Chapter I: The End of Normality

Hayley woke up the morning of April 2nd just like any other day of her life. She had a habit of waking early, allowing her to take a warm shower and afterward pour her own cup of coffee before leaving for school in the morning. After her shower, she wrapped her usual baby-blue towel around her, then fished out the hair-dryer from the cabinet beneath the sink to dry her long, shimmering, black hair. As she brushed her hair in the mirror with her free hand, her brilliant gray eyes gleamed with sunlight coming in from the bathroom window.

Coming down from the steps, she walked through a hall and into a large, open kitchen. Running her hand carelessly over a granite kitchen-top, she made her way with a yawn toward the coffee maker. Coffee was already set up for her by her parents, as they woke up much earlier than her as Yoko, her father, worked. From back upstairs, her mother Hikari, yelled down to her, wishing her a good day. Hayley smiled and returned the same wish. Sipping down the rest of her drink, she grabbed a granola bar for the way to her bus stop, her purse, and bag. Exiting the house, taking care to lock the door on her way out, she ran across her long front lawn of green grass and a few evergreens here and there toward the sidewalk.

As she started down her neighborhood's road, she made it to a corner and stopped. Standing there, she munched on her granola bar until the bus came. As she entered, she threw away her wrapper and sat toward the middle of the bright, yellow, school bus. On her bus, she met with a close friend and sat next to her. As they chatted, she wondered if anything remotely different would happen in Bakersfield. Everyone her own age regarded the city as uneventful or boring...

At Bakersfield Public High School, she wasn't exactly popular. She was the kind of girl who could fit into most student demographics because of her kind-hearted personality, giving nature, and wide spectrum of interests. However, even so, many guys at her school thought that she was one of the most attractive girls there. When she arrived, she greeted a few other familiar faces with a warm smile. A herd of students filed into the building, the majority wearing the schools uniform. As she entered into the main lobby, she split from the horde of students and headed off to her locker in another hall upon the second floor.

At her locker, she exchanged her books for others, meeting her class' schedule. Looking at a small mirror that hung on the light blue door to her locker, she, like most other girls, checked to make sure she looked alright. With that, she shut closed her locker and walked off toward her homeroom: Room B16. Sitting at her desk in the third row back, right next to the window, she sighed and prepared for her English class.

.........

Class had gone by for around an hour, only 30 minutes remained. It was around this time Hayley started to grow anxious to get the rest of the day done with. She looked around the class. Some classmates toward the back end of the room had their heads upon their open books, sleeping soundly. Toward the front, eager students still paid attention, still perky and interested in class. In the middle, people stared off into space, sat doodling either on scrap paper or on the desk, or talked in whispers to those friends who sat near.

One of the students in the back started to snore, earning a few hushed laughs from students. Most of the class, for a few seconds, look back at the snoring student with grins. The teacher had a distasteful look upon her face, but nonetheless continued on with her day's lesson. Hayley sighed and looked out the window. This is about when she noticed something was amiss in her fair city.

If one were to look out the window of classroom B16, one would see the street-side below. The city wandered off from there, a scape of high and low rise buildings of gray. The street was bordered by green grass and trees, and then the various shops that boasted much attention from those citizens who pass by. When Hayley looked out, she saw a man slowly crossing the street. His walk, or what appeared as more of a stagger, showed that he had some kind of problem. Before she could shrug it off as some poor man, she noticed a trail following his gate. She squinted her eyes as she looked, and thought she saw a bit of red.

Another person walked toward them but on the sidewalk by the shop-fronts. It was a woman, possibly around 25 years old. She walked casually with a purse beneath her arm. She seemed to try and ignore the man, until she most likely spotted the trail of red behind. Hayley saw the woman stop, her mouth moved as she talked to the strange man. Before she knew it, the man's hands outstretched toward the woman, grasping her coat and pushing her down with him on top of her. Hayley looked on in horror as the man brought his head forward and bit her neck. Even from the second floor of the school, she could clearly see the spurt of blood that shot out. The man continued to dine upon the screaming woman who tried to thrash under his weight.

Hayley covered her mouth, her eyes bulged in disbelieve at what she witnessed. She rubbed them both and looked back out to the gruesome scene. Before she could say anything the intercom buzzed on from a speaker in the corner of the classroom.

"Students and faculty, this is a blue and white drill. Please follow the school codes and shut all blinds, close all classroom doors, and turn off all lights. Please resume class-time as per usual, Thank you." An older woman's voice said through the intercom.

While the rest of the students shrugged it off as nothing but a drill, Hayley sat in disbelief. She looked back outside before the blinds closed. The woman was now alone, on the ground in a pool of her own blood. The man was gone, nowhere to be found. As the blinds went down, she suddenly saw the woman start to get up. Hayley couldn't believe what she was seeing... yet no one else saw it. She knew the woman was dead... her neck had a gaping hole in it.

"This is not a coincidence... it can't be."

Hayley stood up from her seat. The teacher stopped their lecture and looked to the usually quiet student, who now looked utterly disheveled. Yet she could say nothing, she just stood. The intercom buzzed on again.

"S-students and fa-faculty, this is your Principal. This is no longer a dr-"

At that moment, the Principal was cut off from his talking. The class was completely quiet. Faintly, through the intercom, one could hear a yell.. multiple yells. Then, a smash that sounded like it came from the door. A sickening cry blasted through the speakers of the intercom followed by other sounds one couldn't exactly describe. All was silent over the intercom now.

The teacher had a worried look upon her face, while he students seemed pretty shocked. Hayley knew what was going on. Before anyone did anything, she ran. She ran straight out of the classroom, a hectic look upon her frightened face. When she opened the door, the hall was clear... no one else was out, but suddenly, everything changed. A classroom at the other end of the hall erupted into a frenzy of terror-filled screams. The door flew open and a horde of students ran out. One fell to the ground, another student atop eating through their clothes and into the flesh of their back. A few more students came out of the room, walking slowly, in a stagger... just like the man on the street.

All at once, the doors to every room on her floor burst open. Students rushing out in utter hysteria. Hayley herself started to run until she saw a few students she knew.

"Ava, John! Come this way!" Hayley yelled over to them in haste.

