Dismemberment - Book One: The World We Once Knew

Chapter 10: The Plan

"Well, Floyd. Here we are. Reagan High School." Earl said. The two men looked at the entrance with pride. "Our ticket to an easy life is just through those gates, my friend," he told Floyd, who had a worried look on his face. "But Earl, look a little closer. There's zeds surrounding the buses!" Floyd exclaimed. Earl looked closer to see that Floyd’s claim was, in fact, true. Hundreds of the infected were crowding the bus lot. The asphalt could not even be seen due to the massive horde taking up the space. The zombies could be seen banging on the buses, rocking the large vehicles from side to side, and crowding the front doors to the school.
Earl looked unphased upon taking in the sight. “That’s quite alright, Floyd. I got a plan,” he explained while pulling out bottle rockets from his duffle bag. “These little sumbitches will distract them for us. We’ll only need a couple seconds to make a break for the buses. We’ll hide in a nearby bush and launch them away from us. When they’re all good and distracted, we make a break for the buses. Got it?”
Floyd nodded, before looking back at the school. “Shouldn’t we try to save the kids in there?” he asked. “Suicide mission. Them zeds are filling every available spot in that building. Anyone who hadn’t escaped yesterday is now a lost cause,” Earl explained. “As much as I hate to say it, them kids are already dead.” Floyd looked down at his feet and sighed. “It’s so sad when you think about it, Earl. Them kids had their whole lives ahead of them.” Earl stood up and walked toward the school’s gates. “I agree that it’s sad. That’s why it’s best not to think about it.”
The two men entered the gates and took a look at their surroundings. Straight ahead was the road leading to the high school’s bus lot. This was where they saw the horde. To their left was a tree surrounded by many bushes. This hiding spot was concealing the view of a large fountain, which was broken on account of the sedan that busted through the gate and crashed into it. Water was not coming out of the fountain, giving it the look of a towering, cracked obelisk pointing straight to the sky. To the right was a pond, which served as the school’s reflecting pool. Benches were placed all around the pond, with a select few benches having dead bodies of students and teachers on them. “We launch the fireworks in that direction,” Earl whispered to Floyd. “Hopefully the zombies fall in the water and give us more time.”
After deciding their course of action, the two men crept over to the bushes to their left. As they got to their newfound hiding spot, they saw something hunched over in the bushes eating something that was on the ground. “Floyd. We got a zed in the bushes. Take care of it,” Earl ordered. As Floyd got out his gun, Earl slapped him on the back of the head. “I meant use the sword, you fucking idiot. Do you want the zombies coming towards us?” Floyd put his gun away and unsheathed the broadsword. He raised it over his head, and in one chop, the zombie’s head came clean off and hit the ground. The body dropped along with the head, and laid motionless. “Alright. Now that that’s over, hop in the bushes. It’s time,” Earl told him.
The two men hopped in the bushes. Earl pulled out the fireworks and a lighter while Floyd observed closely. Earl put the bottle rocket into an empty beer bottle, lit the fuse, and pointed it toward the pond. After a few seconds, the rocket launched from the bottle and flew through the air at a great speed. When it was over the body of water, it exploded into red, white, and blue sparks. Loud popping noises were being made from the rocket, which had no trouble attracting the attention of the horde. One by one, the zombies turned around toward the pond, and began shambling over to the source of the noise. Earl and Floyd silently observed as hundreds of zeds slowly made their way over to where the rocket exploded, and saw them fall into the water. “Now,” Earl whispered. 
The two men exited the bushes and slowly made their way over to the bus lot. They crouched low to the ground and silenced their movements as much as they could. “Keep an eye out for stragglers,” Earl whispered to Floyd. “I guarantee that not all of them went over.” Floyd nodded as the two entered the now less crowded bus lot. As they crept up the side of a bus, they saw that the zombies at the front door never left. “Shit,” Floyd muttered. “What now, Earl?” Earl turned around to face Floyd. “It’s alright. Just stay quiet and we should be fine. Now help me get this bus door open. I see the driver dead in the seat, so I’m sure that she still has the keys,” Earl explained. As the two men got up to try and force the hydraulic bus doors open, Earl felt something grab his ankle. While the two men were crouched low, they did not see the zombie that was under the bus. Earl let out a scream, since he was caught by surprise by the zombie. He used his other foot and brought down the steel-toed boot onto the zombie’s skull. When it wouldn’t let go, he brought the boot down once more. He kept stomping on the zombie’s head until there was nothing left but a mass of bloody pulp mixed with skull fragments. Only then did the zombie let go of him. 
At this point, the zombies at the door overheard the commotion, and the horde by the pond were climbing out of the shallow water and making their way back toward the bus lot. “Shit! Get this door open, Floyd!” Earl exclaimed. Floyd took out his sword and was getting ready to smash out a window. As he got ready to swing, Earl screamed “Wait!” Floyd lowered his weapon and looked to his friend. “Before you try that, see if you can wedge the sword into the door and pry it open like you’re using a crowbar.” Floyd nodded. “Good idea, Earl,” Floyd said.
Floyd jammed the sword in the small gap in the hydraulic doors and pushed the sword to the right. He started to make progress, so Earl pushed at the sword with him. They got the door opened just enough to fit them through, when the sword started to bend. They rushed into the bus before pulling the sword out of the door, and slamming it shut. Only seconds later did the zombies return. They quickly crowded around the bus, and began banging on the door and windows. “We made it… we fucking made it,” Floyd said while catching his breath.
As they started to relax, they heard a loud snapping sound from the front of the bus. To their dismay, zombies began to push the door open and crawl through the opening onto the bus. “Fuck! They snapped the hydraulic cable!” Earl exclaimed. "Quick, barricade the door! It folds inward to open, so putting something in front of it should stop them. I’ll cover you. Now go!!!” Earl screamed while readying his gun. Floyd ran to the door, shoving zombies out of his way, while Earl shot at the infected that were entering the bus. Floyd looked over at the body of the bus driver, and was relieved to see a large cooler by her feet. He grabbed the cooler, to find that it was very heavy. “Perfect,” he muttered to himself. Earl stopped to reload while Floyd dragged the cooler over to the door. Three zombies were trying to squeeze into the door at once, so Floyd kicked the one in the middle right in the head, sending all three of them flying back. When the doorway was no longer occupied, Floyd slided the now broken door into the closed position and stuck the cooler in front of it. Zombies were banging on the door once more, and couldn’t get in.
“Nice one, Floyd. We really got through that in one piece,” Earl sighed, sitting down and switching on the safety of his gun. “You think it’ll hold, Earl?” Floyd inquired. Earl put his rifle aside. “As long as they can’t pull the door to the side, I think we’ll be alright. It seems that all they know how to do is bang on the fucking thing, so it looks good. Just be ready to shoot at anything that enters the bus, just to be safe, you know?” As Earl was explaining this, Floyd opened the cooler. “Good news, Earl. Looks like Miss Bus Driver was drinking on the job,” Floyd said, pulling out a six pack of beer. “Hell yeah!” Earl exclaimed in excitement. “Let’s take a rest before we look for those keys. Crack one open for me,” Earl ordered. Floyd sat down on the seat opposite to Earl and handed him a beer. The two opened their cans and slammed them together in a toast. “Here’s to making it this far in one piece!” Earl yelled out in celebration, before taking a swig of his beverage.

