The Birth of Death

Chapter Two

"Loral. Loral." Mrs. Hudson kept repeating her name over and over, trying to wake the girl. "Loral!"

"Sorry, Mrs. Hudson." Loral replied, jolting from her trance.

"Would you like to answer the question?" she asked bitterly.

"I'm afraid I don't know the answer." Loral replied, turning red from embarrassment. She looked around the room and saw Jake, her boyfriend, snickering along with two of his buddies. Some boyfriend you are.

"Class, this is why-"

Just then, a tremor ran through the ground, causing papers to fly and several girls to shriek with surprise. The lights flickered for several seconds and then went back to normal. One boy, who most people labled as strange, began to mutter, 'The demons, the demons are among us.' and in a sense he was correct.

"Teachers," the secretary's voice rang over the speakers, "Please lock all of your doors, we are under lock down until police can escort the students to their homes. Please turn your projectors to channel 20."

"We're all going to die!" one of the boys laughed.

"Marcus." Mrs. Hudson barked as she fumbled with the projector remote, "This is no time for jokes. There!" The projector turned on with a buzz and switched to channel twenty as she punched in the numbers.

"The death toll is rising, more and more people of New York are dieing each second."

"Way to sugar coat it."

"Marcus!"

"Sorry, Mrs. Hudson."

"Stay indoors, the plague is spreading faster and faster. If you do go outside, watch your back, don't get near a person who is infected. Police are still-" suddenly the reporter shrieked, the camera flew through the air and landed on the ground with a thud; all you could see was the reporter's heels and another pair of shoes closing in on her. "Please! No!" The other pair of shoes walked away just as the reporter dropped in front of the camera, bite marks surrounding her nose. Immediately after the reporter fell all of the projectors turned off and left a faint glow on the white boards.

"I have to get out of here!" one girl shrieked and began to frantically claw at the locked door.

"Molly," one of the boys, Sam, said gently and tried to pry her off the door, "It's okay, the police are going to get here and then you can go home. Just wait a few more minutes."

"Okay." she sniffled and let herself be ushered away from the door.

"Students with last names starting with A through B please report to the commons. Students with the last names A through B report to the commons."

A rustle rippled through the room and several students walked towards the locked door, Mrs. Hudson among the group.

"Well, that's me." Jake said with a sigh, suddenly beside Loral.

"I'll see you around, right?" she asked, fear evident in her voice.

"Of course you will," he replied, forcing a smile on his face, "Our usual place."

"Okay." she whispered before he filed out of the classroom with the rest of the students.

When Mrs. Hudson locked the door back up Loral raced to the window and peered out onto the, once familiar, street of Manhattan. Several bodies were strewn across the road and sidewalk, cars were abandoned and some had crashed into one another in a frenzy to escape. A single boy and his dog raced down the road, jumping over the bodies and cars, a gun in his hands, as a group of both men and women chased after them. He let several shots go, but only met one of his target and the man crumpled to the ground, never to move again. For good this time.

Once the group had disappeared the doors to the school swung open and a single S.W.A.T. officer stalked out onto the street. He knelt down and looked around the surrounding area, checking for any danger. Once he was satisfied he looked back and motioned for the others to come out. Several more S.W.A.T. member came slithering out of the building and led a group of students out into the open, three more officers came out behind the train of teenagers.

Suddenly, something caught their attention for they all trained their guns to the right and stood rigid as it approached. Loral looked and saw a woman stumble down the street; her hair was tangled and she had cuts all over her exposed arms. She desperately clung to her side as blood steadily flowed from the wound and left a trail behind her. With her other hand she held it out to the S.W.A.T. team and cried something out to them as she approached. As she approached, Loral noticed that the woman twitched slightly with every painful step she took.

When she had reached them she reached out to one of the officers, but quickly pounced on one of the students, knocking him to the ground. She pressed her mouth over his nose and bit down hard, causing blood to fly from where her teeth met his flesh. The struggle only lasted a second for all of the officers rained down on the woman, killing her and the unfortunate boy as well. Without a choice, the group left the dead bodies and moved more cautiously down the street.

When they left Loral let a frantic scream pierce the air when she saw the corpse lying on the ground. The brightly colored sweatshirt was stained a dark crimson color that slowly spread and began to pool on the ground. She couldn't see the boy's face, but she noticed that he wore a twine bracelet on his wrist from where it rested on the cement. However much she wanted to she could not take her eyes off of the stilled figure.

"Jake!" she screamed, banging her fists on the glass in agony. She tried to break the glass with all of the fading energy she had. Suddenly, gentle arms wrapped around her and she gratefully sank into them.

"Loral, come sit down." the voice of Adam, Loral's friend since third grade, towered over her.

"He's dead." she whimpered, "Jake's dead."

"I know." he said softly and led her to the other end of the classroom, away from the window.

By now, all of the students sat solemnly in their chairs, flinching whenever there was an explosion. At one point there was an explosion two blocks away; the blast was so powerful that the windows rattled and started to crack, threatening to burst open. Another call came over the intercom asking for students with the last names starting with C and D to go down to the commons.

Loral straitened up when she heard the announcement for those students; Collins, Loral Collins was her full name, her mother didn't believe in middle names for she, herself, did not have one. She began to tremble with terror, her eyes widening and dialated with fear. She would have sat there for an eternity, frozen to her seat on the floor if it hadn't been for Adam's hand on her shoulder that brought her to her senses.

"Come on, that's us." Adam Curtis said softly and pulled her to her feet.

"I cant go out there." she replied, shaking her head frantically.

"And why not?" he questioned, kneeling down so he could look at her face, though she averted her eyes from his gaze.

"He's laying dead out there, I'll have to pass his dead body, Adam."

"Look at me when I tell you this." he waited until she reluctantly looked into his grey eyes and continued to shake, but this time in grief, "It's not him anymore, Jake isn't in that body anymore. I know it's hard to get past that, but it's just his shell laying on the sidewalk, not Jake."

Tears flooded her eyes and she wrapped her arms around his neck, gripping tight so she could not come off. With her arms still around his neck, she felt his arm slide under her legs and gently lift her up off the floor. Her face was buried deep into his blue jacket, but she was aware of the frightened faces of the remaining students' eyes bearing into her back.

Time seemed to slow down as Mrs. Hudson pulled out the bronze colored key, stuck it in the lock, twisted it and then slowly opened the door. Loral listened as two students went in front of her and Adam and just as she thought she would make it, one student called after.

"Count down until you face the demons out there."

To KiwieMie I hope this is what you meant. If not, just wait until further chapters.