Z-Day

Class is in

January 30th 2024

  When I woke up James had already started getting ready to make the school our home base. He was drawing on the fire escape which exits to block and how we would clear the school. "Someone's an early bird." I said jokingly. James turned to me and said "We need to take this seriously, now is not the time to start joking." The look in his eyes told me he wasn't messing around.

  I search around the office for anything I could use to hold the zombies off. After about 20 minutes of searching all I could find was a broom and a stretcher. I handed James the stretcher, disconnected the broom handle and broom head and got ready to go. "You sure these will help?" James asked, looking at the stretcher. "Well I'm unsure how to kill them but we can direct them with these, plus that stretcher doubles as a shield." I said looking down at the broomstick, hoping I was right. I woke up Lisa and told her to make sure the others stayed safe, then James and I went off to clear the school.

  We must've been really lucky when we entered the school. We got to the nurses office with no problems, but now I see that this place is flooded. "We need to stay quiet." James whispered. I nodded and we started to sneak to a group of four zombies. James took the lead and turned the stretcher sideways so it almost took up the whole hall and started pushing them to the exit. As he was pushing, one of the zombies managed to get around the stretcher and started coming at me. I backed up a bit then thrusted the broomstick through the base of its skull. The zombie was still reaching for me, but he was just far enough away he couldn't get me. Using the broomstick I guided the zombie back around the stretcher and yanked it out. After we got them out of the school we locked that exit. Using this process we slowly cleared the halls taking us about 6 hours.

  After we finished we headed back to the nurses office to check up on everybody. When we walked in everyone looked at us and waited to see what we had to say about the situation. "We cleared the hallways, now we need to block the exits so they can't get back in." James went further to explain his plan to the group. "We need to clear a classroom. We can use the metal poles that adjust the desk sizes as a sort of barricade. After that we get the cafeteria so we have food and we can use the tables as a second layer to the barricade by putting them outside the doors to stop them from possibly breaking the glass." Everyone seemed to be onboard with the plan. Zack stood up and said "I'll go this time." James handed him the stretcher. "Good luck." 

  Zack and I headed to the closest classroom. Zack peaked through the window to get a head count. "Five of them." He said looking back at me. "So how do you want to do this?" I asked him not having a plan myself. "I'll go round them up using the stretcher while you make sure none of them get to me." I nodded and prepared myself. "Ready?" Zack asked. I nodded once again and he opened the door.

  Zack charged in with blinding speed and knocked the first one on the ground. I ran as fast as I could to keep up but he was so fast before I even made it the first zombie he had already knocked them all down. I was dumbfounded, just shocked at what I saw, when one of the zombies grabbed my ankle. "WOAH!" I shouted and fell backwards. Zack rushed to me and pulled me away from the zombie. "I guess that makes us even." Zack smiled and laughed a little. I let out a little chuckle too,  then a sigh of relief because I was fine. I got to my feet and stuck the broom straight through the zombies back and it stopped moving.

  "What just happened?" Zack looked in disbelief that the zombie was just lying there. "I think I pearlized him." I said in disbelief that there was a way to stop them. We proceeded to do the same to the others. We grabbed the poles from the desks and began to barricade the exits by sliding the poles through the handles so even if the locks break or rust it's another line of defense. 

  "With your speed we'll be unstoppable." I said smiling because we had a secret weapon. "Onto the cafeteria." Zack said, pointing his finger in the air with confidence. While we walked the only sound that could be heard were the zombies banging on the doors of the classrooms they were stuck in. "I think I riled them up when I yelled." I whispered to Zack. "We'll be fine." He reassured me and we both smiled. "You know out of everyone to survive with during the end of the world I'm glad it's you guys." He looked at me. "Awe, is someone getting emotional." He teased me, I gave him a jab in the arm. "Shut up." We both laughed.

  When we arrived at the cafeteria we noticed all the sound seemed to die out, and we were shrouded in complete silence. We looked around at the classrooms surrounding the cafeteria. The zombies we had heard only moments before disappeared, but the windows were open. "I think someone let them out." I said. "Why would someone do that?" Zack asked, puzzled. Just as I was about to respond we heard a voice that was all too familiar.

  "This way!" It was Mr.Jackson followed by a horde of our fellow undead classmates. "What's he doing, he's gonna get himself killed." I exclaimed. Zack opened the classroom door and ran to the window. "Mr.Jackson what are you doing?" Zack shouted. I rushed to the window to see what was happening and there was Mr.Jackson smiling, but what really stuck with me was how his eyes were glowing. I wasn't sure, but it was the same glow I had seen that day I had gone to meet up with Zack and the others.

Can he control them?

  After a quick wave to us he took off running and the zombies quickly followed him. "Let's check if he cleared the whole school." I said hoping this is our chance to lock this place down. We proceeded to go room to room closing windows with no zombies in sight, we headed back to the nurse's office.

   "Guys we've got some news." Zack said, trying to hide his excitement. "Mr.Jackson is alive, he lured the zombies away and cleared the whole school for us." Everyone started to look at each other on what to do next. "We need to build those barricades now, before they come back." James said getting up and looking around the room at people. "I agree." Zack walked up next to James and smiled. "The more prepared we are the better." Lisa chimed in. "Looks like it's decided then." I said. 

  Zack, Lisa, James and I went to the cafeteria and started to set up barricades on the outside of the doors. All except for the emergency exit by the principal's office.

  After we finished Zack gathered everyone. "Who's sleeping where?" He asked and I quickly chimed in. "I call the principal's office!" "I'll take the nurses office with my mom." Lisa said. That was understandable, her father was still not feeling well since the zombie attack on the way here. "I'll stay with Lisa." When Zack said that my heart sank a bit I knew it wasn't going to happen but I couldn't stop myself from thinking about that night on the porch. "I'll take the cafeteria." James said, smirking. He was always good with food, both eating it and making it. "I'll take the auditorium." Kat smiled. She loves the theater, in fact she was the female lead in our school's performance since she was a freshman.

  "I'll go prepare a nice meal for us." James said, almost drooling thinking about it. We all smiled. I think we were all happy we had someone who could cook with us among the many other things he could do.

  We all sat down and enjoyed a couple pizzas, and had a nice conversation about our theories on what's happening.

  "It can't be a brain thing cause when you stab them in the head they don't die, on the other hand they get pearlized if you break the spine. Maybe it has something to do with DNA splicing or maybe it takes over the nervous system and is intelligent enough to control the body." James explained. "Maybe it's engineered as a bioweapon by China to break down our society." I said jokingly. Everyone except Lisa and James let out a bit of laughter. "Are you sure it's alright to laugh when all these terrible things are happening to people?" She looked down. "We have to, do you think they want us to stop living because of whatever is going on?" I tried to reassure her but to no avail. She stood up and went to bed, Zack not far behind. Soon after we all did.

  As I tried to fall asleep my mind wouldn't stop racing. From Zack getting scratched to Mr.Jackson leading the zombies away to Lisa. I screwed up. I don't know how to make it up to her...or Zack. 

  It started raining. I fell asleep to the rain drops hitting the window in the office.