Postremus

Part 5

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~meow

The silence was looming over. Nothing could be seen, and only the faint sound of ripping flesh and footsteps could be heard. Of course. The power goes off during Exsilium Imbecilius. Cambria lightly tiptoed towards the direction of the stairs. She moved her hands side to side in front of her, feeling for anything to guide her. Thud. She hit her hips on the railing in front of her and realized it was close to the stairs. Cambria followed the cold steel with her hands until it curved downwards, indicating she arrived at the steps. Keeping her hand on the railing she slowly made her way down, step by step. The lights flickered again, and then everything was visible. Why have the lights come back on? Looking over at where the boy and the Mortuus were last seen, she noticed the Mortuus were gone, but their were no remains of the boy. Quickly she made her way down the stairs with her pole-blade in hand. She took a good look around the commons, and still no one was insight.

"Well, those three were coming from the hallway with the gym. Maybe that's where everyone is." Cambria stated to herself.

Slowly she began walking towards the gym and opened the doors that separated the commons and the hallway. No one was visible down the entire hallway. No blood either. Cambria turned to the left and stood in front of the doors leading into the upper deck of the gym. Breathing in she held her breath awaiting what was on the other side, she pushed on the handle and the door creaked open. She stepped inside and noticed the lights were flickering and hanging from the ceiling, the entire gym smelled like rust and left a bitter taste on the tongue. No one was in sight. She walked a forward a bit to look down at the gym floor, only to witness one of the most horrorific scenes ever. The entire gym floor was filled to about 7 feet of wet sticky blood, and an occasional limb bobbing on the surface. Cambria put her hand on her mouth and bent over, feeling the vomit creep up her throat. Breathing heavily, she tried to calm herself down. She sat down on the floor and tried to steady her breathing, and began going over her plan of getting out of the school.

So all the doors are locked, presumably. So the only way out would be through a fire escape ladder...

She looked up at the ceiling and searched for the red ladder that went straight to the roof of the school. She spotted it and began running towards it, attempting to keep quiet in case a Mortuus was nearby. Cambria carefully began climbing the ladder while clutching the pole-blade in one hand, going up one step at a time. Once at the top, she pulled on the latch that opened the door. With a heave the latch opened and she pushed with her free hand on the door. She poked her head out and felt an instant rush of cold, fresh air. Cambria climbed out and shut the latch behind her. The smell of fire filled the air and the sound of voices could be heard. Holding her pole-blade she made for the direction of the noise until she heard the sound of a switchblade close to her ear.

"Don't move, drop your weapon and get down on your knees." a voice said comandingly behind her.

She felt the cold blade on her neck and felt the sharp end dig into the flesh on her neck, but not enough to draw blood. Slowly Cambria set her pole-blade on the ground. A girl with blond hair and a white blouse splattered with red walked over slowly and picked up the weapon. Gently the girl carried it behind Cambria and the one who has holding her at knife point. 

From the way the person was standing, Cambria could sense that their formation was all wrong and they could be knocked back easily. With a swift move Cambria spun to the left away from the switch blade and grabbed the persons arm. Cambria kicked both of the persons legs in the calves, making them lose balance and fall down. Quickly, Cambria put her knee into their chest and twisted the wrist holding the knife. It was a boy, only about 17 with blond hair and brown eyes. He was about 5'8" and gangly but didn't have a whole lot of muscle on his frame. His face was worried and his lips quivered. Cambria ripped the knife from the boys hand and got off. She pulled the boy up and twisted his arm behind him, holding the blade to his throat. Cambria turned herself and the boy towards the girl holding her weapon. 

"You there. Put my blade next to me." Cambria put pressure on the blade, "Don't do anything stupid now. Put my blade next to me, now."

The girl stood there looking at the boy. The boy slowly nodded his head and the girl made her way towards Cambria. Slowly the girl put the blade down next to Cambria and backed away putting her hands up in surrender.

"Okay. You have what you need now let me go." the boy began struggling beneath Cambrias grip and the blade being pressed against his throat.

"Not quite. You, blondy. Start explaining to me what's going on. Where is everyone?" Cambria pulled the boys wrist making him whimper in pain.

The boy nodded at the girl again and she began to speak, "Once the Mortuus began attacking everyone, me and Kyle here escaped with a large group of kids. We all made our way to the gym and barricaded the doors and then went down to the gym floor. But we started hearing these weird noises in the water pipes that run underneath the gym floor. Suddenly the floor started giving way and began sucking kids into the water. The whole place began flooding and as the water was rising Mortuus began appearing left and right. It seemed as if anyone who sucked in the water, even just once, they mutated into a Mortuus."

Cambria looked at the girl and then released Kyle. "What about the others? Surely the whole school wasn't with you." Cambria asked sternly.

"We don't know. If anything they are all on different parts of the roof, or they are all hiding in different classrooms. Look the most I'd say are dead, there were about 100 kids with us in the gym. That's all the information I can share." Kyle was shaking uncontrollably. Obviously the memory stung him.

Cambria nodded and picked up her pole-blade. "I apologize about making you talk against your will," she said looking at the girl, "but I was doing what I had to." The two nodded and Cambria kicked the switch blade towards Kyle, who picked it up eagerly and sheathed the knife.

"Where are you going next?" the girl asked.

"I'm looking for someone. Someone who could be of use to me."

Kyle stepped closer to Cambria, putting his hands up and showing he meant no harm. "Maybe we could help. Who is it your looking for?"

Cambria looked down at her feet then back at Kyle. "I'm looking for a boy. Sophomore. His name is Marshal Price."