planning for the worst chapters 1&2

planning for the worst

By Annabelle Flint

Chapter one:

Your cause of death will be our name


The clock ticked in the corner of the room. Voices resounded in the tense air as the last performing group stood in a cluster around the old wooden piano, out of tune in some places and splintering. It was the same as any other normal day in choir, sing and frown, eavesdrop and frown, look around the room and frown. It was routine for me to be this way. I was constantly alert and always wondering, wondering eyes and keen senses that made me the perfect hunter. Though it's never what I actually trained for, hunting is one of the few things I'm good at.

"and then he looked at me and I thought I would melt" Mel was explaining to me as I pretended to listen, drifting in and out of her love story as I listened to the whereabouts of my peers.

The choir room was enormous and the school gave it absolutely no funding not that anyone expected them to. Football, that's what Merlin high was all about, football and community college. No one made it out of this endless loop of college and minimum wage to the grave. Few people made it out and that's just how it was. I listened to the conversations going on around me and I knew I was right.

I bounced my leg up and down on the thick heel of my combat boot and I knew that the weaponry inside was moving as well. It was a personal secret that I was armed and an even bigger secret why. I looked at him, dark hair in his golden malevolent eyes and a baggy hoodies with jeans to match, he was terrible. His stare held tension like a spider's web, easy to break but too wretchedly beautiful to destroy. He ruined my entire life and I could never trust again after what he had done to me. He put me so far onto the edge I was sure at any moment I would fall and that would be it, he would kill me or I would kill myself but alas, I am still here.

I knew the bell was due to ring any second now and as I gathered my books I realized Mel had given up speaking to me. Seeing as I already wasn't listening it didn't bother me much and I honestly didn't mind losing friends. I curled my body around the large zip up binder ready to bolt, that's how you get places in the crowded high school.

When the bell finally rang I sprinted to the door in a brisk walk ready to bear the impact of 30 or more kids bumping into me on my way down the hall and that was only the people who saw me before lunch. The crowd burst out the door and I waited my turn on the side lines like any other reasonable outcast. When the room was nearly clear I made my dashing escape, boots tapping the ground with a technique so perfected it was damn near impossible to get the jump on me and that's the way I liked it. Scaling the three steps up to the door out of the hall I opened the second door and began to search. The rules for the pack were simple to learn over time and I understood that it was my personal responsibility to scout for Petra when I made it to the hall and as people pushed past me I realized she must have already made it to the crowded lobby.

High school is hell don't get me wrong but no high school is as bad as Merlin high and it was clear to any one with half their senses. Crouched low enough to duck if firsts were thrown I walked my normal route to the lobby and as I entered I noticed something was off. The wide room and trophy cases that lined the walls were still and no one was laughing and cracking perverted jokes as they should. I looked to Petra who was perched on the bench and as I walked to the lunch line I had an uneasy feeling. Deep in my gut I knew this was wrong, something was wrong if only I could put my finger on it.

Suddenly the scream was heard, blood curdling and merciless were the standers by as the crowd In the lobby fled out into the court yard with excitement in their eyes sure that a fight had broken out.
I knew better.

I ran across the room as the blood just started to spatter the clean windows and run down in thick ropes. I handed my knife to Petra and she stuffed it into her boot. Petra looked at me as I grabbed her wrist and she complied to take off with me. Throwing her bag over her shoulder and running to the cafeteria.

My eyes desperately searched for lux I knew she wasn't going to run towards this noise, drama is fool's gold, instantly exciting but ultimately valueless. I didn't even bother to look for aurora, it doesn't take a genius to figure out she had crippling anxiety and a body small enough to break in half it was likely I would find her hiding in the smallest of places. While I loved my pack I had to take care of myself first and Petra knew the same.

Our shoes screeched on the glistening stark white tiles as we made it to the cafeteria and the doors were shut shortly behind us.

The faces in the large mess hall were twisted with fear and mine and Petra's stuck out like none other. Out of 400 students in a small town school only around 40 were safe in the bared doors of the cafeteria and the weight set in like a brick, waves of panic filled their lungs and engulfed them into the darkness of the sea. We knew better than to fear and we knew death would take us at our time.
The only fear is fear itself.

