CHAPTER 5

The second Peter got inside the building, the stench of death hit him. He guessed that he was too busy with other things to notice until now.

Matt took point while Vash locked the doors from the inside. It was just a precaution, because Zombies couldn't open doors anyway. The windows were safe because there was wire mesh between 2 layers of glass to prevent break-ins.

It was now apperent that someone already inside the school had to been infected for anyone to have gotten killed by a zombie.

From the main entrance, there was 2 hallways. One left and one right. The right one went upwards, to the "tech" wing, and then turned into an overpass to the lower wings. The left one led down to the same wings, but down a wide flight of stairs, with staircases leading up to even more wings.

In the middle of the square of halls was the gym, and the Cafeteria was an outcropping on the left hall.

Matt knew the layout and took a few steps towards the gym doors. He noticed that there was a chain holding them shut, and empty casings on the floor. He walked over to the small rectangular window to look through and saw nothing. Then he was almost face to face with a grinning, lipless zombie. With inhuman strength, it thrust it's hand through through the window, trying to grab Matt's head.

In the few seconds it took this to happen, Vash had his rifle out, and had it aimed at the zombie's head. Vash could make out each and every single gruesome detail of the zombie's face, thanks to the scope. He could even make out the orginal bite marks. A second later, Matt stumbled out of the way, and without another second's hesitation, Vash fired.

The heavy round was very powerful, even at long range. At a few meters, it was just...overkill. The round imploded the zombie's skull, turning the theat into random gore. The round kept on going, and hit the zombie behind it, going right through it, creating a fist size hole in it's torso. The bullet finally smacked into the ground with a thud. Both zombies simply crumpled into a pile on the floor.

"Wow" was all that was said.

The rest of the gym had quite a few monsters in it, but most of them were adults, probably teachers.

Matt suggested that going down the left hall was best, because it connected to all the upper wings, and still led to the lower ones. A few meters later, they approached the first set of stairs.

There were a few very loud gunshots, from a large caliber handgun, then a scream. At the very bottom of the steps, and then the horrible sound of a person starting to get eaten.

Vash laid down on the edge of the stairs, and aimed.

*BAM. BAM. BAM. BAMBAM. BAM*

Six shots, six dead zombies. Vash got up, and the three ran down to the fallen man. He was going, fast. By the way he was dressed, he was ovouslly a teacher.

The teacher was holding a .44 Caliber revolver, and seemed desperate to tell them something.

"Kids....all in..500 wing..down this hall. Room's locked."

He used up almost all his strength to pull out a bloody key ring and whispered one last thing.

"Save...the...kids.."

And he was dead.

They gave the brave teacher their blessing and left.

Lucky for them, because everyone living was in the 500 wing, so were all the zombies that weren't locked up in the gym.

The hall was just crammed with them, scratching at locked classroom doors.

All of them feeling the need for some revenge, unslung their weapons.

Vash again laid on the floor, and deployed the bipod on the bottom of the SAW.

He opened fire, cutting down about half of the zombies in the hallway before he ran dry. Peter came in with more accurate automatic fire, further reducing the population. Matt, having buckshot shells in his shotgun that spread out over distance, fired a few blasts into the last few groups at the end of the hall.

And it was over.

And the floor was a mess, too.

Wishing he had a hoverboard, Vash slogged through gallons of blood and human remains. He walked up to the first classroom, and matched the number above the door to the number on the key. The door opened to reveal about 50 terrified looking kids. Upon seeing all the blood that spilled into the room, a few of the kids lost their lunches, which didn't help the smell at all.

"Kids. We're here to help you guys get out of here. Who can use a gun here?"

A few of them put up their hands, thinking that Vash meant a handgun.

"Matt, toss over the AS12s!"

A bag skidded across the floor and Vash picked it up. He took out one of the AS12s and held it up.

"Now, who thinks they can use one of these?"

Even less kids put up their hands.

Vash selected two of the older kids, probably grade 12, and gave them each one, along with 2 ammo drums.

He gave one of them the key ring and told them "One of your teachers gave up his life to get you all out of here. Take these keys and help the kids out of all the rooms. Once you have everyone, take the rear, and we'll lead everyone out. Understand?"

The kids nodded and had a glimmer in their eyes like men with a mission.

"Oh, by the way, what are your names, in case we need to call you for something" He asked.

"I'm called Jones," the taller one said. "And he's Rob."

"Ok. Rob, Jones. You know what to do, right? Open up all the rooms, get the kids into the main hall so we can get them out, and if you see any zombies, blast 'em."

"Got it. Rescue kids, kill zombies." Both kids said.

About 20 minutes later, all the kids from the rooms were milling around in the hall, several more of them losing their lunches.

Everyone stopped at the sound of glass being broken and metal being torn apart.

Vash stopped and looked around the corner.

He then had to move his head back at the speed of sound to keep it from being torn off by a Hunter.

The Hunter leaped in the air as Vash fired his rifle. Going wide, the round blew out one of the lighting panels, sending a shower of sparks to the ground.

Peter was the one who was closest to the monster, and fired a spray of automatic fire at it, but only succeed in blowing holes in the lockers. Matt brought his shotgun to bear, but the Hunter smacked his weapon out of his hands and proceeded to jump into the group of defenseless kids.

The kids screamed, and then a solid rifled slug hit it in mid-air, sending it tumbling to the ground.

A second and third round hit it in the chest and heart, and a fourth blew it's head off.

Rob and Jones were standing at the edge of the group, holding the smoking shotguns.

"We heard gunfire, and came to check it out. Good thing we did."

Vash nodded in thanks and noticed a girl, huddled up in a corner, crying.

He walked over to her, and placed his hand on her shoulder.

"What's wrong? The monster hurt you?"

The girl sniffled, pointed to Matt's shotgun on the ground, a few feet away, then pointed to her ribs.

"Ah. I get it. The monster hit the gun, and it hit you. Can you talk? Tell me your name."

Struggling for words, the girl coughed and spoke. "My.. name's Reena. The gun hit me in the ribs, but I think I'm Ok now."

Reena staggered to her feet as Matt went to go retrieve his weapon.

Reena screamed as another Hunter blasted around the corner.

Peter was the only one with his weapon available, so he took careful aim while the Hunter was getting ready to pounce on Reena and Vash, and fired a few shots into it's head. Although the thing was already dead, Peter was so blinded with rage that he emptied the clip into the thing, and it wasn't until a full minute later that he realized that he was dry-firing.

"Relax, man. It's dead. One hundred percent outta here." Matt said, trying to calm him down.

In a more serious tone, Vash told them "It's not safe here anymore. Let's just hope that Akito and Shinji got their job done.