BRAINS: with a side-order of Flesh. by Siagrrl (parable of the sower read online TXT) 📕

As we were running down a 100-odd metre long hallway, I noticed the doors that lined it. About 6 classroom doors on each side.

Faith must have noticed the same thing I did, because she turned to Mercy running beside her and said, “What’s with the doors?”


The first four were either hanging off their hinges or were snapped horizontally across the middle, as if something was trying to kick its way out.

We came to a halt before the last two.


The last two doors, on both sides, were missing completely.


“What the hell happened down here?” I blurted.


“I…” Ms Faeshar was stumped. “These weren’t like this half an hour ago.”


I shook my head. “No time.”


Faith nodded. “She’s right. Slow, but right.”

“We have to keep moving.”


I couldn’t help but noticed something small in the line of the doorway to our left. “There has to be a reason these doors are gone,” Delevan pointed out. “What if there are more down here? And at that, they'd have to be strong enough to remove all the doors!”


“And you wanna risk going back?” Faith snapped. She seemed to like doing that.


“You got a better idea?” Delevan retorted.


“Um, yeah. Keep going.”


“You wanna die?!”


“Do you!?”


I ignored them both and went over to the object in the line of the door. I crouched down in front of it, my eyes still adjusting to the darkness of the room.


“NO. Of course I don’t wanna die! But I don’t want to go into uncharted territory either!”


“It’s the west wing of the school! How is that uncharted territory?!”


“Ah, geez. I dunno, when it become infested with flesh-eating-zombies, maybe!?”


I squinted as hard as I could at the object in front of me, resisting the urge to pick it up.


“Zombies don’t exist, numbskull. They are just some stupid factor in a horror genre video game.”


“Then explain those things!” Delevan cried, pointing towards the moaning sound from behind us. Still couldn’t see any.


“How the hell am I supposed to do that? It’s probably some stupid parasite or something, duh!”


I blinked a few times as my eyes finally began to adjust.

It was–


“A parasite that makes people eat people?! What a load of crap!”


“What would you know!?”


“Apparently more than you! They’re zombies. Grey skin, desire for flesh or brains or whatever it is they actually want.”


“Well that’s convincing…”


“Um, hello? Yeah, guys?” Hope pipped up. Unsuccessfully.


“Well, it’s better than your theory. Mine at least offers a strategy. Zombies die if you bash, shoot or strike them in the head!”


“Anyone would die if you bash them in the head, you idiot!”


A hand.


A severed hand was in front of me.

The fingers curled into a position of either anger or pain and the skin peachy and torn. It was sitting in a pool of blood about the size of my head.


“That’s why it’s so effective! Shooting a person in the heart can kill them, or even if you shoot them in the leg they can bleed out and die. Not zombies. The only way to kill them is by destroying their brain!”


“Why do zombies want to eat brains, yet it’s their ultimate weakness?” Hope asked pointedly.


“Shut up, Hope!” Delevan screamed.


Any hope (hah, hah, haaaaah) we had of getting out of here without alerting those things of our position, was quickly being diminished.


“Don’t speak to her like that!” Faith spat, just as loud.


I peered into the room. I think it was (emphasis on was) the (old) science room. The door lay a few feet away in the room. Broken and splintered. And covered with blood.

I did my best to try and hear if there was anything in the room.


No crunching.


No sighs.


No heavy breathing.


No signs of movement whatsoever.


I’d say that was a good sign, but that just means that whatever was in here isn’t anymore and is probably somewhere close by.


“You two. Quit arguing. Now.” Mercy snapped.


“We’re just sa–”


“Shut. It.”


“She’s right.” I said, standing up. “We can’t focus on that now, we need to move.”


Delevan shook his head in agreement. “Right. Sorry.”


“Lead the way, Lexis!” Hope cheered.


“It’s Alexis.” I muttered to myself.


If that wasn’t enough motivation, the sound of fast approaching you-know-what’s, definitely was.


“Run!”

I wasn’t sure who said it, but I eagerly complied.

I stood up turned to the others.


“In here!” I said, ushering them into the room.


“Are you nuts?!” Faith snapped. “That room has no door. How will that help us?”


Hope pushed past her and bolted for the room. “There coming from both directions! We don’t have a choice!”

She was right.

I hadn’t noticed that before.

The shuffling sound of limbs on the tile floors was echoing from both behind us and in front of us.

Delevan, Mercy and Ms Faeshar hurried after Hope without a sound, while Faith looked conflicted.


