Campus Life: 12. Dead Week
by filmtheory
Emily screamed as the glass in the passenger side window shattered. Connor fought to regain control as the car spun in the middle of the road. Despite the fact that the road was abandoned, he was terrified that another car would come along and crash into them. The air bags deployed. The car finally stopped spinning.

“Emily?”

“Yeah?”

“Emily, are you okay?”

“Yeah.”

Connor finally raised his head from the airbag and looked at her. “Look at me.” Connor held up his finger and moved it from left to right and back. “Can you follow my finger with your eyes?”

Emily watched the finger and nodded. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

Connor pushed his door open and got out. He walked over toward the other car, prepared to rip the man apart. But Connor’s anger turned to concern. The other driver had fared worse then he and Emily. For him, the collision had been head on. And he didn’t have werewolf or vampire resilience.

“Hey, you okay?” Connor opened the door. Beneath the blood covering his face, the man looked to be about 35. His left arm hung at an unnatural angle, clearly broken. Connor quickly pulled out his cell phone.

“Please,” the man said. “We have to go. We have to hurry.”

“Just relax. I think you have a concussion.”

“No! You don’t understand. The whole town. They’ll be coming.”

Connor grunted as his cell phone gave him the “No Service” message.

“We have to go or they’ll get us!”

“You do realize you’re not making any sense, right?” Connor said, still fiddling with his phone.

“Look!” the man yelled, pointing. “Just look!”

Connor looked out into the cornfield where the man was pointing. “Will your car start?” he asked urgently.

“No,” the man said with a whimper.

Connor quickly pulled the man from the vehicle. “Em! Em, start the car!”

Emily reached over and turned the key, but the car wouldn’t start. “It’s dead.”

“Pop the trunk and get out.” Connor moved as fast as he could while helping the man limp along. “Do you know where we can find another car?”

The man shook his head. “You don’t understand. The whole town-”

“No,” Connor said. “I understand.”

Emily ran around the back of the car. “Connor, what’s wrong?”

“Zombies,” Connor said grabbing his equipment bag with his free hand. “Lots of them.”

Emily looked into the cornfield. Plodding through the path the man had cut with his car were at least a dozen moving corpses.

“Always with the zombies,” Emily groaned.

“Here,” Connor said, handing Emily the bag. “We should stick to the road.”

“We should hide in the cornfield,” the man said.

“We’ll leave a path of broken stalks and scents they can follow,” Connor said as he scooped the bleeding man into his arms. “And the corn will slow us down, giving away our one advantage.”

“Zombies are slow moving and dumb,” Emily said. “We can outrun them. Possible out-walk them.”

“But they’re everywhere!”

“We stick to the road,” Connor said. “Which way is better?”

The man pointed west. “That way. We can follow the road to Fresno.”

“You definitely have a concussion,” Connor said. “We’re nowhere near Fres . . .” Connor broke off his sentence as he noticed the road sign ahead. “Fresno,” he read. “Sixteen miles.”

**

“What do we do until sundown?” Dawn asked.

“Rest,” Willow answered.

Since Connor’s reservation was for three nights, Willow and Dawn were using the cabin he’d rented. The police were already done with the cabin as a crime scene. Photographs were all they needed for their case against Cain.

Dawn sat back against the bed. “Willow?” Dawn asked cautiously. “In high school . . . when you had that crush on Xander . . .” Dawn stopped, not sure how to go on.

“How did I get over it?”

Dawn nodded.

“I don’t know. Oz had a lot to do with it. Buffy helped, too. But, and I hate telling you this, but I think part of me never really did. I’m not saying I still like him in that way, but . . . the rejection, the pain of not being good enough for him, that kind of always stuck with me.”

Dawn sighed.

“Got it that bad, do you?” Willow said.

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s just the . . . . the keyness in me. Like, we’re linked because we’re both not supposed to exist. Or maybe it’s because he’s Angel’s son and I’m getting some kind of Buffy/Angel vibe. I feel a connection to him. And the more I try to ignore it, the more it intrudes on me. I’ll be hanging out with friends, and I’ll feel so happy. And then I’m overcome with this sadness. Because I can remember that I just feel so hollow without him. God, I sound like such a stalker girl.”

Willow laughed. “You’ve never had a crush on a guy your own age before. Spike and Xander, you knew deep down that things with them couldn’t happen. But Connor’s your age and there’s kind of a family history there. Plus, you’re both freaks of nature.”

Dawn laughed.

