Death's Little Angels

by Sylver Belle Garcia

  Tarynn began praying loudly. Everyone’s sight in the classroom adjusted to the dimness as they focused in on her.

  “And in these days man shall seek death, and shall not find it. Man will want to die, and death shall flee from him. Revelation 9:6,” Tarynn Hill spoke strongly as she held her bible firmly to her bosom. Royal Carter, the jock, did not challenge Tarynn this time. No one did. All eyes in the class fell on her, as the scripture she quoted sunk in.

  Mrs. Westwood took the initiative to break the news to the class.

  “We have a problem,” Mrs. Westwood broke the silence. “ I do not know how serious the situation is outside but everything is under control,” she said with her mouth but her eyes told another story. “We are going to—“

  A loud crash at the door startled the students including the teachers as a girl slammed her head continuously into the classroom door from the outside. She never turned the knob to get in but kept smashing her head into the door like a hammer. The left side of her head was mangled and the facial skin was jagged. The upper torso was drenched in congealed blood. The girl’s skin was ashen and she looked deathly sick. Her straight brown hair was matted to her forehead and stuck in the dry sticky blood on her face. The part of the pupil that could be seen was dilated with a slight white haze like a person with cataracts. Her eyes were rolled upwards as if she were looking into her own skull. It looked as if the girl had a grand mal seizure and her eyes got stuck in that position. There was a thick dark substance that dribbled from her mouth that resembled old blood and bile.

  The student rammed into the door yet again with a sound resonating like a drum. She appeared to be oblivious to what was going on around her. She let out a gurgling, hoarse moan as she continued to pound at the door with her head.

  “Oh my God! That is Anna Pearson!” Sue Ellen cried. “What happened to her freaking face?”

  Anna Pearson was an all around girl who got along with everybody. She was the quiet type of student. The one everybody went to with his or her boy drama. She was an office worker and voted Class Favorite her seventh grade year. The site of Anna terrified everyone. There was no soul or life in her eyes. She looked like a crazed maniac. More like possessed.

  Sue Ellen jumped up and ran towards Mater. She grabbed her best friend’s hand and hightailed it to the back of the classroom. The other students followed pursuit, immediately jumping out of their desks yelling and pushing as they tried to make their way to the back of the classroom as well. The pupils looked like a mad herd of cattle as they each tried to safely secure their spots.

  Mrs. Westwood ran to the door to make sure it was secure. The sight of her student, Anna Pearson, brought dread to her heart. Mrs. Westwood slowly backed up from the door into a corner as she stared at the disfigured body of the unsightly child.

  More students with mutilated, marred faces, and bodies joined Anna in battering the door like rams. The hoarse gurgling moans became louder as more students rammed the door. Under the weight of the mangled bodies on the other side of the door, parts of the ten by twelve window of the classroom door shattered all over the floor.

  Anna shoved her head in through what was left of the glass in the broken window. Her face got caught in some of the jagged glass and protruded into her eyeball causing it to pop out on the floor. The rest of the glass ripped into her face as she moved in and out. The glass cut from the entrance of her mouth all the way to the back of her neck. Anna puckered what was left of her nose into the air like she was sniffing the finest of fresh baked bread. She extended her abnormally mutilated jaw and continued to moan gnashing her teeth.

  The high pitch cries continued from with inside the classroom as the intruders from the outside flailed their dark bloody arms and hands through the open space in the door. One student’s arm, that was already severed, fell off onto the floor. Mrs. Westwood screamed the loudest as the detached limb continued to wriggle around on the floor.

  “Please wake me up! Please wake me up! Please me wake up!” Mater chanted. Sue Ellen grabbed Mater’s hand in disbelief and continued to scream until she could not anymore. It had gotten to a point to where they both could no longer yell because they had almost lost their voice.

  Drew jostled his way out of the crowd of classmates in an effort to make it towards the door. He knew it was only a matter of time before the unwanted guest entered their domain. The weight of the mutilated figures on the other side of the door threatened to fall in. Before he grabbed a desk, he pulled his pocketknife, which was twelve inches long and serrated. He took the sharp knife from his back pocket and swung at the flailing arms and gnashing mouths. He kicked the convulsing arm sending it flying into the wall. It was hard work but he pushed two desks with all his strength towards the door to barricade them in. The weight from the intruders on the other side caused the hinges from the door to become ajar.

