Chapter 9

“Are you going alone?” asked Carlos, slightly surprised, as he followed me out the door.

“I don’t know what you guys are going to do, but I’m going home today.”

When I said that, several looks came my way. Professor Rogério was already on his feet, arms crossed, and looking at me.

“Do you think it’s safe to try to go home, Rebeca?” He asked, his voice worried. “Everyone is saying that public transport has stopped.”

I looked at him and thanked him for his concern.

“No problem, professor. I’ll walk, if I need to, I’d just have to cross the bridge,” I said calmly. “I need to meet my grandmother and Mei.” I justified myself, not realizing that maybe they didn’t know who I was talking about.

“How do you plan to get out of the building?” The curly-haired black girl asked me. She seemed calm enough about the situation. “The courtyard is crazy, and to get to any exit you would have to go through it.”

I was silent, not knowing exactly how to respond. Although a very strong impulse made me sure that I would do everything in my power to get home today, I recognized that the idea of trying to leave the school through the courtyard would be suicide.

“Do you intend to stay here?” I looked at no one in particular, but eventually directed my eyes to the professor.

He looked around, looking uncertain. At this point we could hear occasional knocks on the wooden door that Carlos closed at the end of the corridor.

“I think it’s dangerous to be in here. They’ve already come up here and they can come to us. All the emergency numbers are on call overload and if any help comes, it will take hours to get to where we are.” Roger approached the window, looking disgustedly at the carnage taking place below. “I think maybe we should go up to the rooftop. I don’t think anyone thought of going there.”

The cover! The idea was great. The staircase at the end of the corridor on the third floor, thankfully, the opposite end to which the monsters were, joined all the other floors and gave access to the school’s roof, through a wooden door.

“That door is locked, professor,” Carlos said. Shit.

Rogério clenched his fists, looking down at the floor. After a few seconds of silence, he turned his attention back to us.

“The school has undergone some renovations, but some parts are still quite old. I don’t think this is a particularly new or sturdy wooden door. Also, they are double doors, so with a kick in the right place, I think we managed to break it open. He looked our surprised face. “I’ve been in the army. We’ve already broken down some doors in training, it’s quite possible,” he justified.

“Man, I think it’s a good idea.” Carlos said, leaning the metal bar on his shoulder. After all, where had he gotten that? “If we can get there and barricade the door, I think it’ll be safer.”

“They usually leave spare tables and chairs in a small warehouse over there. I think we could use it to block entry in case any of them show up.”

The fattest boy with glasses, the girl with curly hair, Davi and Guilherme joined the discussion, but my focus was no longer there. The rooftop was a place that was usually locked, but I’ve been there twice: once when my friends Débora and Amanda and I found it unlocked, and once with the whole class, when, in eighth grade, the teacher took us to watch a solar eclipse. We didn’t have access as it wasn’t very safe: although there was a little protection on the edges, it was very low, and the drop was high. That was not my interest.

Right behind the building we were in, there was an access to a small wood that existed in the school area. It was a garden with several trees, where occasional outdoor classes were held. I was interested in this wood because I knew that there was an access from it directly to the street behind the school: a residential street with very little traffic. If there was any chance of getting out of this place, it was this way.

I remember that one of the times I was in the woods, I had the chance to notice an emergency staircase that gave access to the roof. My attention had only been focused on it back then because it caught me wondering if someone had ever used it in an emergency. There was always a first time for everything, I thought to myself.

When we decided that we would go to the penthouse, Rogério helped Melissa up, while the chubby boy started talking to Faber, who at this point was just sniffling quickly.

I realized that Carlos’ eyes were on me. He approached and whispered softly. Nobody paid any attention to us.

“You want to go down into the woods, don’t you?” he asked, his black eyes focused on mine. I nodded at him silently, and he shook his head in response. “When the time comes, I’ll go with you. Guilherme will want to come too, okay?”

I accepted, knowing that it was not a request for authorization. Fortunately those two seemed to be less shocked by the situation than the rest of the group, as well as looking athletic. Much more than company, they would be good allies to get out of there.

“I’d like to go too.” Carlos and I were taken aback by a voice behind us. The curly haired girl’s lynx eyes stared at us intently. “I’m not crazy enough to stay in this God-forsaken school waiting for help that will never come.”

Carlos looked her up and down as she remained motionless, holding his gaze. I wrinkled my nose, finding that attitude invasive. I got ahead.

“No problem for me,” I said. In fact, I still couldn’t tell if more company meant more chances to survive or more unnecessary risk. Still, it didn’t seem right to me to deny that kind of request.

“Not for me either.” Carlos concluded, shrugging and ending the matter.

I realized then that there was some difficulty for some students to move in order to continue with the plan. Laura remained hugging her knees, staring at the floor in shock. As she seemed to ignore everyone who came to her and I didn’t want to be there anymore, I found myself forced to kneel beside her, trying to attract her attention.

“Laura, hi?” I whispered, catching her attention. “I know you’re really scared, but we’re getting out of here and going to a safer place. There it will be easier for the police to rescue us.”

 She was looking at me, but her eyes seemed to be empty. I grabbed her arm, slowly pulling her to her feet. “We will help you. Everything will be fine.”

