John stepped forward and motioned for Mel to join him. “Hang on. We will help.”
A couple of minutes and a half-dozen shots later, four zombies lay permanently dead along the fence. John couldn’t help thinking that these shots would just attract more zombies.
Craig, Tammy, and Joe still stood together. They had watched the shooters take down the zombies. There was something deeply unsettling about watching people getting shot in the head, and none of the three civilians looked comfortable.
John didn’t like shooting people in the head any better.
No. Not people. John reminded himself. Even that boy. That wasn’t a boy anymore.
The shared revulsion seemed to strengthen the bond between Craig and Tammy. By the time John had returned to the group, he realized that Craig was not going to send them away empty-handed.
“Tammy, I think that we can help you. A little bit, anyway. We have the locations of a bunch of supply drops, including one not too far from here. We’ll share that info with you so that you guys can resupply.” Craig added with a slight grimace, “I don’t know if the drop is as secure as this place, though.”
Tammy’s eyebrows rose in surprise, then her expression softened. “Thank you. To tell you the truth, we have a decent amount of supplies, but we forgot to pack any food or water.”
“Em, can you go get the coordinates for that drop that’s nearby?” Craig asked, before turning to Joe “Joe, can you grab a case of water from the cafeteria? I think we can spare a case.”
Emily and Joe quickly stepped back into the school. John was grateful to see Joe act without questioning his leader.
Everybody had returned to their original positions by the time the water and coordinates were handed over. Emily and Mike agreed on a radio channel so they could stay in touch, and the two groups said their goodbyes.
John could tell that the relationships had thawed somewhat. Then noticed the stocky woman ignoring Emily’s hail.
Well, some are more friendly, anyway.
John closed the gate after the last vehicle had pulled onto the road and watched them drive off. He also noticed several zombies, including a couple at the fence further down the road.
He motioned to Mel, and the two of them jogged over to execute the intruders.
“Let’s get back inside,” he ordered as he returned to the rest of his team.
They hustled back into the school and John shut the door behind them with an audible clack. It reminded John of the first time they had pulled those same doors closed.
Hard to believe that was only just over a week ago ... It sure feels different this time. Like we have accepted our fate or something.
With that thought, he stepped into the cafeteria, where everybody else had already gathered.
“WHO WERE THOSE PEOPLE?”
“What do they want?”
“Why did they leave?”
“What did you say to them?”
Craig was immediately bombarded by a bunch of questions. He asked the group for silence and proceeded to relay everything that happened.
At one point, he was interrupted by Keith. “Tammy Jensen? As in the Tammy Jensen from Channel Eight?”
“Ah, damn.” Craig snapped his fingers. “I knew I recognized her from somewhere.”
“I know her,” Keith said. “I’ve met her a few times. She was the colleague of ... a good friend.”
“Shit,” Joe said. “I feel bad. I didn’t exactly make them feel welcome.”
“That’s right, Joe. You need to let Craig do the talking. And you need to watch that damn temper of yours.” John stared down the big man with an intense look.
Joe nodded contritely. “Yeah. You’re right. That could have gone a lot better.” He met John’s gaze. “I’ll be better next time, John. Sorry.”
Craig nodded back. “It’s OKOK. We’re all still learning here.” Then turned to look at the rest of the gathered crowd. “But what’s more important is that we need to be better prepared next time. It took us too long to get organized.”
“Yeah, that’s right.” John agreed. “What we need is a procedure. So that we all know what to do in certain emergencies.” He bit his lip. “We could also use some kind of warning system.”
“Ah!” Ern exclaimed and hustled towards the stairs leading down to the basement. “Give me a minute.”
Sure enough, Ern came back up the stairs a minute later. His face was a deep shade of red, and he was breathing like a blacksmith’s bellows by the time he walked up to the group. But he made his point clear by raising the objects he held in his hand: a triangle and a metal stick.
“The huff-huff band instruments are huff-huff in storage huff downstairs.”
“This is great. Excellent thinking, Ern.” Craig took the triangle, held it up by its nylon loop and struck one of the sides with the metal stick. The high ring tone was loud. Loud enough to be heard throughout the building.
“I’m going to hang this instrument right here, just outside of the cafeteria. We should all be able to hear it.” Several people nodded. Jack ran to the office to collect some string.
“OK,” Joe stated, drawing everybody’s attention. “So, what do we do if somebody rings the alarm?”
“The first thing we do is gather right here,” John said. His tactical mind was already going. “If it is nothing serious, then just ring the bell once and repeat after every five or so seconds to make sure everybody has heard it. That will be our call to muster.” He nodded to himself, thinking on the fly. “If it is something serious, like zombies breaking through the fence, or if those guys from this morning try to sneak back into the yard — then ring the bell repeatedly.”
He turned to make sure everybody heard.
“Folks, if you hear that bell ringing repeatedly, it will mean there is something serious going on. We will have to know our jobs and move quickly.”
John locked eyes with several people, including Joe. The big
