Chapter 2:
Thus far all of the zombies had only reached the second floor. Some students and professors tried to hide inside classrooms. Luckily the Computer Science building's doors were protected with magnetic locks on top of the conventional locks.
They walked around the third floor passing by two fire safety boxes that each contained a rather blunt fire axe and a water hose. Robert and Wesley each took an axe. Charlie and Ric took mops from the maintenance room. With the fire axes, they turned the mop handles into makeshift spears. Their intention wasn't to kill as many zombies as possible on the way to En's apartment but to keep them alive long enough for them to get there.
Two zombies were chasing down a group of students across the second floor. One of them was a shirtless bum quite likely to have come from squatters' areas common to the outskirts of the university. A huge chunk of his torso was missing and the wounds were still fresh. His blood dripped onto the floor even as he walked. The other was one of the department's maintenance staff with the only visible signs of a bite being all the blood pooled around his shoulder.
The students ran towards the girls' restroom, crowding at the door as they hysterically shoved and pulled at each other to get inside. The zombies were relentless in their chase and managed to bite the neck of an unfortunate student before the others pulled him into the restroom. Immediately after the door slammed shut, the zombies began pounding and banging at the door. Being undead seemed to have rendered any physical limiters invalid. They hammered at the door with such force that the maintenance guy's arm broke with a sickening crack. It swung loosely beside him but he carried on, flinging his broken arm like a flail in an attempt to break the door open. With such blind ferocity, they would have been able to break the door out of its hinges or destroyed their limbs completely in the process. But, as luck would have it, they had noticed the group first as they descended the stairs.
"Those two are coming for us! Shit!" exclaimed Mayca. She was tightly holding onto a fire extinguisher with both hands. They had decided that although it would come in handy as a shield or as a club, it was indispensable for its real purpose. With all the commotion, someone was bound to have left a stove on or drop a cigarette onto the curtains. Any fortifications would have been immediately rendered useless. Then again, death by conflagration seemed sweeter than undeath by consumption.
Wesley and Robert took point. They waited for the zombies to charge. The shirtless man came for Robert. Robert held his ground and gripped tightly onto the axe. The zombie lunged at him in a manner quite similar to a toddler falling forward. Robert swung the axe up and with such force that the zombie's head snapped violently up. A disgusting crack gurgled inside his neck from an internally severed spine. The bluntness of the axe was evident. It shattered the zombie's jaw but didn't cleave it as one would expect an axe to. The shirtless zombie was knocked back and its head hung loosely behind him, hanging from stretched skin. Somehow, it still issued a breathless groan before falling down.
The maintenance guy barely missed Wesley and fell face first. Grabbing the opportunity, Wesley pinned the zombie down with his foot and swung at its head with the blunt axe. It took two swings for the zombie's head to get bashed in with an ungodly squish.
A grotesquely deformed zombie dragged its own head on the floor as it writhed like an earthworm locked in the throes of death yet not quite as fortunate. The huge wound in its side left a long trail of blood as it went on. Near it lay a man whose bashed head oozed blood and crushed brain. The macabre image tugged at the gag reflex and jerked at the soul.
"We have to keep going. There's gonna be more of these things soon." urged Wesley.
They went down the stairs and into the lobby. Students and faculty had somehow locked themselves inside the Serials Section. The group could do nothing but watch through the glass walls as old friends and professors were ripped open and devoured. Blood spattered onto glass, mocking them of their seemingly inevitable fate.
"Let's... Let's just go..." whispered Mayca to Charlie as she urged him on. She propped her head onto his shoulder and tried not to look.
The Computer Science building stood atop a hill, overlooking the Geology building and the College of Science building. Only a tree line obstructed the view of Katipunan Avenue and the rest of the city. On an ordinary day, the sunset would have coloured the sky a bright orange and a warm red. A cooling breeze would have kissed every tired person's cheek as he lazed into dream, basking in a silence accompanied by the soft snore of passing cars.
Towers of flame refused to welcome the night. Gunshots tore through the hellish screams. Thousands of people wailing, car alarms shrieking and vile monstrosities devouring dreams; a nightmare had unfolded before their eyes.
They traversed the ramp with Robert and Wesley taking lead. Charlie and Ric both carried on their backs their guitars, safe in their bags. They looked warily behind them and to the side, mop-spears prepared to defend their flanks. Mayca walked in the middle of them all, clutching the fire extinguisher.
"Keep this formation!" yelled Wesley, "Damn. We look really stupid right now, don't we? Oh well, let's just think about it as plating. Mayca already has the whipped cream ready anyway." He chuckled.
"Lay it on me. I'll be the dessert. I'm the sweetest." said Robert, stopping momentarily to make a lathering motion on his chest. Mayca made a sound that could have been a whimper or a laugh.
"I call main course then. I have the most meat after all." Wesley playfully looked down.
"Ewwww!" said Mayca breathlessly. Her fear still took hold of her attention.
"Hey, I was talking about my tummy.", retorted Wesley with a grin.
They kept on walking. Around them, students ran amuck. Some had banded into groups and were travelling further into the campus. Some were trying to fight. Some were running away. Others still were being eaten alive. A car drove past, its driver visible through the windshield. He was too busy pushing away his passenger that he accidentally ran over a student before losing control of the car. It careened off the road and fell down a slope and out of view. The student was on the ground, bloodied but conscious.
Mayca pleadingly looked at Robert. Robert simply shook his head apologetically.
"Ulam!" said Ric. (Filipino word for viand or delicacy.)
"Oh yes, yes you are, Ric.", replied Robert.
Charlie slightly raised his free hand, said "Heh. Toothpick." and smiled. Everyone had to pause for a while just to laugh their hearts out.
Psychiatrists, if there were any left, would have seen denial in that scenario. But in the many years of their friendship, way before the apocalypse, this group of friends have always found humor in any situation. It was not denial that fuelled it. It was, of all things, acceptance.