Screaming and crying echoed off the walls soaking the crowd in blind agony and I realized this was a bad situation we were in. panic and fear draw death like a bad omen and the room was filled with the pure essence of the feelings death despised most, its own. Death admired happiness and despised despair and that's what drew it in, the kind of despair floating in clouds of thick smog right now.

"Everyone silence, quiet down I have an announcement." The vice principle stated voice shaking slightly.

Petra grew rigid with the sound of his voice and so did I, I hated that voice and as the crowd looked at him I began to grasp how utterly doomed this is and he hasn't even began to talk yet.

"Alright we are treating this like a code green" he stated and Petra began to ease forward off the seat on the table we had taken. "It is believed a gunman has entered the school and as such we are on lockdown until the police arrive."

"Bullshit" Petra whispered under her breath and Mr. Jones turned to look at us in his new found rage. He hadn't signed up to lead some weeping teens through the end of the world he signed up to deal out detentions for petty fights and I almost would have felt bad for him If he wasn't currently throwing us under the bus. "what was that?" he almost roared turning his eye on her and squinting.
"I said bullshit, if it's a gunman I haven't heard a single shot" she was rising to her feet now and the crowd grew silent. "That blood on the window wasn't a gun shot and if it was I would like to get a hold of that silencer. We don't have time to wait out the police, there are still kids out there and as easy as it would be to lock them out it's not right."

Mr. Jones looked ready to protest but chose his words carefully, taking time to spin her words into the web of lies and tricks that took years to master.

"Are you proposing we risk even more people to violate the states safety procedures on shootings?" he asked. There it was, the twist, putting others in danger wasn't what she had in mind and I knew it was near time to be called upon by her as defense for her following actions.

"Sir, I'll go with her" I spoke up stepping onto the ground off the table.

"I can't let you leave this room it's my job to keep you safe" he countered.

"What about the other kids in the school? Is it not your job to keep them safe as well?" Petra was spitting venom and every word she spoke threw daggers of thought into the silence.

"Lux and aurora are out there and I'm not just going to leave them so you either let us out or we get out on our own." I stated raising to my full height of 5'2.

"You better be real careful about what you say next" Petra was reaching her hand down while also bringing up her boot and getting the message I did the same drawing my knife. "You don't want to underestimate us."

Mr. Jones looked like he'd been struck and we knew the point had been pushed across and we could finally take a breath.

"Start making lists of things you need. We need a missing persons list in the next hour every second wasted is another life lost." I explained to the crowd as they started coming to their senses. Everyone began to kick into somewhat of a working order and drew out pencils and paper. Some still wailed and others vomited into the trash cans that had been set up around the room for the lunch that would never be properly served.

I looked to Petra to see if she was starting to calm down, she wasn't doing any good being angsty right now, we save that for the fighting.

"Aurora is out there." She sighed. So that's what was getting to her. Not the body odor that reeked though the room with a vengeance or the bile in the bottom of the metal cans that was still fresh and twisting about my senses. It was the small girl who had found home with the brain brawn and skill. We prided in being the strongest pack, mentally and physically. We were wolves that had taken in a kitten and we loved her more than life its self. She was our blonde hair blue eyed princess. Small and petite and fragile like a porcelain doll with skin to match. If the food was little then she ate first, if the night was cold she wore our coats and if the journey was too long we carried her home. She was the ground we worshiped because she kept us grounded.

"She's gonna be ok" I told her. My voice shook with the gravity of our losses, or lack thereof. Death is something I can deal with but putting my pack in pain is a different story.

The pack is everything to me they are my family anything I have is never truly mine because the pack has given me a piece of their lives that I can only return in the same respects. My breath, my body, my blood, and my soul are as much theirs as they are my own. Trouble always seems to find us in a twisted game of hide and seek. Ducking behind corners and lurking in the shadows it waits, and when things are finally ok and in order again it strikes claws out tearing into us as the wind would a kite. That's why we have each other.

