The one positive about school at this point is the air conditioner. The solar panels are doing their jobs, making this place cool and tolerable. On the other hand, it makes it hard to know if the power gets back on anywhere else.
Alaska is starting to sound better and better to me. I talked to one girl yesterday in Alaska who told me that yes, the temperatures did seem to have risen slightly, but they were still hovering between sixty- and sixty-five degrees. I was born and bred in Oregon, so those numbers don’t scare me at all; actually, it sounds like comfy t-shirt weather with a light sweater to me. Oh, how I miss my sweaters.
My eyes drift to the football field on the other side of the window; nobody is out there. At nine o’clock in the morning, the temperatures already reached over one hundred degrees. Absolutely unheard-of during April in our region.
Consequently, nobody is crazy enough to attempt PE outside at this point. Beyond the field is a large chain-link fence behind which is dense forest. The sky is a bright blue, and the sun is so brilliant that the combination of the two is hurting my eyes.
When I turn back around to the classroom, I notice Stephen giving me hostile glares. He is a new guy on the football team. I don’t think I ever exchanged more than five words with him; why he regards me with those hostile glances is beyond me, but I chose to stare right back at him until he averts his eyes.
A girl I never talked to before peeks up at me from her phone. A shy smile creeps around her lips; I give her a tentative smile back before seeing Amy sneering at me. The only one who gives me a wide grin is Ty. At least one friendly face.
I sigh. What the hell is wrong with these people? If they don’t like what we do, fine, but leave us alone. And what is it exactly that we did that makes them ostracize us? Survived the Amusement Park debacle? Wow, the audacity. Saved lives in the gym? The horror!
I yawn and excuse myself to use the bathroom. Miss Camuto frowns at me but allows me to leave. I guess I’m supposed to be grateful to be allowed to use the bathroom. Resentment runs through me at the thought. People are way too power-hungry. Give them a little, and they start to act like Nazis.
I enter the bathroom and pick a stall at the end. I’m just about to flush when the door to the main room bursts open, and two girls fall giggling into the room.
“…. the nerve.” One girl ends the sentence; I missed the first part off.
“They are just killers. Ryan said she shot a guy in cold blood.”
I recognize Carol’s voice and clench my teeth. Now I know who the other girl is too, Chris. Both of them used to be friends with Maggie and me. The four of us and some other girls spent the night before the California trip together at Chris’ house. They all told me how jealous they were I got to go with the football team. Each one of them gave me advice on how to win Ryan’s heart.
We made bead bracelets together, for crying out loud. I guess the beading meant more to me than them, I think with a sardonic smile. I want to flush and make my presence known, but their words pause me.
“I don’t understand why the sheriff won’t do anything about it.”
“She belongs in jail.”
“I’m honestly scared with them around. You know they all carry guns in their backpacks?”
At that remark, I smirk; Carol is wrong. My gun is safely tucked into my pants, hidden by a long, wide t-shirt. I gave up on the backpack after the gym incident; I want the gun handy in case I need it. I’m sure I’m not the only one in our group thinking this. I also carry several knives and additional mags in the big pockets of my black cargo pants.
“My dad says he called the school board. Hopefully, they’ll all be suspended soon.”
I close my eyes in disgust; I heard enough. I flush and walk out to the sinks, where Chris is sitting perched on one of them. She is in the middle of applying lip gloss to her lips, holding one of those flimsy mirrors in one hand. Both girl’s eyes widen as they realize I was in the stall the entire time.
I grin and wash my hands slowly. “Chris.” I greet. “Carol.”
They both sport a big oh expression on their faces, and I suppress a laugh. Even though their words hurt, I’m trying my hardest to mask my feelings; I don’t want them to see that their words affected me. Even if they did, a tiny bit.
“I’m so glad to see that you weren’t hurt when Ty pulled you from that maniacs’ grip.” I stare straight into Carol’s eyes, saying this, and she has the good grace to turn away.
