional for they would ruin their strategy of being quiet and stealthy. From what could be heard, only two zombies lurked in the hall. Grabbing an empty salt shaker, Chris tossed it out the door passed the infected outside the kitchen as a distraction so Chris and Sheva could slip out. As the only two zombies turned towards the salt shaker and away from the two living agents, Chris snuck up behind one, placing a hand the side of the zombie's chin and the other hand on the side of its head above its ear. He made a quick movement of his arms and snapped the infected victim's neck with ease. As he watched the body sink to the floor in a final death, Sheva had tiptoed up behind the other, wrapped an arm around the zombie's shoulder and plunged her knife into its neck, killing it quickly and silently.
Looking at his surroundings, Chris could see from down another hall the classroom they needed to go to. The setting sun in the west was casting shadows everywhere, making his eyes move around quickly, mistaking shadows for zombies. He turned to look at Sheva when he heard her gasp, but the gasp was cut off when she stopped herself.
"Oh my, God," she muttered under her breath, looking through the windows on the doors to the cafeteria. She thanked whoever it was looking out for her and Chris that they chose to go straight to the halls instead of through the cafeteria. Chris walked to stand next to her, seeing what it was that made her react the way she did.
"Shit," he muttered, not even trying to guess how many zombies there were in the cafeteria.
From just taking a look at the horde inside the room there had to be around a hundred in there, just walking sluggishly while bumping into one another. Sheva clasped a hand over mouth at the sight of many infected children in there, her eyes watering just from the sight. While Chris felt the pang of sadness for these young lives lost, part of him was more alert at some of them with extremely red colored skin. Adults as well had this crimson color toning their skin, making it look as if blood had rushed to the surface and most notably their heads. Typically they were just considered zombies, but amongst people who had dealt with them before, they were known as Crimson Heads. Some were so far into transformation that claws were beginning to grow from their fingers, muscles bulged on their bodies, and their skin slowly shedding. Even the children were showing signs of the familiar B.O.W. Their eyes almost seemed to glow with filmy white covering the iris.
Chris quickly looked around for something to block the door in case the horde inside the cafeteria might notice them and start running for them. The only thing he came across without searching the entire school was a fire axe in a well locked case on the wall. Trying to be quiet, he butted his arm into the glass displaying the emergency weapon with his elbow and retrieved the axe. Sliding it into the handles of the doors as quietly as he could, the axe was the best defense they had at this point.
Taking one last glance at the horde inside the cafeteria, Chris had the scare of his life—for the millionth time in his life—when suddenly the small window he was looking through broke with a large almost paw like hand decorated with long razor sharp claws reaching out at him, successfully cutting four long and deep scratches on his right bicep. Chris fell back with a loud cry from the pain running up and down his arm. The creature to injure him badly showed its face through the broken window, it's skinless and eyeless head peeking out. Its brains were exposed, its teeth pointy and sharp curved into what looked like a sinister grin, and its tongue slithering out of those grinning teeth.
"Licker!" Sheva exclaimed with fear heavily laced in her voice.
"Run!" Chris ordered, getting to his feet and pushing Sheva forward so she could run in front of him. He looked back quickly, taking a hasty glance of the Licker as it tried to get through the small opening of the broken window, its too large of a body failing to get through. Its tongue whipped around wildly, trying to find something to grab onto. Soon the zombies inside began rushing towards the doors, having trouble opening them. The axe did its job for the time being, but Chris knew it wouldn't hold up forever. He stopped for the quickest second and set a remote bomb in the middle of the hallway. As he held the remote tightly in his hand, his left arm throbbed of pain where the Licker had injured him.
"Chris, your arm," Sheva said between breaths as she ran as quick as she could while still staying close to Chris without leaving him in the dirt. Chris was a fast runner for his size, but Sheva was still faster and now with his injured arm, he went a little slower involuntarily.
"I'm fine," he told her with a raised voice. "Just get to the classroom."
She could see the text 'Mrs. Armstrong, First Grade Class' written on the door at the end of the hall. As they were almost there, the stench of garbage and rotting meat hit her senses hard. She kept going though, not wanting to be there when the cafeteria doors broke down. They made it to the door, slamming into the wall as Sheva twisted the doorknob to find it locked.