A roar of yells and shouts came from both the floor above and below. The school erupted straight into an unknown chaos... students stumbled and fell. Others trampled over them. People punched, kicked, and forced their way through to get away from something terrible. Students who were bitten and could escape ran away holding their wounds and being supported by friends. Others weren't so lucky. However, those who had been bitten and died - lying motionless upon the floor for long over their death toll... got back up, a new reanimated corpse. In a corner of the hall, one could see a person eating the flesh from a once running students shin.

A moan came from behind Hayley. She turned around and screamed with all her might. A male student stood behind her, bent over and pale as one could be. His eyes were completely white, devoid of pupils. An arm reached toward her, she backed away, almost falling. By the windows on the side of the hall, she saw one of the janitor's buckets. A mop leaned against the cart. She ran to it and grabbed the mop. Holding it as a spear, the broom part facing behind her, she ran at her possible assailant with full force, sending him back and down the stairwell behind. She could hear a sickening crunch as the student's skull broke with the fall.

Hayley looked back to her friends with a look of fright.

"HURRY!"


................


In the city, all was chaos. At first sight, one would think they were thrown into some kind of twisted movie or comic book. It was a phenomenon of fiction, yet very very real. Those bitten by "them" as they would be dubbed, died. But then, they came back to this world as something degraded... malevolent. An infected being with the insatiable thirst for flesh. The police mobilized; every officer that could carry a weapon left the station to help those on the streets, unknowing of what they were being thrown into.

This day would come to be known forever as Z-Day.

John Brians lay in his bed as the alarm clock wailed. He knew he had to go to school, but the only true reason he wanted to go there, is because he knew intelligence is what rules the world at the end of the day. Jocks couldn't control it, because the power might get to their swollen heads. On the other hand, he was happy, because in his World History class, he was going to present a form of government, "Anarchy". The teacher had assigned her students to pick a form of government, and report on it, and decide for themselves whether it is harmful or helpful. Perhaps because people had laughed at him last week, John chose Anarchy, because he simply loved living without any form of authority attempting to degrade him, like some students tried, ever since sixth grade, even.

John Brians sat up, got out of bed, and proceeded to go to the bathroom. His face showed his demoralization, but Brians knew that proper intelligence and power will always benefit him. His father, a celebrated ex-Special Forces Company Sergeant Major, was always strict on John, wishing for him to eventually join the Army. John was somewhat willing, though only if he was an officer, for John always wanted to be in command, for once. He probably was bad at leadership, but everyone considers themselves effective leaders, until they receive it and see how hard it truly is. John never had a shot in leadership or power, so he wouldn't know about it. He brushed his teeth, took a small shower, and went out of the bathroom. Putting on his uniform, collecting his school books and report, he was ready for another usual day at Bakersfield Public High School.

..........

"And so, Anarchy is a form of government where there usually is an absence of political authority. It may also refer to a direct democracy, but usually people use the term for the first meaning. From 1684 to 1688, Pennsylvania's founder William Penn fled, allowing for an anarchistic lifestyle. What is interesting to note, is that the economy actually slightly improved when there was a lack of leadership." John Brians looked up from his paper, and was not surprised to see that many of the students in his class were not paying attention. Some were even examining their fingernails (John usually fumed when he saw this, for fingernails rarely helped anyone gain success, according to him). The only one who cared was the teacher, and John received an A+ for his lengthy report, but John only had a few seconds to enjoy the grade, for an alarming message came across from the intercom.

"Students and faculty, this is a blue and white drill. Please follow the school codes and shut all blinds, close all classroom doors, and turn off all lights. Please resume class-time as per usual, Thank you." An older woman's voice said through the intercom.

It was just another drill, thought Brians, but alas, it came to be something much more. It came to change John Brians's whole life, on a regular day in Bakersfield.

"S-students and fa-faculty, this is your Principal. This is no longer a dr-" What happened next was extremely weird. Screams and smashes could be heard in the intercom. Whoever's joke it was, it was good, some students were confused, others were already frightened. The teacher walked over to open the classroom door and look at what was happening in the hall. John and the other students did it, and were shocked to see what looked like a student eating another student, and other students running in a panic down the hallway. Before he knew it, John ran out, with the other students behind him. Chaos ensued, but then John recognized a voice.

"Ava, John! Come this way!" Hayley yelled over to them in haste. It was Hayley's voice, Hayley, one of the students who did not pick on John and considered him a bit of a friend. John turned, to see Hayley grab a mop and beat a student with completely white eyes and a pale complexion. The student, or should John say, monster, fell down the stairs. John ran down the hallway to Hayley, just as she yelled for him to hurry.

"HURRY WHERE?!" John was visibly bellowing, as the chaos would need him to yell to be completely heard by Hayley. "Where in the hell do we hurry? What the hell is this?! WHAT IS THIS?!"

Fear stung John, and it felt as though he was in a dream, but he knew that this had to be real, though how it could be real, was mysterious.

Still in sleep Dante was dreaming the ultimate fate of what happen to his father. In the dream Dante was still a child who only turned 10 recently. In a small home that over looked the ocean and the old city of Palmero Dante was watching the yard waiting for his father. Just a block away Dante spotted his fathers car riding on the small street heading towards home. He jumped out of the couch and rushed out of the door while the car pulls up on the driveway. Dante father stepped out wearing a black suit with a red tie and a smile on his face. Both father and son hug each other in joy. Even with joy Dante was anxious to ask.

Dante "Dad where did you go?"

Dad "Well son I was on a job somewhere far in America where I found this for you"

Dante's father reached in the back of his car and presented a box wrapped in black and gold

Dad "Happy birthday son"

A smile appeared on his face and soon he ran inside with the present but once his foot steeped inside loud sounds of gun fire appeared from the street. He trips on the ground and his eyes watch the event only in horror. Everything seemed in slow motion where he sees his father dropping to the ground while blood started to spray out of his chest and lands on the grass where a puddle of red is formed.

................

Dante quickly stands out of bed fast only to land on the floor where his clothes are scatter all over. He looks at his clock and sees its already 5:20. He lays on his back and rubs high forehead while sighing out loud. By the time he staggers out of his bedroom the living room looked like a frat house where beer bottles are stack on each other, pizza boxes placed on the tv, and the couch was flipped over. Dante ponders his head and says "What a weekend". He enters the kitchen and opens the fridge and grabs a Red Bull out and turns on his stereo. He walks around the Apartment looking for his backpack only to see it dangling on the patios railing. He goes outside and sees the backpack open and all of his notebooks lying on the street. By the time he retrieves his notebooks two people on bicycles wearing all white dress shirts carrying a book on their right arms. He knew they are not part of the high school he goes to. By the time he reaches to the second floor the two men stop near the stairs looking towards Dante.

