Everybody nodded their heads and assumed the
positions. Mater, being at the back of the group, took one last
glimpse of her sister Marley sprawled at an uncanny angle on the
floor. Before the group had a chance to leave, Mater quickly
reached through Tarynn and Cookie and nudged Drew. Beetle gasped at
what Mater saw and back up into Cookie who fell into Drew.
“
What is it?” Drew asked.
He was ready to bolt out of the door.
He did not have to wonder for long, for the
loud hoarse moans from Karley startled them all. Her thin blond
hair was trapped into the gaping gash of her shoulder. Karley’s
once pale skin was as dark as the gray stormy sky outside. Black
tiny lines were evident as they quickly ran throughout her body
like a road map. Karley wildly opened and closed her jaws. She
pushed into the desks as she stumbled to get up. She uncontrollably
lunged at the group falling onto more desks that blocked her way.
When Karley looked up, her fixed eyes seeped blood that looked like
grape jelly.
Drew dashed out into the
hallway, before Karley could attack them. They were immediately met
with the dead
Eater’s
groans as they made their way to the double doors that led to
the cafeteria. The group of
Eaters
to the right had scuffled their way closer than
Drew had estimated.
If we had stayed in there
another minute
…. Drew thought as they
ran.
The cafeteria was not
enclosed in the school building. It sat outside the sixth grade
hall, which was not that far from the choir or Fema evacuation
building. Drew looked out the tiny slits of the double doors before
opening them. The rain fell at a steady rate from the angry skies.
He quickly scanned the area and saw that the cafeteria sat nestled
in its usual corner. It was like reaching the top of Mount Everest.
They had to make to the cafeteria. It would be their safe haven
until they could figure out what else to do. The
Eaters
would be closing
in on them at any minute.
“
What are we waiting on?”
Beetle half whispered from the back of the group. “They are getting
closer!”
“
Had to make sure none of
em’ were out front before we made a run for it,” Drew muttered from
the front. “It’s going to be hard to see out in the rain.” Drew
looked towards the back of the group. The looks on everybody’s face
were the same. Fear.
“
Wait!” Tarynn said before
Drew opened the doors. “Let me say a silent prayer.”
“
Girl, we don’t have time
to pray! Don’t you hear those things back there?” Cookie shouted.
“You can pray
and
run just like you can walk
and
talk. It works the same.“ Cookie
snapped her lips as Tarynn mumbled something inaudible under her
breath.
Drew, with the help of Billy, flung the
double doors open. The rain and wind immediately greeted them with
brute blows to the body. Debris whirled around in circles creating
mini tornados on the ground. Drew shielded his eyes with his hand
from the rain like he was saluting a high ranking officer. He
noticed a student walking towards them from the football practice
field. Boy or girl? He could not tell who the student was because
of the distance and rain.
Drew and the group
continued running until they made it underneath the awning that was
connected to the cafeteria. The girls tried to shake themselves dry
while Beetle and Billy followed Drew to the cafeteria door. Drew
stopped cold in his tracks. He could not believe his eyes. Numerous
bodies were piled into a corner adjacent to where the cashier
usually sat. But that was not what stopped Drew. He looked on in
horror as Kaleb toyed with an
Eater
pinned up against the wall by a table. Royal was
standing on top of the table kicking the
Eater
in the face. Ashley along with
the other cheerleaders cheered the duo on. Other students ransacked
the kitchen and were eating ice creams, chips, and
cookies.
Kaleb raised his stick and
began to chant
Fight or die! Fight or die!
Fight or die!
The other students joined
him in chanting.
“
What is going on in
there?” Beetle asked.
Drew turned around with his fingers to his
lips. Sue Ellen and Mater slowly crept up behind Drew to witness
the fiasco.
“
Man…” Billy said. “How in
the living daylights are these fools going to be partying when the
world is ending?”
“
Kaleb is really sick,”
Mater sniffled through red swollen eyes. Seeing the
Eater
brought back
memories of Marley.
“
Not as sadistic as
Royal,” Sue Ellen added. She squinted her eyes. She remembered this
so called
secret
that he had about her.
Drew turned around to face the group. “Look
guys. We will just hide out with them until the weather calms down
or help arrives. Whichever comes first? Agreed?” “That is not a
good idea,” Billy interjected.
“
Well, do you have any
other bright ideas, Sherlock?” Drew barked.
Beetle shook his head and glanced down at
his shoes.
Drew looked over Beetle’s head to see that
the student who he saw earlier in the football field was getting
closer. Much closer. The student had neared the corner and was
coming into plain view. It seemed as if the student was dragging
his feet. Drew squinted his eyes to focus in more clearly to
realize that the student was missing an arm and something pink on
the side of his neck was flapping in the brutal wind. The scary
thing that frightened everyone about Steven’s appearance was most
of the flesh on his neck was gone. His head was supported by
nothing but a sheer skeletal spinal column bone.
“
Oh my God!! That is
Steven Blane!” Cookie shouted.
True enough as Steven shuffled in closer,
Drew saw the shoulder length dark hair. He closed his eyes briefly
to block out the scene that had cost Steven his life. As Steven
stumbled upon them closer he opened his mouth letting the loud
hoarse moan escape his throat. He reopened and clamped his jaws
shut like a robot as he moved in closer to Drew and the others.
The horrid sounds of
Steven, signaled the other
Eaters
that were fretting about.
Eaters
from all over the back of the
school yard joined Steven in groups as they headed toward Drew and
the gang. The
Eaters
that Drew and the group had tried to escape earlier had made
it to the double doors in heaps and began unknowingly pushing up
against the barrier to reach the live victims. The
Eaters
always seemed to
know when their food source was nearby. The undead stumbled into
Steven and congregated behind him. The
Eaters
led by Steven, moaned and
gurgled in sync as they straggled along slowly guided not by their
brains but sense of smell.
