Undead Rising- Transcendendence Reborn

by Roberta Bliss

  Suddenly, from behind the curtain of the stage, a group of men in hazmat suits appeared with the principal. The silence in the room explained the fear they were experiencing. "May I have your attention." The principal retrieved the microphone from her podium where the students were accustomed to hearing her during lunch, but this was no ordinary lunch period. "The CDC would like to brief us about why we are here and what to expect. "

  A tall man grabbed the microphone from the principal with his bulky, gloved, yellow hand. "Thank you for your cooperation. We are from the Centers for Disease Control. We have been made aware of a virus in this area that may cause some serious complications. At this time we are attempting to contain the virus before it spreads. We will be taking samples from everyone and determining the progression of the virus. We hope to complete our procedures in a timely manner and allow everyone to return to normal operations. We are sorry for the inconvenience and will require the cooperation of everyone in order to accomplish our mission. Thank you."

  Before the words, thank you, had been spoken, hands were raising throughout the cafeteria with a bombardment of questions from students and teachers alike, but the highly unemotional speaker exited the stage without answering a single question. The principal was left holding the microphone with the same blank expression on her face that the majority of the hushed crowd had. Lizzy certainly had questions of her own, but her mission, for now, was complete. Lizzy needed to return to the girls before getting noticed. She briefly swept the cafeteria for Edie, Sam's friend, but couldn’t see her among all the worried faces.

  Olivia didn't know what to think, but she was glad to be with Aunt Lizzy, Sam, and Kat during a situation like this. Her own mother wasn’t very good at these things, considering she solely relied on dramatically enhanced interventions to get her out of her own tight spots. Aunt Lizzy had a way of predicting the worst case scenario and making plans to avoid it.

  They almost had enough space to squeeze in between the walls. Sam had already made her way inside and started stockpiling supplies from the storage locker into a large duffel bag. Aunt Lizzy had a lot of canned fruits and other non-perishable items that she used for her classes. Hunger was the last thing they had on their minds, but Sam had the same ‘preparing for the worst’ trait that her mom had.

  "I'm tired." Katarina whined. Sam fired back. "Apparently you don't have the brainpower to comprehend the situation that we are in, we don’t have time to be tired right now."

  Olivia was certain that Kat could produce a bucketful of tears at any moment. Although Kat could stay calm in almost any situation, Sam getting on her case was not something she could ignore. She would never admit it, but she adored her sister, no matter how hard Sam was to get along with. Olivia thought the feeling was mutual, but Sam was not an emotional kind of person.

  "What time is it Sam?" Olivia broke the impending war of words between Kat and Sam. "Last time I checked it was 1:15. " Sam dug through her skull and crossbones backpack. "It's almost 2:00. Mom has been gone for almost an hour, if she's not back in the next ten minutes I'm going to go look for her."

  "You can’t leave us," Katarina interjected, "and mom said to stay here no matter what!"

  " You're such a baby, Katarina." "Aunt Lizzy did tell us to stay here, Sam." Olivia, once again, ran interference.

  "Yeah, I guess. I just don't like not knowing if she's ok. We better get in the wall for now."

  "But it's dark in there." Katarina pouted.

  "I've got a lighter, baby." Sam emphasized the word baby for effect as she pulled a black zippo from her pocket.

  "I am so telling mom." "Whatever dingbat." Sam continued to stuff the duffel bag with more supplies just as Aunt Lizzy bounded through the door of the storage room.

  "We need to hurry, I saw a bunch of them with guns searching the classrooms."

  "So what did they say?" Sam questioned.

  "I'll tell you in a little bit, right now we need to be quiet and hurry!" Sam helped Olivia into the space between the walls. It smelled like firewood and paper, it was completely dark. Olivia wasn’t afraid of the dark so much, but being in this situation made everything seem frightening. Katarina was quickly by Olivia's side hand in hand. Kat had gotten her courage back after her fight with Sam and projected her calmness into the tiny space that they now inhabited. Aunt Lizzy was the last one in after she pushed several boxes as close as she could to the opening while still giving herself enough room to slide in and drag the drywall back into place.

