CHAPTER 3
Then, out of absolutely nowhere, we heard a loud screech coming from the woods, and a shadow of a large, scaled, strange figure caught the zombies' attention.
It was loud—boy, do I mean loud. Being pretty sensitive to sounds, I covered my ears. But. . . it stopped after a minute or two, and the silence slowly crept back in, leaving us frozen. Then, Christian spoke up in an alert tone,
"Uh. . . guys. . . we should leave before—"
I immediately cut him off, covering his mouth with my hand.
"Shut up, will you? You're going to attract them near us." The zombies were already about five feet away.
"Guys, I again think it's a safe time to say. . . run," Ruby interrupted. No objections were made. We all sprinted to the emergency stairs, running down—not cautiously at all—just trying to get away.
Although. . . as we ran, Christian, of course, had to slip. I turned back, debating for a second, but the zombies had already grabbed his foot and were pulling him away from us. Christian screamed for help.
"What the hell are you staring for?! HELP ME!" Christian yelled back at us.
I rolled my eyes and ran back up to the rooftop, grabbing his arms and pulling him towards me. The zombies let go, and he fell on top of me. I grunted, having hit the ground quite hard.
"Why are you looking at me like that? I saved you," I spoke up, slightly irritated.
"R-right. . ." Christian slowly got off me, and we all went back inside the building.
Isn't it weird that Ruby and Nicole didn't help? They just watched. What friends they are—if I can even call them that.
We slowly made our way into a shop and locked ourselves in.
Turns out, it was a cake shop. We were so focused on escaping that we hadn't realized where we ran into. Ruby looked around before her eyes landed on the cakes. She went behind the counter, looking through the display.
"Woah. . . these look great. . ." Ruby was practically drooling. She took one out, ready to dig in.
God, this girl.
Just as she was about to take a bite, I shouted across the shop, "Ruby, stop!"
The shop wasn't that big, so my voice reached her easily. Ruby froze, placing the plate down.
"What?" she asked, looking at me in slight confusion and disappointment.
I walked closer, pointing at something in the cake slice. "Fungus. . .?"
Ruby looked at it, surprised. "But. . . me and Christian came here today. Right before we heard the screaming, we were here, ordering this exact cake. ."
I gave her a confused look before sighing. "Well, don't eat it. You could get poisoned."
I walked out from behind the counter and sat on a cushioned seat. A few moments passed in silence before we suddenly heard something outside the building—an emergency evacuation warning.
We exchanged confused looks but assumed the zombies were infectious and had reached the town.
"We should go—let's check out the town," Christian said in a rather sassy tone. We all agreed anyway. The evacuation warning kept repeating as we exited the mall. Along the way, we came across a few loudspeakers broadcasting the message.
Annoyed, I walked up to one and destroyed the cable, cutting off the irritating voice.
The others were trying to hold in their laughter.
"What's so funny?" I turned to them, skeptical.
"It was funny how irritated you were," Nicole said, practically laughing while talking.
"I agree, he's right." Ruby added.
I sighed, ignored them, and continued walking.
We moved forward peacefully, though oddly enough, we didn't come across many zombies. After a while, my legs were getting sore. I'd run more today than I ever would on a normal day. Just as we relaxed, a groan sounded behind us.
A bunch of zombies were right there, coming straight for us.
Of course, we were all in shock. I mean, imagine just wanting to hang out with your best friend on your birthday, only to be surprised by a zombie apocalypse. And getting stuck with my enemy. . . somewhat frenemy. . No. Whatever he is to me.
To be honest, I was still processing the whole situation. But deep thinking could wait— right now definitely wasn't the time. We exchanged silent glances before Nicole suddenly took off running.
Naturally, we followed.
After gaining enough distance, we stopped to catch our breath. We kept walking. The mall wasn't in our city; it was out of town, which explained why it took so long to get back. Surprisingly, after only 15 minutes, we reached the city.
Silence. Deafening silence. No traffic, no cars driving, no humans around. The cars on the road were either completely untouched or utterly annihilated, creating a long, lifeless line stretching into the next city. The place looked... abandoned. It truly seemed like no one was left.
We cautiously moved deeper into town, observing the eerily still environment. It felt like we had been walking forever when we finally reached an old school.
It looked abandoned—though, to be fair, the whole city did. The odd part? It was newly built. Maybe a week or three old. Yet, it was already trashed, blood covering the walls, dead zombies surrounding it.
And to assume it spread that fast within barely 24 hours? Unfortunately for us, the only reasonable thing to do was to enter. At least for now.
Holding our breaths against the awful stench, we stepped inside. Nicole pulled out his flashlight. Judging from the way he struggled to turn it on for the second time, I assumed he had never used one before.
I sighed. "Give it to me."
Nicole rolled his eyes but handed it over. I turned it on and led the way.
"You've never used a flashlight, have you?" I asked.
Nicole looked away, sighed, then chuckled awkwardly. ". . .Yeah. I guess so."
I scoffed, making fun of him slightly, but shrugged it off and continued.
We passed through a few empty classrooms—oddly clean, which made sense considering we were in a school in Korea. But one room stood out. Graffiti covered the walls, the desks were metal, and the board had spray-painted words reading: 'LOSERS.'
It felt. . . oddly personal. But I didn't know anyone in Korea, so I couldn't jump to conclusions.
We left the room, walking through more hallways. Some corners led to other classrooms, all appearing normal. But one hallway was different—graffiti covered every inch of the walls. Spray paint was everywhere.
We cautiously walked through, reaching another intersection. We could turn or go straight. We chose straight.
As we crossed the corner—
Someone. . or, something, grabbed Nicole's arm.
He yelped. Loudly.