“What the hell was that?” I asked. Levi moved faster than I did, and was making for the door.

“Sounds like it’s coming from the roof,” he said.

Edgar emerged from the makeshift bedroom holding his ancient double-barreled shotgun in one hand and trying to rub the sleep from his eyes, not doing either one particularly well. “Who’s shooting?” he asked. I could see Martha behind the large older man, neither one of them looked ready for any kind of fight.

“You two stare here,” I said, “I’m going to go find Lauren and Evan.”

Levi and I met in the staircase, but we turned in different directions. Levi ran up the stairs to see why the man posted on guard was shooting, but I had other priorities. I needed to find my sister, as well as Evan.

Downstairs was a mess. The young people that not too long ago filled high school classrooms scattered among the first floor of the field house, readying themselves for battle. The door was immediately double checked, and every window had a boy or girl making sure the boards were secure.

Evan and Lauren were in the same corner where I had left them. Both of them watched the organized chaos around us, and both were already to fight. Lauren’s ever present machete shined in the dim firelight, and Evan readied his ax, strapping his bow to his backpack, since it wouldn’t be much use inside the building.

“Who’s shooting?” Lauren asked, as she asked three more shoot rang out.

“It’s from the roof,” Evan said, “the zombie must have showed up.”

“Why it take so many to put it down?” Laure asked.

“I don’t know but if he keeps shooting, there’s going to be a million here by morning,” Evan said while starting to run up the stairs. Lauren wasn’t far behind him. I followed ooking over my shoulder, watching the students fortify the first floor. Several of them were carrying weapons. The big one, Travis, who had been silent since being rebuked by Lauren, carried a baseball bat with a long wicked nail protruding from the head.

The field house’s roof was just one large flat area that had fashioned into a makeshift guard area. Levi was standing next to one tall student, the same that followed him around the camp earlier. The two of them were shining flashlights over the side of the roof.

Levi turned when he heard approaching and I had to cover my eyes to keep his light out.

“It’s a berserker,” the young man said.

“A what?” Evan said.

“This is my son Sam,” Levi said, “in the confusion earlier I never made any proper introduction.” It made sense after Levi said it. The student looked remarkably like him.

“That’s nice,” Evan said, but he pointed at Sam “but what did you just say?

“A berserker, that’s what one of the soldiers called it. Its not like the other ones. Its fast, and strong. They thought they were some kind of mutant.”

His description brought back that day a few weeks ago. The day the large being rushed Evan from the bushes, pinning him down. The look of horror on Evan’s face. I thought we were going to lose him.

“Oh crap,” Lauren said, “you’ve seen those too?”

“I went on a patrol with the soldiers before they left,” Sam said. “It broke into our camp. Killed 3 people before we knew what was happening. There hasn’t been one since though. You saw one?”

No one answered his question.

“What happened?” Evan asked.

“I thought I heard something so I shined my light on it. I saw this thing down there heading for the field house. I took a couple shots and it ran off. The damn thing is fast.”

I could hear a faint shuffling sound coming from the ground, but no matter how hard we looked, sweeping back and forth with flashlights, but no one could see it. I was transported to the one night in the tree, and the unearthly silence as we heard the mutated being crash through the forest. Every creak, and even the slightest rustle of wind caused the hair on the back of my neck to stand. I nearly jumped off the roof when Lauren grabbed my arm.

“What are we going to do?” she asked.

“I think we need to wait till morning,” I said.

“So we’re going to just let that thing roam around,” Lauren said, “we sit up here and wait for the sun to come up?”

“Do you have a better idea?”

I took her silence as a no.

Levi was still looking over the side of the roof. He returned to where we were standing, “I trust the students were getting ready downstairs,” he said, “but I’m going to do a head count.” And he left, the tall man disappearing through the roof access door.

We sat for a moment, neither one of us quite sure what to do, until Sam shot once more.

“Would you stop that,” Evan said.

“I have to kill it,” he said, “how I am supposed to kill without shooting.”

“Well you haven’t hit it yet, and you are far more likely to run out of bullets than killing that thing down there, especially the way you’re shooting. Now, unless you want a million walking infected bodies at your front door tomorrow, I suggest you put the gun down.”

Evan turned to us, “I don’t think we can do much from here, anyway. I’m going to check on Edgar and Martha.”

Lauren and I decided to follow and the three of us descended down the stairs to the next floor. We returned to find Edgar patrolling the makeshift living quarters, still looking as though he was roused from a deep sleep. He didn’t have his normal flannel shirt on, and where he usually kept a wide brimmed hat was a thick mane of tousled white hair.

“Hey kids,” he said.

“Where’s Martha?” Lauren asked.

He nodded towards their room, “she’s in there with the nurse. How many of them are there?”

“Just one,” Evan said.

“All this commotion for just one?” Edgar said.

“Not one of the regular ones,” Evan said, “you remember when we told you about that one that attacked us?”

Edgar nodded. I could see the unease on his face.

“It’s one like that,” Evan said, “they’ve seen them around here before.”

Edgar double-checked the gun he was carrying. “I’ll be ready for it,” he said.

“I know you will be,” Evan said, “why don’t you keep this floor covered.”

Edgar saluted in manner that I wasn’t quite sure whether he was serious. I suspect that he didn’t like being relegated to the sidelines when there was danger.

The field house’s first floor was not nearly as calm as the previous one. Levi moved back and forth, counting the children, making sure that everyone was there. Once he made sure that a certain individual was present they would return to their respective stations, each one taking up and post near a window or a door. Levi tried to remain calm; he rushed from kid to kid.

He was mumbling to himself to when we met him. “I’ve checked twice,” he said, “I can’t find him.”

“Who?” I asked.

“Red,” he said, “Red’s missing.”