The sound at the back of the room was something out of a nightmare. A wet, rattling gasp. Elise didn't want to look at him again. She already knew what she would see.
But she did.
And her stomach plummeted.
Ben? Brandon? It didn't matter anymore was convulsing on the floor, his fingers clawing at his own skin as though trying to scrape away the infection. His breath hitched in sharp, erratic gasps, his body jerking in unnatural spasms. Then, just like that, he stilled.
A moment of silence. A terrifying, heavy quiet.
Then his head snapped up.
His eyes were no longer human. The whites had clouded over, a sickly shade of gray. His lips peeled back in a grotesque snarl, revealing teeth that seemed darker, sharper. There was no recognition in his gaze. No pain. No fear. Just hunger.
Juno let out a choked whimper.
"Shit," Callum whispered, stumbling a step back.
Damian's voice was steady, too steady. "We have to kill him."
Elise's entire body locked up.
What? Kill him?
He said it like it was just another task. Like they were discussing taking out the trash or moving a piece of furniture. Not ending a life. Not killing someone they knew.
She turned to look at him, half expecting to see guilt in his expression. Or hesitation. But there was nothing. Just cold, calculating resolve.
She was going to be sick.
"We have to kill him," Damian repeated, louder this time.
Juno let out a sharp breath. "Kill him? We know him!"
"Did you not just see what happened?!"
Callum snapped. "He's not him anymore, Juno!"
"He was just talking to us," she whispered, her voice breaking.
Elise wanted to say something, but her throat had closed up. She couldn't process this. Couldn't wrap her head around the fact that they were standing in a classroom, in what used to be their school, talking about killing someone like it was just another step in a survival plan.
Like this was normal now.
Her chest tightened painfully.
"Then what's the alternative?" Damian demanded. "We just let him turn completely and rip our throats out?"
"With what?" Elise finally forced out, voice strained.
Damian's head snapped toward her.
"We don't have anything," she continued, her voice rising. "We don't have a gun, we don't have a knife, what are you planning, Damian? Beating him to death with a textbook?"
He exhaled sharply, running a hand through his hair. "We figure it out."
"Are you hearing yourself?!" Juno's voice cracked. "You want to kill him, but we can't even kill him!"
A guttural snarl cut through the air. Elise barely had time to react before their turned friend lunged. She stumbled backward just in time to avoid its grasp, her back colliding hard against a desk. The zombie crashed into the chair she had been standing in front of, sending it skidding across the floor.
The noise was deafening. A chorus of shrieks from outside. The door rattled violently as something slammed into it. Again. And again.
"Fuck!" Callum hissed. "They heard that!"
The barricade trembled under the force of the undead pressing against it. The desks and chairs they had shoved against the door weren't going to hold forever.
Elise's pulse was a wild drumbeat in her ears. The zombie inside the room snarled again, already clawing its way to its feet. Its movements were still jerky, still disjointed, but it was learning. Getting stronger.
"We have to do something!" Juno cried.
"Window," Elise blurted out, her voice barely above a whisper. Then, louder, more certain. "We push him out the window! That's better than killing him."
Callum didn't hesitate this time. "Fine. Move!"
They scrambled, their movements disjointed but fueled by pure desperation.
Damian, Callum and the last gut took the lead, grabbing whatever they could desks, chairs, anything, to shove the newly turned zombie back. It snarled and snapped at them, teeth clicking just inches from Callum's arm before Damian rammed a desk into its chest, sending it staggering back.
It tried to lunge again, but its foot caught on a fallen chair, throwing it off balance.
"Almost! Now!" Damian shouted.
With one final, collective push, they shoved the zombie hard.
It tripped over the ledge of the open window. For a brief second, it flailed, its arms windmilling wildly, fingers grasping at empty air. Then it disappeared.
A sickening thud echoed from below.
Elise's breath came fast and uneven as she rushed to the window. She expected to see a broken, unmoving corpse. A body crumpled and dead.
But it wasn't.
The zombie twitched, its limbs jerking unnaturally against the pavement. A grotesque reminder that this wasn't over. That it wasn't dead.
Juno made a choked sound, pressing a hand against her mouth. "We, we didn't kill him."
Elise swallowed hard. "No. We didn't."
Damian exhaled sharply. "We don't have time to worry about that."
And he was right. Because the door was bowing inward now. The barricade wasn't holding.
"We need to get out of here now," Damian said. "We lure them to one point, the main door, and while they're distracted, we slip out the other way."
Elise turned, her mind racing. "How do we get them to focus on just one door?"
Callum's jaw clenched. "We make noise."
"Are you insane?" Juno's voice cracked, her wide eyes darting between Damian and the barricade. "Making noise? You just saw what happened when we knocked over a damn chair!"
"She's right," Elise said quickly, heart still hammering. "The second we make noise, we won't just have these ones coming after us, we'll be telling every zombie in the building exactly where we are!"
Damian's jaw tightened. "You have a better idea?"
Silence.
Another slam. This time, the entire barricade shifted. A desk leg scraped loudly against the tile floor, the sound sending a fresh bolt of panic through Elise's chest.
"Because standing here arguing while that door breaks is gonna get us killed," Damian continued. "So unless you'd rather wait for them to come in and rip us apart, we have to move."
"But what if it doesn't work?" Juno's voice wavered. "What if they don't all go toward the noise? What if some of them stay behind? What if we just make it worse?"
"We don't have a choice," Callum snapped.
"There's always a choice!"
The barricade groaned again, the wood splintering slightly under the pressure.
"Not this time," Damian said, his voice hard. "We do this, or we die here."
Elise clenched her fists, her nails biting into her palms.
She wanted to argue. She wanted to believe Juno was right, that there had to be another way, that this wasn't the only choice.
But deep down, she knew Damian was right.
And that terrified her.
Because the fact that she was even considering his plan meant accepting something she wasn't ready to face. This was their world now.
A world where you had to make impossible choices. Where survival mattered more than hesitation. More than emotions.
And if they didn't act, they were dead.
A sharp crack snapped her out of her thoughts,the barricade breaking further.
Damian turned to Callum. "What's the loudest thing in this room?"
Callum's eyes flickered around quickly. "The fire alarm?"
"Won't work, it's at the center of the room."
Elise swallowed, forcing her mind to work through the panic. "Then, what about breaking something? A window, maybe? Throwing something down the hall?"
"Or shouting," Callum said, exhaling sharply.
"No!" Juno's voice spiked. "Are you listening to yourselves?! We don't even know how many are out there!"
"Well do you want to wait to find out," Damian shot back.
Juno's lips pressed into a thin, trembling line. Elise felt like she was being suffocated. The air was too thick, her skin too hot.
The door was breaking.
They had seconds to decide.
"Fine," Elise said through gritted teeth, holding Juno's hand. "Let's do it."