Tiptoeing past the hallway of upperclassmen lockers, it was a last chance attempt to get to class without being noticed, seeing as the room I needed to get to was on the other side of this hall. Any other day it would have been easy to go around, but unfortunately the other hall was blocked off due to a kid having gotten sick all over the floor, now I was forced to go through a whole new level of hell. Taking a deep breath while shifting the stack of books and papers in my arms, each step into the hallway made it feel as if I was behind enemy lines, just waiting for someone to attack. It didn't take long.
"Hey fatass," Cringing at the all to familiar voice calling from down the hall, his accent standing out from all the conversations. "you dare to show your ugly mug around here?" Jerking away as a hand latched onto my shoulder, somehow I ended up facing my tormentor. Fear must have been evident on my face as his grin turned vicious and his emerald eyes gleamed with malicious intent as poison dripped from his lips in the form of words. "What makes you think we'd let you come through here?" Another came over, leaning on Arthur's shoulder, the new comers smile just as devious as the others.
"Ah the 'hero' huh? What are you going to save us from? Zombies? That is your specialty, is it not?" Shifting uncomfortably under their harsh scrutinizing glares, Arthur suddenly snatched a book from my arms, holding it beyond my reach as I attempted to grab it back, his accomplice, Francis pushing my hands away anytime I got close to retrieving my book.
"What's this rubbish?" Watching horrified as he skimmed the pages, Arthur no longer looked amused but disgusted by what he found in the pages of my notebook. "You and your fantasies!" Struggling to catch the book as he chucked it back at me everything in my arms tumbled down, scattering around my feet forcing me down on my hands and knees to gather it all back up. "Look here you halfwit," Arthur started, the tone of his voice drawing my attention up towards him and Francis, who was snickering to himself over this whole ordeal. "zombies aren't real, and ever if they were you would have nothing to worry about! After all, you have no brain." Flinching when he kicked the left over books on the ground, letting out a heavy sigh another set of hands started collecting my books then reached down to help me up.
"I came as soon as I saw them hassling you, but it seems like they were just finishing up… I'm sorry." Flashing Kiku my best smile while taking back my books from his arms, the worry on his face seemed to melt away at the realization that this hadn't been to violent of an encounter. "Come on, I'll walk with you to class." Nodding silently, it seemed almost pathetic that I needed someone to protect me, especially Kiku, sure he was a grade above me but he was almost half my size, hell, even Arthur was smaller than me yet I allowed him to push me around like some punching bag.
"Aren't the football players supposed to be the jerks? I mean shit man, at my old school the soccer players were the nice guys, not the bullies." Laughing quietly as not to be overheard by the over abundance of soccer players in the hall, (since they all seemed to hang out in the same area constantly) Kiku shook his head with a smirk.
"Well, this school has so many students from other countries, your American football is almost obsolete here. Else we probably would have them as the "stars", yet since we don't they stepped up and took that role." He had a point, with no football players to beat them down a notch the soccer kids just kept rising to the top of the social ladder, don't get me wrong soccers great and damn have we got a good team but they didn't have to be such dicks. There were only two of them I got along with even in the slightest, and that was only because they were close with my buddy Feliciano.
"Kiku! Alfred!" Speak of the devil, glancing back down the way we had come our small Italian friend was easily weaving through the crowd and running towards us, smiling wide as always looking as if he was having the best day of his life. "Ciao~! I'm glad I caught you!" His attitude was almost instantly infectious as a smile forced it's way across my lips when he caught up.
"Hey! 'Sup Feli?" Smiling even wider as he fell into step beside us, he quickly pulled a folded piece of paper out of his pocket and looked up at me with a pleading look. "Aw come on man! Mailman duty again?" Sighing as he held the note out to me, he laughed and dropped it into my open hand. For almost three weeks now he's had me passing notes off to one of the soccer guys in my first period class, thankfully he was the only player in there and we got along well enough. "Fine fine, seeing as you give me no choice."
Stopping at my first class for only a brief moment, I gave Kiku and Feli a quick wave before making my way into the room and toward my seat, not surprised to find Ludwig already at the desk in front of mine I dropped the note onto his desk and plopped down into my own seat.
"Delivery!" Shooting a quick glance over his shoulder with an amused smirk, his head shook slightly as the sound of crinkling paper seemed to echo around the room while he unfolded the note. On more than one occasion I had the nagging idea to peek at what Feliciano was writing, though at the last minute something held me back, a feeling that I didn't want to know what was being exchanged. Not that I would have anyway! Okay, maybe I would have, but still! I can't help but be curious! Shaking the thought from my head I grabbed the same notebook that Arthur had grabbed and then thrown back at me, thankfully he hadn't paid to much attention to it, not only was it my apocalypse plans but, it also doubled as a journal. A shudder travelled up my spine at the thought of anyone reading those entries, I would never hear the end of it.
