“You feeling lucky punk? Well...are ya?”
Joey had never seen Dirty Harry before, and she hadn’t either, but alas she’d seen thousands of memes and that one had led her down a YouTube binge like none before it. By the end of it, she realized before he was an old dude that made you cry in movies or slept with married women, who had a farm and liked bridges, that he was one bad dude and he seemed to like revolvers. Joey’s shoulders slumped and he said, “Okay, so let’s get to it and we can go from there. They have three different science floors. We can take them one at a time and watch out for Turned.”
Henry asked, “Is there a reason we are doing it the slow way, I’d rather get in and get out, you know. I still have guard duty to get back to.”
“You won’t have any guard duty to do ever again if we kill all of them. You could just kick your feet up and...and do whatever in the hell that you want to do,” Brett said.
Kya was a little cynical about the idea of every single thing in life could be fixed with one formula, one shot, and everything would go back to normal, or at least what the current normal was, given there was a zombie apocalypse. She didn’t even know if there would be a day that she could imagine that she wouldn’t constantly be having nightmares about them coming for her, always looking over her shoulder. It didn’t matter how long they went without something trying to kill her or eat her. Kya studied the map and said, “If we split up, everyone needs to make sure their radios are on. I think we need two groups though, any issues with that?”
Joe said, “I like the idea of two, three is too thin. Anyone got a preference? I know no one but I could probably use a break from any smart asses.”
Ellie said, “Sounds like I’m with Yassa.”
Joey put his arm around her saying, “I’m not letting you out of my sight. I don’t wanna be the one to have to tell Shaun that you got eaten by a zombie. After as long as you waited for him, I won’t let that happen.”
Kya, who didn’t want to think about a happy couple just right now, said, “I’ll roll with Joe. I’m fine with it being quiet for a minute. Besides, if we stick both girls on one team there won’t be enough brains to go around.”
It took them a minute and Joe smiled lightly saying, “I hope that you can keep lite on smart ass comments to a minimum.”
“You might have to settle for me keeping you alive,” Kya replied.
Brett and Henry were looking at each other, and Jon didn’t need directions. He went to Ellie’s side, knowing that she’d survived some serious shit, and being next to her couldn’t be a bad thing. Of course, he didn’t know about the people with her who had never made it back. He wanted to hope that there had been many who had made it back. He couldn’t guarantee no smartass comments, so figured it still was a good idea to go with Yassa’s group.
Yassa took a good look at his young crew and then at the map. He said, “We need to cut through this building and then we are good to go. Who wants to take the top floor?”
Joe knew the top floor sucked. He said, “Well, why don’t you take that top floor. It might be up your alley.”
Yassa had no clue what he was talking about and how that could be up his alley. Yassa nodded his head slowlyconfused by what he was saying, and asked, “What about the second floor seems to be up my alley, Joe?”
“Because, Yassa, I don't do second stories if I don't have to. You were jumping up there like a damn spider monkey, so I figure if you need to get out of that window then you're probably better suited for it than I am.”
“It's not just the fact that you don't want to go up there and feel trapped?”
“No, that’s exactly it. But in all honesty, I do think you probably can be a little more spider monkey than I can. So, you watch those kid’s back and be careful at the same time?”
Joey raised his hand and Joe nodded, feeling like a school teacher. Joey asked, “How is your eyesight, Joe?”
“As good as can be expected, Joey. Why do you ask?”
“Oh, I don't know I just wasn't sure if you saw Ellie, Jon, oh yeah and me trying to climb up the rope not jumping like Yassa but climbing, climbing slowly, and again not jumping. You realize if we get into trouble up there, Mr. Joe, that it's going to happen to us all, right?”
Joe looked at the boy, realizing anyone that didn't give this kid the credit for being smart and in no way coming off as handicapped was an idiot themselves. Joe said, “Do you want to switch out with one of my guys?”
Henry and Brett both looked perturbed instantaneously. Brett said, “Hey, don't offer me up on a platter. It is what it is.”
Joey said, “Well, at least if there's zombies when we go in there, they are probably lazy zombies. Probably ones that want to hang out on the first floor. Good luck, you guys. We will see you soon, okay?”
Joe was starting to think about that and wondering if what he said had any weight to it. When they pulled on the door, there were chains locking it shut. He figured at some point there had been college students still alive, obviously, given the school bus wall, and they must have done
