If I Die Before I Wake Chapter 12
Chapter word count: 2,139
Total word count: 25,396
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Southbend, IN. Notre Dame Campus
After our little encounter with the fucked up Digger (what Seth and Alex insist on calling it for God knows what reason), we continued to head east, not quite sure what was going to happen in the hours to come. If that Digger was already that evolved in fucking Indiana, I could only imagine what was waiting for us on the borders of Pennsylvania and New York. It was something that I couldn’t even bring up in slight fear of making Giselle freak the fuck out and send her running back to the helicopters in Chicago. But she had to know that we had no other choice but to forge on. Already the sun was setting as we entered a city called South Bend, home to the Notre Dame…
Whatever.
“College campus, Seth. Home sweet home?” I called out, tapping on the ‘Welcome to…” sign that was graffiti-ed over, not quite sure if it had been defaced before or after the downfall of humanity on this side of the country. The glasses-wearing nerd turned and gave me a look I missed as the setting sun glared off of the lenses of his glasses. Hm. Attitude. Sassy. I gave a shrug as we entered the campus. I was never really one for college, high school really for that matter either. School just wasn’t something I cared for. Studying, spending all night being in a rotting library attempting to research some stupid topic that wasn’t going to help me anyway. These people on this campus spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to come here, not realizing that all their studying wasn’t going to do jack shit for them. And now what good were they?
Just zombie food.
“College boy, Alex?” The question made him turn from his sentry duty for a moment as he shot me a look not quite like Seth’s but close before gesturing down at his clothes. A bit ripped and most definitely second hand. Which meant he probably couldn’t have afforded college, although with the books he was lugging around in replace of actual supplies, I could have totally pinned him as one of those bookish university dorks. Ivy League if he really wanted to push it. But apparently not and I gave a shrug in response as we passed what seemed to be a pristine campus. There wasn’t much out of place that couldn’t have been done by a bunch of drunk frat guys, but as we moved further into the heart of the place, I knew that it wasn’t just dumb football players filled with beer that could have done all of the damage that this campus was taking.
This was… damn.
Shattered windows, boarded up again and again. The few hours we had spent walking meant that zombies were going to start coming out sooner or later and that seemed to be making Giselle jumpy. I didn’t blame her skittish looks each and every time we passed a shadow that could or couldn’t have moved by itself. May or may not. Should or shouldn’t have. She had been nearly caught by that Digger and would have been screwed had she been alone and stuck in that hole. Only wait a few hours and she would have been that thing’s dinner.
“We should find a dorm hall… they’re generally locked up pretty tight.” Seth suggested, surprising all of us. He gave an indifferent shrug, shifting his backpack slightly on his shoulders. We had picked up another bat for the kid on our way out of Gary and that too was switched from hand to hand. “I was in Chicago on a college visit… Notre Dame was going to be one of my choices.” He replied, his voice slightly hollow as he naturally took point, something Alex was keen on giving him as he seemed to know the campus pretty decently. Giselle and I walked side by side, her body so close that her arm would sometimes brush up against mine, making the smirk on my face grow each and every time. But I knew that right now, she’d be just as liable to shoot me as give me a pleasant reply to the observation, so I let it go.
For now.
“This way.” Seth instructed, heading towards a large, ornate building that felt a lot like an office building instead of a dorm. Or maybe a prison instead of a dorm. But I wouldn’t turn down a real bed as it were and getting rooms was going to be generally easy in this place, at least from the deserted feeling I was getting. We would have to search the place, at least whatever floor we made it on. Instantly I began to speculate… first floor would be dumb considering the ground entrances and windows. Second might even be too risky and there was less of a chance of Zombies hiding in higher floors. There only seemed to be about ten floors or so and like hell was I hiking up all of them to get a clear view of the campus, although it probably wasn’t a bad idea.
Maybe the elevators were working.
But before we even reached the doors, the sounds of constant gun fire and whooping voices hit our ears. Like one giant red neck festival, although we were far too north for anything like that and I doubted it was a party, despite the sound of it. Flashes of gunfire and even some real fire mingled with flashlights and even a strobe light.
The hell?
“Looters?” Giselle questioned hesitantly, testing out the word on her tongue as the lights danced in her eyes and I shook my head, just as Alex and Seth did at the same time.
“Stupid frat guys.” I muttered, knowing that they were going to start attracting shit we didn’t want to deal with. Fuck that. Alex’s fingers curled around his shot gun as the sounds began to get louder and the crowd began to get closer. Whoops, hollers and shouts of victory crossed through buildings and hit us. They were human, that much was for sure, but they didn’t seem nearly to be less of a threat than their dead counterparts.
“We can’t stick around here… they’re going to attract hell.” My voice snarled without me even realizing it. It was the idiots like this that made me wonder how in the hell anyone survived around here. Even if you were smart enough to survive like we were, you were surrounded by idiots that thought this was one giant haunted house and the things that were shuffling around their campus were just fellow idiots dressed like zombies, dripping make up and groaning with fake hunger, their arms theatrically outstretched for prey.
