That’s what was happening now. We, the eleven of us were the rock stars. The zombies, our biggest fans. They didn’t care that the people against the glass were being flattened. It didn’t keep the ones being crushed from still licking and trying to bite through the glass.

“We don’t have long. Charlene’s right. The glass, it won’t hold,” I said.

“It’s Plexiglas. It should hold. They shouldn’t be able to break that,” Gene said. “Holy shit.”

“Holy shit, what?”

“Gregory. It’s Greg.”

I looked around. I did not see anyone new in our group. “Gene, what the hell are you talking about?”

Gene walked up toward the lunch tables, around them and right up to the glass, all the way at the right of the wall. He pointed a finger at the flattened nostrils of a man whose face looked like a dog had attacked him. The skin on his cheek had peeled back and hung loose toward his own throat. “That, this guy, he’s Greg. Gregory,” Gene said. He shook his head, smiling.

“I guess I’m missing the funny here, Gene.”

“The generators. Greg did it. He’s the one --this guy right here-- that’s my partner. You know what I mean? We worked together. Day in, day out, the last several years. If anyone was going to know how to screw around in the mechanical room, how to do some real damage, it would be him, Greg. That son of a gun,” Gene said.

“He’s a not human anymore, he’s one of those things,” Melissa said.

The monsters had organized. They’d plotted an attack, and pulled it off. If it didn’t scare the shit out of me so much, I’d be impressed. “We need to find a way out of here. Out of the cafeteria.”

“And go where?” Dave said.

“We should get my bus,” Gene said.

“Where’s a window?” Allison said.

“In the kitchen, back here,” Megan said. She ran, taking Allison.

“Got a door back there, too,” Kia said. “They use it for deliveries. Take out the trash. That kind of thing.”

Allison returned. “We’re surrounded. I mean--surrounded.”

“They are in and all around the building,” Megan said.

Dave, Charlene, Allison and I had our weapons. I saw a few rifles. “How much ammo do we have?”

Gene shrugged. “A lot.”

“Here?” I said.

“Yes. It’s there, stacked in the corner. There’s more in the gymnasium, and some by the front office, too. Tried not to keep it all in one place,” Melissa said.

“That was good thinking,” I said. “What we really need is a plan. Because right now, I can’t see a way out of this room. I mean, other than making a run for it, I have no idea what to do next.”

Allison walked in a big circle around the room. She chewed at the skin on the corner of her thumb. I hated when she did that. “They breached the school,” she said. “As much of a haven as this place seemed, that’s gone now. I know I was looking forward to staying here, but we can’t.”

“We could push through the doors,” Robert said. “Shoot a path to the gym. Collect up the rest of our stuff…”

“Not going to work,” Andy said, took off his baseball cap and scratched at his head. “We have the fast ones in that hallway. It’s one thing if they chase after us, and we have time to run, but pushing through all of them stacked right there, it’s a death sentence. I don’t see a way of getting through them without some of us at least getting bit. I don’t know about any of you, but I don’t want to get bit.”

“No one wants to get bitten,” Michelle said.

No one was arguing. Voices were loud, though. Getting louder.

“We have backpacks,” Megan said, “gathered them earlier from lockers and left in the hallways. Dumped the books and stuffed them each full of supplies and stuck them in the dry storage room. Maybe we should hand those out?”

“That’s a good call,” Kia said. “I’ll grab them.”

“What’s in the backpacks?” Charlene said.

“Each has basic First Aid stuff, band aids and alcohol and gauze with tape. Some granola bars, couple cans of food, and other nonperishables. Perfect to hold you over for a few days, not much longer,” Gene said. “Why don’t you and Melissa go and grab them?”

“I have one idea,” Charlene said. She spoke softly, as if unsure anyone would take her idea seriously.

“What have you got?” I said.

“Gene, you said your wife was on her way to pick you up from work here at the school, right? So where is her car?”

“Right out back,” Gene said.

Charlene told us the rest of her plan. It wasn’t the best idea, but might prove the only plan plausible enough to work.

Chapter Eighteen

It looked like it might come down to a vicious game of Rocks, Paper, Scissors. Gene was an automatic because it was his car, and his bus we were going to retrieve. Initially, Robert called shotgun, but Andy wanted to go, too. Seemed safer if all three went. We figured the rest of us would be safe in the school until they returned.

“You be careful, okay?” Melissa said. She hugged her man tight. I knew she wasn’t comfortable with him going on this quest without her. “If those roads are bad, you drive on lawns, you got me? No getting out of the car, at all.”

“I’ll be gone and back before you know it.” He patted her back and rested his chin on top of her head.

“I love you.” She looked up into his eyes and kissed him.

“Love you more,” he said.

I felt odd watching the exchange. The cafeteria was only so large. I turned away, but it was after the fact, and shook hands with Andy and Robert. I planned to do the same with Gene, but he pulled me in for a hug.

“If we don’t return, you watch over these people. You take care of my Melissa.” He pulled out of the hug and clapped me on the shoulders.

I nodded, letting him know I understood. There was no use in telling him not to worry, that he’d return, and we’d all be reunited. In truth, the chances of them returning with the bus were not good. Not good at all. He knew it. I knew it. Everyone here knew it. I still had to say something. “You just hurry back. No joy riding with that crazy bus of yours. I’m anxious to see this thing.”

“You got it!” Gene laughed. “And you’re going to love it. Tell him, Melissa, tell him how much he’s going to love it.”

“You’re going to love it,” she said. Her words were not convincing. She barely made eye contact. I didn’t think it had anything to do with the bus.

#  #  #

Kia and Michelle held rifles. They sat perched on the sink counter in the kitchen, just under the small rectangle windows.

“This is going to sound so damned obvious, but when I give the word, you two start shooting. Hit as many as you can in the head. The gunshots are going to attract more to the back of the school over here,” Dave said. He made a gun with his fingers and aimed it at his own skull. “Don’t stop until there’s either none left as a threat, or you’re out of ammo. Got it?”

I wished there was more I could do. We only had the two windows over the sink. They were small. Rectangle. Wasn’t room enough for more than one person stationed at each.

Charlene stood at the back door, her hand on the knob. This was her idea. She wanted to be part of the execution as well. I couldn’t blame her.

“Then, when I say so, Charlene, you pull open the door.” Dave pointed at Gene, Andy and Robert. “You three run like the fucking wind to the car. Gene, you have the keys?” Dave said.

“Yes.”

“Check,” Dave said.

“Sorry,” Gene said. “Check.”

“No,” Dave shook his head. “I mean, check. Physically check.”

Gene held up a key ring. “Check.”

Dave took a deep breath, held it and sighed. He nodded toward Kia and Michelle. “Ladies, start shooting…now!”

Kia and Michelle fired their rifles. The recoil kicked their bodies back after each shot fired. They didn’t stop or complain. They kept shooting. I hoped they were hitting targets. I could hear the creatures. The moaning and groaning was loud, hollow. It ate through me, pierced my skin. I couldn’t take much more of it, of them, of all of this.