by Aaron Guerra
“Well?” she had asked. Sarah was growing impatient when he didn‘t respond. Someone in there was more than likely hiding on the other side of the Cafeteria. “Hello?! Is anyone in there? I am from the Little Bow Police Department! My name is Sarah Parson! Please! If there are any survivors, let us in,” Sarah had said near the door.
“We took care of the monsters out here so it’s safe to open the door,” Luke had added. There was no response at first until the sound of a click came from the other side.
They stepped away from the door when it started to open. A Hispanic woman wearing a white lab coat with thick glasses slowly came out. She examined the area to make sure that it was indeed safe.
“W-When did you two get here?! The school was locked up,” said the woman in the white coat. “Coach Miller was the last to leave this room and he hasn’t returned,” she said while looking at the two in front of her. Sarah turned around to point at the last beast that put down.
“Sorry, but he didn’t make it,” said Sarah. The woman in the coat had looked at his body from the doorway as she tried her best to hold in some tears.
“He’s the reason why we’re all alive. He saved us when the others were too scared to think during the crisis,” said the woman. Sarah slowly moved closer to the science teacher to peek in the large Cafeteria room.
“Did you say, us? Are there others still alive in there?” Sarah asked. The woman in the white lab coat had looked at the man that gave off a suspicious appearance.
“Officer Sarah, was it? Is this man safe to be around?” she asked Sarah in a light whisper. Luke moved back while smiling to the woman in white.
“I’m sorry, but I’m honestly not a bad guy. I‘ve always looked like a delinquent! Ever since I went to this High School years ago,” said Luke. Sarah placed her arm around him as she smiled at the teacher.
“He saved me awhile ago outside. If he wasn’t there, I’d probably be walking around like one of those brainless monsters. Is that good enough for you?” Sarah asked her with a sly smile.
The woman coughed into her fist before smiling back to them.
“I am the Science Teacher for the Juniors here. My name is Roxanne Delarosa! I transferred here from Crimson Falls about two years ago. I just love this little town, but now it’s overrun with these science-defying demons! How can a body come back to life after death?! It’s not possible! Really! It’s actually quite fascinating, yet terrifying at the same time,” said Roxanne. Both of the newcomers to the school looked to each other, then to the teacher in front of them.
“Ms Delarosa, may we come into the Cafeteria? We don’t really like the odor that their bodies are starting to make,” said Sarah. The woman with the thick glasses sniffed the air for a moment until she felt like she was about to throw up from the disgusting stench.
“Y-Yes of course you can,” said Roxanne.
“So what’s the plan sheriff? Do we just wait here to die or find an escape route?” Rebecca had asked him. She was clearly losing her patience in the grocery store. The older woman with the sickly kid was getting on her nerves. Bruce tried his best to keep the two from killing each other.
“Alright damn it! Don’t get your panties in a twist! Let me think for a moment,” Bruce said out loud! The older man was pacing back and forth as the creatures continued to bang their hands against the secured entrance. They could hear the two muscular monsters scream again which seemed to somehow summon more of the normal jackasses to their position. “Is there a way to the roof?” Bruce asked. The young man in the red apron shook his head as he looked over to Rebecca.
“The latter to the roof is outside in the back of the store. There is a back door, but some workers blocked it off when this started. They took the keys and left to find some help. None of those things have been able to push through it though,” said the cashier in the apron. Bruce was running out of options since he wasn’t familiar with the store to begin with.
“Then the only way out of here is through the front doors,” said Bruce. The older woman gave the sick child to another lady in the store. She carried the kid into the backroom where the supplies for them were stored. It’s what they were using to survive on during the outbreak out there. Rebecca already thought up of a plan to escape, but it was a lone survivor plan. She stood up for a moment when another creature screamed louder than the two outside have done. It was something that caught her full attention. Bruce looked around the store before turning to face the woman he met at the police station. “Ms Lee! Have you thought of anything?!” he asked with fear showing in his eyes at last.
Rebecca Lee stared at the sheriff before shifting her eyes to the elder woman.
“I have actually. It‘s something the OPC would be against, but I‘m no longer with them,” she said in a crystal clear voice. Bruce tilted his head somewhat when she brought that unfamiliar name up.
“What the hell is the OPC?” he had asked. The woman quickly lifted up her gun and aimed it at the older woman first. A bullet instantly penetrated through her head which caused blood to leak out. Bruce was just about to bring his gun out when she suddenly shot him twice in the legs to bring him down. He fell to his knees as the woman walked up to him slowly.
“I thank you my dear sheriff for helping me escape back there. I thought my luck had ran dry, silly me,” said Rebecca. She kicked him on his side before taking his ammunition that he stored in his jacket. “You won’t be needing any of these anymore though,” she said. Rebecca had caught movement from the corner of her eye. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” said Rebecca.
The man in the red apron was trying to sneak behind her with a mop in his hand before she called him out. He ended up dropping his weapon while his hands went up to surrender. Rebecca easily shot him between the eyes to take him out of the picture.
