ACT III
THE DOORS OPEN
AND
THE WINDOWS CLOSE
"Bruce…Bruce…hey, Bruce?" Bruce woke to being shaken, and hearing his name being whispered in his ear. It was a lot darker than before, the fire having burned itself out, and there being no windows in the auditorium. He blinked a few times, and rose from his curled up position on the skywalk. He couldn't see a thing, so he put his hand out and groped around until he found the wall. "Who is it?" He asked, rubbing his eye with his free hand as he slowly got up. "It's me, it's Johnnie. I can't relight the fire. Here." Bruce heard some weird metallic flicking sounds, then a resigned sigh. "I can't make the lighter…go…" Johnnie's voice was full of embarrassment. "Give me a sec, pal." Bruce tried to sound helpful, and reached down. He felt around on the ground, until he finally felt the backpack. He ran his fingers around it, until he found the zipper. He unzipped it, and groped around again until he found the flashlights plastic handle. He pulled it out, and turned it on. Johnnie was standing there awkwardly holding a lighter in one hand, and using his other hand to cover his eyes from the flashlights beam. "Haha, oh, what, you can't use a lighter? Loser." A hand came from behind Johnnie and grabbed the lighter. Bruce pointed the flashlight behind Johnnie to see Derik holding the lighter, and in the other hand the wrench. He had a smirk plastered across his pimpled face. "Watch and learn, squirt." He squatted down next to the fire and flicked the lighter on, watching with glee as the flames caught. "Looks like we're gonna need some more kindling, are you guys going to take your shift now?" Kyle's voice appeared out of the darkness, and Bruce swung his flashlight to see Kyle coming up the stairs with Michael. "Yeah, aren't we, Johnnie boy?" Johnnie flinched as Derik draped his arm around Johnnies shoulders and squeezed, smiling a mischievous grin. Johnnie nodded quickly, worming his way out of Deriks grip and shuffling over the Bruce. "Ok, well, Bruce, why don't you go down with them, grab some wood from the pile of broken chairs, and bring it up here." Kyle looked at Bruce expectantly. Michael was already propped up against. "Oh, yah, sure man. No problem." Bruce nodded. Johnnie quickly walked away, making his way to the stairs. Derik followed suit, strutting down the skywalk. As Bruce started to walk away, Kyle grabbed his arm and pulled him closer. "Look, man, after you bring the kindling up here, go back down and make sure nothing happens. Derik is a bully, and Johnnie is his ideal subject to exercise his old habits on."
"Of course, I'll keep an eye on them." Kyle looked relieved, and sank to the ground. He looked exhausted. Bruce started walking away again, but was halted once again by Kyle asking him to wait. "Yes?" Bruce turned again. "Look, we're gonna need to get some food. When the shifts over, come up and wake us. We'll go raid the cafeteria." Kyle then put his head down and closed his eyes, indicating he had no more energy to talk. Bruce started down the stairs. At the bottom of the steps, he saw Johnnie waiting expectantly while Derik was using his wrench to take out the bolts in one of the chairs, probably so he could use it as a footrest. There was a massive pile of broken chair parts in the corner of the auditorium. Out of the 600 something chairs in the room, two rows worth of the chairs had been ripped out of the ground in the back to make more space for the group, and then split into the pieces for fire and to use for boarding up the door. As Bruce stepped onto the floor, Johnnie timidly began to whisper something in Bruce's ear. "Can you stay with Derik while I take the kindling up? I don't want to be alone with him." Johnnies eyes were full of fear, pure, unhidden fear. He was terrified. Bruce felt terrible for him. "Yeah, of course champ. You can." He patted Johnnie's shoulder and then beckoned for him to come to the big pile of chair pieces. "So, while we get some suitable kindling, you want to tell me how you guys did all this?" Bruce inquired as he began digging through the pile, pulling arm rests and cushions out of the pile and dropping them at his feet. "Well, uh, I thought that we could use the wrench that…you know…he has," Johnnie quickly looked at Derik before looking away again. "To unbolt the chairs from the ground. Then, using Sammy's…thing….I realized we could smooth the bolts so they didn't have the rivets, making them more like nails. We used the ones we didn't botch to nail the backs of the chairs to the doors, so it was harder to open." Johnnie started picking up the pieces, getting ready to bring them upstairs. Bruce looked at him in awe. "That's…incredible. Dude, you're a genius." Johnnie looked up with eyes full of disbelief behind his thick glasses.. "Really?"
