They walked to the office area. You could still hear the man’s whimpers coming from behind the furthest office door. The three of them walked up to the door. Sam handed Ian the keys to the entire school.
‘He had these?’ Ian asked Sam.
This is what he needed all along. Jeremy wouldn’t be able to stop him from taking over. They were all getting tired of his dictatorship. They wanted to get out from underneath him.
‘Yeah, guess he was the Janitor and sole proprieter for the school.’
Ian felt bad for the guy. All he wanted to do was take care of the school. And in a bit of irony, he would die doing what he loved. Or seemed to be passionate about. Ian slipped the key into the door. It unlocked immediately and the group filed in. There wasn’t much that you could see in the darkness of the office. The lights were out. Ian reached for the light switch and felt something wet on the wall. It took him by surprise and he brought his hand back to his torso.
‘There’s something over here.’ Ian said to the girls.
His fear level was beginning to rise. He could also hear the heavy breathing of the girls in the room with him. They must be beside themselves. Ian felt on the wall once more. Finally, he reached the switch and flicked it on. Suddenly, light filled the room. All three of them were facing the wall with the light switch on it.
Immediately, the group could see blood smeared all across the walls. It’s deep rich red color staining the walls with hand prints everywhere. Upon seeing the walls, the girls screamed. Where was he ? Ian wondered. His heart was already picking up speed. Ian turned around the room and searched for the man. He wasn’t underneath the desk or chairs. He walked over to the window and pulled the curtain back. No, he wasn’t there either. The only other place he could be was the… Ian turned around suddenly. Missy let out a blood curdeling scream.
The man was hiding in the closet of the room. The last time that they saw him he wasn’t even able to sit up. Much less walk around. No one thought he would be able to get up and hide. Ian saw that the man had Missy by the shoulders and was leaning his mouth in to rip her flesh apart. Ian ran to Missy but, it was already too late. The man had sunk his teeth into her neck. Blood spewed all over the floor and all over Ian.
Sam had taken a step back and avoided the path of the blood streaming out of Missy’s neck. Her screaming got louder the deeper he sank his teeth into her.
‘Missy NO!’ Sam and Ian both yelled in unison.
Missy started to scream but her vocal cords were already being severed. You could hear her voice quickly disappearing. Ian looked down into his right hand. There he was holding his knife. Why couldn’t he just sink it into this man’s head? Was he that afraid that he couldn’t even save his friends life?
Ian pushed all of the bad thoughts from his mind. He sprung forward and jumped at the undead. It turned to Ian and let out a high pitched shriek. Ian held out the knife and aimed for the things head. The length of the knife was just long enough to allow Ian to peirce the man’s skull without touching him. So, the thing couldn’t sink it’s teeth into him. He fell on top of the man as he sank to the ground.
Suddenly, the door to the office opened and a member of the group walked in. It was a man named Paul.
‘What’s wrong I heard screaming?!’ Paul started to ask.
He didn’t even have time to see Missy leaping towards him. She had already turned into an undead. The bleeding from her wound on her neck had already stopped bleeding. But, you could see veins and ligaments hanging off of her shoulder. Her entire neck underneath her chin was skinned and nawed at. You could see her neck bone sticking out. Paul fell to the floor as Missy leaped onto him full force. She didn’t weigh much alive but, as an undead she gained strong force. She no longer seemed to have any primal instinct but to kill. And the perk of speed. She bit down into Paul’s arm and mauled it to pieces. Sam opened the door to the office and yelled at Ian to follow her. He was trapped behind Missy eating Paul. She jumped on him as soon as he came through the door.
What he needed was a gun. He couldn’t take her on as she was with a flimsy knife. He stashed it back inside his pocket. Ian mustered up his courage to push passed Missy as fast as he could. She didn’t even seem to notice him flying behind her. Ian met up with Sam and ran downstairs. They listened as the sounds of screams filled the halls upstairs. It seemed like one after the other was being attacked from the sounds they were hearing. They were never going to get out alive if they couldn’t figure out how to get to saftey. Ian grabbed the key from his pocket. It was the key to the computer room. It suddenly gave Ian an idea.
