The second bell rang as I just made it into class. Oh how I hate it when Brandi takes her time walking to school with me. I only had three minutes at my locker! As I sat down at my desk, I looked out the window while rain pitter-pattered on the building. It was first period, History 9-A, a class consisting of eleven students, including myself, and one teacher, Miss McCabe. Nobody was able to pay attention to her lecture as the sky grew darker. We all actually thought it was kind of cool. As we sat in darkness, taking notes from the Power Point presentation, the inevitable happened.
“Attention. All teachers at this time are asked to turn off their computers.”
The announcement of doom. As McCabe logged offline, Nelson got up and turned on the lights. That’s when we decided, we like sitting in the dark.
“Keep the lights off, it’s cool,” said Alexa.
“Yeah, let’s keep them off!” chimed in Joey. So off they go again.
“No, turn those lights back on!” ordered McCabe. On they go. Again.
Now is the point of no return. The point everything started to go wrong and weird. The lights began to flicker, then BOOM! We got our wish. The lights had turned off, we were now stuck in the school during a black-out. I swear, every girl in that class screamed when the lights went off. Sure, there were only three girls in the class and I was one of them, but still. We screamed. Some of us were more phased than others. Kevin and I, we had to move our seats. We were sitting next to the windows and the storm was just too freaky for us to handle. So we ended up sitting next to the wall on the complete other side of the room. Aren’t we so brave?
“Ok guys, don’t panic. Just stay where you are, you can try to do your work. Or you could take out your iPods, cell phones, push the desks together and take a nap on a makeshift bed. Whatever you want.”
We did exactly as our dear teacher told us. We did whatever we wanted. Everyone had the same thought simultaneously. Take out your cell phone and produce a source of light. Then the fun started. We were texting friends in other classes, calling parents to say what was going on, and were almost tempted to call a pizza place and order two dozen pizzas. I sat on my desk, Kevin pushed his next to mine and we sat there surfing the internet on my phone. About half an hour later, McCabe came in to check on us. And play a little joke on us.
“You guys ok?”
“Yeah, we’re fine. Want to join us in our game of Pictionary?” asked Nina.
“No, I think I’ll be fine. Did I warn you guys yet about how much trouble we could be in?”
“It can’t be that much trouble, not like we caused the black out,” stated Cory.
“No, what I mean is, this school could be in trouble. It was built on an old cemetery.”
“No way!” exclaimed Nelson.
“Yeah, it’s true. At any moment now, zombies could crawl up from underneath of us.”
“What?” I asked worriedly.
“It’s obviously a joke,” said Kevin.
“Ha ha, very funny Miss McCabe,” Devin remarked.
“Ok, don’t believe it if you want. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you,” McCabe said eerily as she walked out of the classroom. Everyone fell silent for a moment, thinking about what she said.
“What if it’s true? We could be eaten alive!” Richie shouted.
“It’s not. This is probably something the teachers made up to trick all the kids. Like the pool on the roof rumor,” Steve stated matter-of-factly. Then we heard a nose, almost like a moan, coming from the direction of the window. We all started to laugh when we saw it was only Jamie, notorious for falling asleep during class. Three guesses what he was doing now. So we all went about our business again. Some were listening to their iPods, some were playing Pictionary and some, of course, chose to sleep. Then the dreaded announcement rang forth from the speakers, changing the first period History 9-A’s students forever.
“Attention. Nobody panic, but this is an urgent message. Zombies are rising up from the ground and are now attacking the school. Please close all windows and shades, lock them, tape them down, whatever you can do to keep them out! This is not a drill, or joke. Repeat, THIS IS NOT A DRILL!”
A tensed silence fell on the school, a silence you could feel engulfing you. Then laughter was heard from every student in the school. I mean, how could you take something like that seriously? Sure, it was Mr. O’Brien on the speakers, but every teacher has their fun at some point.
“Wow, now that was funny!”
“Wait, Sam, when’d you get in here?” Joey inquired.
“Oh, I was walking in while everyone was laughing. Geeze, how far are the teachers going to go with this joke?” Sam joked while leaning against the window sill. That’s when we realized that we had our fair warnings. A bluish, corpse-like hand broke through the window and grabbed Sam. She screamed and we all stood there, dumb-founded. More dead hands broke through and grabbed her. The next thing we knew, she was gone. Dead. Everyone wasn’t sure what just happened. Then I saw something move across the floor and screamed.
“Oh my god! It’s a mouse!”
“Eva, you’re screaming about a mouse when you should be screaming that Sam just got eaten alive by zombies?!” shouted Alexa and Nina.
“Well, I do agree with you about screaming about zombies and being eaten alive by them. But I don’t think I should waste my breathe screaming for Sam.”
“You really don’t like her, do you?” Devin asked.
“I can understand why. Good riddance I say!” stated Kevin.
“What are we going to do?! I don’t wanna be eaten by zombies!” cried Richie.
“Don’t worry, I’m sure O’Brien called the authorities or something,” Steve said calmly. We all heard some more moaning come from the direction of the windows, and screamed. Turns out Jamie was still sleeping. He can sleep through anything, can’t he?

***********

“Hello? This is O’Brien speaking. It’s finally happened. Tell the chief this is a code B.O.B. This isn’t a drill.”
Mr. Tate repeated the message over and over in his head, not sure what it meant. All he knew was what procedure told him to do. And a code B.O.B. only meant one thing. As he walked towards the head office, he was worried what would happen to the small suburb of Haddon Township. He had some relatives living there. Maybe after relaying the information in his hands, he could quickly call them. He wanted them well out of the area, away from the impending doom. He stopped in front of his destination, hesitant to push through the double-doors. But this wasn’t a drill. He had to do what procedure told him, no matter who he knew would be affected. Through the doors he went, stepping into the oval office and facing the head of direction for a code B.O.B.
“President Obama, sir. This file was printed out after receiving a call from a Mr. O’Brien of Haddon Township. He says it is a code B.O.B. and it is not a drill.”
Obama glanced up from his paper work, a stricken look on his face. First the Swine Flu epidemic, now this? I haven’t been in office for half a year yet! He took the file from the man in black and glanced through it. Rain falling down and up, floods you could swim through, a tornado above their heads that sent trees crashing down. It was the exact description of perfect weather conditions for a code B.O.B. to occur. With a sigh, he sent the man before him to go and retrieve the Secretary of Defense. He didn’t want to do this, there had to be another way. Could he save all the people in his country, or did some lives really have to be taken?