The bell at the end of fourth hour finally rang. The children jolting up from their seats and haphazardly slinging their book bags over their shoulders and sprinting for the cafeteria doors. The buzz of laughter and talking that erupted from behind the wall that separated the lunchroom from the hallways filled the ears of the children and passerbys.
At one of the circular lunch tables sat a group of boys. They had their elbows dug into the wooden surface of the cafeteria table and were in a heated debate over some insignificant topic. A shorter, brown haired boy suddenly perked up nervously.
"Oh god!" He exclaimed as he anxiously moved his hand up to ran his fingers through his hair, grabbing a handful of strands in his palm, pulling. "I have math next period does anyone know what the homework was?"
The rest of the boys stopped their argument to turn towards him.
"Oliver, since when did you ever care about doing homework?" A dark haired boy with longer hair named Connor remarked teasingly.
"Uhmm, I didn't until she started docking double the points!" Oliver complained, rolling his eyes.
Suddenly, the ginger haired boy sitting next to Oliver nudged him in the side. "Hey! The hell, Finn?" Oliver snapped before being cut off by the Finn's arm reaching out in-front of his face. His finger extending out to point towards a girl with pin straight dark brown hair walking with her lunch trey next to a taller black girl, laughing. Oliver looked like his heart had completely stopped and his face began to heat up.
"Ohhh! Is that Aria you're looking at, Oliver?" Connor said obnoxiously loud just to try to embarrass Oliver, who immediately tensed up and rested his forehead against the smooth surface of the table and angrily mumbled,
"I fucking hate you guys."
The two scene twins, Azie and Izie were in the bathroom both tweaking their appearance. Izie, the one with blue streaks in her hair was just dress coded for her spaghetti-strap crop top that had an intricate blue lace finish. She was forced to either wear an unattractive cover up or call her parents to go change. Instead, she decided to rant to Azie.
"I mean it's so stupid! So what if my stomach's showing? You're wearing a tank top and have you seen the cheer uniforms?" She loudly complained while fixing her hair. She glanced over at her sister Azie who was clearly just soo infatuated with this story as she redid her mascara in the dirty bathroom mirror. She let out a half assed
"Mhm"
Every once and a while just to get Izie off of her case.
There was a sudden scream from down the hallway that echoed through the thin walls. The twins perked up slightly, its not like it was uncommon for the boys at their school to mess around in the halls or yell but this almost seemed different... It felt different.
The twins nervously looked back at each other before Izie decided to check. She crept towards the door and opened it with a slow creak. She popped her head out and glanced to her left and then her right. She didnt see anything but she did clearly hear another yelp and a loud thud which sounded eerily near. She cocked her head back to the other side before returning herself back into the bathroom. She closed the door and pinched at the lock, turning it firmly. She swallowed, the atmosphere of the room suddenly fell thick and the underlying presence of fear hung over the both of them as they turned to make uneasy eye contact with one another.
"I'm sure its nothing.." Azie said, her shoulders tensing upwards and a slightly unsure expression on her face. She wanted to be comforting but her own feelings of clear anxiety were so clung to ever fold in her features that it made her real thoughts show as if written on a piece of paper and stuck to her face.
"Yeah.. Yeah you're probably right, its nothing." Izie replied, glancing off to the side and fanning a dismissive hand in the air as a bead of nervous sweat formed of her brow.
There was a sudden beat of silence between them. Their mouths running dry and an unspoken thread of fear that tied them together. Azie's hands glided up her arms as she anxiously pinched at the skin beneath the pads of her fingers. She turned her head and made eye contact with her reflection in the mirror the look of worry plastered on her face being broadcasted in front of her own eyes. Something finally felt off about today.
"I mean- just incase.." Izie trailed off, undoing her studded belt, the cool metal brushed against her hand as she roughly felt each stud prick against the skin in the palm of her hands. She reached up as far as she could, creasing her shoes in the process, to reach the automatic door hinge and the meeting of the frame and the door. She tightly wrapped the belt around the hinge, locking it in place making it impossible to open from the outside.
