Dead Tropics (10 page)

I leant forward eagerly. "Then, please, move your students to the most secure location in your school. Trust me, you'll know within a couple of hours whether this is a hoax or not. When the crisis is over, you can contact the parents."

Coming to a decision, Principle Davies stood up. "I will institute a lockdown. All the students and staff will lock themselves in their classrooms until further notice."

As I stood up to protest that those measures might not be enough, Emma stormed in. "The teacher is refusing to let Lucas leave without my parents' permission!"

She glared at the principal. "And they're too dead to give their permission, I'm afraid!"

The principal flinched slightly. "I'm sorry, but our procedures are designed to protect our students. We can't let just anyone come in and take our students away, even -" She glanced sideways at me. "in special circumstances. He'll be safe here."

Clasping Emma's arm firmly, I backed out of the office. "I understand. Thanks for your time, Principal Davies."

As Emma opened her mouth to protest, I practically pushed her down the corridor ahead of me. Stumbling onto the grass outside, she glowered at me. "What the hell, Lori...?"

"Sorry, Emma, but she wasn't going to budge and we just don't have the time to waste, trying to change her mind. At least she is willing to do a lockdown. That's something! Come on, lead the way to Lucas' classroom."

Emma hastened ahead. "What's the plan, Lori?"

"We grab him, we get out." Not much of a plan, I know.

****

Three doors down from Lucas' classroom, the lockdown siren started up. At least I assumed that was what it was, as the sound of Darth Vader's theme blared through the loudspeakers. The sound of doors banging shut and
louvers
closing echoed down the corridor. Without a word, we sprinted forward.

Seeing the classroom door about to close, I launched myself at it, sending it slamming backwards against the wall. I caught a glimpse of a startled older woman stumbling backwards as I staggered into the room. Emma surged past as I struggled to regain my footing. "Lucas!"

"Hey, Emma." A lanky boy with tousled dark hair stood up, bewilderment on his face. His teacher quickly moved to stand in front of him protectively. A dark haired woman in her thirties, she glared at Emma.

"Lucas isn't going anywhere, as I told you before."

I looked over at Emma. Her face hardened with resolve as she ignored the teacher and focused on her brother. "Lucas, we need to go. Now."

Blue eyes cloudy with confusion, he glanced from Emma to his teacher. "What's going on, Em?"

"I'll explain it to you later, Lucas. Right now, we need to get out of here." Eyes holding his, she held her hand out.

For a moment, we stood in a frozen tableau before a fascinated audience of students. It was broken by Lucas' sudden dart around his teacher. "Lucas Wall!"

As the woman ran forward to intercept him, I pulled the parang out from under my sweatshirt and waved it threateningly. She gasped and stopped in her tracks. Guilt flooded me as the colour drained from her face and fearful gasps echoed around the room.

"Sorry." I said firmly, pushing down the wave of emotion. "This is not up for discussion. The boy is coming with us. We'll keep him safe, I promise you."

Emma smiled with relief as she grasped her tall, younger brother's hand. Wide-eyed and stunned, he allowed her to pull him out of the room. Backing out slowly, eyes on the furious and scared teacher, I reached out and pulled the door shut. Almost immediately, I felt the classroom door start to open.

"Stay inside!" I yelled angrily. "Or, by God, you'll lose a hand!" The door stayed shut.

As I turned around, there was a cry of outrage. Principal Davies was hurrying along the walkway with a couple of men beside her. "What do you think you are doing? I cannot allow students to leave the premises."

Exchanging a glance with Emma, I grabbed Lucas' sleeve and pulled him into a run. This was no time for a reasonable discussion.

"Are you guys crazy? Do you know how much trouble we're going to be in?! What the hell's so important?!" Lucas cried as he ran beside us.

I screeched to a stop as we reached the end of the walkway.

"That." I said tightly, pointing past him.

"What the hell
is
that?" Lucas said, trying hard not to sound freaked out. He and Emma were staring in horrified fascination at the mass of bodies heading across the oval towards the school. There must have been over a hundred bloodied figures staggering across the green. Young and old, they all had a single goal. Eating us.

"Zombies." I murmured, tearing my eyes away from the sight of a dead girl in her bloodstained uniform. So young. So inhuman.

"Zombies?" Lucas blinked and then started, as his eyes, so much like Emma's, finally registered what they were really seeing. "Oh, shit."

"Don't swear." Emma murmured automatically, her eyes glued to the mob only minutes away.

I swallowed and shook myself. "Let's go." I couldn't believe how quickly this ... plague ...was spreading. Were my babies still safe? Was Michele safe in the car?

We raced back down the pathway towards the school entrance and the furious Principal.

"I wish I'd gone to gym more often." Emma gasped as she ran beside me. It was a sentiment I echoed. Lucas, on the other hand, loped easily behind us.

Seeing me waving the parang wildly, the male teachers moved out of the way quickly. The principal bravely stepped forward, arms held out. "I can't let you take him off campus."

Keeping Emma and Lucas behind me, I moved slowly around the principal, weapon forward. "Sorry. You don't like it, take it up with them." I jerked my thumb behind me.

Principal Davies glanced down the walkway. Her eyes widened as she saw the first of the bloodied creatures enter the school grounds. "That's not possible..."

"Oh, it is." I said grimly. "Now if you'll excuse me..."

Numbly, she made no further attempts to stop us as we started running again.

As we passed through the lunch area, Lucas veered to the side. Opening my mouth to yell at him, I saw him disappear into the open sports shed and emerge with three wooden cricket bats.
The boy can think on his feet.
As he glanced at me, I smiled and nodded my approval.

Bursting through the entranceway onto the front lawns, I could see the copse of trees some fifty feet away, blocking my view of the ambulance. Relief flooded my body. The zombies hadn't beaten us here.

