The team had progressed to bottom of the steps, close to the school door. John and the others could hear sounds. These were the sounds of glass breaking, of things banging and crashing. The oddity was that these sounds were not accompanied by human voices. John knew that these sounds were made by zombies. They could hear those gunshots.
Ok John, get your team to safety.
John had a quick look and the coast was still clear. He gave the signal, which was acknowledged by a bunch of thumbs up signals from behind the windows. As one, all storm shutters started lowering. The sound was not as loud as John had feared. His team stayed alert – scanning all around for any sign of the zombie.
Maybe that damn ghoul wandered back out through the gate.
Just then, Craig whispered. “Movement at fence. Um... seven o’clock? Over there.” He said, eventually pointing towards the fence, about a hundred yards away from the gate.
A zombie had appeared and was moving along the fence. John didn’t think it had spotted them yet. This also wasn’t the same zombie that the group had seen earlier. This one was wearing clothes. John would have been convinced it was a living person, if it weren’t for the way it moved. It was still too far away for John to see its face – something for which he was thankful. The zombie continued to stagger along the fence towards the gate, and towards the group.
“Inside. Now.” He said. The group moved quickly, and they were all inside the school by the time the last storm shutter had been lowered. Jack closed and locked the door behind them.
As soon as they were inside the school, John called for Ethan. The boy ran over right away.
“We have a zombie at the fence, traveling towards the gate. Keep an eye on it and let me know if it reaches the gate.” Evan nodded and ran off immediately.
“Good work everyone.” John made his way to every team member and patted them on the shoulder. John made sure to use his real hand and not the prosthetic. People tended to act funny when he touched them with the damn thing.
Everybody reconvened in the cafeteria for an impromptu meeting. All windows in the basement and main floor had their storm shutters lowered. It gave the inside of the school a darkened look, more reminiscent of evening than morning.
Craig thanked everybody for their efforts and noted that their first mission was a success. Rachel Collins raised her hand and took a step forward.
“Yeah sure – but where is that naked zombie? Did you guys search the grounds for it?”
“We did not encounter it outside. It might have left the school yard through the fence – we’re not sure.” John admitted.
“So that thing could still be out there?”
“Yes.” John’s face grew stern. “Our task was to get the gate closed and the storm shutters down, not to go out there hunting zombies.”
Rachel was not going to let it go at that, but Joe put his hand on her arm.
“We’ll keep looking for it.” Craig intervened. “If we see it inside the fence then we will get a team together to take care of it. But for now, we have improved the security of our place, and nobody got hurt – so that’s a good thing, right?” He looked around him, receiving nods in return.
“Hey guys!” Ethan called from the cafeteria entrance. Something about the urgency in his voice made the whole group look up at him.
John took two quick steps towards the youngster. “Is that zombie at the gate?”
“Huh?” A flash of confusion crossed Ethan’s face. “Oh! No, it turned away and disappeared between some houses. No, it’s not that. It’s the President. He’s on the tv...” The young man wore an anxious expression. People started moving right away.
THE BROADCAST WAS ALREADY underway as people filed in and took seats or stood close to the tv so they could hear. Ethan was smart enough to keep the tv volume low.
Shelley saw the president’s face more clearly as she got closer. He did not look good. The President was sweating profusely, and he wore a pained expression. As Shelley started to make out words, she noted that even his voice sounded like he was in pain.
“–zones have fallen. In our rush to set the zones set up, we did not realize that there were many people out there that had not experienced symptoms yet but were infected, nonetheless. We did not know how this nano virus operated. As a result of this oversight, many of the safe zones had large numbers of infected within their populations. Measures were taken to try to remove infected from the general population, but people were scared, hid their symptoms, hid themselves, and in some cases openly rebelled against the folks running the zones.”
“We also underestimated the security requirements. Several zones suffered breaches, as the number of undead on the outside became overwhelming, causing the fences to fail. The sheer numbers were too much for the soldiers stationed at the safe zones, and... Many people died.”
The President stopped speaking. He swallowed and slowly blinked. When his eyes were open once again, tears were rolling down his cheek.
Ethan used the momentary pause to fill the team in. “He said that over half of the safe zones have been overrun. He said that he wanted to protect the safe zones that were still standing and that he ordered all the troops in the vicinity of those zones back t–” He stopped as the President started speaking again.
“I have doomed many uninfected individuals with my decisions. I will answer to my maker soon, but that doesn’t
