In the room where Professor Morales was isolated.
The whole world had faded into a fog of terror.
The scream that had gotten stuck in my throat continued to echo inside my mind, an echo of Sonny's disappearance, of Professor Morales's death, and now, the death of Alex, for which I was responsible.
Guilt consumed me from within. How was it possible that I was so selfish, so foolish?
In my clumsy attempt to preserve a trace of human decency, in my own denial, I had ruined the only person who could have saved all of us.
First it was Sonny, now it had been Alex.
It seemed that my mere existence was a magnet for misfortune.
Unaware of what was happening around me, I stood still, as if I had turned to stone, sobbing with my head in my hands. I could only mumble incoherent phrases.
"It's my fault... I killed him... Alex..."
The image of Alex transformed into a zombie, with his icy face and uncontrollable fury, repeated itself over and over again in my head.
Suddenly, a pair of arms wrapped around me with absolute firmness.
I shivered with panic, completely terrified, waiting for the bite, for the final transformation. But the touch was warm and comforting.
It was Alex. He stood in front of me and hugged me with strength that made me feel protected for the first time in many hours.
"I'm fine, Emily," he whispered in my ear, his voice deep but soft underneath. "He bit me on the protection of the arm. He didn't reach my skin."
My crying intensified to the maximum, but now it was a sob of pure relief. I clung to him with all my strength, while my body trembled uncontrollably.
"Alex... you're an idiot...", I stammered between my tears. "I thought... I thought you were gone... like Sonny."
Just then, George entered the room, agitated, his face completely pales with fear. "Emily? Are you okay? I went to get Tim, but..."
He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the two of us. Alex pulled away from me a little, and his face regained its serious expression. He quickly explained the situation to George in a couple of short sentences.
Once I calmed down, Alex turned to me again. His voice was cold and sharp; without a trace of the emotions he had shown just moments before.
"Don't ever do something like that again, Emily," he scolded me severely. "Compassion is a luxury we really can't afford. You have to think better. The rules are there for a crucial reason. Your recklessness could have cost you your life... and it almost cost me mine. You can't make mistakes like that again. Not again."
His harsh words hit me with the impact of a physical blow. It was a brutal lesson in survival.
The process of getting rid of Professor Morales's body was carried out quickly and silently.
Alex, Tim, George, and Marlon handled everything with a somber and worrying efficiency. I watched the entire process, with a new and cold clarity that had settled in my mind. The compassion that had driven me to enter the room had been a huge mistake. It was one of the first and hardest lessons I was learning at that moment.
The world I knew and remembered had completely disappeared.
Back in the main room, the atmosphere felt tense and expectant. I cleared my throat and stood in the center of the room. Despite my deep sadness, I knew I had to be completely honest.
"Professor Morales... is no longer with us," I announced, my voice unstable. The words hung in the air. I paused, looking for the courage to continue. "He turned. And Alex... he saved me from him."
A murmur of terror and also of relief ran through the room. I forced myself to continue, recounting the events chronologically, with every word filled with the panic I had felt.
"George and I were on watch. He... the professor, felt very ill. He started having seizures. George went to get Tim. I stayed outside the room, trying to talk to him from the door. Suddenly, there was an absolute silence, the most terrifying I have ever heard in my entire life. My body was telling me not to go in... that I shouldn't, but... I did it despite everything."
I lowered my gaze, ashamed of my thoughtless recklessness.
The silence in the room grew heavy. I could feel everyone's eyes on me, some eyes filled with fear, others with judgment and reproach.
"I opened the door very slowly and went in, calling the professor, but no one answered. Suddenly, he got up from a corner. It wasn't him anymore. His eyes... they were completely white. He approached me, his hands outstretched towards me... I... I was completely paralyzed, unable to move at all." My voice broke and tears began to well up. "And then... just as he was about to bite me, Alex got in between us and... and he killed him."
The entire room erupted in shouts.
"You put all of us in danger!", shouted a student, who had been terrified all night.
Another, a new guy Alex had saved, interjected: "And you're supposed to be the leader of all of us? You almost died because of your huge stupidity!"
Amy approached, her face a mixture of silent reproach and relief. She didn't say a single word to me, but her eyes were telling me: "You were so foolish for acting like that".
Alex, seeing the group's agitation, intervened.