Bicyclist #1 "Hello their mister we come from the Bakerfield Kingdom Hall and John and I are traveling around this neighborhood.."

Dante "Your bible humpers really "

Bicyclist #1 "No we are Jehovah's Witnesses"

Dante "Alright your idiot bible humpers"

Bicyclist #2 "Sir do not demonize the bible"

Dante "Then do not enter private property preaching your stupidity"

Bicyclist #1 "We are here only to serve God's wishes and save your souls from damnation"

Dante "I got a better idea why don't you go to Wallmart, buy a rope, tie a knot, and go hang yourself".

Dante goes inside his apartment and flips his songs choices to Disturbed on his stereo and turns the volume level to the maxim capacity. He opens the the balcony door and points at the two men and starts to flip them off as they start to leave the neighborhood.

................

It was 7:30 when Dante left his apartment while wearing his school uniform that had a black and gold striped tie. He goes up to his F-150 and starts to pull out of the neighborhood. While on his way to school several police and ambulance vehicles race to the other direction in a hurry. He reaches to the school and parks his truck in the alley that connects to the school and some homes. He was heading to workshop which was very close. When he enters the classroom everyone was seated in their groups and the teacher at his desk reading a magazine not paying attention. He meets up his group where they where constructing their bottle rocket. Majority of the time him and his group spent his time chatting until the intercom interrupted.

Intercom "Students and faculty, this is a blue and white drill. Please follow the school codes and shut all blinds, close all classroom doors, and turn off all lights. Please resume class-time as per usual, Thank you." An older woman's voice said through the intercom.

Dante looks to the teacher and started to act unusual. He goes to the classrooms door and garage door and starts to lock them.

Teacher "Continue class"

Dante started to move towards the back where all of the construction equipment is stored. While he was looking for a couple of building material he heard some commotion outside and by the time the sounds outside ended the entire classroom gets interrupted.

Intercom "S-students and fa-faculty, this is your Principal. This is no longer a dr-"

Once the only sound coming out of the intercom was static the classroom acted in a wild frenzy and started to flee towards the main door that connects to the school. Dante grabs a monkey wrench from one of the lockers he goes to the garage door and starts to break the lock open. He was the only one who exited the garage and there was no one around. He starts to rush to the alley where his truck was parked and by the time he reaches it he can see a mangled body laying towards the wall. The entire wall was painted in blood. The victim was wearing one of the schools janitorial suits but it was soaked in blood. He goes towards it and pokes the body while saying.

Dante "Uh you still alive"

One poke of the body and the head falls off and starts to roll downhill. Dante quickly searches his pockets for his car keys. He jumps in his truck and starts to pull out of the alley and into the main street. He saw panic on the main street where all students and teachers running away from the school.

Dante "What the hell is going on"

It was supposed to be another normal day at Bakersfield. Another boring, unfulfillable day filled with endless lectures and lame jokes from the students sitting beside you. Bakersfield was not known to have much action going on around town. It was a peaceful place, the kind of town where everyone knew and loved each other. It was the perfect setting for that grade-A family most people wanted to bring up.

Something wrong happened in Bakersfield, however. No one knew what had happened, but they definitely could see the result of it. In the middle of a dull school day, Ava sat thinking to herself about the future, what her brother was doing right now, and various other things. She felt relaxed in her current state, but she really wanted to get outside today. It was a brilliant day that couldn't be wasted sitting in a classroom. She knew her education was important, but half of the lectures that the teacher poured out she knew about already. It was all old news.

Ava disliked school, but she didn't hate it in the same way her brother did. Harvey just didn't care enough to make an effort. It was depressing to her, because she knew he was smart and he'd probably just waste all that brain power going out at night to do stupid things with his friends. Ava wished she could be more of a role model for him, but he was older than her and role models were a joke to him. Harvey was almost a lost cause, but she still loved him. He was a good person, no matter what anyone said.

A disturbing alarm broke the monotony, however. They were going into some sort of lock-down drill, according to the intercom. This was unexpected, and even the teacher seemed a bit confused. This obviously hadn't been scheduled. A few moments later the intercom came on again, but ended after a confused sentence. It said something about this not being a drill, that's all she knew. Whatever was going on, it had to be bad.

The answer to the current disturbing events came quickly as a few students took a look out the window, screaming as they saw what seemed to be a murder. A man took a chunk out of a woman, and this same sort of thing was starting to happen everywhere. Ava's eyes widened. Was this some sort of act? There was no way this could really be happening. People... eating each other?

Before any control could be put up, people started stampeding out of the room, the teacher included. Several were trampled over, but Ava stood back out of the heat. She still didn't understand what was happening. All she knew was that people were getting killed near and inside the school and she had to get away from it. But Ava couldn't join the rampaging crowd. She'd likely get killed there instead.

"Ava, John! Come this way!"

Her savior took shape of Hayley, a fellow classmate that nearly everyone in school liked. She was an upright student and a born leader, truly a person to look up to. Ava felt she could call Hayley a friend of hers and was glad that she stayed back out of the madness. John was someone that she hardly knew, however. He was a lanky boy, the son of some military man. She wasn't sure about him, but he seemed like a nice person, she just never got to know him. Ava ran into the hallway to Hayley after she took out what seemed to be an insane student. There was something not right about this. These people were crazy. Down the hall people were getting killed by cannibalistic students and teachers. Ava felt like this was some sort of nightmare, not truly reality. This sort of thing only happened in the movies.

"Hayley..." Ava said softly, her voice shaking. "What do we do now? Th-there's nowhere to go!"

Then Ava suddenly remembered someone that was very important to her. Someone that had dragged her through life whether she liked it or not. Her eyes went wide.

"Oh God..." she said slowly. "My brother... Where's Harvey?"

---

Harvey McKinley sat back in his seat, listening dully to a lecture that hardly interested him. It was something about an event that happened years ago, something not important to him now. He hated how so many people lived in the past like that. Sure, these things are important, but shouldn't we be focusing on the present? It just didn't make sense to him. People always complained about how good the old days were, so why not try to make the present just as good.