I remember that day I saw Petra in the woods, her golden hair spun like silk in the breeze and her caramel eyes filtering the sun like stained glass, turning fragments of painful light into intricate works of art. She walked the woods on the hunt as did I and over time we grew to hunt together. She was the brawn that made us stronger.

Lux was someone I had met during hard times and to this day we do not speak of the crime we committed together. When I think of her my eyes hurt remembering how I strained them in the dark to see the tall hunched figure, to see the long brown hair and the storm brewing in her grey eyes. Her nimble fingers clicking keys and decoding large internet security systems with a practiced hand. We fell into the routine of my ability to manually pick locks and her ability to electronically destroy any system. She was the brain that made us extremely keen.

When I think of aurora my wrists ache. That day in the hospital was something I could never forget. Petra's mom, a nurse, worked in a hospital and a girl had just come in on an ambulance beaten and bruised her frail body broken and internally bleeding to death. Petra's mother called me to donate blood for the surgery to repair the broken bones and internal bleeding. After eight hours of on and off blood drawing the girl went onto the operating table. Three hours later they let Petra and I see her, her small body lay on the bed skin nearly opaque, fair and sleeping. Aurora fair. To remind us of our compassion and morality.

No one in the packs names were real. Not mine, vanity aspen or Petra love or lux Blackwood and truth is I don't know their real names. They don't know mine but what I do know is I love them more than anything and having them away from me and in danger was the worst feeling in the world.

Petra was scared. She could try to hide it with all the anger and grief she wants but I knew deep down she was afraid. Afraid of putting aurora in pain again as was everyone else. I know how she feels and I know she's right to be scared. We will find aurora. I don't want to see what happens if we don't.

I looked across the cafeteria and I knew everyone had the same fear, that the people they cared about were gone and I'm going to do everything in my power to help them because I know what it feels like to need a hero.
Truth is I'm not a real hero.
But I damn sure can try.

Mr. Jones was approaching us and I straightened my back and raised my head to look into his eyes. He swaggered and put off the biggest show of his walk. I knew though that it was only a show.

"You girls are brave for doing this" he said looking down and not meeting my eye. I could tell how unnerved he was to be thanking us but I nodded and continued to try and catch his eye. Petra was staring at the wall her face an open book of agony and loss. It wasn't me he couldn't look at. I honestly had a hard time looking at Petra right now as well.

After a long pause I looked off past his shoulder to speak. "It's only what's right sir."

" so I guess you girls are nearing ready to leave?" he was looking at the floor now and I could tell the conversation needed to move along quickly if I wanted to get anything done and get Petra out of the funk she had so quickly settled into.

"Yes are all the lists ready?" I asked him looking to the kids who had finished the lists minutes ago and now sat in groups of prayer for the missing.

"I believe so. Supplies and missing people were what you needed correct?" he questioned handing me one folded piece of paper followed by another stack of around five front to back sheets with names on them. Both stained with tears. I only nodded unable to look at the lists. We could identify the dead later. With that he walked off and I put the papers in the pocket of my leather jacket letting Petra morn and grieve for a while as I knew I so desperately need to do but wouldn't allow myself. Best not to grieve for those not counted for.

I let my thoughts wonder as Petra mourned and sulked. I thought about the danger beyond the door. It wasn't a gun man but that doesn't mean it wasn't a terrorist attack. There are a number of silent weapons I knew of and if enough people were armed then a school would be an easy target. It pained me to think of all the options to choose from Slings, bows, knives, act. This could be a total shit show and the ideas in my head weren't forming into any kind of legitimate plan. How could Petra be so stupid and one tracked as to put us in the position of hero when we were both so far from. I stepped up to help her because I didn't want her to go into the dense cloud of mystery alone and for that I am a fool.

I have to keep reminding myself lux and aurora are on the other side of the brown oak doors and that I can't fear death when there is a possibility of pain in its place. They could be dead but they could also be alive and hurt and they are my adopted family, letting them die slowly wasn't an option I was willing to consider.

