“Are you okay?”
I sigh. Of course, I’m not okay. “I’ll be alright. Just give me a few minutes.”
She sits down next to me and puts her arm around me. “Ryan is such a jerk.”
“The worst.” I agree.
We fall silent while we listen to the rain. Without being able to see outside, I can almost pretend everything is normal. I used to love to listen to the sound of rain on the roof. At first, it’s just a little tickle, but soon it gains in intensity, and it sounds like millions of drums.
Suddenly there is a loud banging noise coming from the big double front doors. It sounds like they are getting smashed into the walls, followed by a cacophony of screaming and other sounds. A sound I hoped never to hear again, but it’s still so familiar to me—the hissing of the maniacs.
My first instinct is to hide, but then something else takes over. Those are my friends out there. And although I only had a few weeks of training with Martin, I’m a lot more confident. I reach for my backpack and pull out my gun. Maggie’s eyes go wide.
“Is that a gun? Vivian Allister, did you bring a gun to school?”
‘It just might save your life.’ I think sarcastically while also pulling out two hunting knives. Out loud, I say, “Stay here. Hide.”
I know it is against the law to bring a gun on school property, but I will never, ever, be without one again. For the exact same reason greeting me in the main gym. Mayhem. I don’t know how many maniacs are in there, but kids are screaming and running aimlessly in all directions. Some try to climb the walls, which sport those rock-climbing things in them. Some try to fight back; some are just being mauled.
Caren, a pretty-faced freshman girl, is lying on her back, fighting furiously against a maniac woman on top of her. In two steps, I’m at her side and stab my knife into the woman’s back. Pulling the knife out, it produces a sucking sound that makes me sick to my stomach. Martin was right; stabbing somebody is a hell of a lot harder than shooting somebody.
Caren screams even more, as the woman’s blood sprays all over her, before her attacker falls to the side, assisted by a kick from me.
“Get to the locker rooms,” I yell at her.
She looks at me with wide eyes and starts to run. A hissing close by has me spinning around just in time to see a man charge me, holding a small kitchen knife. But before he can reach me, the boom of a gun reverberates through the cavernous room, and the man spins around, sporting a great gaping hole in his chest. I turn around, my eyes meet Blake’s, and we give each other a quick nod in understanding.
Jason is fighting two of the monsters, and Ace jumps in to help him. Cory is half carrying a girl into the locker rooms while Miss Camuto screams as a woman takes a big bite out of her shoulder.
I can’t shoot at the maniac without risking hitting my teacher. I put the gun back into my waistband and pull a knife while sprinting towards them. A swift kick at the woman’s side, and she stumbles back. The sudden change in weight makes Miss Camuto lose her balance, but luckily for her, to the other side. I jump at the fallen woman who attacked her and stab her in the heart. Miss Camuto looks at me the same way Caren did, full of horror. Thanks to me, I guess.
Another man turns towards us, but before he can reach us, I pull out my gun from my waistband and shoot him in the chest. He flies back, and Miss Camuto screams. “Gun, oh my God, she has a gun.” She starts running in circles.
It would almost be funny if we weren’t in a fight for our lives. I grab her by the shoulders and slap her in the face.
“Go to the locker rooms,” I scream at her.
Her eyes clear a little, she nods curtly before turning towards the locker rooms. Some other kids get the same message and make their way over there, while more maniacs pour into the gym, more than I can count, or we can fight.
“Everybody into the locker rooms.” Drew screams.
I start to retreat too, my back to the large door, eyes on the incoming maniacs. I still see about four kids on the rock-climbing wall, clinging to hand and footholds for dear life; I run over there. “Come on, get down, and get to the locker rooms.”
Two start to come down, but the other two stare wide-eyed at the maniacs who are getting closer. I kill the one getting too close for comfort, whose hands are holding a bloody bat, I hit him in the shoulder, and he flies back. Blake is on him in a heartbeat and finishes him off with a stab to the neck.
