Its easy for a teenager to forget the time when they are having to much fun, and right now, that was the case. Only the handsome Mr. Daylewood and the teacher from the other class were really actually paying attention.
The students from the other class, all seniors in Government class under the teacher Mrs. Fernandez, had met up with an acquaintance and were discussing stuff that only appealed to them. Annie, Lynne, and VyVy had been joined by Tristan and Laura, a friend of Annie's. Annie, of course, lit up and immediately hugged him until Lynne and VyVy made dramatic gagging noises.
"So, what do you think is going on?" Tristan asked as he sat down on a desk and Annie sat on the chair next to the desk.
"Just probably a drill or something. Nothing to worry about," Laura answered as she drew 'Simple Plan' on her hand with a green permanent marker.
"But they said it was a minor problem," VyVy pointed out as she watched Laura, finding nothing better to look at.
"Annie, tell Tristan and Laura what YOU think this whole thing is," Lynne said, giggling to herself as she pulled her long dark hair into a ponytail.
"Zombies," Annie said simply as she nodded. Laura smiled widely and Tristan chuckled.
"Annie, you go on and keep believing its zombies. Then, when we really find out what it is, we can laugh at you," Laura said playfully and Annie gave her a playful hit in the arm.
"I love your creativity," Tristan said and gave Annie's forhead a kiss, which made Annie smile like a fool.
"And I love your everything," Annie giggled back at him.
"EW! PDA!!!" Lynne and VyVy went off at the same time laughing. Then, the speakers went off again. This time, the voice wasn't boring as before, but quite chilling.
"Oh God. Its worse then we thought. Stay in your classes. Please. Stay there. Don't move. I don't know if help is coming. Its all waved on us suddenly and they are left and right. Lock your doors and wait. Just please - "
And then, it was cut off, leaving them in silence for the second time in one day. Even the annoying and "Don't talk to me" Jessica had stopped her texting and her iPod's earphones were sitting on her lap. Mr. Daylewood and Mrs. Fernandez stepped into action, walking over to the door, but then Mrs. Fernandez froze.
"It locks on the outside. Someone has to have the keys to lock it on the outside."
Mr. Daylewood looked at her shocked.
"What?! Why the hell would anyone do that?! We need it locked now! From the INSIDE!" Mr. Daylewood said.
"They made it that way so students couldn't lock their teachers out. It made logical sense," Mrs. Fernandez studdered and put her shakey hand onto her plump chest. Mr. Daylewood bit his lip and looked around.
If it wasn't for the situation, everyone would have laughed as if this was all terrible acting. Even down to Mrs. Fernandez' fake gold rings and Mr. Daylewood's thinking face, it looked like it was right out of a terrible movie that no one liked. Unfortunately, that was not the case. The students looked at the two adults in complete wonder and hope. Hope that this was all a joke. It wasn't everyday that their principle was freaking out on the microphone for announcements. And had they heard him crying, as if in pain, devestation, or fright?
"Well, it doesn't make an fuc - ," Mr. Daylewood stopped when he realized that the students were still looking at him and he gave them a stone hard look. "Kids - "
"Dude, kids are baby goats," Tom said as he leaned back and began biting onto his lip ring.
"STUDENTS," Mr. Daylewood corrected with bitterness, looking straight at Tom, "we need to have a moment of just thought, alright? First, we need to know what is wrong before jumping head first into this. Then, we need to find a way to overcome the problem. But, we need to start it off with securing a place in which to keep us safe. Does anyone have any ideas for that?"
"We could always just lock the door from the outside and get back in. All we need to do is lock it with the key and then have someone still inside open up the door. Its simple, won't take long, and those locks are pretty strong," Kylie said and her twin nodded in agreement.
"Ok, but who will get out and lock the door?" Mr. Daylewood asked and looked around at the terrified students.
"I will. My job is to teach and protect them. While I am at it, I can take a look around and see if there are any other students around campus that need help," Mrs. Fernandez said and put her shakey hands on the door handle. Mr. Daylewood gave her the keys. "Now, just promise me that you will open the door when its done."
Mr. Daylewood nodded and looked at her with a look of somewhat respect. Then, she slipped out. The tension in the air seemed thick.
"Guys, I don't think we need to flip out about this. Have you guys ever thought that MAYBE, like, there is nothing wrong. Perhaps we are all in, like, some really weird TV show to scare people," Jessica pointed out and looked down at her Razor, awaiting the text from her friend.
"Yeah, only in your world," Laura said with hostility. Laura didn't particularly like Jessica and vice versa.
"Maybe something really is wrong. Maybe this is just a drill," Tuan said and shrugged calmly.
"We just have to wait back and see," VyVy added and bit her lip. Mr. Daylewood paced at the door and licked his lips nervously.
"I wonder if Mrs. Fernandez found anything," Lilian Rother, a quiet senior with an elegant beauty and a better personality, thought outloud as she looked at the door. Everyone did the same as her, with the exception of Jessica who was getting slightly impatient for the response of her friend.
