A week later, when I was starting to feel better, Teck Huat suggested that I take a breather, with a change of environment, outside of the school. Blake volunteered to go with me but I wanted someone else to talk to. I needed space from him. I was beginning to feel too dependent and too attached to him. After my mum’s death, it hit me hard that life is short, especially since the world had changed. I felt that I should just live in the moment and just do whatever I had always wanted to do, like falling in love with a cute doctor…
Nuru, a girl who had exceptional Wushu skills offered to accompany me. She had helped with the scavenging of resources sometimes and everyone was more assured of my safety since I would not have been going alone. We were not going far, just walking around the estate and park that was near the school. That day was not meant to have gone so horribly wrong!
After walking for about five minutes, we sat down on one of the benches in the park. “So, it seems that Blake really likes you”, she teased. I blushed but did not respond to that. In companionable silence, we leaned back to enjoy the sunlight on our faces. “Thank you for taking care of my mum”, I swallowed painfully. She nodded in acknowledgement. The group had helped disposed of my mum’s body by burying her in the school field when I had been grieving too hard to do any of that. “No problem, I just hope that when my time comes, someone would do that for me too” She looked ahead in the distance, smiling sadly.
“Where are your parents?” I blurted out the question that had been on my mind since I met her. She did not seem surprised by my sudden bluntness but paused for a moment before answering. “They were one of the first to take ill and turn. Blake was understanding and took me in...” in a low trembling voice she replied. “I am so sorry. I did not mean to intrude...” I stuttered off. She shook her head and swallowed her tears away. “You needed someone who understood so I do” This made the tears gather in my eyes again. I was so tired of crying, so tired of feeling like there was no way out of my life and so tired of feeling the dry and irritable eyes, the misery. She patted and rubbed my back to soothe me, “It gets better, eventually” I wanted to shout to the world, I wanted to shout at this injustice. Just how could it get better?
A silver van playing booming music, speeded round the corner. “Oh no, we got trouble”, I muttered as my whole body immediately snapped to attention and I pushed aside my feelings of depression so that I could think on my feet. I stood up and yanked Nuru with me to hide behind the bench and observe their behaviour. I noticed that the guards at the school gate had gone into hiding as soon as the blaring music had been heard. The same group of people emerged from the van once again.
Joyce came out first. She looked as if she had gone through the sewer. She had the darkest and most huge eye bags I had even seen. Gamer boy and his good friend hopped off next. Finally, Grace slowly and painstakingly climbed out. If was as if she would fall and break from the slightest touch. They turned off the music and searched the area, but not the school as it was behind gates, probably looking for a mini mart. “It’s no use”, Joyce complained after an agonizing 30 minutes. They had nearly walked in our direction and could have easily spotted us multiple times. They finally gave up and started heading for the van. I heaved a sigh of relief and anxiously waited for them to leave. Gamer Boy closed the van doors and took a final quick scan at the environment. I saw the curtains of the hall move very slightly and prayed he had not seen it.
His lips tugged up at the corners and I held my breath. Reaching into the car, he pulled out two beer bottles that had been stuffed with towels. Confused, I silently hoped that he was going to drink it but he took out a lighter and lit the towels. Oh Shit! “Hey, Roy, get your ass out of the car and help me with this!” He laughed. He licked his lips as he wound his hand back and threw it above the gates into the school. I gasped as it exploded into flames and froze in disbelief that they were thrashing my precious sanctuary. “Let’s wreck the place!!” the gamer boy gleefully shouted. He shoved the doors of the van open and grabbing Joyce who was resisting him by the arm, threw her onto the floor. “I said, WRECK IT!” he demanded both Grace and Joyce. Grace scrambled to get out of the van before he could do the same to her. They took out saws and started sawing the fence. My jaw dropped as the fence gave way. My home! My precious school was being invaded!!! Nuru stopped me from getting up to scream at them. “We can’t blow our cover! Blake will get them out of there.”
