Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
LUCAS
The students lounged all over the room, trying to keep themselves occupied.
I’d been watching Grace for a while because I’d noticed her breathing had become erratic.
She sat on the edge of the couch with her hands folded in her lap, watching the others play a card game.
Her chest was rising and falling more rapidly than normal. Not enough for anyone else to notice, but I caught it because I was hyper-aware of everything at this point. I knew Adrian was coming, but not when, and these kids needed to get out.
“I phased! You all suck.” Ethan crowed as he laid out his cards.
Lila narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you cheating?”
“Fuck no, I’m just that good.” He puffed out his chest.
“Watch your mouth.” I slapped him in the back of the head.
“Hey! You can’t hit a student.” He ran a hand through his hair, worried about looking cool to the other kids.
I raised an eyebrow, “Who are you going to tell? Coach Daniels?”
“That’s cold, Mr. Rowen,” Nathan said, smirking.
The other kids stared at me with wide eyes.
“What? Too soon?” I stared at them innocently.
Grace giggled, then slapped a hand to her mouth.
It was quiet for a moment, then everyone started laughing. Unfortunately, the laughter stopped as suddenly as it had begun when something scraped the door.
We couldn’t stay here for much longer.
I considered trying to get the kids out myself, but after just barely managing to help Lane leave, I couldn’t risk it.
The hallway outside the lounge was filled with movement, something dragging, then bumping against a locker.
Grace’s next breath came sharper.
She swallowed, keeping her eyes trained on the game.
Another sound came from outside, fingers tapping the door, then sliding away.
Grace’s chest hitched, her breathing becoming more difficult.
Ethan frowned, noticing something was up. “You okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said too fast.
With how she struggled to get those words out, we all knew it was a lie.
The room went still again. The vending machine hummed. Pipes ticked somewhere in the wall… then another scrape of steps in the hallway.
Grace flinched, and her breathing broke—short, shallow pulls now, like she couldn’t get enough air in, no matter how hard she tried.
I crossed to her and crouched in front of her chair. “Grace, do you use an inhaler?” I was praying so hard to all that was holy for the answer to be no, I missed what she said. “What?”
“Yes, but it’s in my locker.” She whispered.
Shit.
“Where’s your locker?” I asked, dreading the answer.
“The freshman hall, second block. It’s number 113 and has a band sticker on the front.” Grace leaned her head back, still trying to pull air in.
Of course it was. The furthest hall from where we were.
“How bad is it? And be honest.” I knew the answer to my question, but I really didn’t want to go out there again.
“I can still—” she paused, drawing a breath that remained unfinished. “—I can still breathe.”
Ethan stood. “We’ll get it.”
“No,” I growled. “No one else leaves this room but me.”
He bristled. “You can’t do this by yourself.”
“I have to. You’re my responsibility.” I narrowed my eyes at him, daring him to challenge me.
Lane getting out was a fluke at best. The activity had picked up ever since I’d returned. There was no way I was taking another student out there.
“What’s the combination?” I asked Grace.
“15-30-27,” She gasped out.
Ethan helped me remove the barricade, and I gently removed the paper from the window.
The scraping we had been hearing was from a student continuously walking into a locker. Luckily, it was in the opposite direction that I needed to go.
I grabbed the other fire extinguisher from the wall—the last one had been a tremendous help—and took a few deep breaths.
“Lock it behind me but leave the barricade down. I’m going to be coming in fast.” I narrowed my eyes at Ethan. “If I don’t return, do not come after me. My friend Adrian will be here soon.”
“What about, Grace?” Ethan pointed at her with his thumb over his shoulder.
To save the majority, I had to make my point clear. “Try to keep her calm. Put her in the bathroom and block as much noise from the hallway as you can.” I dropped my voice to a whisper, “But under no circumstances do you leave.”
Ethan swallowed hard, knowing exactly what I meant. “Okay.”
I nodded. “Lock it.”
I slid out of the door and stood still until I heard the lock click into place.
I managed, narrowly, not to draw the attention of the infected, repeatedly ramming their head into the locker.
I kept to the wall, moving when it was still, stopping when it wasn’t. Lockers stood open like broken teeth. Paper littered the floor. A shoe sat by itself in the middle of the hall.
Grace’s locker was exactly where she said. I could see the band sticker from ten yards away.
