"Samuel Atkinson, you'll be late for school!" His mom shouted over the bleating of the alarm clock.

It was a day like any day. Samuel Atkinson woke up borderline late, did a piss-poor job of putting on his school uniform, checked his face for any signs of a beard growing - shouldn't it be there already? - His puberty was years ago, he was old enough to drive, but where was his promised beard?

His brother Jason banged on the door. "Get out of there, you onanist!" He barked.

"Dammit, Jason! I wasn't..." Samuel protested as he opened the bathroom door. Jason shoved him out and slammed the door behind him. With a shrug, Jason went to the kitchen, wolfed down breakfast, and ran to get inside the school grounds before curfew.

The first period was History with Mrs. Potterbelly. Samuel slept. The second period was math with Mr. Parkinson. Samuel tried to sleep, but got a piece of chalk on his forehead, courtesy of the "deadliest math teacher with a piece fo chalk" to ever walk the earth.

That was teenage abuse, he complained to nobody.

The third period was biology with Ms. Summer. Samuel wouldn't dare sleep, the young teacher's figure more than enough to stimulate his hormone-addled brain to a decent level of activity. Maybe that was the reason biology was his best subject.

But Ms. Summer never entered the classroom. There was a tense atmosphere in place, like too much background noise but nothing alarming. Just... eerie? Samuel found he lacked words to describe the feeling.

That's when Brandon barged in the classroom. "Dude! Ms. Summer is biting the principal! There's a fight going on!"

At the word fight, half the class was already out in the corridors. Curious teens flooded to the place where the sweetest bio teacher ever allegedly was chewing the flesh of the most hated principal ever. Samuel never had to ask where Dav Pilkey got his inspiration. Obviously, he went with the crowd.

Truly enough, from the second-floor window, he could see the ring of people watching as the mousy teacher ravaged the principal in the courtyard below. Her mouth was entirely covered in blood and she snarled at the assembled students around. The principal had several bite marks everywhere on his body and was not moving.

A hundred cellphones recorded everything. He heard people shouting how they were getting thousands of views, and some were even live-streaming the whole incident. He feared that Ms. Summer's career as a teacher had ended. He was right, but not because her reputation was ruined.

'Did she kill him?' Samuel wondered.

Then Ms. Summer jumped on the crowd and bit another student. People screamed and ran away, tripping on each other and causing an avalanche of bodies like dominos falling. The principal stirred, stood up with the students, and launched himself at another group.

It was chaos. Students ran from side to side, but almost nobody actually fled the scene. They had to see that shit. They had to keep recording it. As enough gigabytes of video were made every second, enough to make bullet-time Matrix-Esque rotations if everyone pooled their resources, the two teachers jumped into other people.

'Where are the other teachers?' Samuel wondered. He too couldn't stop watching. And oddly enough, the ones bitten started to attack and bite other people. Ms. Summer was on her fifth victim when a light went on in Samuel's brain. 'Aren't they behaving just like zombies?'

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Screams broke out at the end of the second-floor corridor. Students ran away from something. He saw a bunch of teachers covered in blood running after the students, tackling and biting them.

Just like zombies would.

Perplexed, Samuel joined the second wave of people running away from the biters. Someone commented in jest, "The zombie apocalypse is upon us!" It caused some to laugh. Samuel didn't.

He saw the janitor's closet and decided to enter it. Before he could shut the door close, Fatima entered in with him. Before he could say something, she pushed the steel shelves down, tossing the cleaning supplies to the ground and jamming the shelves against the door.

"Fucking zombies!" She cursed.

"Are they really zombies?" Samuel asked after a few moments. He had to keep his mind from wandering too far with possibilities for the 'I'm locked in a room with a girl' event that was just happening.

"I hope not!" She giggled nervously. "One of them bit me, here," She showed him the back of her forearm. There was a sickly purple bite mark oozing some blood.

"That's awful. There's a jar of alcohol, do you want to swab that? It would be bad if it gets infected." A bug at the back of his mind told him, 'it already is'.

"Would you?" She asked sheepishly.

"Sure."

Outside, people were still screaming and running around.

He took his handkerchief from his pocket and soaked it in alcohol. He reeled from the stench and dabbed her wound. "It didn't break the skin too much."

He looked up to find Fatima's face inches from his. "Thank you, Sammy," She cooed. "Erm, would you..."

He backed off, thinking she wanted space. Fatima made a face of dismay.

"No. You weren't bothering me," she beamed a shy smile. With a deep breath, Fatima continued, "I always thought you were a cool guy, Sammy. As far as I know, the world is ending. We might be dead soon. Would you give me a hug?"

'A hug?' Samuel found her request weird. Wouldn't people want to, dunno, not die a virgin, if they were about to die? He wouldn't mind losing his with Fatima. They weren't close but she was rather nice. A solid eight, Samuel would say.

But he opened his arms anyway. Fatima wrapped hers around his waist while Samuel awkwardly clasped her shoulders. Fatima nested her face against his neck.

"You smell good," She said.

"Th-thank you," Samuel stuttered. He was too focused on the feeling of her body next to his.

Fatima raised her head and closed her eyes, puckering her lips. 'Is that an invitation to kiss?' Samuel's mind raced.

He kissed her. A peck on the lips. Fatima pressed on. Then she coughed and fainted. Samuel had to struggle to keep her body from falling on a heap on the ground. He held the unconscious girl and cursed his luck. Without warranting a sexual misconduct charge, he rested her against the wall and moved to listen to the sounds outside. People running, crying, and screaming everywhere. Nobody banged on the door so they would be safe...

**OUCH**

He felt a sting on his arm and jerked it back. He saw Fatima with a chunk of his skin in her mouth. She snarked and dashed, headbutting him and sending both crashing down on the floor. With unholy fury, Fatima's teeth snapped and bit anything in reach. Samuel put his arm to protect his face but she was driven if not strong. The bite wounds hurt. A lot. He looked at one and it had the same sickly purple as hers.

'Dammit, she's a zombie now!' he cursed to himself.

Fatima didn't stop. Samuel felt his arms go numb and Fatima lost interest in him. His vision swam and blurred as he lost control of his body, going limp. The burning sensation was the only thing he could feel, even the sounds of chaos outside became muddled.

He lost consciousness.

> You died.

'What?'

> Time survived: 37 minutes ------> 3 points.

>

> Distance walked: 154 meters. --> 1 point.

>

> Zombies killed: 0.

>

> Remaining lives: 10.

>

> Spending 1 life to revive.

"Samuel Atkinson, you'll be late for school!" His mom shouted over the bleating of the alarm clock.

It was a day like no other day. Maybe like yesterday but Samuel jumped off of his bed and screamed. "FUCKING SHIT!"

He checked his arms, nervous. No wounds, no bite marks. He stumbled out of his bedroom and found his older brother, Jason. Who should be out of the house and in college if he was any good?

Jason smirked, "Had a wet dream?" He teased. "Oh, dibs on the bathroom!"

Jason ran the distance and shut himself in. Samuel went to his parents' bedroom and used theirs to freshen up. He ate, ran to school, and found he couldn't sleep during History and Math. The third period started, and Ms. Summer didn't show up. He started to have the same bad feelings, but worse and more intense.

That's when Brandon barged in the classroom. "Dude! Ms. Summer is biting the principal! There's a fight going on!"