“Miles, take Giselle and Seth inside. Get keys or whatever the hell we need to do to get some decent rooms in there. Search the place and keep guard.” Alex instructed, keeping a tight grip on his gun as he kept his dark eyes on the crowd that was coming closer. Were they going to stick around in our sanctuary? I sure as hell hoped not, but with the street that they were going to crossed filled with cars and other buildings that zombies could hide in, I had a feeling shit was going to hit the fan soon enough.
“Like hell I’--”
“Go, Miles. If I’m still out here when you’re done, then come out.” His voice was stern and I knew Alex meant business, which meant all I could do was nod my head and gesture for Seth to open the front doors, which he did, leading us both into the oncoming darkness of this dorm hall. The glass hadn’t been shattered in the front doors and from what I could tell, the zombies were shit with doors. Which meant we had less of a chance of running into them in here, but even more of a chance if each room was filled with students that had come down with whatever illness was infecting everyone and turning everything to shit.
Fantastic.
Maybe we didn’t want to go higher.
“I’ll grab the keys.” Seth called, sliding behind the front desk and into an office, his flashlight flicking on as Giselle hovered near behind, although still closer to me. There were no successive gunshots after he disappeared, so I allowed Giselle to satellite around me as I searched the open lobby for any shuffling shadows, all the while keeping an eye on Alex. The flashes of light and muffled whooping of possibly drunken college students was getting closer and that made all of us nervous, even Seth as I heard him give a quiet swear after dropping what sounded like a case full of keys.
Awesome.
“Seth. Do I need to go in there and put a fire under your ass?” I growled, seeing the beginnings of the partying mob as they breached the corner of a nearby building. They were definitely human and some of them were probably drunk. Unfortunately on top of some being intoxicated, some were also holding weapons.
Wonderful.
“Got ‘em!” He called back after a silent moment where he probably pictured me putting my boot up his ass, his voice growing louder as he shook a handful of keys at me before coming around through the lobby. “Fourth and fifth floors.” He continued, pride on his face for a moment, at least until he saw the oncoming crowd, making his skin grow sickly pale as his triumphant hand dropped to his side. Damn. I gave an approving nod before looking back over at Alex, who had taken a sentry stance. The crowd couldn’t have been more than ten or fifteen people, but that was far more than four and if they were looters as well as partiers, we were going to have a problem.
A big problem.
“You two stay here. Keep an eye out in here.” I instructed, immediately heading back outside to catch the beginnings of the conversation between what seemed like a big, burly football player and Alex. Leader versus leader and all that junk.
Wonderful.
I came up behind Alex’s shoulder, eyeing the rest of the football player’s rambunctious crew, but was surprised to see a lopsided grin on the kid’s face as he gave a replying shrug to whatever Alex had asked him only moments before.
“Nah, man. We’re peaceful and shit. Saw you guys… figured you’d want to join us in some zombie hunting.” He drawled, a proud look on his stupid face as he turned to his group who gave him a whooping cheer in reply to the sound of hunting the dead motherfuckers. Hey, even I liked hunting them, but from the looks of that Digger back in Gary… I wasn’t going to put myself out there to do something dumb like that.
And Alex seemed to have the right idea as he shook his head, attempting to keep it friendly. “Nah, that’s alright. We’re just trying to get some sleep. Something I suggest everyone goes to do. Lock your doors and all that shit.” It was a low key warning, not attempting to put them into a panic, but the tone suggested seriousness and a knowledge of something they didn’t have. Surely they had experienced something bigger than just the regular mobs of infected we had encountered so far… but the blank looks on their faces suggested otherwise.
Wonderful.
But the big guy gave an indifferent shrug, shaking his head as he turned and raised a flashlight, pulling another cheer from his crowd. “Hell no, man. This is our campus. We’ve been here for a few days already and it’s nothing we can’t handle.” He continued, raising his fist once more and eliciting one more triumphant cheer from the followers.
Fucking idiots.
“Alright… stay safe.” Alex replied, not wanting to start a fight, surely. But my fingers were gripped around the shotgun in my hand as he turned and looked at Seth and Giselle through the glass, the former who was shaking a key at him. “C’mon, Miles.” He spoke, keeping his voice low but definitely firm as I stared at the retreating idiots that were whooping and flashing lights like it wasn’t going to get dark soon. Even the media was giving us warnings about what to do and not do.
Lock up your houses at night.
Avoid flashing lights and loud music or sounds.
Don’t go out at night for anything.
It was simple and they were destroying the simple warnings to defend a fucking campus. But as they retreated all I could do was turn and follow Alex inside, wondering what the hell those fucking morons were going to do once the sun went down completely.
Not my problem anymore, it seemed, though.