Carver Pike - Scalp

He hoped they’d had enough sense to stay far away from the madness down below. Land mammals had no way of escaping getting too close to other creatures, but bats and birds… they could stick to the treetops and watch the animals down below battle it out for supremacy.

Vultures. They would be the ones to spread it to the sky if whatever was infecting people and animals liked feathers too. He could imagine one of those sick, nasty birds picking at the flesh of an infected, dead animal.

As soon as the thought came to him, he pushed it away and stepped on the gas, throwing the old truck forward. He hopped up and down in his seat as he drove toward Stonewall Forge.

“I’m coming for you, you bastards!” he shouted. “I’m coming to get revenge for what you did to Ma and Pa.”

Andre Pete stared through the window and waited. He didn’t know what he was waiting for, but he supposed the animals would get tired of sitting there and either decide to attack or flee.

“What if we go out there and you start shooting them?” Eggo asked.

Andre turned and looked at the young man like he’d lost his mind. Robbie thought he might reach out and slap Eggo for asking such a dumb question. After a moment of silence, Eggo shrugged as if to say, “It was only a suggestion.”

“I’d never be able to hit enough of them,” Andre replied. “I might get a couple of the larger animals, like them black bears right there, but those small sonsabitches would be on me in a matter of seconds.”

“What if you got to higher ground?” Nitsy asked. “Like up on the school’s roof.”

“It’s not a bad idea,” Robbie said. Andre seemed to be thinking about it, so Robbie continued, “If we go out the door, real fast, before any of those things have a chance to attack us, maybe Eggo and I could boost you up onto the roof and then run back in here and lock the door.”

“It’s risky,” Andre said.

“So is sitting here,” Robbie replied. “How long do you think it’s gonna be before one of those things, or all of them, find a way in here. If they all started attacking the door, we’d be fucked.”

“How many bullets do you have?” Eggo asked.

“I don’t know,” Andre said. “Quite a few. That ain’t the problem. It’s making sure I don’t piss them off enough to come barreling through this door. You think this rake lodged between the handles is going to keep you safe for long?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Robbie replied.

“Right now, they’re not interested in you,” Andre reminded him. “And you’re in a damn cafeteria so at least you have food.”

“That’ll run out,” Nitsy said.

“It was a mouse!” Bradley announced. Usually, he was quiet, so when he spoke, the others listened. Everyone turned to look at him. “None of you asked what happened in the music room. It was a mouse. Phyllis saw it too. Somehow, it got into that room, and it jumped on Lance. He changed instantly. He became one of them . How long do you think it’ll take for a mouse to make its way in here?”

Everyone was quiet.

“A mouse,” Andre repeated under his breath. “A goddamn mouse. All right, I’ll do it, but we need to be smart about this. And fast.”

When Andre said they needed to be smart about it, apparently he meant smart was using Robbie’s idea of boosting him up on the roof. Now that they were standing at the door with every intention of putting the plan into place, it seemed stupid. He and Eggo would interlace their fingers, the way young kids did when trying to help a friend reach the cookies on the top shelf in the kitchen, Andre would step into their hands, and they would shove upward. That was supposed to launch Andre onto the roof.

“I don’t know about this,” Robbie said as they were about to open the door.

“What do you mean?” Andre asked.

“Dude, you’re like two hundred and something pounds,” Robbie said.

“Two-twenty,” Andre informed him.

“We’ve got this,” Eggo assured them. “If we work together, we’ll get him up there.”

“I’m just saying maybe we should find something here in the cafeteria that he could, I don’t know, climb.”

“There’s no time for that,” Nitsy said as she put her hands on Robbie’s cheeks and pulled him in close for a kiss. He looked at her in the dark cafeteria, her hair gone and the cap she’d worn below the wig keeping whatever real hair she had hidden, and he still thought she was beautiful. She had the face of an angel. If angel’s wielded fiery swords. This chick was braver than he could ever be, and he knew if she were strong enough to lift Andre, she would be out there instead of him. That gave him the strength to do it. “Hurry back to me,” she added with another kiss.

Andre Pete considered telling the kids they didn’t have time for all that lovey-dovey nonsense. They were at war, and the enemy was head lice that liked to chew their way into their host’s brain. At least that’s what it seemed like they did. Yet, as ridiculous as it seemed to be kissing at a time like this, he couldn’t bring himself to break the two apart. He wasn’t sure he’d ever been in real love.

Sure, he loved his wife. He loved her, much the way someone would love seconds on a good plate of meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Or the way he loved marching through the woods first thing in the morning on a hunting trip he’d waited all year for. He appreciated the pleasure of her company. That was all. But he didn’t look at her the way this Robbie kid was staring at Nitsy.

Finally, the two broke apart and Robbie seemed to be ready to get their task underway. This wasn’t going to be easy. Andre was a big man, much too large to be trying to climb up onto the roof, but what else was there to do? They were right. He might not be able to shoot and kill all of these lousy bastards, but from a higher vantage point, he could nail quite a few.

All he needed to do was free up a little time so he could lead them to his truck. It wasn’t the best vehicle – not quite as good as the truck he rolled off the highway the night his cousin Carl went apeshit – but it would do. It was the work pickup he always kept parked at the farm. It would do fine hauling these kids away from here… if they could get to the damn thing.

Bradley, the young looking kid with the glasses, pulled the rake out of the door handles, and Andre pushed open the door. Its rubber seal brushed the concrete ground outside, and its whoosh sound was louder than expected. Robbie hesitated inside the cafeteria door, and it took all of Andre’s power not to reach back and slap him. They had a job to do. This wasn’t the time to be cowering in fear.

This was what separated soldiers from saints. Soldiers went out and got their hands dirty, they made shit happen, they stood in the face of danger. Saints waited on miracles.

No miracle was coming their way.

Andre stood with his hands on his hips, waiting for the other boys. His rifle was slung over his shoulder. The animals were at his back, still calmly watching. Somewhere far off in the distance, on campus grounds, a moan echoed off the hallway walls. It came from one of the infected students. The lights in the hallways on this side remained off though, which meant none of those things was nearby. If they were, they would set off the motion sensors.

Robbie looked toward the cafeteria doors and saw Nitsy peering out at him through the window. He blew her a kiss and she smiled.

Andre considered telling the two boys, “You know what, take your time. I can wait here all day.”