Matt’s suit shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe five minutes.”
“What if something’s wrong? What if none of them come back?” I asked. I felt my shoulders tense at the thought.
“Stop talking like that, Casey. You don’t want to jinx them.” Matt cautioned.
“Okay, you’re right,” I admitted, “but I never knew you were superstitious.”
“I’m not. It was a figure of speech.”
We stared into the dark for what felt like hours. I looked at my phone. It was almost 4:30. “Matt, what if they need our help?” I asked.
He turned and looked at me for a second before speaking. “They’re military, Casey. What could they possibly need that they can’t do for themselves? Even if they do need some kind of help, what makes you think we could provide that?”
I nodded and returned my focus on the blackness beyond the window. Matt was right, of course. It made no sense to think they needed us, but I just couldn’t shake that feeling that something was off. “Maybe we should go outside to look around the corner and see what’s going on.”
“Casey, no!” Matt’s voice was loud in the still hallway.
“Shhhh. You’ll wake up the others.”
Matt moved closer. “We can’t possibly go out there.” His voice was quieter. “Corporal Greer told us to stay here and make sure the door was secure. That’s our job, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
A beam of light flickered across the grass outside the door. “They’re coming,” I said.
“Good,” Matt said. “I was afraid I was going to have to duct tape you to the wall or something.”
More beams of light bounced across the grass, and I saw a white suit emerge from around the corner. It was carrying a box. Two other figures came from behind carrying a large trunk. They appeared to be straining to lift it. A fourth figure came from behind carrying another large box.
A scream erupted in the dark. The suits stopped and stood still. Gradually, they lowered what they were carrying. They spun around and shined their lights across the school grounds in the direction of the scream, back toward the parking lot. I saw heads turn and bob as if they were talking with each other. Another scream sounded. This time it seemed closer and more toward the front of the building.
“What’s going on out there?” I asked. My skin prickled with fear. “Do you think someone survived the chemical leak and needs help?”
Matt looked at me. “I don’t know,” he said. “It’s possible, but I don’t think so. Anyone who survived should still be on lockdown somewhere.”
One of the figures made a sudden turn and focused his light back to the left. It looked toward the other soldiers and gestured into the distance. The others turned and stood to face the same direction. The scream came again, and the suit took steps in the direction of the sound. Another suit grabbed his shoulder as if cautioning him. He shook it off and took a few steps.
My face was pressed against the glass as I strained my eyes to adjust to see where the screams were coming from. It was no use.
It happened fast. Shrieks and snarls came from the right, and shadowy figures appeared out of nowhere and fell upon the soldiers.
“Oh my God! It’s a gang!” I whispered to Matt.
“Get inside!” I heard Greer’s voice call out. “Run—!” his voice was cut off as I saw his hood, no, his head fall to the ground. His body fell where it stood, and dark shapes clambered onto his form as it collapsed. Shadows engulfed the other soldiers, and unearthly cries filled the night. The flashlights glimmered in wild jerky motions, revealing glimpses of white suits spattered with blood and what appeared to be dismembered limbs and hands flying through the air as the shadows tore into the soldiers’ bodies. Translucent sprays of red flickered in the light. More and more figures appeared and piled onto the soldiers, whose screams had now fallen silent. The flashlights remained on where they’d fallen, casting their glow at odd angles.
My body rebelled in fear. My limbs became solid, unable to flex, and I couldn’t will my lungs to move. I became aware of Matt’s quivering hand gripping my arm. Loud bangs rang out from behind us. People in the gym had awakened. I turned and saw the tarp-covered doorway rattling with the force of people on the other side trying to push it open.
“Hey! What’s going on in there? Open this door!” Mr. Woods’s voice called out.
A terrified shriek came from Matt’s suit. I turned back to the window and saw the figures had stopped their unholy gorging on the bodies. Some were looking in our direction, and others were inching toward us. A bone-chilling wail hurt my ears, and I realized with terror that it was my own voice. As the figures moved forward, some were visible in the illumination from our spotlight’s glow that reflected out through the windows. I could see their faces, or where faces would be on a human.
