There was no way I would be safe in the classroom. I had to find somewhere else to hide. I peeked out the door, as I cracked it a little to see if the coast was clear. I didn't see anyone so I bolted out the door and ran quickly around the corner. As soon as I rounded the bend, I knew I had made a horrible mistake.
There were five of the gray people standing right in my way. Two of them were making a meal out of the P.E. teacher, Mr. Burns. They all looked up at the same time, and I froze as they began to move towards me, not knowing where to go.
I heard someone whistle at me and turned around to see Brett sticking his head out of the janitor closet. "Come here, Cassie, hurry." He didn't have to tell me twice. I rapidly closed the distance between us and followed him inside. The gray people had turned back to Mr. Burns so they didn't pay attention to me anymore. Somehow, I lucked out there.
"I know where we will be safe, come on."
He grabbed my hand and pulled me to the back of the closet. This was something I would normally enjoy, but the terror of getting bitten by a crazy person overrode that.
I followed him to the back of the closet, where he pulled a board away from the wall, revealing a small room behind it. He jumped down inside and pulled me through. I looked around as he put the board back in place, hiding the closet from our view.
The room was far from clean; the cement floor had about an inch of dirt on it. There were noticeable spider webs covering every corner, and there were random tools lying about. There weren't any doors that I could see so I thought we would be safe for a little while.
"What is this?" I was really curious how he knew about a random room in the back of the janitor's closet.
"I come in here to get high sometimes. A janitor showed me where it was when I was a freshman. He was a weird old dude, but he caught me smoking a joint in the parking lot, and told me where I could hide it."
I smiled, hoping he wouldn't ask if I would like to smoke a joint. I didn't think that I would enjoy that very much.
Ellen had dared me to smoke a cigarette one time and I had caved to the pressure. We were at a sleepover our sophomore year. I spent half the night hacking up my lungs and the other half scraping my tongue with my fingernails, trying to get the taste out of my mouth.
"No one else knows about this place?"
I kicked a can that was lying on its side. I was trying to appear casual despite our strange circumstances. A huge spider crawled out of the can and quickly came towards me. I am not proud of the noise I made as I backed away from it.
Brett stepped on it and turned towards me, trying to hide a smile. "Better?"
"Yeah, thanks.” I felt my cheeks get hot as I blushed furiously.
"As for your question, a couple guys know about it, but who knows where they are now?"
He looked sad as he stared at the boarded- up entrance. It was almost as if he was waiting for them. "I don't know what's happening, it's like people have gone crazy."
He didn't say anything and I noticed he was holding his cell phone up in the air. Of course, he brought a cell phone in; cool kids don't follow rules.
"No service," he shook his head, defeated, and put the phone back in his pocket.
I walked over to a bucket that was turned over and sat down. How the hell did I get into this situation? The hottest guy in the world and I were trapped in a room together and the world was coming to an end outside.
Why couldn't he have taken me to his hidey-hole before now? That would have been so much more romantic. A goofy grin spread across my face and I sighed at the happy thought.
I must have zoned out because he was standing right in front of me, with a confused look on his face, as if trying to figure out what was wrong with me.
"Cassie?"
I jumped up, startled, and knocked the bucket over. I tripped over it as it rolled around and ended up falling into his arms.
"Sorry." I was very aware of his hands around my waist and my hands on his shoulders as I steadied myself.
"Easy, girl,” His voice was lower and he was looking directly into my eyes. I began to feel warm all over and he tightened his arms around me. I nervously adjusted my hands on his shoulders and found myself looking at his mouth. He licked his lips and when I looked back into his eyes, they were staring directly into mine.
He was going to kiss me. This was really happening. I closed my eyes and leaned forward.
The board covering up the door started to rattle violently and he protectively pushed me behind him, as whomever it was fought to get in.
Chapter 4
Three’s a Crowd
The board finally moved away, revealing who was coming to join us in our love nest. A red head popped in and grinned at Brett.
“Ted, get in here, quick, before they see you.” Brett was smiling back so I assumed that he knew this invader of my hopes and dreams. Any vision I had of him kissing me and of us spending time together, alone in this room, disappeared with the arrival of Ted.
“Brett.” He slapped hands with his buddy and turned his crooked smile my way. I immediately felt embarrassed that I had been in a locked away closet by myself with a boy. Then I thought about how silly that sounded, and Brett, introducing me, pulled me out of my head.
“Earth to Cassie,” Brett was waving his hand in my face, “I said, this is Ted.”
“Hi, Ted.” I felt like my face would probably be permanently red with the amount I was blushing.
“How did you get through all the crazy people out there?”
Brett raised an eyebrow at Ted, and I could tell he was worried about the intentions of his buddy.
“I wasn’t bitten or anything, if that is what you are thinking, Brett.” He raised his arms defensively. “I’ll strip down naked right here and let you check.”
He winked at me and I felt very uncomfortable. I hoped that he was not going to actually strip down right there. That was not something that I wanted to see, and I looked to Brett, trying to send this message to him with my eyes.
