Computers had been unplugged and moved from the desks to the floor, the monitors like sleeping eyes. Two sturdy tables were stacked directly on top of one another, and a chair served as a stepping stool. Hunter, being the tallest, stood on the table tower and poked upward with his baseball bat.

"Just knock it out completely. Who cares, now?" Wilson said.

Hunter thrust the bat up, and the white rectangle lifted up, then twisted and fell sideways, jamming itself between the metal ledges. Hunter hit it again, and when it seemed to want to stay stuck, he whacked at it less carefully, breaking it in half. He ducked his head as white powder rained down and the broken tile pieces fell around him.

"Okay," said Wilson. "Now Rebecka, you go first."

"Why me?" she asked.

"You're the lightest. If the ceiling doesn't hold your weight, it won't hold the rest of us."

"Great. Love being the guinea pig." Rebecka nevertheless stepped up onto the chair and clambered up onto the tables without hesitation. She put her weapons down and stood in front of Hunter.

As they had practiced, Hunter laced his fingers together and Rebecka placed her foot in his, with her hands on his shoulders.

"One, two..." On three, Rebecka pushed upward and Hunter lifted her. Zane had nearly forgotten that Rebecka was a cheerleader. She held herself stiff and straight as Hunter propelled her upward, until she was eye level with the ceiling and could grab onto the metal struts. That was when Zane noticed Rebecka's bandaged hand, but Hunter was tall enough that he could push Rebecka up to waist-level into the ceiling, and then she climbed in easily.

Her muffled voice whined, "Ew, it's so gross in here. Do we have a flashlight?"

"No," Mike Snow said, but Wilson said, "Wait." He darted into the librarian's office and rooted around. Moments later, he emerged triumphant with a flashlight.

"How did you know that was there?" Zane asked.

"I volunteered in the library freshman year. Plus, if you read your school safety manual, you'd know that each classroom is equipped with a flashlight. Also with overhead chemical foam sprinklers, panic buttons, and fire exits at the front and rear of each classroom."

"You're brilliant, Wilson, but we don't need a lecture. We need a flashlight," Rebecka called down.

Wilson passed the flashlight.

It took considerably more effort to get Wilson up in the ceiling, since he was naturally awkward and shorter than Rebecka. Zane had to go up and spot him so he didn't fall off the table and break his neck. Mike went next, then Ross, and finally Zane. Hunter began passing up the weapons.

Zane and Mike lay down in the ceiling and hung their arms through the hole. This was going to be the hardest part.

Hunter grabbed the chair and stood on it. Here Zane could grab one arm, though Mike was just a few inches shorter, so Hunter had to stand on his tiptoes to reach him. The chair wobbled.

"You got me, guys?" Hunter grunted.

"Pull," Zane said.

Zane was decent at lifting weights, but the awkward position and Hunter's 200-pound linebacker frame was a bit more than he was used to. He tried to dig his knees in to pull, and felt the ceiling tiles give way beneath him.

"Wilson, Ross!"

His friends were already jumping in. They grabbed Hunter under his armpits and hauled. With four guys pulling him up, Hunter was soon in the ceiling with the rest of them.

The ceiling was pretty gross. Wires and cables ran every which way, and the dust had long ago turned to grime and linty tumbleweeds. "Disgusting to think we breathe this air every day," Rebecka said.

"Which way, Wilson?" asked Zane, eager to get out of the ceiling.

Wilson took the flashlight and began crawling. "Make sure to stay on the metal parts," he said.

It was slow going. Near the back of the group, Zane couldn't see much of anything, and had no way of judging their progress. It felt like it took forever before Wilson stopped.

"Are you sure she'll be here?" he asked Wilson as they gathered around him.

"It's my best guess," Wilson said.

"Great," Rebecka muttered.

Wilson pried up a ceiling tile. He peered down into the dark room below, swinging the flashlight around.

"Tamiko?" he called.

There was a sound down there, a shuffling. For a long, tense moment Zane thought it would be a zombie. Or Harmony.

"Wilson? Is that you?"

Tamiko's voice sounded small and tremulous, and Zane felt even worse about what had gone down in the gym.

"Can we come down there?" Wilson asked.

Tamiko paused, then said in a small voice, "Okay."

Wilson swung his legs out through the opening.

"Whoa, there, buddy," Hunter said, but Wilson had already grabbed the edge and was dangling. He let go.

Rebecka stifled a scream.

"The ceiling here isn't as high as in the library," Wilson called up. "Throw me the flashlight."

One by one, they dropped down.

"Tamiko," Zane said once he had gotten his bearings in the pitch black band room. Wilson just couldn't seem to hold the flashlight still. He grabbed her and hugged her. "I'm so glad you're not dead."

"You don't hate me?" Tamiko asked, her voice muffled by Zane's shirt.

"No, of course not," Zane said. "I mean, I don't exactly agree with some decisions you've made in the past, but I think you've become a better person because of them."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I mean, seriously. I do not condone murder." Zane gave Tamiko a stern look. "But you're a really cool girl. You're confident, and smart, and funny, and I wish I had met you before I'd ever met Harmony."

Tamiko smiled, a shy, genuine sort of smile that started small and spread across her face.

"Hate to break up the moment," Wilson said, "but we've got a zombie patient zero to kill."

"What's he talking about?" Tamiko asked.

