Chapter 5: React

Alice, Malory and Tristan had to leave their temporary haven as a wave of walkers emerged from the north and began infesting the district. All three of them were left running out of the house, packing up necessary supplies before getting the hell out of dodge. They headed east and hoped that the wave of walkers would continue down south, passing them completely.

"Damn it!" Tristan cursed as he jerked the bag of supplies to his shoulder with irritation. A walker, completely out of sight, pivoted from the shadows and lurched toward him without warning. Tristan screamed and forced himself to turn away but the heavy rifle and the bag of supplies made it difficult. He corpse pinned him to the floor and tried to sink its teeth into his neck. Tristan manages to slip an arm at its throat to keep its gnawing jaws back. "Help!" He called out to the running girls. Alice turned back to look but Malory was the first to react.

She ran back to him with her rifle close at hand and kicked the corpse away with her momentum. The corpse rolled to the curb with enough force to dislocate and break bones. It hissed and growled at them but Malory finished it off with a hard strike of the rifle's back, breaking its skull and smashing its brains.

"Thanks." Tristan said out breathlessly.

"C'mon! Hurry up!" Alice called out from a distance. Malory didn't bother to help him up, she simply jogged ahead, back to where Alice was. Tristan forced himself back to his feet with the weight of his rifle and supplies bogging him down.

"Why did you help me?" Tristan asked once he had caught up to them. Malory didn't say a word and continues to jog ahead with both Alice and Tristan by her side.

"What the?" Alice spoke out with surprise and disbelief. School buses, barbed wires and concrete barrier blocks the street ahead, stopping them. There was no way to crawl under or over the obstacle and the only way to make it past was to go through the café's and store buildings that could hide walking corpses.

The streets itself wasn't safe as more of Them were beginning to catch up from the previous pursuit. The three quickly head to the nearest store only to find that the door could not be opened. Pushing ahead, Tristan gave the door a forceful kick, opening it with a satisfying crack. The three entered quickly and pushed a huge shelf to block the broken door.

"Kya!" Alice screamed as a face smacked itself against the musty display window, gnawing and clawing at the glass for her flesh. Malory backed Alice away from the window with a hand, watching Tristan points his rifle at it. More faces and bloodied hands smeared itself across the thick window, trying to get in with constant vigour. "We have to go, I don't know how long that glass can hold." As soon as Malory had said that, the faint sound of glass cracking under the pressure resounded in the store.

"Let's go then." Tristan lowers his rifle and backs away from the window. Once he knew the window could hold, he turns to the back door. Malory watched the glass and let Alice assist Tristan. "Shit, it's locked." Tristan tried the handle but it would not move all the way. He tried kicking it but the door was sturdier than he thought it would be. "Alice, go and find the key somewhere in the store!" He pointed past the shelves to the deeper part of the store.

She nodded and sprinted past shelves after shelves, looking for what resembles a key, and right by the refrigerators was a lone corpse, sitting with keys in his grip. Slipping her tonfas out and gripping them tightly, she walked ahead with slow, precise steps toward the corpse.

"Where's that key Alice?!" Tristan shouted from the front counter. It was a mess, drawers out-of-place, receipt rollers all around, flyers littered across every corner and what not. Tristan was doing his part in searching for the key.

She turned back to face the corpse only to find that it was staring at her with milky eyes. It began to move, slowly at first but erratically and desperately seconds later. She backed away with the tonfas at the ready. Once it was close enough for her to smell it, see its decaying flesh and veins across its neck, she raises the tonfa and strikes it down with the force of a hammer, smashing its skull.

The first strike connects but it wasn't enough to stop it. Even with its head deformed, it continued to snarl and crawl toward Alice with hunger in its empty eyes. She raises her tonfa once again and struck it like the last. The second hit connects like the first, this time ending its life.

She took deep breaths and knelt close to it for the keys. Her tonfas wouldn't be enough as the corpse had the keys in a vice-like grip. She uncurled its balled fist, hearing the pop of its bones as she did. The moment the keys fell to the floor with a clatter, she grabbed it and bounced up like a spring.

"I GOT IT!"

The window screamed out loud with a shatter and crash as it was no longer able to hold out. The corpses pooled in with uncoördinated feet, tripping and falling over once another. Malory backs away and fires her rifle at the closest corpse that managed to stumble in. Alice returns to Tristan with the keys but he fumbles with them as there were too many. One by one the keys didn't fit or they simply wouldn't unlock.

Malory fires her second shot at the advancing mob, forcing its body to reel awkwardly to the side and sending tons of expired food to fall off the shelves. She shoves the bolt up then back to eject the spent round. She fumbles for her last round that has been kept in her vest pocket, but after grabbing it, she places it into the chamber and locked the bolt in place. "Get that door open," The sound of her last round echoed louder than the previous two. "NOW!"

Tristan passed Alice the keys, letting her try them while it was his turn to buy some time. "Go help Alice!" Those few words were enough to send Malory back while Tristan unstrapped his rifle from his shoulders.

His M501 would cause a huge racket but it didn't matter as a whole mob of them were already inside. Shouldering the weapon, he fires the first shot, sending a single round out of its barrel and piercing straight through many corpses. Tristan could see the vapour trail lining across the room. The survivor's ears rang from the deafening shot temporary halting their actions. The bolt flew back with such intensity, forcing the spent round out from the side, possibly readying another round.

"It's open!" Alice screamed out after letting Malory through. "Hurry!"

Tristan pulled the trigger for his last shot but a dry click returned from the empty barrel. "Shit!" He hopped away from his spot and turned about-face to retreat.

Sprinting as quickly as he could, he tossed the bag of supplies first before diving through. Alice quickly shuts the door and locks it behind her, where the pounding of the door were the only things they heard within the dark room.

