IRIS | Carl Grimes

chapter one.

I sat in the back of my history class rolling my eyes at the board and glancing at the clock, waiting for the day to end. Every minute that passed felt like hours as the final class of the day dragged on. School had become increasingly boring, especially due to the absence of my best friend, Carl Grimes, who had been out of school for the past two days visiting his father, Rick, who was in a coma. He had been shot while on a call.

     When will it end, I groaned and put my pencil down, raising my hand. My history teacher, Mr. Cruz, nodded at the me.

     "Can I go to the bathroom?" My question had gotten a sigh in response.

     "I'm in the middle of a lesson, Iris," Mr. Cruz spoke, "Can't you wait five more minutes?"

     "It's an emergency," I pursed my lips. Liar.

     "Fine, you may be excused," He shrugged me off, "Don't forget the pass."

     All I had to hear was 'fine,' and I was out of the classroom like there was no tomorrow. As I walked toward the bathroom, a pit had formed in my stomach. Something didn't feel right. Something was wrong.

I ignored my gut feeling, however, and continued my way to the bathroom. Walking up to the bathroom door, which was ajar, I noticed the smell of metal and the handprints left on the handle.

"Is that blood?" I whispered to myself, pushing the door open with my foot, yet staying on the outside. "Hello? Is anybody in here?"

No answer.

"Look, if you're ditching I won't snitch, but if you're hurt just let me know," I spoke, "I can get the nurse."

This time I had been met with a response. A weird one. A growl.

Is there a dog in the bathroom? Or a wild animal? My mind ran a mile a minute trying to figure out a reasonable explanation to the weird noise that I had gotten.

"You good?" I asked yet again. Nothing. That's weird, I shook my head, maybe I'm hallucinating-

My thoughts were cut off as I had finally seen what had made the noise walking right to me, all bloody, bruised, and battered. My eyes widened as I recognized it was my classmate, Rebecca Steinfeild.

As the thing made its way over to me, it let out a growl. The only response I had was to scream and run. I ran down a few random hallways, trying to lose the thing that had taken over the former girl's body and ran into the principal.

"What are you doing, running down corridors?" Principal Shepard asked, "This isn't a roam-free school Ms. Miller."

"I know, I'm sorry, I just saw something and-" I looked back to see that Rebecca's rotting corpse had caught up to me.

"What in the?" Principal Shepard looked at Rebecca, then at me, then back at Rebecca, and rushed to his office as I quickly followed.

The older man had called for the closest officer's to help and asses the situation, hoping to figure out what was wrong with the student and why she had looked the way she did.

I peered out of the office window to see Rebecca, or the thing's, milky-white eyes staring soullessly into my own. It was scary, and felt unreal. A girl I had talked to just two hours ago at lunch had just become this thing. Whatever it was, I had a feeling that Rebecca wasn't the only one of them.

The thing had turned around at a noise and that's when I saw Officer Shane Walsh, Carl's dad's good friend. The few of the officers that were piled outside of the office had looked at the thing with questionable looks until Shane realized what it had been.

He gave some of the men around him orders and ran into the office. He spoke with Principal Shepard for a quick moment, then got on the phone with someone, then rushed over to me.

"Hey, Iris," Shane greeted me, "Look, you gotta come with me. Something's going on and I can't explain it just yet, but you have to trust me."

"What was that thing? Was that Rebecca?" I asked the man who sighed.

"Just come with me now and I'll answer your questions later," Shane offered his hand me, and I took it. I trusted him. We had walked out of the back door of the office as a gunshot rang.

A gunshot? I looked back at my school, but was left with no answer. Did they kill that thing?

"Get in, we're going to Lori and Rick's house," Shane ordered and I nodded. Lori and Rick's house had only been three houses away from my own.

Once in the car, I asked, "So what is going on?"

"Look, I don't know how to say this but," Shane rubbed his head, "There'a this virus. At first I thought it was a hoax, but that proved that this is real."

"Oh," Was all I could respond with.

"Now, I'm gonna drop you off at their house, don't worry, Kate's already there, and then I'm gonna head over to the hospital and check on Rick and see if I can do anything," Shane informed me on his plan, and I nodded.

"So, should I pack my stuff?" I asked.

"Yeah," Shane nodded, "Pack everything that you can. You're gonna need it."