Infection

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

Ashlyn and Jake were quiet. It had been about six hours since the chaos began. They sat opposite each other in silence. Outside, the screams, the massive commotion had died down. The sky was darkening already; it was 1755 hours now, Jake noticed on the electronic clock on the wall.

The school was in darkness. Far away, sirens and the public emergency alarm could be heard. Planes and helicopters flew past occasionally for the past few hours, their destination unknown. They were unable to contact their families. Somehow, communication had been cut sometime during the day. The internet could not be accessed using the computer in the workroom. Jake tried connecting online using his mobile phone but the webpages wouldn’t load. He wondered how his parents were doing overseas. He prayed that this situation was not going on wherever they were.

Ashlyn sat still, staring blankly at the table top. She had been like this for quite some time now. Would they ever get out of here? What lay outside? How would they survive? From the look of things, it was quite obvious that the whole city was facing a similar situation.

“Are you… alright?” Jake broke the silence.

Ashlyn looked up and stared at him tiredly. “Yes.”

Jake opened his mouth to say something else, to console her, to tell her everything will be alright—

But there’s no point, is there? She knows. We’re stuck here. We can’t do anything. Nothing to be done at all.

He just nodded. There was nothing they could do for now. What could they do? Run out? That was sheer madness. Even if they did manage to get out of the school, what next? There’s nowhere to go. No destination. Trying to head back to their homes was pointless. Jake’s home was quite close, but his family was overseas. He had no reason to go back. Ashlyn’s home was a half hour car ride from the school. Going there by foot would probably take an hour and a half. Under these circumstances, the duration may be even longer, and surely more dangerous than usual.

But she would undoubtedly be anxious about the safety and whereabouts of her father and brother. She had no contact with them since the night before. What had happened to them? It was quite obvious, isn’t it?

They’re probably caught up somewhere in this mess, just like everyone else.

Ashlyn stood up. “I need to go to the washroom…” She said softly.

Jake stared at her. Was she crazy? “What? The nearest is in the next block!” He whispered.

They had agreed to lower their voices, since they did not want to attract attention. Whoever had designed the school apparently didn’t think students in the Design block needed the washroom.

The nearest washroom was far. Far, considering the dire situation they were in. They had not seen anyone else who were ‘zombified’ other than the three security guards, but if the typical perceptions of zombies were right, those who were attacked were probably infected with whatever infected the zombies, meaning that the number of those things would have multiplied exponentially since the beginning.

But who am I to judge these things? I don’t know shit about what’s going on, so don’t assume anything.

True. There was no proper knowledge about the zombie creatures. What caused them to change like that? Those corpses in the crates definitely had something to do with this. But whatever caused the change, a virus or whatsoever, nothing could be confirmed…yet.

“I don’t think it’s safe, Ashlyn,” He actually couldn’t believe what she was saying. Going to the washroom in a case like this?

Ashlyn nodded. “I know… but, I need to.”