Ryan woke up that morning seriously regretting having stayed up the night before to play those extra games of Call of Duty. He turned to the side and noticed his alarm clock read 8:00 A.M. he gasped, leaped out of bed and out of his room to run into the bathroom, pausing only to listen to any sounds downstairs, but it was completely silent. Why didn’t mom wake me up?

“Mom?” He called from the door of the bathroom.

When he heard no reply, he shrugged, and closed the door to continue getting ready. After a shower, he threw on some clothes, grabbed his sneakers and ran down the stairs of the house to the kitchen. He went straight for the door, locked it and began walking down the block to school. He ran a hand through his wavy, thick brown hair then put on his baseball cap and zipped up his jacket which hung loosely from his athletic build as he was walked down the street. He unlocked his phone to read a text his mom had sent while he was asleep.

Dad and I had to leave early this morning. Emergency at the hospital.

Text me when you get to school. – Mom

             He decided not to text her right at that moment for fear that she’d know he didn’t wake up on time. He put his phone in his jacket pocket and speed walked the route he usually took to go to school. It was a nice cool morning, cloudy but not too dark, the crisp fall air hitting his tan face woke him up from whatever sleepiness he still had. As he walked on, he realized there weren’t many cars on the road. He chalked it up to it being so early.

His growling stomach began to distract him. I’m already late, might as well get a bacon egg and cheese. He turned down a street that marked the end of the houses and the beginning of some small stores along a strip. He heard yelling a few stores down and paused to catch a glimpse of what was going on, but he realized it was coming from inside the store and couldn’t see anything, so he walked into the deli for his breakfast.

             “G’morning Eli! Can I get a BEC please? I’m running a little late… Elias?”

Elias, a tall, burly man with a thick, dark beard and sleeves of tattoos down his arms, was staring intensely at his phone with one earphone in. He was fixated with whatever he was watching. He looked up when he saw Ryan out of the corner of his eye, smiled and nodded at him.

“Hey kid, why aren’t you in school?”
             “Running late this morning. Can I get a bacon egg and cheese?” he repeated and turned to go get a drink from the refrigerator. “What are you watching?”

“Something’s happening in the city. The hospital is being flooded with sick people. They don’t know what’s wrong with them but they’re turning up bloody. I’m surprised schools open, could be more of the measles outbreak we’ve been seeing lately. God knows if those people were unvaccinated too.” Elias said while sizzling the bacon and putting together the sandwich.

“What? Wow. My mom did tell me there was an emergency at the hospital this morning, she and dad had to go in early.” Ryan said putting his orange juice on the counter and taking out his money to pay.

“Your dad works in the Emergency room, too right? Hope they’re okay, you should give them a call, they’re saying these people are going crazy or something.” Elias said handing him the wrapped sandwich and taking the money in exchange. He glanced at his phone on the counter and back down to the kid worriedly. “Want me to call a cab for you to get you to school? I don’t think your parents wouldn’t want you walking with this going on.”

“Nah I’m alright it’s not far and I walk fast, thanks though. Hey, I’ll come back after school, my mom’s making spaghetti I know you love her cooking.” He said and began walking to the door.

“Thanks kid, be safe!” Elias chuckled a bit nervously and turned his phone back on to continue watching the news.

Ryan walked out of the store and continued down the road, the yelling had stopped, and it seemed eerily quiet on the strip. He crossed the street and walked a few more blocks away from the stores. He thought about what Elias said and made a note to call his parents during lunch. He turned to walk down an alley between two buildings toward his school, a short cut he knew. A cloud passed over the sun making the alley darker, he began to get the feeling that someone was watching him, and he was right. He was almost at the end of the alley when he heard someone (or something) growl loudly behind him. The sound was like a dying animal letting out its last death call, followed by loud footsteps of someone sprinting at him. Ryan, sensing danger, turned only in time to see a man he didn’t recognize foaming at the mouth and running at him like he was the only thing the man saw. Ryan widened his eyes and started to yell and run but the man was on him before he could get anywhere.