  Sam flipped open her lighter to Aunt Lizzy's discontent. Sam just smiled a crooked grin, "don't ask," she looked at Katarina and stuck her tongue out.

  "You are so lucky that the army has laid siege to our school. When all of this is over, not only do you have some explaining to do, but your grounded for a month. Maybe two." Lizzy said while smiling.

  The family counseling session was abruptly interrupted by men shouting orders and the rustle of combat boots entering Lizzys’ classroom. Desks were forcefully overturned, the kitchen was ransacked, and they feared they would discover the storage room and their attempts to hide. Their collective breathing was heavy, Lizzy draped her arm across the younger girls. Olivia couldn't see anything in the dark room now that Sam had closed the lighter. They were frozen with fear.

  They continued to search the classroom and the frightened group heard a muffled, "over here!" from one of the booted men as they heard the door to the storage room violently crash open. Everything that sat on the shelving was thrown to the ground. They heard Olivia's walker being chucked across the room. All it would take is for one of them to discover the torn dry wall and investigate further. Even if the group moved further into the walls, they would most likely find them or hear them moving. All they could do was to remain painfully silent and still when their minds wanted to scream and their bodies wanted to run.

  Katarina squeezed Olivia's hand tighter releasing some of her anxiety. Olivia felt like she needed to hyperventilate. The men continued to yell orders and trash the storage room, but to the groups' relief, the boxes Lizzy had moved just before she got in the wall with the group remained untouched.

  "Move out! Move out!" One of the men ordered and within a minute the room was silent. Everyone took a deep breath and Olivia slouched in her position, but no one was brave enough to say anything.

  Kat had never been that scared in her life. What would have happened if they had been found? Would they have been shot or killed just because they weren’t in the place they were supposed to be? Kat wanted to ask all these questions, but her mind told her to remain quiet until her mom decided it was safe enough to talk.

  Sam made the decision to talk first and flicked open her lighter, “that was close.” “Yeah, but it looks like we will be safe in here for as long as we need to stay. I think we should wait it out tonight and see if we can escape before dawn while it’s still dark out. We need to start cutting this back wall out, but first just cut a peephole so we can see what’s going on out there. I haven’t heard any movement since we’ve been in here, so I think they have left the gym alone since it’s under construction.”

  Kat just wanted to go home. She wanted to see her baby brother. She wanted to text her friends. She wanted to eat pistachio ice cream, a whole tub of pistachio ice cream. How long will we have to live like this? Is this our life from now on? Are we going to have to be on the run forever? She panicked internally.

  Once Sam had enough space opened to see the gym under construction, she didn’t see anyone out there. They were pretty sure it was safe because there had not been any noise in that area. “It looks empty out there.”

  “Where are we going to go? Can we get to the car?” Katarina questioned. “I doubt it, the National Guard was all over the front parking lot and my keys are still in the classroom. I think they have the building surrounded from what I could see when I was in the cafeteria. I guess they weren’t worried about this side of the school because of the construction and all the mud in that park
ing lot. I want to try to get home first and get the baby and James. We are going to have to lay low and take the back road home. Who knows what’s going on out there based on what is going on here.” Mom explained.

  “Do you think baby James and our dad are OK? Can we go check on our dad too?” Katarina wanted answers. “Don’t you think if mom knew anything she would have told you, you ask too many questions.” Sam couldn’t take any more of her sister's whiny questions

  “Girls, please.” Their mom halted them from further discussion, “we need to get some rest before tonight, who know what it’s going to be like out there and who knows when we will be able to rest again.”

  “I have to pee.” Once again Katarina had to create a crises. Sam shook her head in disbelief. “Can’t you hold it?” Sam snapped.

  “No, you know I have that thing that makes me pee all the time, this is the longest I’ve ever waited.” She explained.

  “I don’t think it’s safe enough to go back out into my classroom so we’ll have to scoot further down the wall and do it there.”

