'face to face with extinction, man must face his true nature...'
Day one
It was a reasonable thought that everyone agreed to, they had to leave here.
The zombies frequented the hallways often and the classroom was too close, if they were somehow discovered they would be boxed in with no path to retreat and an overwhelming number of foes approaching.
"We should go up, take the stairs," Dion began. "We can - "
"Ha!" Osaremeh scoffed. "Why should we go up, are you stupid, we don't even know what's up there".
Dion frowned, this guy was rude.
" The second floor should have a much lower population, this - "
" Bullsh*t," Osaremeh yawned. "I'm hungry, let's go to the cafeteria".
Dion opened his mouth in shock, 'Is he serious?'
His words received appreciation from the other two.
A simple statement but it laid bare how serious these guys thought of the threat outside the door.
These fools...
Dion realized he was slowly loosing ground, so he erupted in anger.
"You, Cocksuckers! Are you trying to kill everyone with your foolishness, we should be running away from there, not to it!"
There was a momentary pause after his outburst, like a foreboding, a sense of seriousness that seemed to affect all of them.
Osaremeh frowned.
"You sure talk a lot for someone who was passed out for an hour, if not for our boss here you would already be dead".
It seemed when they saw him passed out from James' punch, they thought he was still paralyzed by the phone signals.
The two others chuckled dryly, the trio seemed angry, their eyes glimmering with an unfriendly light.
"You still seem to think that school rules apply here," Osaremeh closed in, he tried to make himself as large and intimidating as possible.
Dion frowned.
He knew what was going on here, he may have been harsh with his words but he hadn't even spoken anything forceful or acted like he was their senior, yet they were trying to rile him up.
It was obvious all three of them had serious problems with him, and were trying to get him to act out.
'This is going to be a problem'.
"Back off," James warned, his voice sounded very low and chilling.
Osaremeh gave a mocking smile and then raised his hands in surrender, "Sorry, my bad SP".
He raised his hand up for a handshake.
"Let's make peace".
Dion looked at him with undisguised distate, then stepped forward, his voice translating his mood.
"Piss off!"
The smile on Osaremeh's face froze for a bit, then all of a sudden a vicious beast-like expression overtook his face.
"F*ck you!" He yelled.
Then with his strong arms, he drew Dion towards him and kneed him in the stomach.
Ack!
Dion's eyes spilled open as his glasses fell and saliva escaped from his mouth. A stabbing pain spread through his body and for a brief moment he lost his ability to speak.
Between the intense day and the blow he had received to his forehead, his body couldn't take it anymore
He doubled over while clutching his belly, and dropped to the ground seconds after leaving it.
"You bastard!" James stepped forward.
But just as he did, one of the boys behind stepped forward with an iron pipe in his hand, it had been sharpened at its tip making the hollow tool a vicious weapon, signs of its usage were already there as the weapon was coated in a layer of blood, which had darkened in colour as it dried.
James was forced to stop and reconsider the situation.
These guys...
It was obvious they had used it, aside from the blood coating the pipe, their attitudes were dead giveaways, after snuffing out those creatures they now carried themselves with a certain gait born by their disillusions of invisibility.
They were probably feeling the rush, James frowned. After taking a life they probably placed themselves above the others, it was a subconscious movement, a transition from prey to predator.
That was perhaps one of the reasons Osaremeh had attacked Dion. Dion brought logic and order, a standardized way of approaching things, but to these new alphas order and logic was a barrier, a barrier keeping them from blooming, couple that with their hatred for the Senior Prefect and you would have the current situation.
James knew these kinds of people quite well, they thrived well in such an apocalypse. In less time they would be content with taking even human lives and soon they would be indistinguishable from these mindless cannibals.
He knew such people very well.
He suddenly felt like his and Dion's lives were in danger, and he didn't want to test the readiness of the trio to plunging that pipe into them
What made him very angry was that he was the one who brought them here, Dion had discovered such a safe place for them both, but in his clumsiness he had knocked Dion out instead, and allowed these beasts in.
He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, all because he was scared, all these happened because he was afraid.
He felt guilty, and worse... useless.
'What would you do if you were here?' he borrowed strength from somewhere unseen.
"Brian!" he addressed the one holding the pipe. "What are you doing, do you realize that I am here?"
"Sorry boss," Brian scratched his head. "Osa just said he wants to eat, you guys were the ones who read too much to it..." he paused, then added with a weird tone. "You are coming with us... right?"
A simple and innocent question, yet it's essence held within it the lives of two young men.
James' pupils trembled, he was wrong, the day wasn't in the future...it had already arrived, these bastards no longer took human lives as anything.
His eyes was drawn to the pipe Brian was holding, and the dried blood caked on it.
'Just how many people had they killed already'.
James' eyes grew colder and colder still, his lips trembling in anger.
"Sure," it was Dion that answered this time, his vision was terribly dizzy and most of his body was still aching, but he drew himself up shakily and forced out a smile, "I just remembered how hungry I am too".
The cold coming off James' eyes had long since dropped below zero degrees.
Dion reached a hand and squeezed his shoulder.
Dion had realized that these people were no longer humans, they were going to kill them and for no benefits at that.
It wasn't even fun for them, just something they could and would do if necessary.
Dion frowned, the apocalypse had barely started for humanity to already be this twisted.
It seemed humanity as a whole had crossed a vast chasm the moment this apocalypse began, one they may well likely be unable to take a step back from.
Osaremeh paused for a while, then blinked, before laughing out, "Wow SP, you never cease to amaze me...," his eyes then turned very cold. "Let's move!"