Cookie rushed past everyone in a frantic
effort to get into the cafeteria safely. She yanked on the doors
forcefully. “The doors!! They are locked!” Cookie yelled back at
Drew with crazed eyes.
Cookie began beating on the windows to get
the attention of the students inside. Drew along with everyone else
joined Cookie in desperate appeals for help.
“
Let us in! We are going
to die out here!” Drew shouted in a cracked voice.
Drew watched as Kaleb
plunged the sharpened stick into the
Eater’s
head. The
Eater
dropped like a ton
of bricks. Everyone laughed when the
Eater
toppled backwards and fell
into the wall. Kaleb tapped Royal and pointed in the direction of
Drew and the others as they stood outside banging on the
windows.
Royal jumped off the table and strolled
towards Drew and his former classmates. He had a snide look on his
face. Kaleb followed behind Royal closely while a group of
approximately thirty students trailed behind them. Royal walked up
to the doors and tapped on the window. He opened his mouth into a
cynical grin.
“
Let us in, man!” Drew
pleaded.
Royal glanced back at the
group of students gathered behind him and laughed loudly. He slowly
held his right thumb up and then quickly turned it down. “You are
on your own, Drew Jacks! This is
my
domain. I am king here. Find your own
castle!”
“
You can be the king,
queen, or president! I don’t care Royal! Just let us in! PLEASE!”
Drew pleaded once more. He looked back to notice that at least
fifteen
Eaters
had joined Steven moaning as they staggered closer to
them.
Royal looked towards the
door and pointed at the hallway that Drew and his friends had
recently exited. It seemed as if the door was about to bust at the
seams. Royal then pointed at three more
Eaters
that had joined the
fifteen
Eaters
who followed Steven. The sounds of the dead were like a bad
chorus.
“
Please, Royal. Please,”
Sue Ellen whined. “We are going to die out here!”
“
And so shall your dirty
secret rest with you!” Royal blasted and evilly laughed
again.
Mater began hitting at the
window with her Sock-a-bat. Sue Ellen joined Mater and swung her
Sock-a-bat at the window where Royal stood. Royal jumped back
quickly and continued to laugh. A sinister look crept upon Kaleb’s
face as he chanted
Fight or die! Fight or
die! Fight or die!
He raised his stick and
pointed it towards the window where the
Eaters
moved in closer.
Drew narrowed his eyes and placed his finger
on the window pane and pointed at Royal. “You will pay for this. I
promise!”
“
Not before you do!” Royal
sneered.
But getting revenge on Royal was the least
of Drew’s worries. The screaming sounds from Cookie erupted as
Steven Blane pulled her hair taking her down with him.
There goes the boy running down the
street
Here comes the zombies time to EAT, EAT,
EAT!
“
Agh!! He got my hair!”
Cookie yelled as she kicked and hollered.
Steven’s mouth opened wide
as he gnashed his teeth and clamped down onto Cookie’s head. Drew
could smell the undead from a distance away. The
Eater’s
mouth reeked of
foul and putrid odors. Drew could not decipher if the
Eater’s
smell was like
rotten meat or spoiled fish. Either way, the aroma was unbearable
and suffocating.
Mater reached back and
swung her Sock-a-bat with all of her strength into the
Eater’s
head. The school
made weapon landed with a crashing crack on the side of Steven’s
noggin. His non-human body had no balance and he quickly fell over
onto the pavement cracking open his skull. A dark brownish pink
substance accompanied by thick gooey blood leaked from the slit in
Steven’s head.
Cookie jumped up quickly with the assistance
of Tarynn and Mater. She frantically searched her body.
“
Did it get you?” Mater
asked as she hurriedly body searched Cookie.
“
Nah, just a- a- few
tracks. He pulled out some of my weave. I-I- I’m good,” Cookie
hastily said as she ran her shaking fingers through the rest of her
hair.
More
Eaters
closed in on the group. Drew
quickly called for everyone to gather in the formation that they
were once in before leaving the classroom. The students in the
cafeteria led by Royal cheered the
Eaters
on in a chant,
Fight or die! Fight or die! Fight or
die!
“
Everybody hold together
and follow my lead,” Drew directed.
Drew swung his knife rapidly at the wildly
flailing arms that grabbed aimlessly for their bodies.
“
Go for the head!” Mater
yelled as she continued swinging her Sock-a-bat at the
Eaters
who
continuously made their way towards
them.
Billy and Beetle continued
stabbing away at the bloody severed hands while Sue Ellen and Mater
swung their socks filled with paper weights at the
Eater’s
head. The moans
became louder as the group of undead students continued their
attack on the living.
“
I don’t think we can hold
them any longer!” Drew panicked as he stabbed an
Eater
in the
forehead.
More
Eaters
closed in on the group as
they slowly backed up towards the cafeteria and was pinned against
the glass. They never gave up and continued swinging Sock-a-bats
and scissors. Drew glanced back at the onlookers in the cafeteria.
Their chanting had stopped as they all looked on in sheer terror at
what was going on outside.
All of a sudden, the sound
of loud pops was heard coming from outside of the current zombie
attack.
Eaters
began following one by one to the ground by an unseen force.
Drew went to stab the last undead student but it was dropped by a
thick rock to the forehead. Drew scanned the area quickly to notice
a group of three students accompanied by the seventh grade history
teacher, Mr. Freeman, make their way quickly towards him and the
others. A sling shot made of several rubber bands dangled freely in
the teacher’s hand.