  “Hey! Hey! Somebody help me! Bring more desk!” Drew yelled as he leaned on the desk that he brought to prevent the door from caving in.

  With each bump the door opened causing the desks to slide propelling Drew slightly forward. He fought back by pressing the desk forward holding them there with all his strength.

  “We are all going to die, If I don’t get more desk!” Drew yelled to the top of his lungs.

  Sue Ellen and Mater snapped out of their frightened daze and ran towards Drew grabbing desk and pushed them along the way.

  “Help them!” Tarynn shouted at Royal Carter, the snobby boy who had insulted her earlier. Royal stood there to frightened to move, his big blue eyes frozen in terror.

  More students including Tarynn Hill, Cookie Rogers, and Josefina Torrez assisted Drew in stacking desk against the door to prevent the deathly ill looking students from getting in.

  SNAP!

  All of sudden, Josefina started to scream. Her long hair got caught by one of the bloody flailing fingers. The grisly hand had inhuman strength fueled by unyielding hunger as it pulled Josefina’s body into the desk causing the barricade to tumble, splitting in two.

  “Ayudame! Ayudame!” Josefina cried.

  “What is she saying?” Royal whined from the back of the room. He was crouched, hiding, behind some of the female students.

  “You can’t see?” Drew Jacks yelled as he ran to Josefina’s aid, “they have her hair! Help us!”

  No one in the classroom moved to assist Josefina but Drew and Mrs. Kissing. Everyone was in total shock. Mrs. Kissing directed Mrs. Westwood to move the students towards the back of the classroom opposite the door.

  Drew, with the assistance of Mrs. Kissing, grabbed onto Josefina’s waist and pulled her towards them with all the energy they could muster up. The deathly ill looking students from outside of the door had powerful brute force. Drew went into a tug a war with Josefina as each time he would make leeway of securing her they would slowly pull her back towards the door. Sue Ellen fought her way to the door’s window by swatting, with a schoolbook, at the infested bloody hands that were entangled in Josefina’s hair. Mater worked diligently at trying to rid the diseased hands from the doomed soul’s head. Josefina yelped louder as she felt her jet-black silky strands rip from her scalp.

  “Grab my knife, I put it back in my back pocket!” Drew directed at Mater.

  Mater fumbled at first from nervousness but dashed into Drew’s back pocket without delay to retrieve his knife. Drew took the knife and sliced at the hands that grasped Josefina’s hair expecting the brutal assault to stop. However, it did not. The mangled bloody hands and arms continued unaffected by the deep gashes that Drew inflicted upon them with his blade. The hands viciously clawed at their food source. Drew, to his horror, began to cut at Josefina’s hair in a desperate effort to free her. But it was too late. A longer arm broke through the window and vigorously pulled Josefina to the door like a slingshot. Josefina made a loud thud as her body slammed into the door at an amazing speed.

  Josefina let free an agonizing high pitch cry that overpowered all of the other cries in th
e classroom. The ear splitting wails that Josefina let escape from the depth of her being made the hairs on the back of Drew’s neck stand at attention. The student who snatched Josefina up began chomping on her arm. By the looks of his face, Drew could not decipher who it was. The left side of the student’s entire face was missing with the exception of his teeth. His skin was ashen and mottled. His lips were bluish black. His eyes were rolled up into the top of his skull and the sockets trickled dark, thick, gooey blood. Black veins ran freely through his once vibrant honey brown skin. Blood sprayed out of Josefina’s limb as her screams drowned out the moans of the undead.

  Drew, to his astonishment, discovered that it was Bolton Black snacking on Josefina’s arm. Bolton was the all-star running back on the football team. He went back and forth between dating Cookie and Josefina. Josefina was always Bolton’s first pick even now as he feasted on Josefina’s flesh. Sue Ellen took a textbook and jabbed into the only side that was left of Bolton face. She noticed a large gash in Bolton’s neck. It was a wound so severe that he should not have survived it.

