Lucian's grip on the pipe was tight.
His shoulders rose and fell with each shaky breath.
Aria's eyes were wide. Staring.
Ren's lips were pressed into a thin line. Unreadable.
Elio's chest felt hollow.
The dead screamed outside.
And inside, Noa was gone.
The body was still warm.
Lucian's grip on the bloodstained pipe tightened. The metallic scent of Noa's blood mixed with the rotten stench of the undead outside.
Nobody spoke.
Not even Aria, whose eyes were locked onto Noa's motionless form, her breath coming out in uneven, stifled gasps.
Elio felt like he was floating. His ears were ringing. His mind refused to process what just happened.
Ren stood in the corner, his face completely unreadable. A sharp contrast to the turmoil in everyone else's eyes.
A human had died. Not a monster. Not a zombie.
One of them.
And they had done it.
No—Lucian had done it.
BOOM.
The glass shuddered.
Hands pounded on the windows—dozens of them, filthy and bloodstained. More of the undead pressed against the entrance, their teeth gnashing at the air, their nails scratching against the doors.
Aria snapped out of her trance. "That thing isn't gonna hold."
Lucian wiped the blood from his face with the back of his hand. "We need to move."
Ren finally spoke, his voice eerily calm. "Where?"
For a moment, nobody had an answer.
The school was huge, a labyrinth of hallways, staircases, and dead ends. But every room could be a trap. Every hallway could be swarming with them.
Elio felt a pit in his stomach. "We need to find weapons."
"Yeah?" Aria scoffed. "And where do you think we're gonna find those? The school store? Oh no, wait—" she spread her arms dramatically, "this is a prison disguised as a school. They don't even let us bring scissors longer than three inches."
Lucian ignored her. "We go to the gym."
"The gym?" Elio repeated.
Lucian nodded. "There's sports equipment. Metal bats. Maybe even tools." His eyes flickered toward the cabinets. "And the janitor's closet might have something sharp."
Ren exhaled through his nose. "Then let's move."
And just like that, the plan was set.
But before they could take another step—
BANG.
The glass shattered.
The first zombie crawled through the broken window.
A student. Or… what used to be one. The remains of a school uniform clung to its body, its stomach ripped open, intestines dragging behind it like a grotesque tail.
It snapped its teeth at them, gurgling something that almost sounded like words.
More began to climb inside.
Lucian didn't hesitate. "RUN!"
And then—
Chaos.
Elio shoved a desk over, blocking one of the zombies for half a second before sprinting after the others.
Aria kicked over a chair, but it barely slowed them down. The infected moved too fast. Too hungry.
The four of them bolted out of the classroom, skidding onto the empty hallway.
Empty… for now.
Ren grabbed the door and slammed it shut behind them. "That won't hold for long."
Lucian was already moving. "We take the stairs. Now."
The school was a maze.
Desks had been flipped. Blood smeared across the lockers. A body lay twisted in the hallway—a girl with half her face torn off, her eyeball hanging by a thread.
Aria gagged. "This is so fucked up."
Lucian didn't slow down. He grabbed her wrist, pulling her forward. "Keep moving."
They took a sharp turn—
And froze.
A cluster of zombies.
At least seven of them standing in the middle of the hallway, twitching, groaning, heads snapping toward the sound of their footsteps.
Elio swallowed hard. "Shit."
Ren was already scanning the area. "There's a storage room—left side."
Lucian made the call. "GO."
They sprinted to the door.
Elio slammed into it first, twisting the handle—
Locked.
His heart plummeted. "It's fucking locked!"
The zombies were charging.
Aria screamed.
Lucian grabbed a fire extinguisher from the wall—
And swung it full force at the doorknob.
CRACK.
The knob snapped.
The door flew open.
They shoved themselves inside, barely making it in before Ren slammed it shut.
Aria was panting. "Please tell me they can't open doors."
Outside, the infected shrieked.
And then—
BAM.
They slammed against the door.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Ren exhaled. "...It won't hold."
The room was small. Cramped.
The only light came from the dim emergency bulb flickering in the corner.
Shelves lined the walls, filled with cleaning supplies, broken chairs, and dust-covered equipment.
Aria's hands shook. "We almost died."
Lucian ignored her, digging through the supplies. "Look for anything useful."
Elio ran a hand through his sweat-soaked hair. "We're dead if they get in."
Ren was silent.
Elio turned to him, frustrated. "Ren. Say something."
Ren finally looked at him. His voice was quiet. Too quiet.
"We need to kill them."
Elio blinked. "What?"
Ren pointed to the vents above them. "There's a way out."
Elio followed his gaze. A small, rusted vent cover sat above the shelves.
Lucian narrowed his eyes. "You wanna crawl through there?"
Ren shook his head. "Not all of us."
Aria frowned. "Then who—"
Ren grabbed an old, rusted screwdriver from the shelf and tossed it to Elio.
"You're the smallest," he said. "You're going."
Elio's stomach dropped.
He looked at the screwdriver in his hands.
Then at the vent.
Then at the door—
Where the infected were still pounding.
Elio swallowed hard. "...And if I don't make it?"
