Free Diaries of the Damned by Alex Laybourne Page B

behind the building and sunk its teeth into his shoulder. He gave a cry of pain. Heat surged through his body, overriding the concept of pain. Inside he burned, and before everything went black he called out his apologies to the young girl he had helped to rape. He got no answer, for the group was already gone.
    No order was required. They heard the boy scream and picked up their pace.
    The science building was not far, maybe two hundred meters - but by the time they arrived; only three of the eight were still alive. Leon was the first to reach the building. He was glad to see someone open the door to meet their arrival. He was an older man; well into his sixties, with white hair, a white beard, and a laboratory jacket.  “In here, quickly,” he motioned to them. The teacher was a man Leon recognized from his previous visits to the school for parent evenings and other school functions.
    Leon stopped by the door and ushered Cindy and the boy whose nose he had broken into the building before entering himself. He had not been aware of how many of their initial group had fallen. The zombies picked off four of the boys relatively quickly after they left the main building. The girl they had rescued had run into a trap; her blood stained legs had attracted the wrong sort of crowd. Leon made to go and rescue her, but the science teacher grabbed his arm and pulled him inside.
    “It’s too late,” he repeated, pulling Leon away from the doors and deeper into the building.
    The last time Leon saw her, a small zombie had bitten down on the bloody flesh between her legs. The pack soon descended, but Leon was certain that her suffering was over before they ate her face. She would not be coming back from the dead, that was obvious. The hungry mob stripped her carcass bare before Leon reached the first floor classroom where the other survivors were gathered.
    “Daddy,” a familiar voice cried out, speaking a word that Leon had not heard spoken in such a tone in several years.
    He spun around, and felt his hear t soar as Keisha ran into his arms. Her embrace was tighter than he had ever felt and Leon hugged with equal vigor. Both shed tears.
    “Da ddy, what are you doing here?” the sweet voice of his daughter sang out in his ears.
    “I came for you,” h e replied his voice muffled against her head.
    The pair broke their embrace and Leon took a glance around. The second floor classrooms were set up for the more theoretical side of the classes. The laboratory areas were on the ground floor. There were seven people including the teacher who had managed to find shelter.
    Leon looked out of the window. Judging by the number of zombies shuffling around the science block wearing lab coats and safety goggles, there had been many more when the crisis began.
    It did not take long for a large crowd of zombies to congregate around the science building. With everybody up on the first floor they made no real attempt to enter the building, but still they hovered around. It was as if they could sense that fresh meat was in the immediate vicinity.
    Leon found himself staring at them. He watched in near fascination as they ambled around, seemingly oblivious to one another. It struck him as strange, for when the need arose, they seemed to work as a rather efficient team.
    “Wel l, looks like we are stuck here,” Leon muttered after a few hours had passed and the crowd had done nothing but increase. He had not counted them head for head, but his guess would have been around two hundred. They meandered around the building, their mere presence reason enough to stay put.
    “Give it time, they will grow tired. Their hunger will draw them away at the first sight or scent of anything living ,” the teacher, Richard Winston, answered. He had joined Leon in staring out of the window. The students, on the other hand, showed no interest in observing the end of the civilized world. Nobody spoke. They sat in silent reflection. Some picked at the bloodstains