I coughed, I was going to vomit. Madden put his hand over my mouth, but it didn't stop the smell. I could see him, Eliza and Mark leaning forward excitedly and followed their gaze.
The zombies were walking and shuffling, but every few steps they would stop, bend down and clumsily reach towards an object on the ground. They couldn't keep this position for long and so most ended up in a clumsy roll landing thump on the earth and then, avidly picking up the object which had grabbed their attention, a shoe. Then they tried to lift their rotting feet and place the shoe upon it. If it didn't fit, they would discard it, stumble to their feet and continue to walk. It was a grotesque caricature, a rolling, rotting, smelly dance of stop, stoop, roll ,pick up shoes, struggle upright and start again.
Soon, there was a mass of them, all rolling and grasping for shoes.
We stayed in our hiding places well outside the trail of shoes which had been laid earlier in the day by Mark and Anna. The first zombie continued to follow the trail and was soon struggling up the ramp towards the open back door of St Stephens hall, stretching out a rotten hand towards a line of sandals which had been carefully laid inside. The first zombie was followed by a second, a third, a fourth, a fifth, ten, twelve, fourteen the numbers swelled quickly, rolling and shuffling into the hall.
And then screaming.....
Lots of screaming....
A woman, raced out the front door , her mouth open in a piercing wail, soon a panicked crowd was struggling to escape through the same doorway. They raced to their cars, dropping wallets, food, keys, clothes. They hastily opened their car doors, jumped inside and with a screech of tyres, accelerated down Church Street.
Gavin Cloud suddenly appeared in the doorway, his voice booming in the night air, 'Come back, come back.' But he was ignored. People pushed past him, screaming, yelling for friends and family and fleeing the zombies behind them. Then they were all gone and Cloud was left alone. He looked behind him, to his left, to his right, and then, acting faster than I thought possible, he leapt to his car, started it, and careened down Church Street.
Seeing that everybody had disappeared, Madden stood up,
'Aaron, NOW!" He yelled.
Aaron and his juggling friends followed Madden and entered the hall. We ran after them. Inside, the zombies were doing their strange shoe dance and ignoring us, they seemed harmless except for the smell. Aaron and the jugglers began to juggle and I grabbed three clubs and joined them. It was exhilarating. The balls and clubs danced beneath the ceiling and a strange golden halo enveloped us. I felt calm, my mind emptied of care and worry.
In the corner of my eye I saw Madden, Eliza and Mark gathering shoes and luring zombies out the back door. Soon the herd was exiting , some wore shoes, some were carrying them, one however, seemed to be carrying something else. I heard Eliza give an exasperated sigh,
'Give me the harp Nicholas...Nicholas...'
I dropped a club, picked it up and rejoined the jugglers. Soon I was lost in the rhythm and the joy of throw and catch.
It took a few hours to lure the zombies back to their homes and to clean up the shoes, but soon everything was organised and we parted from the jugglers and made our way back to the Presidio.
Aaron was planning to talk to the vicar the next day and it seemed doubtful that the exspellers would want to return to St Stephens Hall.
Chapter 10
The next evening, I picked Ima up from Anna and Mark's apartment and we walked to St Stephens hall to do some juggling. Aaron was at the door and shook hands when we arrived.
'Come in, come in. Ima, I have a surprise for you.'
He gestured to two people standing expectantly in the corner, one of them called out
'Ima?'
Ima looked puzzled, the man and woman ran over and the man lifted her in his arms.
'Ima. It's me, it's your dad.'
'Daddy?" the little girl being twirled in the air gave a happy shout and cuddled the man holding her.
Aaron smiled at me,
'I recognised her at the apartment. About a year ago, Chinatsu and Yuto lost their daughter at a juggling convention a few miles from here. I don't know how she got to Newtown, but here she is. Ima is a juggler.'
Ima and her parents were crying and hugging and all the jugglers had gathered around , they were sniffling and crying too. Jugglers really were very sensitive
Then Aaron got serious.
'Ok everybody, time to juggle.'
I retrieved my clubs from my bag and started to twirl.
I got tired after an hour and sat and watched the jugglers passing clubs, dropping rings, and throwing multicoloured balls in the air. It was warm inside the hall so I walked outside into a perfect evening.
As I sat on the back steps listening to the slight breeze whispering through the trees, I heard the sound of a harp playing softly in the distance. I shook my head in disbelief.
It must have been my imagination.
END
Book 5 in the Vampire Across the Hall Series will be coming soon.
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