“Man, I believe you, but tell me how you got through all that.”
He walked over to the entrance and put his ear to the board. I guess he was trying to see if he could hear screaming or whatever was going on outside the walls.
“I was in the gym for P.E. when they busted in. I managed to get up to the rafters while they were attacking Mr. Burns. I stayed up there while they went through the weaker kids. The ones with a note from Mommy were the first ones to die.”
He said the last sentence in a mocking tone, and I decided he must be one of those kids who bullied the nerds and stuffed them in lockers. This was not a pleasing thought, but I waited for him to finish his story.
“I came in here to see if there was a joint tucked away. My nerves are shot to hell, but I waited until I knew for sure they were gone to come in here. Is there a joint in here, man?”
“Sorry, Reddy Teddy, you won’t be able to get stoned today.”
Brett ran his hand through that perfect hair of his and smiled at me.
“We have to come up with a game plan. Staying here would be dumb, because we will eventually need food and water.” I was the rational one here, and this was a fact that scared me. Another thing that scared me was that I really had to pee. I regretted drinking the extra large coffee from the gas station that morning.
I voiced my concern to Brett, who smiled at me mischievously. “You can use the bucket over there, Cassie.”
The thought of peeing in the room with two guys mortified me enough, but the thought of peeing in the same room as Brett Nathan was something I would rather die than do.
“Not happening.” I stood up, making the urge to go that much stronger. “I am going to the bathroom. One of you will have to stand guard outside the bathroom and make sure that no crazy gray people come in and get me.”
Brett rolled his eyes but turned to Ted and held up his hands, defeated, “You say they are all gone?”
“As far as I can tell, they are all gone. I wi
ll go with you and watch the front of the school just to make sure we are still safe while the little lady pees.” He winked at me again, but I had begun to bounce with the need to go so I ignored it.
“Let’s go.”
Brett picked up a two-by- four and Ted picked up the bucket.
Brett looked at him as if to say '”what the hell will you do with that?” but shrugged and led the way to the entrance.
The school was eerily quiet as we walked out of the janitor closet, one by one. I was going to have to hurry so we could get back to safety quickly. I had an uneasy feeling that the gray people were waiting right around the corner.
“Hurry, girl.” Brett smiled at me and we all three walked down the hall towards the bathroom. Ted and his bucket broke free from us at that point and went to the front of the school.
I rushed into the bathroom and immediately went into the first stall and sighed with relief as I finally got to go. I thought I heard something moving in the next stall, but when I bent down to look under the stall, I saw nothing. I finished up and went over to the sink to wash up a bit. I heard someone moan and snapped my head up, looking around me. There was no one in the bathroom with me; I was clearly going crazy.
Then I heard her. “Hello, is anyone there? Please help me, you have to help me.”
It sounded a lot like Ms. Hamrick and this made me a little wary, as I thought back to her disappearance from the classroom. I felt silly, as I inched along the stalls, slowly moving towards the sound of her voice.
You know those moments that you think back on, and go “I wish I could take that back”? I was about to have that moment.
“Ms. Hamrick?” I cautiously started walking through the bathroom, pushing the stalls open.
“Cassie, oh, thank God. Cassie, I need help.”
I finally got to the stall that the voice was coming from and pushed it open. I wasn’t prepared for what I saw when I opened the door. She was propped up on the toilet with her arm around the back of it. Her hair looked even more unkempt now than her crazy eyebrows. The part that I wasn’t prepared for was that one of her legs had been chewed off at the knee. It was obvious, by the jagged bite marks left on her remaining skin, they had been bitten off of her. I was horrified at what I was seeing, and I froze, not knowing what to do.
That is when Ms. Hamrick lunged off of the toilet and grabbed my arm. She got my finger in her mouth, which disgusted and terrified me. There was only a small sharp pain as I thought a tooth penetrated my skin. She fell against me; her one good leg fighting to stay up. I kicked her leg out from under her and ran away from her.
She was pulling herself, by her arms, across the bathroom floor, toward me, and I did the only thing I could think of. As I looked down, I could see the skin around what was left of her leg was turning black. I picked up the trashcan and ripped the lid off. I put the trashcan over her head so that she could not see which way we went and ran out into the hall to warn Brett and Ted. That probably wouldn’t stop her for very long, but, I had to think, not having a leg would slow her down a bit.
Chapter 5
That’s Not Good
I ran out into the hall and prepared to scream for Brett, but as I opened my mouth, a hand clamped over it. I was being pulled back to the lockers on my right and I was struggling as hard as I could. Whoever had me was strong. If it was one of those things, I was going to get bitten. No matter how hard I struggled, I could not break free of the grasp that held me.
I was relieved when Brett turned me around and put a finger to his lips. He grabbed my hand and we walked together, over to the other side of the hall, where we could look around the corner.
There were two of them and they were headed our way. One of them was a young boy in pajamas, and I paused for a minute to think of how sad that was. His hair was messed up like he had just rolled out of bed. He was clutching a teddy bear that looked like it had taken a mud bath. Here was some little kid who was now a mindless gray drone. My heart ached for him.