‘Follow me!’ He cried to Sam.
He ran down the hall. Soon they came to the multi-media room. He unlocked the door and pushed Sam inside before himself. Hopefully, one of the undead didn’t see them come inside. Or they would easily break down this door. Ian locked the door behind them and stepped back away into the middle of the room.
‘What are we going to do?’ Sam asked. She was trying to catch her breath.
‘I never knew they could change that fast.’ Ian said.
He was staring off at one of the computers on the long desk.
‘We literally have no chance out there. We need guns.’
Ian sank down into one of the chairs infront of him. He had to come up with a plan. And he woud have to do it soon. Once they found out they were hiding in this room, the undead would break that door down.
Susan rushed to find Jaime. She had heard the cries for help upstairs. The last time she left him, he was eating his food from the feast. Hopefully, he was still in the same place. Susan made her way to the classrooms. She could see people scattering about, running any and every way they could. You could see undead popping up all around her. Susan came to their classroom and opened the door. Thankfully, Jaime was still sitting on the floor munching on his meal.
‘Mom I heard them running around but, I didn’t want to move until you got here.’ Jaime said with a mouthful of beans and cornbread.
‘It’s good that you didn’t. I need you to get up and come with me.’ Susan told her son.
He didn’t question her at all. He stood up and filed in next to her. She walked up over to the paper cutter on the activity desk in the corner. She pulled up the arm of the blade and pressed her foot on the base of the paper cutter. She pulled as hard as she could on the arm. It began to bend slightly. Susan took a small break and jumped back at it. The screams were getting closer to the classroom and she didn’t have much time to waste.
The arm broke off sending Susan flying back a couple of feet. She raised the blade to the paper cutter above her head to examine it. It would make a fine weapon. And give her range as well. She wouldn’t have to get so close to the undead. She wraped a rag around the handle and reached for some duck tape that the teacher who belonged to this classroom had tucked away in his or her desk before the start of the summer. She found it and wrapped it around the hande and the rag. She would have more of a grip this way.
‘Come on Jaime. It’s time to go. Stick very close to me. And whatever you do, do not let those things touch you. Do you hear me?’ She asked Jaime.
She bent down and held his shoulders. She looked deep into her son’s eyes and kissed his sweet forehead.
‘If we get separated do not hesitate to run and hide. Those things out there won’t hesitate to hurt you. Ok?’ She asked him.
She watched as he nodded his head. Susan stood up and headed towards the door with Jaime following her. She had the make-shift blade hanging at her side. She peered out of the classroom door before exiting the room. Jaime fast behind her heels.
Jeremy was still in the Cafeteria. He heard all of the screams coming from the classrooms upstairs. Something had gone horribly wrong up there. He knew that he should have handled that idiot of a Janitor by himself. Ian probably got himself turned into one of those things. From the sounds of it. More than one of them were running around up there. Because of Ian’s stupidity, the whole group would
die. How could he have trusted that Ian could handle one lowly undead. That was just too much to ask of him. What a weak person.
Jeremy ran into the kitchen at the back of the lunch room. He was searching for a butcher knife and anything he could defend himself with. There wasn’t much left. It looked like a lot of the knives had been cleaned out by the group earlier in the day. There was however, a few left. It looked like a smaller turkey cutting knife. As long as it was sharp, it would do. Jeremy took the knife and pressed the blade against his thumb. It was sharp alright. He would use this to defend himself. Jeremy ran back into the main area of the cafeteria. He could see that Susan and Jaime had made it down from upstairs.
‘Have you seen Ian and Sam?’ He yelled across to Susan.
She turned to meet his glance.
‘No, I haven’t there are too many of them up there. We gotta figure something out and fast or we are all going to be joining the dead.’ She took a quick glance down at her son and returned it to Jeremy.
‘I know. We need to shut the cafeteria doors. Maybe we can hold them off.’ He told Susan.
