Prologue - Awakening. [Updated]

[Prologue]

I awoke to darkness. 

Or, at least I felt like I was awake.I could hear my heart beat thumping away against my ribcage, feel the blood rushing its way around my body through my veins leaving a slight tingling sensation in my hands and arms, and, for some strange reason, an all-over aching feeling with a cause I couldn’t seem to locate. I tried to remember where I was, why I was there, and why it was so dark, to no avail. Suddenly awake, I sat up as fast as I could. Dots of white light exploded from behind my eyes.

 

Everything hurt.

 

Gasping I flopped back down onto what I now realise is a bed. A school infirmary bed, to be exact. I couldn't see it, but our school was pretty underfunded so our supplies weren't really fantastic. The mattress was as hard as stone. Whenever you’re in the hospital overnight, you’re either hooked up to a lot of machines, tracking your heart rate, and blood pressure or you have tube attached to seemingly every part of your body from a drip. Since I heard no beeping of a monitor, nor did I feel any tube protruding from anywhere obvious, it was easy to figure I wasn’t in a hospital.

It’s amazing what you learn from daytime television.

Everytime I even remotely twitched, a sharp stabbing pain starting from my feet travelled upwards causing me to bit my lip from refraining from making any noise. Everywhere I looked, the darkness would sure enough, follow me, hugging at my retina. I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again, focussed on slowing my breathing, in a futile attempt to miraculously remember everything. To remember something.

 

I clenched my fists and drew back my shoulders, doing my best to stretch. I wiggled my arms around a bit to get a feel of my surroundings as best I could. To both my immediate left and right there were two metal bars that went from the head to the foot of the bed. Obviously to stop me from rolling off it in my sleep. Shrugging my shoulders I reached up and grabbed the metal bars on either side of me and, using my elbows I, ever so slowly this time, pulled myself up into a comfortable sitting position. I could feel the muscles in my shoulders and back protest to my decision; a similar feeling  to when you have done a lot of strenuous excercise and all ones' muscles feel achy. Like having run a marathon, I thought to myself.

 

First plan of action was to figure out why I was in so much pain. Having decided it be best to start from my feet, I stretched my left leg, all the way out, pointing and wiggling my toes. Right. So far so good. Time for the right leg.

 

The pain was unbearable. A hot stabs of pain erupted just above my kneecap which was replaced moments later by sudden liquid-like warmness spreading up and down my leg. As if a cup of warm water was being poured over my leg to ease the pain. It took me a moment to realize it was blood - my blood. Gasping in more surprise than pain, I reached down to my knee. Sure enough there was a watery substance covering my knee. The smell was so overpoweringly metallic, I could almost taste it. There wasn't too much of it yet, thankfully, it hadn't even reached the hem of my skirt. I wiped my fingers gingerly over my leg and discovered a felt-like material wrapped around leg, from my upper calf to just below my knee.

A bandage. The blood must have soaked through the material.

I paused for a moment, my fingers hovering over the bandage, contemplating my situation.

A skirt? I hate skirts. So why was I wearing one now?

An lightbulb pinged inside my cranium. I patted my stomach feeling the material of my blouse and skirt. Yep. That’s what I thought. I’m in my school uniform. The only time I wore a skirt was when my adoptive mother woke up early and made sure I was wearing it before I left the house. I did my best to cross both my legs under me, but settled for just the one, closed my eyes again thinking as hard as I could.

Nothing added up.

There is some kind of wound in my right leg, and I’m still in my school uniform which would supports my idea that; 

a) I’m still at school, and

b) I'm in the school infirmary.

Its pitch black, so presumably night time, yet I don’t even remember the previous day. I feel like i've spent my entire life running a giant marathon, and i'm exhausted. Which is odd in itself, because despite my lack of interest in sports, I always had the stamina for it. And if I am at school, and it is indeed nighttime, why have I been left here tired, wounded and unattended? Surely, if there had been some  kind of incident, then my adoptive parents would have been called. Either that, or i'd be in a hospital.

I couldn’t help but smile a little, at the little investigation I had going on inside my head, but it’s that shrewd kind of thinking that sustained my status as an A-Grade student.

Then I remembered a few things.

My adoptive parents died 2 years ago in a car accident, and as I live alone now, there isn’t anyone left who could pick me up and take me home. And since I can only manage very few part time jobs due to school hours, and most of the money I do earn, gets used for school fees, there is no way I'd have much money, meaning I wouldn’t be able to afford the medical bills of going to hospital. Nor the insurance. Knowing me I wouldn’t borrow the money either. It just wouldn’t feel right. Since this is such a small school, most of the teachers are already aware of this, so they must have left me here to rest over night until I was conscious enough to get myself home again.

 

I wasn't sure how to react to this sudden relapse of memories.

How had i forgotten my adoptive parents had died?

Had I been hit on the head too?

Should I be grateful that the teachers' let me stay here to recover?

Or be upset that they didn't care enough to even stay with me, let alone, take me to hospital?

 

I felt suddenly parched. “Ugh, I need a drink.” Startled at the sound of my own voice, I jumped a little. The more awake I was beginning to feel, the more I was aware of how I felt.

“I’d be happy to get you something.” The darkness called out to me. The sound echoed off the walls, in the room and in my head.

"Huh?"

I must've got a real mean bump on the head...

 

"First, shall I illuminate your world a bit?"

What?

Hell on earth could not begin to describe the things I felt in the next few moments. I was blinded by the instant flash of white that enveloped my vision; tears formed in the corners of my eyes and my heart stammered and missed a beat.

Chapter 1 - The Beginning. [Updated]

“Ughhhh!!” I moaned, covering as much of my peripheral vision with my hands.

“Oh? I’m sorry. I thought it might be nice for you to see who you were talking to. Silly me.”

Bite me. I thought grudgingly.                                                             

After a few moments, I dared uncover my eyes and assess my situation. The infirmary looked smaller than I remembered it (Point 1 for me). About the size of your average restroom. So it was no surprise that it could only fit two beds, a desk and a small, rusting filing cabinet. The curtains were drawn back so the darkness on the other side of the window indicated it was night time (Situation = 0, Me = 2).

 

“How’re ya feeling, Ale (pronounced Al-lee)?” I hate the name Alexis. But I hate the nickname Ale 10x more. And there was only one other person who knew that. Because he created it.

"Dee.” I spat, managing to sound more bored and dissapointed than expected. He grimaced. I felt suddenly better.

DELEVAN hated that nickname as much as I hated Ale. There he was, leaning against the door frame, in all his 6’2” glory.

Lucky bastard. Most girls could only dream of being that tall at 17. Unless they too, were lucky bastards.

“You shouldn’t sound so pleased to see me. I might get the wrong idea!” He chuckled, his face wrought with mock-hurt. I rolled my eyes and yawned. He’s been saying stuff like that ever since we met, which if I remember correctly, was when we were both about 5. When my parents died, and his took me in.

“Ha. Ha. Haah.” I said, lathering my voice in as much sarcasm as I could muster. “What happened?” I immediately regretted asking, sitting up as slowly and carefully as I could.

“What?! The school’s cherished little brainiac hasn’t figured it out yet!!” More mockery. “And here I was, thinking about cheating off your paper on the next Geography exam...” Ugh. I hated how I was stereotyped like that. And Delevan knew it, too.

I mean, I hate Geography.

“Sports injury. Unconscious. School. Infirmary. Night time...” I said checking off all the things, I had figured out since waking up, on my fingers. “Don’t worry, Dee. I’m sure you’ll still pass the next exam.”

He pushed himself off the wall with his elbows and made his way over to the bed I was sitting on. “Hmm...well, close enough." His face suddenly sad.

He noticed me staring at him, and continued. "Glad to hear the genius has collected all her marbles and is back on the case!” He said, laughing it off. Aside from the constant teasing and mental pain that we put each other through, we considered ourselves to be the best of friends tied together by an unbreakable bond.

Cheesy, I know. But true.

And apparently, smart females make a good wingman.

Delevan’s words. Not mine.

“I was called to the infirmary, around noon,” he sighed. “Mr. Pericotti was with the school nurse. They told me there had been an accident during P.E, and that you were unconscious. Then they just kept babbling on for a while...”

“Specifics please.” I huffed.

“Something about wanting to call home,” pausing for a moment, he ran one of his hands through his jet black hair. “But I told them that no ones home tonight, since mum’s working late and dad’s still on his business trip, so calling home would be pointless. We talked it over and we thought it would be fine if you stayed here the night to rest. I’m just here keeping watch.”

“How is that responsible?”

“It’s fine,” he laughed. “Ms. Faeshar (the school nurse) gave me some keys, just in case. I guess she didn’t think you’d wake up tonight.”

“Umm...That's not what I meant. But anyway, keys? What keys?”

“Yeah. There’s one for the latrines, one for the infirmary door, another for the medical supply cabinet, and one –”

“Well, that’s smart. Just give an irresponsible teenager, keys to a cabinet with drugs in it and leave them there over night.”

“– and one,” he snapped. “For the canteen, since neither of us has eaten much. She said to just take whatever, and she’d pay it back when she got back.”

Ms Faeshar was smart and incredibly generous. Some peolpe say she was born to be a nurse. “Nice.” Was the only response I could come up with. Talking was not one of my priorities right now. Delevan eyed me cautiously as I swung my legs up and over the bedframe. I did it quickly so as to not incure more pain.

“You know,” I said trying to draw his attention away from my bloody injury. “I could still use a drink…”

“This way then, Miss Genius.” He replied bowing and gesturing with his hands towards the door. I rolled my eyes and tightened the bandages on my leg to stop the blood flow, before leading the way. The hallway outside the infirmary was dark. In fact, everything outside the infirmary was dark, the only light streaming from the infirmary behind me.

“So, what? You’ve just been sitting out here alone in the dark with the keys to practically anything on school grounds?” I queried. I had my suspicions. Something was amiss.

No response. I headed down the hallway towards the stairs that led to the first floor, Delevan close behind. “It wouldn’t surprise me if you got up to anything. Anger me, yes. Surprise, no.” I continued.

Again, no response.

“Although, I’m sure you’re smart enough to at least know better.”

Nothing.

Not a word.

By the time I reached the stairs, my curiosity got the better of me. I turned back and stared up at Dee's face. One hand on the banister to keep my self upright, the other on my hip.

“Why are you being so quiet? It’s not like you, and it definately (sadly) doesn’t suit you. So stop it. It’s weird.” Dee stopped. He just eyed me and still said nothing.                                                        

“Huh? What? What’d I miss?” I stared at him for a moment longer, trying to decipher his emotions. It wasn’t hard. He wasn’t a very subtle person. I sighed. He was probably just zoning out again. Seriously, if he spent as much time doing homework and studying than he did day-dreaming, he would probably get better grades than me.                                                                                             

Probably.

“Forget it,” I sighed, turning back around. “Just help me find the light switch.”

Something was up and he wasn't going to tell me.

He scooted in front of me, wordlessly and headed into the dark abyss (the stairs - it was extremely dark, even for night time) in front of me, dragging me behind him. 

He didn't go for the lightswitch, but instead he led me downstairs, cautiously, as if he was expecting something to jump out of no where and attack him. He was seriously on edge.

And it was creeping me out.

"Still afraid of the boogeyman, are you?"

Dee remained quiet. Deciding not to provoke the situation (whatever it was) the rest of the trip   down the winding staircase to the floor below was silent. Just like the one above it, save for the infirmary, this floor was pitch black. Darkness consumed every corner. Grabbing my hand, Dee suddenly placed a thick metal object in my palm.

“Here. This should help.”

A torch.

“This would have been helpful,” I muttered dissaprovingly, snatching the torch from his hand, “about a few minutes ago.” Without waiting for Dee, I flicked on the torch and surveyed my surroundings. At the bottom of the stairs I had a hallway to both my left and my right, not to mention a third directly in front of me. The grogginess still fading I did my best to figure out which hallway led to the canteen. I decided it was the hallway to my left and started to hustle down it when something (with a relatively human shape) caught my eye.

"Hm?" What was it?

Something moved – I swear it did, down the third hallway. I stopped to peer down the empty hallway, flashing the torch over anything and everything I could.

Nothing.

I must be imagining things.

The sooner I get a drink and clear my head – the better.

