Chapter 31: Exhumed Remains of a Reanimated Nature
Phoenie was ranting about Dante again. Theseus jabbed the ceiling with his makeshift spear as the self-satisfied editor whined on about the so-called ‘paranoid schizophrenic’ like the hypocrite she was. Sometimes he wondered why he still hung around with her.
“This is ludicrous talk!” she said in her bossiest tone, “Ms Celeste is too clever to fall for that freak’s stalkerish ways!”
For a girl who prided herself on her analytical journalism and cutting observations, Phoenie was just proving how little she really picked up on.
“Too clever?” he said, unable to resist the opportunity, “You not noticed how naïve she is, lady? Phantasia’s always talkin’ to everyone with a smile. I’d say there wasn’t a hint of distrust in her, like she’s some kind of pure maiden who’s not had her back stabbed before, ya know?”
If he was honest, it creeped him out a little bit.
“Sounds like Theseus has a crush!”
Somehow those simple words ignited an inferno in the young man’s heart. Gripping the pole tight he thrust it into the ceiling with all his anger only to be rewarded with a rain of dust and plaster. How could she even suggest that? Not everyone had abandoned Amanda like she had. As the rage subsided, he dropped the pole and looked up at his handiwork – a cabinet had torn through the mildew-covered ceiling and now provided a useful platform for the group’s ascent.
“There’s your hole,” he said.
They were watching him. They were waiting for him. Once again he’d have to take the lead and keep the girls safe. It would be easy to just abandon them and make a run for it, to never be associated with the geeks of ‘Veritas’ again. He could lead a normal life. He could have normal friends.
Yeah right, like that’s gonna happen. Time to bust some zombie heads open.
“Sit-rep on those drugged-up freaks?” he asked John, who checked his sensor array.
“Nothing moving close by. Looks like they lost the trail.”
“So much for the creeping undead,” said Theseus, throwing a sarcastic smirk in Phoenie’s direction. She wasn’t looking, though. She couldn’t meet his eyes.
Bloody drama queens.
Whatever her problem, Theseus didn’t have time to deal with it. He picked up the pole and hoisted himself onto the fallen cabinet. It rocked underneath him as he tried to balance himself but the metal was sturdy enough to support his weight. Confident with his footing he then felt around the edges of the tear between floors with his gloved fingers, seeking a secure grip. Some foundation near the wall gave him enough leverage to pull himself up enough to dig his hand into a deep crack in the upper wall, and with a boost from the pole he managed to scramble up into the room above. Being the year’s top grader in Survival Ed had its perks.
Looking around he felt like he’d gotten himself caught in a spider’s nest. The abandoned bedroom was a dense fog of dust-covered cobwebs filled with death, from clusters of tiny carcasses to fist-sized cocoons lodged in tight spaces. Finding out what was top of the food chain in a place like this wasn’t on of his agenda. Returning to the tear he pulled up his spear and gave the others a thumbs up.
“Don’t think we’ve got any zombies up here,” he said, “Wouldn’t want to be an arachnophobic though,”
Phoenie hated spiders and the look of fear in her eyes made the grim task at hand that much more gratifying. Using the pole he tore the webbing away to reveal more rusted and rotted furnishings. A moss-stained mirror shattered when the pole cracked into it; a handbag fell to the ground, spilling out a graveyard of dead insects; a bookcase whose contents had been regurgitated by vermin, faded by the sun or simply disintegrated into pulp, fell to pieces with just a small nudge sending up clouds of dust as the remnants thumped onto the floor.
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