Chapter 5 - Torches
Theres a weird smell in the air, Kyle isn't quite sure what it is, but he begins to wake up when he is jerked with a shove on his shoulder and sits up, he sees Barry shaking him, "Wake up bro," he whispers, he looks over and see's Hailey beside him, 'Phew! it was just a dream!' Kyle thinks, getting up quietly trying not to disturb Hailey. His efforts are fruitless as she wakes up and rolls over onto her back, keeping her eyes closed but hearing Barry and Kyle talking, "Hey man, we can't let Miss Summers go…" Barry starts talking quietly, as Kyle yawns and stretches feeling the discomfort of sleeping on a thin carpeted floor and a backpack as a pillow, he rubs his neck, "She's a nurse, we have to keep her with us, we could use her, people at the shops…" He stops, Hailey opens her eyes slightly, seeing Barry look over with Kyle following his line of sight at Miss Summers who is sleeping in the kitchen chair with her head against the wall. Barry continues, "Mate, we need to come along, you have to help me convince her," he presses Kyle to agree with a nod, Kyle reluctantly agrees and turns around, seeing Hailey looking up at him. Barry doesn't notice and looks at Zac under his blanket on the floor. "Dammit," he says, looking around at Hailey on the floor, "Sweet," he says, stepping towards her, Kyle looks at him realising he wants to sleep next to Hailey, she quickly pushes the blanket off her and jumps up, startling Barry. "Whoa," "I'm awake," she says, getting out from underneath the table, "I'll keep watch with Kyle," she says pointing to him as he walks over to the table and jumps up. "You sure?" Kyle queries, not really wanting her to sleep next to Barry, who has been known to be pretty sleazy towards a group of younger students. She nodded, zipping up her jacket and walking past Barry, he didn't hesitate to jump underneath the table and scoot into Hailey's spot, using her bag as his pillow. Kyle helped her up on the table and they both looked outside.
It wasn't light yet, but it wasn't as dark as when Kyle went outside to fetch the blankets. He can see the car park full with teachers cars to the right, with the school on the left with the usual thick grass border in the centre, however with some large trees casting dark shadows on the ground. There's only a few brain eaters that can be seen in the distance. Hailey looks around and says, "Hopefully they've moved on," "Yeah, I really hope so," Kyle replies quietly, keeping in mind Zac sleeping closely nearby. "Are you hungry?" Kyle asks, turning his head to Hailey. She smiles and he jumps off the table, walking towards the kitchen. Hailey slowly drifts her head back around, letting her mind wander of thoughts of their situation and Kyle. She tilts her head, looking out the window aimlessly when a flickering light catches her eye. She looks out the window, turning her body and pushing her head close to see a torch light being swung, indicidating someone walking. "Ok, I found an apple and half a ham and cheese sandwh-" "Kyle!" Hailey says in a hurried voice, not taking her attention away from the window. In her haste, she didn't register the tone of her voice and had startled Zac in his sleep. Kyle jumped up on the desk and Zac woke up, "What's going on?" he groaned, "look!" Hailey said, as Kyle peered through the window. Seeing a group of people with torches walking through the grounds. There was a brain eater before them they were approaching, one of the men jumped at him and the torch struggled but the man soon got back up quickly. They both listened, but couldn't hear anything. They saw the group head into the middle of the school.
