'... humans must adapt... and so they did...'
Day one
Dion was in a state of shock, his chest heaved at a rapid rate, and his breath came in quick bursts, at some point his temperature was rapidly rising and his vision grew blurry, his leg shaky. He was hyperventilating.
It was sudden, but it was at that specific moment that he felt something hard hit the back of his head, he staggered but did not fall, a sharp pain blinded him and caused his somewhat shaky vision to clear instantly.
He turned towards James in disbelief, "You… you… you head-butted me".
James looked at him, his gaze full of anger, "Run you fool, do you want to die too, their all dead you moron".
'Yes, they're all dead, there's nothing I could do'.
It sounded hollow even to him, but it did give him the courage to start moving. He pulled James along and made a break for the school block, leaving behind the screams and pleas and the sound of death.
As he ran he prayed fervently for them to be missed by all of those zombies, for he knew that his weak and shaky leg won't be able to make it, but mercifully enough, or perhaps most cruelly, the cannibals were too busy feasting on the flesh of the defenseless students to notice him.
In a few seconds they had arrived inside the school block.
Dion was breathing hard, his lungs felt on fire and his nose was in contrast a frozen block, his heart was beating almost ten times in a single second and his legs were about to give out any moment, but it was alright now, he was finally safe, within the walls of the school there were no…
"Grrrrrrr," a sound echoed across the hallway.
Dion's heart nearly stopped beating, the transition from relief to despair so overwhelming he nearly collapsed. They had just pulled open the double doors of the school, which was facing the doors of the science lab and the hallway ran in between across both sides, the growling noise had probably sounded from somewhere far down the left hallway, somewhere out of his sight.
Dion let go of James and crouched down, he sat on the floor with his back to the wall.
"What are you doing, you fool?" James demanded harshly, he was barely standing without support from Dion, but he made sure to keep his voice low enough so as to not alert the beast.
'What am I even doing?' Dion was even more confused. 'How could I make such a clumsy mistake'
No maybe it wasn't a mistake, perhaps it was always lingering somewhere at the back of his mind but he had been too terrified to take enough notice of it, he had been forcing himself to ignore something so important, and now they were paying the price for his cowardice.
It was all too simple really, unlike the bully and some others who were turned after being eaten alive, there were still some like the lean shy boy who had turned immediately after the signal stopped, if so, what was stopping the same from happening among the students who were within the block.
Dion sighed tiredly, after the bell had gone off for break, some students had remained within the school block albeit lesser, while some had moved out to hang out, the later were the set he had encountered outside now, while the former which should be fewer were those he was about to encounter now, or had already encountered as the growl that had resounded across the hall earlier surely came from a zombie student.
Dion found himself wishing that the students who hung out together were fewer so as to reduce the speed of the contamination, he still remembered the scene earlier from outside, honestly he wasn't sure he would ever forget, the reason why so many people died – and were still dying – was because of how congested the place was, and coupled with the hell-sent paralysis, it was a feast.
Coming back to the present, he noticed the growls coming closer and a shuffling sound that sounded like the creature was dragging its broken foot across the floor.
He looked up despairingly and found James looking down the hall, James had calmed down considerably by now, his eyes were focused and narrowed as he zeroed them in the direction of their approaching death.
"What… what do you want to do?" Dion asked shakily, he didn't know why but just simple looking at him, James had somehow given him some courage, looking at that determined and confident posture Dion almost felt safe… almost.
At his question James turned back to look at him, his eyes cold and chilling, "'We' are going to kill it… we must".
'Wait what?'
Kill it? And don't even get me started on the 'we'.
"Kill it?" he asked shakily.
James turned to face the approaching noise, even now it drew closer and closer still.
"We must," he sounded grim.
Dion paused for a moment, staring at James in disbelief, after being silent for a while longer, he blurted out…
"I thought students weren't allowed to smoke at school?"
James, "…"
For a while he was speechless, and looking at that innocent look on Dion's face he felt a semblance of annoyance creeping in.
"Pray do tell, SP," he asked with gritted teeth. "Why do you think I would smoke?"
Dion looked shocked, "You don't?"
James felt a vein pop across his forehead, why did this guy look so… so… innocently surprised?
"No, I don't," he tried to sound as calm as he could.
"Hmmm," Dion mused, seemingly confused.
'Why must he look so…'
Suddenly Dion's eyes brightened and James had a bad premonition, he pointed at James.
"Alcohol right," Dion nodded, like an all knowing sage full of wisdom. "I know some of you guys smuggle them into – "
"No, not that," James sounded eerily calm.
"Huh?" Dion paused, then nodded. "So it must be marijua – "
"I should inform you that your next words may very well be your last," James spoke suddenly with a chilling tone.
Dion looked up alarmed to find James gazing at him coldly.
He laughed awkwardly and rubbed his hair. But he had to admit that he wasn't as scared as he was before now, make no mistake he was still scared and his heart still nearly beat out his chest when he thought about the prospects of what he was about to do right now, but right now he could see hope, even though a little bit, but he could finally think about the future, he could somewhat now plan ahead.
"Get prepared SP," James said suddenly. "It's already here".
Dion's heart nearly leaped out his throat.
'Huh?'
"Wait… what," he was shocked.
'Right now, right here… like right now… now!?'
"We will use a very simple tested and trusted strategy," James continued, a little bit too calm for a normal teenager.
"Tested and trusted?"
James paused and then turned back to look at Dion with a smile, it was the first time Dion had seen him smile, but Dion suddenly felt very uncomfortable.
"The bait strategy".
"Bait huh?" Dion mused. "Well, I don't know about you, but I don't see any piece of meat lying around. I got a chocolate bar in my pocket, but I doubt those things are vegetarians".
James smiled again, "Oh, I don't know about vegetarians, but… I've got meat".
Suddenly his smile seemed more dangerous and demonic, and Dion felt a chill run up his spine and goosebumps race across his skin, once again he was suddenly feeling very cold.