"Petra" I threw the name into the funk surrounding her misery in the hopes it would tear through to awaken her senses. "Petra we need to leave soon if we want daylight to look for them."

She looked up to me and nodded turning over her bag and emptying it quite loudly onto the floor. The books and papers slamming onto the ground and fluttering away, splaying like stars in the sky on the dark blue cafeteria tile. She slung it back over her shoulder its many zippers and compartments now nearly empty.

I pulled the knife out of my boot and examined the hand carved handle and the fit of the silver in the wood its shine casting doubts of success into the shadows. I knew the knife I handed Petra with a deer antler handle and the same silver would be equally successful. We were as ready as we could be with the equipment we had access to and I looked at Petra as she took her knife in hand and gave me a second nod.

Walk

We approached the tall doors with unease and every eye in the room was suddenly on us, feeling their stares I knew they prayed more for their lost than their living and that included the girls they don't remember attending their school. We were always invisible and today was the first time anyone had taken a real look at us as anything more than toys to kick around not even recognizing us as two of their victims, I know we aren't the only ones.

The vice principle looked at us and nodded as Petra finally found her voice.

"We are going to knock on that door when we want back in so remember this knock."
One
One two
One two
One

"When you hear that let us in." her eyes grew cold. "If you don't, your cause of death will be our names."

'Your cause of death will be our names.'
Could she really kill them?






Chapter two

Mirror tricks


I clutched the knife tighter in my hand as the door opened with a loud drawn out scream. The air hit me hard carrying the stench of death so heavily I had to turn away and curl over to keep from vomiting as the others had. I looked to Petra who was currently swallowing her disdain.
My mind was running rampant with thoughts.

We hunt animals not people
We stole we never killed
We got hurt but we were never the ones doing the hurting
Whatever's outside that door is a killer
We can hunt it
Killers are animals

I staggered back to the open door and held my knife in my fist a little tighter still, and felt Petra shift beside me. Looking at the shining silver watch I determined it was 12:00.

"If we aren't back by one don't panic. Start rationing the food" I explained. Rations are important if we want to survive. Mr. Jones only nodded.

I stepped out the door, crouched low, as did Petra and we held up our knives with a steady hand.
Right off the door from the cafeteria was the gym and we crept around to it. The green doors were wide open and the echo of our footsteps resounded, rushing across the wooded gym floor and bounding off the empty bleachers. We closed the doors behind us and she looked at me determined.

"I'll take the boys locker room you take the girls." She whispered to me and I nodded. We went off our separate ways as I prowled right and she prowled left. Down the halls that, at each end, held the locker rooms of the separate genders.

The gym reeked more of sweat than usual and as I walked I tried to breathe only through my mouth but soon found that to be louder than my steps and stopped. The door to the locker room was shut and as I walked down the few steps to it I felt the temperature drop drastically. my breath, more so than usual, hung in the air like a thick cloud. I tried the door knob and noticed quickly it was locked.

"Go away we're armed!" I heard a voice I recognized as Mel scream.

"Melany open the door you aren't armed" I stated lowering my knife slightly.

"Vanity?" she questioned as heavy footfalls approached the door. She opened it a little to look at me and soon let me in. "what are you doing here?"

"You need to come with me to the cafeteria its safe there." I explained to her as five others joined from the back row of silver lockers.

"Are you sure? I haven't heard anything on the intercom." A girl from the back worriedly exclaimed her face etched in sheer terror.

"Mr. Jones has other students held up in the cafeteria, Petra and I are clearing the school starting here." I told the fearful futures in front of me, so much hope drained from their eyes, they had cried away their dreams.

"How many people?" Melany whispered tears in her eyes threatening to burst once again.

This question hit me harder than anything else in my life. How many people survived? A lot but it's nothing compared to the five page missing list.

"Melany" I choked out. "Don't" I held back my despair and shook my head."Don't"

She didn't want to know, hell, I didn't want to know or even think about what we are going to see while clearing the rest of the school. If we are being honest these girls are probably the lucky survivors. Just because people aren't dead doesn't mean they won't die eventually. The injuries and infections are going to kill a lot more people than this attack has.

