'a first, a first of many, a sign of many to come'
Day One
"But that is instead an advantage," Dion continued despite their puzzled glances. "Unlike a continuous sound a gun shot is just a single burst of sound. In this hallways, that burst will echo making it even more difficult to pinpoint the origin, and even if there are any near enough to do so, by the time they start moving they would have lost the sound as it would have stopped".
"Even if there are any that somehow wanders into our hallway, they shouldn't be more than one or two, if so... we will deal with that when it comes up".
Obinna and the two girls, "..."
Obinna sighed, " Should've known you would think of that".
After a moment of hesitation, Pelumi turned towards James and asked him with a slightly shaky voice.
"Did you know all this too?"
"No".
" Then why did you agree to it immediately?" her voice sounded frustrated.
" Because he asked me to ".
"..."
"..."
"..."
The reply was short and precise, like he was talking about something obvious.
James seeing their weird reactions hesitated, then added, "He's got the brains, just do whatever he says, don't bother thinking it out... trust me on that".
They had no response for James so Dion chipped in.
"Most importantly," Dion said. "Once James takes out the two of them he will rush to the common room and inspect, although unlikely, if there are any zombies there he will have to take care of them immediately".
" The rest of you follow him as fast as you can, once inside secure the - "
" The... the rest of us?" Pelumi's voice sounded small and shaky.
James brows furrowed.
Dion nodded.
"I'll be heading straight for the broadcasting room opposite," he sighed. "Everyone has to play their roles, and I think that hearing the voice of the Senior Prefect will be more convincing than any of yours".
" But you won't have any weapons, how will you fight one of them if they are in the broadcasting room?" the senior girl commented, her beautiful face flushed with emotions.
"Kehinde is right," Obinna sounded. "It's too dangerous, we should all go to the common room, after eating and resting we can go to the broadcasting room together, it's literally right across".
'So it was Kehinde...'
" Don't worry about me, I have no intentions of throwing away my life," Dion said calmly. " But if we retreat we might miss our window and it would lead to delays, and delays would lead to more lives lost. Besides..."
" Besides James is going to the common room to keep you guys alive, and next to him I believe I'm the most suitable to face this".
Then he smiled.
" Relax guys, the broadcasting club don't have any programs till three, so there should be no one there".
No one could argue with his logic, and moments later everyone were ready to move.
Everyone's heart beats seemed to increase its movements, and their breaths came quicker as James stealthily glided across the hallway.
"Oh, and James," Dion's voice suddenly cut through the nervous environment giving everyone a scare.
James turned back with a calm look, the nervousness in the atmosphere seemingly having nothing to do with him.
He raised an eyebrow.
"Aim for the head," Dion said, then he raised his hands and mimed a gun, then shot it. "Headshot".
James scoffed, then he continued onward.
His moves were silent and he put a lot of effort into making sure he went unnoticed, at least, that was till he turned towards the hallway which had both the broadcasting room and the common room, and also... the two zombies.
There was a tense pause as everyone felt their beating hearts reach its peak, the seconds slowly rolling by as if pre arranged, in that moment seconds seemed to drag eternally, then suddenly... James moved.
He was swift and focused, his muscles which seemed to have relaxed suddenly gained vigor, they tightened and his body jumped into life with seasoned and veteran-like movements.
Everyone felt their hearts leap into their throats as James rounded the hallway and was then out of their sights.
Then there was once again a tense few seconds following, but it was soon broken by loud growls and roars, it was coming from right around the hallway and it was an indication that James had been spotted. But before they could even think the worst, they heard a sound.
BANG!
Then...
BANG!
Two actually.
Then it was silent.
It was the loud and short burst of sound which indicated that the firearm had been shot, all was going according to plan - or was it? The despairing thought of James' failure was already creeping into their minds and sowing seeds.
It was at that moment that the confident and strangely comforting voice of their Senior Prefect sounded.
"Move out!" he yelled.
There was nothing organized or orderly about their movements, instead it was a frantic and panic inspired burst of motion that took them to their location.
In moments they were arriving at the scenes, the 'corpses' of the two zombies were sprawled on the ground with an odd mixture of a red and white substance leeking from behind their heads, but James was absent. That wasn't a cause for worry as the fear filled students noticed the open common room door and crowded it, completely ignoring the gory scenes before them.
On approaching, Dion's eyes narrowed.
The reddish and whitish substance was most likely their brain matter mixed with their blood, that in addition to the lifeless states, Dion was sure of it...
James had killed them, he had killed two zombies. Two!
Dion felt and odd satisfying mixture of pride and curiosity, of course he was happy, he was happy firstly because his theory had worked, their heads were their weaknesses.
He remembered the despair he had felt when a zombie with a broken neck had risen up before him, at that moment he had even imagined them being unkillable, mindless cannibalistic killing machines, striving to devour everything they encountered.
But not anymore, he was witnessing how wrong that viewpoint was, well except the last part as that part was correct, but the point was that they could be killed, as shown by a combo of him and James, the brains and the brawns.
And the second reason for his happiness was much like the first.
They can die!
The zombies could be killed!
This simple fact opened up a well of possibilities, it was a chance to turn their passive attitudes into an active one, granted they still had to use tools as rare as a gun to do so, but even so, this was amazing, splendid.
After Dion had witnessed the speed at which the infection spread, he had a sinking fear, that this was the end for mankind, as the virus spread humans would be helpless and soon all of them would be infected turning the whole world into one hive flowing with these undead cannibalistic species, therefore, the end of the human race.
But now things were different, the threat could be killed, humanity could fight back!
It had to be known that while it was difficult for students like Dion and James to acquire a firearm there were some people that didn't have such problems.
Like the military.
With their firepower they could even hunt these awful creatures to extinction.
Guns, bombs, armored tanks, even atomic and nuclear bombs, Dion could just imagine.
Humanity would not fall, they would win.
Although a part of him informed him of how much of a fairytale his thoughts were, he ignored it. He let his thoughts run wild as happiness flooded him.
He had finally found hope after all the despair he had encountered, and he wasn't about to let it go.
Dion dashed past the two still bodies, past the the now closing common room doors and arrived at the doors to the broadcasting room, still reeling in the joy of their victory moments ago he pushed, the door creaked open and he slipped inside as he shut the door.
Then he turned and came face to face with...
... with a zombie.
He froze and the smile instantly fell from his face, he felt a chill creep up his spine as goosebumps raced across his skin and his heart skipped a beat.
He was in trouble...
... serious trouble.