As Niko returned and the plan slowly initiated, I made my way out of the middle room while everybody slowly moved toward the lunch room. I wasn't really sure how to go about getting into the lunch room at the same time as Korin, so I walked in behind Skylar and Connie, while Niko and Cody stayed behind.
I lightly opened the lunch room door near the beginning of the night and walked in, looking around, and sitting at the table. All of the adults had left by now, which meant that all that was left to do was to wait for Korin to enter and then steal with him.
I forgot what the lunch room looked like when it was dark. It was almost pitch-black, besides some reflective paneling on the roof which lit up small spots all around, and a lit candle by the door to help people find the exit.
I sat at the table for about two minutes, then got bored, and walked over to the fridge to see what he was stealing. They constantly said apples, but to disprove my theory about it only being fruit, I wanted to see what was really going on. I opened the fridge, and peered in... but it was almost completely empty. There were about three apples left, and I went to reach for one.
"So, you want to tell me what you're doing stealing from the cafeteria?" Korin snuck up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder. I freaked out, and jumped, shutting the door in front of me, and quickly turning around.
He seemed interested in my reason, instead of ready to snitch on me, so I played his game.
"Well... I was just a little hungry, that was all. What does it matter to you?" I asked him. I tried to keep a straight, inquisitive face, but even Korin could read through my deception.
"It doesn't, I just wanted to see if we were doing the same thing. You didn't see the horse then, have you?" He asked me.
I paused for a moment, staring at him with my mouth slightly open while thinking about what he said. Horse? I didn't know there were any nearby us...
"No... there's a horse? Where's the horse?! I wanna see!" I asked him eagerly. I was hoping he'd show me, as I was always interested in animals that I commonly saw on a farm or in the zoo. They were unnaturally placed, and quite entertaining most of the time.
"I'll show you, but you can't tell anybody else. I don't want them to scare him," Korin told me. I nodded, following him out of the lunch room and toward the candle in the hallway.
"Why would you think that we'd scare him away? Does he only ever move at night? I mean, he could be a pretty useful ally in our progression," I suggested, but Korin seemed closed off to the idea.
"You wouldn't get it. I don't expect you to ever understand, Leo," He said my name weirdly again as we walked toward the back of the school.
I reluctantly started to follow him from a farther distance, trying to see this Horse he kept talking about.
Around the edge of the school was a fence line built before we had the other one built along the street. This lined houses that were right behind the school, and were much thinner. However, we never had a problem, so we constantly focused on the wall by the street instead of this area.
We walked through the long grass in our backyard, watching the mosquitos and other bugs fly by when I noticed a strange hum coming from the darkened forest behind the fence.
"What am I not supposed to understand? Where's the horse at? On the other side of the fence?" I asked Korin. The hum slowly got louder and louder as we walked toward the fence line. After a certain point, I stopped, looking at Korin from a good distance away.
"Where is this horse? You can't just point it out from here? Or show me during the day?" I asked him again. Korin stopped in the tall grass and turned around at me. I noticed his eyes seemed absent, almost annoyed, before he pointed toward the fence to our right.
"It's not a horse... I lied to you. You'll forgive me, right, Leo? It's much, much more than a horse," He said. He began to walk toward the fence again, holding a flashlight up out of his pocket, and pointing it toward a person at the edge of the fence. I inched closer, staying far away from Korin. He was scaring me, and I wanted to run at this point.
"When I told you my story, Leo, I left out a crucial part about my sister. I'm not sure if you know about this part of the zombies, but if your brain isn't destroyed, the chances of you coming back as a zombie are a guaranteed percentage. All in all, somebody has to kill you twice. Once to destroy your humanity, and once more to destroy the monster that took over you," Korin didn't keep his overly confident attitude as he explained, rather he was dull in his explanation and acted like he had pent-up emotions waiting to be unleashed.
"I'm not harming anybody, and you're not in danger... I'm just feeding my sister until there's a cure and she can come back," He told me. He turned back toward her, shining the flashlight in her eyes. I almost felt sick looking at Korin's sister.
Just like his demented description of her initially, her face was in shreds. Like a door hinge, the left side was blown out and hanging off of her face. I could see her right eye slightly sticking out of the mess of hanging skin and slowly bouncing back and forth due to the loose skin. She mumbled a lot, not a coherent word came out of her mouth, and she looked grey like she lost all life and the color of her skin. I knew she was dead, but did Korin?
"Korin... you're keeping your sister alive?" I asked him. The humming got even louder... until it became more definitive.
It wasn't humming, they were moans of the zombies behind her. One part of explaining the zombies that I know now that I didn't before was that the moaning of one zombie, begging to be put out of their misery, attracts others. And those two attract more and more, and more, and more.
We hadn't seen a zombie around here for a very long time, but that must've been because Korin's sister, who he trapped there, attracted them all, and held them in the forest, trapped in a small decline in the trees that let them build up for over three months since we last saw one.
"Korin... this is madness! You need to back away, you don't want them to see you!" I whispered loudly to him. I stayed under the top of the grass, trying to see him through the tiny lines in my vision.
"Chill out Leo, I've been feeding her ever since I found her. It's fine, they're not going to care. Plus, nobody even gets this close to this part of the fence. So long as I keep her pleased and stay far away, they won't do a thing. Now that you've seen my horse, you'll keep this a secret, won't you?" Korin asked me again.
His eyes looked dangerous as if he was threatening me. He could easily escape with his family and be on the run again, but if our home was ruined, where would we go?
For a split second, I started to think about how Jack showed up, being chased by an Intellect, and how they were all bunched up here... they were starting to spread, and the signs for it appeared earlier today.
No matter what, I had to find a way to let Dad know without Korin overhearing it.
"Let's change it up a little... you'll help me keep adults away from here. If anybody comes close to us... and this fence holding them back...? I'll kill you," Korin said.
A perfect, immediate threat. A signed deal that made me internalize that I failed to be his friend.
With my gun on my hip holster, I knew that here, I could end everything. All problems that would ever come up between Korin and me. In fact, it's what my Dad specifically asked me to do.
I wanted to hold out on him a little more... Korin was valuable, I can't just overlook that because we disagree on something... What do I do...