“We have our orders, Den,” Jason tells him.
“Yeah, let’s get it over and done with, it does look fucking creepy, though,” Tyrone says.
“Right, you first, Tyrone. I’ll cover while you two get over the gate,” Jason orders.
“Yes Sir, Mr Team Leader,” Tyrone jokes as he goes for the gate.
The gate behind them, the three soldiers make use of their training as they descend the slightly sloped road that leads into the school, covering each other as they move.
Reaching the small car park situated in front of the main building of the school, they pause. They can see the school is quite dated, probably built in the 1980s, even though it has been refurbished by the looks of it.
“Come on mate, that’ll do won’t it, it’s all locked up. Let’s get out of here,” Den says, looking at the dark deserted building, sounding very nervous.
“We’ll just check the perimeter,” Jason says and starts moving around to the right of the building.
“Bloody hell, mate, do we have to?” But Den has no choice but to follow Jason and Tyrone as they move, their rifles raised. A cloud crosses the sun, casting a shadow over the whole area, making it feel even more sinister. Den picks up his pace immediately to catch up with the other two.
“You alright there, Den, feeling a bit creeped out?” Tyrone teases Den as he comes up behind him.
“Schools creep me out, especially primary ones, all those small chairs and tables are just weird and don’t even get me started on the little toilets, they give me shivers,” Den replies.
Tyrone chuckles to himself at Den’s confession as they come to the end of the building’s front and start to move around the side, after checking it is clear.
The right of the building only has a narrow alleyway leading down the side of it, with overgrown hedges from the property next door overhanging across the top. Together with the sun going in, it makes it very gloomy, spooky even, and this quietens Tyrone’s chuckles as he starts to go off the idea of going down there. Jason feels it too, but he presses on; he doesn’t want to show his nervousness to the other two, never mind their orders.
The alleyway is eerily quiet as they go into it, even the sound of gunfire they could clearly hear before is all but silenced by the walls all around and the overgrowth above them.
“I got a bad feeling about this!” Dan half whispers, bringing up the rear as they move down slowly.
Jason, bunched up behind his rifle, leads the way, his hands clammy on the rifle’s steel but still ready to fire. He turns his head to the side slightly, towards Den and Tyrone. “We got an open door here.” He pauses just short of it, contemplating what to do.
“Just shut it, Jay,” Den suggests.
“Shh, I think I can hear something,” Jason says, and they all go silent, listening.
“I can’t hear anything, so shut the door and let’s get the hell out of here,” Den again suggests.
They listen again and then they do hear something, a distinct ominous scraping, coming from somewhere inside the school. It only lasts a couple of seconds before it’s gone. Fear roots all three of the men to the spot, all of them unsure what to do; they are almost frozen and then the scraping starts again.
“What the fuck is that?” Tyrone whispers.
Jason manages to inch forward, forcing himself to try and hear the sound more clearly. The scraping sounds close, but how close inside the school is hard to tell—and then it stops again.
“Who’s there, show yourself!” Jason shouts at the doorway.
As soon as his shout ends, the scraping increases in volume and it's definitely moving now, moving towards the open door. Jason’s fear rises to a new level as the sound gets nearer, and he feels himself shaking and his arms go slightly numb with adrenaline. He doesn’t really register Den almost shouting at him to ‘shut the fucking door’. Jason is steeling himself ready to fire, his finger poised on his rifle's trigger.
The scraping stops, just as something comes low and fast out of the doorway; it takes Jason a second to register what it is, but his body has tightened from the adrenaline. His finger inadvertently squeezes the trigger of his SA80 rifle and the bullet it fires instantaneously hits the open door.
The bullet hits about thirty centimetres above the Fox’s head that is itself now frozen, its eyes locked on Jason, stunned from the loud shot of the rifle. Neither of them moves for a second, both looking at each other, then the Fox comes back to life, bares its teeth at Jason, snarls, before it turns and runs off down the alley, towards the light.
“It’s a Fox,” Den says, stating the obvious, “I nearly shit myself; I hate foxes!”
“Fuck me, Den, there isn’t much you do like, is there?” Tyrone says.
Jason’s composure slowly returns, and he lowers his rifle, saying, “I didn’t mean to shoot! It could have been kids messing about in there, I could have shot one.”
“Well, it wasn’t it was a fox and your bullet missed it. Don’t sweat it, mate,” Tyrone says in some twisted way to comfort Jason as lads do. “Right,” he continues, “I need a piss, it’s got to be clear of Zombies in there, else that Fox wouldn’t be in there. Come on, Den, let's find the little toilets.”
“Hilarious, you are,” Den replies to Tyrone’s ‘piss’ take.
“Hold up,” Jason says, “we don’t know for sure it’s clear, so let’s be careful.”
But Tyrone is already past Jason and going into the doorway that leads into the school; at least he has his rifle raised, Jason thinks to himself. Jason follows him in, as does Den,
