In the art room.
"Will she turn?" I wondered with a pang of sadness as I observed the teeth marks on the arm of the classmate we found in the room.
"Miss, it's possible your classmate won't undergo the transformation," Tim said, noticing my concern.
"But she's been bitten, how is it possible that she won't turn?" I inquired with a mixture of disbelief and a hint of hope in my voice.
"Miss, examine the bite closely," he instructed, pointing at the arm. "The marks didn't manage to pierce the skin. She must have been saved by the clothing she was wearing," Tim explained.
"So, she won't turn?" Sophie asked with a glimmer of hope.
"She won't," Tim affirmed with a serious tone, though I noticed a slight furrowing of his brow for an instant.
"He's surely not completely certain, but he doesn't want us to witness a student's death in front of us," I reflected, observing his expression.
"What a relief!" Marlon and Sophie exclaimed with renewed spirits.
"We must leave quickly… We'll be safer if we join the rest," Tim said.
"That's right, let's move swiftly… By the way, what's your name?" I asked our classmate.
"My name is Rose… Ugh!" she replied as she stood up, but upon seeing the bodies of the student and the teacher, she began to vomit.
"It's okay. Everything's fine now," I tried to comfort her, helping her hold her hair back and gently patting her on the back.
When Rose had calmed down, she recounted how she encountered that classmate who transformed after the announcement. She saw that he looked extremely sick and sought a teacher's help, running into the art teacher.
The teacher, with great kindness, took him to the room and applied warm compresses to his forehead. After a while, this classmate's condition worsened, and he suddenly passed away.
Both were desolated.
Rose and the teacher were about to leave in search of the nurse when the young man abruptly rose from the floor. Both felt a momentary relief at the young man's recovery, but he lunged at Rose and bit her arm.
The teacher quickly pulled him off Rose, but he then lunged at her and bit her throat.
The teacher began to rapidly lose her strength due to blood loss, and the young man, now a zombie, began to devour her.
Rose, frightened, tried to flee, but her excessive noise attracted the zombie.
Just as it was about to attack her again, the announcement I broadcast from the communications room distracted it, and Rose was able to hide under the teacher's desk.
However, she had to spend several minutes listening to the zombie continue devouring the teacher and praying for someone to come and save her.
"Did I save her with the announcement?" I thought.
We were all shocked by Rose's story. Sophie hugged her, trying to comfort her.
After a moment, we all quickly left the art room.
We moved in the same formation. Although Rose now accompanied Sophie and me in the middle.
Tim made us stop for a moment.
He had taken out his phone and looked at something on its screen.
"Miss, there's a phone network connection. You can call your father if you wish," Tim said, showing me his phone screen.
"Mmm… You talk to him, I'll talk to him later," I said as if it didn't matter, but the truth was I didn't have my phone handy. "Damn it! Why did I leave my phone in the classroom?" I thought, annoyed.
"I understand. I'll talk to him and try to find out what the situation is like out there," Tim said, moving a little away from my companions, but at the distance he was, I could still hear his voice.
"Guys, if you need to, you can talk to your parents. The connection is back, but we don't know how long it will last," I reminded my companions.
"Thank you very much for letting us know, Emily," Sophie said, quickly taking out her phone; the others did the same.
Each one called their loved ones, informing them of what was happening in the city center and trying to explain what they knew, however implausible it seemed. They sounded relieved to hear that their families were well, but they made excuses to prevent them from coming and getting caught up in all this chaos.
Tim, for his part, seemed to be informing my father of what was happening in great detail.
"Miss Emily is well."
"Sir, we have a problem. Most of the city streets are blocked, and we had to stay at the school with Miss Emily."
"Those things Alex mentioned would appear are already here, and some are at the school attacking people."
"No, sir… However, things are starting to get complicated. With the streets impassable, we can only stay here, but with every passing minute, more of those things appear at the school."
"I suggest we stay here but leave first thing tomorrow morning."
"I don't know, sir."
"Be incredibly careful on the way, sir. The military is patrolling the city center streets."
"We will take care of her, don't worry."
After that, Tim hung up the call and approached me.
His serious expression conveyed many things to me.
"Did something serious happen? What happened to my family?"
"Miss, your family is well, but they are very worried about your safety. The sir wanted us to get you out of here by any means and…"
"But what about my companions? Can we take them with us?" I interrupted, agitated.
The thought of abandoning my friends to their fate made me nauseous. Thinking that I could have helped many companions and did nothing made my resolve tremble.
"Calm down, Miss. I suggested to your father that we could stay here until tomorrow morning, but after that, we must leave," Tim said with a firm tone.
"What will happen if we stay longer?"
"It's highly likely that things will get complicated, and the military will open fire on the population to deter them or believing they are infected. Also, I remind you that the soldiers from before mentioned a curfew."
"What else did my father tell you?"
"He will come for us, if possible, but… I believe it will be impossible for him to get here."
The scenario Tim presented was quite worrying for everyone, including me.
Although Tim and Rony's father could protect us all in the classroom, as the number of infected within the school increased, the situation would become more dangerous. And, at the same time, if we gathered a large group, both would have a much harder time protecting us effectively.
"I don't want to abandon them," I told Tim with a desperate tone.
"I don't like the idea either, Miss Emily; now that I know them, I know they are good young people. However, I promised your father that I would take you to him unharmed," he affirmed with a serious tone.
I remained silent, without uttering another word.
A small part of me longed to escape from high school quickly. The things I witnessed today affected me more than I imagined, and I never wanted to experience anything similar again.
Another large part of me wanted to stay and face these challenges alongside my friends.
