Eric could barely keep still in the passenger seat of Markus' truck. His little brother was all by himself in the middle of an area where more of those monster things most likely were. He must be so scared, so alone, so afraid.
If he's still alive.
"God dammit man, can't this thing go any faster?" Eric asked.
"Dude, we're going 75 right now!"
Markus sped down the street. He wasn't concerned about being pulled over, someone could die if they didnt get to the school in time. Plus, who knows if there were any cops around anymore?
"So, you've been seeing these things since last night? Do you have any idea how many there are? If they're just here in town, or in more places?"
"I don't know much of shit, except that these bastards are everywhere and they got my family."
Markus was silent for a few seconds, then spoke again.
"I've got a feeling they might be in other places too. This morning, all the phone lines went down. My cell phone wasnt making any calls, anywhere. I tried to use the house phone, but the electricity went down too. I walk outside and there's a million of those things outside, everywhere."
"You think the the government might send the army? Or the national guard, or fuckin' something to deal with this?"
"I don't know, I hope so. There's no way they wouldn't know about this by now. This shit has to be in other places too. Of all the places something like this could go, why would it only choose Warrensburg, Missouri, of all places?"
Eric thought on the question for a second. He had a point, his hometown was a very random place for a biological disease to be terrorizing.
"But if whatever is causing this is in other places too.. does that mean there's nowhere safe for us to go?"
Markus just shrugged slowly, and continued to drive. Finally, they reached the elementary school. Markus parked the truck into the roundabout that was used pick up kids and drop them off, and parked the truck.
"Alright, c'mon, he's gotta be in there somewhere." Eric said, leaving the truck.
"Hold up, Eric!"
Eric stopped and turned around. Markus handed him a silver baseball bat.
"I'd give you a gun, but this was the only pistol my dad had. But you can use my lucky bat for now."
"Lucky bat?" Eric asked.
Markus smiled at him. "Hit a home run every time."
They both turned towards the entrance of the school and walked inside.
Walking inside, everything was silent. Nothing was to be heard through the long, maze-like corridors of the school. Eric had already learned that didn't mean there wasn't danger around.
Eric spoke in a low whisper. "Whenever I tried calling out for help in the hallway at our school, all it did was just bring more of them into the hallway."
Markus nodded. "I'm pretty sure they're attracted by sounds. I noticed after I shot the one that was on you, groups of them were coming to the parking lot. They're mindset is probably something along the lines of, 'food is where the noise is.'"
"And we're the food."
Markus nodded again.
Eric thought for a moment. "Alright, let's try and keep this quiet. Walk like you're on thin ice. We find Andre, we get out. Don't use that gun unless you have to."
Markus nodded. Eric had his bat up and ready while Markus was semi crouched behind him, with his pistol drawn. They moved as quickly but as quietly as they could through the halls. Some of the doors were left wide open, others had desks thrown in front of them to keep someone, or something, out.
"Shit, Andre, where are you?"
"I don't hear nothin' here. Maybe he ran somewhere else?"
"C'mon man just stay with me here. He could be-"
Eric's sentence was interrupted by a large crash, followed by a scream, coming from a hallway towards the other side of the school.
"Did you hear that?" Markus asked.
"Yeah. Cmon, let's go!"
They both began to run towards the sound. As they got closer, they could start to hear the inhuman groaning noise that the creatures who had invaded their hometown made.
When they turned the corner, they found out the source of the noise was a closet. Or rather someone inside of it. The person inside of the closet was screaming non-stop, as the undead monsters outside were beating on the door, huddled around the entryway to the closet. There had to be at least 15 of them.
"Eric, man we can't risk this. There's too many of them."
"That could be Andre. I'm not leaving my brother to be freak food."
Markus thought on what Eric said. He sighed. "Alright, fine. What do we do."
"We have to get them away from the door."
Eric thought for a second. Then he had an idea.
"They're attracted by noise right?"
"...yeah."
"Then we just have to make more noise than the person inside the closet."
Markus got a concerned look on his face.
"I don't like where this is going."
"I'll hide behind that desk over there." Eric pointed at a desk that had been pushed into the hallway. "You stand over there, and start making racket, do whatever you have to. Draw them away from the door, then run into the cafeteria over there. Once they're away from the door, I'll go get the person inside the closet. Then you circle around these things, we meet back at the truck."
"Oh, so I'm just bait? I dont get a choice?"
Eric looked at him. "Cmon mister basketball star, I thought you were the fastest motherfucker on the team?"
"Hey, just because people SAID I said that doesnt mean I actually said that."
Eric rolled his eyes. "Can you just fucking help me here? My little brother could be in there, and who knows how many more of those fuckers are out there are trying to find us and eat us. We're wasting time."
"Alright, fine. You get in place and I'll do my thing."
Eric ran to the desk and hid behind it. Markus looked around for a few seconds, trying to find a way to distract the freaks away from the door. Then he pulled his gun. He shot it at the ceiling twice.
"Hey assholes, why dont you pick on someone who can fight back?"
"What the hell are you doing?!" Eric asked.
"You told me to attract them to me!"
"Yeah, the ones in front of the door, not every single one in the damn building!"
The freaks in front of the door were already moving towards Markus.
"Just go get whoever's in there. I'll see you at the truck!"
Eric nodded. He waited until the freaks were past the desk, following Markus' shouts while he led them away from the door. When they were a safe distance away, Eric ran for the closet. 'Please be Andre, please be Andre, please be Andre!' He thought. He went and opened the door to, sure enough, see his little brother cowered in the back of the closet.
"Eric!"
Andre ran to him and they embraced.
"Hey little dude. Man, I'm glad to see you in one piece. Did any of those things touch you, or bite you?"
Andre shook his head. "They tried to grab me, but I ran in here."
"That's good. I knew you were smart enough to get away. Come on, our ride is waiting for us out front."
Eric led Andre back through the winding maze of hallways of the school. Eventually, they found the front door.
"You see that truck parked there? That's ours."
"So cool!"
Eric and Andre made a break for the truck after they ran out the door. Andre got into the back seat with Eric's help, then Eric got into the passenger seat.
"Shit. Markus isnt back." He turned around to face Andre. "We're gonna have to wait here for a little bit."
"Eric, what's going on? What are those things? Why do they keep chasing us?"
"I don't know. I don't know what's going on buddy, but we're going to do everything we can to get through it, okay?"
Andre nodded and looked down at the floorboard.
Eric looked toward the door on the school, it had just opened. Markus walked out. Eric was relieved, until he got a closer look at him.
Markus was walking different. Walking strangely. He had his arms half up, his fingers were curled. His skin was green mixed with his dark skin. His eyes were the same grey, soulless eyes the freaks had. And he had huge bites in his right arm and his neck.
"Oh no... shit. Not him man. No!"
But that wasn't their only problem. The keys were still with Markus, on his now dead body. They had no way to turn the truck on.
A larger group of freaks were behind Markus, following him outside. Large groups of the monsters were coming from all over the place, closing in on Eric's location, possibly attracted by the gunshots of Markus' pistol.
There were freaks on all sides of the truck. Eric and Andre were trapped, with no way out.
