Chapter 2

[Choose. This time you must choose.]

Hakim swore. He swore and swore again. He once again had his arms threaded beneath the male zombie’s armpits; the only thing keeping it from viciously attacking his friend who held the corpse’s feet up opposite him.

Time stood still.

Helen was halfway to the female zombie who would, in the next second rise to greet—and gruesomely kill the tearful woman approaching her.

I… I have to choose.

He looked at Leth. The bastard only grinned back. Hakim swore inwardly. That grin was mocking him. Mocking that he had no choice at all. He wouldn’t choose Leth. He would never choose Leth. This self-imposed struggle he felt was nothing but justification for a choice he had already made.

“Ah, well. I hesitated over it didn’t I?”

As if he could say those words after to make everything right.

No. There was no choice. He would not deceive himself into thinking he was justified in choosing Helen over Leth. They were both his friends; only one was something… more. It was a simple question of value.

… Sorry. Leth.

Perhaps, seeing that he had come to a decision—time began to flow once more. He turned his gaze from Leth to Helen and released his hold on the zombie. Unlike the impassioned sprint he made during the second vision, this time he only stared at the rising female zombie with frigid eyes as he lunged forwards.

He knocked Helen out of the way and kicked the female zombie in the exact manner he had during the vision—only this time with twice as much malice. The creature was sent flying into the overturned desks where it impaled itself on a broken chair leg.

Hakim’s face was gloomy as he turned around to see the rest of his vision unfold. By the time his eyes met Leth’s, the male zombie had already widened its maw to clamp down on his unsuspecting neck.

He saw Leth’s normally hidden, ink black irises peak out from below their shroud as they shifted to his attacker, his neck simultaneously pivoted out of the way by pure instinct.

Snap.

Leth’s expression twisted at the sudden pain. He lost feeling in his left arm immediately. The zombie’s bite was still tightening on his snapped bone and torn flesh, refusing to budge.

A slim blade protracted along the side of his right palm which was already at the zombie’s mouth. He wordlessly shoved his hand into the creature’s mouth using his own flesh and broken clavicle to keep the mouth from clamping down on his hand.

Accompanied by two spouts of blood from each side of the zombie’s cheeks, the slim blade tore through each of its enflamed masseter muscles like butter. The zombie’s lower jaw fell limp which allowed him to pry the upper part of its head out of his wound.

The zombie broke its own spine to throw itself at Leth, so as soon as it was pried from its target, it simply collapsed onto the ground, unable to do anything but groan and twitch its eyes.

“Well then...”

His voice was unusually low. Leth raised his foot and smashed it down on the zombie’s neck. The resulting snap and blood splatter caused Hakim’s hair to stand on end.

Leth staggered backwards as his eyes turned to the corpses of the 3 students that had been present since he arrived. His eyes then jumped to the flailing corpse impaled atop a pile of desks.

Wordlessly, he walked over to them, past Hakim, and slit each of their throats. Sure enough, they all bore grizzly bite wounds somewhere on their bodies. His left arm dangled powerlessly as he walked. Even as he carried out the executions, he could feel them beginning to stir; the dead flesh becoming reanimated with amplified strength and inhuman endurance.

Hakim didn’t say anything. He couldn’t say anything.

Finishing up, Leth turned to face Hakim. At that same moment, the door to class 3-A slid open and Leo rushed in.

“Guys—we have a prob—Whoa!"

Upon entering, Leo was immediately assaulted by the stench of blood. The hellscape he intruded on caused his lunch to pull an immediate U-turn and head back up his throat.

*gulp*

He forced it down before turning his gaze to Hakim, Leth, Helen and finally back to Hakim who looked unusually pale. Try as he might, he could not piece together what happened, so he just asked:

“Hey—Hakim. What… what happened here?”

Hakim remained silent. Helen was absentmindedly staring at the corpses of her students. Her face was the picture of confusion.

Since they were mum, he turned his eyes to Leth. Seeing that he was gripping the area just left of his neck and noticing the blood trickling down his hand; Leo’s eyes widened as he rushed over.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Leth held out a bloody hand to stop him midway. He grinned.

“It’s nothing. More importantly, and as I am sure you can tell from the bodies—The school has gone to sh*t!”

“But… you’re injured! No—We need to get you to the infirmary. Just hold still and—”

“Leo!”

Hakim finally broke his apparent vow of silence and strode over; his left hand was clasped tightly around Helen’s right which he pulled alongside him.

Leo folded his arms as he scrutinized Hakim’s face. He did not like the way Hakim was speaking—and his expression—like he had just swallowed bitter medicine—was irritating him as well.

“What? We need to get Leth to the infirmary—He is bleeding profusely for heaven’s sake!”

“You lot need to go. Now.”

Leth gestured towards the shattered window. It was chaos outside. Screams and the sound of tearing flesh drifted in like a perverse melody of fear and suffering.

In addition, the chaos that was raging on the lower floors of the academic building, like the tolling of an approaching ship was getting louder and louder as it climbed upwards.

“…Fine. Hakim—”

Leo yielded in the face of the more immediate threat and was about to turn back towards Hakim to ask that he support Leth, but he suddenly paused.

“Wait. ‘you lot’? Why do you sound like you aren’t coming with us?”

Leth only grinned in response before taking a slow step back.

“Hakim.”

