Roland could see that one of her eye’s was missing. It looked like it had been ripped out. You could see the bloodvessels hanging out of the socket. Roland couldn’t stand it any longer. That was all that he needed to see to push him over the edge. He clutched at the window once more and gave it a hard push.
Ian waited several hours for everyone to be at the dinner downstairs. Even the guys guarding the front door went. It didn’t seem fair to not invite them too. They needed a good meal. Besides, there had been no action at the front door since Ian had come through. So, there was no reason to believe that there would be a disturbance now. It was quiet outside.
Ian tip-toed through the upper level halls. He was going to that office that would have a good view of the of the back of the school. The only person that Ian ran into on his way to the office was Jerry the pyrotechnics guy. He didn’t seem to interested in where Ian was going. Jerry was rushing passed him to get to the bathroom. It looked like his dinner hadn’t agreed with him.
Finally, Ian stood outside the door to the office he thought would give him the best view of the back of the school. He took a look around and saw that no one was coming his way. He opened the duffel back and pulled out the cro-bar. He slid the thin metal end into the wedge of the door. He pulled back on the opposite end as hard as he could. The door finally made a loud pop and it cracked open. It made a little more noise than Ian had hoped for. He quickly grabbed his bag and the cro-bar and stepped inside the office and shut the door as best he could. It wouldn’t latch because he ripped through the door. Ian set his bag down and walked over to the closest window. The room was dark so it made it easy to see out them.
Ian saw a road behind the school. From what he could see it went back a ways and ended with a gate. He could make something out that looked like a building too. And possible what looked like stables too. As Ian was looking at the building, he noticed a truck speed down the road. It wasn’t someone in their group. They weren’t missing anyone. He watched as it parked in front of the back of the school. A man jumps out and grabs a ladder.
‘Does he think he is getting inside here with that?’ Ian asked out loud.
He pressed against the window trying to see what was going on down there better. The guy was crawling up the stairs. One of the undead had been tailing him. She was following him up the ladder. Ian saw that the man was coming up for his window.
Ian began to panic. What would the man do? He wouldn’t break the glass would he? If he did manage to break it, the undead would find a way to get in. Even if they knocked down the ladder. Ian did the only thing that he knew that he could do.
Ian unlocked the window and proceeded to pull the man through. He saw the man’s face as the window slid open. He was very surprised, so much that he almost fell off of the ladder. The man was not expecting to see Ian coming through the window to get him.
Roland shouted. ‘Who was this guy? And how the hell did he get through those locks?’
He definitely underestimated him. He’d already gotten through the front door. He stared into the man’s eyes and grabbed hold of his arm. But, Roland felt something grab his leg harder. It was that woman again. She pulled hard on it. He gave his leg a great tug and felt her bite him on the ankle. He wasn’t sure if she got the skin or not. It was through his socks. So, he might be alright.
Ian pulled the man into the window. He fell to the floor with a loud thud. Ian sat up immediately and slid the window shut, just as the undead made it to the window. Her eyes had turned an ominious yellow color. And redness engulfed her iris and around the cornea as well. She was changing further into the undead. She scratched at the window freakishly staring at Ian and the other man. Her teeth were exposed as if she were hissing at the two of them. She had blood trickaling down her mouth and face.
Ian turned to the man. He was holding up the cro-bar that Ian had stashed in his bag on the floor.
‘Woah, what do you think you are going to do with that?’ Ian asked. He backed up towards the window. Suddenly, the undead outside didn’t seem so scary.
‘What are you doing in my school?’ Roland proclaimed. He quickly held up the cro-bar.
‘How did you get passed the security?’ He asked. He edged the cro-bar closer to Ian.
‘I… didn’t.’ Ian said. He held up his hands. He didn’t want to die like this..
‘We work with a movie company. We are making a movie in the area and we happened to have a locksmith with us…Who also happens to be a pyrotechnic. He has interesting ways of opening doors. And is pretty much a genius.’ Ian blerted out.
His legs had begun to shake lightly. He had nothing on him to defend himself.
‘Why are you here then? You didn’t get permission from the school board to film here!’ Roland replied. He swung the bar at him slightly.
‘No, you’ve got it all wrong!’ Ian cried.
‘You haven’t witnessed those things out there. You know?... the woman downstairs who just chased you up a ladder two and a half stories high?’ Ian asked the man. He found it hard to believe that he didn’t know. He was rushing from that road in the back of the school. Surely he ran into some of the undead.
‘I’ve seen them. I didn’t know how wide spread it was.’ Roland said.
He perked up and held the cro-bar firm.
‘You still broke into a school and I am responisble for it. You can’t go just doing things like that!’ Roland cried.
‘I am not looking for trouble. We just wanted to be safe. Someone in our group suggested the school, so we came here.’
Ian was about to lose it. He didn’t want to die being blugeoned to death by a crow-bar.
‘Take me to your leader. Who is that by the way?’ Roland asked Ian.
‘His name is Jeremy.’ Ian said as the man grabbed him by the neck and pushed him forward.
He hit the door with his face first. It nearly knocked him out. Ian led the man downstairs to where everyone was eating at the feast.
