AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Pike and I started laughing when he immediately spit the soda out of his mouth. “Bro, it’s seventeen-year-old soda. What did you expect?” Pike choked out between laughs. Ethan smacked his lips together as he tasted whatever was left in his mouth before taking another swig from the can and grimacing.
“It’s not good, but it isn’t bad either,” he said as he placed the can on the counter. I guess it wasn’t good enough to bring with him. We descended to the third floor and stepped through the door, listening carefully for signs of life. I set the full duffle bag down and pulled another empty one out.
“Ok,” I whispered, “this floor has the orthopedic department on it. This is where we should be able to find everything we need for Gray. Keep your eyes peeled for a circular saw, supplies for casts, and crutches. I spotted some wheelchairs downstairs, so we can grab one there. Let’s also collect any splint, sling, or air cast items. You never know when we might need them.”
Now that we knew what we were looking for, we first cleared the floor like we had done upstairs. This time, we only found one zombie locked in a bathroom stall. We then went from room to room again, collecting supplies. I was beginning to worry that we wouldn’t find everything we needed when we found a storage closet filled with everything on my list. I filled the duffel bag while Ethan and Pike grabbed crutches of all sizes and tied them together so they would be easier to carry.
The second floor was the one I had been looking forward to the most. This was where the pharmacy was; if our luck held out, we would hit the jackpot. I rushed to clear the floor so I could find all the medicine and got careless. As I pushed a door open to check a room, I looked away briefly and was tackled by a snarling rotting mass as it came through the door I had just opened. I let out a small scream as I was tackled to the floor. The force of the impact knocked my knife out of my hand. I quickly managed to get my arms between me and the zombie to hold it off me.
“Bailey!” Ethan and Pike shouted. I could hear their feet hitting the tile floor as they ran toward me, but I couldn’t focus on that. All my focus was on the teeth snapping inches from my face as it tried to eat mine. I struggled against the weight of the zombie as it kept constant pressure on my arms with small lunges.
A knife appeared through its skull, causing the most vile substance on the planet to drip onto my face. I was pulled out from under the zombie and shoved away from them as I ran for the bathroom we had just cleared dry heaving. I made it to the sink just as the contents of my stomach appeared. I turned on the faucet, surprised to find water trickling out of it. It wasn’t clean water, but it was a fuck ton better than zombie juice. I grabbed some paper towels and washed my face off as best I could.
When I was done, I could still smell zombies. That wasn’t going away anytime soon. I looked down at my ruined clothes and knew I would have to burn them. Some things you couldn’t get out, and zombie was one of them. When I finally emerged from the bathroom feeling marginally less disgusting than when I went in, I found Pike and Ethan leaning against the wall, waiting for me.
“Are you ok?” Ethan asked.
“Yeah, I smell and need to burn my clothes, but I’m fine. Thank you both for saving me.”
“It’s no problem. Not like you wouldn’t do the same for us. We cleared the rest of the floor while you were in there,” Pike told me.
“Oh good, now we can go drug shopping,” I said, my mood brightening. “I don’t care what it’s for or what it treats, grab everything,” I told them. I would sort it all back at the house and figure out what was what. As we cleaned off the shelves, I found a thick book tucked away with all the different kinds of medications, what they were used for, and how to administer them. Perfect! I tucked that into my duffel bag and continued.
Medication was so rare these days, and it was surprising to see a mostly untouched pharmacy. It made me even more uneasy about what went on here. We finished grabbing everything and lugged our bags down to the first floor. After this, we will return to the lobby where Caleb and Boone are hopefully waiting. We’ll check the ER on that floor and be done. When we finished with the pharmacy, we checked the rest of the floor, but it was mostly a bunch of administrative offices.
We went back into the stairwell when an idea came to me. I dropped my bags and began running back up the stairs. Pike and Ethan didn’t question it; they just followed me up. When I got to the top and the door leading to the roof, I stopped momentarily to catch my breath.
“What’s going on, Bails?” Ethan asked calmly, not even out of breath. That’s mildly annoying. It’s not like I’m not in shape.
“This town is bugging me. Where is everyone? An entire town just left? It doesn’t make sense. So I thought maybe getting a better view of the town might give me some answers,” I answered. I pulled out my knife and pushed open the door. Everything was quiet as I stepped outside. Pike grabbed a cinder block sitting near the door to prop the door open so we didn’t get stuck out there. Quickly, we made sure no one was up here, then looked at the town.
It was overgrown, with far more trees growing between the buildings than there would have been at one time. However, you could still easily see the town and its buildings. It looked like it was once a cute little town. I scanned the town, not entirely sure what I was looking for. They would have gathered somewhere indoors if they weren't running around town. It wasn’t the hospital, so where?
I could see the church, but it had half a door hanging off its hinges, so that wasn’t it. I spotted a sign peeking through the trees that said FORD, so that must be where Caleb and Boone were. Thankfully, the streets were just as empty as they were when we arrived.
“Hey, what about over here?” Pike called. I went to join him on the south side of the building and followed his pointed finger. “Take a look at that school. They must have dumped a lot of money into it. It is the newest-looking building around.”
“And it’s big enough to hold the entire town,” I said thoughtfully. “That’s where they would go.”
“What do you want to do?” Pike asked.
“Well, I don’t like the idea of an entire school filled with zombies waiting to escape. In the grand scheme of things, we’re not that far from the farm. We would easily be overrun with a hoard the size of a town. But we are also not prepared to take on a group that size. Even if we find a way to pick them off safely one by one, we don’t have the ammo it would take.” I gave a frustrated sigh and rubbed my hands down my face. Arms wrapped around me from behind, and I recognized Ethan’s familiar scent.
“Bails, you aren’t responsible for everything. And you don’t have to be responsible for this.” I relaxed in his embrace and rested my head back against his chest.
“Yeah, but I know about it now. I can’t just ignore it. It’s like those commercials and signs you used to see in airports back in the day. ‘If you see something, say something.’ I can’t not do something.”
“But do you have to do something about itnow?” Pike asked.
“No, I suppose not. I’ll talk to Henry about it, and we can devise a plan to deal with them. A hoard of zombies that size would easily overrun him as well.”
“Ok, then it’s settled,” Ethan said, kissing my head and letting go of me. “We will keep the noise down and steer clear of anything near or visible to the school so that we don’t get them all riled up. Come on, let’s get back downstairs and finish the last two floors.” He looped a finger into my jeans' back pocket and gave me a light tug to get me moving.
“What’s on this next floor anyways?” Pike asked.
“Next floor is surgery. It should be filled with many more goodies,” I told him as we returned down the stairs. When we got to the first floor, we silently moved inside, working like a well-oiled machine, and cleared the floor. We were able to collect more medications as well as suture and surgical kits. I was most excited about the gallons of iodine that was there. I had been running low. We finished up there and went back to the lobby.
At their insistence, I stayed in the lobby while they cleared the floor and ER. I wasn’t too happy about it, but it would give me a chance to get food out so we could eat when they returned. Hopefully, Boone and Caleb wouldn’t be much longer. As I was pulling food out of my backpack, I froze. Someone was watching me. I could feel their eyes. As discreetly as possible, I fisted my knife and looked around me. Pike and Ethan came back with their duffel bags filled.
