In the classroom where Professor Morales was isolated.
Emily's sob resonated with a raw, heartbreaking sound, filling the confined space of the hallway. It wasn't merely a lament; it was a teenager's body crumbling, convulsing with pure horror.
Her shoulders shook uncontrollably, her breathing became ragged, and her eyes, swollen and red, remained fixed on Alex's arm, now covered by the fabric fragment. Guilt and panic devoured her, etched into every feature of her face.
Alex watched her. His own face was a mask of contained fury, a chilling rage that boiled just beneath the surface. His jaw was tight, an almost imperceptible tremor in the hand clutching his blood-stained knife.
However, beneath that facade, a deep melancholy mixed with indignation as he witnessed Emily's torment. He could visualize the whirlwind of thoughts in the young woman's mind: the bite, the inevitable reanimation, the loss of what little innocence she had left.
Emily was contemplating her own future in that arm, and that of everyone else. She was realizing that her decision to remain at the high school had almost cost the life of the only person who had demonstrated the ability to survive.
His intellect, however, could not afford absolute compassion. It raced vertiginously, analyzing and calculating. The risk of allowing bitten individuals to remain near large groups was clear: the spread of disorder, the imminent threat.
But there was a darker enigma, a painful knowledge he guarded from his visions: the even greater chaos that would unleash within groups if they ignored that anyone who died, for any reason, would also reanimate.
It was a truth that isolated him, a burden only he could bear, information he could not reveal without betraying the source of his knowledge. He reflected on the lost innocence of these young people, on the unimaginable difficulties that awaited them.
Emily's incessant crying attracted Marlon. The boy cautiously entered the room, his eyes wide and full of dread, still holding the piece of pipe. He witnessed the scene: Alex standing, Professor Morales's body on the floor, now motionless, and Emily shattered.
His gaze shifted from Alex, the figure of authority who now guided them, to Emily's face, and the seriousness of the situation was intensely etched into his features.
Alex signaled to Marlon a swift and precise gesture, indicating that he should remain on guard outside the room. It was a gesture that denoted trust, born of pure necessity. Marlon nodded, his face pale, and retreated towards the door.
Alex approached Emily and enveloped her in a hug.
The gesture initially startled her; her body tensed, surely from fear of the imminent reanimation. But Alex held her gently, whispering in her ear, his voice hoarse with tension.
"I'm fine, Emily. He bit me on the arm guard. It didn't reach my skin."
Emily burst into even more intense weeping, a heartbreaking sob that shook her completely. She clung to Alex, stammering brokenly through her tears: "Alex, you fool... I thought... I thought you were gone... like Sonny."
The mention of Sonny's name linked her remorse with the previous sacrifice, intensifying the pain.
Just then, George burst into the room, agitated, having run to find Tim.
"Emily? Are you okay? I went to get Tim, but..." He stopped abruptly upon seeing them. His face changed as he saw the scene: the professor's inert body on the floor and Emily crying in Alex's arms. He feared the worst.
Alex, once Emily had calmed down a bit, gently pulled her away. His voice, though still with a hint of exhaustion, became firm, with a tone of admonition meant to be a lesson.
"Don't act like that again, Emily. Compassion is a luxury we can't afford. You need to reason. Rules exist for a reason. Your recklessness could have cost you your life... and almost cost me mine. You can't make mistakes of that magnitude. Not again."
The admonition was severe, indispensable for everyone's survival.
With the reanimated body of the professor finally secured and out of sight, a brief and grim process that Alex supervised, reaffirming the brutality of the new reality, they returned to Emily's classroom.
Emily, her voice still broken by grief and trauma, recounted what had happened.
She narrated the events to the people who were awake, her words broken but loaded with raw truth: the professor's critical state, George seeking help, her own mistake in approaching the noise, the professor's reanimation, her paralysis from fear, and Alex's appearance to rescue her. Her narration was emotional and raw, and the horror spread through the room.
Alex took the floor, his voice grave and dominant, capturing everyone's attention.