Ren's expression didn't change.
"Then we all die here."
Elio stared at the vent.
It was barely wide enough for someone his size to squeeze through. The metal edges were rusted, jagged. If he wasn't careful, he'd slice himself open just trying to get inside.
This is insane.
But the pounding at the door wasn't stopping.
BAM. BAM. BAM.
The undead were relentless. The thin wooden door wouldn't last much longer.
Lucian turned to him, eyes dark and serious. "No time to hesitate."
Elio exhaled sharply and hoisted himself up.
His hands gripped the dusty shelves as he pulled his body into the vent, twisting his shoulders to fit. Tight. Cramped. The metal groaned beneath his weight.
Aria winced. "Are you sure it won't break?"
"Shut up," Elio hissed. He forced his arms forward, dragging himself inch by inch. It was so damn narrow.
His breath hitched. Too tight. He could barely move.
Calm down. Breathe. Keep going.
The others below watched as he disappeared into the darkness.
Lucian's voice followed him. "Find a way to open the door from the other side. We'll hold them off as long as we can."
If there even is another side, Elio thought bitterly.
He pressed forward.
And forward.
And forward—
Until he heard it.
A sound.
Something breathing.
Inside the vent.
Ahead of him.
Elio froze.
The air turned thick. Stale.
The vent was too dark to see anything, but he could hear it.
The slow, wet breathing.
Shhhhhh. Hhhhhhhh.
It was right in front of him.
Elio's heart slammed against his ribs. His fingers curled against the metal. He didn't move.
He couldn't.
His whole body was trapped in this tight space. Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide.
He squinted. Shapes. A silhouette ahead.
A face.
No. Not a face.
A mouth.
Wide. Open. Too many teeth.
Elio's breath caught. His stomach twisted.
The thing in the vent tilted its head.
And then—
It lunged.
Elio jerked back as something slammed into him.
Teeth snapped inches from his face.
FUCK.
His back hit the metal. No room. He couldn't dodge. Couldn't fight properly.
The thing clawed forward, dragging itself through the vent.
Elio kicked out, his foot colliding with its face. The impact made a sickening crack. The creature reeled back, snarling.
Elio didn't stop.
He raised the rusted screwdriver.
And stabbed.
The tip plunged into flesh.
The thing let out a horrible, wet shriek.
Elio pulled back and stabbed again. And again. And again.
Warm blood splattered across his arms.
The creature twitched.
And then, finally—
It went still.
Elio's chest heaved. His arms shook.
His face was covered in blood. His fingers slick with it.
He just killed something.
And it wasn't human.
Not anymore.
He crawled past the motionless corpse.
Didn't look at it. Didn't stop.
Just keep moving.
The vent stretched ahead, turning sharply downward. Light flickered through the grates below.
Elio pressed forward and reached the end.
A grate.
He squinted through it. A hallway.
Empty.
He let out a breath and braced himself.
Then, with all his strength, he kicked the grate open.
It crashed onto the floor.
Elio dropped down, landing hard.
His legs buckled.
His arms trembled.
But he was out.
He staggered to his feet. No time to waste.
The others were still trapped.
Elio scanned the hallway. There.
A fire extinguisher mounted on the wall. A glass case.
He grabbed a metal stool from the side and swung it.
CRASH.
The glass shattered.
He grabbed the extinguisher.
And ran.
Inside the storage room—
The others were holding the door shut with everything they had.
Lucian pressed his back against it, teeth gritted.
Aria and Ren pushed against desks and chairs. Trying to reinforce it.
But it was futile.
The undead were winning.
Cracks splintered through the wood.
And then—
The hinges snapped.
The door burst open.
A flood of hands and teeth surged through.
Lucian barely had time to react before—
FOOM.
A blast of white foam exploded into the room, covering the zombies.
They reeled back, shrieking.
Lucian's eyes widened.
Elio stood in the hallway, fire extinguisher in hand.
"MOVE!" Elio shouted. "NOW!"
Lucian didn't hesitate.
He grabbed Aria's wrist and ripped her away from the barricade.
Ren followed.
The three of them sprinted through the gap before the zombies could recover.
Elio threw the extinguisher aside.
They ran.
Their feet pounded against the floor.
Zombies screamed behind them.
They sprinted past shattered windows, overturned desks, and blood-streaked floors.
Ren's eyes locked onto the sign ahead.
GYMNASIUM.
He pointed. "There!"
Lucian grabbed the handle and yanked.
Locked.
"FUCKING—" he cut himself off, looking around frantically.
Ren spotted something. A dead body.
A teacher's corpse.
And around its neck—
A key.
Elio gagged. "Nope. Not doing it."
Lucian didn't argue.
He knelt down, yanked the blood-covered lanyard off the body, and shoved the key into the lock.
Click.
The door swung open.
They burst inside.
Lucian shoved the door shut. "BLOCK IT."
Ren and Aria grabbed benches, chairs, anything.
They piled everything against the doors.
Elio collapsed onto the floor, panting.
Lucian wiped the sweat and blood from his face.
And then—
Silence.
For the first time since this nightmare started—
They were safe.
For now.