Justin had a big book bag - the kind you'd see excited elementary school kids using. He shoveled food, a pot, and a spatula in one of them until it barely zipped. Into another, he shoved first aid items such as bandages, rope, gauze, and Neosporin. I stopped watching him and started packing my own bag. I put in a blanket, pills, water, nutrition bars, a machete, and a dagger that was shaped into an isosceles triangle. Wal-mart had everything. I even decided to grab a pocket knife that came with three knives, and several other tools.
When I turned around, Justin had a circle of four bags and one on his back. Hannah had a bag for herself. I had my black bag slung across one of my shoulders, and we made our way to the door, Justin and me carrying three bags each.
The rain had lessened to a drizzle, but when the doors opened for us to go out, flood water filled just barely below the waist. We waded through the lukewarm water. There was a light fog, and a huge contradiction between the warm water and cold air. While we were wading, Justin asked me, "Why'd you only grab knives?"
"You know how people say I could be a silent killer? Well trust me, I have perfect aim with a gun and I could cut a falling card in half with a bow and arrow, but I prefer to do it with these. What would you do if they got close? Hit them in the head and break your gun?" I could tell that he was considering my points. He also knew how I was one of the few that didn't care about gore. "Besides, I could kill easily with anything. I once designed and made a poison blow dart that hid inside of a mechanical pencil. I tested it on a deer. Don't ask me where I got the poison." I left it at that.
We were at the school. The doors were open and water filled the school. I guess everyone had gotten a ride home. Justin stated, "Do you want to be stereotypical zombie movie style and search the place for people or be smart and go to everyone's house?"
Hannah suggested, pointing towards the parking lot, "I say we go check that car that's trying to pull out of the mud." Sure enough, there was a red jeep stuck in the mud, its tires rolling. It was stuck with its front half in a hole, surrounded by mud and water. We made our way over towards it, our shoes sinking in the mud with every step. Through the window we saw our friend, Allen, flooring the gas peddle.
Justin tapped on the window, and Allen looked up. He rolled down the window and I could clearly see his face. He had a red cut across his pale right cheek. He looked like a younger Shaggy with glasses and braces, minus the beard. He stopped flooring the Jeep, and he sunk about three feet into the mud hole. Swearing, he got out of the truck. Justin asked, "Where's the others?"
"They went to try to find that tow truck that's always parked near the curb. We needed help getting my truck out. The whole school scattered and ran off in different directions screaming, but I don't know why."
I bent my knees and put my hand up, signifying for everyone to be quiet. They followed me lead and knelt. The water was getting lower, near our ankles. A few yards away, I heard a slow bloop, bloop, bloop. The sound of droplets dropping into the pool of water. Shortly after a few bloops, I could hear the sound of something heavy falling into the water. This repeated in a sequence, getting closer. A small figure started emerging from the fog. Allen said, "Why are we doing this? Its just Morgan." As she came into focus, we realized he was right. I could see her brunette hair, brown eyes, and drenched clothes.
"Morgan, stop moving," I called out, "Everyone be quiet and don't move." There was silence for a few seconds, then I heard it. Shlop, shlop, shlop. The sound of boots being pulled out of mud. I pulled a dagger out of each of my pockets and bent my knees, ready to run, jump, or attack. I whispered to Morgan, "Run to us." She did and stood next to us. The noise was coming from the direction she came from. I started creeping forward. Justin started following, but I put an arm out. "Silence and stealth are my thing." He backed up.
I tightened my grip on each of my daggers. For some reason, Christmas songs started ringing through my head, but it calmed me down. I started whispering Carol of the Bells under my breath. It didn't drown out the sound of the approaching creature, but it did its works. It put a smile on my face.
Through the haziness, a crawler appeared. It's clothes were drenched in mud and water. It still had a full head of hair and all of its teeth. One eye shined a bright blue, while the other was rolled back into the back of its head. Morgan came up beside me and I said, "I can't open doors for you, I can't buy gifts for you, now I can't kill crawlers for you?"
She grabbed the dagger out of my hand, stabbed the crawler through its good eye, and handed the dagger back to me. "I can't stand having other people do things for me." The crawler fell on its face. I looked at its crippled feet, which looked like they'd been run over. In the distance, I could see a crowd of the things. Some were walking, some were crawling. All were headed in our direction.
I pushed Morgan towards the truck by her shoulder and told Allen, "Allen, get into the truck and floor it. Hannah and Morgan, get into the truck and pile all the bags into the trunk. Justin, help me push the truck out of the hole." No one argued. Allen was revving the engine, Hannah piled the bags in and got into the front seat. Justin and I jumped into the hole which somehow wasn't full of water, but full of mud. We pushed as the wheels spun. We made slow progress, but it wasn't fast enough. "You've got the gauze right?" I asked Justin.
"Yeah, why?"
I looked to my right and saw a crawler slowly getting to the edge of the hole. I slit it's throat once it's head was over the hole and stomped on its head when it fell in the hole. "I'm gonna need it," I yelled. Before he could ask why, I rammed my left shoulder into the Jeep as hard as I could repeatedly. The first time wasn't so bad. The second time was harder. The third made pain shoot up my arm. The fourth, I felt my shoulder pop back and out of place, but the Jeep rolled out of the hole.
We climbed out of the hole and into the back seat. I was sitting in the middle, Justin on my left and Morgan on my right. Allen flew in reverse and off the curb. Over his shoulder, he asked, "So where are we going?"
Morgan answered, "Albany has the second largest military base. Atlanta has the most supplies. California has the biggest military base and tons of supplies. Savannah has a way out of here."
I held my shoulder, trying to push it against the seat to pop it back into place. Justin added,"I say we go try to steal a plane and go live on an island. Try to find a remote place, you know?" He looked at me, "But first we have to fix that shoulder." He put his hand on my chest and pushed me back into the seat, popping my shoulder forward. I failed at stifling my scream, and I blacked out.
