"Fucker! Tomorrow is Project Day, and we still haven't finished our work!" Ethan Carter yelled furiously, his voice echoing through the room. At once, both Daniel Miller and Jason Reed fell silent, their mouths snapping shut under the weight of his outburst.
Daniel adjusted his spectacles and said calmly, "Don't worry, Eth. Keep your heart steady, buddy, we'll finish it today."
Jason chimed in as well, grinning slightly. "Yeah, why worry, Eth? We're definitely going to finish it today."
"Fucker, keep your damn mouth shut! You're just messing around instead of working on the project. Fucking hell!" Ethan snapped, his voice sharp with anger, before slamming himself down onto the bench.
"The fuck… this is your fault," Daniel whispered sharply toward Jason.
"What!? What did I even do, Dan?" Jason shot back, looking bewildered.
Daniel continued, his voice rising with frustration. "What did you do? You were messing around with the glue gun, sticking paper and cardboard together instead of actually working on the project, Jace, you motherfucker!"
"Haaa…" Jason let out a long sigh as he leaned toward Ethan. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry for messing around, bro. Let's just finish this together."
It wasn't that Jason didn't care about the project, he did. In fact, he cared so much that he was the one who had actually proposed the idea of a night shift at school, just the three of them. Daniel and Ethan had both agreed, knowing that Project Day was only a day away, and most of their work still remained unfinished.
It's just, Jason was simply the kind of guy who stayed goofy no matter the situation, serious or not, he would always end up doing whatever he wanted. Ethan was similar in his own way, but when things truly got serious, he became someone far scarier.
The strange thing, however, was that since the day he had joined the school, Ethan had never once fought anyone. No one knew his true strength, and with no fights to measure him by, his limits remained a mystery. Still, one thing was certain, when Ethan was angry, he was terrifying.
And then there was the fact that the two of them didn't exactly get along. Ethan's girlfriend happened to be Jason's ex, a detail that only added more tension between them, making the duo all the more terrifying when paired together.
And then there was Daniel, the topper of the class, a true math genius. Jason, despite his goofy nature and reputation as a bit of a player, was also among the top students, excelling especially in science.
Ethan, on the other hand, was different. While Daniel mastered numbers and Jason thrived in experiments, Ethan was a philosopher at heart, an aspiring novelist who seemed to understand life itself, as if he could see the way it moved within everyone around him.
But there was one fact no one could ignore, Daniel's height. Standing at 6'0, he was the tallest male in the entire 10th grade. Ethan, at 5'8, wasn't exactly tall, but still managed to be the second tallest in their classroom.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Okay, let's do this shit," Ethan said with a smirk as he picked up a screwdriver and a nut. The three of them exchanged a glance, smiles forming on their faces as they pulled up the dramatic wal—
But suddenly,
"Daniel, it's 7:30, come on, let's go home!" a voice suddenly interrupted.
"Um… okay, Dad," Daniel replied. It was his father, or, to be more precise, the director of the very school they were in.
"Also, bring my laptop quickly. Let's go home, it's getting late," Daniel's father said firmly.
"Haa…" Daniel let out a long sigh before muttering, "I guess we'll have to finish it tomorrow then."
"Yeahhh… fuck, tomorrow's the day. We have to present this damn thing," Ethan said, running a hand through his hair.
Jason chimed in, "Yup, bro, it's tomorrow—"
"You just shut your mouth! It's because of you that we're this late and still not finished!" Ethan cut him off sharply.
"Hey, let's not start this again, we literally just finished talking about it. Just come tomorrow at 7:30 a.m., and we'll get it done before everyone arrives," Daniel said firmly.
"Well, okay then," both Ethan and Jason said in unison.
"Daniel! Come fast!" his father's voice echoed, sharper this time.
Without another word, the trio rushed out of the computer lab together.
*****
"Oh, Dad!" Ethan called out as he spotted his father waiting at the school gate, deep in conversation with someone near the entrance.
Without hesitation, Ethan rushed ahead, leaving the other two behind. Jason, however, slipped past quickly as well, hurrying out of the gate and walking off alone. That left Daniel standing there, watching as his father locked the front gate, preparing to leave through the back door.
"Come fast, Eth, it's getting late," Ethan's father called as he started up the motorcycle. Ethan was already seventeen, yet he still hadn't learned how to ride one, not because he couldn't, but because his parents never allowed him to.
As Ethan climbed onto the back seat and settled in, his father started the motorcycle, adjusting his helmet before pulling forward.
On the way out, Ethan spotted Jason walking along the side of the road. It was already dark, but Jason, being sixteen, no longer felt any fear of it.
"Goodbye, motherfucker!" Ethan shouted as they passed by.
"Language, Eth!" his father snapped immediately, while Jason responded with a raised middle finger.
In the middle of the ride, Ethan's father spoke over the hum of the bike. "The phone's in my pocket, take it out and call your mom. Ask her what's for dinner."
Without a word, Ethan reached into his father's right pocket, pulled out the phone, and dialed his mother's number. Holding it to his ear, he asked casually, "Mom, Dad wants to know, what's for dinner?"
Ethan's mother answered through the phone, her voice gentle. "There's some soup and a veggie salad. Why, what happened?"
After hearing her reply, Ethan leaned closer to his father's ear and said, "Dad, Mom said dinner is soup and a vegetable salad."
"Okay, end the call," his father said.
"It's nothing, Mom," Ethan added quickly before hanging up. After ending the call, he slipped the phone back into his father's pocket.
Ethan and his father eventually reached home, where they had dinner together. After finishing his meal, Ethan went straight to his room, opened his laptop, and began working on a new chapter of his well-known novel. Once he was done writing, he lay back, scrolling through reels on his phone. As the night grew late, exhaustion finally took over, and he drifted off to sleep.
*****
Morning came. The sun hung high on the horizon, its rays spilling across every corner of the world, slowly stirring awake both people and all living beings.
"Ethan! It's 8:04 a.m. right now, wake up quickly! You have a function at school, don't you?" his mother yelled from outside his room.
Startled, Ethan jolted awake, scrambling to sit up in bed.
"Oh shit, it's already too late. I'm such an idiot… damn it!" Ethan cursed under his breath as he jumped out of bed.
*****
A/N : This is my very first time writing a zombie outbreak novel on this platform. I hope you all enjoy it! The first chapter is more of an introduction, focusing on the characters and their lives before the storm hits. Things will only get darker and more intense from here… And no, its not going to be a All of us are dead downgrade. It's just set on a school but will completely be different from it.