************************************************************************

Leah was in the bathroom fixing her curly red hair in the mirror, it was first period and they were reading Shakespeare in her AP English class; being in the drama club she’d already read almost all his plays and didn’t feel the need to rush back to class. She wet her red manicured hands and looked up into the mirror at herself. Leah O’Claire was a senior at Oakley High. A petite girl with long auburn beach curls she kept lose around her shoulders, she was pale and freckled with bright green eyes. The door to the girl’s bathroom opened and she turned see her friend Cassandra walking up to her. Cassandra Perez was a tall girl with deep brown wavy hair. Her Prada glasses enhanced her large hazel eyes and her sun kissed bronze skin glowed naturally.

“Hey Lee, Mr. Peters is asking what’s taking so long.” She said as she leaned against the sink and turned to check her lipstick in the mirror.

“Oops.” Leah laughed. “I was just about to go. I just hate listening to the same plays; can they give us anything different?” She rolled her eyes, she’d been the lead girl in almost all of the plays they’d done, mostly Shakespeare and she was exasperated.

At that moment the door opened again, and another student walked in. They both turned and saw Alyssa Capaldi a petite senior who had transferred from another school in their junior year. She was quiet and a little odd, her dark hair hung straight and short up to her shoulders, her bangs almost covering her large brown eyes which were rimmed with dark eyeliner making her face look pale. Leah and Cassandra almost made it their mission to torment the girl, they knew it wasn’t nice, but it was all in good fun for them, they never crossed lines they just poked fun at her occasionally.

Alyssa stopped short, gave a small uncomfortable smile and walked straight into one of the stalls without another word. Cassandra raised her eyebrows in a way that silently said “awkward” which made Leah giggle softly. She walked over to the automatic dryer by the window. The toilet flushed, and Alyssa came out of the stall, she quietly walked over to the sink with her eyes averted from the two to wash her hands and Cassandra smirked at her not being able to resist.

“Hey, you know, you have really pretty eyes, you should really take your bangs out of them once in a while, Maybe let me do your make up- take off all that black shit.” She looked intensely at Alyssa, almost challenging her to respond. 

Her compliment may have sounded genuine if not for the condescending tone of her words. Leah who had her back facing them while drying her hands, tried not to laugh out loud.

“Yeah, you know Mr. Peter’s would definitely give you more parts if you didn’t look like a zombie.” Leah added, turning to look at Alyssa who looked frustrated.

“I like my make-up and I like my hair, thanks.” She said almost under her breath to them.

Leah smirked knowing she got her rise out of Alyssa and began to turn to her when she saw something from the window of the bathroom. They were on the third floor of the high school, so she couldn’t make out exactly who it was, but it looked like a kid sprinting, and slightly stumbling, from across the street to the school entrance.

“You know, you don’t have to be so mean to me.” Alyssa continued shaking the water from her hands.

“Oh, don’t be so sensitive. A little constructive criticism never hurt anyone, we just want to improve you.” Cassandra smirked at her. “Right Lee?”

“Uh…Yeah.” Leah said turning away from the window momentarily putting what she’d seen out of her mind. She sized up Alyssa, in her oversized band sweater and ripped jeans, and shook her head “No offense, but you do it to yourself.” Leah said gesturing to her outfit walking passed her out of the bathroom. Cassandra shrugged and smirked at Alyssa, then walked out after Leah back to their class. Outside of the bathroom in the hall Leah leaned closer to Cassandra to tell her what she’d seen.

***************************************************************************

The next few minutes passed in a blur. Ryan was fighting the man for his life. Up close the man looked disfigured, his face full of pustules, his skin red and feverish, the blood splattered on his clothes didn’t seem to be his own. His eyes were bloodshot and frenzied, he was crying tears of blood and kept chomping on the air in front of Ryan’s face. Ryan was holding him back by one leg and his forearms.

