The Rain (Book 1 - The Unprotected)

Chapter 4 - Voir la mort et la tenue à proximité

They all sprang up, startled at the sound of the school bell roaring throughout the entire school.

"Ah, what the hell!?" Courtney yelled, hands clasped to her ears in an attempt to block out the booming bell. The sound was deafening, echoing through the halls and rooms and bouncing off every surface.

"Shit! We turned on every switch including the God damn bell!" Drew yelled, he was the only one on his feet glaring at the bell in the classroom as if he could shut it up with his eyes. The room was bright and Drew ended up squinting at the bell due to the bright sun burning his eyes.

The bell stopped and they were all frozen, the ringing seemed to have vibrated the entire school, the blare still echoing in their heads. Nate groaned, throwing his head back on his bag and the others all relaxed slightly, reminding themselves that they were safe within the walls of the school.

"Ah, crap." Ross muttered, pulling the attention from the bell to him. "It's still raining." Everyone - including Nate too - turned to look out the window.

The rain wasn't as strong as it was before, it was just a drizzle now and even thought the mist clouded their vision, they could still see the droplets of water falling to the ground below. The beads of water slithered down the window pane, slowly zig-zagging until they finally hit the bottom, almost racing with each other.

They all sighed in sadness, they really hoped the rain would have stopped by now allowing them to leave, even though some of them were afraid to. "What time is it?" Courtney asked flipping the attention from the toxic weather to her. "I'm kinda hungry." She reasoned, holding her stomach before it could let out a ravenous growl.

Ross bent down and grabbed his phone from beside his feet, he groaned in frustration when he saw it was dead. "Mines is dead." He muttered, tossing it to the ground and watching it slide under a desk.

"Just charge it," Alex said turning from the window to Ross, he hadn't seen Ross throw his phone away. He was ready to walk over to his own bag and find his charger.

"Nah, man just leave it." Ross objected, causing Alex to stop in his place. Ross didn't look up, he just moved his bag and opened it up, pulling out books that he no longer required. "Doesn't do much anyway." He mumbled. Alex looked down to his own phone, knowing Ross was right but he couldn't quite bring himself to throw it away yet.

"It's almost quarter past nine." Jane said raising her head from her watch, answering Courtney's previous question.

Courtney could feel the corner of her lips pulling up slightly but as she watched the rain fall outside, she felt her happiness vanish. She trudged over to the bag that was now significantly lighter and pulled out cans and packets of all sorts of food.

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"We have to be prepared!" Courtney yelled at Annie from across the room, her hands pointing to the window. The rain was almost non-existant. In no less than an hour, there would be no more rain and they could finally leave.

"No we don't!" Annie shouted back, desperate to argue her case. "You talk so much about leaving but we don't actually have to!" Annie attempted to reason, her eyes pleading for Courtney to just listen.

"What about your family? You're just going to leave them?" Courtney asked shocked, taking a step back. The anger fell from her eyes as she waited for Annie's response.

"No! Because they are dead!" She screamed, tears glistening in her eyes. She looked around at everyone as silence fell upon the room. Everyone stared at her in shock, not sure of what to say. "What?" She asked, looking around at everyone with wild eyes. "You think they're still alive?" Annie questioned knowing the answer, it was highly unrealistic that they'd all survived the rain.