Endless Recess

Silence in the hallway| Part 2

"Ah, I did it again."

Emma held a wooden toy, clearly handmade and now broken in her hands.

Her hair was shorter and she was younger.

"What happened?" A blonde girl sitting in front of her asked curiously, holding a toy of her own.

"This thing takes too long! I'm not made for this type of stuff!" she angrily collapsed on the desk in front of her.

"You are too impatient" The blonde girl said leaving her toy and grabbing Emma's.

She stared at it carefully, it was a horse or supposed to at the very least. In reality, it looked more like a donkey.

The girl smiled amused at the defective construction showing off her blue braces.

"I know it's bad! don't make it worse damnit" Emma said hiding her embarrassed face in her hood.

The blonde girl chuckled and looked at the broken leg.

Emma remained silent in that position for a while as she heard the blonde girl work on her toy.

Sooner than she thought, the girl knocked on her head as if it was a door.

"Ouch! what" The girl stretched her arm forward holding Emma's toy, the leg of the poor excuse of a horde had been replaced by a new one.

She looked at the horse of the girl, much more detailed and beautiful than hers, but now missing a leg.

"Don't worry about it, I can make a new one in no time!" The girl said proudly "I'm a pro at this."

"Well, I won't fail art class at least, how did you do it?."

"Practice, I always liked to make toys for myself, do you always like to break yours?" the girl smiled mischievously at Emma, who just rolled her eyes.

"Ha ha" despite her initial irritation, she quickly laughed for real with the girl "Emma" she said stretching her hand.

"Layla" the girl answered holding it.

"EMMA!" Jose shouted turning around quickly with his pipe raised.

Suddenly it felt as if she felt submerged in a deep endless pool like if time itself had frozen right at the moment the corpse stretched its arms to reach her.

She tried so hard, but her heart ached at what happened to Layla, trying to convince herself that she wasn't to blame simply didn't work.

All she wanted was to go back and had never tried to go out if she had just done nothing.

Was it selfish? If she wasn't scared of going away?

As time seemingly began to move forward she felt the unbearable weight of her grief slowly lift from her shoulders the closer the corpse got to her.

Her eyes closed as a part of her welcomed what was about to happen, sure it would hurt at the beginning, but then she would hurt no more.

The shouting from her classmates was barely heard, as well as the sound of rushing feet, all she could hear was the sound of the fountain.

It's water flowing so peacefully, she loved the fountain more than any other place in the school, of course, Layla would hide one of the pieces of her letter in here.

She felt a pair of hands grab her shoulders as the heavyweight of a body began to push her down to the floor.

It was that moment that she saw Layla's sad face, but why? Did she want her to suffer in this world?

Then Miss. Juliet's face flashed briefly, why she never opened up to her? She had done it in the past with her parent's divorce and it did wonders to her mood.

Her parents.

She never got to listen to the voicemail.

Wait a moment, what was she doing? She could speak with Miss. Juliet about her pain and maybe it would help.

And Mat, she felt so safe when her friend was close, why she never tried to seek him out?

Then, finally, an image of Layla sitting on her desk solemnly drawing on her sketchbook came to mind, soon her best friend getting replaced by an image of herself.

Was this how Layla felt?

No, wait.

This is not right, not like this.

She wanted to see Mr. Landon get better, she wanted to spend more time with Mat, get help from Miss. Juliet, workout more with Sarah.

What has she done?

Her back finally reached the cold floor and the impact forced her eyes open.

The open jaw of the corpse was inches from her face.

The calm she felt was replaced by immediate horror, fear, and anger.

How could she be so blind? This was not the way out, this was no way at all.

But it was too late.

Or so she thought.

The head of the corpse was hit from the side by a lead pipe, sending its head clashing on the fountain, then a black boot crushed its skull against it.

Emma turned to see Annie standing next to her, she had just saved her life.

"Help me here!" Annie said to Jose who had just reached the fountain.

Jose rushed to get the corpse off Emma's body while Annie helped her on her feet.

"Oh mierda, Mason!" Jose said pointing at the horde.

Emma turned to see several white eyes looking in their direction and with the objectives in sight, "they" ignored all the shouting coming from the windows.

Soon the shouting turned to screams as everyone on the second floor tried desperately to keep the horde from moving towards the group.

"Change of plans" Mason's eyes reflected what his steady voice didn't, fear "We run to the infirmary NOW!."

He grabbed his brother's arms as the latter tried to go to the back of the group where half of the group was at.