Chapter 2 - Fudgesticles. [Updated]

The canteen was the eeriest I had ever seen it. In fact, this entire school was its eeriest at night. And the torch wasn’t helping. Casting creepy and sometim es even life-like shadows and causing my imagination to flip into overdrive. Somehow, being here at night creeped me out. My instincts were were all haywire. It was just too creepy (this coming from the ultimate thriller/horror/slasher movie fan).                                                                            

I swung my gaze back to Dee. He was still lingering behind me. Still silent. Not thinking of anything worth saying that I hadn't already, I ignored it and made my way over too the canteen lunchcounter and swung over it to the other side. Not bothering to ask Dee for the key for the door to the kitchen area of the canteen that stood only two feet away. He was fine in the infirmary, but since leaving he'd been strange.

“Lemon soda . . ." I murmured to myself, compltetly ignoring the look of alarm on Dee's face when I spoke.

"Grape soda, Orange soda, Cola - I’m sensing there are a lot of sodas.” I could hear Dee grinding his teeth in - what was that? Anxiety?

“-Raspberry soda, Iced tea, Blueberry soda, Diet soda,” I continued, maintaining a quieted voice for Dee's sake. “Apple-Juice, Chocolate milk, Peach and Mango juice, an assortment of caffeinated energy drinks - because that will ease the pain," I roled my eyes.

“-and a giant glass pitcher of water.” I finished breathlessly. 

“I feel like I should applaud you for some reason. Maybe it's just the meds, but I've never heard yiu say so many words in a minute before.” Dee muttered, a wry smile on his face.

I chucked the torch at him. “So it speaks.”

After receiving no retort from him, just a sigh and small smile, I pulled an iced tea from the never locked fridge before nudging it shut with my bad leg.                      

I winced and took a quick swig of the tea, and feeling much, much better, I stretched again and turned to Dee.

“So, what now?”

Silence.

“Well, we have to pass the time somehow.”

“You really don't remember do y-” He trailed off. Staring out the window behind me.

Noticing the urgency in his face, I stayed quite and turned around to face the window. It might had been a trick of light but I swore something dark had moved the second I looked.

Odd. How had I not noticed the window. On closer inspection all other windows had been covered with something. This one lone window behind me, though closed, wasn't covered. Streams of moonlight peared in through it's dusty surface, and trickled onto the pale linoeleum floor below it.

“I don’t see anything.” I muttered to myself. Delevan didn't take his eyes of the window for a second.  I looked from the window to Delevan and back again.

Through the window, one could see half the football oval that resided at the back of our school, and had a partial view of the tennis courts that stood proudly beside it.

“Paranoid? We can go take a look.” I asked. Tearing his eyes from the window, and looking - dare I say, scared - Dee silently 'shush'ed me. Delevan guestured for me to climb back over the  countertop.  “I mean,” I continued, swinging a leg over. “Just to be sure.”

Dee didnt bother helping, his eyes already glued back to the window. He shifted his weight uneasily. He was clearly spooked - I guess all those years of Sunday night Horror movie marathons had been all for naught.

“But, you know, if you’re too afraid, or whatever, then I suppose I check - whatever it is - out on my own.” I started towards the window.

“Wait!” Dee whispered sharply, shuffling after me and grabbing me by the elbow. “I’ll come with you.” I was almost thankful. I didn’t like the idea of this school completely dark as it was, but to be  outside the school at night and alone, and not to mention Dee's strange reactions, did not settle right with me,  but I wasn't about to let him see that. That and Dee still had the torch.

“Hmm.” I mused, pretending to think. “You might just slow me down, but I suppose it's not wise to go out alone in my. . .prediament. Fine. You can come with me but on one condition.”

Delevan remained mute, but the look on his face was enough. What?

“I haven’t decided yet, but when I do, you owe me.”

His eyes flicked between me and the window, thinking, then with a curt nod, he agreed. Dee stood silent for a minute.

“Let's go.” I said impatiently, gesturing towards the low standing window.

I guess my injury would wait.

I pushed the window open (upwards) and lifted my left leg over the sill, putting as much weight on the sill as I could to avoid putting to much pressure on my wounded leg. With my left leg over and barely touching the ground outside, Delevan grasped my right ankle and pushed the remainder of me out the window – and might I add; not as gently as he could have.

“Ah, Fudgestickles!” I gasped, landing with my face in the dirt.

Yes, ‘Fudgestickles,’ is my euphemism for a very commonly used swear word that starts with ‘F.’ Don't like like it? Well, who asked you.

I could hear him snort to himself from inside the canteen. Jackass.

“You right, down there Ale?” he whispered, half out the window.

Ignoring him, I stood up shakily and brushed myself off, and turned around bumping into Delevan as he fully exited the window, and falling back down again. This time with sound effects. The lens of the torch smashed against a nearby rock as it flew from Dee's hands. “Fudgestickles.” I cursed again. I sat there for a moment glaring from the broken torch to Delevan and back again, before again getting up and brushing off the dirt.

“I swear you are doing this on purpose.”

Silence. Dee was looking off into the distance behind me.

"I'm not paying for that." I muttured.

I stretched again, my joints getting stiff, and turned to face the direction Dee was staring into. Nothing but silence and cold air. I studied evrything in my peripheral vision from left to right, until something caught my eye.

A person, no doubt standing in the middle of the tennis court. And they did not look well.

Chapter 3 - First Impressions. [Updated]

 

“Hey – wait. What’s that? Over there.” Dee whispered.

More incredibly helpful directions from the genius that is Delevan Kade. He was pointing in the direction I had been facing for the past 10 minutes, or so it seemed. At the thing I had been staring at.

Sure enough, even in the middle of the night with no stars out, a figure was visibly standing over something in the middle of the court.

“Hey! You’re right, Dee! There is something there!” I gasped, rolling my eyes - which he couldn't see of course.

“Actually the more I look at it, the more I think it’s a ‘someone,’ and a female someone, at that.” Boy, he sure was on a roll, tonight!

The figure was too small and petite to by a male – but too big to be an animal. I could tell ‘She’ was swaying just the littlest bit, but she was just a little bit too far away to tell if she was facing us or not. Getting curiouser and curiouser I found myself walking closer to the fence that bordered theschool grounds and the netball courts. Upon reaching the fence, I turned back towards Dee. He'd remained where he was.

He looked even more scared right now, than he had when he was in the school. Chicken.

With a shrug I faced the fence again. Gasped and stepped back. She wasn't in the middle of the curt anymore. She was right infront of me - still swaying. We were inches from each other seperate only by the wiry metal fence that divided the football oval from the tennis courts.

She was about 5’7 and was wearing our school uniform. Her hair was a matted and wet, chocolate brown and shoulder length. I couldn't see her face under her hair, but she looked oddly pale, almost luminescent. It might have been my eyes but her left arm appeared to be twisted at an unusual angle. Then I heard it.

A soft popping sound.

As if she was rolling around on a mat of bubble-wrap.

So much about this didn't make any sense. It was almost midnight and she was still here? Why?

What was that sound?

How did she get so close, so fast and so quietly?

‘Hmm…’ I thought aloud. The popping sounds stopped. As did the swaying.

She looked up and into my face, the moonlit bouncing off her cornea.

Her large red pupils surrounded by a black iris.

"Whoa!" I gasped stepping back. They glowed under the light of the moon. That couldn’t be right. They must be contacts. I called out to compliment her.

“Hey, cool contacts”, but got as far as “Hey-”, at which point in time she smiled, a big toothy grin.

A thick mushy substance dripped from between her teeth. Her teeth and gums stained an ominous crimson. The complete look was terrifying. I couldn’t help but feel confused and wonder, if it was all some elaborate prank? The school, the windows - which I realised had been boarded up both inside and out - and complete darkness the school had been submerged in, my being left here . . . and now, this girl?

I heard Dee call out to me in urgency, but I was too fucussed on this girl to listen.

Is her mouth supposed to be full of gleaming razor sharp incisors, like that?

Did Halloween arrive while I was unconscious?

Was my accident so bad, that I'm now unconcious in a hospital and having some crazy dreams from the drip I'm on?

Are the meds making me hallucinate?

In that human flesh, I spy between her teeth?!

Before I had time to voice my oh-so-important thoughts, a hand grabbed my shoulder from behind and bI was spun around.

“Run!” Delevan yelled into my face.

Without another word, we were bolting back the way we came. I gambled a glance back to see the girl charge at the wire fence, knock it down with a single blow and come full speed at us like a bullet train. She was hot on our heels. I flicked my eyes back to the dark area she had been standing over before I managed to get too far away again, and the inner suspicions I had had were correct. Another girl lie in the tennis courts, staring at me with dead eyes. Her mangled body silent and torn. Missing fingers. A smashed kneecap. Numerous cuts and slashes across her torso. A small pool of blood had dyed the granite floor beneath her. The area where her neck should have been, completely gone.

Aside from the wind whipping my hair, I heard the girl start shrieking behind us. It sounded like a cross between a dying cat and the high key of a piano.

“Quick!” Delevan shouted. “Back inside!” We closed in on the window we had originally come through and jumped through the still open window, landing face first on the canteen floor. My right leg twitched and I was reminded of the pain once more.

“Hurry, Dee! Close the window!” Delevan scrambled to his feet and jumped at the window, pulling the glass panel down and securing the latches on either side, literally seconds before the shrieking red-eyed girl reached the window and proceeded to bang her fists and forehead against it. Dee spun around and bolted into the darkness.

I knew we had to act quickly, but watching this crazy girl with her flesh fetish had me mesmerised. With the limited funding our school recieved and utterly cheap contractors with about as much idea what a hammer was as Dee had, that window wasn’t going to last long. 

A small blood splatter out of the corner of my eye brought me back. “What's her problem?!” I wheezed – still trying to catch my breath. I sat up and clutched my wound trying to stop the blood flow. The impact had caused fresh blood to spill out over the bandages. There was a split silence and I noticed her staring at my leg. Her eyes changed. Her red glowing pupil split into three - count that, three - glowing red pupils in a triangular formation. The whites of her eyes now completely black, she shrieked again, her mouth open from ear to ear. She pounded on the glass again, more frenzied. A tiny crack appeared.

Delevan burst into view seconds later with a large plank of wood adorned with long bent screws, in one hand and a shovel in the other.

“What are you doing!? You can't hit her!!” I howled at him.

“You got a better idea, Ms Genius? I'd sure appreciate it right now!” I noticed he was shaking, he was scared.

It was as if she could hear us through the glass. The second she was referred to she started pounding harder and shrieking louder. I noticed the fracture slowly becoming a crack. Running wasn't an option at this point, with how fast she caught up with us, and in my position, I wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, and I sure as heck wasn't going to be fast.

“Your crazy?!”

"She's going to kill us, Ale!"

“Maybe she’s crazy!”

"No, she's dead!"

I couldn’t help but think there was some truth in what he said. I took another look at her which didn’t help the case any. The light of the moon accentuated her features and made it very clear that humans are not supposed to look like that.

Everything about her in general was grey and faded.

Except her eyes.

“Those…aren’t contacts, are they?” I squeeked.

Dee gave me a sad smile. “Alexis, I really don —”

The window smashed.

Shards of glass flew in every direction. Most managed to miss me, I noticed. Delevan - being closer to the window than myself - yelped and dropped his weapons, clutching his left hand. A few spots of blood fell to the floor.

“Uh-oh.”

The shrieking girl – person – thing – crashed her way through what remained of the glass and barrelled towards him.

“Rrraaaaaaiiiiiiihhhhhhh!!”

I shuffled backwards on my rump and using the side of a canteen table for support pulled myself to my feet.

“Delevan, look out!”

He looked up in time to see the rabid human-looking girl charge at him. She jumped him, grabbing fistfuls of his hair knocking him to the ground.

“Aaaaaahh!! You crazy bitch! Get offa me!”

Either weapon still out of reach, Delevan frantically tried to keep her back with his good hand. "She's going ape-shit, Ale! Do something!"

Her eyes were wild and filled with what was noticeably bloodlust. Or maybe it was flesh-lust. Not really clear on the differences.

She screamed and hollered, letting go of his hair just to bash at his face with her closed fists which just looked like a blur-motion. She kept lowering her head to his face, as if she wanted to take a bite out of him. But as stupid as that sounds, right now, anything is possible.

Her fingers, now long and thin like sharpened blades clawed at his face and neck, Dee was doing all he could to block them with one hand. A deep gash formed on Dee's face causing him to cry out, blood poured from the open wound like water from a sponge. The world suddenly slowed down, and her punches became more visible.

I have to do something. I thought. NOW!

