Sparrow

I should have known better than to get my hopes up. To not actually believe that someone was there to help me. The spark of hope that ignited in my chest the moment I'd heard the window move was extinguished as soon as I looked behind me.

Of course, the Turned knew how to use windows. How very human of them.

In utter disgust, and growing horror, I watched the diseased fingers pry open the window above my head. Skin flayed away from rot and infection left behind a sickly brown imprint on the glass, pulling away to reveal an even more disgusting sight. The Turned bent down into the small gap he'd made, not quite enough for him to squeeze through. I gagged at the stench the Turned emanated.

"Well, you're not completely intelligent," I muttered, staring up at the Turned's face with a frown.

I met eyes grayed as if already decayed. There was no life behind them, no remnant of the man the person once was. He was puppeteered by the parasite within him, a baby Blare that would eventually emerge out to feed on the rest of us.

All of the monster movies with invading parasites and aliens never prepared me to fight off the once human being trying to eat my face off from where I'd barricaded myself in the bathroom stall. He squirmed and writhed in the window sill, trying his best to gnash his teeth at me. Only, I was well out of his reach.

Without a weapon capable of fighting off the horde, I did the only thing I knew I could do at that moment. I yelled for help. It wasn't in me to be a damsel in distress, but I also wasn't going to be torn apart because of my pride if there was someone just a few feet away.

Maybe someone else had been tempted by the school. It was prime for picking, after all. I'd only managed to grab a few things before being forced to hide in the bathroom, but it was clear there was more than enough supplies.

With enough people, it could even be possible to leave the Blares and Turned away to get to the stash again. I blew a raspberry.

"Yeah, right. Who would be stupid enough to-"

I wasn't even able to finish my words before the Turned was ripped backwards out of the window. Left behind was a grim reminder of how rotten and foul their bodies were. It was like the Turned had been squeezed out when he was pulled from the window after forcing himself through. Brown and black liquid dripped down the white brick and toward the toilet. A putrid smell clouded the stall.

Forcing down the bile rising in my throat, I peered out the window. Where once rotten fingers curled around the window, two, warm and feminine hands pulled the window completely up. A face peered through the gap, two large, brown eyes the first thing I noticed.

"Well, aren't you coming out?" The girl questioned harshly, as if I were stupid for not jumping out right away.

"Right," I said. Looking behind me to make sure none of the others had broken through the stall door, I pulled myself up and through the window. The slime covered my clothes was actually at the bottom of the list for the worst smelling things that I'd crawled over.

Once I was outside, the girl closed the window. I climbed to my feet, standing up to face a boy and an older man. At their feet was the dead Turned. My eyes took a few moments to adjust to the sunlight. Looking around, I realized I knew the girl that had saved me. A quiet girl, Cypress, and she was new to our grade before everything happened.

My eyes fell back on the boy and the older man, where my attention was able to focus more the second time around. Of course, it had to be him.

"Hi, Linette," the boy said to me. He brushed a hand back through his brunette hair, which, even despite the apocalypse, still looked like it was straight out of a magazine.

I feigned a roll of my eyes. "Gabriel," I replied with a half-smile. "I guess your college tours didn't go so well?" I acknowledged his uncle beside him with a flicker of my eyes, recognizing him from the few times he'd been over to Gabriel's house.

"I-" Gabriel started, but his uncle interrupted with a cough.

"We really need to leave," his uncle, John, stated.

Cypress nodded sharply. "Please, let's get out of here, now."