“NOOO” As soon as I heard her whisper scream I went from half standing to kneeling in front of her.

“This cannot be happening. Why is it saying no signal? There has to be a signal. Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Once I hear her I immediately get up and start looking for my phone. I found it near the back wall. I had to walk around the creature to grab it. Which I happily avoided, but I was moving so fast I almost slipped in the creatures oozing blood.

My phone was slightly cracked which it wasn’t before. It must have slipped out of my pocket when I was fighting. And it cracked when it fell. My dad was not going to be happy about this. Well if it even mattered anymore.

I turn it on and just like Talia’s it says no signal.

“What about your phone does it have a signal?” she had gotten up and was running toward me. To worried to even avoid the creature as I did. She jumped right over it and quickly got to my side. She grabbed my phone to check if it had a signal. Not even waiting to see if I had a response. As much as I wanted to tease her I couldn’t. Because now it wasn’t a fluke that hers had no signal. It was potentially the whole world. If that message we heard earlier was to be believed.

I looked from the creature, to Talia’s phone which showed no signal, then to my phone which showed the same thing. Yeah, I think the message was true. If so that means shit hasn’t even hit the fan yet. I needed to get to my family ASAP. As if she’s reading my mind Talia says.

“Come on Joe, we need to go find our families. We can’t just wait here.” She grabs my hand to jump over the creature again, but this time to leave the bathroom. This time I’m the one who puts in resistance and holds her by me. She turns back to look at me. A look of betrayal on her face. I roll my eyes at her dramatics.

“You know I want to go as much as you do, but remember. I’m the voice of reason. We can’t just go out there and not be prepared.” She looks thoughtfully at me and then back at the creature she was about to jump over and ignore.

“Maybe you’re right, but what are we going to do? I don’t see any weapons around that I can use. Do you?” After a moment of sharing eye contact, I look away first because I don’t have an easy answer. At least one she is going to like.

“I’ll have to go and find one for you.” Still looking away, but being able to hear the steam rising and then bursting from her head in the shortest amount of time I’ve ever seen she blows up at me. Not even trying to hide it under an awful whisper.

“Are you crazy??!! You think I’m going to let you go out there alone and face who knows what out there? Hell. No. We go together or we don’t go at all.” She says the last part with finality. Since I’m not just some disobedient kid arguing for a later bedtime the finality in her voice does not affect me.

“Listen I know it’s not the best idea. But it’s better than you going out there without a weapon and you die. In front of me. I questioned whether there was any way for me to stop it. How would I face your parents, huh??” At this point, I had resumed eye contact. daring her to argue with what I said. And she couldn’t even though she was searching her mind to counteract my argument. Once she knew she couldn’t. Her head lowered and her shoulders slumped. Saying in barely above a whisper.

“What if you don’t come back?” As she said that she raised her head a little bit and made sure she was looking me in the eyes. I want to say that I’ll definitely come back, but something in her eyes told me that would be the wrong thing to say. I knew she didn’t think I would leave her in this bathroom that smelled of sulfur. Then it hit me, there is no way I could say that I’ll make it back no matter what. We don’t know what is out there. I walked over to her enveloping her in a hug and did a comforting squeeze.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“I’ll be extra careful. If I’m not back in 20 minutes you can come hunt me down and punch me for being late. I’m going to check the path going to the stairs and see if anyone is stuck in the classrooms.” The last part I say as I rub her back. I am trying my best to calm her down. She wasn’t crying only because I think she ran out of tears from earlier.

“Okay, and I get to punch you as hard as I can?” I can sense the evil smile on her face as she finishes that sentence. It’s worrying, but I nod anyway. God, why did you have to make me such a nice guy? ‘It’s almost a curse at this point.’

I put some distance between us by putting my hands on either shoulder and lengthening my arms. I bend down a little and look at her in the eyes.