“You have to go through this once,” Willow said. “When it’s over, you’ll be a little less naïve, a little less innocent, and probably a little less happy. But that’s what happens when you grow up.”

***

Connor kicked the door closed behind him. The high school looked like it had been abandoned in a hurry. Chairs and desks were knocked over. Books lay open on the few desks that remained upright. Book bags and coats were still on chairs and under desks.

Along the way, Connor had been luckily enough to find a shotgun and rifle in the back of an overturned pickup truck. Unfortunately, there was little additional ammo.

“Emily!” Connor called. “We need to block the door.”

“What if some are in here?” Emily asked, looking at the state of the room. She grabbed a chair, figuring they could continue the discussion while she helped him.

“Then we kill them. We need to rest. We need to fix this guy’s-”

“Melvin,” the man called. “My name’s Melvin.”

“We need to fix Melvin’s arm,” Connor said as he shoved hooked the chair legs through the door handles. “Small school. We block the remaining doors, then hit the nurse’s office.”

“Windows?” Melvin said.

“They’re high and have shrubs in front of them. Zombies aren’t dexterous enough to climb in.”

“Blocking the doors will go faster if we split up,” Emily said. “But I really don’t want to.”

“It’s safer if we stick together,” Connor said.

“Leave me here,” Melvin said. “I’m safer if you can block us in quickly.”

Connor handed Melvin the shotgun. “Try to get more than one with a blast if you can.”

“Naturally,” Melvin said, taking the weapon.

The building was essentially a giant cross with the cafeteria, nurse’s station, and administrative offices at or near the center. Connor and Emily quickly blocked off the two of the other three remaining ends of the cross.

The gymnasium, located at the north end, had a dozen doors to the exterior, as well as a complex system of locker rooms and coaches offices attached.

Connor shook his head. “This is going to take forever. I better get Melvin.”

“We should just block off the gym.” Emily nodded to three vending machines. “We could stack these.”

Connor kissed Emily. “I tell you I love you, today?”

“Yeah.”

“I tell you were brilliant today?”

Emily smiled shyly. “We should get going.”

Emily was surprised how easily she was able to move the machines. She could carry them the several feet to the door by herself. Connor easily lifted them until all three were stacked.

“That ought to do it,” Connor said, dusting his hands off. As soon as he spoke, he and Emily leapt back as something tried to push the gym doors open.

“Already?” he said, thinking the zombies were already attacking the school.

“No, listen.”

Behind the vending machines was the unmistakable sound of two teenagers, one male and one female, banging on the door and pleading to be let in.

“They’re coming!” the boy squealed frantically. “They’re coming!”

“Please” the girl whimpered on the verge of tears. “Please let us in!”

****

“Yeah?” Kennedy said as she picked up the phone.

“Hey Kenn,” Willow said. “It’s me. Can’t sleep.”

“It’s still light out.”

“But I need to be up hunting werewolves all night.”

“Werewolves?” Kennedy said nervously. “Plural.”

“No, just one. Don’t get excited.”

“I worry. Even if it’s just one, be careful, okay?” Even with things still not quite right between them, talking about Willow’s safety felt so natural to Kennedy.

“Okay. How’re Connor and Emily doing?”

“What do you mean? Aren’t hey up there with you?”

“No. They headed back hours ago. They should be there by now.”

“Okay,” Kennedy said in a clam voice. “Don’t get worked up. They probably just wanted some alone time.” Kennedy had wanted to tell Will not to get worked up because she was so upset herself, she needed Will to be a calming influence.

“But it’s almost dark. Emily needs to be in the cage in the basement in less than an hour.”

Kennedy bit her lip. “I’ll call them.”

“I did call them. Both their cells and bother their rooms. That’s why I thought they were with you.”

“Well, there you are,” Kennedy said, although she was panicking internally. “They’re probably just . . . you know. And they lost track of time. Tell you what, Wills. I’ll go knock on their dorm doors and remind them of the time.”

Willow smiled. “Thanks Kenn. That’d be great.”

*****

Emily shoved the top machine off of the pile as Connor pulled out the middle one. They could now see the panicked faces of the teenage boy and girl as they banged on the shatter-proof Plexiglas. Behind them, over a dozen slow-moving zombies plodded across the gymnasium floor. Their sluggish pace almost made them creepier. It made them seem confident, as if they knew devouring of their prey was inevitable.

Emily pulled the machine just far enough back that the two teens could squeeze through. The girl pushed the boy through first, before he could protest the lack of chivalry. She squeezed halfway through herself when a putrid hand gripped her hair and began to pull her back.