The two of the quickly started dragging chairs to the double doors. Since you had to push the cafeteria doors inward to open them they could baracade themselves in. Shutting the double doors Jeremy, Susan and Jaime started pileing chairs up. They even took a few tables and pushed them up to the chairs too. They were a bit heavy so it would take the undead several minutes to get in.
‘That should hold them off for a few minutes.’ Jeremy said to Susan.
She didn’t look very impressed with what they had made as a baracade.
‘What are we going to do now?’ She asked him.
Her cheeks flushed a bright shade of red. You could see her chest heaving.
‘I…. don’t know.’ Jeremy said.
He looked away from her. For once in this whole situation, he didn’t have a clue what they could do. This must be the end…
As Jeremy thought this, he heard glass from the windows in the main lobby crash to the ground. His first response was that the undead had somehow managed to get in from outside. He ran to the double doors. There was barely room to see into the halls beyond them.
‘What’s going on out there?’ Susan asked him.
‘I can’t see a thing!’ Jeremy cried.
His pride was beginning to slowly shrink. He was no good to anyone right now. He moved a few chairs out of the to get a better view of the halls. So far he could only see darkness and shadows running up and down them.
Ian heard the glass falling to the ground. It was coming from the second floor windows. He wondered how the undead had managed to find a way up to the second floor. And how they managed to break bullet proof glass. He pressed his face up to the small square of glass that was cut into the wooden door that separated he and Sam from the monsters right out side the door. He couldn’t really make out much. It was pretty dark downstairs. Eventually, he managed to see something heading their way. From the way the person was walking it wasn’t an undead. They had a certain way that they carried themselves. No, from a closer look, Ian could see that it was someone from the military.
‘Sam!’ He whispered raising a hand and beckoning her to come take a look.
‘It’s a soldier. They are here. They are ordered to kill everyone. Including us!’ He told sam. He watched as the horror hit her. What were they going to do now. They couldn’t defend themselves from the undead. Much less an army of soldiers. Ian looked at Sam and grabbed her.
‘We need to hide under the tables. Maybe if they don’t see anyone in the room, they will move on.’
He pulled her arm so that she would follow him underneath the computer tables. He could hear her heart beating rapidly it was so quiet for a moment. Suddenly, Ian and Sam heard shooting. The soldiers were killing people now. Among the shrieks coming from the undead being shot, you could hear the screaming of innocent people. Ian didn’t know what was worse. Having the soldiers here or the undead. All that he knew was that he had to survive. He held the cro-bar in one hand and his knife in the other. He was as ready as he would ever be. But, then again, how could anyone be ready for a situation such as this.
The shooting got closer and closer until they could hear an automatic rifle going off right outside the door. Susan pressed up against him out of fear for her life. The sounds of the soldiers foot falls could be heard in the hall. Closer and closer they came until the handle of the computer room door started to move. There was a soldier right outside the door. Ian and Sam froze. Their hearts were beating so fast. All they could do by this point was pray.
To be continued…
A special thanks to my husband Brett for sticking by my side and encouraging me to persue my dreams of becoming an Author. I know that you will always be there for me and my daughter. To my dear mother. You may no longer be with us but, your heart and mind still touch me everyday. Without you and dad I wouldn’t be here today. Thanks Dad for always being there and believing in me every step of the way. The love and support I have from my family is what keeps me going. Thanks to my sisters. Even though I know this isn’t the type of book you thought I’d write, you were always there for support. And finally, a big thank you to author P. L. Jenkins. Your advice and friendship helped make this possible. I would also like to add my friends Amanda, Deanna and Julie. Thank you guys so much. You gave me the confidence I didn’t know I had. You truly are special.
Table of Contents
Chapter One - Genesis
Chapter Two: Journey
Chapter Three: Sam
Chapter Four: Horde
Chapter Five: The school
Chapter Six: Meeting up
Chapter Seven: Trapped
Chapter Eight: Roland
Chapter Nine: Escape
Scarlet Memories (Book 1) Page 13
