"I need...cough...a mask!"
Ducking below the black smoke with tears in my eye, I rush back into the chemistry lab.
Once I was back in, I went back into the storage room to find me some cloth. Luckily, after searching around for a few minutes, I found a box full of lab coats.
Taking one of them, I exit the storage room and walk to the emergency shower that was on my left, in the lower left most corner of the classroom.
RIP!
PSHH!
Tearing off the sleeves of the lab coat, I turn on the emergency shower and soak them in water.
"...Oops, how can I forget about goggles!"
Leaving the two sleeves under the running shower, I rush back into the storage room one more time. In there, I rummaged around a bit in a few boxes before I found an old pair of scratched safety goggles.
Putting those on, I exit the storage room and walk back towards the emergency shower, cutting it off once I got close.
Picking up the now drenched sleeves, I wring them out just enough so that they were damp and tied them both around my mouth and nose.
Although this mask is improvised and probably won't work as good as a professional grade gas mask, it's just enough to get me through the smoke.
...Fingers crossed.
While having doubts about my makeshift mask, I gather my courage and enter the smoke filled hallway. The fire was getting more intense as the smoke was turning blacker.
I could even hear the faint crackle of the fire followed by something falling to the ground.
The fire's getting close.
"I need to find David and the others fast."
If I can believe that Faith made it to the garage to get help, then I can get my bottom dollar that David and the others are coming for me. However, I don't know where they're at.
With all this smoke blocking my sight and the encroaching fire, trying to find them is going to be a hassle.
Should I call out there names? But wouldn't that attract the infected over?
Ah, who gives a f*ck!
As long as it's not a group of infected, I can just dodge any stragglers that may come my way. Therefore…
"David! Sara! Big Sis!"
I shouted their names as loud as I could.
=========
(Andy's POV)
"Aah!"
SMASH!
"What was that explosion?"
After killing an infected, I asked rumbly as I looked at everyone puzzled. David and the rest of were the same as well.
We didn't know what that explosion was.
After a few moments of us pondering...
"...Didn't come from the cafeteria?"
Sara suddenly came up with this conjecture. And if one was to think about it, it sounded plausible.
I never missed a day of lunch so I know the cafeteria and the area around it like the back of my hand. Therefore, I have a good general direction as to where the cafeteria is.
And that explosion seemed to have originated from there.
"Let's hurry! Something might've happened!"
Feeling anxious about the fate of Desmond, President Yang rushed towards the cafeteria.
"She's right. We got to hurry!"
"Right!"
"W-wait for me!"
David, Sara and Amanda said as they chased after President Yang.
"Sigh, I'm too chubby for all this running!"
I grumbled as I tried to catch up with Amanda and the others.
Despite me being a little on the heavy side, I can proudly boast that I'm quite the nimble fella. I can dodge hails of paintball pellets shot at me, I can outrun my neighbors Chihuahua and I'm usually in the top five people in line for lunch in my lunch period despite being on the other side of school.
However, after running around killing all these infected back to back with only a few hours of rest, I'm pretty tuckered out.
"Desmond you better be lucky that you're my only friend. Otherwise, I wouldn't go through all this trouble."
I can remember the time we first met, it was our sophomore year in homeroom.
I admit when I first saw Desmond, I didn't like him that much. Why? Easy. Because he was better looking than me.
Although back then he had messy hair and an untidy appearance, I could see hints that he was a ikeman.
You see, back then, I hated ikemans with a passion. The reason for that was because of an incident in middle school where I confessed to the girl I liked, as for her name, she will remain nameless.
And as you could guess, yes, I was rejected. Was I hurt? Yeah, I was a little sad but that wasn't what made me hate ikemen. It was what she said after she rejected me.
'I don't go out with fat people like you. I'm into boys like Quentin Burnston. He's way more handsome and sexier compared to you who's fat and ugly.'
Those words hit me hard. I mean, couldn't she have said something like 'I can't go out with boys who play with robots all day' or 'I don't like otakus' instead of going straight to the body shaming?
I know I'm a little fat but damn, why am I ugly? My mom said I was handsome.
To make things worse, I developed a hatred for a totally innocent person.
Although Quentin Burnston was a rich pretty boy who had everything, he wasn't snobby. Actually, he was a kind guy who was easy to get along with.
It's just that b*tch distorted my thoughts about him and ikemen in general.
It was only after meeting Desmond that my hatred for ikeman as a whole subsided exponentially.
As for how he did that, he only said one sentence.
'I see you wanted to be the main character huh?'
Those who don't watch anime or read manga probably wouldn't understand what he meant but I knew.
We both chose seats that were the farthest away from the teacher but closest to the windows, allowing us to have a good view of the football field and track that surrounded it.
Desmond had the very last seat in the back while I had the seat in front of it. And this seat went by a special name.
The protagonist's seat.
I chose this seat because I wanted to change myself for the better. I wanted to become a main character.
And it seemed that Desmond understood this as well.
He put his hand on my shoulder and said with empathetic eyes.
'Don't worry my friend, your time will come'
After that, we talked about any and everything and found out we had many similar interests.
When we found out that we both liked going to paintball matches, watching anime, even liking the same p*rn.
It was like finding a true bro!
From that moment on we were the best of friends.
And because we're the best of friends…
"He better give me his Saber scale figure. I've been eying it for a while to add to my collection and now I have the perfect excuse to get it."
Call me selfish but whether the world's going to hell in a handbasket or not, I'm going to get that scale figure!