A World Alone - A Zombie Novel

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

Logan P.O.V

The smoke is suffocating. Like a blanket that has been draped over you. It settles on your skin, leaving a film of grime. It seeps into your lungs, making you wretch, and it stands tall over the school, an omen of death.

The white tips of the flames reach out like hands, grabbing at the low hanging branches of the tree above. It's dead canopy is alight in seconds, fire dancing along every stick and twig. Its remaining leaves begin to fall, small flames cradled in their crinkled palms.

I try to think of what I can do as the fire spreads to the roof of the English block. But my thoughts have been smothered by the smoke, and my mind comes back blank. People have dispersed like water from the surrounding buildings to come and look at the spectacle. Their reactions a mirror of each other.

It isn't long before a panic settles over them.

"Get water!" Rocket screams, "buckets!" I don't need to see her to know how much pain she is in. It's carried in her voice, hoarse above the cackle of the fire.

I glance around at the congregation of people. Some are running to get water, others are running to get their possessions. But everyone is frowning. Real fear etched into their features, like it is etched into mine.

Joey stands a foot away from the fire, his attention turned towards the English block. He isn't swaying anymore. His limbs seem locked in place, frozen in a state of tension. For a moment I think he has gone into shock, but then he moves. His body snaps towards the English block, his run more frantic than that of an infected.

"Joey!" I call. He's already half-way up the steps and makes no gesture that he heard me. I debate going after him, not so that I can save him from the burning building. No. I debate going after him so that I can kill him before something else does.

"Get water!" Rocket screams again, and I turn to look at her now. She's shouting at an ethnic couple, screaming at them to run and get water from the hall. I don't join her, because I know that it is too late for water. The bus can't be saved.

The school can't be saved.

I'm about to tell her this when Aaron bursts from the hall. His expression is one of disbelief, but quickly falls into despair.

"What the hell happened?" He asks, his voice barely audible above the roar of the fire. Rocket turns to him and the ethnic couple take this as their opportunity to run into the hall.

"Joey!" She shouts, "Joey is what happened!"

He stumbles forward, his glazed eyes focused solely on the fire. He looks completely at a loss. His eyes sunken into a pit of irreversible despair. His usual smirk turned down in a devastating look of defeat. I think he is about to collapse when he snaps back to attention. His eyes are still sunken, the lines of his face still creased. He's lost his usual flair for command, but made a commendable effort to retrieve it. Despite how much it appears to strain him.

"Not water!" He shouts, just as the ethnic couple from earlier appears at the door of the hall with buckets in their hands. Filled precariously to the brim, water sloshes down the sides, pooling on the dry ground before their feet. "We can't afford to waste any water!"

Rocket tugs at her hair. "Then how are we supposed to put it out!?" She asks, her arms flailing in a wild gesture to the fire. Aaron pauses, his eyes running along the ground.

"We don't." His dark eyes burn in their sockets. A group of people run passed him, packed bags bouncing on their backs. His attention turns towards them.