She alternated from looking past me, and turning to look over her shoulder.


Still, nothing was visible.


I waited impatiently at the doorway for her – expecting her to follow, but was surprised when she looked at me, frowned, spun around, and ran in the opposite direction towards the zombie hoard.


“Faith!” I called after her.


“C’mon!” Delevan yelled. He grabbed my arm and pulled inside. Ms Faeshar and Mercy worked together to push a large cabinet in front of the door.


“But Faith! Sh-she –”


“Shhhhh…” Hope whispered, putting her finger to her lip in a shushing motion. “We need to stay quiet.


Seconds later moans and empty groaning filled the hallway and made its way into the classroom we were in.


No one moved.

The only sound I could hear, aside form the moaning from the hallway, was the rapid thumping of my heart as it beat against my rib cage.

We waited for something, we weren’t sure what, but we would know when it happened. Chapter 8 - An Act of Bravery, or Stupidity?

Shallow moans and shuffling, of presumably dislocated and/or broken limbs, was all we could hear from the other side of the door. No one dared move. We sat there for what seemed like two hours and the room gradually got darker and darker.

“At least they aren’t trying to break into this room. . .” Delevan muttered reassuringly, more so to himself than to the rest of us.

“Hmm. But, why?” I whispered back. “There is so many of them. How can they not

know we’re in here?”

“The skin tearing, flesh eating zombies aren’t trying to eat us, and you want to know why

?!” Delevan hissed.

“Uh. . .”

“Can’t you just be happy that we’re safe for the moment?!”

“Y’know, you pick the best moments to start a fight. Why is that?” I snapped.

“Shhhhhhh, guys! Seriously!” Hope interjected. “Now is not the time!”

Again, she was right. “So, um, what do we do then?” I blinked a few times, while the others were thinking, so that my eyes would further adjust to the darkness. I stretched and got up. “I’m gonna look around for anything useful.” I whispered down to the others.

I stepped through the gap between Delevan and Ms Faeshar – who might I add looked as blank as a sheet of unused paper – and weaved my way through the desks to the front of the room.

The desks were all bare; including the teachers, the chalk board that lined almost the entire wall behind the teacher’s desk was also strangely bare. No chalk, no chalkboard erasers; not even a stray pen was to be found.

"It’s as if it were cleaned out before this incident. . .” I mused. But that couldn’t be right. That would that this event was expected. . .

“Alexis!” Ms Faeshar whispered from behind me. I must’ve jumped 2 feet out of my own skin.

“Miss! Please! Don’t do that!” I hissed, covering my hammering heart with the palm of my hand. “You almost scared me to death!”

“That’s not something to joke about.” Delevan said solemnly.

Who said I was joking?

“We’ve got a plan.” Ms Faeshar said shaking her head. “But. . .”

“It doesn’t involve Faith.” Mercy stepped in, scratching her arm nervously. “We’re going to have to leave her behind.”

What? Were they serious!?

“What!? Are you serious??” I hissed, my tone of voice noticeably rising. “We can’t just leave her here!”

“What choice do we have?” Hope sighed. “She ran off and left us here. We need to leave. And soon.”

“But I don’t think was what she was doing, Hope. I think –”

I was interrupted by a loud explosion. The sound of broken ceramics and tumbling brick walls was everywhere. The floor shook violently, the windows vibrated to the point where I thought they’d all crack in half. One of the ceiling lights fell and smashed.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!” Mercy shrieked as a stray shard of glass caught her arm, and then all was silent again.

“What was that!?” Delevan gasped.

Ms Faeshar studied the room for damage. “I don’t know . . . some kind of explosion?”

“Huh? No. I meant Mercy’s scream!” He snorted. “It was so . . . girly!”

Mercy frowned and hit him upside the head, as Faith had done previously. “So what if it was? It freakin’ hurt!!”

“We have more important things to worry about.” Ms Faeshar hissed, obviously disappointed. “That’s probably a sign that we should –”

Another explosion. Only this time louder and more violent.

A crack started to appear in the ceiling and two or three more lights fell and smashed against the floor. The nails holding in place the blackboard came undone and the blackboard fell to the floor with a hefty thwump, cracking itself in half straight down the middle.

“Th-That sounded like it was closer than the first one!” Hope stuttered. “”What could it be?”
For the second time, everything was silent. But this time not even the moans and groans of the flesh eaters could be heard.

“Hey,