“The Embassy is the Rosters High School?”
“Yeah. It was the only building around here that’s fully fenced,” Ricardo answered.
They walked toward the entrance as Ignacio took out a key from his pocket. There were large chains keeping the gates closed. He opened the padlock and began unhooking the chain. The door swung open freely.
After the five of them walked into the first gate, they waited for Ignacio to finish locking the gate up.
Directly in front of them was an office building that had no windows. They had all been replaced by particle board. Exiting the sides of the building was another set of chain linked fences that ran to walls on opposite sides, making the office door the only entrance through the fence.
“We’re back,” Ignacio said.
The door to the building slowly opened revealing two men wearing the same black uniforms. They pointed rifles before slowly walking outside.
“Is everyone all right?” the taller man said in a deep voice.
“Yes,” said Ignacio.
“Where’s Morgan?” the other man asked, his voice more juvenile then everyone else. He was young, couldn’t have been any older than twenty. There was an air of cockiness about him, as though he had been through a lot in order to survive.
“She’s dead,” Ricardo said.
The young man looked to the ground. “Damn,” he said. “She was a nice piece of ass.”
Victor’s eyes grew wide with rage. Before anyone else had time to react to the comment, Victor sprinted for the man, fists clutched, jaw locked.
Kyle quickly reached for Victor and grabbed hold of his shoulder. “Let me go,” Victor yelled.
Everyone in the area tensed and began to react at what was happening.
Victor jumped and kicked trying to reach the man, but Kyle’s grasp wouldn’t let him. “Calm down!” he shouted.
“W’the fuck’s his problem?”
“This is her son, you fucking idiot,” Kyle said, enraged now himself.
“Ah, well, that explains it,” the younger man said, then slowly walked back into the building, disappearing into the darkness.
“Don’t mind Carter; he’s what some would call, annoying,” the other man said.
“He’s a fucking idiot is what he is,” Kyle said, loudly enough for Carter to hear. He slowly loosened the grip on Victor.
“Well, that too,” the man said with a smile and extended his arm. “I’m Albert.”
“Kyle, and this is Victor.” He extended his arm to meet Albert half way.
“Is everyone at lunch?” Ricardo said.
“Yeah, they’re just about finishing up. Carter and I were just waiting for your return. Now we can go eat.”
Albert led them into the dark building. Zero sunlight entered the small office. Virginia was the last one inside. She closed the door behind her and everyone stood in pitch black for a few seconds. A door opened on the other side of the room, slicing sunlight into the darkness.
The room had a large secretary’s desk directly in front of the door. They moved to the left to walk around the desk. There were papers, pens and other things anyone would find at a school’s front office. As they walked around the desk, the room began to expand into a much larger space with two doors on opposite sides. There were smaller desks scattered all over the bigger room, probably belonging to the assistants.
Carter stood next to the open door, waiting for them to come closer.
“This way,” Albert said.
They walked through the opened door and stood on the inside of the gates. To their right, the two fences they had passed were visible, and to their left was what resembled a T-intersection. Planted on a few open patches of soil were trees surrounded by mustard plants.
Albert led them to the T-intersection and made a left. The hallway was made of two buildings on opposite sides. Each wall was coated by small school lockers. The short walk through the hall led them into a bigger open area that Kyle instantly knew was the school’s quad, mostly because there was a rock sculpture in the center of the field with the words “Senior Quad” on it. The campus was quiet, and other than his guides, Kyle hadn’t seen another soul, nor did he feel any presence.
“Here we go,” Albert said, pointing at a door to his left. “This is the cafeteria.” He opened the door for them.
The sound of generator’s roaring grew loud as the door opened. Ignacio walked into the room, which only led him to another door a few feet away from the other one. Two generators were placed on opposite sides from each other in the tiny room. He opened the second door and walked inside.
There were six rectangular tables set up in the room. One of them had an assortment of food atop it. Bread, lettuce, deli ham and turkey, all the fixings to make sandwiches. No one else was in the room.
“Where is everyone?” Kyle asked.
“Working,” Carter said.
“Go ahead and help yourselves,” Albert added.
Everyone except for Victor approached the table and began picking at what was left of lunch.
“Come on, Victor,” Kyle said. “Get some before it’s all gone.”
“I’m not hungry,” he said, walking to one of the chairs and taking a seat.
Kyle finished making a sandwich and sat next to Victor. “Here,” he said, offering half of his sandwich to him.
“I don’t want any.”
“All right,” Kyle said taking a large bite.
The overhead lights in the room were fully lit, thanks to the generators. Kyle couldn’t remember the last time he saw light bulbs lit. He looked around the room and stopped as his gaze met a large whiteboard mounted onto the wall. There were many markings on the board. No words, just markings, like check marks. Possibly indicating how many days this place had been here. He counted nine individual lines.
“Hurry up and finish your lunch. Doctor Greenly wants to meet all newcomers. He’ll also want to know about Morgan,” Virginia said just as Kyle finished putting the last piece of his sandwich into his mouth.
“I’m ready,” Kyle said with a mouth full of food.
“Where is Greenly?” Ricardo asked, looking at Albert.
“I think he’s in his lab.”
“This place has a lab?” Kyle asked.
“Not a good one,” Albert replied. “I’ll take him. Everyone else can relieve the guards and take their place.”
“I go too,” Ignacio said.
“Fine. Everyone get to your posts and you three, come with me,” Albert said with authority. It was clear from everyone’s actions that Albert was the man in charge.
“It’s fucking hot outside. I’m sweating so much my balls are starting to stick together,” Carter mumbled as he began making his way out the door. “And I’m out of fucking baby powder.”
“Oh, shut up,” said Virginia, pushing Carter out the door.
Albert led them back through the door with the generators. They marched across the quad to another section of the school. It was there that Kyle saw more survivors. They stood on the roof looking out into the open space with rifles in their hands.
“Just through this door,” Albert said.
They entered the room and instantly were greeted by the memorizing scent of death and decay. The odor was so bad that it made Kyle’s face fold with disgust.
“I forgot to warn you about that,” Albert said. “Sorry.”
Kyle nodded.
The classroom itself was altered to look more like a laboratory. The carpets had been ripped out and replaced with tile. Four metal tables lined the far right wall, two of which had bodies laid out on top.
“There seems to be more to this than I could have possibly imagined,” a voice from one of the small offices