 She accompanied me as I got up, without showing any kind of resistance. She was still looking at me blankly.

When I looked around, still holding Laura’s arm, I saw Guilherme picking up a long, thin piece of wood that was leaning against the wall. Carlos had two squeegees in his hand, with handles similar to the one Guilherme was holding. He stepped on the base of the squeegee, twisting the handle hard until it came loose, one after the other. He turned to where Melissa, Ana and Victoria were and offered the wooden handle to none of them in particular.

The three looked at him in horror.

“I don’t expect we have to use this, but if we do, it’s good that they have a way to defend themselves. It’s to hit them with all your might, to knock them down or get them out of the way,” he explained patiently.

“II don’t want to,” Melissa said, looking nervous.

“I won’t wear this, Carlos. They are students, sick or not,” Ana protested. I was surprised to see some coherence come out of that mouth that seemed to just spit venom.

Victoria did not comment. Carlos snorted, turning to me. I looked at the bat, then into his eyes, but politely declined. The curly-haired girl was beside me and reached out, claiming the broom handle.

“I’m glad at least one of you has sense.” he said nervously. Douchebag. He turned around and offered the other stick to Professor Rogério, who hesitantly accepted it. “You just need to get them out of the way or away. I don’t think there’s any more in this corridor, but we didn’t lose because we were cautious.” He picked up his iron bar again, which was leaning against the wall. The muscles in his arms twitched.

With all available cables split, we started to move. Rogério and the girl who took the baton went in the front, while Guilherme and Carlos stayed in the back, attentive to any movement. The rest of the group, including me, walked slowly between the pairs. I pulled the arms of a Laura who followed me unwillingly, but also without offering any resistance. I thought about talking to her, but I was sure she wouldn’t answer me. She really looked like she was in shock.

The path was smooth until the next curve of the building, which had the shape of a “U”. A few small sighs of relief could be heard as we saw that the last hallway was empty. There was a bloodstain on one of the walls, but it was impossible to identify who it could be, or where the person had gone. Those holding makeshift weapons, once in tense and comical positions, relaxed a little. We were able to go quietly to the door that separated the stairs.

This was the access to a continuous flight of stairs in the form of a waterfall, which were separate but connected all the floors of the building. The space was wide and we were all able to get in without any problems. It was apparently empty and silent, but a small trail of blood on the stairs made me shiver. Something had already passed through there.

“The stairs up are clean, let’s go up at once,” muttered Rogerio, trying to keep his voice down.

Without any objection, Guilherme closed the access door to the hallway and we went upstairs, only the sound of our footsteps reaching our ears. It was possible to hear, far away, some moans. I looked down, but there was no one behind me but Carlos and Guilherme.

We climbed two flights of stairs in silence, ending in a small flat space before the old-looking but imposing wooden door. With a little hope, Rogério tried to open the doorknob, but we only heard her reach the end and not give in. We all stood around the door, waiting for what action would be taken. Laura was off to the side, looking peacefully up the flight of stairs leading down.

“Listen,” began Rogério, still softly. “As soon as the door squeaks, we’re going to start taking risks, so you need to be quick. Very quick.” He looked at Carlos. “It won’t be just a kick. And I have a bad knee, so if I can’t make it, it’s going to have to be you, okay? Be ready.”

Carlos nodded, leaning his iron bar against the wall and moving to the professor’s side.

“Keep an eye out for anything that tries to climb. You don’t need to stop them, just knocking them down the stairs is enough. I will try to be as fast as possible.” Continued the professor, positioning himself near the center of the door and placing the sole of his sneaker under the handle, as if getting ready. “ One two…”

A rumble filled the silent environment, which had previously only been disturbed by whispers. The first kick didn’t seem to do anything, and immediately came the second, with a similar bang. Soon my body shuddered as growls began to echo down the stairs, followed by footsteps. We weren’t alone.

Tension was palpable in the environment as the number of kicks increased, with no success in freeing us. It wasn’t a bad idea, but we didn’t know exactly what risks we’d be taking here, practically stuck in a dead end until the door was opened.

One more kick. And a shrill scream went up to us.

“What was this?” Melissa asked, no longer bothering to whisper.

I looked back and saw nothing between me and the descending staircase. Then I understood who had screamed.

“Laura! She must have come down!”

I felt my body, gripped by a surge of terror, moving toward the metal bar and my fingers closing around its icy surface. Seeing how everyone was standing in shock, I immediately ran towards the floor below.

“Why did she come down?” the thought screamed inside my mind, but I would still find out the answer to that question in the future. At that moment, only the idea that she had tried to run away on her own dominated my mind. Perhaps her semi-catatonic state had hampered her thinking and she simply tried to leave.

“Laura?” I yelled anxiously when I didn’t find her in the space between the stairs that led to the penthouse and the second floor. “Laura, can you hear me?”

Another scream, just as shrill as the last, erupted in my eardrums and I accelerated. By now, the grunts of those things were clearer, more disturbing. I went down another flight of stairs and finally I could see them.

In front of me, a group of more than 6 monsters were huddled around something, delivering vicious bites at an unholy feast. I could make out the slumped body, face to the ground, by the brown hair and a dark frame of glasses that was crushed beside it.

This time, it was me who screamed.