Death's Little Angels (9 page)

Karley slowly walked towards Drew and the
small group.

“
I am coming,” she meekly
said. Karley pushed back a thin strand of hair behind her ears and
continued to look down.

Royal and Kaleb busted out into laughter.
Steven joined in shaking his head.

“
Good luck bean pole!
Don’t fly away in the wind out there,” Royal said beside himself
with laughter as he watched Karley walk towards Drew.

More
Eaters
congregated at the window and
started beating on it with partial limbs, mangle heads, or whatever
they had remaining of their body. Some of the
Eaters
did not have hands or arms
and use their heads like hammers to beat against the windowpane. It
amazed Drew to see that these
Eaters
were his former classmates
and peers. He felt he could have been in that position, not knowing
the day Hurricane Angel was projected to hit the Gulf Coast that
his school would be riddled with flesh eating zombies. He knew that
his sisters and Mee-maw would be safe because of the basement his
Paw-paw built years before he died as an escape route from
hurricanes and tornadoes. He silently thanked the Lord for letting
him survive so far.

Drew huddled the group of
students together who decided to make that fateful run with him to
the west end of the school. He frowned at Royal and was glad to be
leaving out of the company of him and his goons. Drew realized
their chances were slim to none and knew there was a possibility
that most of them would not make it. He looked at the classroom
window, which was now filled with thirty plus
Eaters
and figured he would die
trying. Then the windowpane cracked….

Drew Jacks ran down the hall

Drew Jacks had a devastating fall

All of the students and all of their
friends

With one bite said the world has met its
end

Drew shot a grave look
towards the classroom windows. The
Eaters
knew they were in there. It
was only a matter of minutes before the windows would cave in from
death’s hunger. Drew noticed Royal and Kaleb congregating with the
rest of the students who decided to follow them. Steven leaned into
the window and antagonized the
Eaters
fascinated by their hoarse
moaning and missing limbs.

“
Hey look!” Steven cried,
“There is Perry Hamilton! Missing an arm eh, Perry?”

Drew recalled that Perry Hamilton use to
bully Steven a lot at lunch. He would often take Steven’s lunch
tray and any extra money that he had on him at the time.

“
Gimme five!” Steven held
out his hand to Perry who was obviously missing both
hands.

Steven laughed
hysterically pointing at Perry who unknowingly joined the
other
Eaters
at
the window as they extended their gory jaws. The moans grew louder
and sounded like an out of tune chorus. Drew motioned for everyone
who decided to follow him to gather around.

“
We are going to need
weapons, in order to defend ourselves. But I don’t want Kaleb and
Royal’s bunch to know and then they try to take them from us,” Drew
whispered. “I have my pocket knife but do any of y’all have ideas?
Hurry though.” Drew glanced back at the window nervously. The color
of the window was slowly changing from the clear coloring to black.
The
Eaters
covered the window like ants do with dropped food.

“
First, I suggest to the
girls if you have long hair to either put it up in a ponytail or
braid it,” Sue Ellen suggested. “We all see what happened to
Josefina over there.” Mater rapidly stuffed her French braid inside
her shirt while Tarynn immediately started to twist her waist
length hair.

“
We need a broom stick
like what they have over there and then I can sharpen it with my
knife,” Drew said looking at Kaleb’s man made weapon.

“
I’ll be on the look out
for one when we sprint. I mean leave,” Billy suggested. Drew nodded
his head in agreement.

“
Come on Beetle, man. I
know you have to have some ideas in that huge brain of yours. What
can we use to protect ourselves?” Drew quietly pleaded.

Beetle walked over to the teacher’s desk. He
slowly shook his head as he saw Mrs. Westwood’s purse, reminiscent
of the times he had with her in Math class. He rummaged through the
desk for a couple of minutes until he found what he was looking
for. Two pair of scissors and two paperweights. Beetle smiled as he
carefully brought the items to the huddled group.

“
Whatcha going to do with
that, Beetle?” Drew frowned in disapproval. “I mean the scissors
are good. Great thinking but paperweights? C’mon man. What are we
going to do with those? Throw them?”

“
Not exactly,” Beetle
sneakily smiled. “These my friends are going to be our way out of
here. We all know what the scissors can be used for but the
paperweights…”

Beetle placed the items on the floor as he
bent down and removed his socks then shoes. After putting his shoes
back on, he took the paperweights and placed one in each of the
socks. He grasped both items holding up them up for his comrades to
see.

“
Sock-a-bats!” Beetle
exclaimed peering through his shiny glasses.

“
Shhh!” Mater
hissed.

“
You can sling them like a
bat. Guaranteed to put a dent in those
Eater’s
noggins. Forget about
finding a broom or a mop.” Beetle looked back and forth between
Drew, Mater, and Sue Ellen. “What do you guys think? Cool
huh?”

Drew took one of the homemade Sock-a-bats
and studied it quickly. “Beetle, you are going to be the next
multi-billionaire someday, when we get out of this.”

“
I also figured we might
need some sort of lubricant, oil… Grease even,” Beetle said. All
eyes fell on Cookie.

“
Oh uh huh! Why everybody
looking over here when Beetle said
grease
?” Cookie shrieked.

“
I was thinking of grease,
Cookie, because the
Eaters
would have a hard time of grabbing us if we were
slippery,” Beetle added.

The crew grew silent as
Cookie abruptly left the group. She walked over to where her desk
was and where the others were clustered together like grapes. Drew
gawked at Beetle.
We need all the people
we could get
.
Great going Beetle,
Drew
thought.

“
Alright. Looks like
Cookie is going with the others. Whenever we get out into the
hallway we will move quietly and fast. Our destination is the storm
shelter and to not alert the
Eaters
at all cost.” Drew turned to look at everyone.
“Agreed?”

