"There's been a lot of stress lately. We've had nine students sadly die. But we aren't going to let their deaths bring us down. We have to keep fighting. So that's why I've decided to open up the building. I will allow you to walk around the school grounds. But we will need to assign people jobs. We need guards, lookouts. The year level leaders will assign them, they can assign themselves as well. Talk you your year level leader of you would like to become a lookout. Only five per year level. The doors will open in thirty minutes" Mr. Harris said.
Alleigh and Kiara both looked at me. I knew they wanted to be lookout.
"You guys want to be lookout?" I asked.
"Yeah. We would like that" Kiara said.
"Ok. I was thinking of assigning myself as well. I would rather be out there on the fence rather then in here" I said.
"So you need two more people" Alleigh said.
"Who ever asks first I'll give it to them" I said.
I saw a few people come up to me. About seven. I looked at all of them. I couldn't decide. So I just picked them out randomly. I pointed to two random year eight students. They both stepped forward. I didn't know their names.
"What are your names?" I asked.
"Xavier" the short one said who had lots of freckles and ginger hair.
"Tony" The taller one said who had glasses on and was Asian.
"Use five will be the lookouts. I guess we wait for instructions from Mr. Harris" I said.
All the year eights who volunteered walked away as us five stayed together. Mr. Harris walked around to each year level. He got to us last.
"I want you guys to watch the back fence where the oval is. It's pretty simple, just walk back and forth and if you see something call it out. Got it?" Mr. Harris said.
We all nodded as Mr. Harris walked over to the doors to the building.
"All lookouts with me! We will do a sweep of the school! Once it's clear everyone can come out" Mr. Harris said.
It felt weird that he got us to check if it was safe. We were only teenagers while he's an adult. He stayed inside while we all walked out of the building. We were finally outside.
Xavier, Tony, Alleigh, Kiara and I all went to look around our section of the school, which is at the back fence next to the oval. Once we got there we walked up and down looking for any one who had the virus. We didn't find anything.
After about twenty minutes we all came together. None of us found anything so we made our way back to the main building where we stayed.
We walked in with the other year level leaders as Mr. Harris closed the door behind us all. We all stood together.
"We found nothing by the carparks. It's safe there" Jesse Hays the year twelve leader said.
"The west side is clear" Rowan Lewis the year eleven leader said.
"The school grounds are clear, there's nothing" Jasmine Bridgers the year ten leader said.
"We saw two of them out the front of the school. They are on the other side of the fence though" Jia Thitinun the year nine leader said.
"There's no sign of anything at the back of the school" I said.
Mr. Harris nodded. He walked towards the doors walking past us. He grabbed the handles and pulled them open.
"Keep away from the fences! If you are caught anywhere near the fences you will come back in straight away. Enjoy the sunlight" Mr. Harris said stepping out of the way.
All the students quickly rushed through the door as there was a huge traffic jam. Everyone was pushing and shoving like normal trying to get through. I stood with Alleigh and Kiara to the side as we waited for everyone to get out.
Once everyone rushed out us three slowly walked outside. Instantly I could feel the could breeze blow past my face and through my head. I closed my eyes and listened to the wind.
"Come on. We've gotta get to our lookout" Alleigh said.
I opened my eyes and we all walked to the back fence. Xavier and Tony were already there taking their positions. We all stood at different spots. Every now and then we had to move up and down the fence and swap spots.
I find it weird how Mr. Harris is making the students do this. First it was us checking to see if it was safe now it's us as lookouts. No adults were put on as lookouts. It's like Mr. Harris doesn't even care about us. But I'm sure he does. He's done a lot for us this far. Why would he just give up on that? Why would he give up on us? He wouldn't.
We were on lookout for hours walking up and down constantly. Ms. Haywood would bring us food and water every now and then and I stopped to talk to Alleigh and Kiara a few times. It was boring, but it had to be done, for all of our safety.
I stood still and I saw a man limping down the oval. He wasn't really heading in a direction. He was just kind of walking around. I grabbed the bars on the fence and watched him. He must have the virus. I need to come up with a better name for them. Infected? Limpers? The Dead? Eaters? Bitters? Walkers, that's it. It's simple and easy.
"Agrhh" I heard someone scream from the other side of the school.
I looked over and I saw a couple of pidgins fly away from the scream and flew over my head.
"Not again" I said.
Everyone ran over quickly. When I got there I saw Jesse Hays the year twelve leader on the ground. He was rolling around in pain. I noticed that he was bitten on his lower right arm, near his wrist. I saw Mr. Harris running over with a large knife. He quickly took his belt off of his pants and tied it around Jesse's upper arm. I saw one of Jesse's friend's walk up to Mr. Harris.
"What are you doing! Let go of him!" The student yelled.
"I'm trying to save his life!" Mr. Harris yelled.
