Survivors

Chapter Ten: Our Apocalypse: My Awakening

I didn't know when the chemicals poured out of the bomb itself but I knew they were upon the school when I heard something melting; I figured it was the roof, well, what was left of it anyway. Then, slowly but surely, the green poison I had seen on TV and never pictured anywhere else oozed through the crack between the closet door and the floor. At first, the first layer of backpacks started to disintegrate then by the time the chemicals reached the cloth parts, it stopped and Tyler and I looked at each other in disbelief and wonder. We couldn't believe our luck! The chemicals, as soon as they stopped climbing the layers of backpacks, started to evaporate. Then we passed out due to the fumes rising.

I woke up in the former school office. I couldn't remember how I got there but I somehow did. I ran up the stairs quietly and checked each classroom. When I found Ms. Rios, I only thought The war wouldn't affect us, huh? Too bad you were wrong; it cost you. No one had stayed in any recognizable form. Though the kids were still there, not much of them remained. Hair, clothing, and various parts of mostly-melted skin was left but inner organs and bones were definitely out of the picture. When I checked the girls' bathroom, under a broken door and lots of plaster and paint chips, I found Gigi. I knew I couldn't leave her there. The water system was going crazy because the chemicals had melted the metal. I cupped some of the running water in my hands and doused Gigi with it. Still not awake, I dragged her over to where the sink was and immersed her head in it, like a Baptism. She woke up and clawed at me and the air around her. I had caught her off her guard.

"Relax, Gigi, you were passed out and I was just trying to wake you up," I said calmly to her.

"I am calm. Besides, I could've woken myself up, Sierra," she replied.

"Just making sure; you wouldn't wake up when I sprinkled water on your face. Come on, we should look for other survivors." I helped her to her feet and I led her over the threshold of the girls' bathroom into the hallway.

The doorway into the computer lab was broken down so I carefully stepped over the shards of broken wood and motioned for Gigi to follow me. A class was in here before the bombing. Small children, maybe Kindergarten, was in here just as the earthquake and chemicals hit. Liora and Helayna were looking around for something in the closets.

"Whatcha lookin' for?" I asked.

"Supplies," Helayna answered.

"Like what?" this time, Gigi questioned.

"What else? Survivors," Liora told us. "It's possible that others had the same idea that we had by hiding in the closets."

"Forget it Li, there's no one here," Helayna informed us.

We moved out and moved down the hallway. We passed by the 8th and 7th grade classrooms without going in because I had already checked the classrooms beforehand. Down the hall, there was a huge gap in the floor but on the opposite side, there was also a blockage of rubble separating us even further from the other side of the hallway that also collapsed onto the first floor. I walked into the front of the classroom which looked like something out of a movie. Half of the room was blocked from our side due to a massive collapse of rubble. On the side of the hallway, the roof was gone, like it had been broken through, and rubble leaned against the wall like a landslide and where it ended, there was a large mess of electrical material near the windows. All around me, I saw broken desks barely shielding my former classmates from their dooms. All I found of Mr. Valadez was some hair, his favorite SmartBoard pen (the black one), and some crushed glasses from his glasses (the frames disintegrated because the were made of metal). I searched amongst the blocks and ceiling chunks and found only parts of some of my former friends.

I stepped back out into the hallway when I heard someone's heavy footsteps; more than one someone. We weren't alone.