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Chapter 21
Where had Jessell learnt to fight like that? Ridec could not help asking himself, he felt as if he was watching a super hero movie and Jessell was the beautiful star.
“We have to get inside, all that noise is sure to attract more of them,” Kent said gripping Ridec’s hand and pulling him into the safety of the school.
“I can’t go unless I know Jessell is going to be all right,” Ridec yelled using all of his strength to tug out of Kent’s grip.
“Jessell doesn’t want you out there Ridec,” Rea said.
“Jessell doesn’t always get what she wants,” Ridec pointed out racing out of the school as another zombie scrambled towards Jessell. She seemed to have eyes in the back of her head because before Ridec could shout a warning she had turned about and slammed her foot into the knee cap of the oncoming zombie, its leg cracked and bent awkwardly and it fell to the ground. That wouldn’t keep it down of course, it was still coming to her crawling on all fours.
Jessell delivered one well placed jump kick to the chest of one more and it stumbled back several yards and dropped to the ground, he too would be up in seconds but seconds was all Jessell seemed to need, she was already racing away from the area and towards the school. Ridec turned immediately and hurried inside, clearly she hadn’t needed his help.
“What were you doing out there?” Jessell demanded as soon as she slammed the door shut.
“I wanted to help,” Ridec muttered feeling remarkably foolish, he hadn’t in fact been able to do anything and he actually got in the way of Jessell as she had rushed into the school entrance.
“Thanks, you were a big help.” Sarcasm was dripping from every single word and Ridec couldn’t help feeling even more foolish.
“You don’t have the right to treat him the way you do. I would never treat him like that if he was my boyfriend,” Rea piped up.
“Guess what doll-face, he’s not your boyfriend and he’s never going to be your boyfriend so keep your opinions to yourself,” Jessell responded.
“You don’t own him,” Rea insisted.
Jessell laughed.
“What does that mean?” Ridec asked turning to look at Jessell.
“It means I need to look around this place and make sure it’s safe for us to spend the day. Linda you take Ridec to that safe room with Pete until Kent and I make the rounds, make sure nothing happens to him. Tell Mary and Kyle to start scavenging around this place for some kind of food. If there’s nothing here we’ll have to see if any of the plants on the outside are edible,” Jessell instructed.
“You can’t give me orders,” Linda said indignantly. “Who the hell died and made you queen anyway?”
“Who died?” Jessell opened wide amused eyes at Linda. “The whole world died sweetheart or haven’t you been paying attention?”
“Just do what she says,” Kent instructed and Linda grunted her annoyance before walking off with Ridec in tow.
“What should I do?” Rea wanted to know.
“Go find a zombie and make love to it for all I care,” Jessell said carelessly and Rea’s eyes narrowed.
“You can go looking for food with us,” Ridec said directing his comment to Rea. He really didn’t want to see the girls fight, in fact he was pretty sure it wasn’t going to be much of a fight, Jessell would just whoop Rea’s butt in a second.
“There’s no ‘us’ there Ridec. If I come back to the safety room and find that you’ve gone roaming around this building looking for food I’m going to be royally pissed. Wait until Kent and I have had a chance to scope out this place before you venture out. Mary and Kyle are accustomed to this world, they can scavenge for food,” Jessell instructed.
“Accustomed to this world?” Kent asked.
“Just a figure of speech,” Jessell explained as she strolled off with Kent who had to widen his stride to keep up with her.
“Well let’s head to the safe room,” Linda said strolling off in the opposite direction.
“I’m not going to the safe room,” Ridec explained.
“I’m pretty sure I heard your Amazon woman instruct you to go to the safe room,” Linda pointed out.
“She doesn’t own me you know,” Ridec said defensively. “I can go wherever I want to go.”
Linda smirked.
“I didn’t hear you making that claim when she was around.”
“He doesn’t have to defend himself,” Rea put in with some annoyance in her voice.
“If I was you I’d stay away from him before she squashes you like a bug,” Linda suggested still smiling.
“Well you’re not me and I still believe that every man and woman has a right to make up their own minds about what they want to do,” Rea said.
“Your funeral kid,” Linda muttered and then sauntered off.
“So where do we go now?” Rea wanted to know. “Maybe there’s a cafeteria or something?”
“I’m not looking for food,” Ridec admitted. “I’m looking for a workshop, someplace I can use to make weapons so I can be useful.”
“You are useful,” Rea said immediately.
“That’s very kind of you to say so but it’s not true. Jessell has been risking her life for me since we got here.”
“You’ve been risking your life for her too,” Rea pointed out.
“If I was more like Kent…” Ridec muttered not even realizing he had said the words out loud.
“You’re better than Kent, you’re worth a million Kents,” Rea said vehemently. “You know how to care about people; I don’t think that Kent guy cares about anyone else but himself.”
“He cares about Jessell.”
“Is it always going to be about Jessell?” Rea asked wearily. “Can’t you see she doesn’t care about you?”
“Let’s check in this room,” Ridec suggested pushing the door open and strolling inside. He didn’t want to deal with the topic of Jessell with Rea, she could never understand what he felt.