"Watch out!" Lucas yelled as he pointed to our left.
Oh no no.
Pouring through the trees on our left were more zombies.
Spoke too soon.
I did a quick estimate of the distance to the car. It was going to be close.

"Run!" I screamed. With every last bit of reserved energy in my body, I sprinted for the road and the safety of the car, Lucas and Emma close behind. All the time, I was acutely aware of the wall of bodies closing in on my left.

We burst through the trees to the road and the ambulance waiting on the other side. Except it wasn't.

We stopped, stunned, for precious seconds as we looked at the space that the vehicle had occupied.

"Come on." Lucas tugged my arm until I moved forward again. He led us across the street and down into the gully that ran the length of the road. Silently we raced towards a storm drain. I felt numb. Where had Roy gone with the children? Why had he abandoned us? Were the kids in danger?

When we arrived at the storm drain, Lucas grabbed the grate covering it and with a jerk, removed it. The sound brought me back to the present. As far as I knew, the kids were safe. Us, on the other hand...

"Looks like you've done this before." Emma murmured suspiciously to her brother.

He glanced at us as he stepped aside with the grate. "Nah. Everyone knows it's where the smokers hang out."

The lumbering sounds of heavy feet at the top of the gully told us we were out of time. I clambered into the drain with Emma and we pressed our backs against the curved wall as Lucas climbed in. Quietly, he pulled the grate back into position.

We held our breath as bodies began stumbling and falling into the gully. Thump! One fell so close to us that I could see every detail of the raw wound that marred the side of his head. The young adult male pushed himself to his knees and then linked his fingers through the grate to pull himself up. I tensed, sending up an urgent prayer to the gods above for the grate to stay in place. Emma clutched my hand convulsively.

As he stood up, his face pressed against the grate. It was dark in the drain but I had no idea if it was dark enough to hide us from the monster. I stopped breathing as his dark, cold eyes seemingly looking straight at me. For a long minute, he pressed against the grate before, finally, moving away.

I slowly released the breath I had been holding. Emma loosened her grip on my hand but I was so terrified of attracting attention that I daren't even turn my head to look at her.

More and more zombies gathered in the gulch. Soon it was so thick with bodies that they stood shoulder to shoulder- men, women, the elderly and the students. The air filled with the sound of their moans.

We sat there, unmoving, for an interminable time. At least it felt like forever, although it turned out to be only about thirty minutes. The creatures milled, no doubt trying to locate the warm human bodies they knew were here somewhere. I breathed as shallowly as I could, petrified that they would hear me. Sometimes they wandered right up to the grate, appearing to be peering inside. Any second, I expected them to realise we were here and drag us out. Each time one came near, my heart hammered so violently against my chest, I feared that it was audible.

Finally, the zombies, one by one, shambled off. The sound of sirens in the distance suggested there were other targets attracting their attention now. As the last of the zombies disappeared from sight, the drain reverberated with the sound of all three of us taking our first deep breath in half an hour.

Lucas cleared his throat. "You know, I thought zombies would be a lot more fun than this."

I laughed as I ran my hand shakily through my hair. "Stick with us, kid. We really know how to show you a good time."

Emma grinned weakly in response. The relief of having escaped with our lives was exhilarating. No drug could match the natural high we were all feeling at that moment.

For several minutes, we sat quietly in the dark, relishing the feeling of just being alive. Outside, we could hear ambulances, fire engines and police sirens constantly. They seem to be coming from all directions.

"I'm guessing the authorities know about the zombies now." I said wryly.

7

"We need another vehicle." It was time to get moving again, even though part of me just wanted to stay here forever where it was safe and quiet. "Any ideas?"

Lucas held up a finger. "The staff car park? The keys would be in the staff room."

I stared at him disbelievingly. "You want to go back into the school?" The thought of the hundreds of corpses waiting for us there sent a shiver through me.

He shuddered as the same thought obviously occurred to him. "Um, no. Not really."

We sat in silent thought for several more minutes.

"We could try some of the neighbourhood homes here." Emma offered tentatively.

I shook my head firmly. "We aren't going to take away other people's only chance of escape."

Flipping open the mobile, I rang Kaye. "Maybe Roy is at my sister's. He could come get us." The line was busy. Frowning, I tried again and got a busy signal again.

Lucas spoke again. "There's the caravan park across the highway. I see a lot of resort vehicles coming and going. They probably wouldn't miss one."

Emma nibbled her lip, a nervous habit of hers. "There could be zombies there too."

"Probably." I mulled the idea over in my head. It did seem our best option at the moment, I concluded unenthusiastically.

I sighed. "Let's try the park. We stay out of sight, get in and get out as quickly as we can, alright?" Reluctantly, I pushed myself to my feet. "Can you get us there without being seen, Lucas?"

He stood up, brushing off his long shorts. "I think so. We stick to the gully until we get to the highway, take the underpass and then up the hill and we're there."

Emma watched him with a mix of emotions - pride, fear, love. He was handling this crazy situation with a practicality that was admirable in one of any age, let alone fifteen.

"When we get the car, we're going to go find mum and dad, right?"

Emma froze and looked at me helplessly. Stepping forward, I gripped his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Lucas. We've already been to your house. Your parents... didn't make it."

I prayed that he would let it go at that. I couldn't bear to have to tell him what part I had played in their deaths.

Lucas' eyes darkened as he stared at me. His adam's apple bobbed convulsively. Then he nodded jerkily and turned away. My heart ached for him. It was so unfair that he had to go through this but, my God, what a man he was turning into. His courage, quick thinking...his family had every reason to be proud of him. Lucas started to speak, stopped for a moment and tried again. "Are they really dead" He jerked his head towards the outside. "or are they still out there?"