  Drew took his knife and quickly stabbed Bolton in the one good eye that was left. Drew quartered his squirrels after cleaning them so he knew how to hunt and attack the vital organs. He noticed that Bolton continued to gnash his teeth and chomped down once again on Josefina arm.

  What?

  Drew stood back perplexed that Bolton did not go down. He ran up again to the soulless creature and this time landed the blow in the center of Bolton’s forehead. Bolton dropped like a sack of potatoes.

  “YES!” Drew shouted as he continued to cut at the wildly flailing arms. Ever so often he would land a vital blow to the noggin of the undead with his knife causing them to drop instantly to the floor. Sue Ellen and Mater pulled the now injured Josefina back to safety in the middle of the classroom.

  At a point Drew grew tired of fighting the endless bodies that flocked to the door. He worked diligently to stack the desks back up against the door against the wild fluttering arms. Mrs. Kissing, Tarynn, and Cookie assisted Drew in blocking the door again. Drew grabbed the teacher’s desk and pushed it in front of the student desks to help secure the barrier. The students who sought refuge in the back of the classroom was flooded the room with screams and pleas to go home.

  “Shhh! Shhh!” Mrs. Kissing said in effort to calm the class down over the loud moans. “They can hear us. The noise! It attracts them to us. Stop screaming, we must be quiet!”

  The students were in hysterics and the yelling continued along with hoarse gurgled moans outside the door. Sue Ellen motioned for Karley, the rail thin blonde, to come and assist with Josefina. Sue Ellen dashed towards the light switch and flickered it off and on until the students in the class settled down. The gurgled moans continued outside the door as Mrs. Kissing made her way to the front of the makeshift barricade. She waved her hands up and down like she was trying put out a fire.

  “Please be quiet,” Mrs. Kissing whispered in a hushed shaky voice, “they are attracted to sound. Shhh…”

  The students all became silent one by one as they witnessed in horror of what used to be some of their classmates bang against the other side of the door. Sue Ellen stopped flickering the lights as she glanced down at Mater and Karley attending to Josefina’s wounded arm. The students were all huddled in one corner of the room shivering. Some were silently tearful while others stared at the door in fright. Mrs. Kissing walked over to Mrs. Westwood who was backed up against the wall in a defensive position.

  “Do you believe me now?” Mrs. Kissing asked.

  Mrs. Westwood opened her lips to say something but nothing came out. She nodded her head instead and pointed to the floor where there was a puddle of yellow liquid beneath her feet.

  “Did your water break?”

  Mrs. Westwood shook her head no.

  “Where is your cell phone?” Mrs. Kissing asked.

  Mrs. Westwood pointed towards her desk that was securing the makeshift barricade. Mrs. Kissing sprinted for the cell phone.

  “What is your password?”

  “Err…. One, zero, two, one. I, I mean one, zero, three, one!” Mrs. Westwood shouted in a state of confusion.

  Sue Ellen glanced up at the two teachers conversing while attending to Josefina. Josefina began chattering her teeth as if she was cold or had fever. Sue Ellen grasped the Spanish beauty’s injured arm. The devastation that the human mouth could inflict was tremendous. Drew walked over to Josefina and studied the bite. Josefina’s arm was severed to the bone. He shook his head. He knew that Josefina would bleed to death if she did not get medical attention and soon. Sue Ellen frowned at Drew; she could feel that Josefina was running a high fever. Drew noticed that tears fell slowly from Sue Ellen’s eyes, something that Sue Ellen never did.

  Drew walked back over towards Mrs. Kissing. At the moment, she seemed to be the only sane person in the classroom. He noticed that Mrs. Kissing had retrieved Mrs. Westwood’s cell phone. He watched as her hands fumbled so much that she nearly dropped the phone a couple of times.

  Mrs. Kissing dialed 911. Busy. She tried again. Busy. Mrs. Kissing walked over to Mrs. Westwood with a grave look on her face. She glanced back at the students huddled over Josefina.

