Scott Andrews - School_s Out

He stood up and walked over to me, leaning down so we were face to face.

"Doesn't mean I can't hurt you just a little bit first though, does it?"

He leaned back, raised his right leg and stamped on my balls.

There's no point describing the pain. If you're a woman you've got no idea, and if you're a guy you know only too well. Suffice to say I screamed for a bit, whimpered for a while, and then passed out.

Unconsciousness passed into sleep. Wylie woke me in the morning by kicking me in both shins. The first thing I heard, apart from my own curses, was a chorus of screams from outside the house. He untied my feet and led me out the front door, where a familiar canvas-top truck was parked. The engine was running and the rest of the captives were already in the back. All except Mr Woodhams, who was lying on the grass, sliced open from pubis to throat, with a group of young men stood around him, dabbling their hands in the gore and wiping it all over themselves.

Blood Hunters.

Pugh and Speight were standing at the back of the truck, machine guns slung across their chests. They were trying not to watch the gruesome ritual occurring right in front of them. Pugh looked sick.

Wylie forced me into the truck, and then the six Blood Hunters climbed in and sat at the back. They sat silently, staring into space. Each carried a machete and a gun. They stank like an abattoir. Pugh closed the tailgate, the three sixth-formers went to sit in the cab, and we pulled out of the driveway onto the road.

The nine remaining residents of the Woodhams farm were cowering in the far end of the truck, in various states of hysteria. The eleven St Mark's boys were all there too, hands bound, all looking to me for ideas or hope as we were bounced about by potholed roads. I shrugged helplessly. But Norton found my gaze and winked. Good to know somebody had a plan.

We rumbled along for about five minutes until I felt a nudge from Jones, who was sitting next to me. I felt something cold touch my fingers. A knife! Where the hell had he got a bloody knife? I glanced up and saw Norton grinning at me. He nodded subtly downwards and wiggled his right foot. He'd had a knife in his boot. I could have kissed him. I scanned the faces of all the other boys. All of them still had their hands behind their backs as if still tied up, but they all looked at me, excited and nervous. Christ. They were all free!

I grabbed the knife and set about cutting the rope that bound me. It didn't take long; it was razor sharp. I felt my hands come free and I squeezed the knife handle firmly in my right hand. I looked up. Everyone was looking at me.

I mouthed silently: "One, two, three."

As one, we leapt up from our seats and shoved towards the six Blood Hunters. One of them went over the tailgate and smacked onto the road before he even knew what was happening. I buried the knife in the eye socket of another, and grabbed his machete as he tumbled backwards towards the tarmac. The other four were no match for the combined shoving weight of twelve boys, but the tailgate was still closed, and they braced themselves against it. One of them tried to grab his gun, but the crush of bodies was so tight that he couldn't bring it to bear, and his hands got stuck down on his chest so he couldn't defend himself. Rowles hit him repeatedly, over and over again, both hands working the man's face like a punchbag. Jones wrestled for control of another man's machete, which was suspended over his head. But he was too weak to prevent it coming down and splitting him open. As the Blood Hunter tried to wrench the blade free, Haycox, who had somehow got hold of a machete in the struggle, returned the favour, striking his head from his shoulders with one powerful swipe. Norton grabbed the decapitated man's feet and tipped him over the tailgate onto the road.

The Blood Hunter being hit by Rowles was unconscious by this point, and only remaining upright because of the melee surrounding him. Rowles kept punching him anyway. The other two Blood Hunters were backed right up against the tailgate now. One was hacking and slashing wildly, and as I watched he sliced open the throat of a young boy called Russell, who sang comic songs in Green's revue. The boy tumbled backwards with a terrible screech. The other Blood Hunter was struggling with Norton for possession of his gun until his mate's wild swinging blade smacked into the side of his head with a soft crunch. Norton shoved him back over the tailgate and onto the road, the machete still embedded in his head.

The one remaining Blood Hunter, bladeless, tried to reach for this gun. But suddenly he jerked and wretched as his eyes went wide and a torrent of blood gushed from his mouth. Haycox pulled his dripping machete free of the man's ribcage and pushed him back over the tailgate.

Job done.

I reached down past Rowles, who was still punching, and grabbed the machine gun from the unconscious Blood Hunter beneath him. I pushed my way through the crowd to the front of the truck.

"Everyone brace yourselves," I shouted.

"Lee, hang on, do you think…" said Norton.

But I didn't let him finish. I popped the catch and emptied the entire clip through the canvas in front of me, riddling the driver's cab with bullets and killing Wylie, Pugh and Speight instantly.

"Should have done that in the first place," I said, as the lorry swerved violently off the road. I was flung off my feet in a tumbled tangle of limbs as the lorry hit a ditch and rolled over onto its side. There was a monstrous crash, a chorus of cries and then stillness and silence.

I'd come to rest under a pile of bodies, my nose buried in somebody's armpit. It took a few minutes for everyone to untangle themselves and climb out of the lorry onto the road. We took stock.

Russell and Jones were dead, and a young girl from the Woodhams farm had broken her neck in the crash. Otherwise it was all just scrapes and strains. I pulled the clip out of the machine gun. It was taped to another, which was still full, so I reversed it and slammed it home.

Norton was incandescent.

"What the fuck was that, Lee?" he yelled. "Why the fuck did you shoot them up? That was the most insane thing I've ever seen you do."

I grasped the gun tightly, my finger itching at the trigger.

Calm down. Things to do.

"Look at where we are," I said patiently.

Norton glanced down the road.

"So?" he said, confused.

"The school is about a mile down the road. We'd have been there in two minutes. They were taking us to the school."

"Oh." He realised what I was getting at. "Oh shit."

I turned to address the other boys, who were sitting in the road, catching their breath. "Listen everyone. Wylie was taking orders from the Blood Hunters. His job was to lure me away from the school and then deliver me to them. But they were taking us back to the school."

"So?" said Rowles. "They were going to let us go?"

"Don't you see? While we've been gone the Blood Hunters have attacked St Mark's."

I gave a machine gun to the Woodhams party, so they had some means of defence on their journey home, and they carried away the dead girl. One of them, a young man, had to be restrained from attacking me. He was still shouting after me as he was pulled away: "Murderer! Psychopath!" I couldn't blame him. I'd caused the crash that killed her. But what choice did I have? I could have shot above the officers' heads and told them to pull over, but in moments we'd have been within earshot of the school. If I'd had to fire again then the Blood Hunters would probably have heard the shots and come running. Assuming I was right, and they were at St Mark's.

It was one more death on my conscience, but I could worry about it later. Things to do.

I walked around to the front of the crashed truck and peered into the shattered cab. I could see that there were three bodies inside, but I didn't look too closely. They weren't moving, so I was satisfied they were dead. (When had I started taking satisfaction in killing?)