Putting my body on autopilot, I watched through alien eyes as something came over me and I dived for the shovel being the closer of the two. Still affixed to Dee, the girl didn't notice or just didn't care about my advances and, shovel in hand I lept at her.

I swung as hard and fast, at her head as I could manage, and it hit her square in the back of the skull with a hearty thwack!

As fast as lightning her neck snapped around and she snarled at me, her head doing a complete 180. She gave me a mouth-closed-eyes-twinkling-cheekbones-up-smile.

My temporary, completely adrenaline fueled bravery almost shattered.

Almost.

I swung again. Hard.

The shovel collided with her head, mid-shriek with a sickening thwack, catching her jaw and almost ripping it from its hinges. And I swung again.

Her head snapped back this time, her neck clearly broken, but she still fought. Reaching up with her right hand grasped the shovel before I swung a fourth time and yanked me to my knees. Her left arm came up out of nowhere as if she were about to do a backflip and caught my wrist. It made a few popping sounds. It's dislocated!

Her grip wasn't near as strong in her left as it was in the right. I jerked back my arm, grabbed her wrist and yanked it backwards. Popping sounds galor. Now on my back I kicked her in the small of her back still holding her arm. Still not enough swung my good leg around and caught her left ankle tripping her forward. Thanks to gravity, and her already sliced and dislocated arm, the ligaments tore, the muscles gave way and before I knew it, I'd ripped her arm off.

Dee scooting out of the way moments before she hit the floor.

Her attention completely on me now, she howled, came up and pounced at me, I kicked again catching her in her mangled neck and she flew backwards landing a few feet away. She landed on her back, the tibia of her left leg now protruding out from under her pale skin.

That's not right. That should've killed her.

The bloodloss. The physical trauma. The fact that her neck was broken and her head was facing the wrong way.

She pulled herself up to a sitting position before trying to get back up.

I should stop, right?

I should’ve stopped.

Right?

On the edge of the passenger side seat of my consciousness, I charged at what remained of the girl again, raising the shovel over my head like a maniac.

Bringing it straight down, the top of her skull cracked and for a split nano-second I could see something shiny, white and grey. I swung again.

“Ale!”

He sounded horrified. Yeah, I probably would be to if I was watching my closest friend bash in some girl's skull with a shovel.

“Alexis, STOP. She’s dead!”

I couldn’t. My body wouldn’t let me. I felt tears stream down my face and as I continued to bash the living hell out of the now lifeless body. the adrenaline refusing to subside.

Bones snapped.

Fabric tore.

Blood splattered.

An eye flew halfway across the room.

I brought the shovel above my head for the umpteenth time and proceeded to bring it back down.

“ALEXIS! It’s OVER!”

A hand grabbed the shovel and over my head. The other wrapped itself around my shoulders spinning me around, pulling me close. I let go of the shovel and clutched at Dee letting the adrenaline and my tears out.

“It’s okay! It’s okay. It’s over. She’s dead now...”

“I – I didn – didn’t….” I stuttered. The words not wanting to come out. I looked up at Dee. “I – I’m sorry.” Was all I managed to muster.

“It’s alright.” He smiled. “Heh. You saved my life! You . . . still don’t remember do you?”

I blinked a few times. Remember? What is it that I am supposed to be remembering?

He sighed. “She said this might happen.”

She?

“Alexis. It’s Sunday. You’ve been unconscious for three days.”

"Huh? But it’s . . ." I backtracked. "Thursday." It's the day my watch is on.

He pulled back to study me. “You really don’t remember?”

What the hell is he on about?!

“You already woke up on Thursday, you were only unconcious for a few hours after school let out. We went looking around, and found them, remember? You tried to help, but instead you got shot – ”

Shot?!

“ – You lost a lot of blood, so Ms. Faeshar patched you up as best she could before she left.”

Not getting it.

“You had us worried.” He continued.

Still not getting it.

“You don't have to feel bad about, uh, her... She really was dead.” He grabbed me by the shoulders and lowered his face so our eyes met. “She was a zombie.”

Chapter 4 - Alone? Who's Alone? [Updated]

 

 

“A zombie?” I had pulled up a chair and slumped back in it, we were back in the infirmary. The broken window boarded up with loose planks of wood stored in the room adjacent the cafeteria. I was trying to take in everything Dee said.

“That’s right. As in dead. Or…well…undead, anyway. You, I and Ms. Faeshar were all here when it started. We all decided to secure ourselves in here. Which is why. . .”

"All the rooms were boarded up." I finished, recalling how everything was a lot darker than it should have been, even at night. I took a deep breath. Doing my best to stay calm. To retain my sanity.

“And,” I breathed. “You expect me to believe that?” For all I knew, this was Delevan’s stupid yet somewhat comforting way of making me feel better about my just straight up murdering some crazed, possibly extremly drugged chick.

He pulled up another chair in front of me. “Yup.” He nodded.

“But zombies are fiction! They don’t exist! They’re something that you’d see in games and movies and stuff. They’re not REAL!” I spat. Hoping he hadn’t heard that crack I my voice, I continued.

“And since they’re not real, I just killed a person! And a crazy – possibly mentally deranged – person, but still! Do you know how bad it’s going to look that the estranged 'genius' orphan girl had an accident and decided to kill someone with a mental illness, by bashing her brains in!? They're gong to tell me I'm insane! I'm going to go to a mental hospital!"

“Alexis –”

“And what’s more,” I continued. “I’m under the age of 18, which means, if i don't get classed as insane, I’m going to be sent to juvenile detention! Do you know what they’d do to me there?!”

“Well, no I don –”

“Whichever of the two outcomes, they’ll pump me so full of drugs and psychiatrist meetings that I will crack under the pressure, and I might actually become what they think I was! Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God,  Oh my God!!"

"Ale –”

"You know what that means, then, don't you?! One of us is crazy! Either I'm deranged or hallucinating and believing whatever sick fantasy I've mentally come up with, or you're crazy for telling me that the whole worlds gone zombie!"

"Well I don't know about the whole world, Ale..."

“No, not all. Just most of it.” Delevan’s starting to sound a little feminine. “Turn around Miss Eynes. I’m behind you.” Sure enough when I turned around there was Ms. Faeshar – the school nurse. Why she was a school nurse dumfounded me. She was way too young to be sitting around treating snivel nosed little brats’ everyday – but hey, that’s just my opinion. Her strawberry blonde hair was wound into two long braids and her eyes sparkled an intrusive blue, which seemed to stare straight through me whenever I looked at her. To be honest – it freaked me out.

“Ah, Ms Faeshar! You're back!?”

Back? Where did she go? Ms Faeshar moved past me silently, the only sound being the swishing sound that her mauve  khaki trousers made. It was quite unusual seeing her in her non-school attire. She sported a turquoise tank top, a black double stranded sash/belt and shiny black boots.    

Timid Ms. Faeshar was looking like she'd just stepped out of a fashionable army recruits magazine!

“What are you talking about? I said that I was only going to be gone a few hours.” She replied glancing at me.

“What, when?” I demanded.

“She doesn’t remember what happened.” Dee informed her.      

“Doesn’t remember? I took care of that shot wound, but I don’t remember her hitting her head.” Ms Faeshar mused.

There they go with the shot thing again!

“What are you talking about? Who would be crazy enough to have a gun here?”

Delevan and Ms Faeshar exchanged a look. “Mr Tranchen?” Ms. Faeshar said, as if it should ring some bells.

“Mr Tranchen,” I said slowly. “My science instructor?”

“Yeeess…” Delevan egged on with his hands – beckoning me to continue.

“Mr Tranchen – my science teacher…” I mused again, much slower this time, trying to put things together. “Had a gun . . . and shot me?”

“Yeah pretty much.” Delevan said bluntly.

Ms Faeshar whacked the back of his head. “You shouldn’t be so blunt, Delevan.” She scolded.

Ignoring them, I tried to imagine Mr Tranchen with a gun. A 7’1 balding monster of a man, who was as lean as he was tall, with a slight glint in his eye – I could never actually tell if it was his eye or the edge of his glasses, but his eye sounds so much more intimidating – sporting an AK47 (I personally blame Delevan for my vast knowledge of guns. The sooner he realises that challenging me to a Halo pvp match every 2 hours – when he really should be studying – at home or otherwise, the faster he will realise that he will never win). That mental image was both funny enough and scary enough to send me into a fit of giggles.

“Maybe you have lost it?” Dee asked, eyeing me suspiciously.

“Ha...No – N – Nothing,” I managed to giggle out. “Just a th – thought.” I knew that this definately was not the time for giggle fits, but it made me feel better to laugh. Especially after that.

“Now.” Ms Faeshar interrupted, flipping a loose strand of hair over her shoulder.

“Back to business.” She glanced over her shoulder at Dee's face. "What happened? Anyone care to explain that?” she frowned.

Using the knowledge we had between us of we managed to patch ourselves up. The gash on Dee's face, dangerously close to his carotid artery meant he bled a lot. The patches were already staining red. We'd even changed the bandages on my leg and cleaned up the wound a little bit, and when I say 'we' I really mean 'he.' It seems like Ms. Faeshar left after patching me up, and he changed my bandagesdaily, on his own while I was unconcious.

A lightbulb pinged. “My fault.” I blurted. “I coaxed Delevan into going outside – ”

“You did not! I went by my own choice!”

“ – which doesn't even make any sense if you already knew what was out there." I pointedly looked at Delevan. "We saw this girl – uh, zombie – in the tennis courts and she followed us back here. She smashed her way through the glass and attacked Delevan. So I, kinda, maybe, bashed her – um, it’s – brain in with a shovel . . .” I finished awkwardly. Delevan, just shrugged it off and focused his attention on more pressing matters – the fraying hem of his jacket.

“Oh...” was all Ms Faeshar said, raising her eye at Dee.

"Well, I hadn't actually seen any zombies before tonight. We were seperated. I didn't even know Mr. Tranchen was here until Ms. Faeshar came hurrying in holding you covered in blood. I went, because I was curious." Sensing the tension, Delevan changed the subject. “Anyways,” he said getting up from his chair, “We should probably fill Ale in on all the details as quickly as possible,  and then figure out our next move.”

Ms Faeshar nodded in agreement. “Alright. So long story short,” She started, not taking her eyes off me, “You woke up Thursday at around 5:00pm. Delevan and myself stayed with you to make sure you’d be okay getting home. Mr. Tranchen had stayed back, as asked by the principal, to go over the new test papers for what was supposed to be the new Greek class. I went to go to my car, to pick up some of the medicines I went out earlier to restock, and met up with him while you and Delevan stayed here. Then there was some commotion at the schools' front gate, so naturally, Richard and myself being the only authority on the grounds, checked it out." She cleared her throat, looking a little uncomfortable. “There was some unusual behaviour from a small crowd that had gathered at the gates. When we approached them, a young boy tried to attack us through the bars. He seemed so savage . . .”

“We heard the scream from here.” Delevan added, his infinite wisdom blossoming. "You took off after Ms. Faeshar when I wasn't looking."

“Then we realised that some of them had wounds – some too severe to not be fatal – some were even missing half their head . . .” Ms Faeshar continued solemnly, clearly reminiscing the incident.

“After we figured they were dead, I decided it best we headed back to the school. Mr Tranchen disagreed. He wanted to fight his way to his car, on the other side of the gate and leave. He tried to escape but there were to many of them, so he retreated. When we were safe back in the building, we realised that we left the gate open, then you stumbled across us, and you went back to close it. I honestly don’t know how, when or where Mr Tranchen found a gun, but he did, the grounskeepers' shed is my guess. After you closed the gate you must've let one of them in, and it jumped at you. Trying to save you, Mr Tranchen shot at the zombie, and having no experience with a real gun, missed the zombie and hit you instead. He managed to get him after a couple of shots though.  As soon as you were shot, I rushed out after you but  you fell unconscious as I'd got you back inside.”

“That’s it." She finished, sounding almost relieved. "You stayed unconscious until today, while Mr Tranchen, Delevan and myself did our best to make sure the rest of the school was locked up and zombie proof. Obviously,” she said looking a little embarrassed. “we hadn’t quite finished yet.”

“Uh-huh, okay.” I nodded, unsure as to whether the craziness was in the air and these two were also infected or not. “One thing still bothers me though. Why didn’t you call anyone for help? I mean the office has phones, yes?”

“We tried that. No dial tone.” Delevan replied. "The only radio we had cut out yesterday, too."

Suddenly a loud static-y sound erupted from the P.A system.  