Emily reached through the door and gripped the girl’s shoulders. She pulled hard. The girl screamed loudly as the demon pulled her hair, ripping some from the scalp. Emily finally got the girl past the doorframe and out of the gym.


Connor jumped on top of the vending machine lying near the gymnasium doorway. It was the only way he could reach the door. He immediately threw his body against the door, slamming it shut and snapping the zombie’s arm off at the elbow.

“Move the machine back!” Connor yelled.

Emily pushed, but it hardly moved. “It’s too heavy with you on it!”

“I’m only 150 pounds! I can’t get off the machine and keep the door closed.”

“Bobby, get back here and help!” the young, dark-haired girl yelled as the boy ran down the hall.

Bobby looked back, but his face showed the urgency he felt. “Come on, Rosie! They have the door. We need to get down the hall!” Bobby turned and ran for the other end of the hall.

“Bobby, we need help down here!” Rosie shouted as she started helping Emily push the machine.

“I can’t hold it much longer!” Connor shouted back.

All the zombies in the gym had piled against the door and were pushing it. The zombies who couldn’t reach the door were pushing the backs of the zombies in front of them, making the force exerted against the door too much for Connor to hold off by himself.

Emily glanced down the hall and saw that the boy, Bobby, had run off. “Connor, we can’t with you on it!”

Connor nodded. “One . . . Two . . . Three!” On three, Connor jumped into the air. Emily and Rosie pushed as hard as they could, but the doors began to swing open. Fortunately, Connor had jumped toward the door. He slammed against it. That, combined with the force of Emily and Rosie pushing the vending machine, slammed the door shut and blocked it.

Connor hopped from the machine and put his back against it, trying to hold it back. “We need to pile the others on.”

“No,” Rosie said. “That won’t do anything.”

“It’ll make it heavier!” Connor said.

“But it’ll just topple,” Rosie said, looking from Connor to the wall across from him. “We need to use another machine as a brace,” she said, waving to one of the other machines. “We should put it across the hall like a T.”

Connor thought a moment, then nodded. “She’s right.”

Emily and Rosie slid the other machine without much trouble. The third machine had to be squeezed between the middle machine and the wall, so that the brace would be long enough to connect with the other wall.

Breathing heavily, Connor moved away from the machine. He looked at the gruesome sight of so many dead bodies pressed against the glass. “We’re going to need six more machines. Otherwise, they’ll eventually punch through the glass.”

“What about the other doors?” Emily asked. “They’ll eventually try those, and the chairs won’t hold. There’s too many of them.”

Connor nodded, but Rosie immediately chimed in. “There’s a metal shop at the other end of the building. We could get welding supplies and other stuff to brace the doors.”

“But for how long?” Connor said. “Eventually, we have to get out of here.” He shook his head. “Let’s just get the medical supplies for Melvin before he goes into shock.”

“Melvin?!” Rosie said with alarm. “Oh my god.” She ran toward the other end of the building. No sooner had she run away, then the zombies began pulling back from the door.

Back where Connor and Emily had entered, Melvin lay unconscious on the floor. Bobby had made a barricade of several bookshelves that he was attempting to keep up, pushing it against the zombie onslaught. The chair that Connor hooked through the door handles had split in two and one of the twin doors had apparently given way.

“I told you we need to get down here!” Bobby shouted. He hadn’t run because he was afraid. He’d looked down the hall and seen that the zombies were getting into the school.

The zombies pressed slowly onward. The chorus of their moaning grew louder. Connor ran to help Bobby maintain the barricade, but with the door torn away, it was useless. A zombie fist punched through the particle board bookcase and grabbed Bobby’s neck.

Emily grabbed the shotgun and quickly fired through the bookshelf, blasting the zombie’s head off. It tore a bigger hole in the barricade, but she knew now it was doomed anyway. They would have to fall back to some room in the school and hope they could secure it before the slow moving zombies caught up.

Rosie helped Melvin to his feet and tried carrying him down the hall.

“Where?” Connor yelled.

“The metal shop!” Rosie replied, understanding his meaning. “No windows! Just skylights!”

Connor pulled Melvin from her and threw the older man over his back. Bobby grabbed Rosie and pulled her down the hall with him. Connor and Emily followed. They’d only made it ten feet when the inevitable happened. The barricade collapsed and zombies flooded into the hallway.

******

“They’re not here,” Kennedy said into her cell phone.