Mason, Mathew, and Sarah stood up and ran through the garden as Annie, Emma, and Jose followed behind.

As they run through the garden Emma saw was able to see the entrance of the school, where the broken bus had crashed a month ago.

But soon the view turned grim as new corpses walked into the school from the outside through the broken wall.

The further part of the group reached the infirmary in time and Mason wasted no time kicking open the door, he shoved his brother inside and allowed Sarah to rush in as well.

Realizing how close they were from the entrance he ran and kicked one of the corpses to the ground, hitting another on the head but doing little to stop its advance.

"No, this is risky" Annie said suddenly stopping in her tracks and holding both Jason and Emma from running past her "Get inside Mason!."

Mason looked at her briefly, before his view was cut by shambling bodies between him and the rest of the group.

The conflict between leaving them on their own and getting inside the infirmary drawn on his face, he turned around and rushed inside the infirmary, closing the door as half a dozen of them quickly appeared where he was standing before.

Annie looked right and saw the door of the Janitor's storage room, windowless and made out of metal.

"There!" she pointed at it and Jose spared no second thought running forward "Come on sugar."

She grabbed Emma's wrist and ran behind Jose, who got to the door and tried to open it unsuccessfully.

"it's lock!" he said like a whimper and in despair.

Annie threw Emma to the nearby wall and shoved Jose away before reaching the door, she lifted her leg and kicked the door with all her strength right near the handle.

With a loud snap, the fancy wooden frame of the door, that almost all doors in the school had, exploded sending flying splinters and leaving the door open for the three students to rush in.

Once inside Annie closed the door with her body.

The room was fairly big but narrow, three dark steel shelves filled with all sorts of things rested on one side of the wall, while the other had a series of steel cabinets.

"Push one of those here!" Annie said pointing at the shelves with her head as her body jerked forward due to the horde trying to break in "NOW!."

Emma and Jose grabbed the heavy shelve filled with many toolboxes and cleaning substances, dragging it towards Annie, who helped keep the door closed while they made sure the steel shelve would keep it like that.

Slowly, Annie retrieved her hands from the door, as the steel shelve prevented the horde from breaking in.

Jose collapsed on the floor trembling and breathing heavily, while Emma avoided doing just that by supporting her weight on a nearby cabinet, they reached her waist.

Furiously, Annie turned her attention at Emma, angrily walking up to her and grabbing her by the collar of her hoodie.

"What THE f**k, it's your problem?!."

Emma stuttered for a moment and Annie shoved her aside not waiting for an answer, she angrily yelled while hitting one of the nearby cabinets with her lead pipe several times.

Once her anger had been somewhat dealt with, she took a big breath and adopted her usual standing position on any surface she could lean on, her legs and arms crossed.

"We are stuck here."

Minutes turned into hours, Jason, Brook, and Luca's yells eventually ceased, and the bright sun above the sky began to retreat tainting the sky orange.

Emma sat on the concrete floor hugging her legs and staring at the barricaded metal door shake.

Her eyes drifted and landed on Jose, who pretty much like her sat on the ground and had his eyes fixated on the grey floor, his hand played with a coin he had found earlier.

His stare was, empty, grim.

But she couldn't blame him.

For how long would they stay there?.

After a while, she looked at Annie, who was sitting on top of a cabinet next to her, she rested her head on her right hand and her left held the lead pipe resting on her crossed legs.

Her expression was dull and her eyes were closed, for a moment it seemed she was sleeping.

But that was impossible, no one in their right mind could rest in a situation such as this.

Emma focused once again on the door, the light of the tight room vanishing quickly as the sun hid on the outside.

On the second floor, things were no different.

Everything was quiet as no one had much to talk about, their minds with the group that should have been back hours ago.

Mr. Asher sitting in front of an elaborate desk in the teacher's room, his hands supporting the weight of his head as he thought I have doomed those children.

Miss Juliet sat on a chair at the roof, Hope sitting next to her as she untangled a great number of emotions build up inside of her.

All while Hope silently heard her cry and sob, occasionally giving her words of support, despite her struggle, she knew that if Miss Juliet fell into despair many students could follow.

Heather stared at the garden through the window of her room, a slight frown on her face as she tightly held the cloth of the curtain.

Her friends glancing in her direction from time to time as they wanted to say anything to ease her mind, yet knew none could help her at that moment.

Meanwhile, Mason sat in a chair right in front of the barricaded door of the infirmary.

the place thankfully had no windows, so they only had to worry about one way in, but of course, that also meant that just like the other half of the group, they had only one way out.