"What happened to Professor Morales is a lesson we cannot overlook. Having bitten individuals in a group represents an unacceptable risk. The bite introduces a massive infection that completely overrides the body's defenses. That infection leads to death. And once you die, you reanimate."
The group reacted with a mixture of dread, bewilderment, and questions.
"So, if I get bitten, I die and come back like them?" a girl inquired, her voice barely a whisper.
"Yes," Alex replied with conviction.
"Is there no cure?" another asked, hope fading in their eyes.
"Not that we know of," Alex affirmed, a relentless truth that felt like an overwhelming weight on everyone's chest.
"And if I get sick and die, do I also reanimate?" a young man asked, his voice laden with unprecedented fear.
Alex hesitated for a moment. His mind raced, pondering the dangers of revealing the truth. Will they believe me? How would I explain where I got the information? He decided the group was too vulnerable to bear that burden.
"We don't know... At this moment, the fundamental priority is to avoid any open wounds, especially bites. Staying in good health is absolutely vital."
He deflected the question, keeping the secret of universal reanimation.
"Is the virus airborne?" a teacher asked.
"I've faced several of them and you surely have too, so far I don't know of such cases," Alex replied, trying to calm the hysteria a bit. "The main threat is them, the zombies, and the wounds they cause."
The conversation, inevitably, focused on the possibility of getting out of high school alive. Desperation grew as they realized their isolation.
"Downtown traffic is completely jammed," Alex explained, painting a realistic picture. "The main highway is a car graveyard, and the bridges are deadly bottlenecks. With the number of infected increasing, the only way to get away from this epicenter is on foot. But that will be a long and dangerous journey, the hardest you've ever made in your lives."
"So, is it better to stay?" someone asked. Everyone turned to look at him and then at Emily, who had initially suggested that.
"Immediate evacuation plan is not viable," Alex said, remembering his father's call and his new request. "The routes are blocked, and the city is in chaos. Our best chance is to fortify ourselves here."
"We'll have to secure the entrances. The main doors and alternative entrances... We can't leave any weak points," Tim commented.
"And resources," added one of Emily's classmates. "The cafeteria has canned food, the infirmary has medical supplies, and the chemistry lab has distilled water. We have enough to last for a while if we manage them well."
"And what happens after that?" Marlon asked. "Do we stay here forever?"
Alex shook his head.
"No, this is only temporary. A safe haven to reorganize and plan our next move. Once we have secured the school and have a plan, we will look for a way out of the city. For now, we must make this place our fortress."
After the tense talk in Emily's classroom, a silence heavy with resignation settled over the group.
The air seemed heavier and colder. George and Marlon remained on guard, their young faces marked by a new and somber seriousness, aware of the weight of responsibility that now rested upon them.
Alex and Tim returned to the staircase connecting to the cafeteria, the place where they had interrupted the clearing Alex and Marlon had done earlier.
The atmosphere between them was one of grim efficiency, every movement calculated.
Tim, with improvised tools, began to reinforce the staircase access, dragging heavy desks and shelves with almost desperate strength. His movements were methodical, almost automatic, a way to channel anxiety and palpable guilt.
He didn't look at Alex; his eyes were fixed on the work, as if in physical effort he could erase the memory of having failed to protect Emily, of not having taken her back to her father. The shadow of Sonny, the man who had died protecting her, a companion and friend of his, seemed to loom over him.
While they worked, Alex told him about the radio call with Ron, mentioning the evacuation plan and the commitment they had reached. Tim just nodded, a heavy sigh escaping his lips.
With the barricade in progress, Alex and Tim proceeded to methodically clear the zombies from around the stairs leading to the first floor, near the cafeteria. The hallway was in gloom, the echo of their footsteps resonating in the oppressive silence.
The task was brutal and silent.
Alex led the attack with his knife, his movements fluid and lethal, a macabre dance of survival, while Tim covered his back with his own, his eyes scanning every shadow. The coordination between them was almost perfect, a non-verbal language forged in trauma.
They piled the bodies of the dead in a secluded corner, trying to keep the area as clean as possible, a thankless task in a rotting world.