It was no gang.
The creatures coming toward us couldn’t possibly be living people. Some had only torn tissue where noses and lips would have been. Eyes gaped wide on some whose lids appeared to have been torn or rotted away. Skulls were clearly visible on others, and all were covered in gore as if they’d plunged their entire heads into the torsos of their prey.
They lumbered forward, and in the dimness, I could see steam rising from the fresh blood covering their faces and arms. The soldiers’ blood. We were deathly still in our places place as we powerlessly watched them coming closer in jerking, halting movements like ghouls from some sick horror film.
“M-Matt…we’ve got to bar the doors. He didn’t respond, and I looked at his face. It was sickly white, and his lips were trembling. “Matt!” I screamed. “Help me!” I pushed him hard, and he seemed to snap out of his icy trance. I pulled hard on the tarps we’d used to build the airlock. The figures inched closer, and I could hear a raspy sound coming from them. Gurgling and snarling emitted from their throats, some of which had open tears in their flesh.
Behind us, the shouts were louder, and it seemed several more people were pounding on the doors. Matt and I pulled hard on the tarps, and one side ripped away from the door frames. The creatures began pushing against the glass windows and slamming themselves against the doors. They clawed at the casements, smearing blood and a horrible black-looking slime across the panes. I pulled on the door handles and screamed at Matt to get a security bar. One door latch clicked into place, but I couldn’t get the other one to engage. I braced my foot against the frame and pulled with all my strength, but it still wouldn’t latch.
“MAAATTTT!” I yelled. “For God’s sake, get me a brace. Anything we can use…now!” The inside of the plastic hood I was wearing began to fog up as my breath came in great gasps.
I turned to look at Matt, and he was struggling against the other doors.
“What are you doing?” I shrieked. “Get something else! You can’t get that off while they’re pushing on the other side!” He darted around the hallway as if searching for something. He seemed to have lost his usual ability to reason through problems as he began to walk in circles. It reminded me forcibly of how Derek behaved when he was upset.
My stomach lurched as I felt the door being pulled away from me. “Matt!!! Get over here! I can’t hold on.”
Matt stopped pacing and ran to my side and grabbed the bar. We both pulled, and the door moved back in our direction, but only a fraction of an inch. The force pulling on the opposite side grew stronger, and I felt something snap in my shoulder. A sharp pain ran down my right arm causing me to lose my grip in that hand. The door opened wider, and the stench of rotting meat wafted in. The cheap masks we’d found in the science supply room were useless against the odor. I heard what sounded like Matt trying not to hurl.
A bloody hand appeared in the widening gap in the door. The smell made my stomach retch. I flung my right arm over the bar, and despite the pain, I locked my left arm over it and used it to gain more leverage with all the strength I could manage. The door moved outward again. Behind us, I could hear the angry and confused voices yellin
g louder. In the background, there were screams as if others in the gym were now aware of some crisis they couldn’t name. I thought I heard Harley calling my name.
Was it going to end like this? Were we going to die here, ripped apart and eaten alive like Greer and the others? The door jerked again, and part of a face, or what remained of one appeared, almost at my eye level. Its skin was the lifeless greenish grey color of the fetal pigs we’d dissected in biology at the beginning of the school year, but more decomposed. Its eye looked at me from a sunken socket. It rammed itself against the door, gouging its own flesh until it ripped. Black slime oozed from its cheek and ran down the doorframe, sending another horrible whiff of death and rot into the air.
Matt’s body jerked against mine, and I turned to see his hood filling with what appeared to be vomit. His shoulders heaved again, and I could hear the unmistakable gagging sound of uncontrolled puking. His hands loosened on the door, and it jerked outward again. I could now see the creature’s full mouth, and hanging from it, was a bloody piece of white material.
“Matt! Please! Don’t let go,” I screamed. “Don’t let—.”
