Chapter 3: Push, Not Pull

We arrived at the high school, it looked like any other mulit-million dollar house in the city. The only thing that made it a school was the adobe sign out front that read "Crespi Carmalite Catholic High School". I could practically smell the snobbiness from the car. 

I opened the door and stepped out onto the crystaline pavement, it looked like it was pressure washed every week, I chuckled to myself at the thought of all the rich parents complaining to the school board that their kids' shoes were getting dirty from the dark spots on the concrete. I was taken out of my thoughts when I heard a slow, rumbling growl. I wonder what that could be. 

I approached the heavy, dark stained doors and tried to pull them open. After a few tries I got frustrated enough to try to kick it open. As much as I like to think I'd be able to kick these down, I knew I couldn't. Nonetheless, I kicked the one on the right with everything I had in me. I fell forward because I didn't have my left foot planted on the ground as firmly as I thought I had. Either way, the door opened. It was push, not pull.

We opened the trunk and grabbed what little supplies we had. I found a flashlight, Lukas's baseball bat, a few spare articles of clothing, a pack of cigarettes, diapers, and baby wipes.

I told the others to follow me as I approached the doors for the second time.

"Push, not pull.", I said under my breath.

The hallway was dark, I pressed the button on the flashlight and it flickered to life. The walls were a bright white, bloodstains were scattered throughout. No bodies. 

I looked around for a sign or any type of directions to just get to the cafateria. I hoped against hope that it only had one or two entrances that we could barricade. I walked the corridor with the others not far behind me, I shined the light in front of me and it bounced off a wall at the end.

"Guys, the hall stops and goes to the right up ahead." I said over my shoulder. I peeked my head around the wall and shined the light down the short hallway. At the end there was a set of double doors, I approached them cautiously with Lukas's baseball bat in my right hand and the flashlight in my left. I pushed on the doors and they squeaked open, it seems like it's just my luck that the horror movie tropes never end. At the end of the hallway was yet another set of double doors, the only difference was that these had windows and a very faint light shining through the decals plastered on them. 

"That has to be it", I said, There was no way that couldn't be it, all the classrooms were single doors and had square windows instead of rectangles. 

I made it clear to everyone that anything could be waiting behind those doors, that it was best for Ethan and I to be the first to go. It was dangerous but I knew I couldn't do it alone, it pained me to put Ethan in danger but he seemed fine with it. I didn't blame him, if something other than cancer had taken Hailey from me I'd want to take my chances on dying to kill the abstard that killed her.

Ethan and I stayed silent as we approached the doors, I grabbed the handle "Pull, not push.", I thought. The doors didn't budge, I tried pushing. Still nothing. The doors weren't barricaded from the outside so they had to be locked from the inside. I don't think those things out there have the intelligence to lock doors, there has to be people in there. 

I knocked on the door in a musical pattern, 

"Shit, they're here."

"What're we gonna do?" 

"We're dead, fuck."

I think the most that the things outside are capable of is growling, so I knocked on the door again.

"Can you guys open up, I have a family. We just want to stay in here for a few days while we regroup." 

I wish I could say I didn't hear what they were saying on the other side of those doors. After a deliberate discussion on why they shouldn't let us in I began banging on the door instead of knocking.

"C'mon guys, I have kids. I just want to keep them safe." 

I heard one of the doors unlock, a blonde headed boy who looked to be about 17 cracked the door and peeked out at us.

"Why should we let you in?"

"I just told you why, I want to keep my family safe."

"Family, you want to talk about family. I watched my family get eaten this morning, I couldn't give two shits about family. I'm only focused on me now. The only reason these other chumps are in here is cause they were in here when I got here." 

The more this kid kept monologuing, the more the anger inside me began to boil over. For a moment I went blind, when I came to I was inside the cafateria on the ground with the blonde kid's arm in my hands.