The wooden door shook as they tried to break in, the white room had a strong smell of medicine that managed to go through the heavy cloths on everyone's faces.

A pile made out of their filled backpacks rested on top of a stretcher and all the cabinets had been opened and searched through, a pile of organized drugs had been made on the one desk of the room.

"What are we gonna do?" Mathew addressed his brother as he approached him.

"You already asked that" Mason replied looking at his brother's depressed stare.

"W-We can't just give up like this! there must be something we can do, right?" Sarah said with a distressed face as she approached Mason as well.

"If we open the door they will burst in, leaving no space for us to try and sneak out. If even one of them gets a hold of us it will be the end, they are too strong" Mason glance at Sarah briefly before returning his attention to the door "Too many to fight against, no way to distract them"

"So, this is it?" Mathew rested his body on a wall as tears began to fall from his face.

Sarah was shocked at Mason straightforwardness for a moment before her chest began to rise quickly, hyperventilating, she occasionally shook her entire body and her eyes looked at all places as if the hand of the undead could reach her through the walls.

She retreated to the back of the room and sat in a corner, desperately trying to calm herself down.

She stared at her trembling hands with anger and anguish.

"Stop moving" she whispered to herself as she clenched her fists "Please just stop"

Mason's mind came up with ideas again and again but none seemed to provide any certainty that they could get out of this alive.

Without knowing, his mouth opened up and he began to bite his nails, trying to find a solution that could save at least him and his brother.

But it seemed like a dream at that point.

Emma, what were you thinking?!, He thought.

Mr. Landon stared at the dark ceiling of his room, he felt great pain from his infected wounds, even after using the alcohol from the drinks he took the pain never went away.

A loud sound made him look at the window from the floor, he was about to ignore it when the sudden realization struck him.

That was the sound of a door being open by force and it came from outside.

He desperately tried to rise from the floor even if supporting his heavy frame with his arms caused him great pain he raised from the floor and moved the curtain away.

What he saw, was his worst nightmare come true.

"No!" Landon yelled as he looked at the open door where Annie, Emma, and Jose were supposed to be trap getting swarmed by the horde "NO!!" he screamed even louder.

The room where Landon and Christian stayed large window let them see the door of the janitor's storage room right next to them to their left.

Mr. Asher rushed in after opening the door alarmed by Landon's screams.

"What happened?!" Asher asked immediately running to check on him.

Both men then stood in horror as they saw the horrible scene unfolding in front of them.

"I told you" Landon's pain turned to anger as he turned to face Asher "I TOLD YOU TO LET ME GO ALONE!!"

Landon hit Asher on the face, sending him crashing down on the floor and his glasses flying.

"I told you!" His voice cracked as he too fell to the ground in misery and pain "I told you" he said one last time.

Asher simply remained on the floor, his body half lifted as he too felt immense guilt.

"Move!" Heather yelled at Harley, who stood in front of the window she was looking through minutes ago.

Harley had a mortified expression and vigorously shook her head from one side to the other.

"Please Heather don't, just don't"

"HARLEY! MOVE!" Gally and Vanessa held Heather to prevent her from harming Harley.

"Harley, just do it" Gally said avoiding eye contact with her.

The blonde girl reluctantly moved aside and Heather's friends let go of her, who promptly rushed to the window.

The entire second floor heard her scream.

Miss Juliet and Hope stood up after hearing Heather's scream and they rushed to the stairs, once they were there they saw everyone watching in horror through the windows.

"Oh God please no!" Miss Juliet ran to the window and joined in the screams and yells of horror.

"What's going on?" Mathew said rising from the floor.

"That sound we heard earlier, don't tell me it was the door!" Sarah too stood up.

"Then" Mason stood from his chair as well, clenching his fists with anger "They got in"

Sarah held her head and kicked the wall behind her in anger, while Mathew stared at the wall that separated them from the other room.

Don't leave me alone, Emma, he thought as his heart sunk into an abyss.

Then, through the crevices of the door flickering powerful orange light slip in, the three of them looked at each other in confusion.

"Fire?" Mason whispered in disbelief.

"Fire!" Adam shouted pointing at the window.

Everyone turned to see as they saw the horde slowly get caught up in a raging fire that seemed to originate from the room Emma, Jose and Annie were trapped in before.

What is going on? Mason thought as he saw the flickering light invade the dark room.

Back at the janitor's storage room. A couple of minutes before.

The three teens didn't move as the light was completely extinguished and darkness swallowed the entirety of the room.

