I rolled over for the millionth time tonight as I tried to get comfortable on the cot which was proving impossible. What the hell did they make these things from? Zoe was snoring away beside me and I punched her in the leg to get her to stop. She spluttered for a few seconds then rolled over and resumed her snoring which harmonized with the other people snoring all over the room. Geez, they could start a band. I sighed knowing I wouldn't get more than a few hours of sleep tonight if I was lucky, being a light sleeper insured this.
"Can't sleep?" Darren whispered from his cot.
I was going to give him a 'you don't say' look, but I realized it would be lost on him in the darkness of the room.
"What gave it away?" I whispered back sarcastically.
He chuckled then responded, "You know you can come over here and try to sleep."
I couldn't see his face clearly in the dimmed light but I knew he was waggling his eye brows at his statement. Who says that to someone they just met? I guess he will be perfect for Zoe after all.
"Please, these cots don't even hold one person properly," I retorted.
"Fair enough," Darren said.
"How come you're not asleep?" I asked.
"Light sleeper."
"Me too."
"I'm not but you two are keeping me up," Chloe said sleepily from her own cot.
"Sorry," Both Darren and I said before resigning to our fate of getting no sleep.
It seemed like I had been asleep for only a few minutes, rather than the hours it actually had been, when the shrill sound of a screaming woman woke me from my light sleep. I sat up quickly, the change in altitude causing my head to spin. No sooner could I get the sound "wah?" out of mouth before Zoe started to yell at me,
"Grab your bag, we gotta go!"
Everyone was springing into action and more screams erupted. The police that were stationed in the lunch room were running around panicked, waving their guns in the air. I'm pretty sure that wasn't in the police training guidelines. I hopped up and pulled my backpack onto my shoulder. I went to grab my rolling suitcase but Zoe grabbed my arm,
"We will never get out of here with our suitcases."
I looked longingly at my bright, zebra stripped suitcase already missing it and its contents, but I knew Zoe was right. I nodded and looked around to see the others all geared up with their backpacks on and ready to run.
"What's going on?" Chloe asked, her eyes wide as she surveyed the chaos.
"We just gotta get outta here, that's all," Ethan said calmly to her, placing his hand on her head gently.
A gun fired somewhere in the school causing people to duck and scream, which seemed to be the knee-jerk reaction to a gun shot.
"Guns are never a good sign," Darren said and I didn't even have the capacity to roll my eyes at him.
I was too focused on trying to find a path through the madness.
"We need to get somewhere out in the open, being in a crowd like this makes us an easy target," I said while scanning the three exits out of the room.
"An easy target for what?" Zoe asked.
"The infected people, a stray bullet, etcetera," I listed off.
"She's right," Ethan nodded and I was glad someone else was thinking at the moment.
"How about the open main doors?" Zoe asked pointing to the biggest exit.
"Alright let's go and meet up in the parking lot across the street if we get split up," I said and we started to move towards the exit.
I took lead with the others in tow, Ethan had his hand wrapped tightly around one of Chloe's. We were pushing our way through the sea of people when they all started to push us back the way we had come.
"What the hell?" I muttered and then I heard it.
The groaning and snarling that accompanied the infected. People were screaming bloody murder as a group of infected individuals stumbled through the large exit doors, grabbing onto whoever was unfortunately close enough.
"Infected, go back!" I yelled and we turned around to try and reach the other two door exit that was on the other side of the room.
I was now trailing behind the others with Zoe leading us out. I looked back to see a bunch of people go down with the infected and the remaining police men were trying to take aim, but were finding it hard with all the people in the way. As one infected lunged at a cop, he fired a couple of rounds into the sick man's chest, but all it did was put the infected on his ass. The infected man slowly got himself up much to the shock of the cop who was gaping at the scene before him. No living person could have taken that many bullets to the chest and still be breathing let alone up and moving around.
Dark blood was trailing down the infected man's shirt, dripping onto the floor as he started for the policeman again; now slowly limping towards the retreating cop. I had a sickening feeling I knew exactly where this was going, but luckily the cop's partner took aim and shot the infected in the back of the head sending a pulpy mess into the air. The body feel straight forward and down from the impact and both policemen just stared at the corpse as if waiting for it to get back up again. But it remained still, the oily blood pooling out around its head in a morbid halo.
"Come on," I felt Ethan's fingers digging into my wrist as he pulled me forward.
Chloe had gone silent, her eyes wide with fear as she clung to Ethan's hand. I pulled my arm free from his grasp as I picked up the pace, leaving the grotesque scene behind me. Zoe waved at the entrance indicating it was clear. We all burst into the hallway lined with old lockers, with other people from the lunch room looking to escape. Since we were on the first floor we at least didn't have to worry about stairs just navigating the narrowed hallways. We followed Zoe trusting that she knew where she was going. I didn't pay any attention to which turns and hallways we used to get to the multipurpose room when we had entered the school, but Zoe always managed to notice those things. In fact I couldn't even tell you what direction we were running in; to me straight forward was always north.
We made it to the end of the hallway only to be faced with the choice of left or right and unfortunately neither direction gave a hint as to where a door was located. The corridors were empty of people, there weren't even any rent-a-cops roaming the halls like I had seen them do yesterday.
"Left!"
"No right!"
We heard screaming from the crowd behind us, not being helpful at all. I looked at Zoe and clearly she had no idea which direction to head.
"Right," Ethan said as he took the lead.
Our little group followed him plus a few more of the people behind us while the other half of the group went left. I hope I didn't live to regret this. Further down the corridor I could see blood smeared on the lockers and a few unmoving bodies on the dirty floor. People gasped and Ethan hauled Chloe closer to him trying to steer her sight away from the horrifying mess. We took a sharp left and then we could see the light reflecting on the linoleum floors from the entrance doors.