"We need to find Harmony and kill her," Zane confirmed. "If we kill her, we're hoping whatever voodoo magic keeping her alive will end, and all the new zombies will turn back."

"And you think this plan will work?" Tamiko looked doubtful.

Zane shrugged. "Maybe it will, maybe it won't."

Wilson stood on a chair and held the flashlight under his chin. Zane wasn't sure if he was trying to be spooky, or if he just wanted to get everyone's attention. "Does anyone have any idea where Harmony might have gone?" he asked the group.

"She's still in the school," Tamiko said. "I was following her until I heard some soldiers coming. Then I realized I was right near the band room and I decided to hide in here."

"You were following her? Without any weapons?" Hunter asked incredulously.

"It wasn't the smartest idea... which I realized once I had a moment to think about it."

Wilson thought out loud. "So she came down this way... She would want to avoid the soldiers..."

"Maybe she's in the cafeteria, spitting in all the food," Hunter suggested.

"Harmony wouldn't want to stay in this place," Rebecka said. "And she wouldn't be afraid to go outside. She's a zombie too. The other zombies wouldn't bother her."

"I had a feeling she would have run out the first door she came across," Zane said.

Tamiko turned to Wilson. "You still have those things we made?"

Wilson pulled a stoppered test tube out of one of the many pockets in his camo pants.

"Then let's go."

***

Wilson opened the band room door a crack and peered out. "Clear this way," he whispered. He opened the door wider and they all heard the voices of soldiers at the other end of the hall.

Zane kicked the door fully open and Wilson darted out, chucking a test tube toward the soldiers. The glass shattered against the tile floor, releasing a cloud of thick, smelly gas.

"Stink bomb!" one of the soldiers called.

"Run!" Wilson said, and they bolted down the hall, back toward the library, amid the coughs and gags of the soldiers.

Once through the fire doors, they were clear to escape through the side entrance by Mr. Carson's classroom. Zane saw the blood on the doors and knew this was the way Harmony had gone.

"Look out!" yelled Tamiko, and launched another test tube across the parking lot. Zane turned his head just in time to see a small explosion light up two stumbling zombies. The undead caught fire and flailed.

The explosion had barely made a sound underneath all the noise from rumbling motors and helicopters flying overhead. They couldn't even hear the zombies approaching. Zane, as the point person, tried to spot them, but the roving spotlights of the helicopters made it nearly impossible.

Then he saw something up ahead in the open area of the parking lot that made him stop short.

Wilson ran into him. "What's happening?"

The others slowed to a stop, instinctively forming a circular formation to keep lookout for zombies.

Harmony stood facing Zane.

"Looking for me?" she asked.

"Actually, yes," Zane said. Then he stumbled for words. Was he supposed to tell Harmony they were going to murder her? He glanced around at their makeshift weapons. They were a lynch mob. This didn't seem right. Even if Harmony had started a zombie apocalypse. Even if killing her would stop the zombie apocalypse. He took a deep breath.

"Harmony, you're dead. I need you to understand this so that what I say next doesn't seem so terrible." Zane licked his lips. "Ah.... I think you should kill yourself."

"Wow," Tamiko said. "You sure have a way with words."

"I thought we were just going to kill her?" Hunter said.

"I want to give you the opportunity to redeem yourself," Zane explained. "If you sacrifice yourself to stop all this," he gestured around, "then it proves that you weren't just a zombie yourself."

Harmony stared at him flatly. "You do realize I have an army, right?"

She raised her arms, and the zombies began stumbling out from behind parked cars and trees, pressing their bodies against the fence.

"You can control them?" Wilson asked, his voice high.

"Guys," Rebecka said. Zane peeked behind him. There was a wall of zombies surrounding them. Only about fifty feet of empty asphalt separated the undead from the living.

"So, explain to me again why I should kill myself?" Harmony asked, raising her voice to be heard over another passing helicopter.

Suddenly a bright spotlight shone from overhead.

Zane squinted up at the helicopter now hovering directly above them. He could see soldiers hanging off the edge of the aircraft, with big heavy guns. When he looked back at Harmony, he could see a swarm of red dots dancing over her face.

"Wait," he started to say, then the gunshots started.

Harmony staggered backwards, her arms jerking, her face confused. After five or six rapid shots to her chest, a bullet hit her face and it exploded in blood and bits of bone. Zane looked away. He found Tamiko there, folding herself under his arm.

Their little group pressed close together as ropes unfurled from the helicopter and the soldiers swung to the ground. They moved toward Harmony's body with guns at their shoulders.

"Look, guys," Rebecka said.

The zombies that had surrounded them were dropping to the ground. Whatever magic had allowed them to rise from the grave was now gone.

"I can't believe it worked," Wilson said.

"But what about people who were infected but not zombies yet?" Zane asked. "Ross?"

Ross pulled up his sleeve, and peeled back the bandage. His skin still looked weirdly gray.

"I guess we'll have to wait and see," Zane said. "You and me both."

"Looks like this is over," announced one of the soldiers, approaching the group. "You were right about that girl being Patient Zero."

"It isn't totally over," Zane said, looking around at the corpse-littered parking lot. "We've got a lot of cleaning up to do."

Wilson looked at him, then said, "What do you mean, 'we'?" 

Only one chapter left, guys!