"What the-?" I thought aloud.

"Testing, Testing...1, 2, 3..." We all turned towards the P.A that was hanging just above the infirmary door.

"Hello? Is thing on?" The voice said.

"It's a p.a, you moron. Even if they can hear you, they can't answer you!" Another voice interjected. 

That voice seemed familiar.

"Hurry up, already!"

"Oh, right. Sorry. Um, If there is anyone left alive here, please make your way to us." The first voice blurted.

"Wow. That almost sounded good."

I jumped as Mr Tranchen suddenly burst through the door. "Stephanie, there are –!"

"Survivors!" We replied in unision. 

Chapter 5 - Holy Fashiz-nit!. [Updated]

With a mixture of excitement and confusion boiling in our veins, we all ran at full speed out the canteen and up the stairs to the office. Or rather, they ran, I hobbled behind. I'd had enough of running.

“Hey, wait! Slow down!” They ignored me as I fell back and had to lean on the wall for support. I guess the antibiotics - or whatever - were completely out now. I blinked and they were literally about 10 feet away from the door leading to the p.a room in the office, then in another blinked they'd dissapeared in the office.

“I’m still hurt, ya’know!” I muttered to myself.

Blood trickled down my leg again, for what seemed like the umpteenth time in what, an hour? Maybe two?

I slid down the wall and focussed on the bandage that was starting to come loose again, when I heard something. Soft growling - or heavy purring? - was coming from . . . somewhere. Sitting with my back against the wall now, I faced the closed classroom door opposite me and waited – for what, I wasn’t really sure. Taking a wild guess here, it's either some stray animal, or another . . .

Thing.

Whatever it was, it most likely had something to do with the small pools of blood that I had left in a trail behind me, that I just now noticed. If it were an animal it might be hungry for fresh meat. But a zombie? Did blood even attract them? Could that've been why that girl noticed me so fast? 

The soft growling sound had now been replaced with a rattling.

I've seen my fair share of horror movies, even more zombie related ones, and almost every one had different theories. Maybe it was a 'rage' virus, which heightened all instinctual abilities; eyesight, hearing. . . smell.

Her eyes.

I shuddered. That wasn't an image I was going to erase from my mind anytime soon.

I remember her noticing the blood, and pounding faster on the window, but I also remember her leaping for Dee first even though I was bleeding a lot more than he was. She also tried to smash his face in - along with the rest of him, but she was clearly eating the corpse we'd seen in the tennis court. if it were instinctual, wouldn't she have attacked me first? Or tried to eat Dee - but maybe she did, and I just hadn't noticed.

It was completely silent now.

I held my breath, mentally preparing myself for either option. Then an thought wormed its way in.

What if it was a zombie - thing - animal? Was that even possible?

A few moments passed and the only thing that had attaacked my was my own paranoia.

The door unlatched and slowly creaked open a couple of centremetres. Just enough to see three small, glowing, red dots in the darkness, behind it. Zombie.

After a few eerily quiet moments, they dissapeared. The door suddenly swung all the way open smacking into the wall leaving a graze. I searched the now open doorway for any signs of lif- I mean, movement. My gaze flickered to the still open office door. Nothing.

"HOLY FASHIZ-NIT!!" I yelped. in the instant I'd looked away he'd appeared out of nowhere and had crouched down in front of me. A zombie inches from my face. Freaky pupils and all. This one male and taller than Delevan. Another student.

I watched a sliver of blood ooze down his forehead and drip off his chin.

I considered screaming. Then thought better of it; he was inches from face - studying me. Screaming now may only startle him into ripping it off! I remained as still as possible, not daring to even breathe. I knowing that fleeing wasn’t an ideal option, I did – what I thought was – the next best option and stayed put. 

I waited. But nothing happened.

No snarling.

No screeching.

Nothing. 

Deciding to risk it. He was still sitting there, silent and still. He was definitely a zombie but somewhat different. Matted brown hair - dry, I noticed. Pale, grey-ish skin. A large round hole below his left shoulder displaying an array of tissues and muscle. It wasn't hard to tell it wa a gunshot wound. I noticed his – once white now dirt smeared and blood stained – shirt hung loosely off his shoulders with a small white sticker that read, Hi My Name is: Nathaniel.

My heart sunk, as I realised who he was.

“Oh my god.” I whispered. “You’re that new transfer student from Spain.”

Were.

I should have said, ‘You were that new transfer student from Spain.’ I looked up at his face, surprised at my gagging/desire-to-puke reaction not kicking in.

His lips parted and a gurgle escaped him. I'd forgotten I was supposed to be quiet. Eyes on me, he raised a hand to my face. Entranced by – well, something – I didn’t move, nor did I scream. There was something in his eyes that weren't in the girls'. Intelligence? That’s when I heard the fast-approaching footsteps.

“Hey, you flesh-eating mosquito!”

Delevan.

It had to be. I fought back the urge to sigh.

From out of nowhere a metal pole was swung in the zombies’ direction. Hitting ‘Mathieu’ square in the face. He was knocked onto his back and stayed there motionless. I blinked a few times before turning to a dishevelled and panting Delevan.

I felt like I should say something, but any sentence I tried to form just didn’t seem to suit the occasion. Delevan turned to me, the look on his face priceless.

“You okay!?”

“What was that?” I asked, ignoring his question. Not sure whether I was referring to what he just did, or what that so-called zombie wasn't doing.

“Huh? A zombie of course. Wasn’t that obvious?”

I sighed.

“That wasn't necessary.” I announced sharply, gathering my wits and pulling myself to my feet. I took a deep breath and turned to Delevan – noticing Ms Faeshar and Mr Tranchen heading towards us. I spun on my heal, hoping I looked more confident than I felt - it hurt like pulling teeth! - and strode (hobbled? limped?) over to 'Nathaniel.'

"She hasn't been briefed - or is it re-briefed? - on the types, has she?" Mr Tranchen, announced loudly, as if to imply my inferiority.

“Types?” I repeated, approaching the body.

Delevan nodded. “The disease/infection/virus, or whatever has different effects on people. We’ve seen three different ones, so far. You were the one who noticed it.”

“And?”

“Well, we’ve nick-named the ones we know of. You remember that girl with the red eyes?”

“Pupils.”

"What?"

"Pupils, Dee. She had red pupils. Not red eyes." I nudged Nathaniel's, (or was it ex-Nathaniel?) back with my foot. 

“Ms Faeshar called her a Rager. Y’know, like on the games and stuff how certain zombies are faster and more violent the rest are in a state of ‘rage?’ Well that’s where she got it from.”

So much for my earlier epiphany. “Uh-huh. Okay. And the other two?”  

“The slow ones. Attracted by heat and sound. So . . . your typical shuffler zombie. Shufflers.” Ms Faeshar pitched in.

So all it took was a couple of days for them to completely accept this? To the point of nicknaming them? As if reading my mind, Delevan added, “It’s more like we’re labelling them, I guess. Y’know. So we can tell them apart?”

“And the third type?” I crouched next to the body. A slow rager, maybe?

“Slithers.” Delevan said simply, I took note of his shifting, awkwardly from foot to foot. He clearly didn't want to say anymore. More secrets, yipee!

“Ragers, Shufflers, and Slithers. . .” I mused. Despite Dee's lack of input on the last one, it wasn't hard to imagine. The floor crawling zombies, or maybe wall climbing - either/or, were dangerous. Sounded like your typical cheesy movie plot to me.

I wondered again, if any of this was real. 

“Alexis. These are the survivors we heard.”

I turned away from Nathaniel for the moment; it didn't seem right that a single blow would finish a 'Rager.' Not after than girl. . .

They stood in a line – all girls. They all wore our school uniform.

The middle-most girl stood forward. “I’m- "

"-a year older than both of Dee and I. And those two,” l said, matter-of-factly, nodding towards the girls either side of her. “are both a year younger than us. You're Faith Mercedes.” The middle girl; long wavy fire coloured hair, hazel eyes, lean stature, pushed up the rim of her glasses with her index finger. She had that sophisticated and preppy look about her. 

"You know me?"

"I know OF, all of you."

The youngest (looking) girl – to her right – stepped forward. “Me too?” She squeaked.

"Hope Wentworth." Long unbound, near-white hair, complimented by her chiselled facial features. The most stunning emerald coloured eyes one would ever hope to gaze upon – so much more interesting than my own plain brown eyes – and a body that, although was flat, was also petite and somewhat fragile looking. But she wasn't to be underestimated, I'd seen her win many awards in our school's swimming events. I couldn’t help but pick up a random strand of my own pencil straight ash brown hair and stare at in disappointment, before flicking it back over my shoulder. 

Figuring that it would be a lot better for my self-esteem as well as my confidence, I stopped looking at her and studied the girl on the far left.

“And you, are Mercy Greta.” I couldn’t help but think of that as some kind of metaphorical sign from above. Ironic as it may be.

I stared up at the giant which was Mercy; it was hard to believe that she was a year my junior. Her bleach blonde hair was cropped short in a concave bob kind of way. Her brown eyes sparkled like dark shimmering pools of chocolate – I couldn’t tell if that was an effect from the masses of eye liner that lined them or it was natural, but either way they were better than mine. Her physic was a little less impressive but effective all the same. Tall, 6’9 would be my guess, lean, and quite muscular with a noticeable olive tan. She wore a zipped up school jacket – navy blue, two parallel dark red strips on either side and the school logo printed at the top left hand corner – with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows, and adjustable navy blue cargo pants (navy blue, white and crimson being the school colours). She was all the tomboy's in the universe rolled into one. 

“Hey,” Was all she said, smiling at me. “Nice. Good to know I'm famous.” Her strong and deep voice penetrating the uncomfortable silence. “You alright to walk?” She sounded genuinely sincere.

“Hm? Oh, yeah.” I shrugged, taking a step forward. "I had a bit of a rest, while these guys toddled off without me."

“We should probably head back to the infirmary,” Ms Faeshar said, which sounded more like an order. The others all nodded in agreement. “And discuss our situation.”

Delevan entered my line of sight once more and faster than I could object, picked me up bridal style and set off down the hall back to the infirmary, with the others following close behind.

“Hey!” I protested. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I'm not stupid. We weren't gone that long, and you fell behind pretty fast, so your still in pain and all.” Delevan smirked. "What? You wanna walk?"

I stared solemnly from my bleeding leg and back to the still unmoving corpse on the floor. “No.” I admitted. “Not really. But if you weren't stupid," I said loudly. "then I wouldn't have been in this situation in the first place."

Chapter 6 - Backtracking. [Updated]

“What to do…what to do…” Back in the infirmary - again, I took the empty bed to sit on. “So, um, just before this whole zombie-apocalypse-people are-dying-everywhere thing hits me, what the hell are we supposed to do?” Mercy, who took the bed opposite me, replied, “Dunno. It hasn’t really hit me yet, either.”

Loved how she said yet.

Hope was perched on the nurse’s desk reading some mystery novel – the whereabouts of where she got it from still unknown – completely oblivious to the world around her, and Faith eyeing her like a vulture and its prey.

She was wary, I'll give her that much.

Ms Faeshar and Mr Tranchen were out in the hallway arguing about something, and Delevan was sprawled out in the middle of the floor with his arms covering his face.

“Mercy,” I queried. Figuring the other two would be less open to idle chit-chat.

She looked up at me with an expectant gaze.

“What happened?”

She gave me a nod as if she expected this question - which she probably did. I would've.

“We’re–” she said, jerking her thumb in the direction of Faith and Hope, “part of the Astronomy club. It’s not unusual for us to stay at the school overnight – or even over the weekend for that matter, to conduct star sightings and projects.”

“Ah.” I said, not sure how to respond. Not that I had time to. Ms Faeshar burst into the room with the most terrifying expression on her face. Some people you do not want to aggravate.

“And just how do you propose we do that!?” She yelled furiously, striding to the end of the room. “The first time got us nowhere, and it's getting worse out there!” She stopped and spun around to face a just as angry faced Mr Tranchen.

“Do you see any other choice?” I flinched at the way he said that – as if she was just a child, unable to comprehend our situation.

“We don't have time to be arguing like this, Darcy. It's not happening, end of discussion!” she spat.

They both suddenly went quiet as they noticed five pairs of eyes all staring in their direction.

Delevan broke the silence with laughter. “Darcy Tranchen? What a stupid name.” Mr Tranchen’s face turned the colour of a beetroot and reminded me of a kettle on the stove – just about to blow. Surprisingly though, he said nothing, but if looks could kill, Delevan would be killed thousands of times over.

