“We’re not going over there.” Wyatt jerks his chin toward Davis. “You got that map?”
The other Fighter pulls a small map out of his pocket and hands it over. “I’ve marked our destination. It should be over that ridge.”
Even now, Davis and Wyatt are tight-lipped, but they did confirm we’re headed toward what had been a school before turning to an evacuation center at the beginning of the crisis. Wyatt thinks this may be where the purple arm bands are from and not something nefarious, but still a situation that needs to be handled since it’s in close proximity to the medical clinic.
“What’s the plan?” Jude asks.
“We’ll go through these woods here and come up on the backside of the building using the forests as cover until we can assess the situation a little better.” He folds the map and hands it back to Davis, who tucks it away. “We’re looking to see if the Eaters that attacked our vehicle and the clinic are coming from that building, how many are left, and what we need to do about them.”
“How did the earlier patrols miss this?” I ask.
Wyatt tightens the straps on his pack and says, “That’s what we’re going to find out.”
Chapter 15
“A little help?” I shout, throwing my full weight into the Eater in front of me. Somehow, I’d been backed into a corner, and it was the only way to get the upper hand. My request for help is answered by a series of grunts, curses, and the sound of limbs dropping to the ground.
Okay, then. No one is coming to help.
The skinny bitch in front of me has three missing teeth, and I can see her dirty, yellow bra strap at the top of her shoulder. I hate her. She really hates me. She lunges, howling, with her nails coming at me. I take a fast, hard swing with my hatchet and cut her head clear off. It smashes against the trophy case. I brace myself for the shattering of glass but her head bounces off, dropping to the ground like a basketball and rolling across the floor.
“Disgusting,” I mutter, looking around for the next assault, but the floor is littered with dead bodies. The others stand around the school lobby, catching their breath.
“Guess this is ground zero after all,” Parker says, wiping blood off her face.
Earlier, we’d squatted by the edge of the forest overlooking the school. A small field with a track around sat between us and the building. A playground painted blue and red was to the side. The opposite side of the building, near the gym, appeared to still be smoldering from a fire or explosion.
“There’s your fire from the other day,” I point out.
The outside was quiet. “Let’s go check it out,” Davis suggested. “We need to assess any further risk or potential resources. Hayes, you good on perimeter watch?”
“Yep. I’ll signal you if necessary.”
As we got closer, the stench of smoke grew. The whole place seemed deserted, until we busted through the side door.
At first, they didn’t notice us. One weird thing about the Eaters is they seem to have a ’sleep mode’, a strange place they revert to not being on full attack. I haven’t quite figured out what they hone in on other than sight and movement. Maybe smell.
I tried not to think about how bad I smelled, walking into that school.
“Mother-fu—“ Wyatt muttered.
“I think we can take them,” Jude had replied.
That was when the first one shifted out of sleep mode and into attack mode.
Now that it’s over, I glance at Parker to make sure she’s still functioning. Every day is a bit more real world desensitization. Other than shaking hands and a look of disgust on her face, she seems to be coping.
Wyatt leans over the body closest to him and picks up its arm. “Purple band.”
“Same over here,” Jude says, nudging one with his boot.
Parker walks down the hallway, quietly poking her head into various doors. I keep my weapon at the ready, as does Davis, not knowing what could be on the other side.
“The setup is the same here as it was at my school.” She points to an over-turned table near the entrance of the school. “Check-in was over there. We were given cot assignments and our schedule.”
“You guys didn’t have arm bands, though,” I state.
She shakes her head. “No.”