The Ink Infection [Brief hold and Editing]

Chapter 15

I looked around at the others, uneasily.

"D-do you t-think that he..." a small voice whispered.

"Or he could have made a whole show about it." Tim interrupted. "Believe me, I've known him for a long time. He likes attention."

"Yeah... I'm going to go with option two." I agreed. I really didn't want to freak out the other students, more likely myself, and I just hoped that it was all fake, and that Liam had just wanted to get on our nerves for disagreeing with him.

Muffled shouts came from behind the door, and the sound of a loud zap followed. All the hair on my body stood up. I shivered. Whatever they were using back there had penetrated a very thick steel door, indicating it was very powerful. 

Wait, steel! I thought. Steel is a conductor of electricity! One thought connected to the next, and my eyes widened at the thought. If there were, truly, many infected people out there, and the guards were using a taser to control them, and they were close to the door, which was a very good conductor...

"Everyone! Get away from the door!" I shouted, backing away from the door.

They hesitated for a moment before joining me on the opposite side of the room. A louder sound of a zap was heard behind the door, immediately followed by a static light in front of the door. Red and orange sparks flew around the door and around the few metal chairs nearby. Everyone flinched as the sound made a large cracking sound. 

Once the sparks calmed down, people started to move towards the door, but Tim stopped them.

"We should stay here until we are sure we're safe," he said.

The students with us nodded their heads eagerly, and the people who were walking towards the door returned.

Another zap followed, and the door opened, showing a group of guards holding a long blue gun in their hands. 

"We're relocating you to a safer zone!" shouted one of them, shooting an electric shot at one of the students running towards us.

Shouts and yelling filled the chaotic, dimly lit hallway. Behind the guard, people were running everywhere, some running into walls, some fighting with the guards. Have the students gone on a rebellion or something? Were they finally striking back? What was happening? And why were the guards holding guns and shooting students? Then I heard it; the low growl of the infected. It was too low to make out, but I could barely hear it over the screaming. 

I was too stunned to speak, more or less moving. What were the infected doing here? I thought they were trapped in the rooms behind us. A few of the people behind me shuffled their feet, moving backwards.

"What are you waiting for? Come on!" the same guard shouted again, running to us. My feet were still glued to the ground, my mind and body frozen.

I looked behind the guards, the hallway now filled with infected students, crawling towards us, or writhing on the ground, a blue static atmosphere surrounding them.

My mind melted, and I was able to speak again. "How do we trust you?" I questioned the guard who was making his way towards us while occasionally shooting at the infected behind him.

"After all you've done to us, you expect us to just follow you to a different place?" I continued, eyeing him wearily.

The guard pointed the gun at me.

"Listen here, young man," he growled. "Do as I say, unless you don't want to be a part of them. Your choice, not mine," he motioned to the infected writhing on the ground in agony. I stepped back, still not wanting to follow them.