Prologue
I tapped my graphite pencil repeatedly onto my book in annoyance at the work that was written up on the board. It’s not like the heat was much help either. The hot summer air streamed through the classrooms open windows and poured into maths class where we were currently studying Trigonometry, much to the annoyance of not only myself but my best friend and flatmate, Lola.
Lola and I were the exact same people. We must have been sisters in another life. We loved the same type of music, the same type of colours and clothes, watch the same shows and say the same things. We couldn’t be more alike. We share a lot of things too; from food to eyeliner to a flat right here in the heart of Atlanta.
“When the fuck are we going to need this in life?” whined Lola as she rolled her eyes at the maths laid out right in front of her “This will not come in handy if we’re like…. Robbed or something!”
“We throw maths at them, that’s enough to scare anyone away” I huffed.
“Doesn’t help that we have that assignment due tomorrow and a test on Monday, who the fuck wants to revise on the weekend anyway?” muttered Lola.
“Oh god, damn, I hate maths”
“Could you two girls quit complaining and get on to your work?!” exclaimed our miserable old hoot of a teacher. He grey hair spun in corkscrew curls around her heavily make-up painted face. It was rather off-putting if I do say so myself. Her wrinkles crinkled up further as she took the time to grimace at the two of us.
“Sorry Ms.Andrews” mumbled Lola as her eyes spun back down to her work.
“And what about you, miss Rodriguez?” pressed Ms.Andrews as her ugly face scowled at me.
I had a horrible attitude problem which I really needed to fix before it got me into trouble. Usually, I won the fights against teachers as they generally saw no point in arguing with me, but this was just going to be one of those unlucky kind of days I guess.
“I’m not sorry for a thing” I chimed, a sarcastic smile spreading across my face.
“I beg your pardon?!” exclaimed Ms.Andrews, her gross eyes lighting up in disgust.
“Why should I be sorry? I didn’t do anything to you” I could only get worse “you’re the one listening into my conversations”
“I don’t believe it-“
“So maybe YOU should get your absurdly long nose out of other people’s business” shit fuck oh god I was so going to get it this time. I knew that one day my big, fat mouth would get me into trouble.
“That’s it, yard duty miss Rodriguez!” yelled Ms.Andrews as she waved a pink slip in her hand above her head.
“Oh so you’re going to give me a yard duty for telling you to respect my privacy?!” I was on a roll now. I could hear my conscience screaming at me to stop what I was doing and just suck it up, but my cold, little, black heart was in too far to quit now.
“How about a focus room then?” focus room is where we were sent to ‘reflect’ on our wrongdoings for a while with the added bonus of getting a fabulous note home to our parents.
“How about you get your head out of your arse!” I replied snidely, folding my arms across my chest.
The whole room was silent as I sat in an aggressive position at my desk beside Lola, my face hostile and my mouth wanting to strike again. The bewildered look on my teachers face is one that I’ll never forget for a lifetime to come. Her usually thin lips spread out into the ugliest smile you could ever imagine on her wrinkly, old and unlikable face.
“That is it!” she yelled “I don’t want to hear another stupid word out of your wishy-washy mouth! Get out of my classroom-“
Suddenly, the school speakers burst to life and the raspy voice of our principal sounded across the school. This wasn’t a regular thing that happened at school, we didn’t get announcements often, so when we did it was either a really good thing or a really bad thing.
“All teachers must dismiss students immediately” the alarmed voice rang through the speakers like a tidal wave and I felt my stomach lurch. This could not be a good thing “teachers and students must evacuate immediately and be sent right home to their family, thank you”
My heart pounded furiously in my chest. What the hell was going on? Lola and I exchanged nervous glances as I chewed on my lip, scared about what this announcement may be. I was fearful of not only mine, but Lola’s life too to say the least. My forehead creased in concern as my eyes shot to a petrified looking Ms.Andrews at the front of the class. I doubted she knew what was going on either. I fiddled around nervously with the pocket knife which I always kept in my pocket just in case as the class and I waited for our teacher to say something; anything.