‘Where is everyone? I thought you said you came with a group?’ He asked. He held the cro-bar closer to his face as he squeezed on his neck.
‘They are all in the cafeteria eating. We finished rationing the food earlier today and wanted to reward everyone with a nice hot meal. They have been through a lot just to make it here.’ Ian expressd to Roland.
Ian knew that the man who came through the window probably was just doing this to protect his school. But, who was he really?
‘So, who are you?’ Ian asked him. He slowed down drastically as he questioned the man.
‘I’m the maintenaince man,’ the man grunted, ’what does it matter who I am? I work for the district and no one is supposed to be in here regardless of what’s going on out there.’ Roland spat out at him.
His blood was boiling. This guy actually had the nerve?
‘Oh, ok. Well, Don’t be mad but, I broke into your closet for supplies. Everything is there accept for a few useless things. I didn’t steal anything. It was to make a repair to a door in the school.’ Ian spoke.
His mouth had run dry. The man was holding his neck tightly out in front of him. Which gave him little room to swallow. Ian needed water badly.
‘Shutup!’ Roland yelled at Ian.
He didn’t have time for this man’s apologies. He needed to get these people out of here. Or it will most certainly mean the termination of his job. And he cannot have that. Roland suddenly stopped for a moment. His leg was burning where the woman bit into his leg. He hadn’t taken a moment to check on that just yet.
‘Hang on!’ Roland grunted at Ian.
He let go of his neck and fumbled with something near his shoe. Ian took this chance to inch his way closer to the cafeteria’s double doors. They were only 20 feet away. If he could make it, he could warn the others of this crazy man’s arrival. And possibly subdue him.
‘What do you think you are doing?’ Roland shouted at him.
‘Nothing, I’m nothing…’ Ian said. He stopped dead in his tracks
.
He watched as the man stood up and pressed Ian in the back of the head with the bar.
‘Go.’ The man said.
He pressed the bar forward and forced Ian to move to the doors. He pushed them open slowly. He hoped it would give the others time to see him coming.
‘Alright! I want everybody on the floor now!’ Roland yelled.
He pushed Ian into the room and headed for the front of the lunch room.
‘Where is Jeremy?’ Roland asked.
Many of the people in the cafeteria were shocked to hear that this stranger knew his name. Ian watched as Jeremy stood up hesitantly.
‘I’m right here.’ Jeremy said lightly. He didn’t want to make himself known.
You could tell in his demeanor that he wanted to stay well hidden. But, he had to live up to what the group needed. And thus, mustered up the courage.
‘Is there something I can help you with?’ Jeremy asked.
‘He is here on business with the school. He wants us to leave because we aren’t authorized to be here.’ Ian blurted out before anyone had the chance to speak.
Roland elbowed Ian in the middle of his upper back hard. Everyone in the room could hear the cracking sound it made as it did. It sounded like he almost broke his shoulder blade. This man was unusually upset. His face had begun to turn a deep red color.
‘I told you to shut up! Didn’t I?’ Roland yelled.
He suddenly didn’t feel so good. He checked on the bite and it did break his skin. He had been bleeding for quite some time now. He didn’t think that a human could bite so hard. It felt as though Roland needed to throw up. His stomach was churning. He turned to the side and on the cafeteria floor, threw up. The consistency of the throw up seemed really red. Roland only had a few bowls of noodles and nothing was red in that. He tried to figure out what it could be as he cleaned his face and nose of the nasty slop.
‘Is that blood?’ Someone from the lunchroom asked.
You could see countless other people standing up and looking.
‘Is he infected?’ Someone else shouted through out the lunchroom.
After that was said the entire room jumped in uproar. They had gone this far thinking that they were safe. And now the infection was inside.
‘I got bit that’s all!’ The maintanence man cried at the people.
He had a perplexed look on his face. Everyone was staring at him like he had the plague.
‘What is it?’ He yelled at them all.
Ian backed away from him, by this time he had already let go of Ian. Everyone staring at him distracted him.
‘Your going to turn into one of them’ Ian told him. He backed even further away.
‘What do you mean?’ Roland spat at them. He wasn’t sure what they were talking about. They couldn’t possibly mean he would be turning into whatever was wrong with the people outside. Nothing was that aggressive that he knew of.
‘Those people out there are dead.’ Jeremy said. He pointed outside.
‘I know because I have seen them die and come back.’ It was true. Some of the men lost were roaming out there as we speak.
Roland seemed to be coming around to the idea. It was hard for him to focus because he was busy with the pain in his ankle. It was killing him. So, bad that he was throbbing. He had never experienced pain like this before. His body was beginning to get hot all over. He knew that human beings mouths were dirty…But, they couldn’t get him sick this fast. Theses things could take time.
‘So, what do I do then?’ Roland asked. The fear was beginning to set in. Roland went from being a menace to hardly a threat at all.
‘So far, we don’t know what we can do. There haven’t been any updates that we know of on the news.’