“I’ll do everything in my power to come back. That I can promise.” she smiles at that, but then the next second she does a quick punch to my chest. It doesn’t hurt exactly but she did catch me off guard. I put my hand on my chest, looking at her as if there was something wrong in her head. The wires aren’t wiring in this one I swear.

“That felt like a real heart to heart there. What’s with the punch?”

“It was a heart to heart and I appreciated it. But I needed you to have a taste of what’s waiting for you if you don’t come back on time.” While flipping hair fro back for dramatics she looks at me and smirks. I look at her and then roll my eyes.

“Okay, Okay, Okay, you got this. You can do this. It’s just twenty minutes.” I look at her concerned about to try to calm her down again but she stops me.

“Nope, nope, nope, get out of her before I’m the one having a panic attack.” She starts shoving me towards the door, even picking up my knife on the way. But she does maneuver around the creature instead of having me jump over it. I was grateful for that.

She shoves the knife in my hands and then runs to the wall furthest from the door. I watch her sit down and stare through me at the door.

I put my hand on the door and opened it to peek into the hallway. I didn’t see any of the creatures out in the hallway. Of course, they could be around the corner at the other end of the hallway. Or in any of the classrooms with open doors. Or hiding behind that wall and their hands burst out of it like in a horror movie. Or

Wait wait, now I’m just spiraling. I look back at Talia and nod. She gives me a weak smile and a thumbs up. She is right by the last stall so if she needs to at least she could hide in there. As I finally step out of the bathroom I tell myself again and again that this is a good idea. Holding my knife up in a defensive position as I slowly walk to the first classroom I refuse to look back at the bathroom. One because I really don’t want to leave Talia alone. And two my heart is about to beat out of my chest no matter how many deep breaths I take. The hand holding the knife is shaking, not uncontrollably, but enough to make me aware of just how nervous I am.

The inside of the classroom comes within sight I take half a step in the doorway and look around. When I step in a metallic scent punches me in the face. I then hear something devouring something. I take a closer look at the classroom and fully enter. My hands shaking has got worse, but I steal myself. Well as much as I can. I really don’t want to know what is devouring what. But a strange need to see what is happening takes over before I can fully process what I’m doing. I navigate around desks because the animalistic eating and tearing of flesh sounds are coming from the back corner of the room.

Once I finally get to the back room All I see is blood. Blood, guts, and a face. A face frozen in horror. Eyes wide open, eyebrows raised and scrunched together, and mouth open as if in a perpetual scream. My eyes only focus on the creature eating this man. This man who was probably getting ready for lessons when this whole thing started. Living a peaceful ordinary life. And then this creature is savagely just stuffing itself with his guts out in the open like this is normal.

Before I knew it I was walking towards this disgusting vile creature who cared nothing for the life it had taken. I walked until I was close enough, just about a few feet away. It was so fixated on its meal that it hadn’t even turned around. I was so close that the metallic scent of blood had encompassed me. The putrid smell of death was just starting to overpower the smell of blood.

At this point there was I had stepped on blood that had been splattered while the creature was busy eating. I raised my foot just to be sure this was blood. Like real blood. Blood from a real human being. A human being who was a teacher at this school. By the time I had put my foot down a targeted rage filled me. A rage that caused a gut wrenching scream causing the creature to turn around. But I didn’t give it a chance to do anything more than that because I ran over to it and stabbed it through the head. Killing it instantly, but that wasn’t enough for me. So I just kept stabbing it and stabbing it.

In Out In Out In Out, until it barely had a formed head by the time I stopped. I was breathing hard, my eyes stung, and there was a green substance all over me which I can only assume is the creature's blood. I sat back and just stared at the mess I added to. I didn’t really feel much, all I could do was stare at the gory scene before me.

“Blerrhhggg, Blair, Bl, Blerrrhhggg”

Whelp I guess that was the correct action. Throwing up to this is the normal reaction. Normal that’s right I’m normal. Right. Right… Right???