“Alright people, you know the drill. Lights off, I’ll lock the door, and everyone go to the corner and get comfortable… I have a feeling we’ll be under lockdown for a while”, Mrs. Varney voiced.
As she went to lock the door, loud bangs reverberated throughout the room, coming from the closed but unlocked door.
“Lock the door!” someone shouted.
“I’m trying!” Mrs. Varney shouted back with hints of desperation and fear in her voice.
Mrs. Varney opened the door wide enough so that she could try to lock it and narrow enough so that whatever was on the other side couldn’t come through. As she tried to lock the door, Mrs. Varney fumbled with the keys, and just as the keys slipped through her fingers, the thing that continued its assault on the door from the other side gained the upper hand….pushing the door open wider and squeezing its hand through.
With a strength that none of us knew she had, Mrs. Varney kicked the intruder out of the doorframe and slammed the door closed.
Leaving the severed arm of the infiltrator lying on the floor.
“STUDENTS AND TEACHERS WE WILL BE EVACUATING THE SCHOOL IMMEDIATELY. PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY OUTSIDE AND TO THE PARKING LOTS”, a panicked feminine voice sounded over the loudspeaker.
“Th-that’s an arm… oh my god, is that person ok? Holy crap that’s someone’s arm!” Braeden frantically shouted.
“We need to get out of here right now. Open that door!” Cole voiced.
“No one is going anywhere. We are staying here until help comes”, Mrs. Varney finalized.
“Forget that!! You didn’t see what I saw; Chelsea attacked two full grown people, who knows what happened to them! We need to leave while we still can! There’s a freaking severed arm on the floor and that thing wasn’t affected by it!” Huntir screamed.
As much as I wanted to leave, I thought it would be best to wait a little while to see if help showed up. “Alright, those who want to stay raise your hand; whoever wants to leave stand up”, I said. More than half the class stood up; including Huntir, Naahin, and Cole.
“Fine then, those who stood up, leave”, Mrs. Varney said defeated.
As they walked towards the door with tentative steps I walked up to Huntir, Naahin, and Cole and gave them scissors. “It’s not much, but at least you’ll be able to defend yourselves”, I stated.
“Thanks”, they all said simultaneously.
The door was cautiously opened; one by one my friends stepped out into the unknown. Once they were all gone, I had a feeling, an intuition, that I wouldn’t see them again and in that moment, I wished I had made them stay.
Braeden, Cayson, Paige, Mrs. Varney, and I were the only ones to stay. “Ya’ll are the only ones with any sense. We’re going to be alright. Help is on the way”, Mrs. Varney said.
We were about to respond when screams suddenly erupted from down the hall. “What the h e double hockey sticks was that?” Paige questioned.
“I’ll check it out”, I offered. As I looked out the narrow rectangular window in the door I tilted my head to the right to see down the hall, when I didn’t see anything, I went to look left, when a distorted version of Huntir slammed on the door looking into the window making me jump back at least two feet from fright. ‘Huntir’ started to groan and pound on the window with her fists in a repetitive pattern; BANG…BANG…BANG…BANG over and over again. “Holy mother of god”, I whispered.
“What the fuc- crap is that?” Cayson questioned.
“It looks like Huntir…” Braeden responded.
“That thing is certainly not Huntir”, Paige added.
The bangs got louder and faster. We sat there stunned until the cracking of glass and splintering of wood galvanized us into action. “OK, everyone grab something to defend yourself with”, Mrs. Varney ordered. I started to hand out the rest of the scissors while Cayson and Paige started to pile desks against the door to act as a barrier. The bangs grew stronger and sounded at different times; indicating that there were multiple ‘people’ trying to get in. Cayson dropped the desk he was holding in shock.
“Shi-crap!” I said.
“We need to try to get out of here; we’re sitting ducks waiting in here!” Braeden shouted.
“Alright, remove the barrier. We’re going to try to get out of here. Whatever happens, just keep running and watch each other’s backs”, Mrs. Varney said. Mrs. Varney slowly creaked the door open, and revealing the outside world to us. As if we were in some kind of cliché horror movie, the lights in the hallway were flickering on and off and if we weren’t in this serious situation, I probably would’ve made a really sarcastic comment. It was quiet, too quiet, and as we were walking towards the staircase I had to bite my tongue to keep the endless stream of acerbic thoughts to myself.
“I think the coast is clear. Let’s just get out of here quickly”, Paige whispered. Like a scene out of the Walking Dead or World War Z, moans started to sound from the right, and even more cliché I heard shuffling on the right coming from an open classroom. Just like that we were surrounded on both sides by our former friends and teachers. Zombie versions of Naahin, Cole, Huntir and even Chelsea – who was missing an arm- were at the front of the herd.
“Oh god”, Braeden said.
“Wh- what do we do?” Paige asked.
“We have to distract them. We need a plan, we need one now!” I said.
“I, I’ll distract them, you kids run. RUN NOW! Don’t look back… look out for each other; promise me!” Mrs. Varney shouted. Before we could protest, Mrs. Varney flung herself towards the ravenous creatures; allowing our escape down the stairs.