Ian cleared his throat and looked at Jeremy. He had already wanted to tell the group about the other video’s. Just didn’t know there would be a pshyco-janitor coming in to try and kill him. So, he assumed he wouldn’t have time to tell them. But, now.. this was the perfect time.
‘That’s not entirely true you guys.’ Ian stared at Jeremy. He seemed royally pissed that he was telling them. Especially now, with everything that was going on.
‘I found the media room. I went and and got on the internet. I found a few videos.’ Ian told the group. He saw that Roland sat down on a chair near by. No one seemed to see him as a threat at the moment. He seemed to be having some issues .
‘There were updates about the situtation out there. One of them being that this was the governments fault. They were doing some experimenting and it looks like it was us who did it.’ Ian paused. He wasn’t ready to tell them the next bit.
‘I also found something else out. And you might want to sit down.’ He told them. Jeremy’s face was red with anger.
‘The whitehouse has been compromised. We don’t think the government exist anymore.’
The group gasped in unison. They all were thinking about their futures at this very moment. How would they survive? Much less prosper with this going on? The government got taken down so easily..there must be a resistance? One man cried,’Why do you think it doesn’t exist?’
‘Because, our own boys are shooting anything in sight. It must have been an executive order from the President himself. They are killing innocent civilians along with the dead.
Roland collapsed onto the floor. He had sweat pouring from his skin. There was a considerable amount of blood coming from his ankle now. And he had begun to shake his body as if he were extremely cold. Sam walked rushed up to him and checked his vitals.
‘His heart is beating way above the normal average. He is going to have a heart attack at this rate!’ She said.
‘Somebody get me some cold water!’ Sam cried at the crowd of people standing around them. No one seemed to be making a move.
‘I said now!’ She screamed. Her voice was already getting horse.
‘This man is going to die. Do you want him to die right here with all of us?’ She asked.
The room started moving about again. It seemed that everyone understood what was at stake at this point. You could see several of the others running to the back of the cafeteria. They were fumbeling around with pots and water in the back.
Chapter Nine: Escape
‘We’ve got to move him upstairs into one of the offices or something. He is going to turn soon.’ Sam said.
She could see the yellow beginning to cross over his eyes and pupils. He had begun to bleed out of his ears as well. The group came in and pulled together to pick him the man up. They traveled through the halls and up the stairs. The man had begun to spit up a yellow substance profusedly. It was all over his body now and it smelled vile.
‘Try not to come in contact with his bile. We don’t know what turns them!’ Sam shouted at the people volunteering to move him.
Once she told them to be careful many of them adjusted their hands on his body.
Finally, they reached the upstairs offices. They found his keys on the inside of his pants and opened the furthest office from the classrooms. They did not want him close to the other people in the group when he turned into a monster. Sam had them dump the mans body into the office and shut and lock the door behind them. When they left him he was still breathing. Barely but, still breathing.
Sam saw the people who had helped tow the man upstairs going to change their clothing and take showers. The group wanted to take every precautionary measure that they could. Sam figured they weren’t only washing off potential germs and viruses, they were washing off the shame they felt in just throwing the man aside like they did. He would die in that room, alone. The worst way to die. Not to mention it must be painful what he was becoming. It was a slow and painful torture for anyone.
Sam stood behind the door of the office. You could hear the man inside grunting with pain. His voice was echoing through the halls. This could not be good for keeping cover from the undead outside. If anything it would attract more of them. And no one was sure of what the undead were comple
tely capable of. It wasn’t wise to test that. Especially, not in there current situation.
Same left the office area and headed back down to the cafeteria. The majority of the group was down here. And she wanted to update Ian and Jeremy about the man upstairs.
‘He is going to die up there soon. Don’t you think we need to put him out of his misery?’ Sam asked the pair of them.
She watched as they exchanged glances.
‘I mean we have to separate ourselves from them don’t we?’ Sam asked.
‘We have to do the right thing.’ She pleaded.
Ian nodded his head in agreement with Sam.
‘I agree. I think we should do it. We can go up there right now. I’ll bring my knife.’ He said.
Ian wasn’t happy to kill someone but, it was necessary for the survival of the group. And they all had the feeling that humans would be a rarity to see here in the next few months. If the undead didn’t handle that, the government would with the murdering of it’s own people. Ian reached into his pocket and grabbed the knife.
‘Let’s go.’ He said motioning to Sam.
He wouldn’t even bother asking if Jeremy wanted to go. You could tell from the look on his face, that he didn’t care if the man suffered or not. They walked up the stairs and ran into Missy.
‘Are you going up there with the stranger?’ She asked.
She had a pale of water and rags in each of her hands.
‘Yes we are.’ Sam said nodding at Missy.
‘I want to come to make him comfortable.’ Missy stated.
She was all ready to go up anyways. Sam looked from Missy to Ian. Ian didn’t look like he minded much. He knew how Missy could be the nurturer of the group. Even before any of this happened. She was always helping with first-aid problems on the set of the movie.
‘You’re going to have to be careful. We don’t know all of the ways this thing can be spread.’ Ian told her. He saw a smile spread over Missy’s face.
‘Come on lets go.’
Scarlet Memories (Book 1) Page 12
