Winners:
Mason Hale – 12th grade
Sara Boyer – 11th grade
Cody L.N. Fritz – 10th grade
Brylee Murphy – 10th grade
Isiah Sarille – 10th grade
Hanna DePoy – 9th grade
Emma Heller – 7th grade
Amanda Hohulin – 7th grade
Braden Unruh – 7th grade
Katie Wilson – 7th grade
Sara Boyer – 11th grade
Cody L.N. Fritz – 10th grade
Brylee Murphy – 10th grade
Isiah Sarille – 10th grade
Hanna DePoy – 9th grade
Emma Heller – 7th grade
Amanda Hohulin – 7th grade
Braden Unruh – 7th grade
Katie Wilson – 7th grade
Today we feature our final two winners, Sara Boyer and Hanna DePoy.
Stories appear as submitted by the authors, unedited.
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
It was a dark and stormy night when I found myself trapped in Bremen Public Library. I had hauled the heavy door shut, locking out my pursuer, and that’s when I finally let my guard down. I placed my hands on my knees, heaving in huge breaths of air, desperate for more. My face and hands were cut up and, stinging from running through bushes and slipping on the slick sidewalk outside. My vision blurred as the adrenaline wore off for a second. My sides ached from breathing heavily for so long and I finally straightened my back to wring out my thin shirt. Rain easily dropped out of it creating a small puddle at my feet. Lightning flashed outside and I saw the outline of the person pursuing me standing right outside the glass doors.
I shrieked and fell backwards as his gory face came into detail and hit the glass. He was a big guy that probably 6 foot 2 and most likely was a husky football player before the infected go to him and destroyed him. He towered over my small barely 5 foot tall figure, and he obviously didn’t have a problem catching up to me. His face was torn to shreds with long strips of skin still clutching desperately to his face near where his jawline started. His blood mixed with the pouring rain making the wound look even worse, and making the blood run down his face in a horrifying way. He had crazed eyes and broken teeth with blood running from his mouth and, foam starting to form in the corners. His skin had a greyish tint to it, making him look like something you would normally see in a video game or a cheesy horror movie.
I scrambled back and opened the double set of doors to get into the Adult level and tore off inside. I slightly heard the doors rattle and shake as they locked. I checked my watch to see what time it was, normally the doors don’t lock until 7:55. 7:55 on the dot. What a stroke of luck on my part, considering I was barely survived the past hour with sheer will and determination. I’m safe? I questioned. I dropped my backpack and quickly rummaged around for my portable flashlight. The lights went out a little over a half hour ago.
I ran to check all of the other doors to see if there were any other entrances that my pursuer could find a way into. There is no way I was truly safe I kept thinking. I climbed back up the back stairs and collapsed into the window seat in a heap of exhaustion. The extremity of the situation hit me all of the sudden making me question my sanity, but I barely had time to rest. I needed a weapon to defend myself and quickly I thought to myself. I gracelessly hauled my aching body up and rummaged through the drawers and desks of librarians looking for anything that could help me.
Sadly, I only found art supplies with dull scissors and some pencil sharpeners, but it gave me an idea. I went downstairs and found a blanket and a towel in the lost and found; which I gratefully took and continued to look around for anything else. Sadly I found nothing, so shivering, I removed my soaked shirt and pants leaving my all of my under wear on. I dried off with the towel and wrapped my hair up keeping it away from my warm blanket. I raided the librarians snack drawer or something for anything to eat that night and went back to the window seat. I sat down lightly chewing my granola bar and recapped my night so far.
I had been running for a solid hour from this infected person and my legs ached. First it was one person who wandered in and infected three, then those three would go and infect more, much like the domino effect. The infection stripped away all humanity and made you into a savage tool for destruction. The infected were setting fire to all the businesses, banks, and churches, trying to squeeze out any hope people had for our little town. I had been practicing in the gym alone, just shooting hoops and working on some drills when he arrived. He also had a small entourage following him and he left them to destroy the school while he chased me. I ran a ½ mile home and locked the doors and threw together a survival backpack like the boys scouts taught me (there was no girl scouts for me, I don’t do that). When my pursuer broke through my glass door I took off once more trying to outrun him around town, when I ran out of options I ran to my sanctuary, the library. I removed myself from my flashback and looked out the window.
There was a bloody handprint waiting there on the window with an almost comical crude smiley face drawn in the palm. I dropped my dinner and slowly walked back away from the window and checked the door’s windows, and sure enough there was a pair there. Every possible window surface was marked with at least one handprint. But the last window I checked was different, it still had the handprint, but instead of a smiley face in side there was an arrow to the next pair of windows. On those was a written message still in his blood and was starting to run from the rain.