I counted to ten to calm down then prayed that the group would be able to sneak out unnoticed by this gang of hooligans. The fire alarm went off, and I closed my eyes in defeat. This group sure loved to stir trouble and get zombies up and running. All of them got into the van quickly apart from Grace. “I am not putting up with your nonsense anymore! If it means surviving on my own and possibly dying, so be it!” Gamer boy must had a really big ego because he could not be stood up against. His face turned red in anger, then he gave her an evil smile.
She started to walk backwards but he hopped off the van, dangling his knife in his hand, spinning it a few rounds. In a quick move, he had knocked Grace to the ground and slashed her foot. “See how you survive now!” He hopped back into the van and they drove away just as we saw a hoard of zombies running towards our direction.
Once they had rounded the corner, we ran and helped Grace up. She was sobbing hard and holding her hands in front of her, pushing us away, afraid we were zombies. We did not have time for this. I grabbed her arms and shook her roughly. “Grace! Look at me!” She looked at me reluctantly, surprised that it was me. Without a word more, we ran through the damaged gates, with her limping behind but following us. “Blake!!! BLAKE!!!” I screamed in despair as I ran through the small diminishing fires into the smoke engulfed canteen. They were probably trying to exit from the front gate and we dashed in that direction. We found most of the team at the car park, packing supplies as they were starting the car and another lorry. Grace and Nuru went to help.
Blake was nowhere to be seen. “Blake is trying to open the front gates so we can leave through there”, Teck Huat answered me before I could ask. I looked at the front gates which had a hoard of zombies clawing at it. The back gate was honestly too small and the zombies were almost there too. I sprinted over to the front gate control room. His back was facing me and he was using some handset tools, hacking the system to make the gates open.
“Blake, I think we should go through the back gate. You can’t open the gates till they are ready and you will be left behind! We should all get into the lorry and try to drive it through the gates.” He did not stop working or give any indication that he had heard me, continuing to work on the wires. “Please,” I tugged his shirt desperately, “let’s go! The zombies are almost here!” He looked up as he heard screams from everyone that was frantically getting on the lorry with an especially ear piercing one from his sister, as the zombies invaded the gates. “Go, Cassie!” He pushed me out of his way. From the distance, I saw Nuru stab a knife into one of the zombie’s heads and jumped into the lorry.
“I am not leaving you!” The lorry started to drive towards the front gate. He finally turned to me, yanked me tight against his hard body and gave me a quick deep kiss. We had not kissed before. He released me before I had time to react. “I will be fine, I promise. Go now!” He pushed me out of the control room just as the lorry reached and I was pulled inside. “NO NO NO!” I struggled against Jonathan and Teck Huat hands as they pulled me into the lorry. Blake nodded at the group and the gates opened. The lorry speeded through the gates leaving Blake behind.
Tears were rolling down my cheeks as I pulled away from the guys defeated. “We have to go back!” I pleaded with Russell who was driving the van and Blake’s best friend. “No.” He said resolutely. I looked around to see Blake’s family crying. This was not happening. I couldn’t lose someone again. I most definitely could not lose Blake. When we got a reasonable distance away, I insisted that they pulled over or I would have jumped out of the van. We were now at Kallang River. I hopped off the van, deciding to look for a car so I could drive back.
Russell grabbed my arm. “He knew what he was doing. He will be fine!” I shook his arm off angrily. “Not from what I saw!” I saw a red sedan car and ran over to it. He followed behind me. “Blake gave me orders to take care of you! What if something happened to you, and he comes later to find out about it?” I shook my head. All this while I had been shaking off Blake, trying not to need him when I so completely did. He was not going to die this way, he needed my help now.
Nuru came over. “I will go with her. Text me the next location you can find, Russell.” Russell stepped back, stiffed jaw, and nodded.
YOU ARE READING
Surviving in Chaos
Romansa"I liked small children too but this one was a little odd. Her eyes were bloodshot and the colour of her eyes were dulled as if the life had gone out of them. That wasn’t the worse part of it, as she ran, it was obvious she was unstable on her legs...
