A while ago, Hafen, Pepe, and Ms. Lily remained in the intermediate studies classroom.
Ms. Lily sat at her desk and ate Pepe's apple. She savored the last bite with a final, satisfying crunch and swallowed. She sighed contentedly and tossed the core into a trash bin. "Best apple I've had in ages," she commented and turned to Hafen and Pepe. "You two should get going. It's getting late," she advised.
Pepe paced near the front of the class. His gaze kept drifting towards the locked cabinet behind Ms. Lily's desk. He spotted Ms. Lily's keys on the desk, and a faint glimmer shone from his eyes.
"We're waiting for Stark and Matteo," Hafen asserted. He sat at his desk with a calm demeanor.
Just as he finished speaking, a distant scream echoed from the back of the school. It was faint but filled with terror. A short pause followed before other screams joined in.
Hafen and Pepe's heads snapped towards the back wall.
Just then, a wicked, familiar laughter echoed in their minds. "Well, well. Gathering the next generation of special individuals into one building is very convenient for me. Look at all of you, ready to fight for survival. Show me your potential," The Exalted One's voice taunted.
Ms. Lily's easygoing demeanor vanished. Her body tensed, and she was on her feet in a heartbeat. "What was that," she demanded to know with a tight voice.
"Help," another scream, closer this time, cut through the air.
The classroom door suddenly flew open.
Elaine rushed in, and tears streaked her face. She gasped for breath, and her words came out in a panicked torrent. "Zombies. Everywhere! Jasper... and Stark... are fighting," she stammered and pointed behind her. "They're coming," she exclaimed with wide eyes.
Ms. Lily's face paled. She rushed to Elaine and touched her shoulders. "Calm down, Elaine. Take a deep breath. What's going on out there," she interrogated and closed the door.
Elaine took a shaky breath. "Jasper and Stark were fighting zombies in the hallway. Matteo and Benjamin were with me, too, but they told me to run when," she explained and hesitated to continue. Her face darkened with horror of what she witnessed.
Hafen stood from his seat and approached them. "Are they alright," he sought to know.
"I don't know," Elaine sobbed and fell to her knees.
Hafen narrowed his eyes, and his ears twitched. He listened past the panicked sobs. He heard the distant thuds of fighting and the guttural groans of the dead. He stood on a desk and glanced out a high window.
In the upper floors, the windows shattered one by one, and silhouettes tumbled out.
Students screamed as they fell, and zombies kept their hold on them. They plummeted towards the ground.
Hafen turned away from the window with disgust and horror. "The zombies already reached the upper floors. They will be coming for us soon. We have to do something," he deduced.
Pepe's expression hardened. He strode to the locked cabinet behind Ms. Lily's desk and grabbed Ms. Lily's keys from the top of the desk.
"Pepe, what are you doing," Ms. Lily questioned in disbelief.
"Opening this," Pepe retorted and crouched to the locked cabinet. He fumbled with the keys, and his hands shook slightly.
Finding the right key, the lock clicked open, and the cabinet doors swung wide.
"Wait," Ms. Lily urged.
Inside, on a velvet cloth, was a pistol. It gleamed even in the dim light of the classroom.
Pepe's eyes widened slightly. He reached in and wrapped his fingers around the grip.
"Pepe, put that down. That is not a toy," Ms. Lily ordered with a shocked tone. She had no idea how it got there.
Pepe stood up and faced her. "I know, but this is the only weapon we have to stop them," he declared.
Ms. Lily opened her mouth to protest, but the sound of heavy footsteps echoed from the hallway. They did not sound like the shuffling gait of the zombies. They were deliberate and approaching fast.
The classroom door creaked open.
"Ms. Lily," a student whispered with a trembling voice as he stumbled inside.
A zombie clung to his back, and she sank her teeth into his neck.
The student collapsed to the floor.
Ms. Lily's face twisted in horror.
Hafen didn't hesitate. Betraying the knowledge he sought, he grabbed a heavy textbook from a nearby desk and hurled it at the zombie's head.
The zombie staggered back.
Pepe raised the pistol, and his hands trembled.
The zombie, undeterred by the book, turned its vacant eyes towards Pepe and lunged.
Pepe gulped and squeezed the trigger. A tear of sweat flowed down his temple.
A deafening roar filled the room, and a flash of light illuminated the horrified faces of the survivors. The bullet tore through the zombie's skull. Dark, viscous blood sprayed across the floor.
The zombie crumpled back to the ground, motionless.
A stunned silence descended upon the room.
Ms. Lily rushed to the fallen student's side. "Hey, can you hear me," she asked with concern and checked for a pulse. Her shoulders slumped, and a wave of sorrow washed over her face. "He's gone," she murmured.
Pepe stared at the pistol in his hand, and the smoke curled from its barrel. The weight of what he had just done settled upon him. He had killed. He killed not a monster from the depths, but something that used to be human.
Suddenly, the student's recent corpse twitched.
Ms. Lily stepped back and furrowed her eyebrows.
The student's corpse stretched out his limbs on its own, and his bones cracked. His eyes snapped open with the same vacant, hungry stare.
"No," Elaine let out a choked sob and scrambled behind Ms. Lily's desk. She covered her eyes and cowered.
"Stand back," Hafen warned. He grabbed a chair and raised it above his head.
The formerly dead student, now one of the undead, scrambled to his feet. His head tilted at an unnatural angle, and a low growl rumbled in his throat.
Pepe took a jagged breath and fired again with a horrified look.
The bullet tore through the zombie's head, and he dropped to the floor. This time, he remained still.
Another zombie sprinted towards the door while holding a flailing human arm.
Hafen rushed to the door and closed it. He held it close and panted.
Pepe lowered the pistol, and his hands trembled.
Ms. Lily looked at Pepe with a new level of respect. She reached out and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "You saved us. Thank you," she whispered.
Pepe flinched at her touch and looked at her with a pained expression. "I... I had to," he muttered.
"You did well," Ms. Lily asserted. She walked to the window and glanced out. "The school grounds are swarming with them. We're trapped," she noted, and her expression hardened.
Hafen glanced at the book on the desk, A Primer on The Sacred Forest's Life I.
The information about biological manipulation now felt useless.
Elaine, trembling violently, cowered behind the desk. Her hands were over her head, and tears streamed down her face.
"It's alright," Ms. Lily reassured softly and crouched next to her.
Elaine peered from behind the desk and suggested, "Maybe we can find a place to hide. Wait for help."
"Help is not coming," Hafen interjected. He pressed his ear against the door. He could hear the hungry groans of the undead in the hallway. "We're on our own," he concluded.
Pepe's mind raced. He thought of his mother, Ursa, and the other orphans at The Orphanage. He worried for Matteo and Stark, somewhere in the school, fighting for their lives.
A sudden, heavy thud echoed from the other side of the classroom door.
Startled, Hafen flinched and kept the door shut. He turned to Pepe with a concerned expression.
Elaine cowered under a desk. "Don't open the door," she pleaded.
Pepe's grip on the pistol tightened, and he took a step back.
The doorknob rattled violently.
"It's me, Stark! Let us inside, quick," a familiar voice called from the other side.
A wave of relief washed over Hafen and Pepe.
Hafen opened the door.
Stark burst into the room with the handle of a wooden sword. He was covered in dirt and blood, and a large bruise formed on his cheek.
Behind him, Jasper stumbled in, and he held a broken wooden spear.
Matteo and Benjamin came in after.
Elaine, Stark, Jasper, Matteo, and Benjamin have reunited with Hafen and Pepe in the intermediate studies classroom. However, the fight for survival was far from over. How will they survive this nightmare? Were they bitten out there?