"Well, you said you could turn into a stone man, for up to half an hour, and it takes half an hour to replenish? You had an hour's worth of a break, so you can use your ability again, right?" Ben asked.

Mr. Waltermoor raised his left eyebrow as he answered, "I did not reflect anything or get damaged in any way, so my ability is good to go. Why, what do you have in mind?"

Ben looked at Zenix and then to everyone in the room, "For this, I will need you, Mr. Waltermoor, Zenix, Noah, and maybe Maison. It depends on do you have an ability. You didn't share before..."

Maison frowned but then sighed, "I don't, but I have this and a lot of combat experience."

"This?" Noah asked confused. Maison's arm went to his back as he lifted his shirt and pulled out a gun from his pants.

Dumfounded, they looked at Maison, and Ben smiled, "Wonderful. Well, Jay, Zeana, and Loraine, you guys will be packing, all the stuff we have left in here, and going out to the supply truck the teacher and Steph brought back. There you wait for us to come, for everyone. Now for us five, Maison, Mr. Waltermoor, and I will go outside and try to rescue Stephanie. While we are in the line of fire-"

Zenix spoke, "I and Noah will go to the basement, Noah can them melt that shitty lock, and we can go upstairs to the others Sneacking them then out through the secret passage we found in the detention room, which is right next to the pile their trying to get rid of."

Ben nodded and smirked at Zenix, "Like you read my mind. So on board?"

"Hold on one moment, we only have one stone shield, me. So, how do you think you guys will get through if they realize there are Zenix and Noah behind us? If we really get to the girl's room, how can we hold them off long enough so we three can escape? And to get the bags, the girls have in there, after all, there are very important things in there."

Ben shrugged and said with a smile, "We'll figure something out. We have to hurry now. Let's roll!" Mr. Waltermoor was only thinking how stupid this was, but at the same time, he had hope that this would work.

With reluctance, he said, "Okay, but this is only because we don't have much time and no better plans. When we find a new settlement, we need a real plan for situations like these."

Zenix dragged Noah to the door, then turned him around to check if he still had his backpack. It was not on his back.

He turned Noah around to face him again, "Where is it? We need -" Before Zenix finished that sentence, Jay put Noah's bag into his arms.

"Left it by your chair probably didn't notice taking it off to eat," he said, then looking at Zenix, "We'll see each other." Jay turned around, grabbed the five backpacks he packed, and urged Zeana and Loraine to go with him.

Zenix concentrated on the back and then looked into Noah's eyes, "Do not let go, abandon or in any way shape or form make the liquid in these glass bottles disappear. Okay, guard it with your life. We need that to get to the others."

Noah nodded his head rapidly. "Good." He said and looked at Ben, tilting his head upwards as if it was some kind of sign. Ben responded with a nod.

"Then three-" he pushed the table away, "two-" he unlocked the door, "one."

He pushed the door open and let the Teach go first. In an instant, his skin turned gray, and he yelled, "Go go!"

Zenix and Noah ducked behind Mr. Waltermoor and ran toward the basement. Noah pulled the back bag to his chest and concentrated on running. When they were at the door, they heard a shot and a door closing. Knowing they didn't have any protection anymore, Zenix ripped the basement door open, grabbed Noah's clothes, and shoved him inside. Noah almost flew down the stairs but balanced himself and ran down, waiting for Zenix. Zenix closed the door, and a bullet nearly went into his arm but missed slightly.

Then, the lock of the basement door clicked, "I locked the door, but that won't hold them for long. Come with me."

Noah followed Zenix as they ventured deeper into the basement, "Not to interrupt, but why does it seem that we are going deeper? And just curious as to why you have the keys to the basement."

Zenix shrugged and walked forward, deeper and deeper into the basement, "Ben and I, we are well... Looking for new ways to have fun while going to school, so we often stole these keys from the janitor. He made a new pair of keys after a while, and since then, I have been carrying them with me. And why we are going deeper, we're going to the other half of the school and through a passageway to the other side. So we can get to them, we would have used this way sooner, but that stupid lock won't break. Ben and I tried everything available for us. Heck, we even had those super strong pliers, but that stupid lock wouldn't break. So your little chemical solution is the only thing giving this thing hope."

Noah nodded, and soon they came to the door. He could see their effort. The lock had many scratches, and it even looked like they tried to pick the lock. He took one of the remaining three bottles but only used a third of the liquid as he poured it onto the lock. The metal started sizzling and melting away. Zenix laughed a little with euphoria. The lock then fell to the ground by itself, and Zenix walked toward the door, wanting to open it, but was stopped by Noah halfway.

"Let me," he said as he put on his gloves to open the door so the Zenix didn't lose a hand.

