TW: Depiction of a panic attack

The cafeteria was full of zombies. At a quick glance, none of them seemed to be people they knew. Anna's dad wasn't there, and neither was Lisa or Chris's gran. But they all had just walked into a room filled with zombies and they had no intention of staying there one second longer. Nick, who had entered the room first, motioned for the others to get behind him. The four of them pressed up against the door they'd come through, Chris fumbling for the door handle. When his hand found it, he jiggled it- face pale.

"It's locked."

Steph's heart felt like it was going to stop. They were going to die. They were going to die in the school of all the fucking places. After all they'd made it through, this was how they were going to go? It didn't seem fair.

They all began backing up towards the food counters; which had long since had the metal gates pulled down over them but were the only other plausible exits that weren't completely inaccessible. Out of the corner of her eye, Steph spotted Savage.

"What the FUCK." She whispered bitingly, fighting back the urge to start crying because they were all going to die.

Savage looked at her, and smiled.

"For such a serious journalist, Miss North, your vocabulary really does leave a lot to be desired."

Anna looked at him through the food counter gate, voice tinged with more disbelief than fear.

"You're a teacher, for God's sake."

Savage only grinned, slowly raising a silver whistle to his lips; alerting the zombies to the four students who had been released into their domain. They all snapped to attention, beginning to slowly lumber towards where Steph, Anna, Chris and Nick stood.

Instantly, the four of them took off running down the corridor- desperate to find an escape but hitting a dead end by way of another locked door. They ran back into the cafeteria, quickly realizing that their only hope of survival would be fighting their way out. Nick ran for one of the lunch tables- which had been folded up and pushed against a far wall. There were at least a dozen zombies, all of whom were determined to eviscerate the them completely.

Nick quickly wheeled the table over to where the others were, and they all huddled behind it; using it to shield themselves from the oncoming zombie onslaught. Steph screamed, Anna screamed; everyone was screaming, because there was no use trying to be quiet anymore. The zombies pushed against the table, and all four of them did their best to keep their arms and legs outside of biting range as they pushed back.

Eventually, they managed to beat back the oncoming zombies long enough for Anna to snap the lock off of one of the metal gates; Nick shoving it open as they all threw themselves through the opening. Steph was the last to crawl over the counter- turning to pull the gate back down and trying to secure it with the help of Chris.

Panting, Steph held the gate down as she turned to Anna.

"I'll go get my car keys, you go find your dad. Meet outside."

Anna nodded, running further into the school with Nick at her heels- leaving Chris and Steph in the kitchen hallway. Chris let go of the gate, turning to Steph.

"I, uh, I think the gate's good. You can let go now."

Steph stood, gripping the edge of counter so hard her fingers were turning white. She heard Chris talking to her, she knew that she needed to respond- but right now she felt incapable of doing anything.

"Uh, Steph?"

She took a breath, shoulders shaking. She needed to get out of the school, needed to get out of this fucking apocalypse. Slowly, she let go of the counter- hands shaking as she practically collapsed against the wall; drawing her knees up to her chest. Her heartbeat hammered in her ears, and no matter how hard she tried to breathe it wasn't working.

"Steph!" Chris crouched down beside her, completely unsure of what to do.

"Did…Did you get bit?"

She squeezed her eyes shut, shaking her head. Chris nodded in response, kneeling so he was facing her.

"Okay. That's good, that you didn't get bit." He smiled, fidgeting with his hands slightly.

"It's… it's gonna be alright. Yeah? We're gonna find Lisa, and my gran, and Anna's dad, a-and then we'll all get to leave and, I dunno, rebuild civilization or something like that."

Steph grimaced in response.

"Sorry, sorry… I mean, I dunno if there's anything I can do… erm…" He looked up at her.

"I-Is the talking helping? Because if it is, I can keep talking to help, uh, help get your mind off everything, o-or..."

A beat. Steph took a breath, eyes fixed on the ground in front of her.

"…it's fine, Chris. I'm…I'm okay, I just…I-I need a minute."

"Sure. 'Course." He sat beside her, hands on his legs; waiting patiently and keeping a lookout for any rogue zombies.

Steph rested her head on her knees, focusing on steadying her breathing. She felt like an idiot- after surviving this far into the zombie apocalypse, it was a normal, non-zombified head teacher who'd managed to get to her. She hated Savage, she hated her classmates, she hated the school, and she hated the fact that no one seemed to care that she'd been struggling for this long.

But this was a zombie apocalypse- and at the moment, her priorities were not dying and getting her keys. Taking a few deep breaths, she slowly got to her feet- Chris standing alongside her.

"You okay?"

"Yeah." Steph nodded, trying to convince herself that she was.

"Let's go, so we can get out of here."

The two of them started walking down the hallway; Steph still shaking slightly, Chris walking beside her. The halls were dark, the few lights they could see likely being powered by the school's backup generator. The sound of their trainers hitting the linoleum reverberated off the empty halls- filling the silence until one of them decided to speak.

"I didn't mean it, about your parents and stuff." Chris finally said, Steph immediately remembering the argument the two of them had back at the Emporium where she'd told him his phone was worthless and he'd retaliated by saying her girlfriend and parents were probably dead. It had stung back then, but now Steph wasn't sure she could even process the weight of it.

"It's, uh… i-it's fine." Steph stated, looking down the end of the hallway. Generally, when people insulted or belittled her they didn't apologize; so this was a very new situation for her.

"I know how I am, so…"

Chris furrowed his brows.

"Well…Whatever happens, you've got us."

Feeling her eyes begin to burn, Steph gave Chris a watery smile as the two of them continued their walk down the hallway.