He helps the first two Freshmen down and sends them towards what we hope will be safe. Three more maniacs rush at us. My gun barks three times, and one after the other goes down. But more are coming, fast. I will run out of bullets before I even make a dent into the oncoming swarm of crazed people.
I call out to Cory, running by. “Cory,” I scream. He turns, appraises our situation, and rushes over.
Blake desperately tries to coach the two freshmen down, who can’t be older than fourteen; they are clearly scared to death and won’t budge. Two maniacs reach us. Cory punches one in the chin as she tries to grab him, and I kick the other in his side, which pushes him back. But he tries to get back up, and suddenly there are three more, one of them swinging a baseball bat.
“Get down, you morons; we’re trying to help you,” Drew yells out loud, joining in to help us.
I shoot the closest maniac and then three more before my gun runs empty. I curse and put it back into the back of my pants, I brought spare magazines, but they are in my backpack, which is in the locker room. I curse my own stupidity; why didn’t I grab them? This is not the right time for self-flagellation, though. I just shelve it under lesson learned and promise myself to do better next time.
I reach for my knife and jump at the man who won’t stay down. At the same time, a pain erupts from my scalp as somebody pulls at my hair, and I stumble back. Turning, I come face to face with a snarling woman; I ram my knife into her side. With a hiss, she lets go of my hair but grabs for me again.
She is filthy and looks almost like a zombie. Her clothes are ripped in parts and stained with blood. Her hair is matted to her head; dark circles run under her bloodshot eyes. But she is fighting like a banshee. Screeching and hissing at the same time.
I land a kick into her stomach, and she staggers back, right into a man who is attacking Blake with a golf club. I follow the woman and stab her again, this time right in the neck like I saw Blake do earlier. Before I can check to make sure she is dead, hands close around my throat. This is a situation Martin has taught us countless times. I lift my leg and kick back as hard as I can, right into my attacker’s kneecap. Martin’s words ring in my ear. “Don’t hold back. Girls tend to hold back. Kick as if your life depends on it, which it just might.”
He was right. There is a part of me that wants to hold back, but I ignore it. There’s a sickening snapping sound; as my attacker’s kneecap dislocates, the guy grunts and loosens his grip on my throat. But not because he’s in pain; maniacs don’t seem to feel pain. No, it’s because the knee won’t support him any longer, and he loses his balance.
I grab his arm and turn around the same moment as he starts to go down. Using the momentum, my other leg comes up to deliver another kick, this one aimed at his hips.
At the same time, somebody grabs my arm and pulls me into their embrace. Instinct kicks in, and I lift my elbow just as I’m yanked towards my new attacker. I use their momentum to hit them with my elbow into their side. As I turn around, I stare right into the face of a snarling woman. She still has a hold of my arm, although I can see that my elbow knocked the air out of her. I keep spinning, forcing her to let go, just as another man latches on to me.
We are getting overrun! I notice Blake fighting two guys, and Drew is not faring much better. On the upside, the two kids finally came down and are making a run for the locker room, where I see Cory and Ace waving people inside while punching maniacs back.
“We need to go,” I yell at the other two boys.
With difficulty, we manage to free ourselves from our pursuers long
enough to walk-run backward towards the locker room. Another man who is getting too close to Drew, swinging a kitchen knife, receives a hard kick from Drew and staggers back, while Blake slices at a woman who is trying to jump me.
I search around frantically. At least thirty maniacs are inside the gym. Bodies are lying on the floor, and there is no way to see if any of them are still alive or not.
Blake, Drew, and I are the last ones standing inside the gym who are not maniacs. We turn and run. Drew and Cory wave at us and yell for us to run faster. Panting, we make it to the door, and the two boys swing it shut. Drew turns the lock. Lucky for us, the door is metal and opens to the outside, so the maniacs won’t be able to kick it in easily. As soon as the door is closed, we hear them pound against it.
Chapter 14
“Now what?” I pant.
Somebody grabs one of those little door wedges and shoves it underneath the door, which won’t do much good, since the door opens outward, but I don’t say anything if it makes them feel more secure; I’m not going to rain on their parade.