Screaming at the top of his lungs to no one apparently, he was losing his fight, getting tired. I’m done for. Is this how I’m going to go? Jesus this is a fucking horrible death. He turned his head looking for something to fight with and saw some plywood by a few trash bags. Yes! His adrenaline kicked in and he kicked the man hard in the chest throwing him backward and grabbed for the wood with both hands. He fell again as the man began clawing at his leg. The man bit into his leg but his jeans were too thick to cause any damage. Ryan yelled out hitting the man across the head with the plywood trying to knock him off. The man was knocked to the side which gave Ryan just enough time to scramble to his knees and turn to get away, but as he was getting up the man grabbed the sleeve of his loose jacket, exposed his shoulder and bit down hard enough to draw blood.

Ryan screamed and punched the man in the head as hard as he could a few times until the man was dislodged from his arm. He grabbed the wood swinging widely and smacked the man hard across the head with so much force the man’s head spun around, and blood sprayed the wall behind him. Ryan, sweating with adrenaline and pure fear ran out from the alleyway across the street toward his school, stumbling, only wanting to get to safety.

When he got inside, Principal Carmona, a tall, slender, harsh looking woman, was coming out of the main office with a hot cup of tea in her hands.

Mr. Porter, why are you so lat- Oh my god!” She screamed. Her reprimanding expression turned frantic when she saw the blood dripping down his arm. She rushed to him and began leading him toward the nurse’s office.

“What happened? Who did this to you?”

“Some guy…I don’t know- he looked like a…Monster.” He panted.

They burst into Nurse Pierce’s office, startling her. She jumped up from behind her desk where she was sitting and rushed over to them, leading Ryan over to the empty bed in the adjoining room.

“Mr. Porter is injured, it looks like…he says someone…bit him.” Principal Carmona laid him on the bed and handed him the cup of tea she had in her other hand. “Drink Ryan, it will calm your nerves.”

“Thank you…” he said weakly, and took the cup taking a few gulps. His heart finally began to slow as he took deep breaths while Nurse Pierce moved his jacket away from his arm to expose the wound.

“I’ll need to disinfect this Ryan, this is going to hurt.” Nurse Pierce told him gently as she rushed to get alcohol and bandages from the cupboard. Principal Carmona patted him on his other shoulder and moved back so the nurse could work. He looked up at her and solemnly nodded his head and let her clean the wound. Nothing could be worse than what just happened.

************************************************************************

What the fuck is going on around here!? Elliot thought as he watched yet another person rush by on a stretcher, bloody and groaning in pain.  

“My…my head, please! My head is pounding!” The man on the stretcher cried as the nurses wheeled him straight through to the emergency room.

The people in the waiting room had come in with wounds that looked like bite marks but the E.R. has already been full to capacity. Those with wounds that weren’t as bad were made to wait to be seen as nurses rushed in and out of the emergency room to at least clean and bandage them in the meantime. He worked as head of security for Mercy Hospital and was bracing himself behind the security desk hoping these frantic people didn’t get too rowdy. Usually he didn’t sit out in the waiting room, he was back in the office, but two employees hadn’t shown up that day and he was short staffed. With all the chaos he needed to step in to fill in the morning shifters spot. He was a tall muscular man, dark skinned with his hair cut short, a thick dark mustache that had started growing some white hairs in recent years and a hard look in his eyes.

In front of him was a small crowd of people complaining that they had been waiting for hours, since that night and to do something about it knowing full well he had no control over that.

“Ma’am we’re going all we can to get everyone seen. Please take your seat and a nurse will be over to clean that.” He said looking back to the woman in front of him and turning his attention to another person yelling at him that she was injured as well and needed help.

The news caster had just made a worrisome announcement that people must stay inside. All he wanted to do was call his son, Malcom, and go home, he hoped someone else would come in to relieve him of duty. Given the state of things, that didn’t look likely.