“Come out little girl, let’s play together. I won’t hurt you. I can get in, but you can’t get out. Me and my friends are waiting. - Your new best friend” I backed away in terror as he flung himself from his hiding place in the bushes and into the window fracturing the glass and staining it with even more blood. That’s when I noticed his injury near his abdomen that was gushing blood as well.
I ran back to my cold wet clothes and slipped them on, grabbed my backpack and pushed open the first set of doors to see the town on fire. That spread quickly, I thought as I stared for a moment. The houses were all aflame, and looked like nothing was going to survive that fire. Then, I saw the group of friends my pursuer made. They stood together as a oddball mob looking ready to pull me apart limb from limb, and I guess that was normal for them based on the pile of dying people in the middle of them. I pulled my homemade slingshot out of my back pocket and grabbed a pencil sharpener blade and pushed open the outdoor set of doors. I am not going down without a fight, I thought as I pushed the doors open and stepped out into the crackling air.
My pursuer came first and I finished him with a well aimed shot to his neck and the others advanced towards me. A huge flash of lightning came down singing the rain beating down on me and was electrocuting me making me shake uncontrollably. “... Anna, Anna Marie wake up!”
My eyes flung open and I sat straight up knocking my mom in the head with my book that I fell asleep reading. “ Ow! Is that any way to thank your mother for waking you up after you forgot to set your alarm clock?” She rubbed her head and cut a fierce glance at me making me more terrified than I was in my dream. “ You better hurry, the bus will be here in 20 minutes.” I rushed out of bed but caught a glance at my bedroom window.
There was a single handprint with the crude smiley face staring back at me with the signature “- Your New Best Friend” signed underneath. I screamed and ran out of my room without a second glance.
Sara Boyer, 11th grade
It was a dark and stormy night when I found myself trapped in Bremen public library, there were zombies every where and there was no way out, I thought to myself I‘m going to die, my stomach growled I was so hungry. So I ordered a pizza and then I remembered the zombies and sadly had to cancel my order, so I scavenged for food keeping an eye out for the zombies. I came across a box of doughnuts and quickly picked it up. I found a safe place to eat the doughnuts. Just then a zombie found me and I offered it a doughnut and it ate it, then we were friends. We finished the box of doughnuts then we tried to find more food because I was still hungry. We went looking for food and we found a plate of spaghetti and some bread sticks we ate it and we went to find more food. We found some candy all sorts of candy there were so much candy but it only lasted five minutes. We went to find more food and we found some chicken nuggets and some orange juice we ate that, then we were full and we stayed in the lounge were the other zombies won’t eat me. I was tired so I took a nap and when I woke up my stomach growled again so I went to find more food and I found some pasta and it smelt so good I ate it all, then I went to my friend the zombie and it was watching funny cat vids on my phone. I watched them too they were so funny I laughed so hard I cried, the cats were climbing stuff and falling off of stuff. It was great! Then I got hungry so I went to get more food and found a whole box of tacos I was so happy to find that and I ate them all and went back to watch more cat vids. I laughed and laughed and laughed, just then I heard a knock at the door so I said, “Who is it?” and they answered “HOUSE KEEPING” I said nope, and sent them on their way and I continued to watch cat vids and there was another knock at the door and they said “PIZZA DILIVERY” and I was like yes so I opened the door and rerated it because on the other side was a zombie!! They were hungry for brains! I told it that I don’t have that much brain in my skull, I’m also not that smart because I fell for the pizza thing and opened the door. Just then the lights came on and the zombie hid from the light in the closet and I ran away. There were still some lights out so I walked with caution and made sure no zombies were behind me and more lights came on and revealed more zombies hiding in dark places! I went downstairs and by time I got down the stairs all the lights were on and I escaped and ordered 3 pizzas when I got home._________________________________________________________
Hanna DePoy, 9th grade
It’s Your New Best FriendIt was a dark and stormy night when I found myself trapped in Bremen Public Library. I had hauled the heavy door shut, locking out my pursuer, and that’s when I finally let my guard down. I placed my hands on my knees, heaving in huge breaths of air, desperate for more. My face and hands were cut up and, stinging from running through bushes and slipping on the slick sidewalk outside. My vision blurred as the adrenaline wore off for a second. My sides ached from breathing heavily for so long and I finally straightened my back to wring out my thin shirt. Rain easily dropped out of it creating a small puddle at my feet. Lightning flashed outside and I saw the outline of the person pursuing me standing right outside the glass doors.
