Posts Tagged ‘media center’

Zombie Septic Shock

Posted: January 24, 2012 in Alcott School
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
1

The story of what happened to our school nurse is probably one of the most vile things that has happened to us since this shit storm began only a few weeks ago. The day started out as normal as any day from now on can. It was absolutely freezing after the storm hit on Saturday. We spent much of the morning huddled together in the media center just trying to stay warm. By the afternoon, Havier and I decided that we needed to do something to at least keep out minds off of how cold it really was. We decide to open up the nurse’s room. Her supplies are invaluable and it really was time that we just did it already.

Our nurse, Mrs. Steinberg was a rather large lady with a never-ending appetite. I don’t think I had ever seen her without some sort of food in her hand. Hunger was not something that she ever really knew.

It took Havier a couple of swings with the axe before the door finally gave way. Once open, the most awful, foul, disgusting (stomach churning!) smell began to permeate the building.

Even Havier was gagging!

Once the shock of it subsided, we turned on our flashlights and began to shine them around the room. There were three dead students piled in the corner, literally picked clean of whatever soft-tissue they had once had. In the far corner was Mrs. Steinberg. At first we couldn’t tell anything about how she looked. I mean, she was Undead. That was obvious, but the full horror of what had been going on in this room wasn’t visible until she turned slightly as she noticed our flashlights.

The side of her that was immediately facing us was her usual rotund self, but the other side that she was working on was almost completely gone. There was just a thin glaze of rotten muscle tissue slightly holding in her organs. Havier and I watched in shocked horror as she pulled pieces of herself off of her arm and fed it to herself. It was almost as if with each piece of flesh she pulled from herself she was saying, “just a bite! Just a little bite.”

Her eyes were huge like giant saucers and were that bright, vivid yellow that you can only truly experience when you’ve seen fresh yellow snow first hand. She had absolutely no interest in us.

Her consumption of her own rotting flesh and probably of the three students put her into some sort of shock.

Zombie septic shock! (okay…not funny)

And now she only hungered for her own, vile flesh. Zom-Steinberg was taken out in .2 seconds once Havier came to his senses. Without so much as a word, we began to search through and grab whatever we could within the den of zombibalism. When we had finished, we didn’t even bother trying to bury Zom-Steinberg in the kids. We know we’re leaving the school soon, so we just sealed off the room and very matter-of-factly made our way back to the media center.

Somehow I found myself on the roof after that – desperate for some fresh air and a break from the zombie apocalypse. I was getting ready to go back inside when I say him.

John.

John and a small group of people.

Somehow they had made it.

Advertisement

Enter the Ice Age

Posted: January 21, 2012 in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , ,
1

Havier has been allowing us to use the back-up generators sparingly. It’s absolutely freezing. We’ve all been wearing our coats, gloves, hats – whatever we had or found all day. You can smell the snow in the air, that’s how much the temperature has dropped. I’ve moved back to my spot in the corner. It’s warmer if we’re all together and as Havier tells me, life has to gone despite the mistakes that we make.

And he’s right. I made a half-joke about making a fire in the courtyard, but Havier was quick to remind me how fast that would attract the Undead back to us. What I wouldn’t give for a little warmth. Havier and I have been taking turns on the roof. We watch and listen for the hordes, for John, for Havier’s sister, for my mom, for the kids’ moms and dads. So far no one has found us, but I still have hope that soon somebody will.

We emptied out crates and buckets and put them up there. We’re hoping to collect as much water as we can. We’d all like to bath and manually flush the toilets, it’s getting super gross again. As I sit up on the roof, looking for my friends and family, I can see my hands and how they are no longer pale and milky, but gritty and grimy and somewhere between a gray and brown color. I have dried blood from my students and from cleaning, wedged beneath my nails. I once had a manicure, but that was a lifetime ago now.

My hair is so matted from everything that tomorrow I’ve decided it’s time to cut it off completely. It’ll take some adjusting, but it’s more feasible than trying to hold onto an old life.

We’ve also begun thinking about an escape plan. Alcott School can not be the place that we stay forever. Too much has happened here and with the way the hordes have been moving, we’d always be a prime stop for them. We’re going to have to take what we can and prepare for the day that we will inevitably have to leave here. Havier says that the little kindergarten bus in the back is small enough to maneuver and big enough to hold all of us and supplies. It’s just figuring out where to go that’s stopping us. That and the fact that I know if we just wait it out for a few more days that John will be here and maybe some parents too.