I moved slowly, not rushing as I wanted to. I felt a bead of sweat run down my forehead and drip off my nose. I stopped at every flicker of shadow, nervous it would be a herd of the slobbering monsters.
I heard a scrape and froze in place, holding my breath.
Nothing.
I reached the locker.
Listened.
Hands shaking.
Breathe in.
Breathe out slowly.
I turned the lock.
Fifteen to the right, thirty to the left, then twenty-seven back to the right.
The lock clicked.
Too loud.
I froze.
Waited.
Nothing.
I opened the locker just enough to slide my hand inside.
Books.
A sweatshirt.
And on the top shelf, the fucking inhaler.
Relief hit hard—and then something shifted behind me.
I turned.
A shape stepped out from a classroom doorway.
Coach Daniels.
Or what remained of her. Her shirt was entirely gone, and her left nipple was missing. I shuddered at the sight of what was beneath that absent nipple.
Her eyes were fixed on me; she looked hungry.
Her head tilted.
I held my breath, hoping she wouldn’t attack. No such luck.
She began loping toward me like an animal.
Fast.
I stepped back once.
Twice.
She closed the distance, arm reaching, fingers clawing for me.
I swung.
The extinguisher struck her shoulder, knocking her off balance. She twisted and lunged again, her mouth open, and her teeth bared.
“Don’t,” I growled, as if what I’d said would matter to her.
Spoiler alert… it didn’t.
I swung again.
Harder.
She finally went down, but I didn’t stick around to see if she stayed that way.
I ran into the nearest room and slammed the door behind me, twisting the lock until it clicked.
Something banged on the door.
Once.
Twice.
Then there were more.
The handle jerked down, rattling.
What the fuck? These were supposed to be mindless creatures.
The latch held—for now.
I realized I was in a janitor’s closet. There were shelves of cleaning supplies and mops. And tightly rolled mats used for wrestling? Why were they here?
“Is that really important right now, Lucas?” I whispered to myself.
I grabbed the metal mop handle leaning in the corner and jammed it tight between the door handle and the floor, angling it so it couldn’t slip. Then I dragged a rolled wrestling mat over and shoved it against the base of the door, wedging it in place.
The frame shuddered as bodies piled into it.
I looked at the inhaler in my hand.
The thought of Grace in that chair, barely pulling in air, made it clear in my mind that I had to get back.
And this door wouldn’t hold for long anyway.
Fuck it. I was Lucas fucking Rowen, and I wouldn’t go down like this.
And for some insane reason, I thought of Taryn. Of never seeing her again.
That would give the little brat too much satisfaction.
I glanced down at my exposed arms. Way too much skin showing.
Grabbing another folded mat from the stack, I ripped at the vinyl seam until it split, tearing off two thick strips. I wrapped one around my left forearm, then the other, pulling them tight enough to stay in place.
Not perfect, but better than nothing.
I yanked a roll of duct tape from the shelf and wound it over the padding, binding it down, then grabbed a pair of heavy cleaning gloves and shoved my hands into them.
My heart pounded against my ribs.
“Okay,” I muttered and took a deep breath.
I yanked the mat aside, kicked the mop handle free, twisted the lock, and ripped the door open just long enough to dive through the gap—the first one slammed into me. I swung the extinguisher, felt it connect, and shoved through the gap before the others could close it.
Run.
Now, noise didn’t matter.
Footsteps dragged behind me.
Something snarled.
A locker banged shut.
I hit the lounge door at a sprint and overshot the son of a bitch again. I grabbed the frame and wrenched it open just wide enough to slip through.
Hands grabbed me and pulled me in.
The door slammed, and I heard the lock click.
Several things hit the other side less than a heartbeat later.
Hard.
Everyone froze.
The wire-glass window rattled.
We heard the strange clicking sounds from before, then silence.
I held up the inhaler, breathing so hard I thought I might need it. “I got it.”
Ethan grabbed it and gave it to Grace, who didn’t waste any time raising it to her mouth and taking a puff.
Then another.
Her shoulders dropped a fraction as the medicine hit, her breathing stretching back toward something close to normal.
Ethan stared at the door. “I really want to get out of here.”
“We all do.” I took a deep breath, not saying anything else.
I didn’t have the heart to point out to him that outside the school was likely to be just as bad. We might be safer in here than out there.