Jesse's friend stepped backwards watching from afar. I saw Mr. Harris reach to the ground. He put his arm up and I saw a knife. Jesse was screaming in pain the whole time as Mr. Harris told him to be quiet. Mr. Harris put the knife onto Jesse's arm. He started to cut. He was trying to cut his arm off.
Jesse's friend ran over to Mr. Harris to try to stop him but Mr. Harris our his other arm out and pushed him away. Jesse started screaming even louder. He was in a lot of pain. I could see it in his face. Mr. Harris got to Jesse's. He couldn't cut through it. Mr. Harris picked up Jesse's wrist and stomped on the area he cut. With a loud snap Jesse's arm broke as he passed out. Mr. Harris pulled off his arm and threw it away.
"Someone help me stop the bleeding!" Mr. Harris yelled as Ms. Haywood ran over.
They picked him up and took him away. As he was taken away all I could hear was people crying from both seeing someone's arm getting chopped off or because they were friends with Jesse. I could see Jesse's blood stained on the grass.
We all stood in shock. It was quite, for one of the first times. Everyone normally is screaming and running down the hallways. But now, at this moment, everyone was quiet. They were all looking at the green grass blowing in the breeze. They all looked scared.
I walked backwards and slowly turned around. I quickly walked away. As I was walking away I could hear Alleigh and Kiara calling out for me to come back. I walked straight to the Home Economics room. I walked up the small ramp up to the two door entrance. I walked into the room and I went straight for the knife cupboard. I grabbed a kitchen knife and I walked straight back out. I headed to the fence and I walked up and down the fence until I saw blood on the ground.
Next to the blood trying to get through the fence was the one who bit Jesse. I stood still looking into it's dead grey eyes. That's right. It's not a he or a her anymore. It's a it. They aren't who they were. The virus changed them. Killed them.
I held the kitchen knife tightly in my right hand as I went to stab it. I managed to stab it's shoulder. I pulled he knife out and stabbed it in its heart. I stabbed it again in the heart, and again and again and again, but it kept going. It didn't care. It wasn't dying. Is it invisible? I stabbed it's stomach as it's guys poured out. I quickly looked away. It stunk. I felt like I was about to throw up. I ran to the closet bin and I threw up. I wiped my mouth and walked back to the fence.
I looked back into its eyes. I quickly stabbed it again. I stabbed it right into its head. The knife got stuck in its skull. I pushed as hard as I could as I felt the blade go through it's skull into its brain. It stopped moaning and groaning. It started to lean against the fence. I let go of the knife as it slowly slid down the fence leaving a trail of blood. I stood back and thought about what I just did. Maybe they only go down if they were stabbed in the brain.
"Sam?" I heard someone call out behind me.
I turned around and I saw Alleigh and Kiara Walking towards me. They were looking at me with a shocked face. They were eyeing me up and down. I looked down at my clothes and I saw that I had blood all over me. All over my hands, face clothes and legs. I didn't even notice.
"What happened? Are you ok?" Kiara asked.
"I took out the Walker that bit Jesse" I said stepping to the side to show the Walker on the other side of the fence.
"Walker?" Kiara asked.
"Did it bite you?" Alleigh asked.
"No. I'm fine. I found out something" I said.
"You should get cleaned up" Alleigh said not letting me talk.
"What's a Walker?" Kiara asked.
"It's a name I came up with for the dead" I said as Kiara nodded.
Alleigh handed me a small towel she had in her pocket. I wiped my face with it and I could see all the blood on the towel.
"Here let me" Alleigh said.
She took the towel and cleaned my face. She wiped all the blood off of my face.
"Thank you" I said.
We all walked back to the main building. I wanted to check in on Jesse. We didn't walk past any students because they were all scared to come outside now. They would rather stay indoors.
The three of us walked inside and walked down the quiet and dark hallway. We made it to the nurses office where we thought they had taken him. We walked inside slowly and I saw all the teachers standing around Jesse with blood all over the ground in a large puddle. Mr. Harris saw us coming in.
"Get out! You aren't allowed in here!" Mr. Harris yelled.
We all quickly got out and we stayed around the door to hear the news. Ms. Haywood walked out. She looked sad.
"Is he ok?" I asked.
"He has past. He died from blood loss" Ms. Haywood said.
I saw Mr. Harris barge out of the Nurses office. He looked angry. He was talking to himself. Something about reinforcing the fences. We watched him as he angrily walked down the hallway.
"I'm sorry. We are gonna have to put the body into the room" Ms. Haywood said.
"There's an easier way. I found out how we can take down Walkers, uh the dead I mean. They go down if you damage the brain. We can try it on him" I suggested.
"So you expect us to put a knife through his head?" Ms. Haywood said obviously not wanting to do it.
I saw Mr. Harris coming back down the hallway. He stopped next to us and listened to our conversation.
"What's going on?" Mr. Harris asked.
"I found out that if you damage the brain the dead don't come back" I said.
Mr. Harris walked back inside the nurses office. A couple minutes later he came back out with blood all over his hands.
"I guess we will find out" Mr. Harris said walking away again.