themselves in. I still don’t quite believe it’s happening but let’s not waste any time on pondering over the situation.’ The Headmaster strode briskly to the door.
‘Now you check every possible opening, Mr Harris, I’ll get the staff organised.’
Harris followed the gaunt figure of the Headmaster down the stairs where the buzz of conversation was beginning to build up. He heard him clap his hands and order silence.
Harris brushed past the throng of teachers, looking into every room, making sure all the windows were firmly closed.
Thank God all the lower windows had iron grilles over them to prevent broken window panes from boisterously kicked footballs. Good.
All seemed tight. Now the staffroom.
As he entered he saw one of the windows was open, and because it faced the narrow passage between the building and the outer wall, it had no grille to protect it. And on the floor before it, sat one of the creatures.
How it had scaled the wall was something Harris would never know, but there it was, as though it were a scouting party for the others. It looked to and fro, sniffing the air, its pointed nose twitching. It saw Harris and rose on its haunches. It stood at least two feet from the ground. The teacher stepped inside and slammed the door behind him.
He had to close that window.
This particular rat spent no time studying its victim – it sprang forward, straight off its haunches and into the air, aiming itself for Harris’s throat. But the teacher was just as fast. He reached for a chair even as the creature’s muscles tensed for the leap and swung it before him. The chair struck the rat’s body in mid-jump, like a cricket bat meeting a ball, and threw it to one side, the wood splintering.
The rat landed on its feet and sprang towards Harris again, who brought the chair crashing down on its back. It was stunned for a few seconds, but still not severely hurt. However, it had gained the teacher time enough to reach for the heavy poker lying in the hearth of the unlit fire. He brought it down viciously, more in hate than fear, on the rat’s thin skull with a sickening thud. Then again. And again. He turned towards the window in time to see another claw its way on to the sill. Without hesitation, he lashed out with the poker, knocking the rat back down into the narrow passage-way below. He pulled the window shut and leaned against it, gasping for breath and trying to control his trembling knees. The window was a type with fine wire mesh set in the glass to prevent it shattering.
‘It should hold them,’ he said aloud.
Then he went to the staffroom door, took the key from the inside, stepped out and locked it. But not before taking a close look at the creature lying on the threadbare carpet.
Its body must have been at least two feet long, its tail another nine or ten inches. The bristly fur wasn’t exactly black, but very dark brown, with lots of black speckles mottling it. Its head was larger in proportion to the ordinaryrodent’s and its incisors were long and pointed. Its half-lidded eyes had the lifeless glaze of the dead, but its partially-covered teeth seemed to grin wickedly. Even in death, the body seemed deadly, as though the disease it bore could be passed on by mere touch.
Once outside in the hall, Harris saw that the children were being herded towards the stairs.
‘Are you all fight, Mr Harris?’ the Headmaster came striding towards him.
‘Yes. I’ve killed one of the monsters.’ Harris realised he still held the blood-stained poker.
‘Good man. Well, the place is sealed off and the police will soon be here, so I don’t think we’ve anything to worry about,’ the Headmaster said reassuringly, his smile disappearing instantly at Harris’s next remark: ‘What about the basement?’
They both turned towards the cellar flairs and broke into a run as they neared them. They stopped at the top and peered down into the gloom,
‘I think we’ll be all fight,’ said the Headmaster. ‘Mr Jenkins, the caretaker, will probably be down there checking the boiler. It always takes him a while to get it going on Monday mornings. Heaven knows, I’ve complained about the cold water on Mondays enough...’ he broke off, slightly annoyed at the young teacher who had carried on down apparently not listening to a word he was saying.
Harris approached the door of the basement with some caution, pressed his ear to it, and listened. He shushed the
Headmaster with a finger to his mouth as the older man reached him.
‘Oh, come along, man,’ the Headmaster pushed by him impatiently, and grasping the handle, swinging the door open wide. ‘Jenkins, are you...’ his words choked off at the sight that met his eyes.
Black, scurrying creatures, swarming all around the basement. A small, high window, level with the playground outside, was wide open, and in poured more and more of the furry beasts, a constant stream of vermin.
And they were feeding on something on the floor. All Harris and the Headmaster were able to see was a single boot, protruding from the writhing mass of bodies. The teacher pulled his Principal back from the open doorway as several dark shapes dashed forward. He grabbed the handle and pulled hard but two of the rats slithered through, a third being trapped by its shoulder. He kicked at it three times before it fell back into the basement. He whirled around to see the other two scampering up the stairs. The Headmaster was on his knees staring after them.
‘My God, they’re enormous,’ was all he could utter.
‘If they reach the children... ‘ Harris began to say.
‘I’ll stop them, I’ll stop them, Harris,you cover that door.
Block it with anything you can find. It’s extremely heavy, but we want to be sure!’ The distressed Headmaster was re-gathering his wits. ‘When you’ve done that, come straight upstairs.’
‘Right, but don’t let them bite you!’ Harris shouted after the ascending figure. ‘Their bite’s fatal. Keep them away from you.’
He looked around for something big to block the door with. The store-room was on his right. He opened it and carefully looked in. No windows, so it should be all right.
He switched on the light. Tables, chairs, blackboards. Good.
He pulled out a heavy table and turned it on its side, then pulled it along to the basement door. He upended it and was pleased to discover that it completely covered the door.
He pushed it flush against it and went back to the store-room. He noticed an old radiator leaning against the wall and dragged it out, making a loud grating noise on the floor. He leaned it against the upturned table and went back for some chairs.
Just then, he heard a scream from upstairs. He picked up the discarded poker and raced upstairs.
The Headmaster was on the floor of the corridor, struggling with the two hideous rats. Mercifully, the door at the end of the corridor had been closed, and the children had all escaped to the floor above. The Headmaster had one of the rats by the throat and was fighting to keep it from his face.
The other was boring a hole in his side.
‘Help me, help me!’ he implored Harris, mining his head to see the teacher.
Sickened, knowing his Principal was already dead, Harris ran forward and brought the poker down with all his might on one of the rats. It squealed, high-pitched, an octave above a frightened child’s, and withdrew its teeth from the struggling man’s side. Its back was broken, but it made an attempt to crawl towards Harris. He brought his foot down on its head and crushed it. He couldn’t hit the second rat for fear of hurting the Headmaster, so he dropped the poker and reached for it with his hands. He grabbed it near its shoulders and lifted, taking care not to let its mapping teeth touch his body. Unfortunately, the Headmaster was too frightened to loose his grip on the squirming rodent.
‘Let go, let go!’ Harris shouted, now lifting the man with the rat.
But the Headmaster was too crazed with terror to hear.
The teacher braced his foot against the Headmaster’s chest and pushed him back to the floor, staggering back as the grip was released and falling, but still holding the rat high.
Its weight and its strength were tremendous, and he felt his jacket and shirt being torn to shreds by the clawing feet.
Holding it from behind, he raised himself to one knee and pushed it against the floor. He saw the Headmaster crawling away from him, his eyes never leaving the squirming monster in his grasp, backing away towards the wall,