"Too many idiots today," Harvey said to himself, a student in front of him glancing back briefly because of his comment. The state Harvey gave the kid told him to never do that again. School was a drag so far. Harvey came in late today, as usual, but he wasn't really penalized for it. Maybe the superintendent finally gave up on him.

An intercom announcement interrupted class briefly, announcing some sort of drill. Some students appeared worried, but Harvey didn't know why. It was a drill, after all. Move on. But moment later, a startling message came once more, announcing that it was no longer a drill and cutting off shortly after. Harvey wondered what was going on today. Obviously someone had a screw loose.

He glanced outside quickly but something interesting caught his eye. He saw someone literally eating another person. A few more instances of this were seen as well, and the other students had caught on. This was followed shortly by annoying yells and a stampede out the door.

Harvey stood there by himself, staring outside, a bit confused. He wasn't sure what would prompt a group cannibalism attack. It was probably something other than that, but that was the only plausible theory at the moment. They were like zombies, or something. Shit on the television he saw the other day looked just like this.

"Weird shit," Harvey said to himself, shrugging. He took a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it, figuring the teachers wouldn't care anymore now that there were a few cannibals running about. It was clear he'd have to get out of here now, but he wasn't sure how. Students were clogging the hallways and there weren't many other accessible exits without a master key to the building.

Harvey heard the sound of someone dragging their foot behind him. He figured it was a wounded student, but what he saw as he turned about was something quite unexpected. It was one of his science teachers, a middle aged man with a gaunt face. But something was odd about him. His mouth was agape, showing sharp teeth and his eyes appeared to be blank. His ankle appeared to be snapped, and that was the cause of the dragging noise, a dead foot following behind the man.

"The hell is wrong with you?" Harvey asked the man, backing up. The man wouldn't stop coming for him. "Get away from me, creep. Get a hold of yourself."

After those words the man lunged at him like an animal, his mouth open to bite into Harvey's flesh. Harvey quickly dodged out of the way, narrowly missing getting bit in the shoulder. The man flew into the wall, a sign that he really was going top speed to get him. This man was dangerous. He was one of the cannibals. Harvey grabbed a couple yard sticks, holding them together like a staff.

"Do that again and I'll hit you good on the head, man," Harvey said, his voice shaking a bit. "I'm warning you."

Harvey was afraid of this man, but was confident he wasn't in danger. He'd be able to take an old man if he had to. The man obviously didn't hear his words and tried the same move, but Harvey was quick to react, bashing the man with an overhead swing, making him crash into the ground. The sticks broke from the impact and it appeared the good ol' science teacher wasn't getting back up.

"...I warned you," Harvey said, as if trying to defend what he just did. He felt like he actually killed a person, but he wasn't sure if that was entirely true. The teacher wasn't himself. His eyes were blank and he had a clear hunger for human flesh. He was just like those guys outside the windows.

"I've got to get out of here and... wait." Harvey remembered something. "I have to get to Ava. She's probably crying in a corner right now. Shit."

Harvey ran out into the hall, heading upstairs to where his sister's class was held, avoiding as many of those mindless freaks as he could. He grabbed the broken wooden leg piece of a chair he found laying in the doorway of one of the classrooms on the way up. A suitable beating weapon for now. He felt a little safer now.

(WIP) Post coming tomorrow... it will likely be long.

Hayley looked at the mop she had taken to use as a weapon. Spinning it around, she put the mop-head to the floor and started to unscrew the top. A long steel pointed bolt protruded from the head for at least three inches, a perfect spearhead. Holding it as such, she waited for the people she called out to to gather to her.

Ava and John were those that heard her cries from down the hall. Ava was one of Hayley's best friends and had been for many years. They had been together since elementary and seemingly could always be found together in most classes. However, Hayley only vaguely knew John from a few classes that they had spent together. Even so, she felt she could trust him as she knew he was a kind person, hard working - if not quite quiet and perhaps a bit shy.

A few others had come over and joined them, all of which were also friends with Hayley. One was Jaimie Winsted, a fellow sophomore at Bakersfield and a neighbor from Hayley's street. She was a bit taller than Hayley, around 5'6'', long dirty-blonde hair, and hazel eyes. She had a body comparable to Hayley's; curvaceous and slim. In a trembling hand, she carried one of the teacher's pointer-sticks.

Another who had joined was one of the more popular students at the school; Amber White. She had shoulder-length black hair, brown eyes, tanned skin, and a model's body (albeit more toned because she was a volleyball player). Unlike her usual self, Amber stood quite pale and obviously afraid. Like many others, she did not have any weapons.

The last person who joined the group at the stairwell was a boy named Stanley Williams. He was tall, around 6'3'', lean but muscular because he played on the school's hockey team, and was usually always pretty pale. He had auburn hair and brown eyes. In the sophomore class, he would be more or less seen as being in the "middle ground", much like Hayley. Though he would never admit it, he had a standing crush with Hayley since middle school.

"Jaimie, Amber, Stan... guys, we need to get the hell outta here." Hayley said. Her voice was full of shock and fright. "We aren't safe here.. we need to get to the roof."

With that, she took off, running two steps at a time to the third floor. From the stairwell, they could hear sickening cries of those being feasted upon, moans of those too hurt to move, or the yells of the un-bitten still trying to escape this hell. Obviously, the floor dedicated to those of the Junior class was not much better than below. As they turned on the stairwell and made it up the last bit of stairs, they looked down the hall.

Like below, students had scrambled to run, but because there were no exits on that floor, many did not escape. Bodies lay on the ground motionless - a few of the reanimated stooped over them, gnawing dumbly on long, bloody strands of flesh. Hayley tried to hold back her vomit as she spied a bone protruding from one student's leg. The black and white tiled floor was smeared red that day.

Before moving to ascend the next flight of stairs to the Senior's floor, she suddenly stopped. Hayley looked to Ava who stood rooted to the spot - she understood why immediately.

"Ava...your brother... do you think he's still here?"

The main street was in complete havoc. People running in every direction not carring if a car hits them. Dante doesn't move into the main street afraid that his truck might get involved in the mess. He understand why everyone was running. Just towards the bus stop lays three people that are covered in blood but they where not grieving but feeding on a body.