Then something happened he didn’t expect. A patient in the corner of the emergency room began screeching. Followed by more patients after him, they suddenly looked possessed as if they were rabid animals and nothing more. One patient bit the nurse working on him and her screaming filled the room. People began fainting where they stood, the stress of it all on top of their wounds being too much for them to handle. Elliot backed away from the scene slowly and then broke into a run when he saw a little girl almost six years old crying weakly over her mother who had passed out. He ran over to her, picked her up despite her protests and began running toward the door to the E.R. but stopped when he heard numerous screams from inside. He backed up and turned to begin running toward the entrance of the waiting room when he felt a hard bite on his neck. The little girl latched onto him and was snarling over his shoulder. He began ripping her off when he saw the crowd of people in the waiting room turn slowly and look at him, the people who had fainted slowly began to rise and snarl crying blood. He screamed once but was silenced by the sounds of being eaten alive.

***************************************************************************

Alyssa walked through the halls rubbing her temples to relieve the headache she’d gotten from Leah and Cassandra. It had been like this since she’d transferred to the school in the middle of Junior year. All it took was one day where she was auditioning for a play her first few weeks, she’d attended Oakley High and in front of the entire drama club, she threw up all over the teacher Mr. Peters out of fear. They laughed about that for days. After that it was all downhill with her reputation and Cassandra and Leah never missed a chance to let her forget she didn’t have many friends on her side.

She was walking back into her AP history class when she heard loud voices coming from inside the classroom. She rushed inside to see everyone suddenly fall silent and give their full attention to the newscaster on the television above the blackboard. Alyssa slowly walked to her desk and sat down listening attentively with her classmates.

“Breaking news. The mayor is urging everyone to stay in their homes, there are 57 sick individuals at large, they have attacked 28 people without cause and the numbers are growing. Sources say they came from Mercy Hospital. We are urging everyone to stay in their homes, I repeat, stay in your homes until these individuals are apprehended. We will update you as soon as we have more information.”

The screen cut to a commercial and suddenly the quiet that befell the class became a calamity of ringing cell phones and frantic voices once again yelling at the teacher and talking wildly to each other. Alyssa worriedly picked at her sleeve and turned to her classmate Malcom, a skinny dark-skinned kid with glasses and buzzcut hair who at the moment sat still in his seat talking to no one still staring up at the screen.

“Malcom? Malcom…Are you okay?” She said reaching for his shoulder. He shook his head and looked at her, the color drained from his face.

“My dad’s at Mercy…” he said in a voice so slow it almost sounded like a whisper, she looked down at his hands. In it was his phone, on the screen were two outgoing calls to his mom that weren’t answered.

She was about to say something when the P.A. box in the front of the classroom next to the television broke out in static and the voice of the Principal spoke to them. The teacher immediately muted the television and shushed the class.

“This is an announcement to all students. In light of the mayor’s emergency announcement, all students will be dismissed early. I will read the names of the students whose parents are picking them up, those who are not called, please proceed to the gymnasium… Andrew Agosto…”

The principal began reading off names of students, everyone who wasn’t already on their phones with their families were texting instead and speaking to each other. Some of the fear began to die down and students naturally began dismissing the situation as lucky that they got to leave to go home early. Alyssa didn’t live with her parents, they died in a car accident a year earlier, her brother got a job at Mercy Hospital in the town over and they unfortunately had to move Alyssa to this new school. She reached into her pocket and tried to call her brother, but it went straight to voicemail. I hope he’s okay.

About an hour passed and only a few students including Alyssa and Malcom were left in the classroom. They walked out of the room following their teacher and filed down to the gymnasium on the second floor they walked down the entrance to the bleachers and sat down as other students filed in as well. Many students were murmuring to each other worriedly, some telling friends that family members hadn’t answered calls- mostly those who lived in the area around the hospital.

“Argh! He’s not answering. Why isn’t he answering…Not even a text.” Malcom said angrily after attempting to call his dad for the 6^th time.

“I don’t know. Andrew’s not answering either… It’s worrying me, I got a call earlier, but I missed it and now everything is going to voicemail.” She replied looking around at the gym.

She noticed a cluster of teachers at the entrance to the gymnasium talking frantically to each other. They looked genuinely fearful. The door to the gym opened and Principal Carmona came in gesturing like a madwoman. Alyssa was about to get up to see what was going on when she saw Cassandra and Leah sitting a few rows down talking amongst themselves. They looked up at her with smirks on their faces and got up to climb the bleachers toward them, probably deciding to use this opportunity to make fun of her and Malcom.