"Listen carefully," he said, his voice resonating with undeniable authority. "What happened to Professor Morales is a lesson we can never forget. Having bitten people in a group is a risk that is unacceptable. The bite introduces a massive infection, which completely overrides the body's defenses. That infection inevitably kills you. And once you die, you reanimate."
He presented all the facts with a brutal coldness.
The group, now completely silenced, listened to him very attentively and asked him things that I also urgently wanted to know.
"So, if I get bitten, I die and come back as them?", a classmate asked, in a low voice, almost whispering.
"Yes," Alex replied quickly and without a moment's hesitation.
"Is there no cure?", Louis asked, as hope faded in his eyes.
"Not that we know of," Alex said again with a firm tone that left no room for doubt.
"And if I get sick and die, does the same thing happen?", a boy asked, full of fear and concern.
Alex hesitated for an instant.
I questioned myself, observing the look of doubt that Alex gave with that question, if what had been asked was real and he didn't want to reveal it.
"We don't know for sure... At this moment, our priority is to avoid any type of open wound, especially bites. Staying unharmed is of vital importance," Alex replied after thinking about it a little.
"Is the virus contagious through the air?", a professor asked.
"I have faced several of them and you, in the same way, so so far I have not witnessed those types of cases," Alex replied, trying to calm the collective hysteria a bit. "The main threat is them, the zombies, and the physical wounds they cause us."
The conversation, inevitably, focused on the same topic that we all had on our minds.
Can we get out of this place?
"The vehicular traffic in the city center is completely stalled," Alex explained, pointing to the windows. "The main highway is a real car graveyard, and the bridges have become deadly bottlenecks. With the number of infected people increasing, the only way to get away from this epicenter is by going on foot. But that will be a very long and dangerous journey, the most difficult they have ever undertaken in their lives."
His words felt like a dead weight that fell in the room.
The hope of a quick rescue was completely extinguished, and the idea of escaping the next day also seemed to fade more and more.
"So, is it better for us to stay here?", someone asked. We all turned to look at him and then looked at me.
"The plan for an immediate evacuation is not viable," Alex intervened, apparently recalling my father's call and his recent request. "The routes are blocked, and the city is in real chaos. Our best alternative is to fortify ourselves in this place."
Tim nodded his head, looking out the window towards the deserted patio. "We will have to secure all the entrances. The main doors and the alternative entrances... We cannot afford to leave any vulnerable points."
"And the resources," Sophie added. "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 administer them carefully."
"And what will happen after that?", Marlon asked. "Will we stay here forever?"
Alex shook his head.
"No, this is only a temporary thing. A safe refuge so we can reorganize and plan our next move. Once we have secured high school and have a plan, we will look for a way to get out of the city. For now, we must turn this place into our fortress."
All who were awake nodded in agreement, even those who previously wanted to escape as soon as possible, now had doubts and a little fear.
"Alex is really taking my father's request very seriously," I thought with a feeling of relief.
Although the idea of staying and turning the high school into a refuge to save as many people as possible was no longer my ideal, not after the call and what happened to Alex because of my irresponsibility. The possibility of leaving my classmates and teachers protected once we left deeply relieved me.
The students, exhausted from panic and lack of sleep, began to look for a place to get comfortable. Meanwhile, Tim and Alex were heading to the stairs that led to the cafeteria to secure it.
George and Marlon approached me with a seriousness that was not of reproach, but of genuine concern.
"Emily," Marlon began, his voice was low and tired. "Alex is right about what he said. We can't make mistakes of this kind. You scared all of us a lot."
"It was not my intention," I murmured, feeling insignificant.
"We know," George intervened, putting one of his hands on my shoulder. "But you have to think about the consequences of your actions. We can't afford to allow ourselves a second mistake."
"Guys, what are you talking about?", Minnie asked with curiosity, since she had woken up. "What happened to Professor Morales?"
I remained silent, looking for the exact words. Marlon and George looked at each other, leaving the responsibility of speaking to me.
"Professor Morales... he turned into one of them. I went into the room to see if he was okay and... he attacked me. Alex got in between to save me from him."
Minnie brought her hands to her mouth, her eyes large and full of fright.
"I thought... I thought he could be saved. I didn't think something like that would happen."
"Compassion is a luxury we can't afford," I repeated, Alex's words resonating in my mind. "And I had it. I won't do it again."
The boys remained silent for a few seconds. The hopelessness rose like an invisible wall between all of us.
