# Sarah Hawke #
“C’mon, Brett. Let’s just go,” Sarah whined from the hallway. She had to run to keep up with him as he cruised towards the auditorium. Katie and her friend Theo trailed close behind.
“I’m not leaving without Amber,” Brett called back, “she’s got theatre class.”
Another girl, Katie, trailed behind them as she struggled to keep up. “I can't get a signal! Nobody is picking up. I can't even get onto Facebook,” she cried out between breaths.
None of them chose to acknowledge how odd that actually was. The group turned the corner and found themselves facing the large double doors of the theatre auditorium. Unlike some of the others in the rest of the school, these doors didn’t have windows. Whatever was happening on the other side, the doors were locked. Made obvious after several attempts to wrench it open by Brett. A feat even his muscles couldn’t triumph over.
“What the hell!?” He grunted in frustration.
Sarah rolled her eyes. “It’s a lockdown, Einstein.”
“What about the other doors?” He protested.
“It’s a lock… down…” Sarah repeated. He wasn't necessarily in the running for "Brightest Bulb" in the yearbook.
“This is bullshit!” Brett demonstrated his frustration by kicking the door. Hard. “We have to—“
“Who the hell is out there?” A voice shouted from the other side of the door.
Brett kicked at it again. “We’re students. Let us in!”
“We’re in a lockdown. Why aren’t you in your classroom?” The voice answered. From the pinched, slightly British-sounding accent, Sarah guessed they were talking to Mr. Weston, the voice teacher.
“Mr. Weston, something bad happened to Mr. Geoffries. We can’t get ahold of the paramedics or anything. Please let us in…” Sarah was pleading her hardest. She hoped to God that a less abrasive approach might appeal to his sense of reason.
“W-What happened to him?” Mr. Weston stammered, his voice shaking.
“There was, uh—“ Sarah's words caught in her throat.
“He got attacked, man,” Brett yelled over her.
Sarah listened as she heard, Mr. Weston shuffle around behind the door. "Why don’t you just, uh, go down to the office and—“
BAM!
Brett’s foot collided with the handle of the door again, clanging all the way down the hall.
“Stop it!” Mr. Weston cried out.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Again and again he kicked at the door, denting the metal in.
“Please! NO!!" The teacher continued to cry out. His screams began turning more desperate, as if he was suddenly in danger. "STOP! PLEEEASE!!"
Katie tugged at Sarah's arm, pulling her back from the door. The hallway suddenly filled with the rise of muffled sounds as dozens of terrified screams rang out. Panicked students. Brett backed away from the door too, as it began to shake violently from the other side. As if bending at the frames, the door burst open with pressure from the other side. A wave of panicked bodies surged out, people spilling over each other in a desperate frenzy. Amongst them, a student crouched over Mr. Westons limp body. They immediately took off in the other direction, barely head of the torrential mass of people. Straining desperately to keep her bearings, Sarah buried her face with her arms as she ran and passersby collided with her. She made it a few doors down the hallway before getting knocked to the ground by the sobering blow of someone's shoulder. Sarah hit the ground hard and rolled into the person in front of her, knocking them to the ground as well.
“Molly?!” Whoever he was, the crowd had already carried him away -- lost in the surge of people like a bottle in a flood.
Sarah looked to the girl next to her. Blonde and terrified. “I’m sorry,” she began, “I didn’t—“
Ear-shattering screams seemed to be coming from every part of the corridor, even from where they were running. Parts of the crowd ahead splintered into different directions, some doubling back the way they came. Sarah looked around, unable to see any of her friends from before in the swarming frenzy of bodies. The girl next to her seemed to be in the same predicament.
“This way,” she said, grabbing the girl’s hand and leading her down the stairs nearby.. As they delved deeper into the stairwell, the sounds of chaos resonated louder from above.
The woman pulled her wrist from Sarah's grasp. “W-Wait. My brother—“
Sarah rounded on her. “He's closer to the car than you are...” The woman’s silence was all the answer she needed. Briana turned and continued trotting down the last few steps, the woman following her after a bit of hesitation.
“What’s happening up there?” The woman asked. Her voice shook slightly. Sarah figured it probably wasn’t shaking from jogging down the stairs, but rather from her fear that the world might be ending.
“Haven’t you been watching the news?”
The woman shook her head. “No, I was at the airport…”
Sarah snorted. "Airplanes. That'd be a fun place to be right now." She began to slow down as they neared the hallway. It was likely that there were people still down here. In what condition would remain to be seen. “It’s an infection of some sort, from the looks of it. The media didn’t seem to know how to explain it.” The two of them crept into the hallway in front of them towards the locker rooms, their shoes echoing on the cement floor. “Whatever it is, it’s bad.”
The silence hung for a moment before the woman finally spoke. Where are we going?” She asked.
“These locker rooms let out onto the football field. We can go around the track to the parking lot,” Sarah explained as she ducked into a passing doorway.
“So those… things… up there… those are—?”
“I don’t know,” Sarah said, her gaze dropping to the floor. It was suddenly dawning on her how stupid it was that she was in Biology class when the world ended. It'd be a great story to tell her kids... as if she'd ever have a chance to have any now.
"Listen, my brother--" The woman started, pulling Sarah by the arm.
"If he's smart, he's already running to your car. You do have a car... right?"
"Yeah... and I have the keys...” she replied.
Sarah stopped in front of the girl’s locker room door and looked the girl squarely in the face.
“Then let’s hope we get there before he does.”