Chapter 2 - Miss Summers
"Oh great Plan Bazza," Julie groaned, peering over Zac's shoulder around the corner of a classroom to see students in the basketball courts and walking across the grounds. Bazza turned around, "I didn't see you come up with anything better Julie," He quipped, she stepped back and crossed her arms over her chest. Recalling the recent death of her best friend Julie by Mrs. Parker and not wanting to make any rash decisions. They heard a groan as a brain eater appeared at the end of the of the classroom blocks. Bazza gestured his hand signalling to get down, everyone squatted against the wall and the brain eater continued to walk and began walking in the opposite direction. Bazza looked around the corner, counting, "There's 12.. 13 here," he said out loud. He turned to the others, "We need a distraction…" He points to the basketball courts, "They won't stop us," he points around the corner, "They will," he says out loud, "and that's if the doors are open.." he mumbles to himself. Zac looks up at him hearing him. Bazza shakes his head slightly, brushing the thought off and not wanting to worry the others. Hailey pulls out her phone, "2:59pm" she reads out loud as her battery dies. The school bell rings, signalling the end of another school day. Just on this day, not many will be leaving. Bazza watches as the brain eaters are drawn to the sound in the centre of the school, taking them away from the area. "Lets go," He calls out, rushing up and leading the group across the yard. They move quickly behind the brain eaters as the ones in the basketball court bunch up against the fence. Hailey looks at them, identifying them all as part of Bazza's basketball team. Looks like they were having a free period and fitting in some training. Guess today's session won't end well, as Hailey can see the former coach in the court with them groaning towards the survivors as they approach the gym. Bazza runs to the door and pulls the handle, it doesn't open. "Fuck, it's locked!" He calls out, Kyle who is running at the back of the pack looks over at the brain eaters walking towards the bell. He knows there's less than a minute of it ringing before they have to get inside. He notices one of his best friends, Sean Holloway walking towards him. He was in his school uniform but it was torn. Kyle stopped unfocused on the danger surrounding him. Hailey notice he wasn't following her and turned around. Bazza quickly disappeared from sight along with Zac and Julie. Kyle called out, "Sam!"
"Kyle!" Hailey cries out. She ran towards him, not wanting one of her good friends to be a brain eater. Sam reached for Kyle, his hands covered in blood with some fingernails missing. Kyle snapped and moved back disgruntled only to push Sam past him. He knows that isn't Sam anymore and looks up to see Hailey's worried face, he runs to her and grabs her as Sam nearly trips but catches himself. As he turns around to catch his dinner, the school bell stops ringing. Kyle races ahead of Hailey and pulls her along, as the turn the corner of the gym they can see Zac standing by a single door open, "Come on!" Come on!' He desperately tries to yell out quietly. As they run to the door, they see the brain eating students begin to walk back into the yard. Hailey and Kyle brush past Zac who closes the door just as Sam turns the corner.
Hailey stops to catch her breath, she's not unfit she's just overwhelmed by what she's seen. Kyle takes a deep breath, "So where are we?" The lighting in the room is dim as there are small windows at the top above storage, but they can see the room is an office with a small kitchen and bathroom. "Teachers office," Bazza says, popping out of the kitchen with an apple. Julie grabs a coat off the back of a chair and puts it on. Her backpack sitting on the chair it came from. Zac pushes a desk upright against the door, "It shouldn't matter as there is no handle on the outside, but still…" he says out loud, just letting everyone know what he's doing. Bazza takes a bite of his apple, and shoves paper off a desk, plonking himself upon it. "I haven't looked out there," He points to the door on the opposite side of the room with a desk in front of it. Hailey looks over at the kitchen and bathroom. "I think we should stay here and think of our next plan," Zac proclaims. "Good idea," Kyle agrees, taking off his backpack and putting it on the ground. "What's in the fridge?" Julie asks, looking over at Bazza finishing his apple. "Heaps of shit, go check it out," Bazza throws his head in the direction of the kitchen. "Come on," Hailey says to Julie, holding out her hand and walking with her into the kitchen. The guys watch them leave the room and they start looking through the draws for anything useful.
