Carver Pike - Scalp

“Huh,” came a noise at the back of the auditorium.

It was the shadowy figure Robbie thought he’d seen. Its head jerked up and to the left, like the woman outside.

Nitsy held the bucket in her arms and stood next to Robbie, staring out at the sea of scattered chairs where one by one figures emerged from the floor. Shadowy strangers popped up to their feet as if they’d been sleeping or lying on the floor in confusion. Now, everywhere, at least fifty of them were staring back at Robbie and Nitsy. But none of them moved.

Robbie jerked when loud banging suddenly came from the door behind them. Growling followed and Robbie knew it was the woman outside in the hall. She’d heard the sound of the movie, and now she was furiously pounding on the door.

The noise from the door threw the others into action. It seemed to excite them, and suddenly they all shrieked at the ceiling and started forward. Running at full sprints, the creatures fell over chairs and kicked them out of the way as they charged toward Robbie and Nitsy.

“Run,” Robbie told her.

Nitsy turned to flee. The only way out was through the door they’d entered. They would have to barrel right over the woman outside. If any others were out there, they would be fucked, but it didn’t matter. That was their escape route, and Robbie raced beside Nitsy as they headed for the door.

From seemingly out of thin air, one of the creatures pounced on them from the left. Robbie reacted quickly and swung his machete down at the crown of its head. He kicked the creature’s chest and yanked his machete free, but in trying to save them from the attacking monster, he took his eyes off Nitsy.

Nitsy was almost out the door when she felt claws dig into her left shoulder blade. One of the things was on her, digging its fingers into her flesh. She tried to reach for Robbie. He was close but slightly ahead of her, holding onto the door when one of them came at him and he struck with his machete. Blood rained down over her, hitting her lip, and covering her hands.

The world seemed to move in slow motion. Behind her, the things were coming fast. She heard their footsteps, shrieks, and growls. Metal and plastic crashed as they threw things out of their way to get to her, and she was stuck running with this plastic bucket in her hands.

When she reached for Robbie again, her fingers couldn’t keep hold of the bucket, and then the weight of the other creatures was on her, pulling her down. The bucket slid from her hands and crashed to the floor. She tried to reach for Robbie, but she couldn’t get her hands on him. Then she was on the floor with creatures piled on top of her.

The sound of the insects crawling around so close to her made her scream.

She couldn’t become one of them. She wouldn’t.

“Nitsy!” Robbie called out to her.

For only a moment, through the crowd swarming all over her, she caught a glimpse of him swinging the machete again.

He looked at her with his brow furrowed and his mouth open wide with horror.

“No!” she screamed.

The buzz and the clicking from the insects rang in her ears. It was over. They had her. She would become one of them.

Infected bodies smothered her, and as they moved, she caught quick flashes of Robbie swinging his machete. He wasn’t giving up. He wouldn’t leave her.

She tried to scream, to assure him she was still in here, but her breath caught in her throat.

A heaviness fell on top of her head.

The insects were on her. She could hear their gnashing, feel their squirming, and smell the foul rot of their tiny bodies.

Nitsy’s body went slack. Her chest hit the floor, and then she noticed something. There was wiggle room beneath all the creatures. They’d piled on top of each other in their efforts to attack her, and in doing so, they’d left a hollowed-out spot beneath them. She grabbed hold of whatever limbs were in her way and pulled, dragging herself across the floor.

Now that the bugs were on her, it seemed they’d lost interest in her. They began to crawl away from her, and she headed toward the door.

Tears streamed down her cheeks. Her nose ran. Slobber fell from her desperate, crying mouth. She only wanted to get away from them.

But they were on her. They were there, digging their way into her scalp. She could feel them.

Realization hit her as she crawled on all fours and fought her way back to her feet. Her fingers dug into the mouth of the creature Robbie had hit with the machete and her left palm pressed against the back of another fallen monster. They were everywhere around her, and she knew she needed to get away.

Finally, Nitsy found her feet and yanked open the auditorium door.

“Robbie!” she yelled as she watched him swing the machete into the face of the infected woman who’d been outside.

Up on the balcony, a creature fell into the bushes. This one didn’t break his neck like Elias. It rose to its feet quickly and charged after her.

Nitsy’s shovel was gone. She’d dropped it when she went for the bucket of phones, which was also gone.

“Nitsy!” Robbie yelled. “Your hair!”

She felt the squirming on top and realized the little maggot-like lice were struggling to get to her scalp. Reaching for her hair, she roared with anger as she pulled her wig from her head and threw it onto the ground.

They will not fucking infect me today!

Under her wig was the cap she wore to keep what little of her real hair she had tamed beneath the wig. Ever since going through chemotherapy, she’d been trying to grow her hair, but she’d become known for her fiery red mane and had opted to wear the wig until her hair grew longer.

Now exposed, but uncaring of what she looked like at the moment, she ran toward Robbie with the wind whipping over her sweaty hair. Her real hair. The hair free of infection.

Robbie stared at her with disbelief on his face.

“Wha… what? I don’t…” he couldn’t get the words out.

It wasn’t that difficult to understand. At least she hadn’t thought it would be.

“Cancer, dummy,” she reminded him. “It’s why I was out of school so much. I told you I’d been sick.”

“Behind you!” he shouted as the creature that had fallen from the balcony made its way toward her.

She moved out of the way just in time for him to swing the blade and set it in the skull of the oncoming beast.

Robbie was steadily backing away from the auditorium when Nitsy said, “The phones.”

“Fuck the phones!” Robbie yelled.

“We have to go get them. It’s the whole reason we came out here.”

He grabbed Nitsy and pulled her close to him. “You almost fucking died in there, Nitsy. Fuck those phones.”

“I’ll get them,” she argued, but as she got the words out, the auditorium doors opened and out spilled every single one of the infected students trapped inside that room. Nitsy shook her head when she saw them and said, “Fuck the phones.”

Robbie pulled her back in the direction of the music room.

They ran. Moving faster than she ever had in her life, Nitsy sprinted beside Robbie, turning left and right, doing their best to lose the crowd of attacking infected. They couldn’t lead the horde back to the others. The roaring, growling, and shrieking was far behind them when they finally found the music room and banged on the door.

“Who is it?” Lance asked from the other side.

“Are you fucking kidding?” Nitsy yelled. “Open the door!”

“Are those things following you?” he replied from the other side of the door.

“Dude, open the damn door!” Robbie yelled. “If they were behind us, it’s more dangerous to leave us out here banging on the door!”

The hissing and grunting of the creatures were close. Right around the corner. If they didn’t get into the classroom soon, they’d be done for.