Dante "What the hell this is not good"

It sparked Dante of whats going on. This was not the act of cannibals but the act of God. He is not very religious but he know the parts of the bible that stated Armageddon will arrive with the horde of the walking dead. He realize the safest place will be the school itself. While people run away so do the undead and if Dante starts to drive off he might hit innocent people or even be hit by people. He immediately puts his truck in reverse into the empty alley. He realized he can break through the baseball field and enter the classroom that he was in. The only part of the alley that his truck can break through was the the metal fencing which separates the alley and the baseball field. He instantly crashes into the metal fencing and enters the baseball field but he was not alone. Three students covered in blood acting unusual. They where not running but standing looking around. It was clear they are not alive. Once they heard the black truck that Dante was in they charge towards it.

Dante "Shit this is not going to be pretty"

He puts the truck into forward aiming towards the walking corpses. The speedometer hits 10,20,30,40, and finally 50 and three of the zombies get hit. It looked like a bomb exploded only blood. When Dante stomps on the brake it looked like the three dead students where only in parts. He slowly drives the truck through another fence and reaches the schools workshop garage. It was open and nothing was inside. He parks his truck inside and starts to exits. He goes to the garage door and shuts it. He know the main door where it connects to the classroom was open. In his right hand he was carrying a monkey wrench and he move slowly towards the main door. He can hear the echoes of screams from the main building. Once he finally reaches the door he shuts it very slowly but there was a problem with it.

................................

After a couple minutes of re locking the garage door and barricading the main door he starts to look around the workshop seeing if he can do even more. In the corner of his eye he found the entrance to the schools roof. He decided that would be his escape hatch if the front door barricades fail. Before he climbs the ladder he searches through his car and found his cigarettes and lighter. He know the best way to scout the area would be the roof since the workshop had no windows. In instance he starts to climb towards the roof while carrying his smokes and the monkey wrench.

Once the roofs latch was popped Dante climbs out of the hole and sees several figures on the other side of the roof. He did not know if they where living or a pact of hungry meat bags but he know his presence was not raveled to them. He heads towards to the ledge of the roof where it overlooks the main street and just sits down. He slides a cigarette into his mouth and lights it. He does not know why he wants to see the outside. He know it wasn't to see the innocent getting murdered but maybe he hoped the Army will roll in and get his ass out of Bakersfield. Either way he know the only smart move was to wait and not to act.

OOC: Nice post Desertback, although just note that the reanimated are quite blind and would not see your car, but would definitely HEAR it. As I stated in the info thread for the undead, they have almost super-human hearing and are attracted toward sound.

My bad I meant they heard the truck

"I don't know, he wasn't here this morning..." Ava said to Hayley nervously. "He could've come here late, right? He does that sometimes."

Ava was hoping that Harvey was somewhere in this building and not on the outside. Sure, it was a living Hell here but out there it could be the same. It's not like these crazy people just appeared at the school. They had to have come from the city. Ava looked down the hall, waiting for some sign from her brother.

She started to think about what would happen if he had gotten himself killed. Harvey was one of the only people she could really hang on to anymore. Her mother was getting a bit detached from everyone because of stress, her father was a vile man, and she didn't have many close friends other than Hayley. It would be unbearable to have no family to run to.

Just as they were about to move on, Ava heard footsteps coming from up the stairs and what seemed to be a struggle between two people. She heard a grunt after the sound of someone getting smashed in the face with a blunt object. Her brother appeared out of the struggle, going up the remaining steps, the bloody leg of a chair in one hand and sweat pouring down his forehead.

"Ava..." Harvey said, noticing his sister straight ahead of him. She was safe after all. He was somewhat surprised, given the circumstances. Ava obviously got some help, because she was usually one to just give up once things started to look bad. Harvey walked to her, dropping his half used cigarette on the ground and stopping once he was about a foot away from her. Ava embraced him after a moment when she couldn't bear it any longer. Tears were running down her face. Harvey let her savor the moment for a few seconds and pushed her back, holding her shoulders as he looked her straight in the eye.

"Stop the crying, for Christ's sake," he said to her, a bit harshly. "I didn't run past a bunch of cannibals to see tears rolling down your cheeks. I don't want to see my own sister like this, so get over it. We're going to see a lot more of this, I guarantee it."

Harvey was slightly upset with her. He hated it when his own sister looked so weak like that in front of him. It was embarrassing. Harvey felt like he was the only person in his family who could actually deal with stuff. His father used to be a tough guy, but now the only thing he could be was a drunk asshole. Truthfully, Harvey was only hard on his sister because he cared about her. He didn't want to see her giving up on anything while he was around.

Harvey took a quick look at who was gathered here. It was mostly disappointing. All he saw was three nobodies and a slightly important person in this school, a girl named Hayley. She seemed pretty smart and wasn't an idiot like most people around here. From the looks of it she already had a bit of action, judging by a bit of blood that got on her.

"Hayley," Harvey began, looking at her critically. "You leading this troupe? I hope you know what the hell you're doing, because shit's starting to get bad down there."

Ava looked expectantly at Hayley. She was the leader after all, right? Ava wasn't sure who else would fit better, other than her brother, but she was guessing that wasn't a good idea. If it were up to him, they'd probably ditch those three other students and run off themselves. Having less people to drag around was technically a smarter idea, but it certainly wasn't an ethical one. Ava hoped they'd be able to form some sort of escape plan before it was too late or they'd end up just like everyone else in this God-forsaken school.

Hayley gave Harvey a similar look to what he gave her. Hefting her makeshift spear in a hand, she looked to him and smirked.

"You know me better than that, Harvey. To be honest, I don't know what I'm doing because I don't know what's happening here. I've gathered enough to know that is isn't safe heading downward, and it isn't safe heading outside with the others." Hayley stated.

The truth is, Hayley thought that heading to the roof was the best place for them to go at the moment, but she recognized that staying on the roof was also not the best decision. It'd be a very temporary stay. She hoped that some authority would come to rescue them, but she wasn't about to put all her faith in such a thing.

Though she didn't consider herself to be leader material, it was apparent that everyone with the exception perhaps of Harvey, now looked to her as such. At that moment, she vowed silently to not let them down... and to keep all of them safe.

"We're heading to the roof. If we were to head out into the crowd, we'd only become sheep to the slaughter. If we were to barricade ourselves into a room, that would only leave us with no escape route. There are multiple exits on the roof, and it'd be easy for someone to spot us up there too." Hayley reasoned with everyone.

