Run run run run run. One foot in front of the other. Just keep going. Before they realize what you are. Or, aren't…no time to think just run. Legs burning, chests heaving, god my legs hurt. What was that sound. It was like a gunsh- *thump* Oh my god….oh my god my knee…what happened to my knee…I need to flip myself over. On three, one…two…three OH GOD! Oh my god my leg…where is my leg?! Oh god its bleeding so much…this hurts more than anything…oh my god I can't…. The pain pushed all thought out of his head. It expanded into an angry red mass, ravaging his senses. His life drained away in front of him, quite literally, as his blood ran freely from his severed limb. The pain began to fade, and then disappeared entirely. His vision blurred, and darkened. Oh…that's so much better…maybe if I yell, someone will hear me? I can't…I can't open my mouth…everything's black…huh…These were the last sensible thoughts of Bruce. Bruce what? No one knows. They called him that, because that's what he had said he was. Bruce. And as he lay dying, the past few days of his life, which were coincidentally the only days he could remember, came back to him, and started playing across the poorly lit wall of the cinema also known as his concussed minds eye.

ACT I:

WAKING THE DEAD
AND

BURYING THE LIVING

Ow…jesus….that light is so bright…oh sh*t my head…where the hell am I? Lift your head, Bruce. What? What are you?! I'm rational. That's all you need to know right now. Ok…you called me Bruce? Sh*t I can't remember my own name. What is going on?! Lift it.

It was a classroom. Obviously, it had been abandoned, and in some haste. Chairs knocked over, desks pushed together. Binders and pencils strewn across the floor, educational frosting on the academic cake that is the high school class room. But this cake had been bittered and soured by the wicked taste of destruction and neglect. The few lights that were still on flickered on and off, making little spots of neon light dance across Bruce's eyes. He blinked a few times, trying to clear his vision. His head was swimming, his eyes hurt, all he wanted to do was put his head back down on that desk and fall back into that pain-induced sleep he had come from. But he couldn't, because right as that thought popped into his head, he heard a yell. He ran to the door of the class, knocking into what seemed like every desk there was. He ran straight through the door, pushing it open with his momentum. He shot out into the hallway and right into the person who had yelled. They both lost balance and fell into a heap.

"Ow, what the fuck?" The source of the yell elbowed Bruce's forehead. He pulled his already aching head back, trying to get away from whatever was thrashing beneath him. He looked down and saw a kid with tousled brown hair and a blood-stained uniform, ripped and dirty. The kids face was set in a grimace, a dangerous mix of fear, pain, and anger.

"I'm sorry, I heard a yell, and I went to see what it was. I just lost control. I think I have a concussion or something. Are you ok?" Bruce thought of offering the kid his hand, so the kid could get up, but reconsidered. Bruce didn't think he should make himself anymore vulnerable to the bloodstained, wild eyed person he had just shoved to the ground.

"Yah well, I couldn't care less. I thought you were a zombie. Now I see you're just a retard. I would have preferred the zombie." The brown haired kid added under his breath. He got up, and started to stalk away.

"Wait! Where are you going? What's going on?" Bruce yelled after him. The kid turned, alarmed and angry.

"Shut up! They're going to fucking hear yo-" The kid was cut off as the door next to him erupted and another student lurched out. The anger on the brown haired kid's face quickly became fear as the disfigured attacker grabbed a hold of him, and bit down on his neck. Blood quickly started flowing, and the kid went down. The decomposing student bit down, again and again. Bruce was already gone. He knew what a zombie was, and the second that door exploded he knew that thing was a zombie. He just ran, past open lockers and bloodstained walls, past broken windows and overturned desks, past half eaten bodies of students and past the decomposing zombies that were seemingly everywhere. He rounded a corner, and to his dismay, at the end of the hallway a tight knot of them were shambling toward him. He spotted an open door with the words Janitors Closet scrawled across its front. He made a dash for it, jumping over a legless zombie and grabbing the doorknob. He pulled the door shut in one quick movement. He could hear them, though, clawing at the door. He looked around frantically, for something he could use. There was a mop, a few buckets, a flashlight, three 20-packs of AA batteries, a vacuum, and some cleaning things in a backpack. He shook the backpack out, and then threw in the flashlight and the packs of batteries in. As he put the backpack on his shoulder, he noticed that there was a note stuck to the back of the closet's door. It was stuck into the door with a large blade, some sort of kitchen knife. The note just said this:

I love you so much Johnnie.

