Of Eyes and Fingernails

Man Down

*Hey guys, thanks for reading! I'll be working on this story a lot more, so stay posted! :) Again, thank you so much for reading. I hope it's starting to get more interesting for you. This is pre-edited so if something sounds repetitive or is grammatically incorrect, let me know!

Enjoy! -Haley

Everyone in the room huddled together, horrified. It had been ten minutes, and the gunfire continued. The gurgling screams of the infected mixed with the cries of the soldiers being attacked. A terrifying cry came from the same female voice heard before. Something large slammed against the door, and blood leaked under it, forming a small puddle in the room. Some of the students gasped and began to sob. Andrea stood again. "Hello? Calling all teachers? What the Hell do you want us to do?" Mr.Broadway, the former Marine, stood. "Obviously who, or what, ever's out there has broken into the hallway containing the safe rooms. We're in the waiting room, and if they breach this door, we're FUBAR. And yes, Andrea-us Marines say that, too." Andrea smiled through the chaos.

"We need to have a plan. If those things break the door, we need to go into the kitchen where there's food and supplies. If you ask me, I say we head there now just in case." No one seemed to object with the man's logic. "Alright, let's go," Andrea said. She headed for the kitchen. Several more people got up and followed her, and the rest came shortly after. After everyone had made their way into the large cooking area with their backpacks and supplies, Mr.Broadway shut the door and locked it behind him. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but the gunshots from the hallway could still be heard. Several people sat on the floor with their ears covered. Andrea just slumped against the freezer door with Logan sitting by her side.

"Logan, what are we going to do?" she asked. He shook his head. "You're the leader." Andrea looked at him and sighed. "These teachers are too scared to step up and do what they were hired to do," Logan said. Andrea smiled, "I'm not surprised." she began. Logan looked at her with one eyebrow raised and his head cocked to the side. "Their pay sucks," she said, laughing. Logan hit her with his elbow. "Well let's just hope we can live long enough to have a crappy paying job!" Andrea laughed at him. "How are we laughing through this?" she asked. Logan smiled. "You do what you have to." Mr.Broadway cleared his throat, "Hey there, watch yourself. Some of us teachers are paid quite handsomely!" Quite a few people smiled for the first time in hours.

A large cracking sound interrupted the moment of calm. "They're breaking the door down!" one girl said. She was thin with wavy red hair and skinny jeans. She had a System of a Down shirt on. Fear had clearly smacked her in the face. "Mr.Broadway," Mrs.Bowlin, the home ec. teacher called, "We must barricade this door before they get through it, too!" "Good thinking," he replied. Andrea looked around. "The only thing move-able is this table!" She pointed at a large steel table that sat in the middle of the kitchen. It looked very heavy, but very large and sturdy. Definitely fit to barricade a door! Automatically, several people walked over and started shoving it to the kitchen entrance. It made a terrible screeching noise on the tile. "Wait," Andrea called. "before you press it against the door, flip it on it's end so the whole doorway is protected." Without question, the table was flipped up and pressed against the only way out of the kitchen. All thirty people were trapped in, but all (who knows how many) zombies were kept out. 

Right as the table was erected, the cracking noise gave way to a louder burst. The door to the cafeteria had been broken. Some gasped, and others shook with their hands clamped over their mouths. "Everyone quiet!" Andrea whispered loudly. The room shook their heads. Screeching noises could now be heard clearly through the door. Gunshots grew louder, and Andrea grabbed Logan's hand. "They're coming for us!" She whispered excitedly. CRACK! Something slammed against the kitchen door, causing the table to be pushed away slightly, but land back in place. CRACK! It came again, pushing the table away farther this time. Mr. Broadway ran to the entrance and pushed himself against the thick steel table. "Help me!" he mouthed. Mr.Todd, the American History teacher, ran up to help support the barrier against the infected ex-humans bombarding the door on the other side.

Suddenly, the sound of people hollering broke the screeching. Gunshots rang out, and the sound of bodies dropping could be heard. "Getcha some, you ugly bastard!" someone yelled. Just as quickly as it had started, the gunshots died down and stopped. "Any survivors?" another man yelled. Everyone in the kitchen stood in shock, and no one spoke. "W-we're in here!" Andrea finally called. "Aw shit," said a man with a Cuban accent, "they're in that room behind the fuckin' zombie bodies." another soldier spoke. His voice was deep. "Watch your mouth, soldier. We're still dealing with kids." Mr.Broadway moved the table out of the way. Dragging sounds came from the other side. Bodies being moved away from the door. "Open up and come out single file with your hands on your head." One of the soldiers commanded. The teacher opened the door, revealing a mess of blood. The bodies had been dragged out of the way of the soldiers, but were sitting in the middle of the dining area covered by a large blanket. The blood was nearly black, and the smell was nauseating.

 Everyone filed out of the room one by one, and walked through a line of soldiers wearing protective suits before standing against a wall. "Keep your hands up. We will have more personnel arrive shortly. We do not yet know how the disease spreads. You will each have blood draw in order to determine if you are showing signs of the virus. Do not move until we tell you. Take a step, and you will be shot. I repeat; we have permission to open fire if you so much as move without our say so. We understand this is frightening, but stay calm." A few kids were shaking and sobbing. Others stared at the soldiers who had their guns pointed at the line of people on the wall. "It's hard to stay calm with guns in our face," Logan huffed. "Just chill, their doing their job," Andrea snipped. Logan glared at her but said nothing more.

"Does anyone have any scratches or bites from the infected?" The soldier with a Cuban accent spoke up. There were mutters and heads shaken, but no one really spoke. "I guess that means no. Has anyone had physical contact or close contact with the infected?" Everyone stood still. The girl who had been crying with hear boyfriend earlier spoke. "One grabbed my ankle when we were first called from our classes. Some of them bit kids on my class, but I got away. Are the other kids okay? Am I okay?" The soldier with a deep voice sighed. "This is classified information. They don't really tell us soldiers what's going on, but the CDC doesn't even know how it spreads. We know that the bitten become infected, but I couldn't tell you if it's spread in any other way. Who knows, maybe there's a long incubation period." No one spoke, and the tension grew. "You guys, uh, did a good job locking yourselves up in there." The soldier with an accent laughed. "When I walked in, man, there was like twenty on the door. There was one of those little bitches that musta weighed like-" Deep voice cut him off. "Stop." Andrea looked at the soldiers and recognized the one that had "helped" her to the bathroom. He gave a weak smile and raised his gun slightly in acknowledgement. Her partner was nowhere to be seen. Everyone's arms burned from being held on top of their heads for so long. Andrea ached to set hers down. 

After what seemed like an eternity of waiting, footsteps were heard in the hall. The doors down from the cafeteria began to open. The infected hadn't made it that far. "CDC, remain calm and stay in line." A voice echoed down the hallway. Three more people came into the cafeteria with hazmat suits. They carried large plastic boxes with thick black handles. "Hello," one woman spoke. "My name's Deandra, and I'm with the CDC. We're here to take some precautionary samples from all of you to make sure everything is okay. Please give us your full cooperation so this can go as quickly as possible. We'll call you up one at a time." They began opening the large boxes, revealing needles, latex gloves, and tourniquets. "As the line moved forward, Andrea heard a soldier whisper. "Now the fun part. We get to find out who's infected."