Everyone shook their heads in agreement.

“
The good thing is
the
Eaters
move
slow kind of like they are uncoordinated. However, they are deadly
in groups and once they get a hold of you, it’s best to pray
someone else is around to help you out if you are surrounded,”
Beetle said.

“
Who wants a Sock-a-bat
and the scissors? We only have two each.” Drew held up the make
shift weapons.

Sue Ellen and Mater took the Sock-a-bats.
Beetle and Billy took the scissors. The group, led by Drew, started
for the door. He turned around not really wanting to find out what
was beyond it.

“
You are the leader. Go,”
Sue Ellen pushed at Drew. Drew turned around and frowned at Sue
Ellen. “Will you stop already?”

“
How about we say a silent
prayer for about thirty seconds?” Tarynn asked with her lips
quivering. The group nodded their heads and prayed.

“
Hey! Look what I have,”
Cookie happily said walking back towards the group. She held a big
jar of Vaseline in her hands.

“
Prayer works,” Drew
mumbled as he watched Cookie approach the group.

“
Um… Cookie why do you
have that?” Mater asked wearily.

“
Girl, you didn’t know? I
was supposed to fight Jose—“ Cookie stopped as she looked at
Josefina’s lifeless body sprawled across the desk. “I mean Vaseline
is good for when you get in fights. It makes you slippery so the
other person can’t grab you.” Cookie slumped her head and dropped
her shoulders.

Drew touched Cookie. “Well, at least this
Vaseline will be put to some use for a good purpose… and that is to
stay alive.”

Drew passed the Vaseline around as they all
smothered themselves like they were lathering up with soap. Karley
immediately put up her hands waving off the application of
Vaseline. She hid behind Sue Ellen as the group continued to apply
the lubricant. Some of the students led by Royal looked on while
others laughed at the sight of Drew and his friends soaking
themselves in oil.

“
We all stick together no
matter what, right?” Drew said making eye contact with each of
them. They all nodded their heads in unison.

Definitely, we are stronger in numbers,”
Beetle added.

“
Please don’t forget
Marley, Drew. We have to stop on the sixth grade hall on our way to
the storm shelter,” Mater whimpered. She blinked her big brown soft
eyes.

“
I won’t forget, Marley…”
Drew promised. He thought of his own sisters and hoped that he
would be reunited with them soon. “Anybody else besides Mater have
someone we need to search for? I don’t want anyone left out.” No
one spoke up but it seemed as if each kid swallowed lumps in their
throat that struggled to go down.

Drew started towards the door with Sue Ellen
and Mater close on his heels. Tarynn grabbed Karley’s hand and
smiled faintly. She clutched her bible in the other hand. Cookie
followed closely behind with Billy and Beetle securing the end.
Drew walked past Royal and shook his head. He knew that Royal and
his goons were spoiled, rich kids but how could someone be so
nonchalant about the world coming to an end?

Drew placed his hands slowly on the door
knob and opened the door. He carefully stuck his head out the
doorway peering into the wide hallway. Once the door was opened,
Drew was instantly met with the smell of strong copper and body
waste. The sight alone caused him to jerk his entire body back into
the classroom. He closed his eyes and fell back onto the wall near
the door. Drew brought his hands to his mouth like he was going to
vomit.

“
What is it?” Sue Ellen
hissed.

“
Drew?” Matter added
quietly. Drew reopened his eyes.

“
I don’t think we should
go out there,” Drew wearily whispered. He felt as if his knees
would buckle and give away at any minute.

“
What do you mean?” Billy
asked. “You should’ve seen what we just came through before y’all
let us in. Besides, it cant be no worse than what’s about to bust
through those windows in the next few minutes.”

Beetle addressed everyone in the group.
“Listen, what you are going to see when we go out into the hallway
is going to make any horror movie you’ve ever watched seem like a
scary joke. I would advise everyone to stick close and keep moving
if you want to live. That’s how we made it here in one piece.”

“
Man, you know we had some
soldier’s to fall,” Billy said shaking his head, reminiscent of his
classmates who were bitten by the
Eaters
in route to
safety.

“
Yea….” Beetle quietly
said.

Drew leaned over to look
at the classroom windows, which now had cracks running madly all
the way to the top. So many
Eaters
had congregated at the window that no view
outside was visible but the bleak sky.

Fight or Flight.

“
What’s taking you so
long, Jacks? I know you are not scared of the boogeyman!” Royal
shouted at Drew.

Royal also became nervous, as the moans grew
louder at the window. Kaleb tightened the grip on his sharpened
broom handle. He sneered as he glanced towards the darkening
window.

Who is going to come out
in this weather to rescue us?
Drew
thought. He figured if he could make it to the storm shelter then
their chances for survival was great, especially after what he had
just seen out in the hallway.

Drew swallowed hard. “I’m going first,
right?”

No one said a word but nodded their
heads.

Before Drew had a chance
to lead the group out of the room, the outside window gave in from
the weight of the
Eaters.
A breeze of air and rain accompanied by death
filled the room.
A loud excruciating
scream overshadowed the monotone moans of the
Eaters
. A bite landed first on the
side of Steven’s face, who was standing near the window, severing
his ear.

“
Agghhh! Plea—“

Drew witnessed Steven get
eaten alive as the grip of death, pulled him in through the broken
hole in the window. Some of the students who were congregated
around Royal sprinted out of the door bypassing Drew and his group.
An
Eater
fell
into the classroom, on his head, to the floor with a loud thud.
The
Eater
was
unaffected by the fall and slowly resumed a stance with its tiny
mangled arms placed forward as it shuffled towards its prey.
The
Eater
looked
to be no more than 11-years-old and probably a sixth grader. Drew
could not tell if it was a male or female. There were so many bite
marks on the child that the face was unrecognizable.