"I'm sure it's nothing, Izie." She said softly, tucking her mascara back into her clear plastic makeup bag. She had a slight smile tugging at the corners of her mouth when the dread in the back of her mind was pushing through.
"You don't have to lie for me," Izie said calmly, returning to the mirror next to Azie.
Azie stayed quiet, the soft smile that she adorned falling partially from her face. Her entire expression softened but she didn't speak a word. Through the silence, another panicked scream filtered through the air of the school. Another uneasy feeling rested upon the both of them as if there was a physical weight pushing against their shoulders.
There was a loud banging on the cafeteria doors. The thumping noise against the doors were muffled from the buzz of laughter and overlapped talking. The pounding grew more and more before the weight from behind the door grew too heavy and the doors blew open. Suddenly the cafeteria was being flooded in by unsteady rotting humans. Stumbling over one another with loud grumbling and groaning noises. They immediately grew hostile and bloodthirsty, reaching out their cold dead hands at the now screaming and running teenagers that filled the room. The table at which Oliver, Connor, Noah, Finn, Ace, and Nick all jolted up from their seats at the shrieking noise of yelling and sobbing. This felt unreal. Their brains flipping to fight, flight, or freeze within seconds. Oliver stood still, as if time itself was going slow a feeling of hopelessness settling on his brain as he watched one of the undead lopsidedly running towards him. Ace gripped onto Oliver's wrist and booked it. He ran and never looked back. Oliver finally snapped out of his trance and ran along with Ace. He could feel the corners of his eyes stinging with tears. He had just witnessed his classmates being ripped apart by something from nightmares. There was blood running through the grit of the tiles. Ace was running for the life of him, making sure Oliver got out of there as fast as possible. They crashed into the doors that lead out of the lunch room, pushing against the metal bar that opened the doors up. Once they passed the threshold of the cafeteria Oliver jerked his head back only to see the horrors that had been unfolding right as they had left.
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Ace slid to a sudden stop. Oliver crashed into him from behind. He straightened himself up wiping the underneath of his eye, still trying to process the horrors he had just witnessed. He looked up only to see a second small crowd of the same horrifying mob he had just seen. Ace's eyebrow twitched and had a plastered face of fear as his eyes darted around the walls before settling on the fire extinguisher that was hung against the walls of the school. It would be a dangerous attempt but he went for it. His hand coming open from where it was once wrapped around Oliver's wrist. Ace darted for the fire extinguisher. The coming group of undead were inching closer, letting out ungodly screams and gurgles with each thud of their feet. They were dazed and crazy Ace reached the fire extinguisher. He nervously fiddled against the cold metal handle that was there to open the case. His anxiety-induced sweaty palms had his fingers slipping against the smooth texture. Oliver's eyes widened and his breath hitched in his chest as he watched one of the zombies grip itself onto Ace.
Just then, like a miracle boost of adrenaline he broke the glass that encased the fire extinguisher, cutting up his shirt in the process. He reached his hand through the glass with a sharp inhale through his teeth at the glass shards grazing against his skin and cutting through layers of flesh. His hand wrapped around the fire extinguisher as he bashed the undead's skull in. It stumbled back and hit its cranium against the floor, blood oozing out of its cracked head and staining what was left of its brittle hair. The few remaining zombies started towards Ace with a new found strength. Ace stepped back a couple times, grabbing Oliver once more. The cut from Ace's hand was dripping blood, it crept down his skin and between his fingers slowly running down onto Oliver's arm. Ace stepped back. His breath was heavy in an unstable pattern of breaths. Ace suddenly jolted forwards, wielding the fire extinguisher in his hand, swinging the metal against the zombie's skulls. Pushing his way through the crowd. He knew he had to get out, get both of them to safety. Ace clung onto the extinguisher with all his might while keeping his wounded hand wrapped around Oliver's wrist as he struck his way through the mob of the undead.
