Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
ADRIAN
The plan came together simply, but I knew implementing it wouldn’t be.
We parked our dirt bikes when we found an abandoned van on the side of the road. The extra space would be needed when we got Lucas and his students out.
“I was hoping we’d have to hotwire it so I could see if you remembered what I taught you,” Ben grumbled as he got in the passenger seat.
“I remember.” I put the van into gear and slowly pulled out onto the road.
Ben had shown Taryn and me how to hotwire a car, droning on about how it would be crucial if things fell apart. It was a useful skill, and I hoped Taryn still remembered it.
The school looked normal from a distance.
Up close, it was anything but.
Two sheriff’s cruisers blocked the main drive at angles that weren’t accidental. The door hung open, and yellow tape snapped in the wind.
QUARANTINE-NO ENTRY.
The trip here had been eerie. No parents screaming in the parking lot, no police to be found. Everyone seemed to be holed up, trying to treat the sick. Giving up entirely on whoever remained in the school.
“That’s a half-assed job at containment,” Ben muttered.
"An early response," I corrected, "and they were completely ignorant of the situation."
We didn’t use the front.
I’d already mapped the perimeter twice on the way in—considering a line of sight, choke points, and probable interior flow based on the building’s structure and noise levels.
The service corridor on the east side seemed to be our best option: it had fewer windows and was closer to the teacher’s lounge.
Ben had agreed, so that made it easier. And it was a good thing because I’d have done it my way regardless.
The door was bent at the latch, the metal warped as if it had been forced once and then abandoned when they didn’t get the desired result.
“Someone tried to get out,” Ben murmured.
“Or some-thing,” I answered.
“Noise discipline?” he asked, reverting to his military training.
“For the first thirty seconds,” I tilted my head. “After that, we create a diversion.”
He smiled without humor. “I brought a few things that will help with that.”
I didn’t doubt that.
We moved.
The door gave with a careful shove. Hinges complained softly, but in this quiet, everything carried.
The inside smelled of blood and disinfectants, one common to a school and the other not. Bent lockers and scattered papers covered the floor.
Movement flickered down the hall.
I counted six.
“Infected to the left,” I whispered.
We went right.
Both of us moved fast but not frantically, taking controlled steps and keeping our breathing even. When one of the infected rounded the corner into us, Ben didn’t hesitate. Two suppressed shots. Center mass. It slowed but didn’t stop.
“Head,” I growled low.
He adjusted. A single shot to the forehead, and it dropped.
We began moving again.
“Faculty lounge,” Ben muttered.
“Yes,” I confirmed. “Two turns.”
The hallway opened into a wider corridor.
Fuck.
Open sightlines and basically an echo chamber.
We crossed it anyway because we had no other choice.
I noticed a body lying near the lockers, wearing a torn top that marked her as a cheerleader. A single strike had caved in her skull, and her head was turned at an unnatural angle.
A dented fire extinguisher lay a few feet away.
Ben slowed just enough to take it in. “Somebody in here hasn’t given up.”
“Lucas,” I said.
We kept going.
A shape detached from a classroom doorway and lunged. I raised my pistol and fired it once. It collapsed at our feet, hands still twitching.
More sound came from down the hall.
Shit.
“Time for loud,” Ben smirked, enjoying this more than he should be.
“Make it count.” I nodded.
Ben moved with the calm efficiency of someone who’d done worse things in tighter spaces.
He set the Tannerite charge halfway down the opposite hallway beside an overturned locker, packing loose debris around it to focus the blast, then ran a line back to our position.
“Eyes and ears,” he muttered, checking angles.
He didn’t hesitate and fired one shot into the charge.
The detonation cracked like thunder in a coffin, a concussive boom that sent dust and ceiling tiles flying.
The sound pulled them—heads snapping toward the noise, their bodies following it as if it were gravity.
We moved the other way.
The lounge door came into view at the end of the hall.
I tapped softly on the door. “Lucas.”
Silence. Then movement from inside.
I heard a barricade being removed, then the door opened.
“It’s about damn time,” Lucas growled. “What the hell was that noise?”
I sighed, “An alternative to knocking.”
“Was that a joke?” he looked confused.