Ryan and Jason come back with benches, and they prop them against the door for good measure. Also, a useless gesture, but at least it will slow the maniacs down, should they miraculously make it into our temporary save haven.
Ryan smirks at me. “I see you still can’t help yourself but shoot people.”
“Shut up, Ryan.” I snarl at him when I really want to punch him.
“Asshole,” Drew adds.
“She is endangering everybody.” Ryan keeps on.
“She saved my life,” Caren says and pats me on the shoulder. “Thank you.”
I nod gratefully at her.
“Whatever.” Ryan won’t stop. “I can’t believe you brought guns to school. You should be arrested —“
Blake steps forward and decks him, hard. His expression when he looks at me is one of utter relief. “God, I wanted to do this for so long.”
We smirk at each other in understanding. Ryan makes a show of wanting to throw himself at Blake, but Drew and Jose hold him back.
“Stop it, McCarthy. Enough.” Cory yells in Ryan’s face.
Ryan shakes Drew and Jose off and stalks off into the back of the room, loudly muttering curses.
Several kids and teachers try to call 911, but something blocks the signal; none of the phones work. Through the giant skylights, we can still see and hear the rain.
Even if we could break them and climb onto the roof, we’d be exposed to the deadly downpour. No other door leads in or out, and maniacs block the one entrance we came in through, loudly making their presence known by pounding nonstop against it.
“Hopefully, once the rain stops, we will get a signal again,” Cory says hopefully.
“Where did they all come from?” Jose wants to know.
“It’s almost as if they waited for the rain and knew we’d be trapped in here.” Ace muses.
Drew looks at me appreciatively. “Where did you learn to fight like that? I didn’t see you use these Ninja skills on our trip from hell.”
“Yeah, you were badass.” Cory chimes in.
I point at Blake. “He and his dad have been training me since we came back.”
“If we make it out of here, you think he’ll take on some of us?” Cory asks with glee in his eyes.
Blake nods seriously. “I think he’d love to, but be warned, we start at oh-dark-hundred.”
At the boys’ lost expression, I laugh. “He means three in the morning.”
The guys raise their eyebrows, but I can tell they are not scared off. “The more, the merrier.” I snicker, meaning it, but also looking forward to seeing their faces once Martin actually starts working them out.
Maggie sidles up to me. “Miss Camuto is hurt pretty bad. Can you come check on it?”
Maggie knows about my vet aspirations; I told her about how I helped Colin. I nod and follow her into the showers, where Miss Camuto is sitting on a bench while a couple of girls try to clean her arm with warm water.
“Is there a first aid kit or something?” I ask.
When Miss Camuto looks up, I see an expression of fright cross her features; I roll my eyes. I’m not the one she should fear.
“I got it.” Ellie, another girl I have known since grade school, hands me the kit.
“Okay, let me see.”
Miss Camuto pulls her arm away from me, and I give her a ‘Really?’ look. After a second, she holds her arm out to me, ashamed. “Thank you.” She whispers.
“It’s okay. I have done this before. Don’t worry.”
“Will I turn into one of those… things?” she asks apprehensively.
I try not to show my irritation. Why does everybody think these maniacs are zombies? Doesn’t anybody listen to the news?
“Don’t worry, a friend of mine was bitten, and he is not worse for the wear. Well, not worse than before.” I correct myself with a grim smirk.
I kind of miss Colin’s arrogance, if I’m honest. Especially right now, in this situation, his irritating self would help me focus.
She looks at me, hopefully. “Really?”
“Really,” I affirm with all the conviction I can muster while cleaning her wound, which is not as bad as Colin’s had been.
“You’ll need some antibiotics once we get out of here, but for now, you should be fine.”
She takes my hand. “Thank you, Vivian. For before too.”
I nod. “No problem.” I reclaim my hand. “Anybody else needs first aid?”