Saying nothing, he turned on his heel, storming out of the room.

Everyone stopped what they were doing, suddenly – even if in Delevan’s case, it was nothing to begin with – and approached Ms Faeshar.

"Don’t worry about him, Miss!” Hope egged. “He’ll be back; We're all just stressed right now.”

I wasn't so sure about that. I mean,sure I went a bit crazy back in the cafeteria, but since calming down I've felt . . . rather normal. That's not to say that I wasn't bothered by all this. But I'd only seen two so-called 'zombies,' and only one of which attacked me. There hadn't been any speak of the outside world, other than the speak of their first attempted escape.

I felt like some lucid dream that, at any moment would just end.

“She’s right,” Faith agreed. “But regardless, we need to do something; we’re just wasting time sitting here.”

Ms Faeshar stayed quiet for a minute, contemplating something.

Suddenly there was a loud crash.

“Everyone’s eyes darted to the door.

“What was that?” I asked.

“Sounded like–” Mercy started.

 “A crash?” Delevan said.

“Duh, Captain Obvious! I meant from downstairs!”

My mind automatically flicked back to the broken window, that Delevan and I had tried to patch back up. “We…” Ms Faeshar started. “We have to get out of here.” Try as I might, I couldn’t detect even a hint of emotion in her voice.

“What? Why?” Hope asked. “Can’t we just hole up here until rescue arrives?”

“No, it’s not safe here anymore.”

She knew something we didn’t. She almost looked depressed. Though I probably would be too if I was in her position.

Faith tapped her foot in thought for a moment.

“Ms Faeshar. Is it possible that this…whatever this is hasn’t spread too far yet?”

“What do you mean?” Ms Faeshar said, eyeing the door now.

“I mean, the military base located on the outskirts of the city.”

“Oh.” Delevan’s face lit up. “You mean the one off the coast? On that little island?”

“That’s right!” Mercy joined in. “The military would be heavily armed as well as safe since their not connected to the mainland!”

Assuming of course that that wasn't where whatever-this-is started, and that they're (if there is anyone there) willing to help us. Ms Faeshar turned around to face us. “How would we get there?”

“Your car?” Hope suggested quietly.

All was quiet for a minute. They new Ms Faeshar had a big car, but they didn't know we'd tried to leave already. Well, one of us did, anyway. “Alright. That’s good. We have a plan. Let’s go.”

I was taken aback by Ms Faeshar's sudden eagerness to do it. How did she plan on opening the gate this time, let alone get past whatever is on the other side? “Well that didn’t take much convincing…” Delevan said, just as surprised as I felt.

Faith shook her head. “Don’t argue with it! C’mon!” With that she edged past him and headed for the door. “Let’s go!”

Hope and Mercy got a sudden evil look in there eyes; all three left the room in a rush leaving the Ms Faeshar, Dee and I to brood over the coming events. Before I could ask Ms Faeshar about her choice, the trio had already come back, and came up with improvised weapons.  

I noticed the shovel from my earlier . . . adventures, leaning next to the filing cabinet. It still had some ominous red mushy stuff attached to it.

“Here, you take this.” Following my gaze, Dee picked up the shovel and handed it me. I tried not to look at the blood splatter up and around the handle.

“Uh, Thanks.”

“I’ll be back.” With that Delevan left as the girls did before him.

Mercy had made a weapon out of a broom snapped in half. Hope had six wires joined together at a base and at the top - it reminded me of a puppets strings. “I can use this to strangle them,” when she received a blank look from me she continued, “or use it as a way to keep their face away from mine so they don’t bite me.” The thought of someone as young looking and fragile as her strangling someone to (un?)death was rather shocking.

Faith, turned up her chosen weapon. “I know I’ll probably make the best use out of this than anyone else here…” A camera tripod that was almost as tall as she was. I hope she didn't plan on swinging that thing.

“Ms Faeshar?” Delevan asked. “You wanna take this?”

I hadn’t heard him come back in. Delevan handed her a crowbar.

“Where did you get this?” She asked.

“From the woodwork room a couple of doors down.” He said simply, obviously proud of himself.

“What about you?” Hope asked. “Where’s your weapon?”

He pulled a small gun-looking thing.

“It’s a blowtorch!”

“What the hell are you going to use that little thing for?” Ms Faeshar asked.

Faith snickered.

That sounded so wrong coming from her.

Delevan pouted. “That’s what this is for.”

He pulled out a deodorant can, and judging by the way he held it, it was full.

“You’re not supposed to have those here.” Faith snapped.

“I think this once we can make an exception.” He smirked.

 “I don’t get it.” Hope mused.

Quicker than you could say ‘fast’ he taped the can to the torch and presented it to us.

“Taadaa! Custom flamethrower!”

“C’mon!” Ms Faeshar sighed. “Let’s get outta here. . .”

Chapter 7 - Alpha vs Omega

We all nodded in agreement and with our weapons, hurried out of the infirmary. Increasingly loud moans emanated from the hallway to our left.


“How did they get up the stairs so fast!?” Hope gasped.


“Don’t stop moving,” Ms Faeshar ordered. “They’ll catch up soon.”


“Right.” Delevan said, on all our behalves.


The others ran down the hallway leading straight from the infirmary, and I snuck a quick glance sideways. I couldn’t see any but I could hear them. Some shuffling, like an early-rising teenager without coffee, and others running; the sound of their feet echoing of the walls.


Snapping back to reality, finally getting over the pain in my leg, I followed suit.

We ran down the hallway, passed the stairs to the canteen, and towards a T-section in the hallway.


“Left or right?” Delevan demanded quickly.


Ms Faeshar didn’t stop and veered right. “The staff room is on the West side of the school.” She explained.


As we were running down a 100-odd metre long hallway, I noticed the doors that lined it. About 6 classroom doors on each side.

Faith must have noticed the same thing I did, because she turned to Mercy running beside her and said, “What’s with the doors?”


The first four were either hanging off their hinges or were snapped horizontally across the middle, as if something was trying to kick its way out.

We came to a halt before the last two.


The last two doors, on both sides, were missing completely.


“What the hell happened down here?” I blurted.


“I…” Ms Faeshar was stumped. “These weren’t like this half an hour ago.”


I shook my head. “No time.”


Faith nodded. “She’s right. Slow, but right.”

“We have to keep moving.”


I couldn’t help but noticed something small in the line of the doorway to our left. “There has to be a reason these doors are gone,” Delevan pointed out. “What if there are more down here? And at that, they'd have to be strong enough to remove all the doors!”


“And you wanna risk going back?” Faith snapped. She seemed to like doing that.


“You got a better idea?” Delevan retorted.


“Um, yeah. Keep going.”


“You wanna die?!”


“Do you!?”


I ignored them both and went over to the object in the line of the door. I crouched down in front of it, my eyes still adjusting to the darkness of the room.


“NO. Of course I don’t wanna die! But I don’t want to go into uncharted territory either!”


“It’s the west wing of the school! How is that uncharted territory?!”


“Ah, geez. I dunno, when it become infested with flesh-eating-zombies, maybe!?”


I squinted as hard as I could at the object in front of me, resisting the urge to pick it up.


“Zombies don’t exist, numbskull. They are just some stupid factor in a horror genre video game.”


“Then explain those things!” Delevan cried, pointing towards the moaning sound from behind us. Still couldn’t see any.


“How the hell am I supposed to do that? It’s probably some stupid parasite or something, duh!”


I blinked a few times as my eyes finally began to adjust.

It was–


“A parasite that makes people eat people?! What a load of crap!”


“What would you know!?”


“Apparently more than you! They’re zombies. Grey skin, desire for flesh or brains or whatever it is they actually want.”


“Well that’s convincing…”


“Um, hello? Yeah, guys?” Hope pipped up. Unsuccessfully.


“Well, it’s better than your theory. Mine at least offers a strategy. Zombies die if you bash, shoot or strike them in the head!”


“Anyone would die if you bash them in the head, you idiot!”


A hand.


A severed hand was in front of me.

The fingers curled into a position of either anger or pain and the skin peachy and torn. It was sitting in a pool of blood about the size of my head.


“That’s why it’s so effective! Shooting a person in the heart can kill them, or even if you shoot them in the leg they can bleed out and die. Not zombies. The only way to kill them is by destroying their brain!”


“Why do zombies want to eat brains, yet it’s their ultimate weakness?” Hope asked pointedly.


“Shut up, Hope!” Delevan screamed.


Any hope (hah, hah, haaaaah) we had of getting out of here without alerting those things of our position, was quickly being diminished.


“Don’t speak to her like that!” Faith spat, just as loud.


I peered into the room. I think it was (emphasis on was) the (old) science room. The door lay a few feet away in the room. Broken and splintered. And covered with blood.

I did my best to try and hear if there was anything in the room.


No crunching.


No sighs.


No heavy breathing.


No signs of movement whatsoever.


I’d say that was a good sign, but that just means that whatever was in here isn’t anymore and is probably somewhere close by.


“You two. Quit arguing. Now.” Mercy snapped.


“We’re just sa–”


“Shut. It.”


“She’s right.” I said, standing up. “We can’t focus on that now, we need to move.”


Delevan shook his head in agreement. “Right. Sorry.”


“Lead the way, Lexis!” Hope cheered.


“It’s Alexis.” I muttered to myself.


If that wasn’t enough motivation, the sound of fast approaching you-know-what’s, definitely was.


“Run!”

I wasn’t sure who said it, but I eagerly complied.

I stood up turned to the others.


“In here!” I said, ushering them into the room.


“Are you nuts?!” Faith snapped. “That room has no door. How will that help us?”


Hope pushed past her and bolted for the room. “There coming from both directions! We don’t have a choice!”

She was right.

I hadn’t noticed that before.

The shuffling sound of limbs on the tile floors was echoing from both behind us and in front of us.

Delevan, Mercy and Ms Faeshar hurried after Hope without a sound, while Faith looked conflicted.


She alternated from looking past me, and turning to look over her shoulder.


Still, nothing was visible.


I waited impatiently at the doorway for her – expecting her to follow, but was surprised when she looked at me, frowned, spun around, and ran in the opposite direction towards the zombie hoard.


“Faith!” I called after her.


“C’mon!” Delevan yelled. He grabbed my arm and pulled inside. Ms Faeshar and Mercy worked together to push a large cabinet in front of the door.


“But Faith! Sh-she –”


“Shhhhh…” Hope whispered, putting her finger to her lip in a shushing motion. “We need to stay quiet.


Seconds later moans and empty groaning filled the hallway and made its way into the classroom we were in.


No one moved.

The only sound I could hear, aside form the moaning from the hallway, was the rapid thumping of my heart as it beat against my rib cage.

We waited for something, we weren’t sure what, but we would know when it happened.

Chapter 8 - An Act of Bravery, or Stupidity?

Shallow moans and shuffling, of presumably dislocated and/or broken limbs, was all we could hear from the other side of the door. No one dared move. We sat there for what seemed like two hours and the room gradually got darker and darker.

“At least they aren’t trying to break into this room. . .” Delevan muttered reassuringly, more so to himself than to the rest of us.

“Hmm. But, why?” I whispered back. “There is so many of them. How can they not

know we’re in here?”

“The skin tearing, flesh eating zombies aren’t trying to eat us, and you want to know why

?!” Delevan hissed.

“Uh. . .”

“Can’t you just be happy that we’re safe for the moment?!”

“Y’know, you pick the best moments to start a fight. Why is that?” I snapped.

“Shhhhhhh, guys! Seriously!” Hope interjected. “Now is not the time!”

Again, she was right. “So, um, what do we do then?” I blinked a few times, while the others were thinking, so that my eyes would further adjust to the darkness. I stretched and got up. “I’m gonna look around for anything useful.” I whispered down to the others.

I stepped through the gap between Delevan and Ms Faeshar – who might I add looked as blank as a sheet of unused paper – and weaved my way through the desks to the front of the room.

The desks were all bare; including the teachers, the chalk board that lined almost the entire wall behind the teacher’s desk was also strangely bare. No chalk, no chalkboard erasers; not even a stray pen was to be found.

"It’s as if it were cleaned out before this incident. . .” I mused. But that couldn’t be right. That would that this event was expected. . .

“Alexis!” Ms Faeshar whispered from behind me. I must’ve jumped 2 feet out of my own skin.