However difficult it was, I wanted to help my friends and classmates. I didn't want more people to transform. However, in the back of my mind, my rational part told me that I didn't possess the power or the ability to protect everyone.
"Save my friends? Or try to save everyone?" I asked myself, weighing both options. "If I try to save everyone, will I endanger the people I care about?"
"Why do you have that expression, Emily? Did something happen with your family?" Sophie asked me with a worried tone, after finishing her call.
"It's nothing… And my family is fine, thanks for asking. How is your family? Did you hear anything about what's happening outside?" I asked Sophie, trying to avoid the topic that was still gnawing at me.
"My family is also fine. Now, they are acquiring supplies because they were informed about these infected and are very scared. Also, they told me they haven't come here yet because the streets are blocked, and when they called the police to report the situation, the police told my parents that we were now under the protection of the army and that at any moment they would let us out," she commented to me.
"They're lying," I said without hesitation.
"I think so too… They must be preventing more people from approaching the city center because they can't control the spread of the virus," Sophie said with a pessimistic tone.
"I think the same."
"How were your families?" Marlon asked us with a worried tone.
"All good," I replied. "How is your family?"
"Same. They're worried and approached the city center. They were stuck on a street when…" Marlon began to recount but paused as he looked around.
"What happened?" Sophie asked, alarmed.
"They saw how a heavy truck crashed into many cars on a street. They followed other cars that took the opportunity to leave and moved away from the city center… They didn't try again because when they contacted the police, they told them that now the army was taking care of our safety," Marlon continued.
"An accident like that in broad daylight? Isn't it related to the zombies?" I asked suspiciously.
"My parents didn't know anything else about that accident, and it didn't even appear in the news. However, they mentioned that near the crash, people were acting strangely, attacking police officers and other people," Marlon replied with a serious tone.
"My… my parents… They're fine," Rose intervened, hesitating.
"It seems it will be difficult for her to overcome what she experienced in the room," I reflected, thinking about Rose's behavior. "By the way, did you warn your parents about the zombies?" I asked them.
"Yes, they didn't quite believe me, but they said they would be alert," Marlon commented.
"The same… happened to me," Rose agreed.
"What about you, Sophie?" I asked her.
"They saw a neighbor attack another neighbor. They told me that a young man seemed scared of this neighbor who was acting strangely, then he came out of the house with a knife and attacked her. He stabbed her directly in the head," Sophie replied, surprising us all. "This happened a few hours ago."
"It seems these zombies have appeared everywhere in the city," I commented with fear, then I turned and looked at Tim. "Do you think we'll be able to get out and be safe outside?" I asked Tim.
"Miss, if things get out of the military's control and the infection spreads quickly, the worst place to be in the city would be the center," he replied, pointing to the ground. "However, the high school facilities could serve to create a shelter; the only problem is…"
"What's the problem?"
"There are already infected people inside the premises," Tim replied with a serious tone. "If the military doesn't act quickly, more and more students will get infected, and more than a shelter, the high school could be our tomb."
"But, if we manage to eliminate them all, do you think we can avoid the dangers outside?" I asked, approaching him and looking directly into his eyes.
"Well…" Tim hesitated, it seemed he didn't want me to get the idea of staying here. "Phew… Yes, you could create a shelter that could keep you safe from what's out there," he commented, resigned.
Marlon, Sophie, and Rose looked at me with faces full of hope.
I didn't want to keep asking Tim more questions because I was sure he would start explaining the many difficulties we would have to overcome if we decided to stay.
Tim guided us back to the room, but when we were a few meters away, we heard footsteps coming from the staircase that was near the room's door where the rest were waiting for us.
Unable to hide, we could only stand there, hoping it wasn't a group of zombies.
Suddenly, two soldiers emerged from the stairs who, upon seeing us, raised their weapons, pointing them at us.
"What are you doing out here?" one of them asked.
"We went to the bathroom and found a classmate who needed help," I replied quickly, without revealing the information we already knew.
"Help? What happened to your classmate?" the other soldier asked suspiciously, his hands gripping his weapon more firmly.
"She…"
"A zombie attacked me! It bit the teacher! It was eating her! And I…!" Rose yelled, releasing all her fears now that she saw someone who could truly protect her.
"Rose!" I shouted, interrupting the last part. "She almost gave away that she had been bitten," I thought, alarmed; Tim stepped in front of me to protect me in case of anything.
"Zombies? What are you talking about?" the soldier reprimanded her with an annoyed tone, pretending he didn't know what Rose was referring to.
"I…" Rose wanted to say something more, but her face soon showed signs of realization. She seemed to realize what the soldiers were doing.
"You come with us," the other soldier said.
"Our classroom is close," I tried to appeal.
"It's not necessary, we will now guide all students to the gym… We'll take you first," the soldier denied with a stubborn demeanor.
I looked at Tim, and he just nodded in response.
Not wanting to escalate things to an irreparable degree, we moved forward with the soldiers through the same hallway we had traversed before.
Just as I was turning into another hallway, I noticed Rony's father.
He looked at me with a calm and confident face.
He strongly hit his chest with a tightly clenched fist and then pointed at me.
Then he nodded slightly and returned to the room.
"He will come to save us," I thought, hopeful.
.
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[A/N: CHAPTER COMPLETED
Hello everyone.
Emily almost saw a classmate transform, but she won't be safe forever. Will something change in her when this happens?
The crossover point with the other novel is approaching.
The rescue is approaching, but so is chaos within the school. Danger lurks in the darkness, and ignorant people will fuel the chaos with their decisions.
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Read my other novels
#The Walking Dead: Vision of the Future.
#Vinland Kingdom: Race Against Time.
You can find them on my profile.]