Then, they secured some nearby rooms on the first floor, clearing them of any threat and securing their entrances. These would serve as alternative shelters or escape points in case of an emergency evacuation.
They returned to the second floor for a brief rest.
It was almost 2:00 AM, and fatigue was a heavy slab settling in their bones. Despite the exhaustion, Alex picked up his radio again. The need for information and concern about his friend's condition was imperative.
"David, do you hear me? Alex here. Do you copy?" he whispered into the microphone.
A few seconds of static, then a familiar voice, younger and more animated than David's, answered.
"Alex, it's you! Glad to hear you. Edwin here. David's nearby, I'll pass him to you right away."
A brief exchange of cordial greetings, the formality of the radio contrasting with the informality of their friendship, and then David's voice broke through the speaker, deeper, more weathered by the experience of the last few hours.
"Alex. I thought I'd lost you. How are things over there?"
"Complicated, David. Very complicated."
Alex began to recount his odyssey: his arrival at the high school, the initial presence of military personnel who then vanished as night fell, leaving a void of authority. He described the increasing number of zombies in the streets, the massive traffic jams that had turned the roads into death traps, and the large number of people stranded downtown.
"The sirens hardly sound anymore, David," Alex continued, his voice somber. "Ambulances, police, firefighters... they're going silent. Now you only hear isolated gunshots in the distance. It's a macabre symphony."
He told him about the internal state of the high school, Emily's situation, their ideal of shelter, and the previous call with Ron, and the commitment they had reached.
David, for his part, commented that everything was 'fine' at his shelter.
"We've used the high walls of factories and warehouses to reinforce some areas first, creating a defensible perimeter. The preparation of the last few days paid off, Alex. We're relatively ready for what's coming."
Subsequently, David shared a critical situation his group had experienced.
"We saved two men, and the partner and young son of one of them. In the hurry, we didn't check if they were bitten. The two men died and reanimated. They lunged at the woman and child. We were centimeters away from everything going to hell, Alex... If no one had noticed, we would have suffered many casualties... I didn't think something like this would happen so soon. Rigorous inspections and immediate isolation of anyone who might have been bitten will have to be a crucial element in any shelter. We cannot make that mistake again."
David's voice was grave, the lesson learned at an almost unbearable cost, and the family's story added a layer of very personal terror.
Alex nodded to himself, David's story reinforcing the lesson he himself had just learned with Professor Morales.
"Edwin has been listening to the military radios you got from your contact," David added. "Constantly. Failed containment protocols, compromised safe zones, fallen or affected hospitals. It seems to be nationwide, Alex. This isn't just our city."
The mention of the contact David referred to, Bryan, his friend, brought a moment of lucidity to his busy afternoon and night.
A pang of pain shot through his chest. He had completely forgotten to try and contact Bryan. He, who was stationed at the official state regiment as a first lieutenant, could have a lot of last-minute information. Furthermore, it also reminded him of something extremely important.
"My parents... I forgot my parents," Alex thought, the feeling of guilt overwhelming him.
He wasn't worried about their well-being, as he knew Bryan had already taken them to the official regiment camp.
He blamed himself for his lack of attention to them. Alex hadn't called them in several days, and although he sent them messages, he practically left them at the mercy of Bryan's care, without committing to their safety himself.
On the other hand, David's information confirmed Alex's worst visions about the extent of the collapse.
A chilling cold ran down his spine.
It was not a local crisis.
It was the end of the world as they knew it.
It was just as his visions had shown.
And they were alone facing it.
.
----
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[A/N: CHAPTER COMPLETED
Hello everyone.
I hope you enjoyed the episode.
Alex obviously wasn't going to die, but he came close to it.
Alex receives vital information that corroborates his visions. The problem is that he won't be able to corroborate everything until he runs into Anna in that vision village.
Will we see those scenes later? Or did the author forget to include them?
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Read my other novels
#Vinland Kingdom: Race Against Time (Chapter 70)
#The Walking Dead: Emily's Metamorphosis (Chapter 18)
#The Walking Dead: Patient 0 - Lyra File (Chapter 4)
You can find them on my profile.]