“So are we all ready to go?” Ben asked everyone in the teacher’s lounge. Cait had her bat out and was ready to crack skulls. Monique wiped some blood off of her police jacket and pulled out her gun, before grabbing her chair. Kato equipped his knife, and Lana did the same. Samuel slung his bag over his shoulder and had his screwdriver in his pocket. Landon stuck to Cait’s side and refused to leave it. Everyone nodded towards Ben. “Alrighty then. Let’s get the fuck out of ths place,” he said. The entire group exited the room, and the last person out, Kato, turned off the lights.
Out in the hallway, Monique took the lead. “So here’s what we gotta do. Step one is that we find a zombie and isolate it. Step two: we kill and gut it. Step three: wear their guts like a fuckin’ track suit. When you wear their guts, they can’t smell you. And if they can’t smell you, they don’t know you’re there,” she explained. Everyone understood except Landon, who made a disgusted face upon hearing this. Cait kneeled down to his level. “We have to do this if we want to get out and go home, buddy. This has to happen,” she told him in a light voice. When it was all said and done, Monique spotted a lone zombie from fifteen feet away. “Lucky day,” she muttered, before letting out a loud whistle.
Upon hearing the whistle, the undead corpse of a female student turned toward the group and snarled. It inched closer and closer. When it got close enough, Monique cracked it on the side of the head with her folding chair. The zombie dropped to the ground. Monique continued to hit it over the head until it was no longer moving. When it was finally dead, Monique took Kato’s knife and stuck it into the zombie’s abdomen. She sliced up the stomach and pulled out the intestines. “Who’s going first?” Monique asked. Ben hesitantly stepped forward. “Alright. Come here,” Monique said.
Ben stepped forward, and Monique rubbed the blood of the zombie on his clothes. Ben gagged upon making contact with the blood. Monique continued to mask Ben’s scent until the boy was covered from head to toe in blood. The rest of the group went one by one next to be covered. When the last person was covered, Monique shared one last piece of information about the horde. “Masking your scent is only half the battle,” she explained. “You have to walk like them too. That will give them the true illusion that you’re a zombie.” Cait stepped forward. “Thank you for doing this, Monique. You’re a good friend,” she said. Monique shrugged in indifference. “Just helping you guys escape,” Monique replied bluntly. Cait nodded, and the rest of the group began to walk toward the front doors.
They saw that the front doors were the only thing between them and the horde of walking corpses outside. Ben gulped in fear. “One more thing…” Monique told the group. “This is goodbye.” Upon hearing this, Cait turned around to look at Monique. “What?!” Cait exclaimed. Monique looked to the ground and put her hands in her pockets. “Yeah. There’s something I have to take care of, and I’d rather do it on my own. Let’s just say that I’ve got some demons that I need to put to rest,” Monique said. Cait closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Okay. I support what you want to do,” she replied sadly, before wrapping Monique in a hug. “I’m so sorry about what I said before. I had no idea.” Monique hugged her back. “It’s okay. I understand…” she replied. Kato interjected into their moment. “Yeah, this is nice and all, but can we get the hell out of here now? The longer I stare at these freaks, the less confident I feel about this,” Kato said bluntly. Cait and Monique both nodded, and the group walked out the doors into the zombie horde.