"Good, now we can go," he said as he carefully placed the gloves back into his bag and carefully made sure the glass bottle was leak-proof. He also puts that also in his bag.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Zenix now stood in the door careful not to step in the still disintegrating lock, "Dude, you're like an angel sent from heaven. Now we kinda have to hurry, though, as much as we can trust Jay. We can not trust the other two, Zeana and Loraine would throw him out if they had a chance." Noah nodded as he put on his pack bag and followed Zenix. As they got out on the other side, they walked into a hall that was filled with blood. The scent of iron was everywhere, and it was not Zombie blood. The stairs they had to go up had a female corpse lying on its steps. Her clothes were ripped apart by a knife, and her face was frozen in horror. Her lifeless eyes stared into the ceiling as her blood seeped through the deep cuts on her arms and legs. A guy's head rolled on the floor like a bowling ball, his body several meters away from his head hung by a robe from the ceiling. The stomach was cut open, and his organs lay on the floor as they probably fell out. Zenix's face blackened by the minute as he saw more and more of the people he once saw waving to him in a hallway or just passing by, dead and tortured on the floor. Noah could swear he saw him praying with his hands for a second before his eyes became determinant and he walked by the girl and up the stairs.

Noah let his gaze run around one more time, as with every person he saw lying in their own blood, he was reminded of the people he couldn't save. People who were even worse off than this little psycho game, people who had their whole dignity trampled before they were killed. He lowered his head so as not to let the dark memories show to the outside. While Zenix noticed Noah was not following him, he turned back to see Noah's head lowered it kind of looked like he was about to cry.

Zenix bit his lip, "Noah, let's go. We won't let their sacrifice be in vain. Let's get stronger and make sure NO ONE will ever suffer like this again. Let them live in our memory and carry on in their stead." The latter nodded as he took a deep breath and followed Zenix up the stairs. Noah was thinking to himself, it seemed like Zenix thought he was mourning for them when in reality he was thinking about some other victims. Well, he should focus on this now. He can't let Zenix also find out about his true nature. So while walking upstairs, he kind of acted a little down and sad, even though he kind of lost feelings for situations like these. It was not like he wanted to not feel anything when he saw so many dead people. It was just that seeing this type of scene often and the experience when his father put him in the basement with rotting corpses, he just was not able to feel anything for it anymore.

Only his head, the reaction of people around him, and the law enforcement made it known to him what he should feel in these types of situations. The two of them were now on the highest floor, and they already seemed to hear the four on the other side. In front of them, was a huge pile of broken concrete and steel wires. Noah was just about to ask how they would get through, but Zenix already walked toward a classroom with a big red paper on the door.

"Detention! DO NOT ENTER!"

Zenix pulled the door open and was greeted by two zombies. He took a chair and slammed it into one of the zombie's heads. The other one ran toward Noah, who took a Swiss knife out of the pocket of his pants and rammed it into the zombie's head. While simultaneously kicking it into the stomach so it would fall backward, Zenix came at the right time when he slammed that chair into the zombie that was on Noah. Both zombies were dead, Zenix wiped his gooey hands on his shirt as if that was making the clean again.

Noah crouched, taking his knife back out of the slimy zombie's head. He watched as Zenis walked into the teacher's closet, turning a few things upside down he ripped out a wooden board. Behind it was another door. They crouched through it and opened the door on the other side. A normal classroom, or at least with no zombies in it. Zenix walked straight to the door and opened it. To say the four weren't a bit shocked would be a lie, and if it wasn't Noah pulling Zenix back before being hit by the fist of superwoman Lea, Zenix would be counting stars.

"Before you do that again, it's just us. Please do not hit us again," Noah shouted before Lea would try to hit them again. Zenix now realizes he managed to escape death because of Noah and also comes to his senses again.

He was serious for a second, "Listen, we came to get you. We have to leave now. Details later, our lives are in danger right now. So we need to go, grab your bags, and don't be shocked by the scene downstairs. We need to get to the truck fast!" Seeing Zenix this serious, they nodded, grabbed their stuff, and left with the two of them. No one was asking Questions, they had a kind of unconditional trust in Zenix in this situation. Which Noah found respectful. The six of them hurried down the stairs, and when they came to the bloody hallway, he heard one of them almost throw up.

"I know this is hard, but we need to get by our hung student council. Behind him is an exit door, and only a few meters more is the truck. By the way, we have to be quiet. If they hear us over, they have multiple guns, and I do not want to be tortured today," Zenix whispered to the others.

They shook their heads in confirmation and silently continued walking. When they walked by the hung student council, Noah didn't know where to look. He couldn't look down because of the organs, but he couldn't look up either since he was hung up. So he just looked at the bloody wall. Behind him, he could hear someone holding back their sobs. They all walked toward the door and outside seeing the truck pull up in front of them they went behind since there were only three seats in the front. Finally, inside the truck, they drove away. Reminding him that they'll probably go to Lumentia, to the Jays and Maison's grandparent's dojo.