Pushing Up Gravestones - Pushing Up Gravestones – Chapter 5

Now
all she had to do was find her parents and get the hell out of dodge. Denise
took in her surroundings and decided against running right into the lot and
looking for her parents because the entire place was covered in zombies. Not
the quick ones, those had all seemed to abandon the death covered lot and look
for some fresh meat, the slow-moving kind
shuffled around like they were confused. It would have been useless to go into
the parking lot anyway, from where she was standing she had a full view of it
and there was no sign of her parent’s car. Even if there had been, there would
have been no way for them to get out, wrecked cars and twitching corpses
blocked the entrances on either side of the lot.

 Denise
was still trying to decide whether or not she would enter the school when
screams from behind her called to her for help. She turned to see two maybe
three uninfected people being chased down like prey in the Safari, by a horde
of what looked to be six zombies. They were quickly overtaken, and though she
wanted to help there was no way she would do anyone any good, least of all
herself. Regrettably, she high tailed it
to the school and into the doors making sure to secure them behind her. She
knew it did little good to lock doors against the faster of the zombies, they’d
only ram themselves against the doors with all the force of a speeding vehicle,
but it did offer her some reassurance

She
took a moment to catch her breath and
took in the sight of the halls. Even what she had seen outside was hardly
comparable to what was in here. Blood covered the eggshell walls and tiled
floors, the remains of what was barely recognizable as a human had been dragged along the floors.
Besides the gore, there seemed to be no
zombies in the halls, but she wasn’t naive enough to believe that there were
none in the school at all. Denise crept along the lockers, passing seemingly
empty classrooms when she saw her.

Mia,
her best friend, was aimlessly roaming the halls looking for another meal. She
hadn’t thought of Mia, she never once thought of what had become of her.
Denise’s only goal had been to find her parents and Mia never crossed her mind
and now here she was. Mia’s big brown eyes were glazed over, a vacant look
filling them. Her small mouth hung open awkwardly; it was covered by a vibrant
sheen of red. When she caught the sight or scent of Denise she began her stiff
shamble towards her, mouth opening and closing in an empty gnaw. How did she become like this?

Denise
froze as the tears fell down her face. The only day Mia had ever needed her and
she was lying around watching television. The guilt she was feeling doubled,
not only had she let her parents down but she had let down Mia as well. She
didn’t have a chance to decide whether or not she’d kill her best friend, because
while she was frozen the sounds of glass shattering caught her attention. She
turned to see that the glass windows of the big double doors of the school’s
entrance were destroyed.

Instinctively,
she ran in the opposite direction of the zombies piling in through the jagged,
broken windows. Mia’s corpse followed her as she bounded down the hall; she
turned to the left only to find dozens of her former classmates bent over the
remains of what used to be their principal. Denise covered her mouth, but not
before a shrill cry escaped. The insatiable zombies were immediately captivated
by the sound of fresh meat, they rose and began their short race towards her,
some quicker than others. Denise rotated on her
heels and tore off down the opposite hall, she glanced towards the entrance to
see that another dozen or so zombies had cleanly
made their way through the windows and followed suit.

She
couldn’t even think of using her bat, there were too many of them. Instead, Denise
searched for an empty classroom to hide in, but most were occupied with undead. She almost gave up when she remembered
that there was a supply closet on this hall, and luckily she hadn’t passed it.
Although she knew she would regret it, she turned to see how far the zombies
were and she was, cringing at the sight. They were all running over each other
to get to her and they were close, so she used every ounce of energy inside of
her to get to that closet. In her urgency she almost passed it up; she quickly
opened the door and darted inside. She was blessed to find that it was indeed empty because she hadn’t had the time to check
it out. She was definitely lucky.

The
zombies had caught up to her, though there was a solid door separating her from
them. It wouldn’t take long for them to break through though. She could hear
them banging and clawing.

“I am NOT about
to go out like this!” she thought.

Her
parents weren’t here, but they were somewhere and they would be waiting for
her. Denise’s resolve was slipping as the singing of hungry mouths got louder.
This was like a nightmare! Trying to block out the world behind that door, her
mind wandered to the friend who was now probably joining the mouths outside it.
Instantly, she remembered the last conversation they’d shared.

It
was lunch break and they took a seat at
their usual bench, neither of them spoke. They never had to talk to enjoy each
other’s company; Mia read a book while they sat. The atmosphere was pleasantly
quiet until Denise’s stomach betrayed her, though Mia seemed to be too
engrossed in her book to notice. Denise slyly looked up at her friend, a sickeningly
sweet smile forming at her lips.

“You
know sometimes I think how lucky I am to have a friend like you,” Denise said
leaning playfully against her friend’s
shoulder.

“What
is it you want?” Mia asked.

“I’m
just sharing how grateful I am to my best friend,” she responded.

“Oh,
please!”

“Okay,
fine. Lend me ten bucks for lunch,” she relented breaking out the kitty eyes.

Mia
rolled her eyes and pulled out her pink wallet, she always carried at least
twenty bucks in cash because Denise was
always forgetting hers.

“You
are such a child,” she said while handing her friend the cash.

“I
promise to pay you back!” Denise exclaimed, pecking Mia on the cheek.

“Yeah,
right,” Mia mumbled after Denise.

The
thought of how much crap Mia had put up with from her was too much; she was always
there for when she needed even the smallest favors. The fact that the last time
they saw each other she was hitting her up for money was painful and she’d
never get the chance to say she was sorry. Now she was out there, she was gone,
forever. Denise wondered if she’d ever make it out of that closet. That is if
she even wanted to.