“Miss! Please! Don’t do that!” I hissed, covering my hammering heart with the palm of my hand. “You almost scared me to death!”

“That’s not something to joke about.” Delevan said solemnly.

Who said I was joking?

“We’ve got a plan.” Ms Faeshar said shaking her head. “But. . .”

“It doesn’t involve Faith.” Mercy stepped in, scratching her arm nervously. “We’re going to have to leave her behind.”

What? Were they serious!?

“What!? Are you serious??” I hissed, my tone of voice noticeably rising. “We can’t just leave her here!”

“What choice do we have?” Hope sighed. “She ran off and left us here. We need to leave. And soon.”

“But I don’t think was what she was doing, Hope. I think –”

I was interrupted by a loud explosion. The sound of broken ceramics and tumbling brick walls was everywhere. The floor shook violently, the windows vibrated to the point where I thought they’d all crack in half. One of the ceiling lights fell and smashed.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!” Mercy shrieked as a stray shard of glass caught her arm, and then all was silent again.

“What was that!?” Delevan gasped.

Ms Faeshar studied the room for damage. “I don’t know . . . some kind of explosion?”

“Huh? No. I meant Mercy’s scream!” He snorted. “It was so . . . girly!”

Mercy frowned and hit him upside the head, as Faith had done previously. “So what if it was? It freakin’ hurt!!”

“We have more important things to worry about.” Ms Faeshar hissed, obviously disappointed. “That’s probably a sign that we should –”

Another explosion. Only this time louder and more violent.

A crack started to appear in the ceiling and two or three more lights fell and smashed against the floor. The nails holding in place the blackboard came undone and the blackboard fell to the floor with a hefty thwump, cracking itself in half straight down the middle.

“Th-That sounded like it was closer than the first one!” Hope stuttered. “”What could it be?”
For the second time, everything was silent. But this time not even the moans and groans of the flesh eaters could be heard.

“Hey, Lexxy?” Hope asked into my shirt. I hadn’t realised that she was hugging me. The explosion must’ve scared her. “W-where did the zombies go?”
I wrinkled my nose at her comment; I still wasn’t used to the word ‘zombies’ yet. “I don’t know.” I admitted. “I can’t hear them.”

Hope was about two heads shorter than me so when she hugged me tighter around the waist – I felt like she was squeezing the life out of me. “Eh, you surprisingly strong for someone so . . . petite.” I gasped.

“Hm? Oh, sorry!” She frowned, “I get told that a lot.”

I noticed Delevan giving us the strangest look out of the corner of my eye. I couldn’t tell if he was curious or disappointed. I turned to look at him but he turned away.

“Weird.” I muttered.

Another explosion rattled the room. It sounded as if it was just next door. Dust from the ceiling began floating down and adding the glass, and brick mess on the floor, the window at the far back smashed and glittered the floor with its pieces, and the cracks in the ceiling grew larger.
Hope shrieked and buried her face into my shirt again. “Why? Why won’t it stop?”

“I don’t think we can take much more of this. We have to do something before either the ceiling caves in on us, or the floor gives out!” I pointed out.
Ms Faeshar nodded in agreement. “The explosions seem to be getting closer too. We can’t stay here any longer, it seems.”

Something banged against the cabinet we had used to block the doorway.

“Anyone guessing that was a stray piece of brick?” Delevan supposed.

Another bang.

Someone – something? – was hitting it. And it seemed desperate to get inside. “Err . . . well there goes the idea of going out that way. . .” Mercy said, annoyed.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

“Y’know, I’m starting to think that maybe it wasn’t a good idea to put a metal cabinet in front of the door.” I laughed, nervously. “This room is located down a hallway, and whatever is on the other side of that door – I mean, cabinet – keeps banging on it, so it’s likely to echo. . .”

“Oh.” Was all Delevan had to say. In monotone no less.

“That . . . makes sense . . .” Ms Faeshar admitted.

Mercy stood quiet. No one was brave enough to get close to the door.

“Dell. Do you think it could be another one of those . . . whadya call them – rager’s?”

Delevan stood silent ignorant to my question. I made a face and poked out my tongue at him when I knew he wasn’t looking.

“Hey!!! You in there!!”

We all jumped. The voice came from the other side of the cabinet. “Say, there weren’t any types of zombies that could talk were there?” I asked, turning to Ms Faeshar. She shook her head.

“I can hear you in there!! Now move this damn cabinet, wouldya!?”

I knew that voice.

I shuffled around Hope’s embrace and made my way over to the cabinet, and started to push.

“Alexis? What’re you doing?”

“Moving the cabinet.” I said bluntly.

“Are you nuts!?” Delevan and Hope chorused.

“Nuts? No. *Anaemic? Maybe.” I replied without stopping.

The metal cabinet screeched in protest at my touch and henceforth became difficult to move. After a few minutes of lone pushing, there was a gap just big enough between the doorway and the cabinet for someone to squeeze through.

“Satisfied?” I asked.

“Never.” She smiled, and stepped through the gap. “How long were you going to make me wait anyway?”

“As long as it took to move this damn cabinet.”

The others blinked in surprise.

“Faith!”

“That’s right!” She smiled. “You didn’t honestly think you could kill me off that easily, did you?”
After receiving nothing but guilty looks and confused stares, Faith just laughed it off. “Did you like my performance? The flesh-eaters didn’t know what hit them!”

“Performance?” Hope mused.

“Wait.” Ms Faeshar demanded. “It was you causing all those explosions!”

“Seriously? I just saved all your pathetic little lives and you can’t even fathom it as possible?! How rude.” She poked her tongue out in defiance and turned to me. “Looks like you kept them alive while I was gone. I guess you’re not so bad after all.”

Huh?

“Regardless. We need to leave. Now. But we’ve already got a plan –”

“We?”

“Yeah, we. You can come in now.” Faith called towards the door.

A young boy stepped in. A boy who looked eerily familiar.

“This, everyone, is –”

I knew who it was.

“Mathieu!?” I gasped.


*Note: Anaemic refers to the lack of quality or quantity of red blood cells (aka Alexis meant she was acting strangely due to lack of blood).

Chapter 9 - Huh?

“Whhaaaaattt!!??” I looked from Faith to Mathieu to Faith once more. “But he . . . he is a –”

“Zombie. Yes, I know.”

Ms Faeshar and Mercy exchanged a look of concern. “Faith,” Ms Faeshar spoke up. “Did you hit your head while you were out there?”

“She doesn’t need to hit her head to act that crazy,” Delevan snorted. “Probably forgot some important pills, am I right?”

Faith ignored his comment and circled back to Mathieu’s side. “So what, if he is

a zombie. He is still accompanying us.”

Mathieu didn’t move but he studied us, as if he was trying to decide which one to gnaw on first. I, being the closest to him – other than Faith – received most of his attention. He looked the same as he had before; same blood covered clothes, same disturbingly green eyes, same height, facial features and composure – even for a zombie. Everything was the same, minus the dribble of blood that was dripping off the right side of his face, which probably had something to do with Delevan’s violent tendencies.

“You all look as if you want to dismember me and tie me up in a corner, covered in gasoline and hold a lighter to my head.”

I didn’t think it was possible to faint standing up, but I’m pretty sure that’s what we all did – with the exception of Faith, of course.

“Did . . . did that z – zombie just talk

!?” Hope whimpered from behind Ms Faeshar.

Mathieu just sighed. Faith spoke up for him, “Well, erm . . . yes, I was getting to that.” Faith cleared her throat nervously. “He is a zombie, but for some reason he can, uh, control . . . he has some control over what he does. As you have already witnessed he can, uh, speak, so . . . yeah . . .”

“I was trying to approach you about it earlier.” Mathieu said suddenly, looking directly at me. “But your boyfriend

decided to clobber me before I could say anything.”

“Boyfriend?!” Delevan cried. “Where the hell did you get that from!?”

“He just admitted he was trying to communicate with us, before you knocked him down, and the first thing you’re worried about is the fact that he called you Alexis’ boyfriend?” Mercy queried with a raised eyebrow. “Well if that doesn’t spell out ‘Jerk’

 

then I don’t know what does.”

Delevan started to protest, before Mathieu interrupted us again. “Regardless,” he said loudly clearing his throat, giving me an odd look. “The facts are that I am indeed a zombie, or at least I was bitten by one –”

“Maybe he’s a new kind! That might explain the –” Delevan started.

“And am able to speak normally,” Mathieu continued glaring at Delevan – or at least that’s what it looked like. “And I can also run and move like normal.”

“But when I first saw you, you were shambling. You were really slow!” I pointed out.

Mathieu nodded. “I wasn’t sure if you were human at first, and i didn't know what would occur if i happened across another zombie in my state, so I was being cautious. Then when I realised you were human and I smelt your blood –”

“You could smell her blood? What are you, a vampire/zombie half-breed?” Mercy joked. Delevan snorted at her remark. “We’ve proven that zombies exist, so what’s to say that vampire’s don’t either?”

Mathieu was obviously not pleased by their lack of respect for the situation and sighed in disgust and disappointment.

“I could tell she was hurt,” Mathieu rephrased, voice thick with irritation. “So I tried to bend down to help her, but my joints were still stiff and she. . .” Mathieu gave me an apologetic look before continuing. “. . . obviously was a little freaked out by the situation, and, uh, well we all know what happened from there.”

An eerie silence filled the room and I took the opportunity to stare out the window, something I’m quite prone to doing whenever something serious is on my mind. I heard the other whispering to each other but I didn’t have the heart to listen in to what they were saying. Instead, I focussed on outside. I could just see the side school gates from here, but it was something else that caught my eye. A small group of people heading towards the gates. I headed to window for a better view. Their movement – not fast enough to be rager’s, nor were they slow enough to be shuffler’s and they certainly didn’t appear to have any extra limbs or appendages – encouraged me to think they were human.

“More survivors?” I wondered aloud.

“Really? Where?” Mathieu said, suddenly behind me. I stifled a shriek.

“Why does everyone keep sneaking up behind me?” I pouted.

“Maybe you should stop leaving your back unguarded.” He replied. He shook his head and focussed on the window. “Where did you see the survivors?”

“There,” I pointed. “Heading to the gates.”

“Maybe they have a plan.” Faith mused, stepping up to the window. “We should rendezvous.”

“Hate to burst your bubble but the almost to the gate and we are still in the building.” I said, pointedly. “How do you plan on getting them to wait?”

Faith smiled widely. “Like this.”

With that said, Faith unlatched the cracked window, flung it open without regard for noise and stuck her head out into the cold, crisp night air.

“HEEYYY!!! YOU DOWN THERE!!”

Unlike Ms Faeshar and Mercy, who sprang into action, I was too shocked to do anything.

“What they hell’re you thinking?!”

Mercy demanded, grabbing Faith’s shoulders and pulling her back inside. “You do realise there are still plenty of other zombies, and the like, prowling around the school grounds!?”

“Yes, but if they

are human, and they have an escape plan – unlike us at the moment – then chances are we won’t be on the school grounds for too much longer anyway!” Faith snapped, shrugging away from Mercy’s hands and sticking her head back out the window.

“ARE YOU GUYS SURVIVORS AS WELL?” Faith hollered down to them.

The group stopped and turned back, curious as to the whereabouts of the owner of the voice.

“Oh!” I exclaimed as a thought hit me. “It’s till night time, so they probably can’t see us up here!”

Faith nodded, “Right. I didn’t think of that.” She pulled out a small hand torch from her skirt pocket, flicked the ‘ON’ switch and shoved her hand out the window, using the torch as a beacon.

“UP HERE!!!” She yelled again.

The small group, made up of about 4 stopped and waved back up to us.

“Yes!” Faith smiled. “They saw us! We have to get down there to them!”

“But how?” Ms Faeshar queried. “I don’t know about any of you, but I sure as heck am not going back down those

hallways.”

Hope nodded in agreement. “Me either.”

“We could climb down, I guess,” Delevan suggested. “It is only the second floor.”

“Well in a school of flesh eating zombies and amateur explosions,” Mercy added looking at Faith, “I’m sure I could think of worse ideas.”

Mathieu pitched in. “Wait. I have an idea.” With that he stood up to window, clambered stiffly onto the ledge and jumped from the window.

“Mathieu!” Faith gasped.

“Is he nuts?” Mercy cried.

We all circled the window and peered down at Mathieu who stood at ground level peering up at us, unscathed.

“So he lands on his feet? What is he, part cat as well, now, or something?” Delevan smirked.