  “Mom! It’s gonna smell in here!” Sam complained. “Just hold it for God’s sake!”

  “I can’t!” That was the last straw for Kat, she started bawling.

  “Sam, leave her alone.” their mom took Kat in her arms.

  “I could go too.” Olivia added, trying to diffuse the situation. Lizzy, Kat and Olivia scooted down the wall and made their way around the corner. Sam could hear Kat complaining about the lack of toilet paper and that air drying wasn’t sanitary. Get over it, went through Sam's head as she continued to slice through the wall.

  Chapter 5

  Sam could smell the urine from Kat’s previous deposit. Their mom and the girls were sleeping, all huddled together. Sam couldn’t get her mind to unplug. She knew that their mom wasn’t telling us everything that she thought or saw earlier in the day. Sam needed to find out for herself what was going on. She decided to investigate and try to find Edie as well.

  Sam scooted along the wall to the front corner of her mom’s classroom adjacent the hallway. Climbing the studs up to the metal rafters wasn’t as difficult as she imagined it would be. When she found a suitable beam, she wrapped her legs around it and started the slow process of traveling toward the cafeteria. As long as her navigational skills didn’t fail her, She would have a first hand look at what was really going on.

  The rafters gave no indication of exactly where Sam was. she figured she was heading in the right direction because she followed the same beam that paralleled the hallway. Slowly but surely she came to a stopping point where the ceiling met up with the cafeteria. The cafeteria opened up to a large overhead skylight and didn’t possess the same beam configuration as the classrooms. Sam cautiously lifted a tile to see what she could below. When the tile edged upward a small amount of dust free-flowed to the ground. She was certain someone would notice and she replaced the tile while holding her breath. After what seemed to be an eternity she assumed that no one had noticed sinceshe didn’t hear any unusual movement in her vicinity.

  Sam peered through the opening that she created by lifting the tile again. On the stage directly to the right of her position was a group of teachers. Some were keeping vigil and whispering among themselves, others were attempting to sleep in uncomfortable positions. Most of the students had given up their fight to remain awake and were sleeping in huddles together mirroring their usual cliques. At this point she doubted it mattered who was popular andwho wasn’t.

  The kitchen no longer resembled a kitchen, it looked like a scene from CNN presenting the US military in some desert nation. There was so much camouflaged equipment, the kitchen appliances were obscured. Although the electricity was running as usual, spotlights and generator equipment stood at attention waiting to be called to service. The nurse’s office was just as bustling and overtaken by military men in full fatigues, donning gas masks.

  Sam surveyed the crowd for Edie, but she was not among the restless and exhausted crowd of faces locked in the cafeteria. Sam couldn't get a good view of the library from her position, but her mom had told them that they had made it into some type of hospital or emergency treatment center. Sam just knew that Edie must be there and that was where she needed to be. Military personnel guarded all the exits to the building and the doors leading into the library.

  The only way to get there was a climb across an exposed beam connecting the cafeteria to the library across the hallway. Both hallways had been blockaded by the library shelves. Even though Sam had made swift progress across the ceiling rafters, contemplating a jaunt across a plank that was visible to anyone and everyone below proposed a new set of challenges and uncertainties. Seeing if Edie was OK was her number one priority and if that meant risking her life, then that’s what she would have to do.

  Sam could see the wide rafter from the tile that she repositioned, but it was fairly far from where she was perched. It wouldn’t be an impossible task if not for the fact that she could not allow anyone to see the transition. She maneuvered herself into a sitting position with her feet slightly dangling from the rafter. With a swift movement she turned her body on the rafter and held on with her hands until her toe barely touched the top of the beam. She didn’t have the luxury of visualizing if anyone had seen her movements. The next movement was a bit of luck mixed with years of gymnastics as she let go of the rafter and crouched on the plank. Catching her breath was a mere convenience at this point, she still had to reposition herself in a lying position so she could slowly inch her way across to the library.