XxX

The rooftop door opened with a loud creak, thanks to the rusty hinges. Vivian didn't let her eyes off the scopes of the binoculars as she knew who it was.

"It wouldn't hurt to look behind you, you know?" Kazuko called out, placing a bag full of drinks on the top of a rusting ventilation shaft.

"A bus drove off minutes ago." Vivian announced, stopping Kazuko's actions.

"What kind?" His tone was serious. He placed his drink beside the others and walked to Vivian's side. Vivian points ahead and drew an imaginary line across the street that lead to a bridge.

"A mini bus." She finally answered. "Your turn." She handed the binoculars to him without his consent. Vivian noticed bullets of water dripping from his fingertips, so she questions, "Why are your hands wet?".

"I needed to get the drinks out." He pointed with a thumb behind his shoulder to the bag full of drinks. The bag has enough to fill a whole vending machine. "It's a trick I used to do when I was young." He added as he looked through the binoculars.

"So you steal?" She turned away to grab a can. Vivian knew he's not scanning the scenery. There was a deep silence as Kazuko pondered for an answer.

"We..." Kazuko paused for a moment, wondering if he should speak out. He didn't. He simply stayed in silence and continued to watch the road.

It was Vivian's idea to head to the school's rooftop as it would give them a good layout of the streets. Kazuko was lucky to have found the trekking club's bag of supplies they had left. Binoculars, compassas and a small pocket knife were all Vivian managed to dig out.

"So what's the trick?" She asked as she sat on the rusting ventilation.

"Huh?" Kazuko turned around as Vivian had caught his attention. He has no idea which topic she was bringing up.

"These," She points to the cans with a finger while still holding one of her own. "How'd you get all of these?" She took a sip of her drink, wetting her lips.

"I uh..." He scratched his cheek with slight embarrassment. "I fill the coin slot with water. It fills up to the sensor and ding goes the counter." He complimented the sound effect with a gesture of his finger. "By the way," He pointed to the can of drink in her hand with the same finger. "That can was mine."

"It wasn't open mate." She countered with a small smirk and a sip of her drink.

Kazuko hopped away from the edge and walked to the ventilation for a new can. "We can't stay here, you know that right?"

"Yeah," She answered. "I do, so we should head out to one of the safe spots. I heard a few out there."

"I wonder which one." Kazuko opened the can and chugs it down quickly. He lets out a satisfied 'aah' and tossed the can away. Vivian ties the bag of drinks tightly and stuffs it in the trekking bag.

The sound of gun shots echoed in the sky. It sounded a lot like poppers than real gun fires, but seconds later more of them popped in a blazing fire fight.

"What the heck?!" Kazuko was the first to check, scanning the residential streets below with the binos. Hiding behind an olive coloured car was a teenager and across from him, on the second floor veranda of an unfamiliar resident was a man with a lever-action rifle. The man wore overalls that fitted a construction worker. His face was unshaven and his hair was in a mess. After each pull of the trigger, he has to lever the rifle for another round. How many rounds he has with him was unknown.

"Let me see!" Vivian snatched away the binos to see, watching the teenager hide behind cover. His black jacket hid his body structure and the angle in where he was facing to concealed his facial profile.

"That guy's going to get himself killed!" Kazuko turned and rushed to the stairwell.

"What are you going to do?!" Vivian followed quickly behind him, grabbing the trekking bag along.

"Help him, obviously!"

"You only have a clip! Who knows how much more that maniac with the rifle has!"

"We'll just fin- Woah! Find out!" He nearly tripped down the stairs as he had run two steps at a time. His heart dropped for a moment, frightening him.

"Kazuko! Your gun you idiot!" Vivian passed it the moment he turned around. He catches it with ease and loaded it, readying the firearm for firing. The corridors that lead to the shoe lockers were empty but the courtyard to the front gate has countless walking dead wandering about.

Kazuko opened the door to the courtyard but Vivian was the first to rush out and get her first kill of the day. A nice cut with her machete to the head. She drags the blade out, letting black blood leak out of the wound like an open pipe. The next two advanced towards her but Kazuko kicked one of them away, leaving the other to herself. Kazuko pinned his target to the floor with a foot to its chest and gave it a hard stomp to its head.

"We don't have time for this!"

"I know!" She responded in an irritated tone, swinging her machete hard across its neck, decapitating her target quickly and cleanly.

Ignoring the other walkers, the two of them rushed toward the gate. The gate's closed and runs by electricity. Both of them know how to get in and out of the school but doing it alone is difficult.

"Hurry! Jump over!" Kazuko planted his back to the gate and knelt with his palms upwards. Vivian tossed the trek bag over and sprinted toward Kazuko. The dead were advancing toward them in a tight semi-circle. Precious seconds could not be wasted.

Vivian stepped on his hand letting Kazuko boost her up with the strength of his arms. She pulled herself up and stepped on the top of the gate, which was wide enough for a proper balance. Vivian crouched and proffered a hand.

Kazuko gave himself a running start before jumping to grab them. Vivian pulled with all her might and managed to get Kazuko up above the gate.

"Now all that's left is to get to him." He said before jumping out of the school ground.

High School of the Dead. SZD 3.

I was having a debate with myself (Yes, I do that often) and wondered if I should write it in present tense as it has a sense of urgency and fast pacing but it seems that past tense won...I have no idea how it happened, it just did. I probably would try to write the next chapter in present tense, and probably the chapter after that.

Introducing a new OC in the next chapter! HURRAYYY!

Do leave a review and tell me how well this chapter did! If you keep quiet and not tell me, being a good writer will be difficult!

I hope you have enjoyed this chapter! Thank you for reading, see ya!