Beyond the Horizon(An apocalypse novel)

Chapter 3: Blood

He was deafened by a sudden roar, barely registering the whizzing of glass shards as they passed by his face. He registered the pain, though.

Throwing himself down, he buried his face in his palms to prevent any further damage as he rolled on the glass-littered floor. Pain spiked from at least four different parts of his face and arms—lacerations and light punctures, as far as he could tell.

He paid them no mind, though, as the roaring continued; with it came a sensation of bitter cold from the parts of his body still facing the window.

A pair of hands helped him up.

"Are you alright—oh shit, you’re bleeding."

He could barely hear Jayce’s voice over the roar.

"I... is it bad?"

"Not too bad, but you still need to get some bandages. Were there any blizzard warnings today?"

’Blizzard.’

Miles pushed himself off Jayce’s support, carefully removing his hands from his face as he saw what the boy was talking about.

His desk was in ruins—bag, chair, and materials strewn about, with glass shards littering everywhere. The window lay shattered; through it, a harsh, howling wind rushed into the classroom, stealing whatever precious heat remained.

Beyond it was exactly what Jayce had said: a blizzard. The source of the roar. Through it, he could barely see the trees in the yard.

It was only then that he noticed his breath coming out in puffs. Still in a daze, he turned his focus to his injuries.

Like he’d guessed, a few stabs and lacerations lined the back of his hands, with glass pieces still sticking out of some wounds. Luckily, feeling around his face only revealed a shallow cut on his cheek.

The cold was already stealing his heat through them.

"She’s bleeding!"

A scream brought him back to reality; it was audible over the storm.

He hadn’t been the only one with a window seat, and in terms of injuries, he seemed to be one of the lucky ones.

Some sat huddled in a spot surrounded by other students; the worst, however, was an unconscious girl dragged away from the window by her friends.

She lay in the center of the class, bleeding steadily from a slash across her neck. The girls around her stood in shock, unsure of what to even do.

Only one knelt beside her, trying yet failing to stop the blood from rushing out the gash. It seeped right through her fingers.

She was the source of the scream.

"Go... go get the nurse here. Immediately. Everyone else, get away from the windows!"

Mrs. Martinez finally regained her wits, sending a student off into the corridor before screaming at the rest, trying to get some modicum of order in the class.

It worked, to an extent; the students, including Miles, backed off from the window. Still in shock, they were latching onto any sense of stability left.

It was only when Miles stood huddled against the inner wall, right next to Jayce, that a boy asked the question already on most of their minds.

"Is she going to be alright? I mean, this has to be a joke, right?"

He was talking about the girl, the one bleeding out. She was already outside the vicinity of the windows, yet all the students had shifted a distance away from her.

Only the kneeling girl remained by her side, still futilely trying to stop the blood. The storm drowned her sobs.

The boy’s question broke a dam holding back the students’ anxieties, unleashing a growing flood.

"What the hell happened?"

"It’s snowing? How is it snowing in autumn? Winter isn’t meant to be here for another month or two!"

"What broke the windows?"

"They’re all bleeding."

"I need to call my parents."

"Somebody do something; she’s going to die."

"Alright, that is enough from you. All of you!"

Mrs. Martinez shut it down before it got any worse; even she couldn’t hide her unease at the situation.

She tapped her feet nervously before looking out the door.

"Where is that student? Seriously."

She looked between the girl on the floor and the empty corridor, hesitating before deciding with a nod.

"Two students, come now. I need your help carrying her to the nurse’s office. We can’t wait any longer."

The girl beside her immediately volunteered. A boy rushed out of the crowd to join her as well: Ryan, the class rep.

Mrs. Martinez still looked conflicted about how exactly they were going to carry the wounded girl without worsening her condition.

It was in that moment she paused, her gaze suddenly flicking to the window.

"Is there someone out there?"

Naturally, Miles followed her gaze there, as did the rest of the class.

Through the horrible conditions outside, he could see a silhouette slowly approaching the classroom. The snowfall obscured its exact features.

Mrs. Martinez raised her voice.

"Hey! You out there, can you hear me?"

The figure did not reply. It merely shambled closer.

The first parts of the figure Miles saw were its hands: blackened, deeply frostbitten hands against a backdrop of stiff, patchy skin.

He wore a janitor’s uniform.

Mrs. Martinez grew visibly more confused and unnerved by the sight. Still, she didn’t back off.

"Hey! You—you are a janitor, right? What’re you doing in the snow? Is that frostbite on your hands?"

He was close now, bringing his deathly pale face into full view—and with it, his blank, white eyes. The thing’s pace picked up now.

That was the final straw for Mrs. Martinez. She stepped back slowly, hands raised protectively over the kids.

She spoke in a hushed tone.

"All of you, out of the classroom."

"What a—"

"Now!"

She screamed as quietly as possible, knocking away whatever slivers of normality anyone still had left.

Everything that was happening—the gaze, the sudden snowstorm, that bleeding girl, and now the janitor—left a growing, gnawing pit in Miles’s gut.

Something about it all was horrendously wrong.

They began heading for the door, carefully, the way they’d practiced in fire drills.

Then it began sprinting.

A scream rang out from the back at the sight, then came the pushing, shoving, and rushing as everyone made a mad dash for the doors.

Soon enough, the orderly line devolved into pure chaos.

Miles could only thank his luck that he was relatively close to the back door of the class. He made it out with only an elbow to the chin.

Entering the quickly crowding corridor, he began looking around for Jayce when he heard something crash into the room behind him.

There was another scream.

Older, more pained, and infinitely more hopeless.

It was followed by the sound of flesh being ripped.

Mrs. Martinez.

The sound of her howls mixed with whatever was tearing into her flesh, creating a vile backdrop that silenced any murmurs by those in the hall.

Students still rushing out of the class looked sickened; a few even puked.

The screams didn’t stop.

It was with terror that his brain registered it as a timer. That thing... it certainly wouldn’t stop with her.

’The gym. I have to get to the gym.’

He wasn’t the only one thinking that.

"The gym!"

"Run to the cafeteria."

The crowd split immediately, each running full speed in different directions. Miles headed for the gym.

He could only hope Jayce made the same decision as the screams slowly came to a stop.