  When she reached the library, the scene was worse than she had anticipated. She peeped under a ceiling tile and saw Amy, possibly the most popular girl at Bishop High, strapped to a hospital bed waning in a particularly unattractive ashen color. Although she appeared to be near death, her violent thrashing against her bed restraints assumed otherwise. Sam could have sworn that she was looking directly at her but made no indication of any clear conscious acknowledgement of her presence. She was fixated on breaking free, using more force than Sam would have though was humanly possible. Even though she was securely fastened to the bed, it wouldn’t have surprised Sam if she managed to break free, given the sheer force she was exerting.

  “Sam! Sam!” Sam heard the distinct whisper of Edie close to her position. Sam could barely make out her form crouched on a metal rafter just feet away from her. As she scooted closer to her, she would have sworn that the years Edie accompanied her to gymnastics class had actually paid off. “Sam! We’ve been up here for hours!” She motioned to Bobbi and another friend of ours that was steering toward Edie in their above ground hideout.

  “How did you get up here?” Sam asked, amazed. “Well, when Mrs. Valdez made the announcement Bobbi had just come back from the bathroom and said that the Army was all over the school, so we ducked out in the bathroom and climbed up through the ceiling. Where have you been all this time? I couldn’t see you in the cafeteria so I figured you guys booked it out of the school.”

  “Mom took us out of class before anything even started and hid us in the storage room in her classroom. We cut a hole in the wall and hid between the walls. Didn’t even think about hiding up here, but Kat would have probably fallen through. Anyway, we cut a hole through the back wall where we are going to escape later tonight. We have to get back soon before mom noticesme missing.”

  “But how did you get from there to here?” Edie pointed to the cafeteria.

  “Across the beam.”

  "And no one saw you?" "No, there aren't any guards over on this side of the atrium." "We?” Edie interrupted, “ we aren't going across that beam." Edie pointed at the partition with emphasis.

  "You’re like a pro up here already, it will be a piece of cake."

  "I can't do it Sam" "Yes you can, watch me." Before Sam had time for Edie to change her mind and back out, Sam was reversing her journey across the hallway. She wanted to impress Edie enough for her to forget the danger involved.

/>   Bobbi was brave enough to follow suit as soon as Sam made it across. He slightly wobbled on the way down to the beam, but recovered quickly and scooted along almost effortlessly. Edie hesitated and looked to Sam for reassurance as she first dangled one leg and then the other. Luckily her legs were as long as Sam's so when she swiveled to reach the plank, her toes touched before she had a chance to regret her decision to make the crossing. She wasn't as agile on the crouch- tolying maneuver, but managed to make the transition without too much strain. Her travel across the beam was fettered by wearied looks in Sam's direction. Sam kept waving her arms, encouraging her. When she reached the other side, Bobbi reached down through the opening and grabbed her hand helping her make it through and get adjusted on the ceiling rafter.

  Next came David. Sam was a bit concerned that his short stature would make reaching the beam difficult, but he did not stop to contemplate any technical difficulties he might face. As he was hanging from the rafter, his feet could not reach the beam. He would have to make a jump to get onto the beam. There was no time to think about his next move so he just dropped from the ceiling. His right leg caught the beam but his left leg fell to the side and he was barely able to grab the sides with his hands. He remained in an unnatural pose while trying to bring his left leg up onto the beam. His shoe wasn't tied and fell to the ground causing a loud "plop" which turned the heads of everyone that was still awake and aroused the ones that were asleep.

  "It's one of them!" a military man shouted and Sam quickly transitioned the ceiling tile in place where they could only see through a minuscule slit. "Get him!" Soon, a blanket of military green stood with weapons raised under David. He looked in the direction of his friends that had made the trek across, but his unmistakable path to nowhere was already written in stone. Through all the commotion he lost his grip and fell to the ground. No one saw him make any movement when the gun barrel of one of the soldiers was used to forcefully roll him over. Edie started to whimper and Sam was sure someone would hear them even over the gasps and screams from the students and teachers in the cafeteria. Sam motioned with her arms to get out of there and they headed back towards her mom's classroom.