Then, they offered me a little food and water so I could eat. My body was so exhausted that I could barely take a bite. I walked away to try to rest, with all the weight of what had happened on my shoulders.
I closed my eyes, but my mind refused to give in and rest. Guilt had become a poison that consumed me completely.
Sleep came, but not to give me a break, but as a prison that locked me in.
My room had completely transformed. It was dark and twisted.
The shadows lengthened and shrank as if they had a life of their own.
A slow and methodical growl broke the absolute silence.
I turned around, and there he was. Alex. But it wasn't him. His eyes were completely white, his jaw hung lifelessly, and his face, which had always been so inexpressive, now had a macabre grimace.
He moved slowly, with his rigid arms, but the intention in his empty gaze was totally unmistakable.
Desperation completely invaded me. I cried, I apologized, I stammered that I was very sorry.
In the midst of my desperation, for a moment, the idea of letting myself be bitten seemed like a fair punishment for all my mistakes. But at that precise moment, fleeting memories of my mother and father burst into my mind, flashes of their smiles and their hugs.
I tried to escape, I ran towards the door, but the path was completely blocked.
A figure that was familiar to me got in my way. Sonny.
His face, which had once been full of life, was now a mask of pure horror.
His eyes, just like Alex's, were completely empty, his mouth open in a menacing growl.
Alex held my left arm tightly. Sonny, at the same time, held my right arm. His claws were sinking deep into my skin. The nightmare felt so real that I could feel his icy fingers and panic completely invaded me.
I woke up suddenly with a loud, choked scream.
My body trembled uncontrollably, completely drenched in cold, clammy sweat. My hands clutched my arms tightly, right where the nightmare had held me.
The room was in almost total gloom, most of the students were asleep, and their rhythmic breathing broke the quietness of the silence.
After a few minutes had passed, I managed to completely calm my agitated heart.
I got up in absolute silence. I could see George and Marlon talking in the hallway, their figures remained upright and attentive.
I greeted them with a simple gesture and went to the bathroom. They offered to accompany me, but I assured them that I would be fine and that it was much more important that they watched over those who were asleep.
Once inside the bathroom, I closed the door slowly and leaned against it, trying to get back to breathing normally.
My paranoia, fueled by the terrible nightmare, spiraled out of control.
I heard a shuffling sound in the hallway, a slow and constant noise, getting closer and closer to the door.
I got very scared, with my heart pounding in my chest. I quickly cleaned myself up and mentally prepared for the worst.
Several minutes passed and there was absolutely nothing else.
With a long sigh of relief, I left the bathroom and looked down the hallway. It was completely empty. It had all been my imagination, a projection of the fear that now accompanied me everywhere.
Instead of going back to sleep, I felt an imperious need to move around a bit. I splashed my face with cold water and walked towards the stairs where Tim and Alex had been securing the area. When I got close enough, I heard voices.
Alex was talking on the radio with someone, and he was doing it very seriously.
I stopped short and hid behind a nearby wall, listening very carefully.
"...If no one had noticed this, we would have suffered many casualties... I didn't think something like that would happen so soon. Rigorous inspections and the immediate isolation of anyone who may have been bitten will have to be a fundamental element in any safe refuge. We can't make that mistake again."
The voice of a man on the radio sounded firm and authoritative.
"Edwin has been listening to the military radios you got from your contact," the man added after a pause. "He's been constantly monitoring them. Completely failed containment protocols, compromised safe zones, fallen or already compromised hospitals. It seems to be a national problem, Alex. This is not just our city."
My heart stopped for an instant.
Alex was talking to someone about the situation that was happening outside.
He wasn't just an experienced survivor; he seemed to be part of something much bigger and more organized.
Who was Alex in reality?
And, most importantly, what else did he know that I didn't?
.
----
.
[A/N: CHAPTER COMPLETED
Hello everyone.
Emily continues trying to take control of her group to save them, but her ethics put Alex in danger. After all the events of the episode, we discover that Alex seems to know a lot more than he lets on.
His level of preparation is unusual, and now Emily wonders what he knows, and if this is good or bad for them.
For those who have read the other novel, you know what I mean (wink).
----
Read my other novels
#The Walking Dead: Vision of the Future (Chapter 70)
#Vinland Kingdom: Race Against Time (Chapter 68)
#The Walking Dead: Patient 0 - Lyra File (Chapter 3)
You can find them on my profile.]