Hakim did not immediately speak. He did not even turn around to meet Leth’s gaze. He couldn’t bear it. He inhaled deeply and then exhaled slowly before responding:

“…You sure?”

“You know as well as I do that there is no other choice.”

Choice.

That’s right. Hakim had chosen—and these were the consequences of that choice. He would have to bear the weight of his decision.

“Leo. We are going. Leth has some things he needs to finish up before joining us.”

“The F*CK are you saying? We aren’t leaving him be—”

Leo rarely swore. When he did, it was only ever when he was completely incensed. Usually, whatever argument he was having with Hakim or Leth would be dropped immediately but…

“Sorry. Not this time Leo.”

“Wh-What are y—”

THWACK

Leo’s body fell limp into Hakim’s waiting free hand. With a single motion he pulled the unconscious Leo over his shoulder and took a step towards the door leading out into the hallway.

Ordinarily, Helen would vehemently object to leaving someone behind like this, but when she glanced at Leth’s grinning face and though back to when he slit her student’s throats… Her emotions were all over the place, she was mentally and physically exhausted so… she stayed silent… She just wanted to go home, crawl into her bed, and cry.

Her hand subconsciously tightened around Hakim’s.

Seeing that they were ready to leave, Leth gave a mock salute.

“See ya, Kimie.”

Hakim only grunted in response. He wanted to retort one last time, but he couldn’t dredge up the energy to do so. He just murmured back his response despondently.

“Yeah. See you, Leth.”

---

Hakim was gone. The only company Leth had now were the five dead bodies that littered the classroom floor.

He didn’t know how long it would take for him to turn. Could be a few minutes. Could be a few seconds. Maybe he would bleed out before he turned. Who could say?

“Well then.”

Leth sat down at one of the few desks that had not been overturned in all the chaos. Leaning back, he sighed in satisfaction. He kicked his legs up on the corpse of a nearby zombie and slouched down into his chair.

The late afternoon sun shone through the shattered glass to dye the classroom in a beautiful mosaic of orange light.

Despite not being the reminiscent type, he couldn’t help but think back to certain places, certain people. His relationship with his family was nothing but a business deal; there was no affection, no love—only terms and expectations. As he thought this however, a certain face emerged into his mind.

His foxlike eyes twitched and his smile flatlined in an uncharacteristic outward display of motion as his mind dredged up memories of this face.

Oliver… I wonder what he’s up to...? He never writes… Suppose that is my fault.

His mind was beginning to lose focus. His thoughts slowly meshed together into a single unintelligible stream. His mind, his ego, all that he was and all that he could become—was turning to nothingness.

He thought of Oliver and the cruel fate that would be placed on his shoulders in the future. He imagined that incorrigible boy suffering beneath the weight of the burden that he himself could not bear.

He sneered at himself.

You are fine with dying here?! After all the evil you have worked towards your goal—You are not allowed to fail! No one will help you—only you can help yourself!

Leth’s shaky right hand fumbled on trying to unbutton his outer winter coat. He could feel his heartrate slowing and his hand beginning to feel heavier and heavier. Failing that, a blade protracted along the side of his palm and cut a long gash through his coat.

Gritting his teeth, he thrust his right hand into a pocket embroidered on the inside of his coat. His vision was swimming by the time he pulled his hand out. In his grasp was a syringe filled with translucent fluid. His thumb flicked a nob on the side that caused a hypodermic needle to shoot out.

He wordlessly stabbed the needle down into his upper thigh. Without hesitating, his thumb capped the injection button situated atop the end of the syringe opposite the needle and pressed down.

The effects were immediate.

His heartrate increased explosively which caused the fading world around him to suddenly erupt with color, smell, and sound. Had he not been trained to resist the effects, he would likely have fainted from the sudden sensory overload.

Despite temporarily regaining control of his mental and sensory faculties, there was a tradeoff. His legs were unsteady, his hands shivered as he clambered to his feet. Rather than a combat stimulant, the injection was a life-saving measure that was created with the sole intent of saving the life of an already out-of-combat user.

I have 1 hour to live.

Leth knew nothing about the infection—but, he did know the duration of the stimulant he had just administered to himself. Assuming said stimulant was holding back the infection, he now had a deadline to work with it.

However, there was a more immediate problem than the infection.

That bite shattered my left clavicle—and part of the bone pierced an artery.

This was the most accurate field-diagnosis he could come up with, and if true—he would die from blood loss in about 10 minutes.

The infirmary is too far. labs are closer.

While the infirmary would have been ideal, the labs did have first aid kits in case a student was injured. Additionally, there were also surgical tools used for dissection.

Leth stumbled over to the door, his left arm dangling uselessly by his side. With his right hand, he slid the door open and pulled himself out into the hallway. His heightened senses rapidly analyzed the situation occurring outside the classroom.

Zombies…

He groaned. He was currently on the third floor, not far from the stairwell. His destination was on the second floor. Normally, it would only be a 2 to 3-minute walk.

But when the entire stairwell was flooded with zombies and what sounded like more, further down—the equation changed.

He glanced back towards the shattered windows of class 3-A; If he were not weakened then maybe he could have climbed down from the outside—then again, if he were not weakened, he would be able to easily dispatch the zombies and take the direct route down the stairs.

Leth’s characteristic grin twisted at his lips. He had only one path available, so there was no meaning in any hesitation. He took a single shaky step towards the stairwell.