“JUMP DOWN!” Mathieu ordered. “I’LL CATCH YOU!”

So much for staying quit, it’s like they all want to be found and eaten alive.

“THE INJURED ONE, FIRST!”

All eyes were on me.

“That’d be you, Alexis.” Ms Faeshar said bluntly. “It was nice knowing you.”

“I HEARD THAT!” Mathieu shouted back up. “ALEXIS HAS NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT!”

“She’d be nuts to jumped down from the second story, into the arms of a damn flesh-eater!” Delevan spat.

Well, it’s not like we had any other ideas. So when Delevan’s back was turned, I climbed the window sill, knocking my leg accidentally as many times as possible, and jumped from the second story. I felt the wind rush to greet my face and I felt like I was flying, just for a moment, then I blinked, and it was over.
There I was caught and cradled by Mathieu at ground level.

“I’m alright . . .” I noticed.

“You sound surprised.”

I just shook my head. “You can put me down now.”

Mathieu put me down and instructed one-by-one for the others to follow suit. Delevan being reluctant, and last, of course. When we were all safely at ground level, and Delevan finally stopped glaring daggers at me, we headed for the small group that had also decided to make their way over to us, but stopping dead still when they saw Mathieu.

“It’s alright!” Ms Faeshar called out to them. “He’s safe.”

The small group exchanged glances but were still reassured by Ms Faeshar’s words.

“We have two sets of keys to school cars in the parking lot.” The tallest one said when they reached us. About 6’2 the guy must be a senior. In the faded light I could make out a light brown shade of hair and a serious and unmoving face, with a dark scar across one side.

“But if we want to be safe. We have to leave now.”

Chapter 10 - The Great(ly Dangerous) Escape.

What’s worse than being stuck in a zombie-infested high school in the middle of the night, with people you either don’t know, or know well enough not to trust them with your life?

Being carried piggy-back style by one of the people you don’t know, out in the open in the midst of a zombie-infested high school, of course.

“Um,” I mustered. “So, uh. . .”

“Roger.” He finished for me. “My name’s Roger.”

“Right! Roger, uh look you don’t have to carry me like this, you know. I mean it’s really not necessary.”

Even though I was on his back I could tell he was smiling. “Oh, really? So you want me to carry you another way? There’s always bridal-sty-”

“No! That’s not what I meant! I mean that you don’t have to carry me at all!” I interrupted. Roger just laughed.

After our two groups met up, we introduced ourselves – quickly, mind you – agreed on the plan, and headed for the car park. Roger, the tall dark haired, tanned one didn’t so much as offer to carry me, as he did order me to take it easy. The other three – Kieren, Mio and Gahnt – were all from Roger’s senior class that had stayed back to do volunteer work around the school during none-school hours.

Despite Kieren being a senior, he was shorter than 140cm female classmate Mio, and kinda reminded me of a male version of Hope. He had spiky blonde pineapple-like hair, one blue eye, one brown and the stamina of 360 horse-power. He had already sprinted the 200 odd yards to the front school gates and was waving for us to hurry up. He was surprisingly optimistic.

Gahnt to our left gave a short, hearty, heritage German laugh. “Two of you look good.” A dimple appeared in his cheeks when he smiled, and we continued to make our way to the gates. “If not for bad circumstance, you two be good couple.” I felt my face go warm and went to say something, but Roger beat me to it.

“Forgive him Alexis,” He chuckled. “He’s new here and isn’t quite used to social interaction.” He lowered his voice and leaned back a little “Plus he was home-schooled.” I successfully bit back a laugh, though I did hear a snicker come from our right, where Faith, Mercy and Delevan where walking alongside us. Hope was piggy-backing on Mercy’s back, and I noticed her carrying her effortlessly.

I huffed and lay my chin in the crook of Roger’s neck. I took the chance to study my surroundings a bit more. We hadn’t seen any infected since we met up with the new group, so everything was an eerie silent. Ahead of me I noticed Mio. Her build was much like mine, thin, slender and athletic, and her hair was much like mine too. Long, waist-length and pencil straight. She sported the modest knee-length school skirt, whiter than white blouse that almost looked luminescent in the half-baked moonlight, and a long-sleeved maroon blazer. And with the rectangle glasses she sported, she pulled off the genius look quite well.

Upon reaching the gates, we stood in small circle anxiously waiting for someone to take charge and figure out what to do. The gates were locked. And chained and bolted. And how none of us had noticed this before was a complete mystery.

“So, uh,” Mio spoke up after a long minute. “What now?”

“We could jump it.” Delevan said blandly.

Faith slapped him upside the head again. It seemed to be her preferred method for dealing with his – well, whatever it was.

“He’s right.”

Everyone turned to look at Mathieu, who stood an awkward few paces behind us. Keeping his distance. “We don’t have much time. That,” he pointed to the gate. “Is our only way out.”

I blinked. “What do you mean we don’t have much time?” Even in the darkness I could make out the depressed expression on his face.

“They’re catching up.” Was all he said.

We all looked behind him. I think the adrenaline was starting to wear off because none of us had noticed the advancing group of infected that were trailing about 75 metres behind us – noticeable only by a shuffling black outline of numerous bodies. These ones weren’t anything like the ones we’d already encountered. They walked normally, as if they were so confident that we weren’t getting away, and stared straight ahead. Their skin was almost luminous – kind of the opposite of what you’d think a zombie looked like – and then there were their eyes. The pupils and the sclera (the white parts of the eye) were black and the irises were pure white. As they grew nearer I could see their pupils darting from person to person.

Survivor to survivor.

From Dinner to dessert.

Their mouths were twisted into cruel, knowing smirks, and some that were missing half their faces were bearing their teeth as if to snarl at us like wild animals. Though, the term ‘wild animals’ was probably a little too generous a title for them.

About 20 or so metres away then stopped and continued to stare. Our group blinked itself back to reality. Realising we had watched them literally just walk right up to us, we began to panic. I guess I wasn’t the only one terrified and amazed by what I was seeing.

“Wow.” Hope breathed. “What are those?”

Ms Faeshar nodded. I didn’t know why but she did, and then turned to us. “We should hurry.”

I, still on Roger’s back, couldn’t do a thing to stop what happened next. The zombies ran. They charged faster than the Rager’s did. We bolted. We all sprang for the gate and while the others clambered their way to the top – Roger was having a much harder time.

Within seconds the zombies were at the floor of the gate clawing at our feet. Roger had climbed just high enough to keep us safe. Until one of them jumped. A snarling, luminous, zombified teenage boy made a leaping grab for my leg and instead got Roger’s ankle.

“Ahh!” Roger gasped, being pulled back down the gate. He kicked out his leg and connected with the zombie’s face with a loud ‘thunk.’ With the second of freedom, Roger scrambled back up to safety.

“I’m sorry!” I said when we were halfway up the gate, feeling bad that he almost became zombie chow because he was still carrying me. I attempted to grab at the bars of the gate, above my head, to help pull us up but I was just out of reach and it must have looked like I was flailing for help, when Delevan – who was safely at the top of the fence, kneeling on the top bar – reached down and grabbed my wrist.

“What are you doing!?” He scowled.

“Hey!” I retorted, writhing in his grasp. “That’s my question!”

“Pulling you up, genius. What does it look like?”
He grabbed my other hand and attempted to pull me up. Obviously having trouble, Delevan signalled to Mercy next to him, for her to help.

“Right.” Mercy nodded. With that she leant over and grabbed my upper arm, which was an easy feat for her, with her extremely long limbs, and hauled me up and onto the top of the gate. With the weight lifted, Roger was able to climb up the rest of the gate with ease and in about a second.

Finally, when we were all at the top of the gate, safe, sound and up high from the incandescent flesh-eaters, we turned to Gahnt, Mio and Roger.

“What now?” Hope huffed.

Gahnt pointed away from the school – passed the gate – towards a navy blue 4-wheel drive located about 10 feet from the foot of the gate parked on the curb across the street. “We go there.”

“You drive?” Mercy asked. “And 4-wheel drive, at that?”

“No. Kieren drive. Kieren parents car.”

“Yeah, I borrowed it.” Kieren piped up. “Though, technically since the world has been zombified –”

“We don’t know that. Could just be the city. Or the state.” Faith added.

“And his parents, as well as all yours – probably, are dead (but action first, mourning later), he probably can’t return it, so I guess it’s stolen.” Roger finished.

Hope gasped. “Dead?”

Somehow the thought hadn’t crossed anyone’s mind even once since this started. Everyone was silent for a moment as they thought about their families. I too, was silent, but I didn’t really have a family to miss. I mean, yeah Delevan’s family had been alright and all, but they weren’t my family.

An unexpected pain shot through my leg and reminded me for the umpteenth time that a) I, in my current condition was useless, and b) the blood was attracting many more suitors than I’d originally hoped. The zombies were gathering fast at the foot of the gate inside the school and for as far as I could see, the coast on the other side of the fence was clear.

“Um,” I started uncomfortably. “I hate to interrupt our sombre moment and all, but we should probably get to the car and get someplace safer than here, before we attract any more attention.” To demonstrate my point I pointed back down behind us to the still growing crowd of undead that watched us, and waited for just one of us to fall and make their next meal.

Obviously repulsed, Faith gagged and looked away. “Yeah, she’s right. We should.”

In a unanimous agreement to discuss and mourn families and friends later, the group all started down the other side of the gate. Mathieu and Kieren took one look and jumped without hesitation landing below in a squatting position on their feet, stood up and waited for the rest of us to follow. The sturdier of the group; Roger, Delevan, Gahnt and Mercy all clambered down the gate as fast they could, without the zombies reaching through the gaps and biting their faces off, I noticed. Faith got about half-way before slipping off the railing and falling into Mercy’s waiting arms. I remained at the top with Hope and Mio, deciding the best way to get down without more unnecessary bloodshed.

When Roger reached the bottom he looked up at me and gestured for me to jump. “I’ll catch you!” I noticed Delevan give him a dirty look.

"Why should she trust you?” He spat. ‘In fact, why should any of us trust you people?”

“That didn’t seem to be a problem a few minutes ago.” I heard Faith retort.

“What did I

do to you?” Roger asked with a raised eyebrow.

Gahnt shook his head and elbowed his way past the two of them. “I catch you.” He smiled. I smiled back, braced myself and jumped from the gate. I figure it was a shorter distance than the window in the school, so hey, why not?

I landed easily in Gahnt’s arms, and he put me on the ground and offered his shoulder to steady myself. He smiled again. “Most people would shut eyes when jumping.” I smiled, proud of myself. “I’ve been there, done that, and now I’m an expert.” I laughed. Roger and Delevan hadn’t noticed and were intently glaring at each other.

I noticed Mio pluck up the courage to climb down and Mercy catch Hope as she jumped. When we were all on the ground once more, I turned to Roger and Delevan. “Come, on guys. Let’s go. Chop, Chop.”

The two broke away from their mental battle long enough to give me a confused stare, and I shrugged it off and headed sorely to the car. “Now

.” I shot back, and after a moment they followed.

Mio led the way with a brisk and edgy walk, she was anxious to get to the car and get out of here. I could understand that.

“Problem.” Mercy spoke up when we reached the car. There is eleven of s, and a 4-wheel drive seats 7. Now what?”

Ms Faeshar stepped up. “I’ve got an idea.”

Within minutes we were all seated in the car. Ms Faeshar up the front in the driver’s seat, and Mathieu in the front passenger seat. Gahnt, Mercy, Mio and Kieren managed to squish in the back. Which left Delevan, Faith and Roger (an ironic grouping) in the very back seats. Hope sat between Mercy’s legs, subconsciously twining hair into braids, and I sat on Gahnt’s lap with my leg extended across Mio’s.

“Right.” Came Ms Faeshar’s voice from the front. “We’re off.” And after a few stalled starts, we were.

Chapter 11 - A Close Call.

“So where are we going exactly?”

It had been about six hours since we had begun our car ride, meaning it was the early morning, and needless to say we were all a bit antsy. We had stopped the car only once since we got in, and that was to refill on fuel and grab some supplies at a local gas station called Marety’s. Mercy, Roger, Gahnt and I had gone in, while Mathieu had been the lookout while he refuelled the car. No one was very pleased that I went in. But I needed bandages, some painkillers and antibacterial cream. The painkillers were a wise choice, as I soon found out that the entire place was trashed. I tripped over everything.