  “Do you have internet access on your phone?” Mrs. Kissing asked as she gave Mrs. Westwood her cell phone. Mrs. Westwood nodded her head. She was in shock. “Go to the local news station’s website. NBC or CBS. Maybe it can give us some insight on what’s going on out there.”

  Mrs. Westwood nervously went to the local website as instructed by Mrs. Kissing. She was hit by news that was unimaginable beyond all of mankind’s existence. Mrs. Westwood dropped her phone and ran to a corner to vomit.

  “What did it say?” Mrs. Kissing asked as Mrs. Westwood regurgitated her entire breakfast up.

  Before Mrs. Kissing could retrieve Mrs. Westwood’s phone off of the floor, Mater screamed pointing at the classroom window. Drew looked at Mater and then followed her shaking finger that directed him to the window that displayed the outside world. To his dismay, his day could not get any better. Out in the midst of the brewing storm, a child no more than thirteen-years-old was drooling thick black blood and was missing both upper limbs. The child shuffled and moaned loudly. The student was unaware of the harsh weather conditions that surrounded her. Everybody in the class moved closer to the classroom window as they noticed the child snapping her teeth at something on the ground.

  “Oh my God!! It’s McKenzie Ward!! Sue Ellen shrieked as she began to loudly scream.

  Drew and the students looked on in horror as they noticed McKenzie stumble with her feet as if she were trying to pick up something from below. What they saw next was sheer terror beyond belief. McKenzie shuffled as she kicked a severed head… The decapitated head of Dr. Bradford, the principal.

  Chapter 3

  Zombie Zombie go away

  For I want to live another day

  Screams erupted from inside the classroom once again as everyone watched in dismay at what took place. McKenzie’s disfigured, mangled body finally accomplished its task as she fell over and slithered to the severed head devouring it. Gasps and shrieks erupted throughout the class as the inhabitants witnessed the horrific events happen in front of their very own eyes.

  “Don’t look outside the window!” Mrs. Westwood shouted. She had walked back from her corner to see what all the commotion was about. Mrs. Westwood bowed her head and half shielded her eyes as she tried to removed everyone from the gruesome scene unfolding in front of them.

  Drew tried to put it all together. Now, he knew why Mrs. Westwood could never get a hold of the front office. Dr. Bradford was dead. In the midst of the commotion, Mrs. Westwood had dropped her cell phone. Drew picked it up and saw the page that had frightened her. The words were there in bold print.

  ZOMBIES!

  Drew quickly put the phone back down after skim reading the contents page.

  This cannot be happening. This only happens in mo
vies but movies always have some truth to it, Drew thought. We are all going to die in this classroom like Mrs. Kissing said if we don’t get out of here. Drew knew that after browsing the website’s page that their chance of survival was slim to none especially if they stayed inside of the classroom. They were all like pigs waiting to be slaughtered.

  Drew took a glimpse towards the door where the thrashing, severed hands tried to make its way through the blockade. Drew then glanced back out the window where his former classmate, McKenzie, was eating his principal’s remains. Or was it truly his classmate? It was not according to the World Wide Web. Drew figured it was time to say something. There was always some truth to the movies and the time had finally come to speak out. He was going to warn Mrs. Kissing, Mrs. Westwood, and his classmates before it was too late of what was really going on out there.

  “There is something that I have to say,” Mrs. Westwood tried to say over the loud racket. The tense muscles in Drew’s neck relaxed. He did not have to break the news.

  Mrs. Kissing walked back from the window and helped shush the students.

  “I found out what is causing this madness,” Mrs. Westwood pointed towards the door, “Not too much is known about it right now but those children… those things out there are called Eaters. It’s on my cell—“

  Mrs. Westwood was cutoff by the high pitch shrill that erupted from Josefina. Sue Ellen and Mater both cradled Josefina’s convulsing body.

  “I think she has stopped breathing! There is thick gunky stuff coming out of her mouth!” Sue Ellen yelled shaking Josefina frantically.

  “Don’t shake her!” Mrs. Kissing instructed. “You girls, get back!”