"How many people are in that cafeteria right now? How many people are still alive" she sobbed to me as did the other five girls all of which were looking to me for a happy ending to a tragedy that had only just begun.

"Two fifty two sixty" I whispered to her as my face flushed. That left one hundred and fifty students roughly unaccounted for. I know it's not my fault or responsibility but I feel that every person I don't save is only another failure to add to my growing list. I don't want to come back to that group empty handed. Tell them their loved ones are dead or missing.

"That's out of four hundred" another girl coughed and choked out. Out of four hundred I've only managed to see two fifty to two sixty.

"Just" my voice faltered and I struggled to get the words in order in my mind. "Just come with me and I can get you to safety please be quick I still have the whole rest of the school to check."

I worried about the time we were wasting right now and how Petra was probably doing the same. This was more than we could handle emotionally. These students were reminding us of who we were really looking for. Lux and aurora are in the building alive I know it but it doesn't mean anything if I can't find them.

"Alright we're going with you." Mel said looking to the others for any protest. "Lead the way."

I simply nodded and turned to the door holding my knife high again as I opened it with cation I had more than just myself to look out for in this moment, a foreign concept to me. I had only ever needed to watch my back because everyone else in the pack could take care of themselves and Petra looked after aurora. These people, these lives resting in my shaking hands and trust, they didn't even know how to fist fight let alone hunt any kind of predator. As I led them up the stairs and to the hall I traveled off into a distant memory.

It was of Petra and I in the woods where we spent the majority of our days on the hunt as always. In the darkest of times the livestock farmers were in as much trouble as anyone else. Their cattle, sheep, and hogs in danger of wild cats and natural predators that sometimes wandered down the country side and to our corn field county. For a small fee Petra and I would hunt them with the riffles we paid arm and leg for the summer before. It was dangerous and so physically demanding that the farmers would sometimes believe us dead if we did not return in three days. Sleeping in the trees and lower in caves. Taking watch while the other rested. In the trees is where large cats like to sleep and you could always find Petra walking the thick woods branch to branch and I on the ground where they prowled in the heavy underbrush in search of prey. Such predators were very hard to come across and that summer two years ago, at the age of 15, was the summer my hard held value to only kill living things for food or necessity died. The predator game was a hard one and I enjoyed pushing my limits and learning new skills, it made us useful.

Now as I look at the scared faces waiting anxiously in the hallway I knew the unintentional survival training had paid off for us. Petra's group of three boys was disheartening, we had found eight people where there should have been a class of 20 to 30. I looked to Petra who only looked down feeling the first breath of the impending failure and disappointment. We opened the door and turned the corner, Petra at the front of the group and I at the back. She knocked on the door and they opened it to see the eight scared teens with us.

"We'll be back if we find anymore." Petra told the boy who opened the door and he nodded as the group within the safety zone greeted the new comers with a thick shroud of questions.

Petra turned from the cafeteria to me and we walked in silence through the lobby purposely looking away from the glass in the doors. I couldn't handle what's outside right now, not when what's inside has me itching to run back to the safety zone. This was the beginning of something but I haven't a clue as to what, all I know is that history is being made at merlin high and this is a story they are going to tell. The pressure in the building was intense and its trophy cases rang with the danger of what was to come, they shook with each step we took on the old uneven tiles.

Then as if on que we heard another pair of feet slide as if limping across the tiles and we stopped our approach. I knew of a lot of things but a loud predator wasn't one of them. Its steps were far too heavy to be any kind of animal we've hunted and Petra's eyes grew to a full deepening chestnut as she dropped onto the floor soundlessly. I knew the technique and did the same crouching beside her as she silently unscrewed a support bar from the bench behind us. She took out a piece of chewing gum and after putting it in her mouth and chewing she took it out and I handed her the mirror out of my pocket case. she place the gum on the bar and then the mirror on the gum and held it out into the open door way to the lobby that lead off to the two halls and stair ways.