Without another word, she headed back into the stairwell and up toward the fourth floor. Ascending quickly, they could hear more noise upon that floor. Students roamed the floor listlessly... lifelessly. Only their terrible hunger seemed to drive them. As they got to the floor's landing, Hayley gasped. The stairs ahead were blocked completely with furniture - desks, chairs... anything to block the entrance.

"It looks like someone else is up there... and they aren't letting others up." Hayley said with some hints of anger and frustration. "There is another flight of stairs, but they're at the end of the hall..."

Hayley looked straight down the hall. Only a few of them were out in the halls, but their shuffling about inside the classrooms was apparent. From behind, a yell surprised them all. It was Stan.

"Hey! Wait, there's a locker up here, one of my hockey teammates keeps his stick up here..."

The rest of the group took a sigh of relief... it was only Stan. But that feeling slowly turned to dread as the movements within the rooms stopped. They started to move out from the rooms and into the hall.... straight toward them. They had been spotted.

"Get to the other end of the hall!" Hayley said to them as quietly as she could, for she had just realized that they reacted to sound, and sound alone.

She turned around toward where Stan had been... he had run to one of the lockers with fright and started to hysterically turn to combination dial. He had obviously lost his cool once he tried to open it once, and failing. He swore loudly, taking glances toward the oncoming predators... his eyes seemed to bulge with fright.

They had started down the hall. When they caught up with them, they started to bash them away with all they had. Throwing forward her broom-spear with a great thrust, the screw end stabbed right into a reanimated student's stomach, sending them sprawling backward. Spinning the staff to it's other end, she slammed the haft-end into their neck with a loud "clack!".

When the time his cigarette was burnt to the but he starts to look towards the figures on the other side but notices that all of them are gone. Once he stands up he starts to hear the commotion from the floor below. It sounded the people who where on the roof are now facing hell.

Dante "God damn it"

Dante is not the type of guy who is willing to intervene with peoples action but he realizes this is a type of situation which involves life or death. He didn't understand why he feels that he is obligated to show them to the work shop. Maybe it was the buzz he was having since he smoked more than usual. Or maybe it what his father said to him when he was young. A man is only born in the act of saving others and not in killing others. His quote kinda made him laugh only because his father line of work was to kill. He decides that the only way to reach the group was to enter the opposite stairwell and lead them upstairs. He know the only way to access the workshop was to get on the buildings main roof, scale down a ladder that was three stories tall which was hanging on the side wall of the main building, and finally hope that the undead don't jump down.

Harvey grabbed Ava's hand as they prepared to make a run for it down the hall to the other flight of stairs. He wasn't going to lose her in this mess, so she'd have to stay close to him. Ava held on to his arm, her grip strong. She was very scared.

"Don't let go," Harvey said to her, looking back. "We're not stopping for anything until we're at the other side."
"Okay..." Ava replied. "Harvey..."
"What?"
"Thank you."

Harvey paused for a moment but did not reply. He didn't need any thanks form her, this was something that he simply had to do. She was pretty much the only person he'd consider important right now. No one else went through that same childhood with him. Their bond was special.

After a short breath, they took off. Those walking corpses awaited Harvey and Ava as they ran towards them together. One of them targeted Harvey's heavy footsteps and limped towards him, mouth ready to tear into flesh. Harvey didn't even give the thing time to fight. He lifted the wooden leg and slammed it right into its head with a side swipe, toppling it over.

Harvey cast a side glance at Hayley to see her quickly dispatch one of them with a makeshift spear. It was obvious she could take care of herself just fine. She was certainly a useful person to have around when half of the party is just standing back and cowering. Ava winced at each sound of carnage she heard. This was all new to her. Such violence was unimaginable. She started to lag behind, her head spinning with sickness from all the blood.

"C'mon!" Harvey yelled, tugging Ava along with him, bashing the skull of another zombie with the wooden leg. Blood dripped off of the weapon and it was already starting to get damaged from its constant abuse. He wouldn't be able to use it forever. With that, Harvey and Ava were clear, ready on the other side of the hall for the others to catch up. There were more of them, sure, but the others would need some practice. This would not be the last time they'd fight these creatures.

"Hayley, you guys!" Harvey called. "Let's go!"

John Brians followed Hayley and the rest of the gang. However, when they reached the senior classrooms, and a guy named Harvey joined the troupe, he wasn't happy. He seemed to be a bit of a life-waster, someone John could never see eye to eye with. Judging by his disappointed glance at the rest of them (apart from his own sister and Hayley), Brians knew he couldn't be trusted. However, in time of this conflict, exceptions should be made. For them all to survive, teamwork was essential. John looked back at old times, and realized his father's favorite word was "teamwork", and it wasn't surprising, considering his father operated in a company where everyone covered each other's backs.

Perhaps this was the time to make friends, to depend on them, and feel their dependence on you. John never had much of a social life, and it pained him, because he would have liked to have one, but it just was impossible with some of the idiots in this school. He had to hide his disgust of Harvey, and although he found Amber and Jaimie a bit pretty, he never was infatuated much with either of them, because they barely recognized his existence. John thought Stanley was a bit of an idiot, but thought immediately that he was being too harsh on him.

His thoughts were interrupted as the gang moved up to the roof, or attempted to. When they had gotten to the fourth floor, Stanley had made a loud remark, and suddenly everything changed. The noise from "them" stopped for a second, and came back up again, but this time it seemed they were coming closer. He had seen an undead student look at him before, but hadn't cared about him at all. Why, though? Perhaps sound had attracted them more than vision. Now all hell broke loose, and they had to fight to the other side of the hall, for survival.

He panicked immediately, but in his panic and looking around, he found a few opened lockers. There were a few heavy textbooks. Picking up a large Biology textbook, he proceeded to throw it down the hall at an infected student. He was surprised that the book actually landed on the infected's head, and toppled him down. Now his path forward was somewhat clear, he had a chance of running through the rest of the infected.

As he ran by the fallen infected, he noticed it was still alive, but couldn't get the book away from its face, and thus couldn't stand up. From this he deduced that the infected had limited intelligence. However, he couldn't let himself be distracted now, this required his full attention. He proceeded to run down the hall, and eventually made it to the other side.

Finally opening the locker, Stan managed to grab the hockey stick leaning inside. Using all of his skill, he bashed the nearest one of them. Just as they began to fall to the ground, Stan swung the stick full-force into their head with a resounding smash. He was far behind the others, who had started to run, all the while calling out to him. Bashing one reanimate to another, it was as if he were skating in the rink he loved so much.

