Chapter 2: Solution

There is a problem with this situation, forgetting the infected pushing themselves against the broken door. No, the problem is we have no way to kill them. No weapons what so ever. I mean, what do you expect, it's a school. It's not like knifes or guns are just going to be lying around. The only immediate thing I can see are scissors, which, looking out the small window in the door to the horde of infected pushing against it, I don't think will be much help.

So, It seems that I will have to improvise. Scanning the room, I see one thing that might work. First, however, I would need a fire.

"Hey, you lot.", I say to the people cowering and cry across the room. They half-heartily looked up.

At least I have their attention.

"Right, does anyone have a lighter, or matches? Preferably a lighter."

No-one even reacts even slightly. Great, that would have been too easy.

A boy, probably around 13 years old looks up.

"I... I er... I have lighter fluid...", he looked sheepishly down upon saying it.

Well, never-mind then.

I look at they other people holding the door. We silently nodded to each other.

I quickly moved over to the kid, as the other door holders pushed back even harder. Even so, I could hear the door slightly give. The boy held out a broken lighter with a half empty fluid capsule attached to it.

I quickly thanked him, and them moved to the windowsills round the rim of the room. I placed the capsule down, and then grabbed a pair of Spanish dictionaries off a table. Tearing the pages out, I placed the paper on the windowsill and then opened the capsule, pouring the fluid over them.

That was the easy part, and now comes the difficult bit.

Creating sparks can be somewhat easy, but it takes the right equipment. Luckily for us, this specific building is somewhat new for the school, added only 2 years ago. This meant that they put a bit of money and effort into it, and thus they had granite windowsills added, unlike the typical plastic or wood ones this school usually has. Now, granite has a Moh's hardness rating of seven. This means, if struck with certain metals, a spark can be created. Now, there is one thing, common in classrooms, that is often made with a metal that can create those sparks. And that, is an aluminum pencil sharpener. They are cheap, so schools tend to buy them in bulk and put multiple of them in the classrooms.

One problem. I have no idea where they are in this room. Luckily, there is a group of people doing absolutely nothing, and are therefore able to do something.

"Excuse me everyone, sorry to interrupt your sulking again, but can you help me find a pencil sharpener. You know, the one that is in every room. I need them to start a fire."

An awkward silence descended upon the room. No one moved, and no one would move until someone else began to room.

Sighing, I meekly gazed over to the people holding the door. They stared back at me, confused at my look.

"Well, you might as well let go of the door. No point trying if people can't even be bothered to find a simple sharpener, especially if they instead just wallow in a pit of despair instead. So, let 'em in boys, cause I can't wait to meet my maker!".

Straight away, a chorus of cries erupted from the previously docile group.

Turns out, people are fine with wallowing in a pit of sheer despair, but take serious objection to anything that might jeopardize it.

A series of loud yells consisting mainly of "How dare you" and "What gives you the right" filled the room.

Well, again, at least I have their attention, and this time they are also riled up, which is probably good.

I put my best blank, to the point voice on.

"Look, I will put it to you in the most simple way I can. Get me a sharpener, and you live. Don't, and you die. Screaming. In a lot of pain... Or, you become one of them."

"So, what will it be, life? Or death? Cause I know what I prefer."

And with that, the room burst into action. 11 people rushed round the room, hunting for a small, metal prize.

I mean, I know people are more susceptible to others during a crisis. But still, they really got motivated by quite a lack luster speech.

But still, it's the ends that matter, not really the means. And the ends in this situation is a collection of 5 sharpeners, and a hyped up group of individuals, ready to prove me wrong on my evaluation of them.

Grabbing one sheet off the pile, I had someone hold it directly below the point I would makes the sparks. And so, I began the methodical process of creating sparks. Granite quickly loses its edge in this process, so I have to move ever so slightly after a little while of doing this at any certain point. After around 5 to 10 minutes of trying, I eventually got a few sparks to hit the paper, and, with that, a small fire was lit. Then, I brought it over to the small pile of paper, and as placed it with a few of them, I also removed about half of them. The fire began to grow. Then, I took a wooden meter ruler from the desk, and wrapped the end of it in a few pages of the doused paper. Then, I lit it alight, and put out the original fire. At this point, I covered my mouth with my shirt, as I didn't want to breath in any of the vapors I was about to make.

One girl, looking like she had a sudden, world-changing realization, suddenly piped up.

"Wait, are we going to make lots of them? And then stab those things with them?".

"No, not unless you want to die via poisoning."

Confused, she looked at me funnily.

"Fires require three things: Heat, fuel, and oxygen. Now, lighting a single, small fire inside is quite common, along with a chimney to remove the fumes. However, lighting multiple fires at once causes a decreased amount of oxygen for all the fires. And this is when they have incomplete combustion. As there is not enough oxygen for a full combustion, instead of carbon dioxide being produced, carbon monoxide is produced instead. That carbon monoxide, when breathed in, binds to the hemoglobin, better than any other gas, in our red blood cells, and thus less oxygen gets to our other cells, and thus, we die."

"Oh..." The girl looked down, embarrassed somewhat at her mistake. Sighing, I knew I had to lift her spirits.

"It's OK, I was a logical suggestion. It would work in most other circumstances, and anyway, not like my idea is going to result in better gas produce."

Confused, the others looked at me.

Well, I guess it is time to make some weapons. And for that, its time to heat some metal.