“So strange,” Rea said apparently sensing Ridec’s hesitancy and changing the topic. “Imagine there was a time when kids would just gather together in a room like this and every one would probably just sit and talk about all sorts of stuff.”
“They’d gather together not just to talk but to learn,” Ridec pointed out. It was strange that a girl like Rea had never experienced school. Whatever she learnt she had learnt from stories being passed along over the various generations.
“What on earth could you find to learn sitting down in a room for an entire day?” Rea asked laughing.
“There’s a lot you can learn, remember the books in the building you were in when we met? You learn to read books like those and to even write them,” Ridec explained and Rea looked genuinely shocked.
It was sad really that the society had degenerated to a point where its citizens could neither read nor write. They knew nothing about the earth that they were apart of and all they learnt about was trying to stay alive from one moment to the next.
“Maybe I can teach you to read,” Ridec found himself saying. Jessell would definitely not be pleased about that but he couldn’t help but feel that somehow he owed these people something, a way to recreate their civilization.
“You can read?” Rea moved closer to where Ridec was standing and he backed away.
“It’s nothing that big,” he said shyly.
“You’re so bright.”
Ridec was easily one of the brightest minds in Merland but of course Rea wasn’t thinking about that, she was simply impressed because he knew how to read. That was truly sad.
“Let’s try another room,” Ridec said.
“Sure.”
They hurried out the room and ventured into more of the adjoining rooms.
“I’m not finding any workshops,” Ridec muttered not able to keep the discouragement from his voice.
“Maybe if we go on the lower floor,” Rea suggested and Ridec hesitated.
“Maybe you should go back to the main room and let me go on alone,” Ridec said.
“Don’t be silly, there’s always safety in numbers, you should never split up that’s like the first thing your parents teach you. If you’re going to stay alive and not be bitten always walk with a look out buddy.”
“Makes sense,” Ridec grunted. “I just don’t want anything to happen to you because you’re trying to be my look out buddy.”
“You care?” Rea’s eyes were all dreamy and sparkly.
“Okay, I’ll go first then,” Ridec said hurrying down the stairs and it was a few seconds before he heard the patter of Rea’s footsteps behind him. “It’s a little dark so be careful.”
The dark didn’t really bother him, living all of his life underwater he had a natural propensity for the dark.
“I know, I can hardly see in front of my face,” Rea complained.
“Give me your hand and that way you won’t get lost,” Ridec said and immediately felt Rea’s hand feeling about on his shoulder. He took her hand quickly before it could start to descend.
“I have you, just follow me.”
“I can’t believe you can see down here.”
“Once you’re eyes get accustomed you’ll start to see a little better too,” Ridec promised.
“It is a little better,” Rea admitted.
“Let’s try this room.”
“Just lead the way.”
They rummaged through several rooms and along a long corridor before Ridec finally said, “There.”
“What?” Rea was still clinging to Ridec’s hand but Ridec could see from her mind that she could see much better now and the reason for holding his hand had completely changed.
“Looks like a workshop, let’s go in there.”
It was almost an hour later when Rea said, “What exactly are you doing anyway?”
“Sharpening and shaping metal to make a boomerang,” Ridec explained.
“What’s a boomerang?” Rea was sitting on a desk that looked as if it had seen much better days.
“An object that always returns to you, but since I’m not much of a sportsman I’m trying to make a bit of a cheat,” Ridec admitted.
“A cheat?” Rea asked.
“A gadget that can propel the boomerang as well as catch it; a gadget I can wear on my hand.”
“Sounds interesting,” Rea said but she sounded anything but interested. “Do you think we can go back up and see if the others found any food?”
“It’s sharp but I need to get the dimensions right so…”
Blam!
That was the sound of the desk collapsing under Rea.
“Are you okay?” Ridec stuck the gadget and boomerang into his clothes and hurried over to where Rea still looked dazed from her fall.
“I think so, I hadn’t realized…”
“Gggggrrrrrrrrr….”
“Shoot!” Rea was fighting to get to her feet; Ridec grabbed her arm and pulled her up quickly.
“I think we might have company in one of the rooms down here,” he said hurrying towards the door with Rea’s arm over his shoulder. She must have hurt her leg in the fall. “The noise must have earned us some attention.”
“You should go without me; those things are too fast; you won’t be able to escape trying to carry me.”
“Then we’ll not escape together,” Ridec said hustling back along the corridor.
He could hear the sound of the gargle and groan growing louder.
“In here.”
He slipped into an empty class room they had passed on the corridor going down. The sound of gargling was almost at the door; that was soon followed by the pounding of fists on the door.
“We have to find someplace high to hide,” Rea muttered.
“I don’t think we can trust any of the furniture in this place, it’s old, and it could collapse under us.”
“I don’t think this door is strong enough to keep that thing out.”
“I know.”
Ridec leaned Rea against a desk and started piling some of the rotten wood from old chairs against the door. This was hopeless, he thought to himself but he had to try something, maybe the creature might grow weary and move on.