"Yeah, she probably found someone. Just taking her time, I bet," Samuel said and drummed his fingers on the desk to an impatient tune. A tune that was making everyone edgy and a bit more nervous.
"How many other classes have 0 periods?" Mr. Daylewood asked as he stopped pacing to look at the students.
"PE has a zero period. English has one," Lynne said and looked out the window at the sky, that was brightening up a bit more.
"No. Classes. Classrooms."
"Maybe ten at most," Lilian said quietly as she held her backpack closer to her chest.
"So, ten other classes. The phone must be able to reach them, right?"
"All except PE. They do their activities outside, at the track. Only on bad days do they go inside to the gym to play basketball or something."
Mr. Daylewood licked his lips again and his pacing started up.
"Where is Mrs. Fernandez?" a female skater, known as Super Kidd, asked as she fidgeted slightly on the counter she was sitting on.
"Hell if I know," Tom said calmly, stretched out his legs, and then rested his head in his arms on the desk. As if Mrs. Fernandez knew what was going on, a light knock came from the door. Mr. Daylewood opened it up in an instant and Mrs. Fernandez walked in a slight faster then she should have, for she almost tripped over her own thrifty clothed feet.
"What happened?" Mr. Daylewood asked as he took her arm for support. She fanned her face with her hand and closed her eyes.
"I don't know exactly what happened, but there are bodies everywhere on the first floor. The J buildings kids and teachers on the second floor said they didn't want to move from where they were, not even to make sure the office was ok. I went downstairs and I saw something I never want to see again," Mrs. Fernandez' voice came through shakey.
"What?" Mr. Daylewood asked as he rubbed her back comfortingly.
"There was a student, no more then a freshman, eating. . . eating a teacher. It was chewing and crunchy. . . And. . . Oh Lord it was dreadful. It had eaten half of the teacher's neck."
"Zombies," Annie whispered, more to herself then to her gawking friends.
"Oh shit. Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit," Jessica said, now suddenly getting up from her desk while still looking at her cellphone. Everyone turned their heads to her and waited and she looked up. "Does the TV get the news?"
No one in that room could tell you how fast the portable TV was plugged in, and with Jessica's directions, turned to channel 11 for the news. The known cast of the Fox 11 News came on the screen and there was so much dread and fear in their faces that it seemed to have leaked through the staticy TV and into the room H24.
"Just an update on the unknown epidemic. Local police and firefighters are telling everyone to remain in their houses. Do not move from your home, do not try to leave, don't even draw attention. Lock all windows, doors, anything," Steve Edwards said to the camera and the whole classroom felt as if his brown eyes were staring right into theirs. It was terrifying.
"Local authorities are also saying that they do not know what this is, but are getting help from other resources on how to stop the attacks and virus," the lovely Dorothy Lucey said, who was shaking so badly, her dangle earrings looked like jello during a tremor. "Lets try to get a better image from Rick Dickert with SkyFox."
The image changed to that of the pretty boy, Rick Dickert, who was looking out of the helicopter with a look of sincere fear. He looked back at the camera and gulped.
"The attacks are spreading up the freeway and we are unfortunate to say that . . ." He froze and looked out the window. "Oh God!"
The camera moved a bit and there was a second of minor confusion before the camera was focused. What it was focused on made everyone's blood stop. The freeway was packed with cars. Cars and bodies. Cars. Bodies. Blood. Everywhere. A person was walking, more like stumbling, around the bodies but where his arm was supposed to be was nothing. A bit of bone shone a light pink color from the shoulder and the sound of vomiting came a second later.
"This has been the scene for two miles. Two miles. We don't know how the outbreak started or how it spread so fast, but all we know it that these people are deceased and unless you want to be too, stay inside your home."
"Are there any survivors, Rick?" Dorothy's voice sounded shakey. No one could blame her for her fear.
"I haven't seen any. Its been three hours and I haven't. . ." Dickert's voice stopped and then they saw why he hadn't finished his sentence.
If anyone were to have witnessed what they saw, gone back in time, and told someone, they would have been put into an asylum or just laughed at. Only the druggies, alcohalics, and paranoid would believe them.
A body, a victim to the bloody rampage, rose from its resting place and stumbled down the 405 freeway. The students', and teachers', jaws dropped so quickly that one could have sworn that they heard the muscles give out at the same time.
The person, possibly a male but they couldn't be sure due to distance, had a red t-shirt. It would have looked like any red shirt, except the man's intestines were ripped in half and hanging out of a ragged hole in the stomach. He was tripping over them as he slowly and lazily drudged along the abandoned cars and strewn bodies.
VyVy felt her stomach revolt at the image as she turned her head, in time to see Jessica cover her mouth in pure horror and disgust. Mrs. Fernandez still had her hand clutched against her chest but now Mr. Daylewood was holding her incase she fell again and he looked at the screen in despair.
Then, another body rose up, this one older with a torn up arm.
"Oh my God," Kidd mumbled, falling back onto a wall and bringing her skateboard closer with her foot.
"Turn it off," Jessica whimpered as her hand fell from her mouth and onto her designer-clothed lap.