Willow groaned in frustration.

“When’s the last you talked to them?” Kennedy asked.

“When they left. They could be anywhere between here and Yosemite.

*******

Pieces of particle board shot through the hallway, creating a kind of debris shower. Rosie and Bobby fell to the ground. Emily quickly pulled Rosie to her feet and reached for Bobby. Connor was looking back, and tripped over the fallen boy.

Connor scrambled to his feet and pulled Bobby up. He reached down for Melvin when he felt a cold grip on his shoulder. Connor instinctively threw an elbow back, smashing the zombie’s nose. Bobby screamed. Connor turned to see him being pulled into the throng of zombies.

Emily and Rosie grabbed Bobby and pulled him away from the zombies, but the tussle had cost them space. Connor threw punches, trying to hold his position long enough to get Melvin up again and run. He knew that Melvin was probably in shock. Retreating to the metal shop meant they wouldn’t have medical equipment and the man would inevitably die. But, on principle, Connor wasn’t willing to give up.

“Come on!” Rosie wept loudly as she grabbed Connor’s shoulder and pulled him back. “Come on!” Her voice was filled with an indescribable anguish.

Connor ran with them to the metal shop. As he turned to slam the door, he saw a pack of the zombies fall on Melvin and begin to devour him. Melvin’s lack of response indicated he was indeed in shock. He wouldn’t have made it anyway. Still, for Connor, that was little consolation.

********

“Kennedy!”

“I know,” the slayer said impatiently.

“There’s only twenty-two minutes-”

“I know!” Kennedy sighed as she got into the car. “Look, start calling hospitals and police stations along the route. I’ll start driving up and looking for them.”

“You should have someone come with you,” Willow said.

“I called that kid that’s friends with Connor. Terrell Jackson. No answer.”

“Okay. Just . . . do your best.”

“I will.”

“And Kennedy?”

Kennedy waited a beat for Willow to finish. But she knew what the witch was going to say. “Me, too, Wills.”

Willow hung up and looked at Dawn, thinking for a moment. “Get your stuff. We’re going.”

“What?” Dawn asked. “What about the wolf here.”

“Hopefully it’ll eat a bear and leave the campers alone. We can’t find Connor and Emily. And don’t forget, she’s a wolf, too.”

“Yeah, but Connor can probably handle her, right?” Dawn offered hopefully.

“If he’s okay. He might be . . .” Willow sighed and took Dawn by the hands.

“Dawn, we’re leaving these people up here to fend for themselves. And you’re right that they’re probably in less danger than Connor or anyone else near Emily. But Connor and Emily are our people. And we look out for our people first. It’s not fair. And it’s not right. But the things we have to do aren’t fair or right, either. So we’re going to go get them.”

*********

Rosie wept uncontrollably as Bobby rubbed her shoulders.

“We have to secure the room,” Connor said, oblivious to the girl’s anguish.

Rosie quickly wiped away her tears and walked to a blow torch. She put on the face guard. “Look away from the door.”

Rosie welded the door shut. Connor and Bobby made a barricade for good measure.

“She’s pretty freaked out, huh?” Connor said to Bobby, noticing that Rosie had collapsed into a weeping heap in Emily’s arms.

“It’s not this. It’s Melvin. He was her uncle.”

Connor closed his eyes and again silently berated himself for leaving the man. Still, Rosie had been the one to pull him away. Connor found it hard to believe that the girl in such despair now had, throughout the ordeal, shown the most incredible presence of mind.

“And she’s only fifteen to boot,” Bobby said, fairly sure he knew what Connor was thinking.

“I . . . I got her pregnant,” Bobby continued. “Her mamma’s a rich engineer from the Bay Area. She didn’t care for me and my farmer family much. Her daddy’s a preacher. He said he got three good daughters under his roof and got no need of a fourth that’s going to hell. But Uncle Mel took her in. He was even going to give her away to me when we got married next year.”

Bobby smiled nostalgically. “Mel says his brother-in-law’s a hypocrite and an ass hole and he’d take Rosie over a dozen virgins. Well . . . least he used to say that.”

Connor rested his head against the door and closed his eyes. He wished he hadn’t left Mel alone in the hall. He wished he hadn’t tripped over Bobby because he was looking back instead of ahead. That Mel hadn’t gone into shock. That he hadn’t left Mel to die alone in the hallway. Of course, Connor would’ve gone down, too. He’d have gone down fighting and been eaten right there next to Mel. Connor smiled sadly. Going down fighting next to guy like Mel . . . that would’ve been okay with him.