"This is rescue, please open up," Sheva announced as calmly as possible, not wanting to scare any hostile survivors. A small voice asked for her name, so she gave it them and requested once again for them to open up, telling them it was better they did fast and with urgency. The door opened and Chris gently pushed Sheva in first, closing the door behind him and locking it.
Sheva offered her strength and pushed a bookshelf against the door. As soon as she took a step back, she could hear the screech of the Crimson Heads and the sound of the cafeteria doors falling off the hinges, alerting her that the zombies and Licker were now free from the cafeteria. Chris heard what she did and set off the remote bomb, hopefully killing some and slowing down the others. The blast of the bomb made the walls vibrate slightly in the classroom.
"What did you guys do?" a voice from behind them shouted. "Now they know we're here!"
Chris and Sheva turned to see a young boy, around ten years of age, standing in front of them with wide eyes and parted lips. Before they could say a word, he rushed to the other side of the room where a ton of school desks were piled on top of each other, creating a wall and fort in the corner of the room. The boy crawled into the small opening at the bottom and whispered to someone. Soon he crawled back out with a smaller child behind him.
"Come on, Zoe. Help is here," he told her, holding out his hand when the little girl that he had just called Zoe grabbed onto his hand with both of her tiny ones and stood close to the boy. As the two children came closer, Zoe squealed out of fright when she noticed all the blood on Chris's arm.
"It's okay," Sheva assured the young girl. "He's just a little hurt." She could hear Chris scuff quietly at the "little" part. "We have to leave right now, okay?"
She rushed to the only window in the room, grabbing a chair and breaking the glass. When bellows and screeches could be heard outside the classroom door, Chris ordered for her to go first and he'd hand the children to her. Zoe began to cry as the young boy spoke of a plan.
"There's a tornado shelter across the field over there," he motioned out the window across the small grass field as he hung a backpack onto his back. "We can hide in there. It has metal doors and a lock, I think. The principle was bragging about it because it's supposed to be super strong. We should go there."
Sheva jumped out the window and held her arms out for Zoe as she cried more to be parted from the boy for a moment. "That's not a bad idea," she said aloud, meaning it for Chris.
He gave a firm nod and then helped the boy out the window, climbing out slower himself to avoid hurting his arm anymore. "Tornado shelter it is," he agreed, urging the kids to run as fast as they could. They were halfway across the field when he could hear the door bust open in the classroom they were just in. He set off the other remote bomb he had placed in the room before he had climbed out the window last, praying this bomb killed the infected and that the kids, Sheva, and himself would make it to the shelter.
Author's Note: I hope the description of Crimson Heads and the Licker was accurate enough. Lickers still creep me out majorly, but admittedly, they're pretty neat looking monsters. Also, I should have mentioned this in the last chapter but originally all of this going on (the outbreak in Kansas) was supposed to be one chapter, but it got stretched out to three parts. I just can't help myself.
borismortys: Thank you! Jill's become a favorite of mine unexpectedly as this story has gone on, too. Once this whole mission in Kansas is done with, then we'll do even more time jumps and catch up with Mr. Olivera and Ms. Valentine's "affair". Hmm, we've got quite a bit of stuff that needs to happen before Edonia, but its coming. Promise! :)
toby7400: Eek, about to give up on the story? I'm glad you still read through the last one, I'm just worried for future things with this you'll definitely give up on it. But anyways, thanks for reading. :)
TheHappening: I'm trying to get more and more writing done so I can update more. Fingers crossed it'll happen! And thank you. :)
Mss. KB: Thanks, Karina! Of course Sheva must have the last word, that's her stubbornness coming through, haha. Talk to you soon, hugs. :)
wolfspiritqueen: Aw, thank you so much! That really lightened my spirits. Were your guesses right for this chapter? Or do think they'll happen in the next? Some major drama, like always, happens in the next update. :)
In the next chapter, there's a shouting match between Sheva and Chris. More Chris than Sheva, but it won't be pretty. Just a ton of drama next chapter that might make us question Chris's sanity. D: Also, uh, I got the time wrong in the last chapter. Or I made it confusing. It is indeed March of 1012 and not earlier. I just wanted to say so in case someone got mixed up like I did.
-Sarai