A few other kids sport bite and scratch marks, and one boy seems to have a broken rib or two. Unfortunately, I can’t do much for him except to tell him to sit against the wall and hand him a couple of aspirin. Which I’m sure will do nothing for the kind of pain he’s experiencing.
Nobody speaks; everybody is hanging on to their own thoughts. The pounding on the door is just the same, and the rain is still pouring against the skylights, making loud drumming noises. Thoughtfully, I stare at the glass enclosure and let the noise assault my senses before I walk over to Drew and Blake. The two are still guarding the door leading back into the gym.
“Listen, it’s only a matter of time before somebody cracks with all the noise going on. Be ready in case they make a run for the door.”
The boys nod their understanding and throw worried glances at the other kids and teachers as well. Maggie comes back to my side.
“I heard you were pretty badass out there.” She raises an eyebrow.
I told her about my training. She has pitied me in the past, but now she has another expression on her face, more like envy.
“I heard some of the guys are thinking about joining,” Maggie says.
“So, you want to join too?”
She nods eagerly. I give her a skeptical once over. I love Maggie, we have been friends since preschool, but she is a girlie girl. Manicured nails and styled hair all the way, every day. She sees my facial expression and knows what I’m thinking. Her smile is rueful.
“I know. I can do without nails for a while. They won’t do me any good if I’m dead, now will they? And honestly, you weren’t that much different from me before….” She lets the sentence hang, apprehensive about what she was going to say, and how I would take it. But I get it. I put my arm around her shoulder and squeeze her reassuringly.
“It’s ok. Before the stuff happened in California, I was a girly girl too.”
She smiles at me, relieved. “So, I can come?”
“Of course, it would be awesome to have another girl there.”
“Out! Let! Me! Out!” A man screams.
To my surprise, it’s Mr. Heffner, our PE teacher, who breaks first. He is always on us about how to push ourselves and self-control. Now, he makes a run for the door, where Blake stops him. “Sorry, Mr. Heffner, I can’t let you do this.”
The teacher grabs Blake by his shirt and shakes him. “You don’t understand; I need out.”
“Me too.” somebody else pipes up.
�
��Yeah, let’s get out.” Others chime in, just like I worried they would.
Jose has the same ‘what the hell is wrong with people’ expression on his face that has to be mirrored on mine. I give Blake a pointed look, he nods. He knows he needs to take care of this, now, before a full-blown rebellion breaks out.
“Sorry, Mr. Heffner,” he says at the same time as he punches our teacher square on the chin.
Mr. Heffner goes down. He would have hit the floor if Blake hadn’t held him up. Jose steps in to assist, and together, they lay the unconscious teacher on the tiled ground. Erica pulls out a shirt from somewhere and puts it under his head.
“Everybody,” Jose yells over the ruckus that has broken out inside the locker room. “Guys, I need you all to pay attention for a minute.”
The room quiets down. “I know this is hard. But we all need to stay calm. We are safe here. We just need to wait until help arrives.”
“When will that be?” One of the freshmen we saved earlier wants to know.
I sigh. “As soon as the rain stops, we’ll have a signal. Then we can call for help.”
There is no way I can know that for sure; I’m talking out of my ass at this point, but I figure it’s better to be wrong, and everybody calms down for the time being. If I’m wrong, we can deal with it later.
Jose gives me a knowing grin letting me see that he knows I’m just trying to appease everyone but keeps quiet.
“Guys, snacks.” Ryan walks into the middle of the room, his arm loaded with candy bars and chips from the vending machine.
Great, I think, nothing better than a sugar rush. But I’m grateful to him nevertheless because the kids can’t talk or complain with their mouths full.
Chapter 15
I expected the news to be all over this story, but there is nothing, not even a blurb on TV or the local newspaper. Martin called the paper, but they politely declined the information, which makes us nervous and assume we are not the only place where this has happened. Blake tries to create a YouTube story, but it gets declined as soon as he posts it. I try Instagram and Facebook with the same result.
The Rain | Part 1 | The Beginning Page 14