Cookie quickly retreated back to her desk
with her shoulders slumped. Drew glanced at Mater who pulled her
long French braid to the side. Mater was always the diplomat in
tense situations. Josefina breathed heavily in and out, never
removing her eyes from Cookie Rogers. Cookie narrowed her eyes at
Josefina in a threatening manner before sitting down at her
desk.
A loud thud from the
corner of the classroom brought everyone’s attention to the rail
thin Karley Richardson who had accompanied Mrs. Kissing and
Josefina. Mrs. Kissing was attending to Karley who had collapsed on
the floor. Drew frowned as he observed the scene.
Karley looks like a heap of bones,
he thought silently,
what were they running from?
The
sound of Josefina’s voice brought Drew back to reality.
“
Cookie, there are bigger
monsters outside that door that you are going to need to save your
energy to fight….
If
we survive this, you can fight me then.”
Josefina’s long jet-black hair swayed more
than halfway down her back. She was cute with an exotic look and
had a thick Mexican accent. All the Junior High boys had a crush on
her, including Cookie Roger’s boyfriend, Bolton Black. Black so
happened to be the running back on the football team.
“
What on earth happened to
you?” Mrs. Westwood brought her attention back to the trio that
sought refuge in her classroom.
She noticed the blood stains on Mrs.
Kissing’s clothes, Joesfina’a hair, and Karley’s face. Mrs. Kissing
was currently trying to arouse Karley by gently patting her face.
Mrs. Westwood slowly knelt down to examine the student.
“
What is wrong with
Karley? It looks like the child has not eaten in months.” Mrs.
Westwood touched her co-worker’s shoulder gently. “Mrs. Kissing?
Why do you have blood all over you? What is going on out there?”
Mrs. Westwood had a sense of urgency in her voice that stirred the
students in the class. She looked up and over the desk to calm the
students. “Class, settle down please. We have a student that is in
need of medical attention.”
“
Does that explain the
blood splatters?” Drew asked as he leaned over the desk.
“
Drew, please help me
settle the class down.”
The class came to another silence as more
needle pricking screams and the smashing of glass was heard outside
the classroom. Drew walked over to Mrs. Westwood and the others
that were huddled behind the desk. He reached into his pocket.
“
Here try this.” Drew
ripped open an alcohol packet. “Place it under her nose. She will
wake up.”
Drew’s grandmother was retired military and
knew a thing or two about survival. He recalled how his Mee-maw
would place alcohol packets underneath his mother’s nose in an
effort to wake up her after one of her all night drinking
binges.
Drew stared down at Karley Richardson as she
slowly began to wake and stir. Karley could have been the all
American girl but succumbed to obsessing over her body image.
“
What happened to Karley?
Is she bleeding? Was she injured?” Mrs. Westwood repeatedly asked.
She was beginning to sound like a broken record.
Drew wondered if Karley decided to skip her
breakfast again. Maybe it was foregoing lunch or dinner yesterday.
It was no secret that Karley Richardson had an eating disorder and
apparently it was taking a toll on her body. She once had a crown
full of vivacious bouncy golden curls that now look like stringy
sticks of spaghetti. Toned muscular arms now resembled thin flaps
of translucent skin. Drew cringed at the thought of once wanting to
date her. Karley resembled a toothpick with legs now.
“
I passed out Mrs.
Westwood,” Karley barely said. “I am so tired. I can’t run
anymore.”
Mrs. Westwood swallowed
hard as she used the desk like a crutch to raise herself up. “What
were you running
from
? Did you
run
all the way from the east end of the building? What is going
on out there? Are you injured?”
Karley shook her head no. Drew glanced back
and forth between the two teachers. Mrs. Kissing and Josefina
assisted Karley to her feet. Karley wobbled in between the two as
she tried to stand on her own two feet. Her thin body was as thin
as a skeleton.
