Novel Full 229 Division of labour
“This is the place,” Mathew said out loud, making sure his voice would cut through all the noises the zombies were making while stubbornly trying to break through the barrier surrounding the school.
“What are those cars?” Daria asked, baffled by the scene.
She was already used to the sight of abandoned vehicles randomly blocking most of the streets. She was familiar with the sight of both abandoned cars and those that ended up crashing and then burning out.
But what awaited them only a few meters away from the other side of the barrier, wasn’t just a set of few cars.
It was a battlefield.
“I guess we didn’t notice all those sounds because of how busy we were ourselves,” Mathew muttered, going back with these thoughts all the way to the first day of the apocalypse.
Standing right by the gate, he could only see parts of the picture. And yet, even from the few glimpses that the young man got whenever the zombies would move out of his line of sight, the area witnessed some pretty sorry events.
The huge, black, and bricky cars used by the special force stood in a half-circular array, right at the entrance of a street striking the road going by the school’s side at a right angle. And right in front of them, even after all the zombies passed through the gaps, there were literal mountains of munition shells… all died in the dried-up crimson of the blood that ended up spilling on them.
“This used to be the headquarters for the police that came to stop me when I pretended to be a crazy kid about to start a school shootout,” Mathew revealed, aware that not everyone in the group knew about the circumstances of his first day.
“Wait, what?” Carol and the hunter looked at Mathew’s face with a visible hint of fear appearing in their eyes.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Mathew protested, blushing under the assault of all the glares. “It’s not the time to talk about the past either,” he said, deciding to cut the topic before it would lead to wasting the precious time they had on their hands.
“Anyway,” Mathew turned his eyes back to the scene before them. “I guess this is where the officers that didn’t enter the school made their last stand,” he said. A hint of sadness mixed with respect appeared on his face for but a moment. And then, a wide smile cast Mathew’s former expression into oblivion. “And this means, there is a chance for some of the weapons to be left.”
“So you want us to look for guns rather than go through with the bet?” Carol’s opponent suggested, jumping at the first opportunity he noticed to sneak his way out of the current arrangement.
Now that his emotions cooled off, he appeared to understand just how impossible it was for him to get one better over the girl boosted with damn magic powers.
“Not at all,” Mathew shook his head. “Your bet will proceed as usual,” he said. “I want the two of you, with Daria’s help, to clear the zombies in the area,” he then gave the orders, already splitting the tasks between the members of his temporarily expanded group.
“Fine by me,” Carol said, slapping her hands against her hips to warm them up a little. “Do you want me to plant some fires to make it easier for everyone to see?” she then asked, coming forward with an actually interesting suggestion.
“That would be lovely, but the risks are too high,” Mathew reluctantly denied the suggestion. “We don’t want any of the weapons to go off. The zombies would swarm the place in an instant,” he explained his train of thought only to look around the area.
Just like in every other part of the school, there was a considerable distance between the main building and the outer fence on which the barrier protecting the entire area was anchored.
“What are you looking for?” Nadia asked.
“Something to make it easier to get over the fence,” he replied. “I’m not really into the idea of pushing through this small gateway,” he added, pointing at the back entrance to the school. “Contrary to the main gate, this one opens to the inside. One slip-up and we could lose the entire school to the zombies.”
Mathew was pretty confident that he alone could hold all the zombies that could move through the gate. It was only as wide as your regular doors, making it impossible for more than three humans to fit through at the same time.
‘But if a single evolved one appears…’ Mathew thought, biting down on his lips as he hesitated a little. ‘What’s more, I can expect this rotting bunch to behave in the same way as humans.’
It was true that at most three slim people could move through the gateway at once. Yet, depriving those people of all the reason and a stampede that would follow could easily cause five, six, or maybe even seven of them to push their way through the opening at once.
“You can leave it to me,” Daria then said, taking a step forward only to slam her right fist over her bouncy chest. She then took a deep breath only for the darkness to coil around her body, transforming the girl into her shadowy form. Contrary to the last time when Mathew saw her, though, she didn’t form a four-legged, animalistic projection.
This time, Daria’s shadows turned her into just a slightly bigger version of herself, preserving her ability to act and fight as a person would.
“Cutting open a path for the rest of you would be a breeze,” she said, raising her head even though with her new form she could down at everyone else even without this pointless gesture.
“Fine then,” Mathew said, taking a deep breath before looking around his group. “Leila, second line. Nadia, you are going to go scavenge with me,” Mathew ordered only to take a step to the side to where Daria stood before climbing up on his toes and reaching out for her now elevated ear.
“And just in case that guy finds a gun,” Mathew whispered, “feel free to kill him if he as much as points it towards any of us.”