New Eden- The New Eden series book#1 (#Wattys2016)

Chapter 7 "Help was not coming."

Not everyone made it out alive.

  Dana was dead. While Samantha and I had been fighting, a trio of Bugs had ambushed Brandon and Dana. They had carried her away screaming.

  Samantha had tried to help and was injured. The little finger on her left hand had been bitten off, leaving her a moaning emotional mess. It was the first time I had seen her cry. As tough as she was during the initial attack, proving to be a real survivor, after losing her finger she had transformed into a little girl, crying and wishing for her mom.

  Don't get me wrong, I wasn't looking down on the her. We were all in that kind of state. We got our asses handed to us by some insects. Giant, killer insects. We were cut up, scratched, bloody and bruised. I felt no shame in admitting that I wanted my mom.

  However, tears and wishful thinking wasn't going to change our situation. I sat to the back of the class, catching my breath. I had to use my inhaler again. It felt light in my hands. Probably got less than half. I would have to conserve it as much as possible, until I got a new one.

  Leroy paced the front of the class nervously. He had broken off another table leg and gripped his new weapon in a vice grip. Lewis, I remembered his name now, the only adult among us, sat at a desk, his face buried in his hands. I couldn't tell if he was sleeping. Kay-Marie was a few chairs away. She just started straight ahead as she held her brother and stroked his head. Elton had fallen asleep in her arms.

  Samantha was lying against the wall. She was asleep now. The bleeding had stopped and I had cleaned and bandaged the stump of her finger. She cradled her hand gently against her chest.

  Brandon sat next to me, strangely calm. He was but up like the rest of us and stank of old sweat, but he didn't look the least bit troubled. Come to think of it, for all the years Brandon and me have been friends, I've never once seen him emotionally bothered. I've never seen him angry or sad or frustrated...or happy in a way. He always wore the same bland face. Cool and calculating. What was he thinking now?

"Hey, thanks for saving me back there." I said. I had thanked him before, but I said it again to break the silence.

"No prob, man. You'd have done the same for me." Brandon replied. "So. What's our next move?"

I shrugged. "I got nothing."

"Man, I can really go for a pizza right now." he grumbled. "A big slice with green peppers, corn and chicken....and a stuffed crust!"

"Yeah," I agreed. "I think tomorrow is pizza day at the cafeteria. It's not Pizza Hut, but I could sure go for a bite."

"Oh, shut the hell up!" Leroy suddenly snapped at me.

"What's your problem?" I asked.

"My problem?" he came and stood directly in front of us. "My problem, is that I'm tired of listening to your smart-ass ideas...your plans! You and Miss Nines, over there!" Leroy yelled and stabbed a finger at Samantha, who was awake now. She stared back at him plainly.

"Hey, lay off!" Brandon stood up to defend. That actually kind of had me peeved. I didn't need anybody to stand up for me.

"At least we're doing something." I put in.

"Like coming up with the idea to go to the cafeteria? Like getting Dana killed?" Leroy said the line and let it hang in the air.

Did he really just say that? I didn't know when I moved, but my hands were grabbing Leroy by the collar, trying to strangle him. He was blaming me! ME! -for Dana's death.

While the rest of us had struggled to fight off the Bugs, he had turned ass and run. He had left us to die. He was the coward! And he was blaming me!? I wanted to strangle the bastard. Or better yet, throw him outside. See how he does against the monsters.

But Brandon and Kay grabbed me, pulled me off of him. Held me back from carrying out my rage.

"Hey hey! Everybody take it easy! " Lewis jumped in between us. Samantha was sitting up now, taking in the show.

"You coward!" I spat. "You ran away. You left us back there when you could've done something!"

"No!" Leroy fired back. "This is your fault! You wanted to go. I said that we should stay and wait for help, but no one listened to me-and now this happens! The fact that Dana died is on your head Bradley."

I tried to break free to get to him again, but Lewis shoved me back.

"Whoa! Stop, alright!" he said. "We don't need to be fighting and advertising that we're hiding here."

"Look," Brandon said. "We're all just trying to survive. Brad just did what he thought was best."

"Like trying to get us killed?!" Leroy interjected.

"Staying in here isn't going to be any safer than out there. You think help is coming?"

Brandon tossed his phone to Leroy. "There's no signal."

"And?"

"It means that you can't make or get any calls. That, and the power's out."

  We were all listening to Brandon closely. Churning his words over and connecting the dots. He had realized something very important and was bringing it to light.

Help was not coming.

"What, you think that the military is cutting us off?" Kay

"Bull shit! They can't just do that!" Leroy said, ever the opposition.

"It's a quarantine, dumb ass." I said. "They're allowed to take any action necessary to prevent whatever it is from spreading."

"Does that mean they can block our calls?" Samantha finally spoke up.

Brandon nodded. "If word was to get out about what was really going on here, there would be a panic outside. They don't want that."

"So, what? They're just going to leave everyone in the town to die?" Leroy again.

"I don't know. But I do know that they're not going to come in, guns blazing to save some civilians locked in a classroom. If we want to live through this then we can't stay here."