“Where are we?” Emily asked. “What town?”

“Del Rey,” Bobby answered. “’bout-”

“About sixteen miles south east of Fresno,” Connor said. He punched the wall. “How did we get here? I was on Route 140. I saw the signs. But that’s nowhere near here!”

Emily looked down. “Steven Radinsky.”

“What?” Connor and Rosie said at once.

“Think about it, Connor. Zombies trying to kill us. He probably put some spell on you to get you off track. I mean, if that was a detour route from a major highway, how come no one else was on it?”

“Right,” Connor said. “But . . . but why here?”

Rosie snorted and wiped her tears away. “Steven Radinsky is my cousin,” she answered.

**********

“Willow!” Dawn said urgently as she sped down the highway.

“Hang on,” Will said off-handedly.

“Willow, we’re going ninety miles per hour!”

“Oh!” Willow held her hand up. “Slow down!”

Ahead of them, the glowing yellow orb slowed down to about seventy miles per hour.

“Okay, thanks,” Willow said. She hung up her cell phone. “No one matching their descriptions at that hospital either.” Willow looked at the road sign and then at Dawn. “That sign says we’re headed for the Central Valley. We’re supposed to be going back to Stanford.”

“Hey,” Dawn said defensively. “It’s your little yellow ball I’m following. You sure this thing is going the right direction?”

“I’m not even going to dignify that with an answer,” Willow said as she hit the speed dial on her cell phone. “Kenn. Cut across toward the Central Valley as soon as you can. Looks like they got blown off course.”

***********

“The office,” Rosie sniffled. Connor and Bobby looked at her. “There’s a phone in Mr. Clark’s office.”

Connor pointed toward an office in the back and gave Rosie a questioning look.

“It’s the only office in here, isn’t it?” Rosie said.

Connor walked back and quickly opened the door. No sooner did the door crack then Connor was struck by the walking corpse of metal-shop teacher Larry Clark.

Connor punched Clark in the side of the head, knocking him off. Connor got to his feet quickly and threw punch after punch, knocking Clark back.

“Connor!” Emily yelled. “Cut it out! I’m trying to cut his head off.”

Connor jumped back and Emily lunged forward, slamming a large metal pole into Clark’s eye socket and through to his brain.

“Thanks,” Connor said, picking up the phone. “Shit,” he said, slamming it down. “It’s dead.”

“So we’re trapped in here,” Bobby said.

“No,” Rosie said, pointing up. “The skylights. Those things can’t climb.”

Connor nodded. “How’d you know that?”

“When we got caught in the gym, we climbed the bleachers,” Bobby said. “They couldn’t climb up after us. But they started pushing out the supports and we had to run for it.”

“Okay,” Connor said. “I have a plan. You guys climb up and get ready to get off the roof. I open the door, the zombies will all flood in here. Then I jump up there with you guys, we get off the roof, and try to make it to a car.”

“No way I’m letting you throw yourself to the wolves for us,” Bobby said.

“You’re not. I’ll jump up and join you.”

“That skylight’s twelve feet up!”

Rosie put a hand on Bobby’s shoulders. “They can carry vending machines by themselves, Bobby. If he says he can make the jump, I’m thinking I can.”

“Connor,” Emily said nervously, looking up at the skylight.

“Don’t worry, baby,” he said soothingly. “I can do it.”

“It’s not the skylight I’m worried about. It’s the sky.”

Connor looked up at the grey sky, then to the clock on the wall. Emily picked up the shotgun and stared at it longingly. Connor looked at Emily in confusion, then snatched the shotgun.

“Forget it!” Connor yelled.

“Connor, they’re not safe,” she said calmly.

“I can keep you calm.”

“What’s going on?” Rosie asked.

Emily looked down. “Start climbing.”

“Em,” Connor said. “Things are different with me. You know that.”

“Connor,” Emiy said desperately. “I don’t remember anything from when I’m a wolf. I can recall feelings, sometimes. But not memories. I don’t know why you’re different. I don’t know what you are to me when I’m a wolf.”
She nodded toward Rosie and Bobby. “But I know what they are.”

“How?” Connor said in a worried tone.

“Connor,” she whispered. “They already smell like food.”

Trivia
The new characters in this chapter, Rosie, Bobby, and Uncle Melvin, are named after characters form the Vincent Kartheiser film Another Day in Paradise. Larry Clark (the dead shop teacher) was named after the film’s director.

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