"Get up!" Hailey called out, waking everyone int heir sleep, "What is it Hailey?" Zac pestered, annoyed he didn't get a response the first time, "People!…" she paused, turning around to face everyone, "With torches," Barry was at the table by this stage and jumped up beside her, Zac soon jumped off the desk. With Julie slowly waking up and Miss Summers emerging from the kitchen, "Who are they? Military?" Zac queried, looking but only able to see the remaining glimpses of torch lights hitting the school roofs. "Should we…?" Hailey started, "go out there?" Barry finished, "I totally think we should!" Julie piped up from behind them, having stepped closer to them all, "I agree, we should go to them, they will help us!" she wailed, almost pleading with the group to approach the group with torches. "We don't know what kind of people they are," Kyle said under his breath, "Maybe a few of us should go," Barry volunteered, "And have you go missing again?" Julie cried out as Barry jumped off the table in front of her, pulling his bag onto his back. "Why not? We'll greet them, bring them back to get the rest of you and go from there," Barry says, lifting his shoe up on the desk to tighten it. He had his basketball sneakers on, he was going to join his fellow teammates for practice after school. "I'll go this time," Zac says, looking down at Barry and jumping off the table, "Are you guys sure?" Hailey queried as Miss Summers turned on the lights in the room. "Shit…" Kyle's shoulders sunk, everyone looked at him but saw him staring at Barry, who was tying his other shoe lace, oblivious to everyones eyes now on him. "Baz…" Kyle calls out, gaining his attention, "your shirt bro…" Barry looks down, he knows the inevitable, but he had hoped to had put a jacket on before everyone noticed. His shirt was half soaked in blood. Kyle realises that was the smell from before. Barry drops his leg and looks towards Hailey, Kyle and Zac, "Guys… come on," Miss Summers steps towards Barry and he holds out his hand, "Don't," He takes his shirt off, revealing his trim, fit back to Julie but leaving Hailey gasp out loud. "What is it?" Julie says, walking around beside Miss Summers, they see the bite marks on Barry's stomach and he shrugs his shoulders, "I'm fucked." Zac pushes him hard, "Why the fuck did you come back in here dickhead? You could have killed us all?" Barry fell backwards but wasn't able to catch himself like he usually would. He was known for picking fights with some of the nerdier guys in the year, and 10x out of 10, he would win. Only one kid came close, but his basketball mates ended up jumping in and helping him. "Barry!" Julie gasped, running to his aid but he collected himself on the floor, "Don't! Julie," He demanded, she stood back, taken back by his aggressiveness. "Let me go, i'll get the guys for you all and then.." Barry started, but stopped to catch his breath as he pulled himself back up. "Fuck this!" Zac said, walking away from Barry and grabbing his backpack. "Let me try and help you," Miss Summers begged, opening up her first aid kit. Barry was so sure he could just ignore the bites, but the bleeding wouldn't stop. He knew he had to get them patched up if hew was going to be able to help anyone. So he sat down on the desk and Miss Summers walked over to him. Zac walked into the kitchen, upset by Barry being bitten. Hailey continued to watch outside during the commotion and Kyle turned to her, "Are they still there?" he questioned, "They moved to the far block, near the canteen area," She points to the far left in the distance. Kyle could see a flash of a torch on a roof in the distance and turned, jumping off the table and walking to his backpack. He grabbed his and Hailey's, chucking them on the desk. "Well i'm going out there now," Zac declared, entering back into the room. Miss Summers and Julie were hovering over Barry who didn't have the strength to turn his head, "Guys, I can't…" he started. "I'll go with you," Hailey proclaimed, looking at Zac as she quickly put her backpack on. "Lets be quick," Kyle shook his head, "Us three, we'll go, you, me and Zac," he moved forward with Hailey towards the door leading to the outside that Zac started revealing behind the table barricade, "No dude, We all go.. everyone but Barry," Miss Summers stopped reassuring Barry for a moment and turned to face Zac as did Julie, "No.. we can't leave him," Julie said sobbing, "Are you serious?" She mumbled, noticing Barrys breath becomes laboured as he slowly starts to sway a little. Miss Summers stands up straight, "I have to help him-" Zac interjects, "No Miss, you can't. He'll be a brain eater, and pretty shortly by the looking of him," He bent down to act as if he was giving Barry a look over from a distance. Hailey and Kyle stood by the door, Zac between them and Miss Summers and Julie. "Ladies, come on, We can't stay here," Zac said, gestering towards the exit, "Go," Barry said breathlessly, he wasn't looking to good but he used the last of his strength to push Miss Summers away, by leaning too far forward he fell off the table onto his face. "Barry!" Julie cried, helping turn him over. Miss Summers packed up her first aid kit, seeing that Barry didn't want her assistance anymore and probably couldn't use it. She grabbed Julie's arm, "Come on, we have to go," she reasoned, Julie looked up at her with tears in her eyes, "No Miss, i'm staying," "Go!" Barry groaned, coughing. Hailey called out, "Julie! Come on! We haven't got he time," Kyle quickly jumped up on the table and looked around saying "I can't see the torches," "They are leaving! Come on!" Zac ushered, walking up to the door past Hailey and pushing it open. "Lets go, Hailey! Kyle!" He knew by leaving, he's forcing the others to make a decision and not waisting any more time. Hailey quickly steps outside, looking around and leaning closely to the gym office walls. Kyle soon pops out behind her, he points in the direction of where they need to go but they decide to follow the same path the group they saw took. It's still relatively dark, roughly 3:30am. Zac pops out and lets go of Miss Summers' hand as she follows behind him and the door closes. Hailey realizes Julie has stayed with Barry and they push off from the wall, leaving the gym area with caution.
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