Chapter two
The Endeavor
"Are the only allies enemies?"
As it turned out, there were no flying ninja pandas. It was a fairly uneventful journey, with the only thing of note happening being a bird landing on Sara's head, almost causing her to fall into a skylight. We walked until we hit the northern edge of the main building. We climbed down on some machinery, watching everywhere for approaching pandas. On our way through the vocational wing, we found another group of survivors. We now had Summer, Seth, Alex, Shane, Amber and Tylor in our group. We exited through the northern set of doors and started off toward the swimming pool.
When we neared the structure, Seth spoke out. "Wait. Do we really want to risk being eaten by ninja panda sharks?"
Josh concurred. "We have no way of knowing if our school was the only thing attacked or not." Seeing the logic, the rest of us nodded and we walked past the building. As we were about to pass the middle school, Carly stopped.
"This is stupid. There's no way those pandas could have attacked everything in town at once. We need to warn those at Kennedy," she said.
"No. If Kennedy has been infiltrated, then we'll all be killed as soon as we open the door," argued Loden.
Scott stepped forward. "Loden's right. Even if Kennedy hasn't been attacked yet, warning them would make things worse. We're proof that some can survive and escape if everyone is spread out in different rooms, but how long do you think people can survive massed together, walking over open terrain? All we can do is wait and hope."
"Hope. It's a good thing to have," said Talisha.
"You guys don't understand! How can we just walk by, possibly dooming hundreds to a horrible fate? We have to do something!" Carly shouted.
"And what do you suggest we do?" I asked.
"Tell them of the approaching evil. Maybe they won't be able to escape, but at least they'll be prepared!"
"Prepared to do what?" Loden asked, incredulous. "Escape is the only option we have against these freaks."
"No! We can fight back! Maybe even eliminate them!"
"Are you kidding?" asked Shane. "We can't do anything against these things!"
"We can try! And even if the students do die, at least they'll know beforehand and have a chance to fight back."
"And die without hope. You know there's no possible way for them to-"
"Stop it!" yelled Summer. "Look what you're doing to her!" We stopped arguing as soon as we looked at Carly. She was shaking so much that she was having trouble standing. She started to sob.
"I'm just t-trying not to be so selfish as to save ourselves and leave innocent p-people to die. I only want to save as many people as I can, b-but you keep... antagonizing me."
There was an awkward silence. Then Loden said "I'm sorry. I was concentrating on my own survival so much that I lost sight of everyone else's."
"Me too. You can't blame us, though. It's human nature to be self-preserving. Not everyone is as compassionate as you," Amber spoke softly, trying not to provoke her.
This seemed to calm Carly down. We kept moving - past Kennedy. Screams emanated from the windows, and Carly started to cry again. Sara walked next to her to comfort her. We passed a few ground-level classrooms and I noticed something - one of the rooms didn't have any noise coming from it. I had an idea.
"Stop," I said. "Maybe Carly's right. Maybe we do have a chance to fight back." I then made my observations known.
"Let's do it!" said Alex. "What do we have to lose?"
"Our lives?" Michael interjected sarcastically, but nobody paid him any attention.
We walked over to the window and saw that the classroom was, in fact, empty. "This should be our base of action," I suggested. "Look around the room for anything that can be used as a weapon."
"Who wants to kill some pandas?" Tylor yelled exuberantly.
I grinned at the phrase I would have thought funny just a few hours before. The world had gone horribly wrong, and revenge... Revenge would be sweet.