Cover Page

Cover Page

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Chapter Two: The Escape

Written by Chris Velez

He was trapped. That was it; Ricardo was going to die in the basement of Central high school, torn to pieces by the same students he had called his friends for the past four years. All these thoughts rushed through his head as he was scrambling up the stairs to get to the main corridor, to escape the horrible clutches of hundreds of zombie students chasing him from the gymnasium. He had made it up the last flight of stairs when his heart sunk so deep in his gut that he froze in place. All that faced him now was an impenetrable metal gate that was the only way out. The only way he could make it out alive to tell the tale of how he fought his way through a horde of zombies and survived the zombie outbreak.

At that moment he could feel the horde on his heels so he had to do something quick before he became mince meat. That’s when he remembered the second set of stairs that led up to the patio outside. By the time he pivoted on the ball of his foot to bolt for that door, he was jerked back by the cold, dead, fingers of some lifeless freshman. His grip was the strength of a heavyweight wrestler and Ricardo couldn’t tug away. All he could think of was to try to kick his way out as hard as he could. It took several kicks right to its hand before it broke the fingers. By then, he could hear the groans getting closer and closer. He got up and sprinted as fast as he could up the dark, abandoned staircase with the thought of a zombie’s fingers right at the back of his neck. The fear was enough to drive him right through the door at the top and onto the patio. He quickly got up and shut the door behind him to keep the zombies trapped inside. He got through to the outside but what Ricardo was to expect was beyond his imagination.

Once outside, Ricardo could immediately hear the city was in chaos. Running across the patio he looked over the ledge to the street. Cars were run off the road, some in flames, and others covered in blood. The streets were littered with zombies, mindlessly wandering around. He knew he wasn’t going to be safe anywhere but inside the building so he made it his priority to get in there and get the sledgehammer from the wrestling gym. Having a weapon like that could protect him and allow him to quickly kill one of those things with a blow right to the head. Once he had his weapon of choice, Ricardo could go in search of his girlfriend Angelica. Fortunately for him some kids left a pencil stuck in-between the side doors, probably for a quick run to the Chinese store across the street or something. He carefully and quietly made his way into the school trying to not make any noise that might attract zombies. Thanks to the movies, Ricardo knew all about surviving a zombie invasion. In the distance Ricardo could hear people screaming and crying from down the hall. This brought his memory back to where he might find Angelica. During the chaos in the gym, he lost sight of her but saw that she made it through one of the side gym doors with others that lead up to the health rooms. She had to of escaped before the gates came down and hid in the basement somewhere.

Moving from cover to cover, Ricardo made his way up from the side door to where he could see all the way down the first floor hall. He was just about to go around the corner when he saw two people barge right through the math corridor doors being chased by a couple zombies. Ricardo had to do something to help them. He ran out into the hall and yelled out, “Follow me into the wrestling gym.” Ricardo ran ahead and held the door open for them. “Grab that table and put it up against the doors,” he said to them. Once they heard the zombies go away, Cory and Jasmine proceeded to thank Ricardo for saving them. “Dude, we wouldn’t have known what to do if you hadn’t come along,” said Cory panting for air. “How did you get up to the first floor so fast?” exclaimed Jasmine, “We were one of the first to get the heck out of the gym when all hell broke loose.”

“I was able to find my way out to the patio,” replied Ricardo, “But it’s a war zone out there. Last thing you want is to attract the attention of hundreds of those things.”

“I know what you mean, we both had a look outside from the Language office before being overrun by the group you saw chasing us,” said Cory.

Now that they were safe for the time being, Ricardo went ahead and got the sledgehammer from the closet. “Sorry to have to leave you guys so soon after meeting, it would be good to stick together, but I need to go find my girlfriend down in the basement.”

“We understand from the determined look in your eye that we won’t be able to change your mind,” said Cory holding Jasmine close to him. We would be doing the same if we ever got separated. Good luck and be careful.” From there Ricardo made his way down to the basement from the stairs right by the wrestling gym.

He peeked through the door window and saw undead everywhere. It seems like most of the students who were bitten got out the gym and have been trapped down in the basement with nowhere to go. Ricardo knew the only way he was going to get through this hallway was to run as fast as he could and make his way past these zombies and swing at the ones who got too close. Most of them were very slow so he had the advantage of being really quick and able to maneuver his way around them through the hall. Ricardo decided that he was first going to go all the way down the north corridor in his search for Angelica. He made his way down the hall by swiftly dodging any zombies that tried to swipe at him and a few times having to hammer them right in the head. It was like hitting a rag doll because of such an impact the hammer had directed right at their weak spot. Once inside the lab rooms, Ricardo checked every little corner for Angelica, trying not to yell out her name, even though that’s exactly what he wanted to do. He made his way from room to room until he got to the small section of three classrooms in a corner. When inside one of the rooms, he heard what sounded like someone screaming down the hall, attracting all of the zombies’ attention and finally getting caught at that very spot. There were now a large number of them, about ten or more concentrated in that one area. Ricardo noticed that one of those rooms were barricaded from the inside so, perhaps some students managed to get out of the death trap that was the gym and find someplace safe. All Ricardo hoped for was that Angelica was somewhere safe. He wouldn’t stop until he found her.

Ricardo decided to go ahead and check the locker rooms by the gate. Running by there he could hear the footsteps of all those zombies he managed to get away from. The noise from them was so loud he could hear it from down the hall. As he was making his way into the boy’s locker room, he encountered one stray zombie who must have wandered up from the basement. Ricardo went to kill it but slipped on a puddle of water from a sink left on. Before he could realize what happened, the zombie was in top of him trying to bite his face off. Using one hand to push the zombie away he grabbed the sledge hammer and jammed it right in its mouth, breaking its jaw. Flipping it over and finishing it off with one more hit, he thought he was home free. Suddenly a dozen or so came out of nowhere in the locker room. Ricardo knew he had to run, but once he made it to the hall more zombies had somehow surrounded him again. This time he stood and fought, killing four of them before the blood on the handle made it hard to grip. There were zombies coming from all sides so Ricardo had to run over to the Robotics room. He spotted someone inside and banged on the door for them to know he was alive. When he thought he wouldn't be lucky this time, the door swung open and he rushed in, collapsing on the floor panting for air.

No comments:

Post a Comment