“WHY?! WHY THE HELL ARE YOU DOING THIS?!” Bruce had yelled out in pain. He kept his hands on his legs to try and stop the bleeding.
“Didn‘t I already tell you? I’m the cause of the outbreak here. I must find the thing that escaped me a week ago,” said Rebecca. She walked to the front door to push the shelves to the side. “I won’t forget you though sheriff. You reminded me of my old man,” she said softly to herself near the end. The woman looked back at him with a death stare before shooting another round into his stomach. “I always hated that old fool,” Rebecca said in anger.
He fell back down to the floor in pain as he tried to hold out the best he could. Once the shelves were moved to the side, she quickly opened the doors and hid nearby the entrance. The large creatures came shoving in first while knocking the other corpses down. All of them went after the nearly deceased sheriff as he yelled out in agonizing pain. Rebecca just simply walked out of the store when the creatures started to devour the survivors in the back. She stopped in the parking lot to see that the sky above her was finally clear from the storm. It hovered over the city for an entire week. To the north, she was able to see a small white flickering light high in the sky. It caught her interest when it got a little bigger after a couple of seconds.
“That isn’t a star or a plane. I take it that the OPC finally made up their minds about this place. This is probably their way of trying to clean up the mess I made here,” said Rebecca. She looked down to her watch then back up to the strange flicking light. “I guess I’m not needed here anymore,” she said as she glared up at the light before running off to find a working vehicle.
It only took her a few minutes to find a working car to drive out of the city. Through the rearview mirror she was able to tell that the light was already bigger in size when leaving the entrance of the city. Rebecca wasn’t going to let them take her out along with everything there. If she can find the creature that escaped from the crate, she could then sell it to the buyer like originally planned.
“This picture is the only thing I have since the last OPC meeting in Travis earlier this month,” said Rebecca. She stared down at the picture of a scientist holding a little girl
in his arms. “Who will find him first? The OPC or me?” she had thought to herself. She hit a few of the walking brain-dead people on the long road. It didn’t seem to slow her down one bit. Rebecca Lee was finally able to enjoy the freedom. She was in a safe distance from the city to see the large missile take out Crimson Falls in the background. The car ended up shaking from the power of the blast that reached over to where she was currently at. It suddenly made the dirt fly into the air which made it a little difficult for her to see for the moment. “Goodbye, Sheriff Bruce Matthews,” she had said as she continued to drive to the nearest town, Little Bow.
Roxanne was sitting down on one of the cafeteria’s long tables that the students would fight over during lunch. The main survivors that were there were students that stayed put after the broadcast was announced earlier that night. It was too risky for them to head to their own homes during the chaos out there.
“Sarah, was it? How long is this going to take?” a hefty bald man had asked. He sat down beside the science teacher. He continued to drink some of the coffee that was left over from earlier that day. “I need to get home and water my plants. They don’t like to miss their drinking time which is why I always leave early. But I ended up getting detention duty for most of the punks in the back,” said the bald man.
Sarah sat in a chair beside the two teachers. Luke was in the back near the kitchen at that time. She didn’t know if he was securing the doors that led outside to the parking lot, or was just goofing off with the students.
“I’m not sure anymore, Mr. Reeve,” said Sarah. A light blush appeared on his face when she had called him by his last name.
“Please darling, just call me Chris. What is your last name by chance?” Chris had asked. She just smiled. But before she could answer his question, Luke had returned with a bag of junk food in his hand.
“We should eat something while we can. It‘s not good to go on this long without anything in our stomachs,” said Luke.
Another man wearing a brown suit came into the discussion. He didn’t seem as friendly as the others but it was probably because he was the principal for the school. His name was Joe White. He has been the active Principal for the Little Bow High School since Sarah attended it.
“Sarah? Sarah Parson? I should’ve known it was you! What the hell is going on with our town?” Joe White had asked in a demanding way. The officer stood up to feel the tension from him even at her current age.
“Principal White! As you may have heard on the News earlier, there’s an evil force that’s taking over our hometown! It already wiped out the police station and I don’t know where the Sheriff is anymore. All we can do is either bunker on down until this blows over, or escape this hellish nightmare together!” Sarah had said to him. The angry old man kicked the chair she was sitting on a few seconds ago. It slid across the floor until it hit the wall nearby. Luke placed the plastic bag down with his pipe being held firmly incase he needed to use it on the old fool.
“THAT IS LUDICRIOUS AND YOU KNOW IT! YOU BARELY PASSED THIS SCHOOL WHEN YOU WERE HERE YEARS AGO LITTLE MISSY! I BET YOU BARELY FINISHED THE POLICE ACADEMY NOT THAT LONG AGO AS WELL!” The angry principal had yelled.
Roxanne and Chris had stood up to hold the overexcited man back.
“Sir! You haven’t taken your pills today,” Roxanne had told him. Chris quickly walked back to where Mr. White was sitting earlier. He started to search through a heavy looking jacket until he found the little bottle. It had the principal’s heart medication inside it.
“Joe, I have it right here!” said Chris. The Principal grabbed his pills and walked away from the group. He ended up swallowing two of them without drinking anything to wash them down.