As we were about to round the last corner and reach the entrance doors, I heard the snarling and banging before I saw them. A horde of the infected were pounding and clawing at the doors trying to get outside. From the looks of it, these were once people who had sought refuge in here. Some still had on backpacks and bags, while others were wearing their pajamas. As a group we stopped in our tracks looking at the obstacle that blocked our escape. One of the infected turned, somehow sensing we were there and started towards us. The others soon followed suit and before I could turn to run back the way we came the two cops from the lunch room were shooting off rounds into the approaching group of infected.
The loud gunshots reverberated of the cement walls and I had to cover my ears to try to block out the sound. The bullets hit a few targets right between the eyes causing the bodies to sink to the ground in a heap. Others tripped over the fallen, struggling to get up-right once again.
"Let's go back. I think I saw an emergency exit along that last hallway," Darren yelled right beside me and I could barely make out his words from all the noise and the ringing in my ears.
I nodded and yanked Ethan's arm to get him to follow. Zoe was already looking back around the corner we had come from. Some of the people had run backwards while others stood transfixed by the scene at the doors. We ran down the corridor that had the two dead people fallen on the floor except as we passed their slumped forms, one corpse started to stir.
"Keep moving!" I yelled as Zoe stopped in front to stare.
One reached its mangled hand up towards us and Darren stomped down on it as hard as he could. The infected didn't cry out or anything like a normal person would have at the pain, instead it snarled and tried to reach us with its other hand. We all knew what Darren was going to next as he raised his booted foot high above the infected persons head. Ethan grabbed Chloe and pushed her face into his chest so that she didn't see. I almost wished I could have done that as I watched Darren's boot come down and the infected man's head exploded like a water balloon. Except it made a sickening sound of bone and cartilage snapping as blood and brain matter splattered all over the floor. Zoe gagged as Darren shook of his messy boot and Ethan gulped audibly as Chloe clung to his shirt.
I wasn't sure how I was supposed to react; my emotions were almost dulled as a result of the last couple of days. I think I was more disturbed by the way that Darren had taken no time to think about stomping the things' head and the fact that he seemed more concerned about the mess on his boot than what he just did. I was the first to recover,
"Come on, we can't stop."
I took the lead, stepping over the mess trying to avoid getting any of it on my own shoes. The other body remained still and from the condition of the corpse I had a feeling she wouldn't be getting up anytime soon. Her legs and arms were badly chewed up, muscle and tendons were exposed through the open wounds making it almost impossible for her to move properly if she ever woke up again.
I saw the word EXIT glowing and sighed in relief that Darren had been right about the door. I pushed on the latch and a loud siren went off indicating that we had opened the door. I squinted against the morning sun that momentarily blinded me. When I finally could fully open my eyes without the searing light forcing them closed I look upon a scene straight out of a horror movie.
The street was void of moving cars; all the ones on the road had been abandoned some with doors hanging wide open and blood stained windows. The police and emergency crews that were originally stationed outside the school had either left their post or worse. One of the tall buildings a few blocks away had huge flames shooting out of it. Helicopters were flying overhead and I could hear the sound of rapid gunfire coming from somewhere pretty close. I was no gun expert but I was sure that was the sound of assault rifles not just measly hand guns.
"Where do we go?" Zoe asked panicked, running her hand through her hair violently.
We all spun around looking for answers. I suddenly remembered mine and Zoe's joking banter about weapons and as much as it was meant for taking our minds off everything that it was also true. We needed weapons of some kind and we needed them now. My mind ran through the possible stores that would have anything like that.
"You remember that outdoor sports store we passed on our way back from Main Street the other night?" I asked Zoe.
She nodded, "Weapons?"
"That's what I was thinking."
"So you're suggesting we run further into the city instead of away from it?" Darren said skeptically.
"Well how else do you suggest we find any weapons?" I asked sharply, the stress starting to get to me.
"Along the way, out of the city," Darren said as if it was a sure fire plan.
"There is no guarantee we will find something along the way," Zoe reasoned.
"There's no guarantee we will find anything at that store. For all we know it's already been looted and worse we'd be trapped in the thick of it," Darren said throwing his arms in the air.
As much as he was being a dick about it, Darren was right. But there were no guarantees for any plan at the moment.
"He's right; we can't head further into the city. There will probably be more sick people congregatin' there," Ethan's southern accent became more pronounced, "There's a huntin' store further outside the city limits, I doubt it's been touched."
"Ok, well how do you suggest we get there?" I asked calmly.
Before Ethan could answer, Chloe piped up, "We brought Ethan's truck."
"Where are you parked?" Darren asked Ethan.
"The parkade behind the school," He said, his mouth in a grim line.
"We would have to run around to the back and hop the fence to get there," Zoe said, looking off into the direction of the parkade.
"We don't have any other choice," Darren sighed.
"Alright let's go then," Zoe said, taking a step towards the back of the school.
"One sec," Ethan said, letting go of Chloe's hand.
He ran to the car that had been abandoned on the sidewalk and pulled open the driver's side door and hit the latch to pop the trunk. He ran to the back and rummaged through the trunk pulling out a tire iron.
"We need some sort of weapon," He said as he ran back to us, testing the weight of the iron in his grip.
Chloe latched her little hand back on to Ethan's and we started heading around the school.
A/N:
"Hey baby, looking for a good time?" a husky voice calls out.
You point to yourself, confused.
"All you gotta do baby, is hit that lovely star at the bottom," the voice was all your fantasies wrapped into one husky come on, "you know you wanna."
Before you knew what was happening, your mouse found itself hovering over the pale, outlined figure of a star. With a click, it filled in with an enticing, dark yellow. Satisfied, you moved onto the next chapter.