“I think it has attracted the attention of another one,” Rea said and Ridec could hear the fear in her voice. “If we don’t get out of here now we might never be able to.”
“Just stay behind me, I’ll try my weapon. The longer we stay down here the more likely more of them are likely to turn up.”
Ridec stepped away from the door, he could already see it was starting to give-way, a few more blows and it would collapse.
“Ridec!” Rea screamed as the door collapsed and two zombies raced into the room.
“Get back Rea!”
Ridec gripped the gadget from his clothes and slid it onto his hand and pointed it at the creature.
“Hit it, shoot it, do something,” Rea screamed and Ridec let the boomerang weapon fly.
“Oh Ridec,” Rea said sadly as the object shot out of the gadget and cemented itself into a nearby wall.
“What the hell!” It was Kent racing into the room and striking one of the zombies with his foot, the back broke and it fell to the ground.
“It looks so frail,” Rea muttered.
“Yeah, now that we aren’t fighting them,” Ridec said disgruntled.
“Watch out Kent,” Jessell shouted wheeling a metal object in her hand just at the right angle to decapitate the second zombie.
“Grrrrrrr….”
“Another one’s coming,” Rea yelled.
“There’s some kind of a basement door that opens to the back of the school down here, we need to get back upstairs. Eventually we’ll have to try to find a way to secure it,” Jessell yelled. “Come on Ridec.”
“Rea’s been hurt,” Ridec responded.
“I’ll take care of her, you go with Jessell,” Kent offered and the four hurried out of the room but not before Ridec dragged the offensive boomerang from the wall.
They had just made it back to the safe room and secured the door behind them when Jessell turned to Ridec angrily.
“I told you to come here and stay here!”
“I wanted to make a weapon to help fight,” Ridec explained.
“How did that work out for you?” Jessell screamed.
“I wasn’t finished…”
“You’re finished Ridec,” Jessell said quietly her face pressed right up against Ridec’s. “When I tell you to jump all I need you to do is to ask how flipping high. Is that too much for you to get through your thick skull?”
“I’m not an idiot…”
“Then stop acting like one.”
“I just want to fight.”
“You want to fight Ridec?” Jessell screamed angrily. “Then fight me!”
She gripped Ridec’s shirt and shucked him roughly across the room.
“There’s no need…” Kyle started to say.
“Just stay out of this,” Jessell screamed. “If Ridec wants to fight then he should fight.”
She struck her hand hard across Ridec’s face and a harsh red mark appeared.
“Fight me damn you!”
“I don’t want to fight,” Ridec whispered.
“I didn’t hear that!” Jessell yelled angrily.
“I said I don’t want to fight!”
“Good, then remember that the next time you think about doing something stupid that’s going to put my life on the line for the hundredth time! You know why I’m here? I’m here because of you Ridec, don’t make me regret any more than I do coming up here to try to save your stupid butt.”
With that Jessell turned on her heels and strolled out of the door.
“I have to flipping kill something before I go crazy.” She slammed the door shut behind her. “And don’t you dare let me see you out here!”
There was silence in the room for almost a full minute after she left.
“Are you going to help her fight those things?” Linda asked turning to Kent.
“Are you kidding me? Right now I think I’m more afraid of her than them. She said she felt like killing something, only a fool would get in her way.”
“Ridec,” Rea hurried over to where Ridec was standing frozen to the spot. “She had no right to speak to you like that.”
“She did,” Ridec whispered a tear rolling down his cheek as he spoke. “All of this is my fault.”
He slid down to the ground his hands covering his face. “I just don’t seem to be able to do anything right.”
“I wish those things kill her and she never comes back,” Rea said angrily.
“Don’t say that,” Ridec said getting to his feet and pulling the gadget out of his clothes and into his hand. “Don’t even say that. If Jessell doesn’t come back I’m going to have to go looking for her – but I’m going to need my weapon.”
“You can’t be serious,” Kent muttered. “If she can’t survive out there how the hell do you think you will?”
“If she can’t survive out there, then I don’t want to,” Ridec admitted.
“Ridec,” Rea said.
The door fly open again and then slammed shut and Jessell was standing there drenched in blood.
“I managed to close the basement door, only a few of them had gotten inside. We can do another search of the facilities a little later.”
Her mind was completely closed to Ridec, whatever she was thinking or feeling she definitely didn’t want him to know. She didn’t even look at him but started walking off towards a corner of the room looking tired and worn.
“Jessell,” Ridec called after her, she stopped and slowly turned on her heel. “You need to get that blood off of you before it finds and opening to contaminate.”
“There’s some water in those buckets over there,” Kyle pointed out.
Jessell nodded.
“Ridec,” Jessell said softly.
Ridec’s heart lurched, had Jessell been hurt?
“Jessell?” His face contorted with concern.
“I’m sorry,” Jessell said and Ridec was even more concerned. Never in all his life could he recall Jessell offering even a remotely earnest apology to anyone, especially a commoner like himself.
“Princess!” Ridec was racing across the room and diving beneath Jessell’s body before it hit the floor.