“I am so sorry Sarah! I’ve never seen him act like this before,” said Roxanne as she rubbed her hands together slowly. The officer let out a gentle sigh as Luke walked over to her side.
“We need to either leave now, or stay until the storm passes,” said Luke. The science teacher overheard what he said to Sarah which made her more worried.
“You’re going to leave us? Where too? When? Can we come with you?!” Roxanne had asked them.
Sarah took a step back when she felt pressured to say something she wasn’t ready to confirm just yet.
“Well, Luke and I were going to search for more survivors in this town. We never really gave any thought to where we were going to bring them too,” Sarah said. Chris was already getting worked up with the Principal again in the back of the cafeteria. He followed after him to make sure he wasn’t going to do anything stupid again, like another outburst. But when the Principal pushed him away, the bald man decided to walk back to the three with a nervous look on his face.
“You guys, this is bad. He wants to leave this place, but he has a bad heart. I’m sure he’d kill over after seeing one of those things outside,” Chris had said. Sarah and Luke looked over the teacher’s shoulder to see the man in the brown suit standing near the kitchen. Sure enough, he was staring at the doors that led outside to the parking lot.
“It’s too dangerous for him to go out there right now. Maybe if there were more people with us, we’d all be able to transfer to a safer location in town,” Sarah had said. She started to rub her arm nervously when she felt as though she would fail James, Harvey, Jen, and George.
They were her only friends at the police department. Whenever she needed it, one of them would be there in a heart beat to help her out with the problem. Roxanne looked over to the back where a few of the students were sitting. It looked like they were doing some of their homework while the others just sat there staring blankly at the white walls in the room.
“We need to get them out of here. I’m sure they’re very worried about their own families back at home,” said Roxanne. The science teacher turned back to face the three she was talking too. “So what is the plan, officer? Do we get the teenagers involved in this too?” Roxanne had asked her. Sarah looked back to Luke, then to the teachers.
“Luke and I will search the rest of the school to see if there are any more survivors. We’ll bring them here for now since this place is pretty secured. It can also hold almost a hundred people in here. So for now this will be our new Head Quarters until we can safely leave this place together,” said Sarah.
They all had a smile on their face except for the Principal, who was eavesdropping on their conversation. He was rubbing his chin with his old fingers as he glared at the happy four.
“They’re trying to take over my position? Unacceptable! I won’t allow them to tarnish my school. I-I will put a stop to them. Yes, I will put a stop to those four traitors,” said Principal White. His eyes drifted over to the left side of the cafeteria to see students. They could help him secure his throne as the remaining principal. The students sitting there could possibly be the hidden weapon that he needed to use against the traitors. “Yes I believe this will work just fine,” he thought to himself. He slowly walked to them before closing a book on one of the girls that was studying Geography. “I have a task for you children. Care to hear me out?” Joe asked.
Chapter 4
“WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP LITTLE ONE,” a woman’s voice had shouted. Tristan’s vision was fuzzy at first when he tried to get up from the chair he was sitting on. He felt like something was holding him back, constricting him from any movement. The man was able to see three female officers standing in front of him. He was able to see Susan and Kim unconscious in the back of the room. The girls were tied to some comfortable looking chairs that were set against the back wall. All he could remember was someone laughing in the darkness earlier before blacking out.
“Who the hell are you?” he had asked. One of them came up to him to deliver a powerful slap across his face. She had a large pink bubble come out of her mouth before it popped in her face. Valerie was her name. She started to remove it from her lips before looking down to the man that was tied to the chair. The slap that he just received hurt more than his own mothers. Tristan felt
a cold sting where he was smacked. He realized that she clawed him with her nails during the random assault.
“Don’t be talking to us like that you little mutt,” said Valerie! Another unknown officer came up to him. She cautiously placed her hands against his cheeks.
“My poor baby, did she hurt you?” the second officer asked. Tristan tried to escape but it was no use. Like his companions, he was tied down to a chair with some thick rope. “Oh? You like her more than me?!” said the second officer. The woman that showed him kindness had changed her personality in that instant. It was as if someone had flipped a switch to make her become someone completely different. “Fine!” she said. The man felt blood drip from his nose after the woman used her knee to bash against his face. The two officers that had assaulted him were pulled away by the tallest one. She was more than likely the leader of the group, due to how well she was able to make the assailants stop for now.
“Now girls, we can’t be hostile with our guest. What would everyone think of the Little Bow Police if they witnessed what you just did to this poor civilian?” said the Leader.
She wasn’t like the two that stood by her side. He could sense that she was more in command of the situation than anyone in the room.
“My name is Crystal! That’s Officer Crystal to you little man. That there that gave you those scratches on your face is the lovable Valerie. She also had the privilege of knocking out your little girlfriends when they came from downstairs. Then we have Nicole, who you probably hate the most now since you know…” Crystal said while she pointed to his nose. His blood continued to drip down onto his shirt. Valerie came back to him as her eyes his body. She started to chew some gum in his face to get on his nerves.