The lights were out, and it had still been dark out, so torches had been our first priority. The aisles were tipped, windows smashed and a large pool of still wet blood behind the counter and the back wall, told us there were more infected somewhere close by. While Mercy and Gahnt scoured the place for any usable weapons or food, I had become responsible for the medical supplies. Roger stood at the end of the aisle watching me – either making sure I didn’t make too much noise dragging my keg around or watching my back – either way I was grateful. We had unanimously decide that the less time we spent there the better, and once we had what we came for, plus water from the back fridges which were also trashed and almost bare, we loaded up as quick as possible and were again on our way.

By now everyone was taking the time to either gather their thoughts, or was sound asleep. Gahnt looked down at me, wide awake, and nodded out the window. The school was on the coast so it didn’t take long for us to reach the water. We were travelling down the highway that led to the city outskirts and to our left was endless ocean of blue, which had, I noticed, a small island in the midst of it. It was about 10miles out to sea.

“There?” I asked. “Is that the military base we talked about?”

He nodded.

“Does anyone find it odd that we haven’t seen a zombie even once since we left the school?” Mercy yawned from the right side passenger seat. “Even at that the fuel station.”

“We saw blood.” I offered. “Lots of it.”

Mercy nodded and wiped the sleep from her eyes, careful not to disturb the sleeping Hope in her arms. “Yeah, but no actual zombies.”

The car jolted over a speed bump and knocked Faith from her sleep in the back, hitting her head back against the back window. “Aah! Son of a –”

“Morning, Faith.” I smiled without looking at her.

“Mmpf.” She grumbled back.

Mercy turned to Faith and asked her the same question she asked me only seconds ago, and was answered with a blank look. “Dunno. Maybe they’ve headed off somewhere.”
Obviously unsatisfied with the answer, Mercy turned back around to face the front, and huffed. After another few moments of silence I noticed we had begun to speed up. We had gone from doing 70 in a 60 zone – what? It’s not like there’s any point in obeying the road rules now – to doing over 130mp/h in a 60 zone. The 4-wheel drive jolted in defiance before it sprang faster and faster down the highway.

“Whoa! Hey, what the hell?” Faith demands in a shrill voice from behind me. Ms Faeshar ignored her and shoved the car into the highest gear and slammed on the gas as hard as possible, sending the rest of us into a panicked frenzy in the back. I noticed Ms Faeshar check the rear-view mirror a few times and attempted to swivel around to figure out what had caused this kind of reaction. Just barely, I could see something that propelled my heart fifth gear. We were being followed. A sleek black SS V8 commodore was travelling even faster than we were and was tailing us like dog chases a cat.

“I don’t get it.” I said aloud. I mean sure we were being followed, but they didn’t really seem like much of a threat - whoever they were. “Why are we speeding up? The more the merrier, right? Maybe they have some extra supplies and stuff. Maybe we should stop.”

Mio, recently awoken, nodded. “Yes, Miss, what’s the matter?”

Ms Faeshar stayed silent and gave me a cold stare from the rear-view mirror.

“I think that means we aren’t stopping,” Roger observed, noticing Ms Faeshar’s response. “Someone we know?”

I turned back to the advancing car and tried to get a glimpse of our follower/s. Then I hear it. The ting, ting, ting

sound of something hitting the frame of the 4-wheel drive. My stomach lurched.

Gunfire.

Everyone was quiet again for a moment and their faces slowly twisted into expressions of terror, surprise and the infamous – what the (beep). I didn’t care who it was, there was no way I was stopping for them now.

“Holy Cow! Is that gunfire?!?” Delevan gasped.

“They’re shooting

at us?” Mercy followed. She said the word as if she’d never heard of a gun before. I look to the front and realise we’re running out of road. The highway split in two at a dead end, which was a rocky mountain side. One to the left, which led to the pier, and the other to the right, which curved around the mountain base and disappeared from view.

The sound of automatic guns gets louder and louder nailing the 4-wheel drive from behind and everyone’s face fell when there was a sickening jerk as one of the back tires is hit and explodes.

“What do we do?” Hope cried. “They’re gaining on us!” The mountain side loomed above us as we sped towards it, and Ms Faeshar speeds up.

“Seatbelts!” She demands.

Everyone straps in, which was hard since I had to share with Gahnt, and Hope had to share with Mercy, but nonetheless we still did it. In a split second the car, lurches forward again, going almost 200mp/h, full-throttling down the remainder of the highway, and instinctively I grabbed the support beam above the window and held on for dear, precious, sweet life. Gahnt puts his arms around my shoulders reassuringly and also grabs the support bar.

Roger whistles appreciatively. “You go, Ms!”

Just about 20 metres from the T-section, Ms Faeshar slams on the breaks and careens the car 90 degrees to the left, barely scrapping by the rocky surface and heading down the path that led to the pier. I couldn’t help but notice something out of the corner of my eye, down the right path.

“The pier?!” Kieren shrieked. “This car can’t sim, Ms!!”

Everyone was panicked. The pier was just as sturdy as the road, but not as long.

“Shit. We won’t stop in time!” Roger said, rightly. Ms Faeshar swung the car hard to the right and slammed on the breaks, attempting to 360 the car to a stop. We impact hard, hitting a docked white stream-liner, leaving the back end ploughed in and dented. The metal of the car screeches in pain as it grinds against the hard surface of the boat. We are all rocked forward against our seatbelts. The 4-wheel drive seemed to jump forward, the back tires lifting a few feet of the ground before slamming back down on the bitumen, and finally after a few tantalising minutes of terror the car clunked to a halt.

Without word, or notion Ms Faeshar jumped from the car and circled round it to the boat at the end of the pier – one we hadn’t managed to hit – and jumped on-board, disappearing for a few moments.

The car had been turned around, and now we were facing the road which we came from and the black car that was closing the distance between us.

“Mathieu!” Ms Faeshar ordered from inside the boat. “Distract them!”

Being already somewhat dead, Mathieu nodded. “You. All of you.” He demanded looking back at the rest of us. “Out. Grab the supplies and head for the boat. Load them up as fast as possible. Now, hurry!”

Bullets continued to fly in our direction and the front windscreen imploded shattering glass all over us. We didn’t need any more convincing. Grabbing as many bags and supplies as we could carry we undid our seatbelts and practically leapt from the car. No sooner, though did the 4-wheel drive rev itself to life.

“What the??” Mio freaked as she was still only half out the door when the car took to life and revved carnivorously. We all headed for the boat. A white and silver cruiser the size of a house. Roger helped me hobble to the entrance while Gahnt carried my share of the supplies. I noticed a small script print on the side of the boat.

S.S. Ederle.

I heard the car spring forward and most of us turned to look. Mathieu had taken the wheel and started speeding towards the commodore. They were neck and neck for both to survive one had to stop. But neither did. The distance between them shortened. Mercy grabbed Hope and jumped aboard the boat distracting her from what was about to happen, Mio voluntarily boarded the boat and rushed in side to avoid the sight, and Roger with supplies, also sprinted for the boat.

50m . . . . . 40m . . . . . 30m . . . . . 20m . . . . . 10m . . . . .

The crash was deafening. Metal against metal shrieked in angst, lights and windows smashed, the fronts of both cars, squashed and melded as if to become one. The two cars collided with such a force that caused both too spin out of control, and veer helplessly into other docked boats.
The black commodore’s engine exploded on impact, obviously not made for so much damage, while the 4-wheel drive sprang oil and started to combust. From here, we could see Mathieu slumped over the steering wheel, bloodied and in pain. Surprisingly though, he wasn’t unconscious.

There was a sigh of relief that swept through our group, which was quickly dispersed. A large group of infected had come from around the mountain and were making their way across the pier. Some faster than others. Within seconds, everyone was unfrozen moving again, hurrying to fill the boat as fast as possible. I, though, didn’t move. Unsure of how to respond to the situation. There were a few clicks, and then suddenly the boat was brought to life. I glanced behind me watching everyone hurry to get away from the pier and blinked. Somehow, everything was a lot harder to process. The car door of the 4-wheel drive flew from its hinges and landed a few feet away from me, and I watched Mathieu crawl from the wreckage. Landing on the ground with a stomach turning, wet thud.

He shook himself off and slowly got to his feet, limping his way over to the boat. The infected were still pretty far behind him, but at the pace he was going, it wouldn’t take long. Not that there would be too much to worry about since he isn’t technically still alive. But still.

“Alexis!!” I spun back. Hope was waving to me. “Come on! The car isn’t going to last long.”

What did she mean by that?

Then it occurred to me. Ms Faeshar had seen the zombies before we reached the T-section. She knew this would happen. The cars were now both in flames and created a barricade between us and the infected. I wasn’t quite sure if Hope meant the cars wouldn’t last long as a barricade, or the car itself wouldn’t last long, but either way she was right. It was only a matter of time before they both exploded. Ms Faeshar was a lot smarter than I gave her credit for.

During my thoughts, I hadn’t noticed Mathieu had limped his way over to me. “Come on, Alexis. She’s right. Let’s go.” I put his arm over my shoulder and helped carry him the rest of the way to the boat. “Aren’t you yourself in need of assistance? You shouldn’t be carrying me.” He pointed out. I remained silent and got Gahnt to help me slide him over the railing and into the boat. The groaning and snarls got louder, I noticed, when I was finally on the boat myself.

“Ms! We’re ready to go now!!” Faith informed her. “Let’s get out of here.” Roger pulled up the anchor and threw it besides the railing on the inside of the boat. The boat eased forward slowly but steadily, and just seconds before the cars both exploded, sending us all flying backwards into the boat. Then everything went black.

Chapter 11.5 - Sudden Circumstance

 

 

 

Color came back into the world very slowly. At first, I thought the blast had somehow made me color-blind, but it wasn’t long before I realized that it was well and truly night fall, quicker still to realize how warm I was. I tried to sit up only to find an immovable heaviness on my chest. When the blobs and blurs finally started to form into actual objects, things became clearer. What looked to be Mathieu lie across my stomach, head propped up against the side of the boat – unconscious. I paused for a moment, listening for any indication of life, but nothing, apart from the gentle sway of the still afloat water craft, could be heard. It was almost too quiet.

 

Even after such a small amount of time, I’d learned by now that a combination of eerie quiet, and lying out in the open wasn’t a good idea. I squirmed my way out from under the body and shoot to my feet, alert and anxious. After a quick wave of dizziness and a stumble later, I was awake enough to take in all the bodies. As if strewn haphazardly by some fire based demigod, each sported burns and more than a few had open wounds. As the boat swayed with the ocean, a torch previously under the largest body, most likely Ms. Faeshars’, rolled to a stop at my feet. Fighting the urge to collapse to the floor, I picked it up and flicked it on – bracing myself for the damage. The first thing of note was the old blood; dried and clotted around each of the members of our group. The second thing of note was that none of the bodies were recognizable. Burnt faces, and charred remains, it was a wonder no horrid smell had permeated the air.

 

I turned back and checked the closest body to me; Mathieu. Except it wasn’t.

 

I took note of the long braided hair and significantly lighter shade of skin. A girl, or young woman, easily older than I, that I’d never seen before. She lay still and quiet. Were it not for the gaping hole in her shoulder and completely charred left side, one could assume she were asleep. Upon first instinct, I leaned in to check her pulse and grew as cold as she when I did not find one. I checked her breathing and found no more help. She was dead. And judging by the pale gray of her skin, that I now took notice of, it had been for some time. Blood was dried around her fingernails around a large wound on her shoulder.

 

A bite.

 

Frantically I grabbed hold of the next nearest body and rolled it with as much might as I could muster. Most of the face was missing, and the scalp had been burned so deep you could see bone. The skin that wasn’t burnt, albeit it wasn’t much, had an oddly blue hue to it. One would almost think it had been dead for some time now. It was the eyes that eventually gave it away; matte red eyes with engorged pupils. Somehow they’d remained intact throughout whatever ordeal it had been through. Dropping the cranium and jumping back I watched it in horror.

 

A zombie.

 

But it did not stir. Not even a flicker of its eyes. It simply lay where I dropped it looking up at me with crimson indifference. I recalled briefly my first encounter with the undead and the way that its eyes faded to a bleak darkness after it had been successfully put down, and remained still a few more seconds before curiosity took over. If there was one thing I knew, it was that they didn’t hesitate when they saw you.

 

Under the glistening night sky, I discovered that not only was I not in the same boat I remembered clambering onto before, but that I was also irrefutably and undeniably alone on a boat full of dead people.

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 04.11.2011

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