The Growing Affliction

Prologue

6:30am and Maddy's alarm clock was blaring it's repetitive cries. Another Tuesday morning of rushing around and finding her best pair of jeans for school. This was going to be her last car ride there, her last moment pulling up at the school gates and her last goodbye to her mum. Everything just seemed so normal. Normal and ordinary.

All of her friends were in school that day for once, both a first and last for the school. The classes rolled over each other in a blur of words and equations. She wasn't going to need them later on in life, she would always tell herself. An education she had decided was not as important would soon be pulled from her arms and tossed into the fog that was her past.

First break was always the longest. A whole 45 minutes of jokes and games. Pranks and gossiping. Chatting and laughing. Her favorite people all together for one last time.

The bell rings.  Period 5.

11:05am

The 12 minute countdown began as soon as she said her final goodbyes. She wasn't going to see them later, not all of them. Drama class seemed pretty normal until an announcement was heard through the speakers.

"Attention all staff and students, with the current outbreak of chicken pox spreading rapidly through the elementary school, class shall be ending early. Please make your way to your designated buses and await further instructions Thank y-"

A loud bang was heard and a shriek. Gurgling. A scuffle heard by hundreds. Then, the first moan from the lungs of the dead. Spluttering. Then static.

"Um, what was that?" Maddy asked her drama class friend.

"I don't even know"

The doors to the drama studio swung open to reveal a petrified student who belonged to the drama teachers homeroom.

"Mr Bree! It's hell out there! The super intendent she-," blubbing and crying errupted from her mouth and she fell to her knees, "she just killed my maths teacher!"

The class exchanged looks to eachother, "has she gone mad?" Nobody believed her, it just sounded too ridiculous.

"Please believe me. There's blood everywhere, she didn't even seem to care. She didn't even seem human..."

The static turned into white noise to Maddy now. She was beginning to feel the fear spreading amongst the students and the teacher.

"OK, let's just head towards the buses and we'll be fine" Mr Bree assured.

"No, you can't. The super intendent isn't the only one doing this. Some of the students and teachers are too and they're blocking the bus stop and-"

Maddy was taking no chances with this. They had done terrorist drills so many times that it was now a part of her reflexes to stack the chairs against the door. With one final chair in place, a classmate rushes over and slides the lock on the door to reinforce it. As if on que, the groaning from the speakers came up through the doors. Banging and scratching accompanied them.

They should have been screaming. Crying. Praying for the threat to leave, but it was too surreal and they just stood there. Their hearts in their mouths, blood rushing to their limbs. No one dared to even breathe.

A few other students picked up the staffs to defend themselves. "We need to hide... But where?" Mr Bree ushered the class into the cluttered props cupboard. Sturdy and had a lock on the inside and out.

The students began pushing each other into the room which seemed to get increasingly smaller with each student. There was more than half of the class when the sound of splintering wood started tearing through the room. 16 seconds left until she sees the true nature of the situation.

She reached down her hand to pull in her classmate to safety. The door breaks open. Everything slowed down.

There were at least 6 other students out of the 15 in total left in the classroom. Mr Bree was still in the studio, and now, so were the beasts from hell.  A few more inches and her friend would have made it. Just a few. It tackled her to the ground and out of her reach. The door slams shut infront of her and knocks her back into the darkness of the cupboard. Shrieks of pain and blood was all that was left in the room. 22 grueling seconds of hell, listening to the havoc and just as soon as it had started, it ended. The beasts had moved onto the outside world, already bored of their meal.

The class stood in silence, afraid of what they were going to find. Maddy took a deep breath and crept back into the room and saw her friends body for the first time since the attack. There was now nothing left which resembled a face. Screaming. Crying. A student threw up by the wall. Then a groan.

Maddy whizzed around, took a dead students staff into her hands, even though she had no clear idea on how to use it, and saw the source. "Shit... "

Mr Bree was a mangled mess of missing limbs and disfigurements. He groaned in pain and his eyes began clouding over. He reached out towards the student by the wall, who screamed until she ran out of air. He looked at his students and then to his arms, or what used to be his arms. Then, just like that, he stopped moving.

Tears began clouding over her eyes, "Jesus Christ..." Maddy uttered.

All the students began coming up with a plan to stay in the studio but Maddy had other ideas. She reached into her pocket and called her best friend. "please don't be hiding" she thought.

1 ring

...

2 rings

...

3 rings

...

4 rings

...

5 rings

... Hello?

"thank god, are you OK?"

"Maddy! I'm fine for now. Max, Ellie, Ann and Brandon are outside Mr Richardson's room. Meet us there and stay safe"

"alright Kat"

...

She turned to the rest of the class who were planning on going to the buses. "They seem so sure of their plan... The perfect leaders." she thought to herself almost in sadness. Michael turned to Maddy and told her how they were going to get to the buses and drive off and, of course, she argued about how risky it was. Yet, with him being more popular than her, his plan was voted best. Logic and sensibility was out of the equation with this group. Great.

She had her own agenda however. When they walked out of the studio and into the outside world for the first time since hell broke loose, groups of the dead began charging at them instantly. As if waiting to ambush them. She found an opening to the high school building where her friends were. She was not taking any chances now. So she ran. As fast as she could. Weaving through the crowd. Tim began running the same way as her. She grabbed his hand and let her legs do the rest. Hand in hand, they ignored their pleas. She couldn't bring herself to turn back, the guilt was eating away at her conscience. She just abandoned them to save herself, and it cost her her friends lives but saved another. "Please let there be survivors left... "

She sprinted up the steps and into the 3rd floor hallway and almost began crying after finding her group still in one piece. The reunion was short lived however. A hunter was running towards them, hungry for flesh.

8 minutes left

It lunged at Maddy, knocking her back a few feet, the staff spiraling out of her hand. Everyone jumped back, Max going after the staff and knocking the zombie off her. She lunged back for the staff and stabbed the end into its eye. She felt sick to the pit of her stomach and the zombie stopped struggling, it was gone.

Staggering back, Maddy fell into Tim who held her steady, but she just couldn't take her eyes off of the dead body. There was so much damage, so many bite marks and scratches. Who the body used to belong to was a mystery, but there was no time to think about it. There were more coming and the only escape path was the rooftops but the door was locked. The only person with the key was the super intendent.

7 minutes left.

That's all they need.