“Class dismissed” she muttered, her eyes distant and frightened.
I got up from my seat and shook away the aggression that coursed through my body. My hand curled around the strap on my bag as I lifted it up and swung it over my shoulder, getting ready to leave.
“Everyone except for Miss Rodriguez is free to leave” she said, her eyes now fixed on me.
My heart stopped. We were all told that we urgently needed to leave and she was about to keep me back? I don’t think so.
“I’m sorry, but you heard the man” I glared, Lola’s short, slim figure coming to a halt beside me “we need to leave”
“I don’t care, you don’t talk back to your teacher like that!”
“Look, I’ll do your stupid yard duty later, but I have to go”
“No you don’t!!” her voice rose to an unreasonable level as he face reddened so much it looked like she was about to burst “you are going to sit here at this desk and you will not leave until I tell you to!”
I tried to follow Lola out the door but Ms.Andrews hand reached out and grabbed my wrist, yanking me back furiously.
“I can report you for this you know” I sneered.
“SIT!”
I did as she said so and motioned for Lola to leave. She gave me a hopeless look before pushing out her bottom lip, her attempt in begging to stay with me.
“Go” I warned “stay safe”
She nodded and left without another word.
I was slumped over forward in my chair, leaning on the desk in front of me, my hair shielding my face from the cursing eyes of Ms.Andrews who glared at me, hatred submerging both her and myself. She walked over to me and smiled curtly, unloading numerous sheets lined with algebraic equations onto my desk. Lucky for me, I was good at algebra.
“A students worst nightmare, aye?” she smirked, her ugly horse face taunting me.
“If you mean you, then yeah” I muttered under my breath as I began filling out the sums at a fast pace, my desperation to get out of here taking over my mind.
I didn’t have to sit and wait for very long as the principal went around from classroom to classroom, making sure that there were no staff or students remaining behind any locked doors. After around twenty minutes of solving equations too easy for me anyway, the principal got around to the room where I was currently trapped with Ms.Andrews. He entered the room looking both shocked and exasperated, his dark skin tone making the sweat on his forehead more prominent.
“Miss Rodriguez, what on earth are you doing here? I told everyone to leave!” his booming voice felt as though it was shaking the room.
“Ms.Andrews thought it best to keep me in for detention” I admitted, standing up from my desk and placing my hands on my hips to stare down Ms.Andrews.
The principals belly wobbled as he turned briskly to take a good, hard look at an inevitably guilty Ms.Andrews.
“I don’t care what she says, if I tell you to leave, you leave!” he shouted.
“I tried to, but she forced me back” I hissed, picking my bag back up off the ground and slinging it over my shoulder “careful who you hire”
And with that, I swiped all the algebra sheets from the desk onto the floor, kicking the leg of the table and exiting the classroom without another word.
I looked behind me to see Ms.Andrews staring after me with a horrified expression strewn across her despicable face. I had just enough time to give her the middle finger before turning right down the hallway to make my way to the exit where, much to my surprise, I was met with Lola.
I wasn’t happy that she waited up for me though. God knows what could have happened to her out here in the deserted street out in the heat.
“Lola what the hell are you doing here?!” I spat, grabbing her arm roughly and tugging her along so that she trailed behind me like a lost puppy.
“I was waiting for you” she mumbled, using her free hand to smooth out the wrinkles on her midnight metallic blue skinny jeans “you didn’t think I’d just leave you here by yourself, did you?”
“Lola, it’s not safe for you out here!”
