Chapter 4
They came upon the school. Several of the windows were broken. Adam put his finger to his lips to tell the women to keep quiet. Not that they had planned on making much noise.
There wasn't a sound.
Adam walked up to one of the broken windows and looked inside. It was a classroom. Desks had been upturned. A few chairs had been broken. Books had been scattered across the floor. But other than that, there hadn't been too much damage. There weren't even any dead bodies.
"How does it look?" Claire asked him.
"Not bad. But let's keep going."
They came to the front door. It wasn't locked. Adam opened it slowly, though not quietly. It clicked loudly as he pulled on it. Its hinges creaked.
Claire held her gun toward the door, ready to fire. Jane grabbed hers firmly.
He stopped and waited. There was no sound from inside.
"I think it's okay," he said.
They went in.
The first thing Adam noticed was that the school didn't smell. Whenever he had gone into houses or stores, there was always the strong smell of death. Not here. He looked at the women and could see that they noticed it as well.
They walked down the hallway. No dead bodies. No blood.
"This doesn't look right," Claire said. "Where is everyone?"
Adam shrugged his shoulders. He had been wondering the same thing.
"They had probably gone home," Jane answered. "When everything changed, school was already finished for the day."
Adam hadn't thought of that. By the look on Claire's face, he knew that she hadn't, either. But it made sense.
The kids must have gone home…and that's where they turned into wild creatures, or were pulled into small pieces and eaten alive...
Adam shook his head. He couldn't start thinking about stuff like that.
"Come on," he said.
They turned a corner.
As they came upon another classroom, Adam pointed inside. It was destroyed, just like the other one they had seen.
"Well," Adam said. "The students may have gone home, but we know that someone - som
e
thin
g
- was here."
"You're right," Claire agreed. She took aim of her rifle as though one of the creatures was there.
They kept moving.
As they made their way farther down the hall, it finally started to smell.
"What is that?" Claire asked.
Adam didn't answer. He put his finger to his lips again to tell them to be quiet. They all knew what the smell meant. It mean
t
deat
h
.
The farther they moved, the worse the smell. Adam scrunched his nose. Jane and Claire covered their mouths with their hands.
"It's in here," Adam said.
They were standing if front of a door. On it read
:
Librar
y
.
He grabbed the door handle and turned it slowly. There was another click. Not as loud as the front door.
Adam took a deep breath. He looked at Jane and Claire to make sure that they were ready. Then he pulled the door toward him.
The library wasn't as bad as he had expected. There were a few dead bodies - mainly children - lying around the room. Dried blood underneath them, around them.
He took a step in.
"What happened here?" Claire asked coming up behind him. "I thought all of the children went home."
"Could've been an after-school program," Jane offered as an explanation. "Or maybe they were just waiting for their parents to pick them up."
Adam continued to look around and imagined what must have happened. Some of the children had changed. Maybe all. And they had started to fight. Little limbs moving. Little hands grabbing. He could hear their young voices scream in rage...and in pain. He could see their eyes filled with hate. Teeth biting. Nails scratching. Blood…
"There's an adult," Claire said interrupting his thoughts. She motioned over on the other side of the room.
A woman was there, lying face down on the ground. She was wearing a thin blouse and a long skirt. If he turned her around, Adam thought she'd be wearing a pair of thick glasses with a gold chain attached to her sweater pocket.
"The librarian," he said.
They looked around a little longer, then met at the doorway.
"It's nice in here," Adam said. He meant the school. And he meant aside from the dead bodies and the horrible stench that came with them. "It won't take us too long to clean things up."
Claire agreed.
Jane did too. "But we should check the rest of the school," she added.
There was a whole other floor upstairs. And, while there didn't appear to be any creatures around, it was best to make sure.
Chapter 5
They went back into the hallway and checked another classroom. Then they stopped at the end of the hall. There was a door leading out to the side of the school, and a staircase leading up to the second floor. There was still no sign of any creatures.
"Ready to go up?" Adam asked.
Jane and Claire looked at him, worried.
He was worried too
.
But everything had been good so far, so maybe they didn't need to be
.
"Come on," he said, leading them onto the first step.
It was a bit darker than in the hallway. There wasn't a window. But the light from both floors shone in through the doors. He took some comfort in that.
Adam went up the stairs. Claire and Jane followed. They all took slow steps…and quiet ones.
When they got to the top, Adam let out a deep breath that he hadn't realized that he had been holding. He heard Claire do the same behind him. He turned to look at her. A knowing smile crossed her lips.
Adam turned and stuck his head into the hallway.
"See anything?" Claire asked.
"No. Not even any bodies. It's all clear."
"Good." Claire pushed him through the entrance.
They quickly came upon the first classroom. Though there hadn't been any bodies in the hallway, something smelled of death.
Adam peered in through the open door.
At the front of the class was a teacher. He was sitting at his desk, his head resting on top of it. Adam could see that his throat had been pulled out. The muscles and tubes stretched across the papers underneath.
The teacher's eyes were still open, looking straight at Adam.
Adam shivered.
"Let's keep moving," Claire said.
They left the classroom and continued their search.
At the next room they came upon, Adam raised his hand and motioned for the women to stop. He turned to look at them, placing his finger to his lips.
Claire eyes opened wide, asking him what was wrong.
He pointed to his ear
.
He thought he had heard something.
Adam moved closer to the door and looked inside. He couldn't see anything. But he could definitely hear it now. And he knew what it was
:
it was one of the creatures…and it was eating.
