The handle turned halfway and stopped.
Something heavy pressed against the other side of the door.
Aren didn't pull back. He shifted his footing and pushed with his shoulder instead. The wood groaned, hinges straining. Whatever blocked it dragged across the floor with a dull scrape but still held.
The corridor behind him echoed with distant movement dragging steps, uneven impacts, bodies bumping walls. Getting closer.
"come on...." he muttered.
He braced and drove forward harder. The frame cracked sharply and the weight behind the door slid aside enough to open a narrow gap. He squeezed through and pulled the door mostly shut behind him without slamming it.
Heat and the smell of blood hit first.
The classroom he was in was wrecked.
Desks overturned. Bags ripped open. Papers ground into bloody footprints across the tile. Someone had tried to build a barricade with tables but abandoned it halfway.
Three bodies lay inside not bitten apart, but smashed and stabbed with deliberate force. One had a ruler driven through the throat.
Another's skull was crushed so badly the face barely held shape. A hallway fire axe lay near the board, edge dark.
It seemed that the situation here was like desperate killing and chaos too.
A girl stood near the wall holding a chair in front of her like a shield. Both hands locked on the frame. Shoulders tight and Ready to swing.
She looked about his age uniform dusty, sleeve torn, hair stuck to her forehead with sweat. Dark circles sat under her eyes like she'd run for hours without stopping.
They stared at each other for two seconds that felt longer.
"I'm not infected," Aren said quietly.
She didn't lower the chair.
Good, he thought.
He lowered his own weapon slightly to match the tone. "If I was, I wouldn't be talking."
Her grip loosened a fraction.
"What do you want?" she asked. Her voice sounded scraped raw.
"My siblings. They're in this school."
Silence stretched. Then she asked "Name?"
"Aren."
"Faith," she answered after a beat.
The noise in the corridor rolled past faintly dragging steps moving somewhere down the wing. Both of them paused, listening, then refocused.
Aren scanned the room again, reading the story in the mess. Strike marks on walls. Blood arcs. Defensive positions. Whoever fought here didn't stop until their arms gave out.
"What happened?" he asked.
"it was after the Second thunder," Faith said. "the Network died then teachers told everyone to stay put, after some time people around started changing. It wad Fast. One minute they were shaking as if they had seizures, next minute biting." She swallowed. "We locked this room we were Twelve students. Before with two teachers."
Her eyes flicked to the axe on the floor.
"One turned, Then one of the student started swinging this axe, she pointed at it, After that it was just noise and red."
"You're the only one left?"
"From this room, yes." A small pause. "Others ran when the door broke."
Aren nodded once. There was no need for wasted sympathy just acceptance to the changes as Reality didn't bend for comfort now.
"My sister... She was in SS2," he said. "Tall, braids, usually carries a blue notebook."
Faith blinked in recognition. "I know her."
His chest tightened. "Where?"
"She came here early in the chaos looking for her younger brother and sister. Said they were in JSS block." Faith shifted the chair aside slowly now. "She left with two boys and a female teacher. They were heading toward the lab storage side stronger doors."
"It seemed they were still alive."
Relief and worry collided in his gut.
"That's them," Aren said softly.
Faith studied him a moment longer.....measuring then finally lowered the chair completely. Her arms trembled now that she wasn't forcing them steady.
"I tried running twice," she said. "Almost died twice. So I just stayed here"
"Smart choice," Aren replied.
The building answered with another distant crash.
It felt those things were not far anymore.
Aren moved to the door and listened with his head slightly tilted, breath held. Shapes shuffled somewhere beyond the bend in the corridor slow, searching, too many to fight head-on again so soon.
He looked back at Faith.
"Can you move?" he asked.
She nodded tired, scared but she was not broken.
"Then we won't being staying long, that is if you want to follow me?" he gestured.
Faith thought deeply for few seconds and decided to follow him as it seemed he came from the outside.
"Then we move before they circle back."