“Nitsy!” Robbie yelled. “Your hair!”
She felt the squirming on top and realized the little maggot-like lice were struggling to get to her scalp. Reaching for her hair, she roared with anger as she pulled her wig from her head and threw it onto the ground.
They will not fucking infect me today!
Under her wig was the cap she wore to keep what little of her real hair she had tamed beneath the wig. Ever since going through chemotherapy, she’d been trying to grow her hair, but she’d become known for her fiery red mane and had opted to wear the wig until her hair grew longer.
Now exposed, but uncaring of what she looked like at the moment, she ran toward Robbie with the wind whipping over her sweaty hair. Her real hair. The hair free of infection.
Robbie stared at her with disbelief on his face.
“Wha… what? I don’t…” he couldn’t get the words out.
It wasn’t that difficult to understand. At least she hadn’t thought it would be.
“Cancer, dummy,” she reminded him. “It’s why I was out of school so much. I told you I’d been sick.”
“Behind you!” he shouted as the creature that had fallen from the balcony made its way toward her.
She moved out of the way just in time for him to swing the blade and set it in the skull of the oncoming beast.
Robbie was steadily backing away from the auditorium when Nitsy said, “The phones.”
“Fuck the phones!” Robbie yelled.
“We have to go get them. It’s the whole reason we came out here.”
He grabbed Nitsy and pulled her close to him. “You almost fucking died in there, Nitsy. Fuck those phones.”
“I’ll get them,” she argued, but as she got the words out, the auditorium doors opened and out spilled every single one of the infected students trapped inside that room. Nitsy shook her head when she saw them and said, “Fuck the phones.”
Robbie pulled her back in the direction of the music room.
They ran. Moving faster than she ever had in her life, Nitsy sprinted beside Robbie, turning left and right, doing their best to lose the crowd of attacking infected. They couldn’t lead the horde back to the others. The roaring, growling, and shrieking was far behind them when they finally found the music room and banged on the door.
“Who is it?” Lance asked from the other side.
“Are you fucking kidding?” Nitsy yelled. “Open the door!”
“Are those things following you?” he replied from the other side of the door.
“Dude, open the damn door!” Robbie yelled. “If they were behind us, it’s more dangerous to leave us out here banging on the door!”
The hissing and grunting of the creatures were close. Right around the corner. If they didn’t get into the classroom soon, they’d be done for.
“Do you have the phones?” Lance asked.
“No, I dropped them when they came after us,” Nitsy replied.
She hated admitting it but felt she needed to be honest. She knew the second the words left her mouth that she should have lied.
“Just open the door,” someone else yelled. It sounded like Phyllis.
“I’m sorry,” Lance replied, “I’m sorry that you dropped the phones. I… uh… I can’t open the door. It’s too dangerous for us.”
“You fucker!” Robbie yelled.
They had no more time to waste. If Lance wouldn’t open the door, they’d need to hide somewhere else.
Nitsy banged on the door with both fists. “If you don’t open this door, I’ll lead them all to you and you can see how long this flimsy little door holds them back!”
Robbie pulled her arms away from the door. “They’re coming. Come on. They won’t let us in.”
“They can’t do this!” she screamed. “They can’t do this to us!”
“Open the door, man!” someone called from the other side. It sounded like Bradley. Then a struggle broke out. The sound of wrestling, an overturned table, shouting back and forth.
“You open that fuckin’ door and I’ll kill you, man!” Lance shouted.
“Let them in,” the other boy replied, breathing heavily.
“You open it,” Lance said, “and I’ll kill you. Try me if you think I’m lying.”
“Don’t do it,” Robbie yelled to the boys on the other side. “Don’t open it. We’ll survive on our own.”
“Nitsy!” Phyllis yelled from inside.
“Phyllis,” Nitsy whispered. “Robbie, where do we go?”
She knew he had no idea. How could she expect him to answer a question like that? She was supposed to be the leader here. It was why she’d gone for the cell phones in the first place. She’d been given a second chance at life, and she knew she hadn’t fought all those years in so many clinics and hospitals just to die here at a stupid leadership conference.
Robbie was looking around the campus, trying to come up with a place to hide. The creatures were too close for comfort. They’d be on them in seconds. Now, it seemed they were coming from more than one direction. They were coming from everywhere.
The cafeteria.
It was the only place she knew would be clear of the infected. Or, it should be anyway. It was the last place she and Robbie had been together before they’d stumbled upon the creatures in the dormitory hallway. They’d been inside the cafeteria and it had been empty.
“Follow me,” she told Robbie as she ran across the courtyard, stopping to grab the rake from the wheelbarrow. At least now she’d have some sort of weapon.
“Where are we going?” Robbie whispered at her back.
“The place where we shared our first kiss.”
Nitsy prayed the cafeteria would be empty when they yanked open the door and stepped inside. It was dark, the way it should be at this hour of the evening. Robbie looked through the small rectangular windows in the door to see if any of the creatures had followed them.
“Looks like we’re okay,” he said.
He threw the bolt on the door. It wouldn’t hold against a bunch of those creatures, but it might keep one or two out.
“Be careful,” Nitsy whispered. “We don’t know if any of them got in here before us.”
She considered turning on the light to make it easier for them to search but realized it might shine out the windows and draw the creatures to them. She was pretty sure they were more interested in sounds, but it wasn’t a risk she was willing to take.
“Hello? Anyone in here?” If they were attracted to sound, it would draw them out. She knew that, but she was more worried about accidentally running into one of them in the cafeteria. If one came thrashing its way out of the kitchen, they could flee from it.
She and Robbie remained silent, listening for any stray sounds. None came.
“Hello?” she said a little louder. “Is there anyone in here?”
“Shh, keep it down,” someone replied.
“Someone’s in here,” she said as she turned to Robbie.
From out of the kitchen, squatting down and duck-walking their way as if standing up straight might give him away, came a shadowy figure headed their way. He held a metal pole in his hands. It looked like it might have come from the side of one of the classroom desks. As he grew nearer, Nitsy realized she knew him.
“Eggo?” she asked.
The man stopped duck-walking and looked up at her. “Nitsy?”
“Eggo,” she repeated as she squatted down next to him and hugged him. “I thought you died in there with the others.”
“No, thanks to you guys,” he replied, looking up at Robbie and nodding in his direction.
Nitsy shook her head. “Nobody believed us.”
“Would you have?” he replied.
She wouldn’t have. Or at least she didn’t think she would have. She’d barely believed it herself when she’d run in there and made the announcement.