A metal pole slammed down between the door and its handle, and two muscular black arms appeared beside mine. Jordan! He moved Matt aside and pushed me away. In one swift move, he kicked the putrid face. It fell away from the door, and Jordan bashed the hand with his shoe until it broke off and fell to the floor. He pulled the door into the frame and twisted the bar to an angle, bracing it against the jambs.
“Casey! Get me the other bar!” he yelled.
“Bar? What bar?” I screamed as I looked around the hallway.
“Get the other volleyball pole!” he cried.
I looked around but didn’t see it. A sudden realization struck me, and I dug through the pile of tarps we’d left in the middle of the floor. There, I found the other pole, still taped to tarp. I twisted it out of its base and brought it to Jordan. He slid the steel rod through the door handle and crossed it behind the other pole at an angle. He braced them both against the frames, forming an X, effectively preventing it from opening. The figures outside continued pawing at the glass. Some were emitting groans and screeching noises as they pushed forward.
“That should hold for now, but we need to secure the other door,” Jordan said. He looked at Matt, who had fallen to the floor. “Good Lord!” he said, “We’ve got to get him out of that…that…whatever the hell that is.”
Matt’s face was pale, and he didn’t appear to be breathing. I ran to him and pulled the ventilator off the hood. The smell of vomit filtered through his breathing holes. I clawed at the duct tape, trying to get the plastic loose, but it was stuck too tight. Jordan tore at the plastic sheeting, but it was too thick and barely stretched as he pulled.
“The shears!” I yelled. I scrambled around the hallway trying to find the pair we’d used earlier to cut the tarps. The box cutters were nowhere in sight.
Please let them still be here. Don’t let them be with the soldiers.
I grabbed the flashlight and searched the floor. The beam glinted on a metallic object just beneath the janitor’s closet door. I reached for it, but it was too far back from the edge for me to grasp. I tried the knob, and it was locked. Jordan had turned Matt over and was trying to administer the Heimlich maneuver on him.
“Casey! Damn it! Get something to help me get his plastic off him, or he’s going to choke to death!”
I didn’t know what to do. I tried several classroom doors, but none budged. Screams were still coming from behind the door to the gym. Mr. Woods’s frantic voice boomed above them all.
Mr. Woods!
I ran to the door and screamed as loud as I could in an attempt to be heard over the noise the others were making. “Mr. Woods! Give me your keys! Mr. Woods!” I yelled until my throat was raw with pain, but I couldn’t make them hear me. Looking around, I saw a fire extinguisher on the wall. I grabbed it, pulled the pin, and jammed the nozzle against the crack in the door frame. I pulled the release lever, and a cloud shot out of the other end of the hose. I prayed at least some of it was going through to the other side. I heard frightened gasps and screams from behind the door, and suddenly the pounding stopped. The doors moved backward, and the tension was released on the levers and steel bar. I yanked the security bar off the door and opened it. Several people were standing on the other side, covered in a pale, yellow powder. Mr. Woods stood in front with an angry and confused expression on his face. An unnatural silence fell on the crowd gathered around the security officer as they gazed on the scene before them.
“Mr. Woods! Hurry! Open the janitor’s closet, or Matt’s going to die!”
It took a second for my words to sink in. Then, Woods grabbed his key ring and fumbled for the right one as he bounded toward the storage room. As he unlocked the door, yells erupted from the gym as the full horror of what was happening sunk in. Woods unlocked and opened the door, and I dove for the scissors. I scrambled to Matt’s side and began cutting the plastic as Jordan pulled it away from his face. Vomit poured out onto my hands and the floor. Jordan and I scooped the fetid goop, by handfuls, away from his face, and Matt began to cough. His body convulsed in spasms, and more foul-smelling fluid ejected from his mouth. Jordan continued compressing Matt’s stomach. He gasped and coughed harder, and mercifully, he began to breathe.
“Stay with him, Casey,” Jordan said, as he stood up and moved to the janitors’ closet. He rummaged inside and returned with two push brooms. He slipped them through the unsecured door handle and braced them against the jambs as he had done with the other door with the volleyball poles.