That’s when it happened. The sound of the gym doors slamming open led to piercing screams of agony as rapid strangers flooded into the gymnasium. The four of them froze momentarily taking in the scene of the bloody strangers, almost unable to comprehend what they were seeing. Below, Principal Carmona screamed as what looked like a bloody version of their school nurse, Mrs. Pierce tackled her to the ground and ripped her throat open, splattering blood across the floor. Their school logo soon became speckled with pools of blood as strangers and students alike clamored into the gym. Students on the bleachers began climbing upward to the staircases as the bloody mass caught view of them. It was chaos.

**************************************************************************

Ryan was laying on the bed in the small nurse’s office with the AC blasting. The nurse had cleaned his wound and bandaged it, but his arm was throbbing, and he was burning up with a fever. Nurse Pierce had gone out of the room to call his parents to pick him up, informing them that he’d have to be taken to a hospital immediately. He heard her leaving the frantic voicemail in the next room when his breathing began growing increasingly ragged. He could feel his vision blurring in and out of focus. His muscles spasming so much he looked almost like he was convulsing. He groaned in pain and suddenly felt an extreme hunger, as if he hadn’t eaten in weeks. He saw his bag sitting on the chair across the room and began to sit up to get the breakfast sandwich he didn’t get to eat earlier. As he was sitting up, he felt his body shut down all at once, his breath was catching in his throat as if he was being suffocated, his body felt heavy, and extremely hungry, the room around him was turning shades of pure red.

Nurse Pierce rushed into the room at that moment and gasped when she saw him trying to sit up, looking as if he was going to topple over.

“Ryan! Stop! What are you doing get back in bed!” She reached for him and he slumped over onto her shoulder. She tried to push him back onto the bed, but he began struggling against her with such force she felt him bruising her arms.

“Ryan? Ryan Stop it!” She pushed him away enough to glimpse his face which made her scream. His eyes were bloodshot streaming red tears, his face pale and pock marked. He let out a low guttural growl and bit into her neck hard silencing her.

“RUN!” Leah heard Malcom scream from a few bleachers above them, they began climbing upward trying to get to the staircases and avoid the carnage happening below. The crazed zombies began moving to other targets on the bleachers when there was nobody on the floor of the gymnasium to attack. Leah stopped short when she saw something she couldn’t believe. She saw the principal and other students who were killed sit up slowly and let out screeches of screams. Her eyes began to water, and her breath caught in her throat.

“Cassie…Cassie they’re…they’re…” But she didn’t have to say another word, her friend witnessed the same thing she did, as did others who were higher up on the bleachers who still had a chance at getting away.

She heard a loud bang of a body hitting metal as she saw Alyssa fall on the bench of the bleacher as a student who was plowing up the stairs toward her knocked her down. Malcom tried to grab the student off her but was little match for the bloodthirsty monster, with one shove of the student he was knocked to the side.

“LEAH! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? RUN!” Screamed Cassandra who had already gotten a few bleachers upward. Leah began to run after her when she heard the panicked scream of Alyssa, the girl who she’d made life in this high school miserable, the girl who didn’t deserve to go out this way alone, in a school she never felt at home in to begin with. Leah took a deep breath and changed her direction of running back downward ignoring the screaming protests of Cassandra. She found a textbook on one of the bleachers, picked it up and leaped onto the student who was attacking Alyssa, smacking him with the textbook then grabbed its neck with her arms and tried to put it into a chokehold. All those Thai Kwon Do lessons were finally paying off.  The monster began thrashing around trying to get its new attacker off, but Leah held on, determined.

“GET OUT! GO!” Leah screamed at Alyssa who had some room to wiggle out from under her attacker.