A person, alive but sporting a large gash that reached from the top of his bald head to his forhead, ran from a wrecked car. Immediately, he pleaded for help to the helicopter and ran from the staggering bodies. The voice of the alive man made the "crazies" follow the sound of it, limping somewhat excitedly to them. The man grabbed his arm, as if it were broken, and began weaving through the cars.
"Oh my gosh! Oh man!" Rick's voice rang clear.
The man then tripped and landed on the ground, face first.
The things were gaining slowly.
The man tried to get up when a hand grabbed his ankle. Yelling in fear and surprise, the man watched as a body emerged from an open car. The head was completely red and there was a piece of flesh from the forehead hung infront of his eyes, hiding its dark and blank stare. It reached over, pulling along the floor to get to the man, and bit into his calf.
"Turn off the TV!" Jessica said louder, but still weakily.
When they had finished getting to the man, the first two crazies joined the thing on the floor, biting into his warm flesh. A spurt of blood shot out when the younger thing bit into the man's neck. Blood erupted as the older thing gripped the man's arm then sunk his teeth into it. The floor thing ripped a chunk of muscle from the man's knee, showing off the man's lovely white knee cap before blood rushed down his leg. Yet the man screamed and tried to get away. Tried. Another gory thing had come out of no where and bit into the man's bottom. It was only after it had finished chewing the meat and went back for more did anyone realize this one was a child, no older then twelve.
"Get the fuck off of me! God! Someone help me!" the man's barely audible voice shot out and VyVy felt goosebumps on her arms.
The only response was that of yet another thing biting into air as it crawled over to him hungrily. After that, the man's strength left and his body became a bit more limp. His screaming was less and less. Finally, his body fell down and became the most popular snack food the crazies could ask for.
The screen turned black as VyVy pressed off the button to the TV.
"Jessica told us to turn it off," VyVy explained and sat back down. Even though the TV was off, they could still see the blood, the ripped and chewed skin, and the complete look of anguish and fright on the guy's face.
"Shit, what was that?" Tuan asked as he looked away from the TV for the first time.
"Zombies," Lynne answered and looked at Annie who was cuddled up in Tristan's chest.
"Oh yeah! Zombies rose from the dead and plan to eat us all to take over the world!" Samuel replied sarcastically.
"Its impossible for a zombie to raise from the dead," Annie pointed out rudely to Samuel.
"Fuck off, Annie!" Samuel growled.
"Fick dich," Annie replied.
"Hey, Samuel, don't talk to Annie that way, alright dude?" Tristan asked. Annie sighed. She forgot how much Tristan hated fighting.
"Hey Tristan, mind your own fucking business," Samuel answered.
"Watch your language, Sam," Mr. Daylewood warned and gave him a look that said 'Do not try it'.
"What do we do now?" Lilian asked, her backpack still clutched to her chest. Soft curls, the color of dark honey, cascaded down her cheek and she pushed it behind her ear.
"We can try to get out and get help. Maybe someone is holed up in the office. We could use a car and drive to a safe place," Tuan suggested.
"Yeah and why don't we pick some daisies as we are dancing and singing out of the school. Hey! Maybe we can even get an ice cream cone while we are fucking getting away from 'zombies'," Samuel butted in coldly.
"Language, Sam," Mr. Daylewood interjected.
"The people on the TV told us to stay inside. Why don't we just do that?" Kidd asked, using her foot to move her skateboard forward and backward.
"I don't want to stay in a school! Its bad enough my best friend isn't here!" Jessica whined.
"Okay. Raise your hand if Jessica should leave right now!" Laura said, raising her hand.
"Laura," Tristan and Annie warned at the same time.
"The little punks look slow. We could simply walk passed them," Kylie said and looked at her brother.
"Yeah. Kylie and I can walk to the other classrooms and see if anyone is okay. We are both fit enough to run if anything comes," Kyle finished.
"The locker rooms are perfect for a safe place. They have strong walls, water from sinks and showers, bathrooms. If anything does get in, there are three doors we could use to get to the outside and that puts us almost ontop of the parking lot. Back up plan," Annie said with a wide smile.
"Yeah but there is one problem. The locker rooms are ACROSS campus!" Lynne pointed out.
"We can walk through the service roads," VyVy smiled.
"No! we can use supervisions' carts. They keep them infront of the office and they are pretty quiet," Mrs. Fernandez exclaimed excitedly.
"Well the carts hold all of us?" VyVy asked as she counted everyone.
"I'll use my skateboard," Kidd said stubbornly and pressed down on the edge of the skateboard, causing it to stand tall. She caught it effortlessly.
"I actually think we should all be careful. Sound attracts them. On foot wouldn't be as quick but safer," Annie said. "And we should get some sort of sharp objects in case we are attacked."
"Like scissors?" Lilian asked.
"Yeah. We could use the pole from the flag, too! Even the wood stick that has our room number on it that we use for drills or emergancies," Annie answered.
"Then should we get going?" Kylie asked standing up, her brother doing the exact same thing with only seconds as the difference.
"Better now then when all the dead arise."