“I’m almost eighteen Zelda, I’m not a baby, it’s not your job to protect me Zel”
“I’m responsible for you though” I frowned “I’m older than you and we live together, I’m you guardian”
“Whatever”
We trudged along for a little while down what seem like never ending roads. They were straight, endless. Every street in Atlanta city looked the same. Although our school was a little further out from the actual industrial type area, most streets looked pretty identical out here too; the cute little brick houses with their perfectly manicured front gardens. The city was where Lola and I lived. We were admirers of both a country lifestyle and a city one, so both places suited us perfectly. It was fun, being able to switch from city to suburban settings every day. We walked on for ten minutes or so before I felt Lola tense and freeze up behind me. My hand instinctively flew to the knife in my pocket as I shot Lola an awkward look.
“What’s up” I said as I stared at her.
Her bottom lip trembled and her eyes were wide with fear as her slender finger pointed out to a human like figure which lay lifelessly on the ground around twenty or so metres in front of us “there” she whimpered.
“Stay here” I ordered her as I pushed her roughly behind me, walking ahead in front of her and beckoning for her to stay put “you move, you’re dead”
She nodded and stayed where she was “be careful” she whispered, allowing me to walk ahead as she obeyed my reasonable command.
I walked softly on my feet along to the body. I could smell it rotting, it was disgusting. The sharp smell hit my nose like a hurricane and probably wrecked it like one too. It was a putrid, indescribable smell. It was sickening, a rank decomposing scent tinged with sweetness from what was once pure blood. As I approached the rather dead looking figure, I observed the gross bodily features of it. This was not a human. I staggered back from it in shock.
“Oh my god” I whispered to myself as I gingerly approached it again. I’ve never seen anything like it before, not in real life anyway.
It’s sunken in and hollowed out face was faced downwards onto the pavement, but I could smell its rotting flesh. The long and bloody nails of the creature were covered in dirt, and its skin, flaky and discoloured. The corpse’s clothes were torn, almost to shreds, much like the things limbs which looked limp and lifeless, pretty much falling apart. I fell to my knees in front of it, wishing so badly that it wasn’t real. I leaned in close to the things face, I could hear a soft growling sound being emitted from it but I didn’t move away. I didn’t want to leave the suffering beast. I moved my face away and inched backwards a little, trying desperately not to make any sudden movements. I then stretched out my hand and extended a single finger, poking the creature gently in the shoulder.
At that exact moment, the thing roared to life, it’s disfigured and decaying hand latching onto my wrist. An ear piercing scream escaped my lips as the thing hovered above me, its vacant and empty eyes hungry for my flesh and thirsty for my blood.
“Get off!!” I screamed as I tried to pry the thing off of me.
It growled and dribbled above me, its mouth open and ready to attack. The sounds coming from it were terrifying and I couldn’t seem to shut them out. I couldn’t help but stare into its blank and unfocused eyes, dazed by its very presence.
I then decided to take a risk. I thrust one hand into my pocket and pulled out my knife whilst holding the thing off of me with my free hand.
I screamed a blood curdling scream as I thrust the knife into its eye, pushing it as far as I could into it so I could puncture whatever brain remained. The thing gasped for air and twitched as I sunk my knife further and further into it, withdrawing it and repeatedly stabbing the creature in the eye over and over again until it lay lifeless on top of me.
“ZELDA!” screamed Lola as she dashed towards me, grabbing the thing and pulling it off of me “oh my god, Zelda, are you okay?!”
I stared up at her with a vacant expression.
“Fine” I replied, misty and dazed.
“Oh my god, were you bit?” she asked, examining my arms and so forth.
“No, I would have felt that”
I got up from the ground and examined my blood stained clothes. They weren’t only stained, but they stunk to high hell. Well, I wasn’t going to be wearing this white Nirvana tank anymore, was I now?
“What was that?” whimpered Lola as she fought back tears.
“I don’t know” I replied “but whatever it was, it’s not the only one”
I looked out to the rest of the deserted neighbourhood.
“Something’s coming Lola….. I can feel it” my brain was utterly tired and confused “this is why we had to go home, Lola there are more”
“What do we do?”
“We try to survive”