Adam backed up.
He didn't notice Claire so close behind him and he pushed her into the door. The butt of her gun knocked against it. With a slight gasp, she pulled the gun away from the door. It had been too late.
The creature stood up - a young man - and looked at them. Blood dripped from its mouth. A piece of flesh dangled in its hand.
Without any hesitation, it charged.
Adam didn't hesitate, either. He raised his gun and pulled the trigger. He hadn't had any time to line up his shot, but the bullet flew out of the barrel and slammed into the creature's chest. Spots of blood coated the man's shirt.
The creature kept coming.
Adam pulled the trigger again and another bullet shot into its chest.
The creature didn't stop.
Adam pulled once more. This time, nothing happened.
Empty.
"Damn!" he shouted.
Again, Adam didn't hesitate. He turned the gun around in his hands and slammed the butt of it into the creature’s face. He knew that his hit wouldn't kill it, but it would help.
The creature stumbled back.
Adam hit him again. And again.
It fell to the ground.
Adam raised his gun over his head.
But, as he readied himself, there was a blast from another gun. The creature's face was pushed in and shot out of the back of its head. It slumped to the floor.
Adam looked at it for a moment, to make sure that it was dead. Then he turned to the Claire and Jane.
Jane was standing there with the gun pressed to her shoulder
.
She had been the one to shoot.
Adam opened his mouth to thank her, but his words were silenced by a scream.
"More of them?" Claire asked.
They could hear footsteps.
Adam rushed to the classroom door and looked out into the hallway. Two children rounded a corner
.
Two things
.
They rushed toward him.
A man followed behind. Dressed in the blue clothes of a janitor. A set of keys jangled against his hip as he ran.
Adam slammed the door shut. The door didn't lock, but he was able to keep the knob from turning.
"More of them?" Claire asked again.
"Yes!"
"How many?"
"Three."
The creatures got to the door and started slamming it with their fists. Adam could see them through the window.
Claire took a step toward the door to help him hold it shut. "Children?" she asked.
"Yeah, there are."
"What should we do?"
Adam didn't answer straight away. He knew that the creatures weren't going to be able to get in. But that meant that he, Claire and Jane weren't going to be able to ge
t
out
.
Being on the second floor didn't help. They weren't going to be able to jump out of the window and run away.
"We have to shoot them," he said.
"How do we do that?" Claire asked. "Do we just let them in and start shooting?"
"No, I think that we should shoot them from where we are."
"Through the window?"
Adam nodded. "I'm going to bend down," he explained, "and keep my hand on the door knob. I want one of you to shoot the janitor. Right in the face." He needed to make sure that the janitor wasn't going to be a problem. Once the window shattered, the creatures would have a chance to grab him and get in. The janitor would have the most strength, the longest reach
.
He had to go down first.
"I'll do it," Jane said, her voice surprisingly steady.
"All right," Adam said. He bent down and kept a hold on the door knob. He watched Jane level her gun at the window. "On the count of three."
One, two, thre
e
.
Jane pulled the trigger. The gun blasted. The window shattered and spilled down on top of Adam.
The shot found its mark, entering the face of the janitor and coming out the back of his head. Blood spurted in all directions. It even squirted through the door and landed on Adam's hand and cheeks.
The janitor fell.
The children continued to scream and tried to grab through the broken window. Adam looked up and saw a small hand reach for him. He saw the little arm scrape on the broken window and cut itself open. He saw the fingers trying to grasp his own.
Then he heard another shot. The child fell.
One child left.
Jane shot again.
The third creature went down.
When it was all over, Jane stood there staring at the door. She didn't lower her gun.
Adam stood up and tried to listen for any other sounds.
There was nothing. The screaming had stopped. The creatures had been killed.
He looked at Jane, gun still levelled toward the broken window.
"It's over," he said.
She didn't move.
Adam placed his hand on the barrel of the gun and pushed it down. The gun moved slowly.
"It's okay," he said. "They're dead."
Again, Jane didn't move. She continued to look at the broken window. Tears running down her cheeks.
Claire stepped forward and put her arm around her. "Are you okay?" she asked, her voice soft and comforting.
Jane didn't answer.
Adam and Claire exchanged looks. Neither were sure of what to do. It was clear that Jane was going into some type of shock. And they didn't know how to deal with it.
Adam supposed that if he was in a movie he'd slap her to snap her out of it. The problem was that he didn't know how effective that would actually be. Plus, she was still holding the loaded rifle and he didn't want to find out what would happen if he took her by surprise.
He moved directly in front of her, standing between her and the doorway. She couldn't look at the broken window anymore. She had to look at him.
He noticed her eyes struggling to loo
k
throug
h
him. Eventually, they gave up. He had her attention now.
"Are you all right?" he asked.
"Yes," she said quietly.
At least she was talking.
"You did a good job," he said.
The words sounded strange to him
.
A good job
?
She had killed three creatures - two of whom had been children. Yet, he was trying to be supportive. He wasn't sure what else he could have said.
Jane nodded her head.
"We have to get moving," Adam continued. "We need to finish checking the school. And I want to get back to the others. They'll wonder what just happened to us."
Jane nodded her head once more.
Adam opened the door and walked outside. Claire went next. Once there, they turned around to look at Jane. She hadn't moved.
"Come on," Claire said gently.
With slow steps, Jane followed them out into the hall.