"Why did you do that, Emma?"

Jose spoke in a low tone, as he stared at her with anger and frustration.

Emma held tightly the paper she had taken from the fountain, unable to answer him.

"We needed the group together, you knew the garden was infested with them" he tried to keep a steady voice, however, the hatred he felt at that moment made it difficult to accomplish "Couldn't you wait until we were heading back? to gran your f*****g paper"

Emma hid her head in her legs as she hugged herself with greater strength than before.

"Answer me, Emma" Jose stood up from the ground and kneel in front of the girl "Emma"

"What do you want me to say?" she spoke with a voice that showed how she was about to break "I didn't think at the moment"

Jose nodded slowly as he turned away from Emma, then he stretched his arms to each side.

"So that's it, I'm gonna die because you forgot to think" He smiled "Thank you, Emma, I hope it was worth it"

Jose then collapsed on the floor and hid his face with his hands as he began to sob quietly.

Emma too couldn't keep the tears away and broke down.

"What a bunch of kids" Annie said as she looked at both crying teens.

"What?" Jose looked at her incredulously "Are you not afraid to die?"

"b***h we are going to die anyway one day" she calmly said while leaving the cabinet she sat on "them, infections, a cold, f*****g dysentery" she walked up to the steel shelves next to the one holding the door in place and began to take the items on it's top and placed them on the ground "We can drop dead any day, at any moment, what matters when it's going to happen"

"So you don't care if you die?" Jose asked as Emma raised her head to look at Annie.

The tall girl cleared the top shelf from all products and proceeded to open the lids of several paint thinners that she took from it.

"I don't care when I die, because it's due to happen one day" once the lids had been open, she began to take the big cans on top of a nearby cabinet "But I don't plan to die today, what makes me different to all of you is that I never had to rely on others to live, I'm a survivor"

Once the few paint thinners were on top of the cabinets she crossed her arms and looked at both defeated teens.

"If you both want to survive too, then get your ass off the ground and catch me all the paint thinner you find" she then clapped twice "come on, chop-chop"

Jose and Emma stared at each other briefly before rising from the ground and searching through the shelves.

"Why do you need this?" Emma asked cleaning her face while she held the can in one hand.

"We are gonna lit those bastards aflame" Annie's sinister smile returned to her face as her it was illuminated by the faint orange light of a lighter she held in front of it.

"what?!" Jose shouted in shock.

"Paint thinner is highly flammable, we are gonna pour it on top of our friends out there" she said pointing at the door with her thumb "Keep bringing the cans" she said grabbing one of them to open the lid.

"But, where-" Emma began talking but stop as she saw the space Annie had cleared on the top shelf closest to the door.

"Bingo sugar" she winked at Emma "We hide up there"

"How do you know they won't just, look up?" Jose asked passing a can to Annie.

"What do you think I do while all of you waste time doing f*****g homework in the apocalypse?" she rolled her eyes as she said.

"You are always missing so, we just think you like privacy" Emma said, having passed her the last can she found.

"And I do" she began pouring the paint thinner on the ground "but I also like to do experiments to pass the time, help pour this"

Emma and Jose looked at each other nervously but went ahead and grabbed a can each, pouring the strong-smelling liquid on the floor, soon only three cans of the material were left.

Annie grabbed a can and carefully made her way up to the top shelf near the door, it was very close to the roof, and with her tall body, it was exceptionally uncomfortable.

"Come on now, up"

Carefully Emma and Jose followed Annie's steps and sat next to her, with their cans of paint thinner in hand.

"Now what?" Jose asked anxiously trying to feel safe on the shelf.

"The fun begins" she winked at them and bit her lip with anticipation.

Annie leaned forward and grabbed the toppled shelf keeping the door shut, she began to pull it making the entire shelf where the three of them sat shake dangerously often.

"M-maybe we could wait! maybe the leave if we wait long enough?!" Jose said growing more anxious every time the shelf moved.

"If I stay here any longer with both of you I fear your stupidity may get to me"

"This is too dangerous!" Emma said holding on to Jose to avoid falling.

"High risk, high reward" Annie kept pulling the shelf.

"Won't the chemicals make us sick?!" Jose stared at his can concerned.

"And you call yourself a man?" Annie turned around for a moment "It's do or die, Jose, it has been ever since this s**t show began" she returned her attention to her task at hand.

Emma looked at Jose and saw him squint his eyes and frown, but not because he was hurt or mad, rather, because he felt that what Annie said was true.