His luck however, had begun to run out. By the time he was halfway down the hall, he had stopped. One of them, who had been laying motionless on the ground had seemingly regained life and struck when Stan least expected it. Cold, vice-like hands enclosed around his ankle, causing him to trip. His screaming pierced air around them, those who got to the other side looked back in shock as they saw Stan fall. It clamped down its jaws into his shin, a string of flesh and spurt of blood coming from the wound. The sounds of his pain were unbearable. Hayley had been almost to the end when she stopped and then sprinted back - much to the surprise of the others.

She slashed at those that got near her, clearing a path to Stan. With a yell, Hayley stabbed her spear-head downward into the skull of the undead student who was feasting on their comrade. Hayley had her eyes closed... she still was afraid of course, and did not want to kill - albeit she had long since cast away the fear of doing so. She struggled to move Stan, who lay sobbing in pain on the ground. A pool of blood had started to form beneath his shin, which he wrapped up with a piece of his sleeve. When Hayley went to help him up with a shaking hand, Stan had shook his head.

"No... just leave me. I-I'll keep them off of you guys when you get to the stairs." Stan said with a weak voice.

"It's just a small bite.... come with us!" Hayley cried desperately.

Stan said nothing but struggled to his feet. His gritted his teeth as he regained balance and stood with his hockey stick in both hands. Hobbling, he made his way with Hayley's support toward the stairs, but as he got near enough, he turned and pushed Hayley away.

"Go. I'll meet you up there..."

Hayley nodded and beckoned the others up the stairwell to the roof. As they reached the last step before the door, Hayley could hear Stan egging on the undead below. She opened the door with the others and rushed out onto the roof.

As she thought, it was empty, aside from the student she had recognized as he called them to the roof only moments before. Looking back to the door, she could hear the struggle below and the screams that soon came after. The door shut, and all was eerily quiet...

Hayley knew, as well as the others, that Stan did not intend on meet them there on the roof. He sacrificed his life to save theirs, and for as long as she lived, she wouldn't forget it. But, she felt responsible for his death, and that guilt was as a big pit in her stomach. She felt sick.

Hayley felt warm tears flowing down her cheeks, she had started to cry - she didn't even care that the others were there to see her do so. Collapsing to her knees, she buried her head in her hands and sobbed. She hardly noticed that Amber and Jaimie had been doing the same.

The day would be spent on the roof of the school, huddled up in a group that would soon forge a bond far stronger than that of family, in the quiet hell that was this new, infected Bakersfield.

Dante starts to ponder the serious question that swamped in his head. Should he go downstairs and show them the ladder that connects the workshop to the roof. He hoped that they will be able to scale down a three story ladder which hangs on the schools main building.

Dante "God damn it"

When he was about to run to the same stair case they ran into he saw them coming out. He was in eye contact with them. Covered in blood and tired as hell. After looking at the group he only notice three people out of the rest. First person was Hayley Shimura : He know her only because she was the only good looking girls who doesnt act like a complete bitch. The second person was Ava McKinley : When he needed to get stiches he saw her in the clinic working. The last person was Harvey McKinley : He know him only because he works at the gas station that Dante uses when he works as a NAPA driver. All off them looked like hell and seemed that they where able to fight some brainless zombies.

He heads towards the group and shouts out

Dante "If you want to get out of this school I know a way"

All of them turn their head to me. One person in the group stood up and asked

Stranger 1 "Have you been down their? Its full of zombies"

Dante "We dont have to use the stairs"

He points to the other side where on the side is a ladder

Dante "That ladder leads to the roof of the workshop which I barricaded already"

Dante pulls a cigarette out and lights it

Dante "If you can climb three floors then another that enters the workshop we will be safe"

Ava couldn't help but cry along with the others. She did not know Stan very well, but what he did back there was admirable. He knew that he was going to die and sacrficed his life to buy them more time. Not many people were strong like that. Ava wiped the tears away with her sleeve, slowly calming down. This wasn't the first tragedy she had seen all day so she was almost getting used to the constant terror.

Harvey just stood there on the roof, gritting his teeth. Stan wasn't someone he really cared about, so he couldn't say he was very sad. Sure, the kid's death was tragic, but it was something they'd have to get over. This would be happening all the time and Harvey knew it. He didn't expect things to start to get over with that quickly because of how many of those things there were. It'd take days for any sort of force to quell this threat. Maybe even months.

He walked over to Hayley, setting a hand on her shoulder. A leader could not be seen in this state or else everyone would lose hope. Harvey wasn't one for crying sessions. They were a waste of time they could be using to find more safe points. They had to get somewhere where they would be protected by them, after all.

"C'mon, quit crying and get up on your feet," Harvey said to Hayley, assertively but not in a harsh tone. "We need you to be up and at 'em right now. You know that."
"Give her some time, Harvey!" Ava said back to her brother, coming near to comfort her friend. "You don't know what we're going through."
"Yeah, I do, and it's a waste of time!"

A student seemingly came out of nowhere, interrupting the impending argument. His name was Dante, some Italian kid with a talent for smoking. He was someone that Harvey could probably relate to more, but Ava wasn't too sure about the guy. Right now she wasn't sure about anything. But they didn't have much of a choice. If he knew of a safe spot they might as well take a look.

"What do you think, Hayley?" Harvey said, not turning his head away from Dante. "You want to follow this guy or sulk all day?"

Stan had given up his life for them. John was thankful, but thought that even if they had saved him, he might have turned into one of "them", and then all hell would break loose. One will multiply into two, two to four, four to eight, and on the chain goes. He had seen that the girls were sobbing, and John wanted to sob with them, but a flashback came to him.

"SHOOT IT!" came the commanding voice of John Brians's father. "Shoot that itty bird!"

"No, I c-can't, no, it's too far!" John was disturbed, he was 7 or 8, and made to shoot a pigeon with a hunting shotgun. His father wanted to improve him, but he didn't realize it was making John go insane.

"You can do it! Just take it down, NOW!" The trigger was pulled, and the shot was fired. The pigeon fell to the ground, obviously dead. John moved to the bird, and started sobbing. He had killed a bird, and John wondered what that bird could have done, had he not taken its life.

As he came back out of his mind and into the world, John realized a guy came up to them. He said that he barricaded a workshop, and they could get there. John knew it was their only hope. He could not trust someone who just randomly came up to them, but it was their only chance of surviving.

