Free 900 Miles (Book 2): 900 Minutes by S. Johnathan Davis

Jarvis, who nodded, and then back toward me, he lifted his foot out and hooked the inside of the door, sliding it open. Feeling my shoulders arch up as the rusted hinges creaked open, all three of us took a step back, lifting our weapons and aiming them steadily down the dimly lit halls of the building.
    I nearly dropped my rifle as my eyes adjusted to the darkness. Hit with the scent of burnt flesh as we stepped closer, I quickly noticed six neatly stacked piles of rotting corpses, each six or seven Zs deep. All of them were oozing that familiar black gunk across the linoleum.
    My foot slid across a few bullet casings that were riddled throughout the hallway. To the right of the entrance, an ashy burn mark ran up the full length of the wall, starting from the charred skeletal remains of a creature that had most its flesh melted off.
    Everything in the place remained dead silent.
    “ Someon e’ s already cleared this place out, boys ,” Jarvis said with a cautious optimism. 
    “ And i t’ s been within the past twenty-four hours ,” Kyle whispered as he slid his foot through the slick black bile while keeping his firearm pointed straight down the hall. 
    Jarvis looked at Kyle, paused, pulled in a deep breath and then slowly slid his boot through the doorway.
    My first instincts were that this was a lucky break. At least, we would n’ t have to bust through the army of Zs that obviously lurked in the hallways of this school. Someone else had already done the job for us.
    “ Le t’ s make this quick. I’ ve got a shitty feeling in my gut. Why the hell would someone have done this ?” Kyle finally spoke up.
    “ Maybe whoever did this needed something in the school like we do. Hell, this is what it would have looked like if we had to clear this place out ,” Rodgers said while kicking at a creatur e’ s lifeless arm on the ground in front of him.
    I just hoped they were n’ t looking for meds.
    “ Could be, but i t’ s not sitting well with me. Le t’ s get this shit quick ,” Kyle replied.
    Jarvis lowered his spear and nodded toward Rodgers .“ Yo u’ re with me .” Then he looked over toward Kyle and me .“ I want you to hit the roof. Get eyes on our surroundings . ”
    I started to protest when Jarvis cut in .“ I need your head straight, John, no rushing through the dark. I know what I’ m looking for, and I’ ll signal to you as soon we have it . ”
    Thinking for a moment, I looked over to Kyle, who nodded his head before saying ,“ Jarvis will get it. Le t’ s you and I make sure we do n’ t have any problems getting out of here once he does . ”
    Biting on my lower lip, I looked down the hallway toward the piles of the dead. Being outside where the air was fresh would be a welcome relief. Besides, I did trust Jarvis, and I knew h e’ d get what we needed.
    Splitting ways, Kyle and I stepped through the gore-covered linoleum floors, heading toward a rectangular white sign which rea d“ Exi t” about midway down the hallway. As we moved through the hall, I realized that there was no rhyme or reason to this group of creatures. Old, young, male, femal e… they were all people from different strokes of life looking for someone to save them. They had been horribly led astray.
    The exit sign had a door sitting beneath it, with another set of severed chains hanging loosely from the handle. Peering through the cracked but re-enforced glass, I could make out a near pitch-black staircase heading up.
    As we crept up each stair through the darkness, visions of some unseen creature patiently waiting in the shadows danced around my mind. With my whole body inadvertently tensing up, as each boot squeaked across the next step ahead, I could n’ t help but leap up two steps at time as our accent came to an end.
    Bursting through the door at the top of the staircase, I found myself standing on gravel as my eyes re-adjusted to the sunlight on the exposed roof. The entire thing was covered in small white