Dead or Alive

01: How It All Started

It was a normal day like any other, Ravn and Hwanwoong were sitting next to each other in the back of the classroom in their joint science class. They silently worked on their assigned class work, occasionally looking over to each other's papers to check their answers. The rest of the class on the other hand loudly talked to their lab partners, mostly about things other than the worksheets in front of them. The teacher had long given up on quieting the class of college students.

Out of the blue, Ravn's phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled out the device, glancing up at the teacher to make sure she wasn't looking in his direction. Hwanwoong looked over at the older curiously, only to see him staring at his phone with a blank face.

"What's wrong?" Hwanwoong asked, not bothering to lower his voice to a whisper. "Is it your parents?"

"Ah, no." Ravn responded, his voice flat.

The older showed the younger his phone, once again looking up at the teacher to make sure she wasn't looking at him. Sure she was letting the class talk but she has a strict no-phone-in-class policy. Hwanwoong took the phone and held it behind the textbook on his desk. Quickly, he read over the notification on the lock screen.

WARNING: DEADLY DISEASE BREAKOUT IN THESE SPECIFIED AREAS, STAY INDOORS AND AVOID CONTACT WITH ANY PERSONS SHOWING THE FOLLOWING SYMPTOMS....

"W-What does this mean?" Hwanwoong glanced up at the older worriedly as he returned the phone.

The blond proceeded to sneakily pull out his own old phone and check for any alerts. But his phone showed nothing of the sorts.  Ravn sat silently scrolling through the message to read all of the information. Hwanwoong put his phone back in his pocket, and glanced around the class, noticing that no one seemed worried or concerned.

"Was it a prank message?" Hwanwoong muttered to himself, though still looked to Ravn for a response.

"No I think it's real." The older responded as he put the phone away.

"That's so weird though..." Hwanwoong was skeptical, looking around the class yet again for anyone acting out of sorts. "It is like you're the only one that received that message though."

Ravn followed Hwanwoong's gaze around the class. It did seem strange that no one else seemed to receive the warning, but the information seemed to of come directly from a trusted source. A sigh escaped Ravn's lips, his mind debating about the information he just read.

"Maybe it was a false alarm." He mumbled, but couldn't shake the bad feeling in his gut. "But the information seemed too real to be something a prankster would put effort into."

The two sat silently for the rest of class. Hwanwoong turned in both of their assignments to the teacher, who didn't seem to care about her job at the moment, though he heard a seemingly silent thank you from the older lady. As the blond returned to his seat, a scream came from the hallway. Immediately every person in the class turned their gaze to the entrance of the room. Through the tinted windows leading to the hallway, faint blurs of people could be seen running past the class. Something obviously wasn't right.

"Everyone stay in your seats." The teacher announced to the rowdy students, standing from her seat to get the class's attention.

No one listened though, one kid even tried to open the window to the hallway. More screams came from the hall, one sounding like if came from directly outside the door. The class became silent as the door opened revealing an young girl, probably a first-year, looking extremely ill. She stumbled into the classroom with zero elegance.

"Excuse me you aren't supposed to be in here." The teacher calmly said to the girl, though after further inspection she added, "Do you need some help getting to the nurses office? If not please return to your class."