"Hey, you okay?" Hailey asks, rubbing Julie's arm for comfort. She shrugs, her arms still across her chest, "Are you?" her voice croaks, she lowers her arms, "Sorry, I'm just… upset," she lets out a cry and Hailey gives her a hug, reassuring her, "Hey, we made it here, we'll be ok," She holds Julie away and nods to the fridge, "Check it out, might find something good," They open it and look through what looks like teachers lunches and snacks. Julie leans in and preoccupies herself with choices as Hailey walks over to the cutlery draw and opens it, she can see a steak knife and takes it out. 'This'll help,' she thinks to herself, opening other draws but only finding general cups and plates. Kyle walks in the room as Julie pulls out a lunchbox. She sees Kyle and turns to Hailey holding up the lunchbox, "Imma go in there," She walks into the other room. Kyle walks up to Hailey. She turns to him and puts the steak knife on the bench. "Here," He looks down and picks up the knife. "Yeah, I'll give it to the guys," She turns to him, "No, you keep it. Just in case," He nods and gives a half smile. "You okay?" Kyle queried, leaning against the bench. Hailey jumped up on top of it. It wasn't a big kitchen, But at least gave Hailey the chance to let her guard down. Her eyes couldn't help but fill with tears and she lowered her head, he quickly moved to her and put his arms on her legs. "Hey… we've seen some fucked up shit today, it's okay, let it out," he tries to comfort her. She puts her arms around him and pulls Kyle in for a hug. He wraps his arms around her and lets her cry into his shoulder. After a few moments she calms herself and sniffles, wiping some tears from her eyes. As she moves from Kyle, they both hear a loud bang. Behind them. Coming from the bathroom. Hailey drops her arms and Kyle moves to the knife grabbing it just as Bazza enters the room, "You heard that right?" he quizzes. They both nod, and Bazza notices the knife in Kyle's hand. The bathroom door is open but nothing can be seen, "The toilet is enclosed, a brain eater must be in there," Zac's voice can be heard around the corner although Hailey can't see him, she jumps off the bench and sees an empty fruit bowl with each corner have a decorate end that can be held like a shield. "Here," Hailey gesters, holding out the fruit bowl to Kyle. He takes it from her as Bazza enters the bathroom. Zac appears from around the corner, he's holding a chair. The guys all go into the bathroom but no more sounds can be heard. "Hello?" Bazza calls out softly. Zac looks at Bazza and Kyle, he whispers, "Baz, you open the door. I'll hold the guy down with the chair, Kyle you stab him," Zac points to the knife, Bazza looks down and says, "Naah naan mate, you have no muscle. I'll hold the chair, you open the door and Kyle aims for the head…" Kyle takes a deep breath. They all switch positions, Zac by the side of the wall, Kyle in the middle with Bazza standing in front of the door. "Ok… 1…" Zac begins to count, Kyle warms up his arm as the count down begins, "2…." Bazza lines up with the door, the legs of the chair just fitting either side of the frame, as Zac positions his hand above the door knob. Kyle raises the knife to head height, his arm slightly shaking. He doesn't feel ready for this, but before he knows it, "THREE!" Zac yells, flinging the door open as Bazza forces the chair in the door opens. There is no resistance. "Huh?" Bazza says, as he moves all the way in hesitantly. "Please…." a soft voice can be heard. Barry lowers the chair as he notices the school nurse, Miss. Summers curled up against the toilet. "What is it?" Zac impatiently asks. "Miss Summers?" Barry calls out. Kyle lowers his knife. She looks up at Barry, "Mr. Green!" She greets, excited to see someone. "How long have you been here?" Barry asks, removing the chair. Everyone moves out of the bathroom as she slowly exits the toilet. "Why didn't you answer me when I said hello? … or counted down?" Zac questions. She stutters and looks at the guys, "I was scared, I was out there, the gym was over run. I came in here," She moved into the main room and looked at Hailey with Julie now standing beside her. "I blocked the door with the table," she points at it, moving to the small kitchen table and sitting on a chair. "I thought you did that," Hailey points to Barry. "Naah, like that when we came in here," Barry replies. "Makes sense now," Julie rolls her eyes as Barry brushing it off. Hailey notices it and for a moment forgets about everything and smiles, recalling overhearing Julie and Lisa gushing about their obsession with Barry Green, 'the sexiest guy in school' one day after school. She lowered her smile as Miss Summers continued, "There's a full class of students in there… well.." She stops, clearly distraught by what she had seen. "I don't know what they are now," She speaks softly, her voice trembling a little. "Brain eaters," Zan blurts out, turning a chair with the back against the table and sits on it. Miss Summers looks at him, "You kids didn't have gym…" "We made it from Mrs. Parkers' class" Julie replies, Miss Summers looks at her and asks, "Are any of you hurt?" They all shake their heads. "We're not bitten or turning into one of those.." Bazza started, "Brain eaters," Zac chirped in, almost with a bit of a grin. "Stop calling them that!" Julie scolded. Zac shrugged, "I call it like I see it, they were eating brains," he retorts without a care, moving his hands as if presenting, "Therefore… they are brain eaters," Julie shakes her head at Zac as Kyle smacks him up the back of the head. He drops his hands and his demeanour lowers to that of a sulking puppy. "What now then?" Hailey questions, "You can't go out there," Miss Summers commands, "Hell no! I'm NOT going out there!" Julie exclaims, Hailey puts her arm around her. "My phone died, can anyone call 000?" Hailey asks, Barry leaves the room as the others pull out their phones. "Phones are dead here," Miss Summers replies, "Is there a iPhone charger here?" Hailey lets go of Julie and walks into the other room, Kyle is texting and follows Hailey. Julie walks up to the table and sits down, she texts and speaks under hear breath, "I need to make sure my mum and dad are okay…"
"Here," Kyle cheers, pulling out a charger from underneath a desk. "Thanks," Hailey smiles slightly, she takes the charger and plugs it into a power point and putting her phone on charge. "I hope my mums okay," she says, "Yeah, she'll be okay. She's in a big office in the city, that running guy must've been the first carrier of this disease, or whatever it is," Kyle reassures her. He sits on a desk opposite of her and sees the lunchbox Julie was eating out of. He grabs a sandwich out of it and opens it up. Hailey grabs a chair and sits next to her phone, checking if it can be turned on yet. "Oh yeah! LBT!" Kyle boasts, holding half a sandwich up. Hailey looks at him and he hands her the other half, she jesters no but he doesn't take it and hands the sandwich closes to her. She reluctantly takes it and puts it next to her phone. It lights up. "Yes!" She says excited, as her phone turns on she tries to call her mum again. No dial, just voice message. She calls her Dad, no dial and he never setup his voice message. So she quickly types out a text to her mum and dad, "Hey mum and dad, call me. Something happened at school today. I'm really scared! Please call me when you can. I love you both very much. xo" She puts her phone down and knows she has to wait now. She picks up the sandwich and takes a bite. "That's bullshit!" A voice echoes into the room. It's Barry's, Hailey and Kyle quickly rush back to the kitchen.
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