I’m trying to hope as best I can and not freeze to death all at the same time.

Vincent’s Speech

Posted: January 13, 2012 in Alcott School
Tags: , , , , , ,
0

It was still fairly early when I rounded the kids up. Armand contented himself with Matilda. At least she was useful for something now. I prepped Vincent before I got everyone together. I told him that he was going to have to talk to the other kids and explain to them what he saw and what is going on out there. To my surprise, he was more than willing – almost eager.

He got up in front of his classmates, cleared his throat and began. “Who’s played Left 4 Dead 2?” Nearly every boy and several of the girls raised their hands. Shelby burst out crying. Havier was quick to remove her to the computer lab. My eyes were riveted to Vincent. “Well, that’s what is going on out there,” he added.

“You mean there are zombies,” asked Gabe as he perked up a bit.

“Yes, there are zombies and they smell like shit and want to eat us to make us into that shit and make the world even shit-”

“Vincent, I gave you two shits, don’t go for a third,” I chimed in, finding it hard not to. The teacher part of me is fighting hard to cling to me.

“Fine,” he says with a roll of the eye. “So, these zombies are out there. It’s some kind of virus and it makes people die and come back and want to eat us. We need to wait for help to get here and we can’t stay in the media center anymore. We need to clean up the school, make it safe and wait until our parents find us or the army or whoever the hell it is will get here and get us out. It’s really gross out there and scary, but if we don’t help Miss Burton and Mr. Havier it will never get done and the zombies will just come back and eat all of us.”

I was impressed by him and how he found such strength within himself. I got up and patted him on the back. Within moments we had a handful of kids that wanted to go outside with Matilda and start to dig the hole. Against my protests, we also had a group that wanted to help on the inside cleaning out the classrooms. Havier kept reminding me that this is a new world that we live in and there was no point in trying to shelter them from the life and death reality that we were now living in.

Suburban New Jersey is gone and within it has sprouted a world that meant if you didn’t think fast enough, you’d be somebody’s dinner.

Is anyone out there?

Posted: January 6, 2012 in Alcott School
Tags: , , ,
1

We were in the media center when it happened. The Outbreak. There I was with Matilda, my ancient from another time all together aide, who was never much of any help to begin with but there we were, trying to get my 17 kids to log onto the main server so that we could start our social studies project on the American Revolution. You think I was asking them to solve world hunger with they way they complained and whined as they tried to drag it all out. Now, I think they would be happy to go back to that moment, eagerly put their winter break behind them and begin that project, given all that has happened since then.

I haven’t moved them since it happened…since the hordes reached us. I feel that here we are safe. We are at the farthest end of the school, in the only place that does not have any windows with only two ways in and out. There is the main door I barricaded with book shelves with the help of some of my bigger kids once the sirens overpowered the screaming…the screaming of my co-workers and students who weren’t as lucky as us. We’re connected to the computer lab. I let the kids play in there, but we sleep in the media center on the cushions from the sofas and various other make-shift things we could find in here. I use the door from the computer room to come and go. I half-barricaded it and move it away only when I have to get next door to the cafeteria.

The hallways are deserted and littered with glass from when the bombing happened. There are streams of dried blood and gore, marks of  death that connect somewhere to a victim that I surely know, but I refuse to follow those trails to find out just who it is. We had gone into lock-down shortly before we were overrun which left all of the classrooms as an easy mark. Thankfully though, for us, the hordes had reached us in the morning before any lunch period had begun, leaving the multipurpose room eerily vacant. I grabbed as many canned goods as I could carry. We’ve been living off canned peaches ever since. Gag. School peaches – not exactly what I ever thought I would have to survive on or truthfully ever eat.

I know that we will have to branch out of here soon, but I don’t know how to exactly move with the group of children I have left. At the time of The Outbreak, 12 of my students were with me and Matilda. I don’t know what happened to the five that were with other teachers or out in the building, I can only hope the best and that they got out with someone before shit really hit the fan.

The back-up generators are spotty and patchy at best, but I am thankful to still have them. The kids are scared enough as is and the power at least allows us to use the lights and computers sparingly. Somehow we have internet? I’m connected to MILTglobe. I’m assuming it’s some sort of government set-up, I only hope that it stays up.

Is anyone out there?