“It really is a shame that some of us actually tried to save people, while others complained.” I can’t stop myself from adding before I close the door behind me.
I lean against it and exhale loudly. Give me a maniac any day of the week; at least you know where you stand with them, I think; high school really does suck. I make my way back into my classroom and quietly get back to my seat without interrupting Miss Camuto. Ty winks at me, and I smile. At least we all have each other, which means a lot more than the rest of the kids’ opinions.
I still can’t concentrate on what Miss Camuto is saying, and my eyes drift back to the forest. A tiny movement in the shadows catches my eye, but try as I might, I don’t see it again. Could have been anything, from rabbit to bird to a maniac. I’m just about to return my attention to Miss Camuto when I see it again. It’s a large shadow slowly making its way towards the edge of the forest.
“Ty!” I yell out, pointing.
Miss Camuto is not amused. “Vivian Allister, back in your chair, please. Tylor Fenton, sit down.”
But neither one of us listens; the shadow I’m watching emerges completely from the forest, turns into a shape. The sun highlights the slick skin of what is unmistakably some kind of dinosaur. Much bigger than our turkey-saur. A lot bigger. And it’s not alone. More and more become visible, stepping out of the trees, their heads move from side to side, before almost as one, they zoom in on the school.
“Shit.” I breathe out. “Miss Camuto, get everyone into the bathrooms and lock the doors.”
The doors to the bathrooms are metal -a precautionary measure in case of a school shooter; I doubt anything short of a missile would be able to get in there.
My eyes fall on Amy, who still holds her phone in her hands, her eyes wide as she looks out the window. “Amy, call the sheriff.”
When she doesn’t move, I slam both of my palms hard against her desk. “Amy, now.”
Her body twitches, and she is back with us. Her hand holding the phone trembles; her forehead is scrunched up in concentration to punch in the right numbers.
“What the hell is going on?” Miss Camuto asks.
She still hasn’t looked outside. One of the other kids screams when she sees the dinosaurs hopping the fence, which is no deterrent to their massive hind legs.
“Oh my God, what are those?” Somebody else screams.
“At least it’s not the big ones,” Ty says, and to my utter astonishment, he is grinning widely.
“Miss Camuto.” I pull on her sleeve. “The bathrooms.”
She seems to pull herself together and swallows hard. “Let’s go, kids. Let’s go.”
She stays by the door and herds the other teenagers into the bathroom. The girl who gave me a tentative smile earlier passes me and whispers in a frightened voice, “Don’t let them kill us.”
I blink, wondering what she expects us to do.
“There are at least thirty of them now,” Ty exclaims.
“You’ll be okay in the bathroom,” I promise the girl.
Adrenaline surges through me as I pull out my gun. Even though I don’t know what we are going to do, I do know we are not going to stand by while people get killed if we have the means to defend them.
“What do we do?” Ty looks at me expectantly. Ready for whatever I decide to do. He literally bounces on the heels of his feet in anticipation of a fight.
My mind is racing. “Let’s get downstairs; we need to seal the doors.”
The problem is that our high school is made up of several differen
t buildings. Each one is self-contained, unfortunately, offering several targets for attack this way. We’ll deal with this one step at a time.
Chapter 21
Before I leave the room, I throw one more glance out the window and freeze. I hiss Ty’s name, and he is by my side instantly, cursing under his breath. Maniacs joined the dinosaurs. Although, joined may not be the right term because some of them are mauled as we watch. They may be on the same side, but they are definitely not team players.
Chaos ensues down there, which grants us more time, as dinosaurs attack maniacs and, to my horror, vice versa. But most of them are making their way steadily towards the school buildings. The long, powerful legs of the extinct lizards make them fast.
The sound of glass breaking on the floor below us reminds me that the rooms on the first floor have windows as well. Sealing off the doors will not help us. Screams follow the noise of shattering glass. Ty and I race down the stairs, taking two at a time and jumping down the last ten, holding on to the metal railing. I land in a crouch but use the momentum to get right back up. Ty whirls towards the screams and is a few steps ahead of me, just as a wave of teenagers and teachers run at us.
