128 (Operation Armageddon: Book 1)

Chapter Nine: The Rescue Operation | Part 2

They finally stopped in front of a door. Matthew stepped forward to open the door, but there was a squelching sound coming from his shoe. He then looked down to see his sole dipped in blood coming from under the door.

Daniel looked down at the red puddle and let out a soft shriek. "Oh my God," he muttered. "Whatever is going on inside there is really, really bad."

Matthew was about to open it, bracing himself for whatever horrors were going to appear before him, but Emma held a 'stop' gesture up with her hand. "Be careful, everyone. Prepare your guns," she said with caution, reminding them not to let their guard down.

Emma then nodded as a signal for Matthew to lung the door open. Taking in the horrifying sight in front of them, the trio gasped in shock and fear. There were four more bodies in the room—three of students and one of a teacher. It was no wonder why there was a flood of blood inside and outside the room.

Then a teacher, clearly looking infected, glared at them, its eyes burning crimson red. The remaining five students inside ran out of the room, crying. They were so traumatised that they didn't even run out of the room on their own when they had the opportunity to earlier.

Unfortunately, one of the students slipped on the puddle of blood, falling into a sea of red. Before the teacher could get to her, Matthew grabbed the girl and moved out of the classroom. As the teacher charged forward, roaring while holding a distorted metal triangular-prism ruler, Matthew ran back and slammed the door shut, locking both the front and back exit from the outside.

The five students continued to sob and wheeze, traumatised. The severity of their bawling differed, with some of them merely shaking in fear and leaking tears from their eyes while others wailed loudly.

"Are you okay?" Daniel patted the only girl in the group.

She started to sob even more. "No... it-it's hard to watch my f-f-friends... die..." she bawled.

Matthew shivered upon hearing that sentence, fearing that he would lose more of his own friends someday.

"Hey, I know how it feels. One of our friends went missing, and we've been trying to find her since yesterday without the NYPD's help." he comforted her. "I'm Daniel, by the way."

The girl finally stopped crying. "Y-you're from t-the NYPD?" she asked, making an inference.

"Oh, yes. We came here because... well... we were told to help with the rescue operation," Daniel explained.

"T-that's great. The rescue efforts by the Scranton police didn't go well in the end, and as you can see... everything is like this right now. B-but anyway, it's good to have someone to talk to for now," she said, still quivering.

"What do you mean?" Daniel asked.

She heaved out a sigh. "Those friends that Madame Garcia killed... they were my best friends. Ryan, Tyson and Emily..." she told him.

Matthew turned around and looked through the glass panel of the classroom door. He stared at the bodies of the three poor children, grimacing. Just as he turned back to face the students, Daniel widened his eyes, gesturing to him not to say anything.

"Who is Madame Garcia?" Daniel then asked the girl.

"Our E-English teacher. She complained about a throbbing headache two hours ago. Emily asked if she was fine, but she just shook it off and continued the lesson for another hour before she started choking on something. And she... she foamed. She lost consciousness for about half an hour, and we got Mrs Taylor to help her. That was when she... reawakened..." she answered.

"What do you mean by 'reawakened'?" Matthew cut in, curious to know what exactly had happened.

"About a minute before she got up, we noticed abnormal veins running up to her head. They were dark green. She started to groan, like an animal, before she got up in a strange way. That was when she picked up her metal ruler and attacked Mrs Taylor..." she responded before trailing off. This time, they all peered into the classroom through the glass window in the door.