Angling it we caught a glimpse of something red and she dropped the metal bar letting it clang on the tile. I covered her mouth as she began to wheeze and convulse the limping grew louder and she started to kick back into gear crawling back behind me.

Get in formation

I crouched low as she rose up behind me holding her knife high and I held mine low. This was how we fought everything I would strike first and fall back so she could land the second blow and we would work around each other in this cycle low high and so on until whatever it was died or left. This was how we trained and it was how we took things down when we fought in places too tight or up close for our guns. We had the scars to prove our losses and victories alike.

When it rounded the corner I coiled back. Dear god almighty it was. It was. I failed to find the words as Petra and I both stepped back breaking formation and crossing the lobby. It didn't make noise. It was something of human nature its clothes bloody rags and its face mangled and stark white the veins visible and blue. It smelled of something I have only ever known as death and rot. When we killed deer we strung them up and as they sat for days they worked up a funk similar to this one. Its walk was lame as if it had some sort of lack of connection between mind and movement. As it slowly approached I looked at it appalled its mouth was bloody as if it had been eating raw meat. That's what predators did, they killed things and ate them raw and this being was no different.

Petra was looking at me and trying not to look at it and as it reaped closer I dropped down low into a crouch in front of her. She was scared but soon she drew up her knife and took in a deep breath.

The human like form limped towards us dragging itself across the tiles and to our stance. Its feet thumped the floor as I tried to remember the prayer I had long forgotten. When the dark times came I lost my faith in god and right now I needed to find it. The creature was getting closer. I was out of time to remember.

I ran the sharp knife across its leg in a clean swipe but still it made no noise. I backed up out of the way as Petra came crashing down upon it dragging her knife down its torso from left shoulder to right hip and the line ran deep. Suddenly the harsh red line burst open.

I stepped back no longer with my prowl or hunters mind. The disgusting noise that followed will haunt me for the rest of my life if I am not already dead. The thick red blood pooling on the ground, the distinct lines that were its intestines, human intestines. Falling to the floor and still it made no sound. The slick sound of the bloody stomach that followed the intestines to the floor and the smack it made when it landed rang in the empty lobby. Sloshing around as the creature continued to move towards us and Petra backed out of the way. We went from skilled hunters to scared civilians in a matter of seconds and began stabbing it anywhere we could reach.

"It won't die!" Petra screamed in her frustration. "Why won't it die?"

We were both wondering the same thing and soon we had backed it towards the wall.
The blood was pooling out across the floor and it covered my hands and body in a thick layer of death. The flag post sticking out of the wall was lined up with the back of its head by this point and as Petra was taking frantic stabs at the monster. I grabbed it by the shoulders the dead flesh sliding under my palms and threw it back. A single crack echoed through the school as the skull crushed with the force and broke and the flag pole broke through.

Blood splattered across my face as well as Petra's and we both curled over. Seeing as we've already gotten sick multiple times by now nothing came up and we spent the next five minutes on the ground dry heaving and coughing. The body was stuck on the wall held up by the flag banner and the more I looked at it the more disturbed I became. It was as human as Petra and I but at the same time vastly different. I believe the most alarming thing about this creature is that it makes no noise, not in pain and not even in death. It didn't fight back it only snapped and grabbed at us and its behavior leads me to believe it is physically and mentally lame. I don't yet know if these traits are only found in this creature or all of its kind. But I do know that's it only cause of death appears to be killing the brain. How anything could survive without the rest of its organs I haven't a clue. I put my hand down to steady myself and felt the blood slide up between my fingers. This time when I leaned over it wasn't just dry heaving.

I spit the last of it out of my mouth and stood up offering Petra my clean hand and pulling her up as well. I wiped my hands on my pants and realized it was no good anyway. We were covered in blood.

"Don't let it get into your mouth or eyes" Petra told me still shaking while pulling out a rag and wiping her face. She handed me the rag and I did the same. "It's sick"

"It's a human being" I breathed out getting the courage to take a good look at the rotting corpse.