“To the bathrooms, upstairs,” Ty screams at them.
I grab hold of Jason, who is trying to storm past me. We may have been having problems lately, but I do remember that he had a good head on his shoulder during the California trip debacle.
“Jason,” I yell at him.
“Vivian.” He looks surprised to see me.
“Get everybody to go up with you and lock yourselves into the bathrooms,” I yell at him.
He nods tightly before freeing himself from my grip. I watch for a second, making sure the other kids and teachers take the right direction, as other classroom doors open and people stream out looking to see what all the ruckus is about. Eric and Michael emerge together from one room.
“Over here,” I call for them.
“What’s going on?”
“Did you bring your weapons?” I wait for their nod, “dinos and maniacs are attacking. Get all the classrooms emptied and make sure everybody barricades themselves in the bathrooms or the higher up floors.”
I stare at them to make sure they understand me. Their expressions are easy to read; they are eager to join the fight. And they still might need to, later, but they are new to our training camp, and I want to make sure they stay safe for now.
“Cover the stairway, don’t let anything up if you can avoid it. Don’t let yourselves get overrun; if there are too many, barricade yourselves in as well.”
They are scared but nod, ready to face whatever comes next. A scream from the classroom to our left gets us moving again. Ty and I run towards the door, while Eric and Michael head upstairs. More sounds of splintering glass can be heard from the other side of the door.
“Split up?” Ty asks.
I definitely don’t want to do that. “No way.” I hold up my gun. “We don’t even know if these things will work against those monsters.”
He nods and follows my lead. I put a hand on the door handle, jutting my chin forward to tell Ty to stand against the wall, 9mm ready. My right hand holds my weapon while my left pulls the door wide open.
The blood freezes in my veins at the sight ahead of me. A giant lizard tears into a boy I know. His name is Sean, and we used to be lab partners. He is a good kid, a straight-A student who never gets into trouble. Quiet. I also happen to know that his dad just died a little over a year ago and that his mom is fighting Lupus. He is all she has.
I lift my gun, and for a split second, the dinosaur’s reptilian eyes meet mine; I’m not sure if it realizes I’m a bigger threat or if it thinks I’m about to steal its meal. Either way, it tosses Sean down, whose grunt lets me know that thankfully, he is still alive. The beast makes a jump for me.
I’m ready, though. My arm goes up, I aim, pull the trigger, and pray to God; this thing doesn’t have a bulletproof head. It hisses at me with the same sound the maniacs make; I register the information for later use before I watch as its head spins around when the bullet hits it. For a frightening second, I think it’s still coming for me, but its knees buckle under it, and it goes down.
“Yes!” I scream out.
“Good shot.” Ty acknowledges.
I make my way to Sean’s side, who is moaning. Blood pours down the arm the beast had between its teeth a second ago. Ty makes quick use of this belt and wraps it tightly around the upper part of Sean’s arm to stem the bleeding.
“Thank you.” The boy moans.
The wound looks ugly, torn up. I don’t know if they can stitch it back together or if the arm needs to be amputated, but at least he is alive.
“Can you walk, man?” Ty asks.
Sean nods between gritted teeth. “Thank you.”
He makes eye contact with me, and I see the regret of mistreating us written all over them.
“Don’t sweat it,” I say and brush my arm over his uninjured shoulder. “You’ll be alright.”
“Can you make it to the bathrooms on the upper floor?” Ty asks him.
“Eric and Michael are by the stairs; they’ll help you up.” I let the boy know.
“Where will you guys be?” Sean grunts out, nodding in response to Ty’s question. He attempts to get up on wobbly legs and accepts Ty’s help to stand.
Crashing sounds reach us from a room across the hall. Everything inside me itches to go.
“Got to go,” I say, turning.
“Wait,” Sean yells after us.
“What?” I ask impatiently to get to the other room.
“I… just… thank you.”