It wasn't?

Emma thought for a moment, how everything happened since the outbreak, from day one, they had to act fast and think even faster.

If Mason never took control of the situation she would have tried to leave the school like everyone else and probably, no, certainly, she would be dead.

If Mr. Landon had not placed himself in danger, twice, to keep the horde at bait they would all be either dead or starving.

If Mathew had not assumed leadership when Mason couldn't do it anymore, the second floor would have never been secured.

Something became apparent at that moment, about herself that she needed to realize if she ever wanted to change.

A low screeching noise captured everyone's attention, the door opened slightly as countless gray fingers held the door from its openings.

"Now it's the moment" Annie secured her scarf firmly "Don't make a sound" she told Emma and Jose.

With one powerful pull the shelf that was already being pushed by the horde outside the door gave in and fell on the floor flat, the door opened up in one full swing as dozens of corpses fell forward and began to flood the room.

Immediately the trio of teens began pouring the contents of the cans onto the swarming horde that quickly filled the room.

Emma and Jose had a really difficult time trying to remain silent, as some corpses were tall enough to be able to easily pull any of them to certain death.

Soon the cans ran out of liquid and everyone prepared for what was to come, making sure the scarfs were held in firmly against their noses.

Annie lifted both hands in front of her, one holding a random piece of cloth she probably got from the shelves, while the other had the lighter.

With the motion of her thumb, she made the tiny flame appear.

Letting the cloth catch on fire, she released her grip and allowed the flaming piece to fall on top of one of them.

In a chain reaction, almost instantaneously the floor and corpses were consumed by a raging fire that illuminated the dark room.

The burning corpses were so tightly packed together that soon the full of the horde had been caught in the fire, spreading it to the garden as it too began to burn.

The room was filled with smoke and toxic clouds from the cleaning utensil and while Luca's scarfs seemed to maintain the most hazardous smokes away from their lungs, everyone was forced to close their eyes as it burned them.

Not to mention the rapidly increasing condensed heat in the room.

"We are gonna burn to death!" Jose said starting to let the panic take control.

The shelf shook by his panicked movements and he accidentally tried to hold the metal shelf on his feet, getting his hands grievously burned.

He raised his body due to the pain sending the entire shelf forward and on top of the burning bodies.

Thankfully the room was not wide enough to let the shelf fall flat from that angle, instead, it ended up hitting the other wall right above the cabinets.

Emma held Jose back as they fell so he wouldn't be thrown away into the hellish inferno of corpses.

Once the shelf crashed against the wall the three of them were thrown backward, falling on the hot steel that burned their backs and hands as they quickly tried to get out of the room.

The door had been cleared as all the corpses wandered around falling to the ground one by one.

Emma and Jose immediately rushed to the door next to them where the rest of the group was trapped, a couple of still burning corpses on the ground near the door.

"Mason! Open the door!" Jose shouted hitting the door with his fist several times.

Soon the door opened and Mason was tackled in a hug by his friend.

"What the f**k is going on here?" Mason ask dumbfounded as he saw the entire garden lit aflame and countless corpses walking covered in fire.

"Emma!" Mathew rushed to her friend and both embraced each other, Briefly, as Emma's back had been hurt by the hot steel "What happened? What is all this?" he asked letting go of her and looking around him.

"Amigo!!" Sarah said embracing Jose as well, who even if hurt, didn't let go of both her and Mason.

"We were trapped but" Emma turned to face Annie, who was running to the middle of the garden, the fountain "Annie saved us"

Annie ran past the shambling burning bodies as they crumbled to the ground, entire limbs falling apart.

She reached the fountain and jumped in its waters, raising her lead pipe with one hand she faced the windows where most of the surviving group watched the garden burn and simply screamed.

From the top of her lungs, she let out a powerful victory scream, that soon was followed by most of her classmates who cheered from the second floor.

"She's crazy" Mathew commented as he too saw Annie.

Emma too couldn't take her eyes away from her, maybe all her assumptions of Annie were wrong because Annie always did something she couldn't do.

Act by herself.

Emma always had done things with others, always tried to support or be supported before commuting to anything, even when it was for herself.

Annie never waited for someone to stretch a hand to her, she seized control of her life long before the apocalypse.

And as the school was filled with dancing lights, thin smoke, and thunderous cheering.

Emma decided it was time to act on her own too, she needed help to let go of her guilt and grief.

So from that day forward, she wanted to try and stop bottling up her emotions.

She raised her pipe and joined in the screaming.