Veritas

Blood Stained Tears

Blood Stained Tears

It had been a couple of weeks now since we settled in, Diego had gotten settled and even made some friends in the neighborhood who would come looking for him after school. Me on the other hand...well that's a different story. Every day the leaves changed tones, their limbs now bare where Fall came in full swing. "Yo!" Danny called out flinging his backpack at Erick, a kid who sat behind him in 4th period Physics as he jumped into his seat. "Bitch" He called back, tossing my bag back. "Asshole" I responded laughing as I hopped into my desk.

"So what's up, where's Mr T?" I asked, referring to our missing teacher who should've been here by now. "He's out too with the flu, kinda seems like everyone is dropping like flies." He said, scrolling through his phone, "Looks like he's not the only one either..." He showed me a post with 20,000 likes blowing up on X regarding some sort of pandemic breaking out in Portland" I sighed, "Not another pandemic, didn't we have enough with that last one?" I groaned. "Erick laughed, "Well on the plus side if we are all dead we don't have to pay bills!" I looked over at him in annoyance, "Are you still complaining about having to pay your phone bill?" Erick rolled his eyes, it's not about the money, it's about the principal!" He shouted. "Okay, okay relax I get it!" I responded.

I watched as the pretty blonde I now knew as Tiffany walked in, her eyes were bloodshot; she looked exhausted. From down the hall, I heard chatter, and then a shrill scream. "He's dying!" Running to the door I looked down the hallway to see a crowd of students around someone, teachers desperately trying to separate everybody. A weird smell traveled down the hall, similar to a penny, a heavy coppery smell. All I could see were students running around, that's when I saw. Mr Downy pulled what seemed to be a student off of another kid, a pool of blood building a puddle at his feet as he desperately kept chewing and gnawing on the other kid. A raw chunk of flesh was torn away from the kid's neck, all I saw was fear and horror in everyone's eyes. The one chewing was laughing through the chunks of skin and muscle mumbling over and over his eyes glazed over in a white fog as he turned in my direction he smiled.

I turned to grab my stuff and warn everybody when I noticed the room had grown quiet. I looked over as Tiffany was stuffing her face with everything she could get her hands on little pieces of skin missing from the side of her skinny fingers and nails as she continued shoving pop tarts, whole bananas, and even the wrappers in a desperate attempt as her eyes slowly started glossing over. I didn't know what was happening but whatever it was wasn't good, "Hey Tiff you feeling okay?" Erick asked, reaching out to her while everyone watched, looking disgusted. Quickly she jumped on him and started gnawing on his face, whatever was going on it was happening now. Everyone was losing their minds in a flurry of shuffling feet and screaming. I watched in horror as she tore into what was once my only friend in this decrepit school. Grabbing my bag and smacking her in the head with it, my textbooks were not light yet she kept gnawing at his face and throat when Erick stopped responding she changed her attention to those around the same blood-smeared smile.

I knew whatever was happening we stood no chance, our eyes connected as I realized I had been frozen in place after that initial response. My hands were clammy and shaking as she laughed, the second she jumped at me I slammed my bag at her again. This time catching her midair, how she jumped as far as she did I will never know but it bought me enough time to run out of the class. Running into the hallway I encountered multiple different attacks and people begging for help, all I could think about was my brother and where he was I had to get to him no matter what. Running out the front I stole a bike off the rack in the front and biked through the back roads, I was roughly 2 miles from Diego's school I peddled as hard as I could. I could see some of them turn into whatever monstrosity attacked him, others seemed tame, while others were full-on charging people.

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In the distance I heard gunshots, I was almost there just down the road. I saw cars ditched on the side of the road and the body of an officer by the entrance. He was still clutching his gun. I checked for a pulse, but he was cold to the touch, who knew how long he had been dead for? I took his gun and some extra ammo just in case, it was too late to think about it, I had to get my brother. Walking into the building it was quiet, eerily quiet, it was hard to swallow. A heavy musk of blood lingered in the air, the gun felt heavy in my hands. I had been shooting with my Dad and uncle the few times we went on vacation, while I wasn't John Wick I could confidently hit targets, bottles, and on a couple of occasions wild animals, although I had never shot a human before. I cleared my corners walking as silently as I could, working my way through I didn't run into anything living, either they made it out alive or the bodies left were just a snack.

As I entered the gymnasium I heard something fall in one of the storage rooms, I cocked the pistol and made my way up to the door and heard shuffling inside. Preparing for the worst I braced myself and opened the door that seemed to be unlocked only to be met with resistance, "Is somebody in there?" I whispered. "No please don't hurt us!" I heard a child call out. "Danny?" I heard another voice call out, "Is that you?" I caught a glimpse of Diego through the gap. "Oh god, you're okay!" I called out fighting back tears that I had been holding back for a while. His eyes were a bit puffy and red as well I am assuming out of fear, "Let's get this door open and get you guys out of here." I called back through the door. The other boy a small blonde-haired kid responded. "The teacher told us to wait here, she was gonna bring help!" He responded visibly shaking. Diego pulled the chair away holding the door closed and jumped into my chest tightly. "I don't think she is coming back, most everyone has left already," I responded wrapping my hoodie around the boy and picking up Diego in my arms. "Cover your eyes you guys, I'm gonna get us out of here."

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Diego fell asleep in my arms as we walked a couple of miles up the road to the house, after getting there I tried to reach out to the boy's parents but he didn't know their number. So I assumed the worst and we all set up shop in the living room by the fireplace, Diego eventually woke up starving so I boiled some water and made some ramen. Luckily there was still power, but who knew how long that would last us. After tucking both kids in I browsed the web but found nothing regarding what was happening, it was like it was being blocked off on purpose. I finally put my phone on the charger and decided to go to bed, it was only then I figured out how exhausted I truly was.

I awoke in the early morning, to a weird noise a mix of crunches and wet fleshy chomps. "You guys hungry?" I half groggily ask stretching as I turned to the kids. Diego's back was to me, something velvety red was dripping in front of him as he stood in front of the other child hunched over him. I could see the boys eyes, a terrified expression pupils dilated as if he were screaming for me. A gurgling noise could be heard as his neck sputtered bits and pieces of velvet across the hardwood, Diego turned towards me. An eerie smile plastered on his face, holding back laughter as tears fell from his blood soaked face. "It's t-tasty Danny, I was just h-hungry" as he laughs and laughs.

I slowly stand up, keeping my body low expecting what proceeded. With an agility Diego launched himself at Danny, using a piece of timber I stuck it between us. As the wood began to crack I rotated my body, the force launches him over the dining room table. All I could hear is the shattering of glass and laughing. I grabbed my bag and ran, grabbing my bike on the way out I began to navigate the back roads of my neighborhood. I stopped at the end of the road, looking back one last time the other boy was now back up as well. They stared at me intently as their eyes glossed over letting out shrill laughter they disappeared into the tree's, I peddled as hard I could taking every side road and shortcut I could find just trying to increase our distance. After a couple miles and having lost the echo's of laughter I thought I might be out of the dark, a cold sweat sticking profusely to my skin. I found a market that looked pretty empty on the edge of town so I decided to loot for supplies. At this point whatever has infected everyone had spread pretty quickly, yet the roads seemed very quite. The first thing I needed was some Tylenol my head was killing me...