“
Karley is not hurt. None
of us are hurt. The blood is not ours,” Mrs. Kissing said in a
rushed low voice. She glanced past Mrs. Westwood, her pregnant
co-worker, and at the unexpecting students. Mrs. Kissing nervously
licked her lips and strained her neck to look out the classroom
window.
“
Okay, so
where
did the blood come
from?” Mrs. Westwood blinked her eyes impatiently.
No answer. Mrs. Kissing seemed to be in
shock.
“
Is it the storm causing
all of the chaos outside? Was someone injured by flying debris or
something? Dr. Bradford has not made an announcement on the
intercom yet,” Mrs. Westwood rationalized.
Drew looked outside the classroom window.
The wind had become stronger. A big garbage can rolled by in the
schoolyard accompanied by trash swirling in the air. The sky was
dark and gray. The rain began to fall at a slow but steady
rate.
“
I am assuming that with
all the ruckus going on outside that maybe we should go ahead and
initiate Code B and take cover under the desk?” Mrs. Westwood
added. She tilted her head to the side as if she suddenly
remembered something. “I need to go and check on McKenzie. She has
not come back from the bathroom yet.” Mrs. Westwood turned to
leave.
“
No! No!” Mrs. Kissing
closed her eyes and reopened them to collect herself. She grabbed
Mrs. Westwood’s arm forcefully. Her eyes spoke of fear and terror.
“You cannot go out there!”
Karley lowly whimpered and bit down on her
chapped lips. Josefina grimaced as her neck snapped towards the
door. There was a new sound. A deathly sound of gurgling with the
onset of horrid continuous moans that was accompanied by more
screams. Loud shuffling, like sounds of an imposing army, was heard
nearing the classroom.
“
Wait a minute,” Mrs.
Westwood said as if a light bulb finally went off. “Where is the
remainder of your class?”
Mrs. Kissing glanced at the door with tears
now flowing like a gentle stream down her face.
“
Dead…. “ Mrs. Kissing
choked. “My students, my babies, are all dead!”
**********
The classroom was spinning or either Mrs.
Westwood was getting dizzy. The moaning became louder by the minute
and sounded as if it were two classrooms away. The moans were more
like a hoarse growl with a low curdling gurgle. It was as if
someone was struggle to breath in combination with gargling a sore
throat. The sound was non-stop. The groans continued on like a
battery-operated machine. The students began to stir in their desks
once again amongst each other.
“
Dead?” Was all Mrs.
Westwood could manage to say. She grabbed her chest, then her
belly. She immediately thought of her unborn child and the danger
they were all in.
“
Lower your voice!” Mrs.
Kissing hissed with bugged eyes. “The noise will draw them
here.”
“
Them? Who
are you talking about Rebecca?” Mrs. Westwood’s
voice broke. The grave look on Rebecca Kissing’s face did not prove
to be one of promise or hope.
“
The… The children… The
students. They are attacking and killing each other…. eating
everyone” Mrs. Kissing managed to get out in one breath.
There was a blank stare on Mrs. Westwood’s
face.
“
Eating
? What do you mean the
students
are eating
everyone?”
“
I don’t know. I just
don’t know. It was a blood bath out there,” Mrs. Kissing said as
she once again glanced at the door.
“
Do they have weapons?
Where is Dr. Bradford? Did anyone call the police?”
Mrs. Kissing shook her head. “It all
happened so fast. I left my assistant in charge of the class while
I went to the office to pick up some supplies. When I came back to
my room… I saw…“ Mrs. Kissing closed her eyes in an attempt to wipe
out the most recent memory of what she had recently
experienced.
Mrs. Westwood was afraid
to ask any more questions at the rate Mrs. Kissing was going. “You
saw what? Rebecca? Did they have any
weapons
?”
“
Weapons? No…” Mrs.
Kissing’s voice trembled. Her words were shaky. “The weapons was
their teeth…”
“
What?”
“
The kids were eating each
other. Alive.”
“
Good God.” Mrs. Westwood
could not believe what she was hearing. This had to be a horrible
nightmare but the sounds outside her classroom door proved
otherwise.
