As the group of three begins to walk towards the Communications lab the first thing they notice is that all the lights inside the room are on. However, before they get one step into the room Jules stops them again in the same spot she was standing when she first heard that strange sound. She grips Stanley’s arm and Stanley stops to turned and find Jules pointing up the hallway. Jules shrivelled quivering hand and index finger motion for Stanley to look in the same direction and he does. Stanley can see what she is pointing at and immediately his heart begins to race. Stanley grabs the forward moving Vincent by the back of his coat and whispers, “Vincent, look!” Vincent had to take a step back and he follows Jules quivering hand as well. Vincent can see it. So far down the front hallway of the school the three of them could see the tall, slender form of a woman slowly walking as though incredibly drunk. She is walking towards them.
Vincent, Jules and Stanley walk to the center of the hall and now they can all hear the sound the woman’s high heels slowly clapping the white tile floor. The woman was so far from them that the detail of her appearance is a complete mystery, but due to the cut out of herself she makes against her background, Vincent and the others guess that she was wearing a sort of tight sweater and a mini-skirt. She looks really tall, almost eye to eye with Stanley. The slow clip-clopping sound of her heels echoeds across the hall.
“Others are going to hear her.” Vincent says giving little detail as to what he means. Vincent takes the two desk legs he’s holding and claps the two of them together. In his right hand is a weapon now twice as powerful as the one his new-found comrades have. The woman down the hall stops dead in her tracks and appears to be mesmerized by something.
Vincent, Jules and Stanley could not see her eyes, but they all know what she is looking at. They could hear the faint sound of a cold drawl of breath come from the dark casm where the woman’s face should be. Suddenly she begins to run towards the three of them at full speed. The clip-clopping of her heels grows louder and faster as she approaches. This is like watching a runway model run the length of the stage with murderous intent. At half the distance she was before from them it would appear as though her arms are outstretched in front of her. Vincent holds the two desk legs like he’s Babe Ruth. No one takes their eyes off of the running woman. At a quarter of the distance away, Stanley wonders if he’ll recognize this person as well. The woman’s heels disappear from view for a second. She has reached the three stairs. There is a drop of three feet in the hallway. It is a sort of marker for where the old school was and the addition is. The tall woman takes to the three steps at full speed and then just a quickly falls flat on her face. She falls so fast and so suddenly that the sound of her head hitting the ground was a lot like throwing a frozen watermelon on the ground.
The woman lay a ways not far from where the threesome stands. Vincent is half –amused at what he just saw and motions for his shocked compatriots to follow him towards her. Slowly they pass the main entrance of the school and then the offices and now they stand over the motionless woman. Vincent examines her while she lay still and face down. She is taller then Vincent is. She is indeed, wearing a skirt and dirtied brown and red sweater. There are runs in her panty hose as well and a thick and rank black and brown substance that could only mean loss of bowel control. One of her black high heels rests broken on the ground just behind her. Looks like Cinderella lost her balance leaving the ball. There is a lot of blood surrounding her curly red hair. Judging from the upward direction the blood appears to have sprayed, it looks as though the woman forehead split open right through her skull. Vincent kneels down to the woman and Jules takes several steps back. Stanley stands silent and once again appears uncomfortable. Vincent places his desk legs on the ground and rolls the woman onto her back. Their thoughts were correct. A large mass of hair, skin and skull remain in the circle of blood and the woman’s brain sat like a victim of a car crash might rest half out a windshield. Vincent could let her rest now on her back and he looks into her face. Stanley can’t help but want to know so he stares at her half-a-face as well. Her nose is broken, her teeth smashed, crusted blood glazes her jaw and purple blood is oozing from the fist sized opening on her forehead. There’s a large rip in the center of her chest and wide and deep cut between her breasts. In her left arm there is also a large chunk of her bicep missing as though she had been bitten there as well. A once fairly attractive older woman now turned into a bloody mess. Her eyes are wide open like examining those who are examining her. Stanley needs not another moment to recognize her. He had a feeling he knew who she was back when she stood at the other end of the hall. However, Stanley did not want to admit it. If she could be dead along with Wayne and the leg Wayne was holding then what hope was there for anyone else he had known.
“That’s Mrs. Nielson.” Stanley said painfully.
“Teacher?” Vincent ventured.
“Cosmetology.”
“You took cosmetology?” Vincent chuckles to lighten the mood.
“No!” Stanley says a little too loudly.
“Quiet!” Jules calls from her hiding place behind Stanley.
“I just know that she’s the Cosmetology teacher cause…I kind of had a…you know. Lets go back.”
“Wait! Kind of had a what?” Vincent taunts.
Stanley says nothing.
“A crush.” Vincent ventures once again and for the first time since they met, Stanley sees Vincent smile. “You crushing on your teacher, boy?” Vincent shed his Italian accent and spoke in a mock Southern accent, “We don’t take kindly to student/teacher relations round here!”
Stanley and Jules almost laugh after not looking at Ms. Neilson for a while.
“Well look at her,” Stanley gestures to Ms. Neilson’s entire body the way a game-show model would emphasize the beauty of a king-size bed.
Vincent however, refers to her from only the neck up. “She looks pretty gross to me.”
“I mean before she came down with the sickness.” Stanley says as though that should be obvious. “She was the school MILF. Every guy in the school had a crush on her.”
“I guess. I could see that.” Vincent half-heartedly agreed.
Looking just behind where the woman fell there are three descending stairs that the woman clearly and unsuccessfully tried to ascend.
“Looks like the crazy bitch couldn’t get up three little stairs in those shoes.” Vincent deduced before calling to the dead woman, “Don’t wear ‘em till you learn to work ‘em bitch!”
At that moment is when Jules, Stanley and Vincent realize where they are standing. On the other side of the wall to their right is the South Gym. From inside the gym they can all hear the sound of movement and echoes of raspy breath.
"Can we leave now?" Jules begins to back away from Ms. Neilson.
"And go where?" Vincent taunts.
A knock on the other side of the gym door answers his question, anywhere but here.
The knocking sound continues now at both doors to either side of where the three survivors stand.
"Lets go!" Vincent concedes as he stands from over top of Ms. Neilson. Vincent looks down at Ms. Neilson to discover that as he stands over her her eyes are following his every move.
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