He let out a vicious growl as the other one, an old woman, bumped into him. The old woman was using a walker, which she used to knock the boy down with as she heard him growl. They stood face-to-face, growling at each other, and then, like they had forgotten what all the fuss was about, went back to slowly moving down the hall.
After I got over the shock of the gaping hole in the old lady’s arm, I couldn’t help staring at the back of the little boy’s head as he walked down the hall. It was only half there, with what I could only assume were brains poking through.
Suddenly, I didn’t think it was sad, but more terrifying.
“We have to get Ted and get back to the closet.” Brett was slowly pulling me back toward the direction of the closet. I caught site of Ted creeping in our direction. He was holding the bucket out in front of him like some kind of shield. We all had to be quiet, and hurry at the same time.
They might move slowly, but we could not chance them seeing where we were hiding. If they did, they would stop at nothing to get in. I don’t know why I knew this, but, after seeing Ms. Hamrick in the bathroom, I was beginning to think these people were not just crazy.
When we were all safely back in the room, we all started talking at once, and everyone was whispering so no one knew what anyone was saying.
Brett held up his hand, “Ted, then Cassie, then me.”
We both turned our attention to Ted, who sat right down on the floor and looked up at us. “We are in trouble, guys; there are at least a hundred, if not more of them, outside the school. They just seem to be walking into each other, but we probably would not stand a chance with that many if we tried to make it out of here.”
I resisted the urge to make a crack about him taking all of them out with his bucket. This was not a time to joke. The boys looked at me and I realized it was my turn.
“Ms. Hamrick was in the bathroom stall; I didn’t see her at first because one of her legs was eaten off. She had the other propped up out of sight. She is one of them, guys; she tried to attack me. I placed a trashcan over her head and ran out of the bathroom.” They were both staring at me like I had grown an extra nose.
Brett looked thoughtful for a minute, “It’s spreading, and they gave her what was wrong with them when they chewed off her leg. That must have been really gross.” The grin on his face told me he was thinking about it in a way that said; how awesome is that?
Men, I rolled my eyes at the thought.
I looked at my watch. It wasn’t even six o’clock yet, but I felt like it had been hours since I spied that first man through the window.
We all looked at each other trying to figure out what to talk about. What does one talk about when the world is going to hell?
“So, those things out there are what, exactly?”
Ted ran his hand through his hair and looked at us for an answer. In that moment, he looked like a scared little boy and not the smart ass goof ball he had been.
“Zombies, they have to be. You saw how they act, and that little boy was missing part of his head. There is no reason he should be up and walking around.” Brett said the words like it was no big deal. He almost acted like he had been expecting something like this to happen.
“Zombies,” saying the word out loud made it seem more real, and I was happy to keep pretending I was in some horrible nightmare, not living out a real life horror movie.
Ted and Brett moved about the room as I watched. I wasn’t sure what they were looking for. I assumed it was weapons as I watched Ted hold a broom like a sword and swat it through the air. I would have laughed if it wasn’t sad that it might come down to fighting for our lives with the things we could find in here.
I started to look around for things myself. Brett decided that we should come up with a game plan in case the walking dead infiltrated our little room. I toed a tarp in the back corner, hoping it didn’t have something icky under it.
“We know that they can’t live without their heads, right? If you separate the head, th
ey should die.” Brett seemed to be asking me, more than telling.
“As far as I know, I mean that is based on the movies I have seen.” I always wondered why people can’t run away from a zombie hoard because they move so slowly. I understood now that it didn’t matter if they moved slowly. If there were a few of them, they could easily corner you.
“They also like to eat each other, right?” Ted was absent mindedly wielding his broom sword around and looked a little lost.
“Not sure about that one, Ted,” Brett walked over and put his hands on his friend’s shoulders, “Chill with the broom, dude.
We spent the next few hours talking about all the Zombie movies we had watched. Having made a pile of ‘weapons’ consisting of two by fours, a nail gun, the brooms, and some other odds and ends, we felt a little safer. We laughed at the Twinkie obsessed lead in Zombieland, and remarked at how fast those Zombies were. Trying to distract ourselves from what was going on outside was only going to work for a little while. When it was closer to eleven, I yawned and looked over at Brett, who had a pocket knife, whittling a piece of wood into a stake.
“They aren’t vampires, Brett.” I was amused that he had managed to keep a pocket knife and a cell phone on his person without getting caught.
“I know, but sticking this through their eyes will certainly hit the brain, Cassie.” He demonstrated by jabbing the stake in the air.
“What are we going to do?” Ted was yawning now, and he was wondering what was going to happen to us when we finally had to leave our safe haven. We all were.
“We are just going to have to get some rest tonight, and figure out what to do tomorrow. It is probably going to get dark soon. I locked the closet, but we should probably sleep in shifts to make sure that someone is looking out for us at all times.” Brett was really taking command of this situation.
Darlings of Paranormal Romance (Anthology) Page 88