"Are you sure that workshop will keep us alive? For all we know, these beings can go through walls." John was keeping his eyes narrowed, trying to see if the Italian-looking guy was lying or not.

Dante thought he would have a different reaction with the group. It only seemed that one person was in and the rest where unsure. As soon one person asks a question so does the flock.

John "Are you sure that workshop will keep us alive? For all we know, these beings can go through walls?"

Ava "Why would we be safe in there?"

Amber "Why should we trust you?"

Jaimie "Where have you been this time? How can we go with you?"

All of the questions started to aggravate the living hell of Dante. In his mind the majority should be grateful that he is helping at all. He know that he would do better on his own than working on a team. With the multiple questions firing at him constantly it started push Dante's nerves.

Dante " Will you shut the **** up for once. If you want to rot in the summers heat be my guest because I am not going to hold your damn hands. If you want to die than stay here. If you want to live and maybe get out of this piece of shit town then come to the workshop"

He looks away heading towards the workshop but he stops right next to the ladder

Dane "I have been in the workshop for over a couple of hours when this shit happen. The workshop is a add on to the school so the easiest way to build it would be using cement and cinder blocks. Now if that doesn't float your boat this will. My truck is parked inside and I have the keys"

As soon he finished his speech he gets on the ladder and slides down the 4 story ladder while entering the workshop.

Hayley gathered herself finally. She wiped the tears from her face, stood up, and confronted the Italian kid. Picking up her spear, she held it in one hand, the haft resting against the ground and tip to the air. Looking to Dante, she tried to read his eyes - she seemed to have a knack for seeing one's emotions that way - after all, one famous person did say that the 'eyes were a portal to the soul'. As everyone started to get into an argument over what to do, she caught Harvey's eyes, he was looking to her - watching and waiting for her response.

"No, we will stay here temporarily - perhaps only for the night."

Hayley caught the look of disapproval in Dante's eyes. She continued on either way.

"You might not have realized - currently, I am sure that the streets are in chaos at the moment. Every student that escaped this... whatever this is... is now scrambling down the street, likely coming into contact with them. Do you think it would be much safer down there, in the middle of a warzone? No, I think we should stay the night here - barricade that last entrance... although I don't think we need to." Hayley stated.

"W-what do you mean?" Jaimie asked, still lightly sobbing.

"What I mean, is that I don't think they can climb well... the barricades have kept them away from the other door, right? This entire roof has been empty of them. And I definitely doubt that they can climb a ladder." Hayley replied. "Also, I don't think they can see, judging on how a floor below, the ones that were in the halls while we were in full view didn't even react to our presence. Second - they react only to sound. When... when Stan was yelling, they all came out from the classrooms. When John threw the book at one, and it fell to the floor pretty loudly - they all ended up heading that way which left us a path to run. Don't you see... for as long as we are quiet up here, we should be alright."

"Y-yeah... that makes sense. I... I agree with Hayley." Amber said, walking behind her as if they were in a gym picking teams.

The anger was very apparent in Dante's eyes. Hayley sighed and approached him. She had put out her hand for him to shake. Wearily, she gave him a kind smile.

"I'm Hayley Shimura. I only wish we could've gotten to know each other without all of this going on - but you must realize that going down there now would only be suicide?"


In her mind, even as she - at least at the moment - was safe, she wondered about her brother who was attending Helmston University a city away. She could only hope that he was alright...




It was only April 2nd, but Jacob could already feel the warmth coming. He had just finished his last class of the day around 10:00 in the morning, Tuesdays were his best days, he concluded. Walking across Helmston University's campus, he came across many people he knew. All were cheerfully walking to and from their own classes, or to their dorm rooms as Jacob himself planned to do. All the red-bricked buildings of the campus were bordered by beautiful trees of all colors, as well as carefully trimmed bushes; some happened to be in the shape of different animals. Sidewalks led from building to building, while a small side-road ran straight through the heart of the campus.

Most of the buildings were either recently renovated, or brand new. A half-circle building sat in the middle, the sides all shimmering glass, which was the cafeteria. Most of the students enjoyed the food there, contrary to how most people perceive college cuisine. At the north end of the campus, sat the science and math focused buildings. Around the cafeteria in the center of the campus sat the administrative buildings and the English or language centered academic buildings. A student center sat around a large fountain that lay within a small pond and grassy hill with several rocks and trees about; it was more or less a resting area for students. Finally, at the far south end of the campus lay the history, arts and physical education facilities. Interspersed throughout the entire rest of the campus were buildings dedicated to various other major.

West and east of all the academic buildings sat dorms, each looked a bit different than the other, some fitting as many as 400 or 500 residents, while others fit only 150. Jacob found himself lucky for being in a smaller dorm named Darius West. There in Darius, the smallest dorm on campus, all the residents knew each other well and were quite friendly. Jacob had many friends there, as it was essentially an upperclassman dorm. As he got to the building, he fished out his lanyard, which had his student ID hooked to it as well as his car keys. Swiping the card over a scanner, the door unlocked and he climbed up to the second floor. Unlocking his dorm-room, he opened his laptop and grabbed something for a snack.

His roommate, Everett Chamberlain, was not at the dorm. They had been roommates however, since freshman year at Helmston, so were good friends. Turning around from his desk, he grabbed a remote and flipped the channels. He vaguely saw a clip from the local news showing dead bodies on a road. He was never a very big news person, so like anyone his age, he flipped to another channel. As he got his work done for the day, he checked his watch. It was around 2:00 in the afternoon, only fifteen minutes before he had to run to his Kendo club meeting, considering he was the "Sensei" and club president.

Finishing his food, he locked up the dorm after dressing into his Kendo outfit; being a traditional Japanese kimono and a suit of training armor over the top. From a wardrobe by the door, he grabbed his Kendo sword, a wooden training sword in the shape of a katana, and headed out.


After the club meeting ended, Jacob was exhausted. He soon found himself laying on the shiny wooden floor of the University's dojo, which sat by the Physical Education center. Bringing his arm before his face, he checked his watch again; the time was around 5:00 PM. Feeling his stomach rumble, he decided to return to his dorm and see if Everett wanted to come along with some other friends to dinner at Memorial Hall, the cafeteria.


OOC: In case you question it - they have not made it to Helmston yet.