"Yah! No one else could be that calm and collected in that situation. Man, you're a fucking genius, you know that?" Johnnies face lit up, but he flinched when they heard Derik shouting. "Hey, ladies, come on. Get it over with." Johnnie nodded and grabbed the last of the firewood. He quickly started toward the stairs. As he hurried away, Bruce felt a twinge of guilt for not saying anything. He picked up some more wood, and walked over to the seats that were set up in front of the door. He let it drop into a pile, and looked at Derik. "Can I get that lighter?" Derik looked over, his feet resting on the new pile of chairs he had stacked in front of him. "What? Oh, yeah, here." He tossed it, and Bruce lit the wood. It flared to life, lighting most of the auditorium. "So uh, they were saying you don't remember anything?" Bruce was startled that Derik was trying to make conversation. "Uh, yah, like, I know my name, but besides that, pretty much nothing."
"Really? Nothing?" Bruce looked skeptical.
"Yah…why?" Bruce didn't like the way Derik was looking at him. He looked almost…relieved. But Bruce couldn't really tell. Derik was unreadable. He was short, only a little taller than Johnnie. He looked pretty heavy, not fat, but overweight. He had brown hair that was spiked up messily, and he had a bad case of acne. He had a flat face, squished features that made him look like some sort of pug. "No reason…nothin you gotta worry about." Derik laughed to himself and turned away. Just as he did, Johnnie came walking down the steps. He was snoring in seconds. After a minute or two, Johnnie came back down the steps with a big book. He hesitantly walked towards the seats where Derik and Bruce were, and sat down. "What's that, dude?" Bruce looked inquiringly at Johnnie, who sheepishly showed the title. "State High School Architecture, huh?" Bruce laughed a little. "I have two questions for you." 'Um…ok…shoot." Johnnie closed the book and looked up.
"One, where did you get that, and two, why are you reading it?"
"Well, I found it in the janitor's closet a few weeks ago. Architecture has always been an interest of mine, so I grabbed it. Look, I've been planning a way to get out. We go through the cafeteria, stack some tables up in the courtyard so that we can climb up to the roof, run across the roof so that we're over the front entrance. We can't go directly through the front doors from the cafeteria because of the high concentration of zombies. But if we pile the tables…" Johnnie went on and on, getting so worked up that he was having to wriggle in his seat, pointing out every step of the escape and explain each in turn. Johnnie was a very awkward looking individual, with his hair a matted mess of black. He had thick framed black glasses that made his eyes look huge, while he had a thin nose and pale skin. He wore a sweater vest, and a long sleeved shirt under that. He had khaki pants on, that went down to his ankles. He had dirtied white shoes with ankle socks, completing the look. He started to slow down, his speech becoming quieter and slower. "…and so we can jump down, and break through this part of the fence if we use the sledge." He looked at Bruce, his eyes shining. "Yah, that sounds like it could really work. Hey, John, do me a favor. Tell me about you and Derik." Johnnie's face drained of color. "No, no…not when he's right there. He," Johnnie moved his head so his mouth was right next to Bruce's ear and whispered, "he's always made fun of me, hit me, broken my stuff, made me look stupid…he scares me…" Bruce pulled away, and put his hand on Johnnie's shoulder. "Go upstairs. Wake up the rest of the group, show them your escape plan. I'll stay here and watch. Come down when you guys are ready. I'll start getting the planks off the wall, ok? Be down here in an hour." Johnnie nodded and hurried off. Bruce relaxed and walked over to the doors. He took his flashlight out of his backpack and put it in his mouth, shining it on the hastily barricaded entrance. He brought his axe down on the planks, hacking and smashing until he could kick them off. There were still some pieces nailed to the wall, but they could leave when they wanted. He walked back to the chairs, and sat down. He stared into the fire, which was already starting to dim. His stomach gurgled, and he looked down He was a wreck. His shirt, just a black long sleeved shirt with the words "I hate Mondays" on the front, was charred, bloodied and ripped. His jeans were shredded and soaked in blood, and his shoes didn't have any laces anymore. His headache was gone, but he was still sore everywhere. He sat there, staring at the fire, trying to remember anything. The same things kept playing over and over in his head. Waking up in that classroom, seeing the student getting eaten alive, the spear breaking, meeting the group, and then passing out