Alyssa managed to get herself out from under it and started climbing upward. Malcom screamed for Alyssa to get out of the way and was about to use his bookbag to swing at the monster when Leah let out an agonized scream. The monster student had gotten ahold of her arm and bitten into the flesh and ripped a gaping hole into it. She let go and stumbled backward as it turned on her, but Malcom swung his bookbag full of books and knocked the monster student sideways, it stumbled and fell down, giving Leah a moment to get up and run after them. Alyssa held her hand out to Leah who took it. They ran hand in hand to Cassandra who was waiting by the door of the staircase to the bleachers that led to the adjoining third floor a few other students who managed to get away followed them and closed the door behind them.

They ran out of the staircase into a quiet hallway where they slowed to a stop and leaned against lockers to catch their breath. Some students were panting and crying, Malcom was shaking and trying to call 911, when someone picked up he began frantically explaining what was happening. Cassandra walked over to Leah tentatively who was slumped on the floor being propped up by Alyssa who looked at a complete loss for words.

“Leah…I don’t know what to…Thank you for what you did back there.” She said finally giving her a small smile.

“Don’t mention it…” Leah said wincing as she held her bloody arm, her head was beginning to pound. Other students noticed she was bitten and began to murmur to themselves about what they’d just seen.

“What are we going to do? Those…Things, are blocking the exit to the school, how the hell do we get out.” One student said frantically looking in the direction they came hoping nothing comes out from the door.

“I just got off the phone with the police, they’re sending help, but we can’t leave through the front, we need to get downstairs through the back. There’s an exit through the cafeteria where the food trucks come in. Maybe its empty…hopefully it is…and we can get out through there.” He said taking his glasses off and leaning against the opposite wall looking like he was about to break down from fear. “We need to go now. Those things could come through those doors any minute”

Alyssa nodded her head “Okay, let’s go, here take my hand I’ll hel-“

“We can’t take her with us. You saw what happens when you get bitten by them, you turn into one of those things! Let’s leave her we need to find a way out of here! She’s a bitch anyway” One student said. Leah vaguely remembered teasing him back in junior year about his braces. She was regretting that now.

“No, we can’t! I’m not leaving her!” Cassandra began crying even though she stayed arm’s length away from her friend.

“This is so fucked up.” Malcom said rubbing his hands on his eyes and putting his glasses back on.

Leah leaned her head back on the locker with tears in her eyes and looked at Alyssa who was about to protest when she put her hand on hers.

“No, they’re right… I don’t feel good. I can tell something is wrong. You guys go.”

“No! We aren’t leaving you.” Alyssa looked at Cassandra for help, but she just shook her head and cried harder.

“Listen, I’m sorry I was such a bitch to you all senior year. You didn’t deserve it. It’s just how it is you know? It was stupid.” She said looking down at her hand.

“You saved my life, trust me. You’re beyond forgiven…” She said and smiled.

At that moment they heard loud footsteps coming up stairs. It sounded like a mass crowd of screeching and growling coming up the stairs.

“We need to get out of here! Alyssa come on!” Malcom said as the group of students began to back away from the noises.

“I’ll lead them the other way, go.” Leah said getting up and stumbling a little.

Alyssa and Cassandra both cried and hugged her, then reluctantly let go and ran away with the group toward the opposite staircase down the hall. Leah took a deep painful breath in and turned to stumble back the way they came. The sounds grew louder, she began banging on lockers and screaming as loud as she could. The undead horde burst through the door and rushed at her. She ran screaming real screams down the hallway until she reached a classroom at the end of it she rushed inside and started piling as many desks as she could against the door trying to by some time.

The inhuman groans and growls of her schoolmates and their parents was deafening behind the barred door of the dark classroom. The frail wood began cracking from the force of the numerous dead hands banging on it to get in and devour Leah. It was too late for her. She was trapped on the third floor of the high school and there was nowhere to go but down. She cried and shook from terror staring in the direction of the door, her back against the wall. stunned by fear. She truly hoped her classmates were escaping it was the only thing making this worth it. The door finally broke with a loud slam as it fell to the floor and they climbed over the desks she’d thrown against it haphazardly. She screamed as they all clamored into the room reaching for her. The last thing she heard were the sound -of her dying screams. The last thing she saw was red.