“
I’m guessing your next
question is….
How could this be?
Right?” Mrs. Kissing swallowed hard shaking her
plump neck. “I have no idea. My guess is that those kids back there
have some form of a rabid disease and it’s highly
contagious.”
“
Why would you say
that?”
“
The kids who were being
eaten alive by the other kids would die. I mean literally expire.
Moments later they reanimated and started repeating the horrid
process of eating whoever had not been attacked or were trying to
get away.”
“
This is all crazy. I
don’t believe it. There is no such thing as someone dying and then
coming back to… to life!” Mrs. Westwood shook her head. A large
stick swirling in the strong winds knocked up against the outside
window causing the class along with the teachers to
jump.
“
Believe what you want
too. But if you want to outlive what is going on out there,” Mrs.
Kissing leaned her head towards the classroom door, “You better put
on your thinking cap and help me figure out how to get these kids
out of here all in one piece. I think we are the only survivors
left here. I think.”
Josefina sniffled as she confirmed Mrs.
Kissing’s comment. “It is true, Senora Westwood. I wouldn’t have
believe it myself either. It looked like something out of a scary
pelicula. I think we are all going to die, if we don’t get out of
here soon,” Josefina slowly said with tear filled eyes. She wiped
at her dried, blood smeared face.
“
The weather is getting
worse. Dr. Bradford mentioned commotion earlier. That must be it,
the weather.” Mrs. Westwood grabbed her face as if she was trying
to sort things out. “This is absurd.” She refused to believe what
was going on outside her classroom walls.
“
My suggestion is we all
try to make a go for it to the chorus building. There are no
windows and we should be safe their until help—“
Before Mrs. Kissing could finish her
sentence more screams occurred followed by the disconnection of the
power. The lights went out.
A combination of shrieks and gasps escaped
from the mouths of the students. The light from outside of the
classroom window dimly illuminated the tiny space. The dark gray
skies roared and rumbled. Hurricane Angel, which was downgraded to
a category one, was going to announce its arrival. Mrs. Westwood
tried to calm down the frantic students.
“
Calm down class! Calm
down! The generator will come on momentarily and then we will have
light. This is all a part of the hurricane drill that we have
practiced since the beginning of the school year,” Mrs. Westwood
reassuringly said as she groped for her cell phone on the
desk.
Drew adjusted his eyes in the dim light. He
did not know if the disconnected power was in relation to the
weather or what was going on outside in the hallway.
“
What are you doing?” Mrs.
Kissing shrieked. “We need to be getting out of here before those,
those…
things
come here and eat
us!”
“
I am going to call the
front office again.”
Mrs. Westwood dialed the front office only
to receive a busy signal. She tried again. Busy. She hung up the
cell phone in frustration and then dialed 911. Busy. Mrs. Westwood
looked up from her cell phone straining her eyes in the dim light.
She tried to locate Mrs. Kissing. 911 was never busy… She tried 911
again.
Busy.
“
Can you try 911 on your
cell phone?” Mrs. Westwood asked Mrs. Kissing. “The line is
busy.”
“
Oh my God. Something is
seriously wrong here. 911 is never busy. Not even during or after
Hurricane Katrina do I recall 911 being busy. I remember it taking
a few rings for an operator to pick up but the line was never
busy.” Mrs. Kissing’s lips trembled.
“
Do you have your cell
phone?”
“
No, it’s in my class
inside my purse. I am not going back there. Never.”
The lights came back on but at a blinking
glow. The light bulbs in the classroom made buzzing sounds as if it
threatened to disconnect again at any moment. The students were
shaken. Most were scared. Drew knew something ominous was occurring
beyond those doors. He overheard the teacher’s conversation. Why
were children attacking and eating each other? He walked back to
his desk. He quickly wrote a note and passed it to Sue Ellen and
Mater.
Tarynn began praying loudly. Everyone’s
sight in the classroom adjusted to the dimness as they focused in
on her.