Azie and Izie had now tucked themselves into the wheelchair accessible stalls, sitting on the toilet tank lid with their shoes resting on the rim. There was a constant pounding on the door into the bathroom. Azie had her hand over her mouth as she listened to the persistent banging on the outside. Neither of them knew what was happening and frankly, they didn't want to know. All they knew is that there was danger and that danger was right outside. Izie had her arms wrapped around Azie. They were both unaware if this would be their last moments. They were unsure of their surroundings now. They didn't know where they could go and they didnt know what lurked just a couple steps away. Izie perked up slightly to try and see over the stall walls and at the door hinge. The belt was still securely tied around it but with each rhythmic bang the door would shake.
Azie hung her head down and let it rest on her knees. Izie could hear the fear in her shaky breath. "We're going to be okay" Izie comforted quietly, "I'm here."
Although Azie knew that she couldn't rely on Izie's words of everything being okay, she still felt a spark of hope as she felt Izie's arms around her and the false hope behind her words.
There was one last loud bang on the bathroom door and then silence. The twins' breath hitched in their chests, listening for anything that could be going on around them or any clues on their sense of safety. There was nothing other than the slight bustling noises from the hallway. Izie sat up, listening for a moment before quietly getting off and walking towards the bathroom door. She held her breath as her fingers shakily held the lock on the stall door. She slowly opened the door. She glanced around the bathroom before walking out. She walked towards the sinks where her and Azie's bag were rested against. She grabbed them both and walked back to the stall, locking it behind her. She briefly dug through her back before pulling out her phone and turning back towards Azie, her eyes glued to the screen as she entered her passcode and sifted through her apps.
"What are you doing?" Azie whispered curiously.
"I'm going to try to text someone." Izie responded firmly.
After that, there was a silence with only the sound of the pads of Izie's fingers tapping quickly against the keyboard on her screen. She shifted her weight to the other foot nervously before sighing through her nose, never could she ever feel every second in a minute like she could right now as she stared down at her quiet phone as her text stayed on delivered.
A few minutes go by and her phone screen suddenly darkens. She taps the screen desperately and tries clicking it back on. It died.
"Shit."
Oliver and Ace had escaped onto the roof of the school where they met two other survivors who had the same idea, Jayden and Kade. Kade, Oliver, and Ace all grouped up and were talking about what they were going to do. Jayden was rather closed off. He stood away from the group while running his fingers through his fluffy auburn hair, just looking off at the streets. In his hand was his skateboard he had gripped between his fingers.
The small group was all talking about plans and where they would go to next or where they would set up camp. Ace turned to try and call Jayden over.
"Jayden!" He yelled once. After a beat of silence from him getting ignored he yelled again, "Jayden!"
"Don't fucking call me that. I go by Jay dipshit." He responded huskily.
"It's the end of the world, maybe stop being an asshole to everyone." Ace snapped back immediately. Yelling to him from across the roof.
Jay's eye twitched in annoyance. "It's the end of the world, maybe stop yelling." He retorted, though he did come over to the group, even if it was reluctantly.
Ace mumbled something angrily under his breath but filled in Jay on their plans and where they were going to camp for the night. Jay was... well... less than mildly interested to say the least. A sudden noise made all of them perk up. The familiar gurgling noise that those horrors would make. Jay stepped out first, starting towards the ledge where the fire escape ladder was. There it was, another zombie. This one seemed rather coordinated as it stumbled up the ladder.
The zombie let out an ungodly screech before gripping onto Jay's ankle. He responded by recoiling his arms back and slamming his skateboard into the zombie's head. Knocking it clean off. The underside of Jay's skateboard was grotesque now, to say the least but that got rid of that problem. He barely even reacted.
"Holy shit." Kade gasped.
note: pls dont judge this ik its not the greatest but i have BIG plans for this so just keep in touch, ill see if i cant post a part 2 soon byee ??