The moon shone bright above the empty graveyard. Fog clung to the gravestones, giving the grass below a look as though it had been snowing. A raven flew to a shiny black, marble tombstone with gold writing that read "here lies Thomas drake, a brilliant man, brother, husband and father". Suddenly the grave shook, slowly at first but quicker and quicker until it toppled forwards, where it cracked in the center The ground trembled with the force of a hundred herds of elephants, and a mottled, grey, decomposing hand rose from the ground. It had begun.
14 miles away, John Parker sat at his parents study, flicking through an old batman comic he'd read hundreds of times. the cover was decorated with a picture of the villain Solomon Grundy. He sighed, boredom etched on his face. His pocket began to vibrate as his best friend Sam Jones called him. He pulled it out and pressed the receive button. "Hey mate, you coming to the park tonight?" John thought for a moment before replying "yeah sure I'll need to get ready first though", "okay dude but put something nice on Laura's coming out tonight". John smiled to himself and put the phone down, jumping in the shower a few moments later.
John strode out the bathroom and stopped in front of the full-length mirror. He had dark brown hair with glasses and spots. Not exactly the best combination especially when you're trying to get a girlfriend, but hey he was 15 cut him some slack. He was quite small for his age but was muscular which was heightened by his wiry frame. He put on his white Antichrist shirt and his denim jeans with black leather converse. He shouted to his mum that he was going out and closed the front door behind him.
He was smiling as he walked into the park. He could see his friends and Laura. He could always see her. His eyes were always drawn to her whenever he was around her. she was a walking angel. She had long blonde hair that was put up in a ponytail with bright green eyes and a pale complexion. But to John she was a walking heaven. He dragged his eyes away from her to see who else was out. There was Sam with his arm wrapped around his girlfriend, Megan hill. Since he had started going out with her, he had become distant with John and it was really starting to annoy him. Next to her was Dana Williams. She was talking to Laura but was secretly getting annoyed. You could see it on her face, the stony glance she gave them every couple of seconds. He stayed there for a while but it got to the point where the two of them were that far up Couples Mountain that no amount of comments trying to rescue them worked. The only thing he regretted was not spending enough time with Laura.
The next day he woke to the sound of his phone going off. His favourite song, My Chemical Romance's "welcome to the black parade" first notes played out of his iPhone. He answered it begrudgingly only to find out that it was his mom calling him to get up for school. He slowly picked himself out of bed and threw on his uniform. It was bottle green with a golden tie, which showed his status as a year 11. "Thank god" he thought, "one more year of that hell hole and it will all be over". He made himself his normal breakfast (shredded wheat and honey) and sat down with the TV on in the background. He heard some half-weird story about graves being opened last night. "What freakish idiot would do that? Show some respect for the dead dipstick".
As John rode the bus everyday he was used to seeing some weirdos on the streets of Mortville. But this was something new entirely. The man looked like he couldn't tell the sky from the floor. Every time he went to speak words didn't come out, just incoherent mumbling. He was wearing a battered old tuxedo that looked like it had been dragged through several ditches, and smelled like it too. He hobbled forwards, not quite sure of his own feet. As always John ignored eye contact and backed away from him slowly enough to not look suspicious, but fast enough to avoid the suspected druggie. As he paid for his ticket and sat down on the bus, he didn't think any more of it. Maybe if he had he would've jumped off the bus then and there but, he just sat there unaware of what was about to occur.
First lesson of the day was gym. John liked gym, mainly for the reason that most teenage boys do. To show off to whatever girls were in the nearby vicinity. The one thing that he hated about it though was the competition. Joey Adams was tall with fair hair and a jutting jaw line. He always seemed to try to compete with John but was always beaten. Year after year of this had made him bitter towards John and had lowered him towards cheating, and today was no exception. He had already tripped him twice in the running events, and grabbed his leg in swimming. When they both lined up to climb the 5 meter long rope in front of them he winked at John cockily taunting him. John gave him a smug smile. If Joey was trying to be arrogant about this, John knew that he was really terrified about this. They approached the rope together, and John stole a quick glance at Joey. He was looking high to the top of the rope and fear was wide in his eyes. John looked around and saw Laura leaning in the doorway, her beautiful green eyes fixated on him, next to her Sam, who gave him a quick thumbs up before whispering something inaudible into Laura's right ear. He allowed himself a small smile of satisfaction, the rope was his territory and Joey Adams was never going to win. He could feel it in his blood. He reached up, wrapping his fingers around the rough fabric. The gym teacher, Mr Reynolds, blew his whistle, sharp and loud. The whole sports hall exploded into noise as half of it cheered for John and half of it cheered for Joey. John was about two meters up, swinging like a monkey in the treetops, content. This was where he belonged. In his most secret thoughts he knew he didn't belong on the ground. On Flatland, Where everyone walked, the most boring method of transportation known to man. He looked down, and saw Joey struggling. He was about half a meter lower than John. They made eye contact for a few seconds before john winked at Joey, mirroring the action Joey had done to him only a few moments ago. He began to climb again, almost giving off an air of someone who had never even touched the ground. He reached the ceiling in a matter of seconds, and looked down. Joey was still struggling. In the time it took for him to scale 3 meters Joey had done about half that. He reached up searching with his hand for the bell that would end it all. His hand found the chain attached to the bell and shook it violently, so that it rung so loud it drowned out everything else. To John it sounded like victory. He slid down the rope, landing neatly on the crash mat. Joey landed next to him, contempt and jealousy gleaming in his eyes, but left John unchallenged. The crowd in front of them parted suddenly, and Laura stood there an embarrassed half-smile on her face. She walked up to John and leaning over ever so slightly, kissed his left cheek. John felt his face go red, and grinned from ear to ear. The crowd then chorused a few 'ooohs' and a few wolf-whistles were heard, but John didn't care. He had beaten Joey, he had been kissed by the girl he liked, and he had never felt happier.
Meanwhile on the other side of school Mrs Rodriguez, the school Spanish teacher, was getting ready to teach her least favorite class, year eight bottom set. She looked out of the window wondering if they would reduce her to tears this lesson. She never found out because out of the blue a pale hand smashed through the window and grabbed her, pulling her out the window. She screamed for a few seconds, and shouted some incomprehensible Spanish, before all was silent, apart from the occasional groan of some things thigh being stabbed by glass in a smashed window.
It was the end of third lesson when it happened. They marched as one single unit, a mindless horde. And hungry they were. So very, very hungry. They wanted life again, to taste its sweetness. They saw a classroom and went wild, devouring flesh bone and sinew never stopping. In mere minutes they had left the classroom nothing but upturned tables and a warm sticky red stain on the floor.
John was in food tech cooking steak when the teacher came running in. she stopped for a few seconds before screaming "everyone out!" But it was too late. They were at the door groaning, ready to feast. The mob advanced and surrounded the teacher, mauling her, biting, scratching. John couldn't tear his eyes away as his teacher was reduced to nothing before his eyes. When they were finished with her they turned on the now terrified teenagers. From the wall behind them rang the school bell. Lunchtime.