Matt’s body shook in my arms. I tried to hold him, but the slippery throw up made it difficult. I looked out the window at the horrid faces peering inside. It was so strange, slipping into another mental state. From where I crouched on the floor, I looked into the face of death, a horrible, torturous death. There it was, just pane of glass between me and the bowels of hell. The severed, dead hand Jordan had broken off the creature lie still in the floor. Its vile smell was filling the hallway.
“You’re going to be okay, Matt,” I said, feeling as if my voice came from somewhere outside of me. “Let’s get you out of here!”
Jordan came and helped me get Matt to his feet, we draped his arms over our shoulders and supported his body as we guided him back into the gym. His breath seemed shallow and rapid. From the look on the security guard’s face, it was clear he was still trying to process exactly what he was seeing.
“Mr. Woods, get the doors, and bring that light!” Jordan yelled. We need another barrier between us and that!” He pointed toward the creatures with his free arm.
Woods sprang into action. He snatched up the spotlight and pulled the gym doors closed behind us. He shined his light around the area and then darted into the physical education supply closet. He returned with an armload of rope and called to another man, asking him to help with securing the doors.
As we stepped further into the gym, others backed away from us. Jordan and I began helping Matt out of the suit, and I used the shears to but through the duct tape that secured the gloves and feet. Matt’s face was ashen and clammy.
A flashlight came toward us. Nurse Hoffstedder’s voice came from behind it. “What happened?” she asked as she took Matt’s wrist and monitored his pulse. After a few seconds, she pulled a penlight from her uniform pocket and shining it into his eyes.
“Was he injured?” Mrs. Hoffstedder asked.
I tried to process what she was asking as a fresh wall of disconnection formed around me. Was he injured?
“Casey!” she said with more urgency in her tone. “Answer me.”
“N-No,” I responded in that same voice that seemed to come from somewhere else. “We’ve been…” I couldn’t immediately find the words to describe what had just happened. I knew what I saw, but how could it have been real? “The soldiers were murdered in front of us. Monsters tore them apart.” I was having difficulty talk
ing because my body was shaking so hard.
The nurse took my pulse and shined her penlight into my eyes as well. “Jordan,” she continued, “are you okay? Were you with them?”
“Naw, I don’t know what went down. I woke up and heard screams and people pounding on the door. I looked around and realized Casey and Matt were gone, so I tried to find the soldiers, and they weren’t here either. I didn’t see what happened to them.”
Hoffstedder turned to me and Matt. “I think both of you are in shock,” she said. “How did you get covered in vomit? We need to get you all cleaned off. Let’s get to the locker rooms.” She patted my arm, and I winced. “You’ve hurt your arm,” she said. “What happened?”
“I was trying to hold the door closed, and I heard something snap,” I answered.
“Geez, honey,” she groaned with empathy. “Hold still.” She felt my arm and gently rotated and lifted it. It snapped as she raised it up and down. “Does that hurt?”
“Yes,” I answered.
“On a scale of one to ten with ten being the worst you can stand, how bad does it hurt?” she asked.
“I’d give it a fifteen,” I smiled.
“Looks like a rotator cuff injury to me. You’re an awfully stoic young lady,” she said. “How can you stand there and not tell me you’re in pain?”
I just shrugged to avoid explaining. ‘Lots of practice,’ I thought.
“Well, go clean up,” she said. “I’ll bring you an anti-inflammatory for the pain.”
I saw Mr. Woods assembling a group of adults nearby and talking with them as Mrs. Hoffstedder led us across the gym toward the stairs. As we moved, taking careful steps around cots and mats, my mind fought to right itself after being assaulted by such a close brush with violent death. I realized anew that Jordan had literally saved our lives. But how? “Jordan, how did you get to us? The door was barred from our side. How did you get out of the gym and into the hallway?” I asked.
“After I realized something was going on outside the doors, and we couldn’t get to you, I went down into the service tunnels under the gym. You can get to the main building from the maintenance shaft,” he explained.
Viral Series (Book 1): Viral Dawn [Extended Edition] Page 10