“Maybe. Now let’s get the fuck out of here.”
Lucas’s face showed his exhaustion—dark circles under his eyes and patches of sweat on his shirt.
Inside, there were four students. All of them looked in decent shape except for the one holding the inhaler.
“It’s time to move,” Lucas said to the group.
One girl went to grab her backpack.
“Leave it,” I growled.
This was going to be hard enough without extra baggage dragging them down.
She didn’t argue and lowered it back to the floor.
“Stay close,” Lucas told them. “You follow him.” He motioned to me, “You listen and stay quiet.”
I reached into my jacket and pulled out my secondary weapon. He saw it and hesitated. I knew it had been some time since he’d handled a gun.
“I don’t—”
An older boy spoke up, “If he doesn’t want it, I’ll take it.”
Lucas gave him a look. “Not no, but hell no.”
I pressed the grip into Lucas’s hand and closed his fingers around it. “We don’t have time for this,” I spoke quickly and quietly. “It’s like riding a bike. Safety’s off. Center mass is easiest, but a head shot is best.”
He gave me a nod.
Good.
I slid a spare magazine into his free hand. “One reload. Make them count.”
Lucas dropped the mag, checked the load, and racked the slide in one smooth motion.
I knew it would come back to him.
“Stay on my six,” I told him. “The kids are your responsibility. I’m here for you. No one else.”
He narrowed his eyes at me, but his posture shifted—shoulders set, and his weight moved forward onto the balls of his feet.
Lucas had always been a natural protector. I knew he wouldn’t listen to my suggestion to leave the kids and save himself, but if things went as I expected, he’d have to make a change. We couldn’t save everyone, and Taryn was my first priority.
“Ready,” he said.
We moved.
The first ten yards were clean.
The next ten were fucked.
They came from a side hall—three of them, then two more behind. Too fast to avoid, and too close to ignore.
“Go!” I snapped.
Ben stepped into them, firing controlled pairs. One dropped, but another kept coming. I put one round through a skull at arm’s length.
“Keep moving!” Lucas shouted behind me.
Feet pounded. Breaths were ragged, but the students stayed together, close on our heels.
Good.
Then one stumbled.
The girl with the inhaler. She tripped on something on the floor and went down hard.
The line broke.
One of them was on her before I could turn.
“Grace!” Lucas moved, grabbing her collar and yanking her backward.
He put his body between her and the teeth that snapped inches from her shoulder. His forearm—wrapped in some kind of makeshift padding—took the bite that was meant for her.
He shoved her toward me. “Go!”
Ben fired, and the thing dropped.
We didn’t check whether he’d killed it.
We ran.
The service door was ahead, and I could see the daylight beyond it.
Freedom… and then movement coming from both hallways.
More of them, drawn by the noise, were converging on the exit.
“Change of plans,” I yelled. “We punch through.”
Ben nodded. “On you.”
“On three,” I said. “One-two—”
The girl, Grace, stumbled again, slower this time, shock catching up to her.
She was going to get everyone killed if she didn’t pull herself together.
Lucas saw it the same second I did.
His hand went to her shoulder. “Stay with me. It’s going to be okay,” he said, his voice steady and even.
We burst through the door.
Ben went first—two shots, step, two shots, step—clearing a narrow lane. I followed, pulling a dark-haired girl and a tall boy through. Lucas came last with the others.
For a heartbeat, I thought our gamble had worked.
Then the lane collapsed.
Hands grabbed at sleeves, at skin, and at hair.
Someone screamed.
I turned back.
Grace was caught—fingers hooked into her jacket, pulling her sideways into the mass of the infected. One bit her neck as she screamed, then another ripped into her stomach.
Lucas grabbed her wrist, desperately trying to pull her back. “Let go of her, you fucking bastards!”
He held on for a moment too long, and I knew that in another second they’d have him too.
“Lucas!” I barked.
He met my eyes, and I could see the agony in them as he let go.
Ben dragged him through the door.
We stumbled into the daylight, slamming the bent door behind us, and ran for the vehicle.
Before the last person sat down, the engine roared to life, and I took off.
No one spoke.
