When We Were Humans | Book I

Chapter 4: Cause and Effect

I stood up from kneeling on the floor. I glanced around at all the sullen faces of my friends.

"Grab anything you think will be useful. Don't waste time bringing useless stuff. Let's get out of here," I said with a cold tone.

"What's your plan though?" Nate questioned, "Our plan from the start was the hospital to save Mike."

"That should still be our goal right?" Zoey asked back.

"No," I started, "the cities would be too crowded. Not to mention the hospitals. They're now feeding grounds."

"But we still need a place to stay," Joel chimed in, "You know a place to wait until the military or something blows in."

"My house is pretty close," Annie added, "and it's far from the city. We could go there. It's a huge house I'm sure we'd all fit."

"How about our families man?" Dwayne asked with a skeptical tone, "When do we go see them?"

How could I forget? I wanted to see if my family was okay too. But was it really safe to go far? I'm assuming this was happening everywhere and that mass hysteria would occur.

"I promise all of you," I said with a promising expression, "You all will get reunited with your families." I just left it there because I couldn't make promises. I never said they would see them alive, just promised them they would see them. That sounds way too dark.

"Let's get moving," I said as I went to the door. I opened it slightly and checked around to see if the coast was clear.

"Annie keep Chloe close," I said to Annie, "Everyone follow me. We will make it. D, lead the way to your truck." He nods his head and stepped in front of me. He opened the door slowly and we started filing out of the door one by one. All of us had backpacks that were usually loaded with books and other miscellaneous items. Now, the bags looked really light. I guess there's no use for books where we're going.

The fire alarm was going for so long that the sprinklers turned on.

"If I would've known, I would have brought an umbrella," Joel said jokingly. I chuckled slightly at his joke and I think everyone else did too. It lightened up the mood a bit and made the situation seem less intense than it was. We made it to the stairwell again and walked slowly down to minimize the chance of slipping. The blood puddles at the bottom of the stairs were being slightly diluted by the water making our splashes even louder. We were almost home free. We walked down the hallway that had the classroom that Chloe was trapped in. We made it to the door and saw the parking lot. Home free.

Or so I thought.

Dwayne led us out the door and started walking out into the parking lot. Now before I continue, you do know that with each action there is a positive and negative effect of it right? Kinda like cause and effect. In this case the cause is that Toby turned into one of them. The effect, he turned others and he just so happened to be here at the parking lot at this time.

Toby jumps Dwayne from the right side; completely outside our range of vision. Everyone stepped back in surprise.

"S-someone help me!" Dwayne screamed from the ground. Nate ran up and hopped onto Toby's back with scissors in hand. He forcefully jabs Toby in the temple with the pair of scissors. The sissors plunge deep into Toby's skull. Nate waits a few seconds until Toby stopped struggling. Toby landed with a thud on Dwayne's chest. Nate pulled out the scissors from Toby's head with a sickening suction sound.

"Thanks Nate," Dwayne said with a breath of relief. Nate just helped him up from the ground. I think we were all surprised by the burst of courage from Nate. I even think he's surprised himself.