in the auditorium. He cursed himself silently for having such awful luck. After what felt like ages, he got up and started pacing. When he got bored of that, he practiced using his axe on the chairs that were still attached to the ground. He improved his balance with it a bit, making his strikes somewhat more accurate. He stopped when he missed the chair and bounced the axe off the ground right next to his foot, nearly cutting his toes off. He walked back to the chairs and sat down. He waited and waited, until he heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps. He turned to see the whole group. Kyle with his around Sammy, holding his bat in the other hand while she was using hers like a walking stick. Johnnie was walking behind Michael and Chris, who were laughing while Chris was flipping one of his knives from hand to hand. "Hey! Get up, Derik! We're going." Michael yelled. "Uh what?!" Derik shot up, looking confused. "Oh..right." He grabbed his wrench, wiping his nose with his arm with a sniff before getting up and strutting over to the group. Bruce got up slowly, grabbing his backpack and slinging it over his shoulder. Kyle gave him a quick smile, Sammy waved as they passed and readied their weapons. Chris came over and shook Bruces hand, looking at him with a determined expression, while Michael just nodded. Derik walked over the Michael and stood next to him, while Johnnie stayed behind everyone.. The group all exchanged looks, and then Kyle turned and looked expectantly at Bruce. "Hey, Bruce, can you do me a favor?" Bruce nodded and walked through the rest of the kids to stand beside Kyle. "I was told by Sammy here that you were a good public speaker. We're about to go on a pretty dangerous mission. Maybe give us a little pep talk?" Bruce was unsure. "Uh, well, ok I guess." Bruce brandished his axe and looked at the group in front of him. Kyle and Sammy were in the front, with Chris standing next to them. Then Michael and Derik stood behind them, with Johnnie in the very back. "I, I uh…I can't say I know you guys well. But from what I've seen so far, you're all incredible. Kyle, you're an amazing leader, you've managed to keep all of us together, alive, and best of all not from killing each other. Sammy, you have made an apocalypse happier. There's people eating each other out there, yet you managed to make me laugh my ass. Chris, you saved my fucking life, and you made me feel like I have a friend in this dark place. I know this is sappy guys, but its true. And Michael, you kept that door open for me, and I haven't talked to you much, but anyone who saves my ass is good in my book. Johnnie, you're a genius. You're probably the sole reason we're going to make it out of this god forsaken hellhole. And Derik, you managed to entertain me through our shift, so thanks for that. But you guys, we need to stay positive. This place," Bruce motioned to the auditorium."This is our haven. It's made us feel happy and safe. But out there," he pointed to the doors,"That's a cold and deadly place. You need to remember that. So focus, stay together, and be smart. They work on smell, according to Chris. That means the more of us together, the better they will be able to locate us. We're going to split into 3 groups. Sammy and Kyle, Michael and Chris, and Johnnie, Derik and me. Johnnie, Derik and I are going to scout for a way to get out, while Sammy and Kyle are going to cover the entrance to the cafeteria and barricade it. Michael and Chris will be collecting whatever food they can. We are going to do this quick, and we are going to do this right." Bruce nodded, and stepped back as Kyle took his place in front of the group. Bruce scanned the kids faces, and they were all set in a determined expression, even Johnnie. "Thank you, Bruce. Now, here's how this is going to go down. Sammy and I, along with Michael and Derik are going out first. Michael and Derik will fend off the zombies that may come in from the right hall, while Sammy and I will fight off any from the left. Chris, Johnnie and Bruce are gonna make a beeline for the cafeteria. Once they're in there, we'll follow. We'll get in, close the doors. Sammy will go help Johnnie and Chris, who will be waiting next to the door with a lunch table. Sammy and Chris will push the table in front of the door, barricading it. While that's going on, Derik and Michael, as well as me and Bruce will start clearing out the rest of the cafeteria. Once we've done that, Johnnie and Derik along with Bruce, you guys look around for a way to escape. Me and Sammy will go barricade the other entrances, and Michael and Chris will go grab food. Sound good?" Kyle raised his bat, and everyone yelled an energetic "Yeah!" Kyle grinned and turned towards the door. "Lets do this!" He yelled and Bruce shoved the door open, and the group charged out into the hall.