"It was a human" she explained to me. "And then it got sick and died."

I looked at her extremely puzzled. If something has died then how on earth would it be here and how could we kill it again. I voiced my thoughts to her. "If it died then why did we have to kill it again?"

"Honestly I don't know and I'm not sure I ever will want to."

We walked away from the bloody mess we had made. We still have to find survivors.

BANG

BANG

BANG

We stopped cold in our tracks and turned to look at each other throwing our heads back in frustration, we turned to the four large front doors that led to the steps. The same steps that not too long ago everyone was rushing to leave from.

Petra and I slowly approached the doors with our stance in confidence. They were locked, the creatures outside going into a frenzy. Still they made no noise.

"Oh my god" Petra whispered clasping her hand over her mouth.

"You don't think" I asked my mind spinning webs of thought into patterns I have never seen before. "You don't think the illness that creature back there had has been transmitted to the others outside?"

"Only one way to find out" and with that Petra walked back to the bloody scene we had left behind and took a good hard look at the corpse surveying it and checking for something.

"What are you looking for?" I asked as she pulled the sickly man's head to the right. She must have found it because she motioned me to come closer.

"Look here" she explained to me showing me a deep red wound on the man's shoulder "it's a bite mark"

"Are you telling me this disease transmits like rabies?" I asked her in wonderment. I didn't think disease could spread like that in the human species.

"It sure looks like rabies." Petra knew more about medicine and disease than most because her mother is a nurse. If anyone knew anything about the disease that's spreading it's her. The only clinical advice I can offer right now is don't get bit and to play it safe avoid scratches also."

I nodded my head and looked at the corpse. I understand fully why Petra can't give me all the answers I want and need right now but I know that she's dead set on finding them. I trust what she says when it comes to the medical field because so far whenever something goes wrong or someone gets hurt she's known how to fix it.

We both turned our attention back to the doors and turned to them slowly. The moment I looked out the window I looked down at my feet instantly afterward. All of the students who had gone outside to find the fight had clearly lost theirs. The cold, milky dead eyes stared through the window back at us and they banged their bodies against the door putting their hands and faces on the glass.

"For some reason we are putting them into a frenzy" Petra had observed the same thing I had earlier. Then I remembered something.

"Don't wasps emit pheromones when they die?" I asked her "to let others know of the danger and attract them back?" I was getting to a point now. "Do you think this could be similar?"

Petra only looked at me and assessed what I had said. If this was true then it would explain the sudden attention from the ones outside.

"The doors should hold" Petra finally said stepping back and away from the mob outside.
"We can cross that bridge when we get to it" she was avoiding the problem but right now we still have survivors to find.

I backed away as well and we moved on to the second lobby with all the halls, stairs, and offices leading off of it. Petra pointed left to indicate her want of separate room checks but I shook my head. Best we stuck together. We took to our normal routine. Petra would open the door and I would crouch down and go in with the knife in my hand. Petra would slide in after me and we would check the rooms that all seemed to be empty. Something wasn't right and I believe I know the answer.

We got down to the last two doorways when I made it clear to Petra by pointing at the Spanish room which had desks stacked against the door and then to the civics room which looked like every other room we had checked. Motioning to the left we approached the door to the civics room.

This time we changed it up. I peeled the door open to reveal the empty unknown. Petra took a cautious step and I followed behind her. Before I knew what had happened Petra was sprawled spread eagle on the floor and I, not a moment sooner felt a sharp pain run up my calf.my body twisted around in pain and I slammed down onto the floor with a resounding thud my back aching from the fall and my calf wet with the thick warm blood.

The wind that had originally been knocked out of me was slowly returning and as I looked to the side I saw the shoe strings in the door pulled tight into a fine line in the darkness concealing them. Petra pulled her arms up under her and pushed up off the ground. I sat up and looked more closely at the shoe strings that upon further inspection were rainbow. The fog in my mind cleared up and I lowered my knife. I only knew one kid who wore rainbow shoe strings.

Lux Blackwood you sly bitch.