Undead School

Chapter 12: Decisions and Drama

After lunch, we were left with an entire afternoon that we decided to spend on quality of life improvements. I had almost an entire week of living in the gym, and it was starting to show. Some survivors had changed clothes only once, and everyone was caked with dirt, blood, and sweat.

Tables and floors hadn't been wiped down since the apocalypse started, and as it was a group of teenagers living there, it had started to smell. We decided that Drake, Jason, and I would be going to the front of the school to the janitorial area to get cleaning supplies and rags for use on wounds.

Looking at the people going, it seemed like a dangerous group, but I decided it would be a good opportunity to talk to Drake finally. I needed to tell him that I couldn't and why I couldn't. We armeyd ourselves with knives and machetes, and set out and up the ramp to the school.

I led the way and peeked up into the school. There were still large amounts of zombies everywhere, despite all of the rotting corpses dropped around the school from the kills we had already pulled. Expanding out to a school of around four hundred was going to make a hefty task I realized.

"Which way do we want to go. We could slip in through the kitchens or go out into the lobby area." I whispered and Drake put up one finger to indicate the kitchens. Jason nodded and we were off.

I led us through the band room and into the cafeteria. There were at least twenty zombies inside ready for us to kill. I charged forward without second thought as I sliced my machete across one zombies neck and then stabbed into another, dodging the flailing claws and teeth of the rotting creatures.

I had almost gotten used to their stench and managed to easily stab one in the throat and watch it drop, but my cast was still limiting my movements, and I was glad to cut a path to Jason who was holding his own. While we fought side by I side I saw Drake struggling his own with some zombies and I rushed over to help.

One almost sunk his teeth into his shoulder, but I had arrived just in time and managed to take out the zombie by stabbing him in between the ribs and slicing down listening to cracks of the bone.

Drake thanked me and turned red again but I tried to shrug it off. We didn't things weird between us now, no matter how weird it was. Jason called us to hurry up and we jumped the dish counter into the kitchens all the way to the back hallway.

Down the back hallway was clear of zombies as none of them had wandered out into the school crevices it seemed. Finally we made it to the janitorial room. Jason started filling buckets with cleaning supplies, and Drake and I searched farther in for mops, gloves, and rags.

"So, Drake.... About last night." I whispered to him while we were searching. My face burned and felt terrible about rejecting him.

"You don't have to say anything about it, don't worry." He said gruffly, grabbing a mop. I looked at him and his face to try and see what was going through his head, but he held a mask the best he could and I had no idea what he was thinking.

"I'm going to say something anyways, so just listen." I said while stuffing rags, gloves, and masks into my backpack. "I think you are great. Take away this apocalypse thing and I would want to go on a date, but I can't right now. I just became leader of this group and on top of that I don't know who to trust... I'm sorry."

Drake just shrugged. "I already knew all of that. I just need you to know... just, try and trust me, alright?" Drake took it the way I imagined, stone-faced and strong. I still felt bad, especially because I thought he was cute, but it didn't matter. I had priorities to get straight.

"I can try, but Jason and I can't rule you out completely..." I stopped talking because I realized I let it slip that Jason was helping me. It would definitely be hard to slip back from that.