I nod one more time to him before looking at Ty. “Ready?”
“Now or never.” He jokes.
The door to the room where the noises came from is closed. I hesitate. We haven’t found out if either of those monsters can open doors. Should we pass this one by or investigate? A groaning sound coming from within makes the decision for me. Whoever is in there is still alive and needs help.
Ty positions himself to the right of the door while I’m ready to open it. I got my legs planted apart, prepared to jump back, while I’m holding my gun down like Ty. Ty shows his fingers.
Three, two… My heart pounds hard against my chest wall, and I’m seriously worried about dying of a heart attack now before either of our adversaries gets a chance to maul me to death
One.
I throw the door open, a dinosaur is chowing down on a person, but by the dirt and grime of the owner’s clothes, I’m positive it’s actually a maniac the dino chomps on. The lizard looks up at me and bares its teeth like a dog with a bone. Dark, red blood comes from several puncture wounds on the maniac.
I shiver. This is not a death I wish on anybody. The maniacs used to be people not too long ago. The man is quietly moaning; he is still alive. Ty turns as if to leave. I aim and shoot at the head of the dinosaur; it goes down—its massive weight pushing the last of the maniac’s life from him.
Ty looks at me, questioning because I’m rotating my head back and forth, trying unsuccessfully to get rid of the ringing in my ears from shooting inside.
“What?” I say and try to laugh it off. “Target practice.”
“Whatever.” He looks grim, but I’m determined to kill any dinosaur or maniac that crosses my path.
A door on our left opens slowly. Our guns move up, aimed at Carol of all people. Her eyes widen in fright at the sight of our weapons. We lower them simultaneously, and she smiles hesitantly.
“Is it safe?”
“How many are in the room?” I whisper.
“About twenty-five,” she whispers back.
Ty asks, “Are there any windows?”
She nods frightened.
“Okay, get everybody out,” Ty tells her. “Go and barricade yourself into a room on the upper floors or a bathroom if there is any space left.”
“Okay.” Her voice is small. She looks at Ty and me apologeticall
y. “I’m sorry.”
I turn on my heel. “We don’t have time for this. Get upstairs.” I say roughly.
And we don’t. If they are sorry now, fine, show me later. I don’t really care right now, and I doubt that I will later on.
We search classroom by classroom, but most of them are abandoned by now. Only two are occupied by a handful of people, who we also send up to the top floor.
“Let’s go, make sure everything is safe up there,” I suggest, and Ty and I run back up the stairs after the last room we checked turns out empty.
Eric and Michael await us on top of the stairs, guns drawn. “It’s all good up here.”
“Okay, stay alert. Ty and I will go and check the other buildings.”
My phone rings again; it has been doing that for the past ten minutes or so. It’s set on quiet and vibrate during class; now, though, is not the time to check. I can guess who is calling anyway, probably Blake and/or Martin. I ignore it, and Ty and I run back down the stairs. By the wide double doors, he hesitates for a second.
“Ready?”
I raise my gun and nod. He pulls the door open, and we make our way out carefully. The sun is blinding, and the heat sweltering as it hits me, but I pay it no attention; my mind focuses on my surroundings.
The building across looks like it has been hit too. I notice the broken windows and, in one of them, movement. I put a finger to my lips and point at the window. Ty nods his understanding, and we slowly make our way over.
Carefully we peek inside the first classroom. The edges of the window frames are filled with jagged, broken pieces of glass. A maniac is taking a bite out of somebody. Horrified, I exchange a glance with Ty.
“When did they start to do that?” I hiss.
He shakes his head and pulls out his knife. “Cover me.”
I keep my gun ready and cover Ty as he first climbs through the broken window before he sneaks up on the maniac. The woman is chowing down on somebodies’ leg. Luckily, it’s so bright outside that looking in casts shadows everywhere, and I can’t make out who the unfortunate person is. Whoever they are, they are dead; there is no movement coming from the body.
The Rain | Part 1 | The Beginning Page 19