-Mom

Bruce pulled the knife out of the wall, and gingerly took the note. He put it in his bag. He went to open the door, and then realized that the zombies were still right outside. Come on, Bruce! Start using your head! He reprimanded himself. Oh great, now I'm talking to myself. I must be going crazy. He put his back to the door, and slid down. He sat there for a few minutes, doing nothing but thinking, trying to remember what was going on, and figuring out what to do next. He knew he was 16, he knew his name was Bruce. But besides that, he remembered nothing. Obviously this was his school, but he had no memory of it. As he sat there, steaming, he spotted a roll of duct tape that had fallen out when he was shaking the backpack. He grabbed it, thinking it could come in handy. Then, an amazing idea dawned on him. He grabbed the mop, broke the end off so it was just a sharp stick, and duct taped the knife onto the sharp end of the mop handle. He wrapped duct tape around two spots on the handle, one nearer to the bottom of the mop and the other closer to the knife, so he could use them as grips. He brandished the spear, feeling bold. I can do this. I can actually do this! Bruce kicked the door, and it barely moved. The adrenaline died down a little. I thought that would work…ow... He reached for the door, and gingerly opened it. The zombies were still there. There were more than ten, standing there staring blankly at him. He panicked immediately, and shoved his spear into the first ones head, as the others began to converge. He pulled it out and heard a snap as the mop handle broke. God why?! No no no no! This can't be happening! Bruce started shaking, and he swung the handle at another zombie. He made contact, smashing its head to the side. It kept shuffling, grabbing at him. He pulled away and started to run. He threw the mop handle and it clattered at their feet. He turned forward and ran, again. But he didn't need to run far, as he stumbled into a bloody fight. There were four students, three guys and a girl, surrounded by about 10 zombies. One kid, a tall blonde boy with a build like a linebacker, was swinging a metal bat. He managed to smash a zombies head in, but he was startled by another zombie he hadn't seen grabbing his arm. Before it could bite down, another student, this time a pretty girl with straight brown hair past her shoulders with a strange fan-bladed pole, knocked it off him and then brought the homemade weapon down on its head, splitting it right down the middle. Before Bruce could take anymore of the situation in, he was shocked into action by the sound of a groan behind him. He turned to see another pair of the undead stalking down the hallway toward him. He had nothing to fight with, so he jumped back, and yelled out to the group frantically, "HELP! I NEED HELP!" Only one of the four was in a state to help, the others preoccupied with the zombies. A boy with thick, short black hair and thick framed glasses was standing there staring at a zombie that was advancing toward him. He was holding a fire axe, squeezing it so hard his knuckles were white. He looked petrified. He seemed to wake up when he heard Bruce's yell, and saw Bruce sprinting towards the group. The kid looked relieved, but was panicked as the zombie he had been staring at took a lunge at him. He jumped back, shouting out in fear. Bruce had reached the group, and he drop kicked the zombie. The monster tumbled to the ground, but was getting up in seconds.

"Give me that axe!" Bruce yelled. The kid with glasses was more than happy to, and threw his axe to Bruce. Bruce managed to catch it, and swung it down on the now standing zombie. He missed the head, and buried the axehead in the zombies shoulder. He stepped back, and the zombie grabbed at him, flailing its arms and letting out a moan. He brought it down again, this time on its forehead. It kept lashing out at him for a second or two, and then went limp. It dropped to the ground, bringing the axe with it. He planted his foot on the dead zombies head, and ripped the axe out right as he heard a triumphant shout.

'We did! We god damn did it! Haha, yes!" Bruce turned to see the blond boy hugging the brunette and smiling. Bruce chuckled slightly, and the boy with the glasses looked like he was about to faint from relief. Bruce could finally get a good look at the group of kids. The blonde guy looked like a jock, short blonde hair and sparkling eyes, devilish grin and defined jaw line. He had broad shoulders, about 6 feet tall. He was wearing a tight t-shirt, with a football jacket over it. The girl was extraordinarily pretty. She had brown hair, that varied from the color of dark chocolate to a light hazel. Her eyes were also brown, with bits of gold. It was like someone had sprinkled golden dust into a cup of hot cocoa. She was wearing a skirt with a tank top and a sweater. She had softer features, her cheeks tinted red at the edges, giving her an innocent look. She wasn't smiling, but her eyes were dancing, like a candle in the wind. She had an interesting weapon. It looked like she had sharpened the blade of a lawnmower, and then attached it to a metal pole. It must have weighed a ton. The guy standing next to her looked sullen. He had drawn out features, shockingly pale and made even paler by the contrast between his white skin and jet black hair. He had weirdly yellowed eyes. He was lanky, and he was wearing black jeans and a hoodie. Last of all, there was the kid with the glasses. He had a mess of black hair, thick black rimmed glasses, and a sweater vest, tucked into his blue jeans. He looked kind of awkward, obviously not very social.

"Hey, who are you?" The blond guy said, staring at Bruce.

"I'm Bruce, I was a student here. I, uh, just stumbled across you guys. I was being chased by zombies." Bruce held out his hand.

The blond haired boy shook Bruces hand, then said "I'm Kyle. This is Sammy," He said, indicating to the girl. She gave Bruce a quick smile,"And this is Chris." The boy in the hoodie also shook Bruce's hand.

"And…and I'm Johnnie." The kid with the glasses timidly held out his hand, which was shaking worse than a puppy in a snowstorm. Bruce reached out and grabbed it, and grinning. "I'm so happy I found someone else. I thought I was the only one left." Bruce said through his smile. "Well, glad to prove you wrong." Kyle said, grinning. Sammy just nodded, looking determined. "This isn't safe. These things seem to locate us by smell. They're gonna come for us soon." Chris said, brushing his hair out of his eyes. "We need to move."

"Of course we do. But where?" Sammy's voice was surprisingly high, not whiny, but certainly higher than the usual voice.

"We can go to the auditorium. The skywalk would be a good place to hide, theres only one entrance and its elevated. We can use the chairs for fire, and to secure the door. Plus, the auditorium is right next to the cafeteria, so if we need food, we can just run over and grab some." Johnnie seemed surprisingly educated about the architecture. Everyone looked at him in surprise.

"Yah, that's a great idea. Come on, lets go!" Kyle said, looking hopeful. Bruce grinned, and soon the happiness was contagious. But right as they started feeling happy, they heard moans coming from the end of the corridor. And then they heard something even worse. The sound of running.