"Hey Alfred." Quickly raising my gaze to the blond in front of me, he was turned around in his seat, resting on the edge of my desk his eyes cast downward as an abnormally red blush flared up on his face while he nervously picked at the sleeve of his shirt. "You're friends with Felicinao…" Chuckling slightly, he turned his head away and cleared his throat nervously yet when he opened his mouth to speak again the bell rang and cut him off and soon a flood of our classmates were filing into the room giving him no chance to continue with his sentence. "Nevermind…" Watching as Ludwig quickly turned back around in his seat, it was impossible not stop from snickering again as my attention dropped back to my notebook, quickly scanning over my most recent emergency apocalypse plan.
Slumping down onto a bench right outside the lunch room Kiku quickly followed suit dropping down next to me while he sipped at the tea in his hand, his gaze suddenly shifting over to me.
"Oh, I won't be in study hall today. I have to go to the library and work on a book report." Leaning back against the wall with a loud groan, Kiku just rolled his eyes at my theatrics then shifted his attention as Feliciano appeared out of nowhere and settled next to him with a smile.
"Hey Al~ do you want my last two cookies?" Sitting up at the mention of sweets I snatched the package from his outstretched hand making both him and Kiku laugh. "I take that as a yes~." Shrugging, the first cookie was gone in two seconds flat and the other quickly joined it.
"Man I've missed sweets, my dad is on some health food kick so he ditched all the junk food in my house, it really bites!" Dropping the package in the trash can next to me, something suddenly showed up in front of me blocking out the light and leaving me in its shadow, and once my gaze shifted up I regretted it instantly.
"You shouldn't eat that junk fatass," Arthur stood in front of me again, his arms folded over his chest as a taunting smirk formed on his lips. "no wonder you look like a tub of lard." Dropping my head in submission, my eyes scanned my stomach, sure I wasn't the skinniest kid in the school but, I wasn't really that fat, hell, I wasn't even considered overweight!
"Hey, back off Arthur what did Alfred ever do to you?" Kiku stood up from the bench and blocked me from the upperclassman who had now gone silent, staring at my friend with a mixture of shock and annoyance. "Just leave him alone already, you never know, one day you may need his help." The other scoffed but said no more before stalking off, rejoining his own group of friends who only glanced in his direction before starting back into their conversation.
"Thanks man," Jumping up to stretch as the bell rang, I grinned and clapped him on the shoulder scooping up my notebook from under the bench. "what would I do without ya. Later guys!" Giving a mock salute to the two of them, I turned on my heel and headed towards the study hall room, keeping my eyes open for anything that might spark an idea for an alternative escape route, just in case.
I didn't used to be such and outcast here, it wasn't until people realized that I like zombies just a little more than the average person that I became a target for bullying. It wasn't really an obsession, and yeah I made escape routes in my free time but everyone had a hobby, just mine was a bit stranger than most it passed the time after all. Anyway, who knows when I could actually need one, with all the attacks on school recently it was only a matter of time before ours was next.
Going straight to my seat, my forehead pressed against the cool wood of the desk just listening to the others entering the room, until the sounds seemed to fade out as my eyes closed. It wasn't likely that I slept long, but I wake to someone shaking my shoulder and once I rose my head they ripped me from my seat by the arm and dragged me over to the window, whatever they were saying not yet computing as my mind struggled to keep up. Though once I realized what was outside it clicked right away. There was a strange, person (I'm using the term loosely here.) in the courtyard of the school, their clothes were tattered and they seemed to have cuts and gashes all over them along with places on there body thwt seemed to have no skin at all.
"Hey Alfred, I think we found more of a zombie nut than you!" Rolling my eyes at the obvious insult, yet not rising to the bait, my attention stayed locked on the figure outside, a teacher had made their way over to them cautiously whatever they were saying wasn't loud enough to make it through the windows, but whoever the stranger was didn't seem to like what came out of the teachers mouth, as they suddenly lunged foward.
You know how in movies they make it look like everything was moving really slow when something big happens or people say it all happened so fast? This wasn't like that at all, we all stood next to the windows, watching in frozen horror as the stranger took a huge bite out of the teachers face, screams erupted inside the classroom as the others scrambled away from the window and away from the attack outside.
"No way…" Staring out the window in shock, the only thing that crossed my mind was the fact that this was actually happening. There was a zombie outside of our school. There couldn't just be one, there was never just one…
At that moment, the schools alarm went off signaling the evacuation of the school. Suddenly it was like a switch in my head clicked as I went from fearful to determined. "I have to find the others!"