I shrieked and fell backwards as his gory face came into detail and hit the glass. He was a big guy that probably 6 foot 2 and most likely was a husky football player before the infected go to him and destroyed him. He towered over my small barely 5 foot tall figure, and he obviously didn’t have a problem catching up to me. His face was torn to shreds with long strips of skin still clutching desperately to his face near where his jawline started. His blood mixed with the pouring rain making the wound look even worse, and making the blood run down his face in a horrifying way. He had crazed eyes and broken teeth with blood running from his mouth and, foam starting to form in the corners. His skin had a greyish tint to it, making him look like something you would normally see in a video game or a cheesy horror movie.
I scrambled back and opened the double set of doors to get into the Adult level and tore off inside. I slightly heard the doors rattle and shake as they locked. I checked my watch to see what time it was, normally the doors don’t lock until 7:55. 7:55 on the dot. What a stroke of luck on my part, considering I was barely survived the past hour with sheer will and determination. I’m safe? I questioned. I dropped my backpack and quickly rummaged around for my portable flashlight. The lights went out a little over a half hour ago.
I ran to check all of the other doors to see if there were any other entrances that my pursuer could find a way into. There is no way I was truly safe I kept thinking. I climbed back up the back stairs and collapsed into the window seat in a heap of exhaustion. The extremity of the situation hit me all of the sudden making me question my sanity, but I barely had time to rest. I needed a weapon to defend myself and quickly I thought to myself. I gracelessly hauled my aching body up and rummaged through the drawers and desks of librarians looking for anything that could help me.
Sadly, I only found art supplies with dull scissors and some pencil sharpeners, but it gave me an idea. I went downstairs and found a blanket and a towel in the lost and found; which I gratefully took and continued to look around for anything else. Sadly I found nothing, so shivering, I removed my soaked shirt and pants leaving my all of my under wear on. I dried off with the towel and wrapped my hair up keeping it away from my warm blanket. I raided the librarians snack drawer or something for anything to eat that night and went back to the window seat. I sat down lightly chewing my granola bar and recapped my night so far.
I had been running for a solid hour from this infected person and my legs ached. First it was one person who wandered in and infected three, then those three would go and infect more, much like the domino effect. The infection stripped away all humanity and made you into a savage tool for destruction. The infected were setting fire to all the businesses, banks, and churches, trying to squeeze out any hope people had for our little town. I had been practicing in the gym alone, just shooting hoops and working on some drills when he arrived. He also had a small entourage following him and he left them to destroy the school while he chased me. I ran a ½ mile home and locked the doors and threw together a survival backpack like the boys scouts taught me (there was no girl scouts for me, I don’t do that). When my pursuer broke through my glass door I took off once more trying to outrun him around town, when I ran out of options I ran to my sanctuary, the library. I removed myself from my flashback and looked out the window.
There was a bloody handprint waiting there on the window with an almost comical crude smiley face drawn in the palm. I dropped my dinner and slowly walked back away from the window and checked the door’s windows, and sure enough there was a pair there. Every possible window surface was marked with at least one handprint. But the last window I checked was different, it still had the handprint, but instead of a smiley face in side there was an arrow to the next pair of windows. On those was a written message still in his blood and was starting to run from the rain.
“Come out little girl, let’s play together. I won’t hurt you. I can get in, but you can’t get out. Me and my friends are waiting. - Your new best friend” I backed away in terror as he flung himself from his hiding place in the bushes and into the window fracturing the glass and staining it with even more blood. That’s when I noticed his injury near his abdomen that was gushing blood as well.
I ran back to my cold wet clothes and slipped them on, grabbed my backpack and pushed open the first set of doors to see the town on fire. That spread quickly, I thought as I stared for a moment. The houses were all aflame, and looked like nothing was going to survive that fire. Then, I saw the group of friends my pursuer made. They stood together as a oddball mob looking ready to pull me apart limb from limb, and I guess that was normal for them based on the pile of dying people in the middle of them. I pulled my homemade slingshot out of my back pocket and grabbed a pencil sharpener blade and pushed open the outdoor set of doors. I am not going down without a fight, I thought as I pushed the doors open and stepped out into the crackling air.
My pursuer came first and I finished him with a well aimed shot to his neck and the others advanced towards me. A huge flash of lightning came down singing the rain beating down on me and was electrocuting me making me shake uncontrollably. “... Anna, Anna Marie wake up!”
My eyes flung open and I sat straight up knocking my mom in the head with my book that I fell asleep reading. “ Ow! Is that any way to thank your mother for waking you up after you forgot to set your alarm clock?” She rubbed her head and cut a fierce glance at me making me more terrified than I was in my dream. “ You better hurry, the bus will be here in 20 minutes.” I rushed out of bed but caught a glance at my bedroom window.
There was a single handprint with the crude smiley face staring back at me with the signature “- Your New Best Friend” signed underneath. I screamed and ran out of my room without a second glance.
No comments:
Post a Comment