“Listen,” Bucky began as the sounds of their teacher’s sobs passed down through the floor boards, “if he’s balls deep inside her, he’s not going to be thinking about anything else. He’ll be vulnerable. If the door isn’t locked we can rush in and take him out.”
“But what if he isn’t?” Johnny asked.
“I don’t know, I’m flying by the seat of my pants, here. Nothing like this ever happened in Dawn of the Dead. You have any better ideas?”
Johnny shook his head. “No, but whatever we do we have to do it quick. The barn door isn’t going to hold much longer with those crazy gits out there pushing against it.”
“We need to save Miss Greene first, then we can deal with the crazies outside. I need my sword to be able to do that, which is up there now in Lawro’s possession. We need to agree. This first then the outside? Yes?” His three friends nodded in agreement.
“Wait, wait. I have a better idea,” Aaron began. “How about if we go up first and hide either side of the door, then let Lacey walk into the room? You know how hot headed Lawro can be. He’ll barge out here without thinking, looking to do Lacey some damage. He’ll pass us by, we then attack him from behind, and boom, job done.”
Lacey screwed her face up. “So, what you’re saying is that you want to use me as bait?”
“It’s safer than us all rushing into the room. None of us have been in there. Lawro said it was being used as a store room when he first explored it earlier on. We don’t know how much it’s holding or what is in there. It could be stacked full with nowhere to move, and if that is the case, we’d be screwed.”
Lacey pondered a moment. Johnny kept a watch on the door. “Guys, we can’t talk about this for much longer, we have to do something now or we’re going to be fighting Lawro and the crazies at the same time. That bike chain on the door is not going to keep them out.”
“Alright, I’ll do it,” Lacey whispered, “but you three had better be there for me.”
Bucky nodded. “Let’s go.”
They each ascended the ladder as silent as a ninja, their minimal noise covered by the sobbing from inside the storeroom. On their tiptoes they moved, Aaron and Johnny to the right side of the door, Bucky to the left. Lacey stood in the doorway.
“Swing it open and make as much noise as you can,” Bucky whispered. They’d have to make noise to gain Lawro’s attention. Lacey nodded. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?” Bucky asked.
The tone in her voice was firm. “Let’s do it.”
Lacey smashed the door open. It clattered on its hinges and smacked against the wall Bucky leant against. She stood for a moment in the doorway, clutching her hammer.
“What are you doing, you disgusting pervert!” she bellowed.
“You witch!” screamed Lawro’s disembodied voice from within the room.
“Don’t look at me, just back away,” Bucky whispered to Lacey. She took a pace backwards. The heavy thud of Lawro’s footfalls sprinted toward them. Bucky nodded to Johnny. He returned the gesture.
Through the door Lawro burst, clutching the sword in both hands. Johnny tackled him from the side, knocking the blade from his grasp and out of reach. In a moment of madness, the kids descended onto the naked body of their older peer. In a frenzy of rage, Bucky hammered the screwdriver into Lawro’s chest. A hammer smashed down upon his temple. Blood spurted from his nose. Carnage engulfed the barn as all cognitive thinking diminished and a bloodthirsty frenzy emerged. Lawro screamed, but no one relented. The hammer crashed down upon him, again and again and again. The Stanley knife gouged and lacerated his skin. The screwdriver plunged into the flesh and deep inside his body. The floorboards became awash with blood.
“Stop, stop, stop, stop, STOP!” Bucky yelled. He stood up from his knees and took a step back. The body on the floor lay unrecognisable from the one they’d seen just moments before. Lawro lay motionless on the floor boards, resembling a deformed creature. His skull had been smashed with the hammer, and so violent was the force inflicted that his left eyeball sat on top of his eye socket, pushed out by the ferocity of Lacey’s attack. His torso lay awash with blood, so much so that his entire trunk bathed in a crimson shine.
“What have we done?” Bucky whispered, swept through with emotion. They’d killed someone, and not even a person that was infected or zombified. They’d killed an actual human being who had not succumbed to the virus in any way shape or form. “Look at him.”
“We went over this before,” Aaron began. “We did it to survive.”
“Yeah, but not to a human,” Bucky whispered. “We’ve destroyed him. Look, his skull has been smashed. His skin is shredded. How could we do it so bad?”
“We did what we had to do, Bucky,” Aaron replied. “If we had done just half a job and Lawro recovered from the injuries, he’d be after us no question. We made sure the asshole stayed down.”
“We need to check Miss Greene,” Lacey added, ignoring their conversation. She pushed past them both and into the storage room.
“Come on, man, Miss Greene is going to need us,” Johnny said, placing a hand on Bucky’s shoulder. “This ain’t the world it used to be. You have to get used to it or you’re gonna fall by the wayside.”
Aaron stood by the ladder. “You guys go in, I’ll keep watch on that door. Make it quick, though, we don’t have much time.”
Bucky wandered into the dim room, lit only by torchlight. Johnny slapped a hard hand between his shoulder blades. Any remorse Bucky felt for the attack on Lawro quickly vanished. Johnny made a good point. This wasn’t the world he was
