SUSAN BAILEY<br/><br/><div class="floatleft">(http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk137/HaibaneR/Su_Avatar.jpg)</div>We made our way down the long corridor to the main intersection, classrooms empty on both sides of us. A few people pushed past and many were aggressive. I clung tighter to the limping Syeda and we finally reached the cross roads of corridors. Down to the right was the Ennerdale Street entrance - that corridor was chaotic and students were still pouring out of the auditorium doors and at the far end...<strong>"Oh crap! Todd! They're here! They're getting in!"</strong><br/><br/>There seemed to be a pitched battle going on between the lockers in the main hall with students grabbing whatever they could - I saw one boy with seemingly superhuman strength born of utter desperation rip a pressed steel locker door off it's hinges and wield it above his head like some crazy deranged real life version of a Final Fantasy character. He brought the improvised steel blade down on an attackers head with a sickening sound and there was a cheer.<br/><br/>"Fucking eat shit you dead son of a whore!"<br/><br/>"Alright Mark! Again, kill those fuckers!"<br/><br/>"They're already fucking dead you asshole! Smash their heads in!"<br/><br/>I was stunned. It was worse than anything the TV had brought into my crib - worse than the New Orleans flood looting, worse than the LA Riots of '95. It was clear there was no way out towards Ennerdale so Todd pulled Katie with him in a left turn towards the sports pitches.<br/><br/>With dismay there was a queue of people here too, though most were just curious and a little panicked and looking over the heads of those in front at the blockage at the door.<br/><br/>"What's happening?" Syeda asked me in a faint voice. The way she spoke frightened me badly.<br/><br/><strong>"Todd, we need to get out of here. Syeda needs a doctor!"</strong><br/><br/>"I can't get past! They're fighting outside the door!"<br/><br/>Suddenly there was the roar of a truck engine and people screamed and shouted. The sounds of fighting got worse and then the roar of a meaty Detroit product came again, gravel spitting and kids shouting, "Come on! Jump on! Lets go!<em>COME ON!</em>"<br/><br/>"Hey, bitch, I'll take that." It was a male voice behind me.<br/><br/><strong>"What?"</strong><br/><br/>"Hey get the hell off!" Katie was being attacked by some senior guy I didn't know. One of the loser crowd, one of the rough dudes who wore bike leathers, chewed gum and jerked off in class, wasting everyone's time.<br/><br/>"Get away from her!" Todd shouted, turning on the guy and pushing Katie behind him.<br/><br/>"Gimme the fuckin' baseball bat you dork!" The big guy lunged at Todd and in a whirl Todd swung his metal table leg into the guy's midsection. He went down with a weird 'oofing' sound and a horrible meaty thud.<br/><br/>"Todd! You can't do that!" Katie screamed.<br/><br/>"Hey man!" some other guy shouted from down towards Ennerdale, "Need you up the front man, gotta stop these dead muthafuckas from gettin' in! Use yer weapon man!" I just stared, lost at his words.<br/><br/>"I can't kill anyone, I'm not that type!" Todd shouted back.<br/><br/>"You don't need to fuckin' kill 'em man, they're already dead!" The other guy shouted. On the floor Biker Thug was groaning and getting up.<em>Jeez, he wearing body armour or something?</em><br/><br/>"Talk sense you idiot!" Todd shouted back.<br/><br/>"Man, you'll find out soon enough. Right out that door. They ain't riotin' they're fuckin' zombies! WHURR!" He lifted his arms out straight and did a Frankenstein's monster sort of caricature, "That's right, like in the fuckin' movies. Its a fuckin' video game man, so I hope you got full health and armour coz yer fuckin' gonna need 'em!" The guy ran into a classroom and after a crunching of wood came out again with a table leg and ran off down towards the fight in the corridor towards Ennerdale where a band of male students seemed to be holding position.<br/><br/>"Shit," Todd said, "this is fucked up."<br/><br/>"Classroom!" Katie said, stepping past Biker Thug who was sitting up and looking meaner than ever, "We can get out the windows!"<br/><br/>I turned and dragged Syeda into the nearest classroom. Todd sprinted across and tried the window. Like all school security windows it only opened a few inches at the bottom. Useless. Todd grabbed a metal chair, shouted "Get down!" and swung it at the window. There was the satisfyingly loud sound of smashing glass and pushing a desk up to the broken window Todd went out, then turned to take Syeda from my arms. I think she'd fainted. Katie and I followed and we scurried around people and past people and after a few minutes pushing through the shouting madness we reached a more open space. Todd was amazing. He carried Syeda in his arms all the way up to the Field House. Lots of cars were missing, those who could make it out had done so. I got my keys, opened Steve and we piled in.<br/><br/>Katie ran to the Field House and went inside.<br/><br/>"What the hell are you doing?" Todd shouted after her and in seconds she came back out, several sets of football pads in her arms. She popped the trunk and threw them in.<br/><br/>"I just thought. Protection. Or something." She said a bit sheepishly.<br/><br/><strong>"We can take more people."</strong>I said,<strong>"A couple more."</strong><br/><br/>"And get swamped? No way, we need to get Syeda to hospital. You saw that Tom Cruise movie, 'War of the Worlds', once people see a working car they'll beat the crap out of us and steal it. Just go!" I was amazed at Katie's selfishness, but she had a point. The idea of someone stealing Steve made me angrier still.<br/><br/>I gunned the engine, shifted into reverse and with a roar of power the Mustang swung out and back, the front end spinning round to face School Walk. I floored it and we stayed still, an immense noise and rattling of gravel and pinging of stone on the paintwork of the cars behind me.<br/><br/>"Lift off the gas, Bales!" Todd said from the right hand seat. I did so and the tyres bit in and we lurched forward. I popped the clutch and the car stalled, my head nearly dinking the steering wheel. Todd said nothing but I knew what he was thinking.<br/><br/><strong>"It's alright. I'll get it, I'll get it."</strong><br/><br/>"Just stay calm," he said, "Stay calm and it'll be fine."<br/><br/>I turned the ignition and Steve rumbled back into life. I pushed the clutch, re-selected first, applied gas and lifted off. We went. Not so fast this time. At the exit to School Walk two guys were wandering across the gravel. I leaned on the horn. They turned to look at us. My mouth fell open and my eyes went wide as saucers.<br/><br/>They had no faces. None. There were just mangled bloody - things. One had eyes that stared out of a disgusting red mush, the other didn't even have that. The tatters of facial skin were blueish-grey and hung down in strips, like someone had eaten their faces and they'd just got up again as neat as you please and walked off. They held a slow shambling pace and walked straight at us. Even then I couldn't bring myself to run a person down, the instinct to not hurt someone was too strong. I swerved past them, jinking right then left and roared out the gate and drifted all four wheels across School Walk, feeding power as the tyres bit. The back end fishtailed and we were away roaring towards Darios Street.<br/><br/>Todd had swung round in his seat in amazement to stare at the two faceless men. He turned back and buckled up his seatbelt. I didn't blame him, my driving wasn't that good. I buckled mine up as I screeched to a halt at the junction with Darios. There was surprisingly little road traffic around.<br/><br/>"The guy was right. Zombies. Like... from comics!" I nodded silently, poofed some stray hair out of my face and swung left onto Darios. I needed to go west a block onto Warren and then head north for the hospital but I wasn't going to hang a left until a couple of blocks north of Ennerdale. I might even stay on River Avenue until we hit Mission Street.<br/><br/>"Zombies. Fuck," Todd supplied again. I had to agree. Fuck, indeed.