The town rolled by in a strange quiet. A stoplight blinked red over an empty intersection.
Lucas broke the silence when he spoke.
“She was right fucking behind me.” His voice was low and barely controlled. “I told her to stay close.”
No one answered, but a sob came from a girl, her head in her hands.
“I fucking had her!” His fist slammed into the inside of the van door.
The sound rang in the cab.
He hit it again.
Harder.
Blood smeared across the window.
Ben kept driving, ignoring Lucas's breakdown entirely.
“Grace was barely a teenager,” he said hoarsely. “She didn’t deserve that. None of them did.”
Everybody went silent again, except for the girl, who was crying openly now.
“I need to get home to my mother,” Ethan whispered.
I sighed, “You know she’s probably infected.”
I saw the boy flinch in the rearview mirror. “Maybe, but we don’t know that for sure. Let me out here, and I’ll go by myself.”
“You can’t do that,” Lucas whispered and met my eyes in the mirror. “Take him.”
I knew it was a lost cause, but I nodded in agreement anyway. Lucas was holding on by a thread.
“We need to drop the rest of these kids off at their homes.” Ben grumbled, “They can’t come back to my place.”
Lucas and I both stared at him.
“I don’t have the room or the supplies for everyone in this town. They’ve had as much time to prepare as I have. It’s on them if they didn’t.” Ben wasn’t the least apologetic.
“Take a right here. My house is the last one on the left.” Ethan leaned over the seat and pointed over my shoulder.
Ben did what he asked, pulling up a few minutes later to a large brick house with two cars in the driveway.
“Both of my parents are home,” Ethan murmured.
“I’ll go with him.” Lucas opened his door and checked his gun.
I got out. “You all wait here.”
“I’ll watch the kids. If you two aren’t back in ten minutes, I’m taking them home and going to find Taryn.” Ben opened his door and took up a position with his gun, surveying our surroundings.
I nodded, knowing he wouldn’t hesitate.
Lucas and Ethan were already on the porch.
“Stay quiet and let us go first,” I told the boy.
The house smelled stale when we stepped inside.
“Mom!” Ethan yelled, moving past us to where I presumed her bedroom to be.
“Damn,” I murmured. “The kid is going to get us killed.”
“I’m not losing another one, even if he is an asshole.” Lucas followed swiftly behind him.
He caught up with him and grabbed the kid's arm, jerking him back before he entered.
“Let me go first.” He whispered urgently when Ethan began to struggle.
I grabbed the boy and pulled him back. “If you don’t quiet down, I’ll put you out.”
Lucas gently opened the door and flicked the light switch, but it didn't turn on.
We all moved further into the room, and from the pale light filtering in through the window, we could see a figure lying still on the bed.
I let Ethan go, and he stood completely frozen, making no move toward her. Lucas studied the boy for a few minutes before turning back and gently pulling the cover from her face.
Her skin was pale, and her lips were slightly blue.
Ethan whispered, "Mom," with hope filling his voice because she wasn’t infected.
He stepped forward carefully, a smile beginning to form on his face.
I watched her chest. There was no motion.
Lucas reached down and grabbed her wrist, checking for a pulse. He looked at us and shook his head.
“No, you’re wrong,” Ethan said in a small voice. “She hasn’t turned. She must be alive.”
“I’m sorry,” Lucas whispered. “She’s gone.”
Before he could answer, there was a dull thud coming from the hallway.
Then another.
We froze.
“What was that?” Ethan whispered.
I walked out of the room and into the hallway. The sound came again. Bathroom at the end of the hall.
The door was shut.
“Dad?” Ethan whispered, his face pale.
There was a harder slam from the other side of the door this time. The handle rattled violently.
Ethan crouched down and covered his mouth with his hand, staring at the door and shaking his head.
The door bowed outward with the impact of another hit.
Lucas and I stepped forward.
Suddenly, the wood splintered, and a large, infected man barreled out.
Lucas didn’t hesitate.
One shot in the middle of the forehead.
The body dropped immediately.
Silence filled the hallway for a few tense moments. “That’s my father!” Ethan yelled and then began sobbing, “Why is this happening?”
Unfortunately, neither of us had the answer to his question.