Chapter Text
Tuesday the 27th May was supposed to be just an ordinary day. Charlie was going to come to school, practise for the summer concert with the girls from Higgs, before their final show on the following day, Nick and Elle had their GCSE history exam, Tao was spending the day doing coursework for his art GCSE, they were all meeting for lunch on their usual picnic bench.
That evening, they were going to a movie night at Tao’s to unwind after their stressful days and have some fun.
Everything was supposed to be okay.
And it was, right up until lunch.
The first sign that something wasn’t right came when Nick and Elle returned from their morning exam talking loudly about something that had happened. It was only as they approached the table that Charlie could begin to make out bits of conversation, but he could tell from the slight frown and wide-eyed look Nick had that he was concerned.
“Did you guys hear?” Elle says as she sits down, opening her apple juice and taking a long swig before anyone can ask how their exam went.
“Hear what?” Tao replies around a mouthful of his sandwich.
They both start talking at once.
“Some girl in our exam went psycho – ” “Abbie Briggs from my tutor – ”
They both pause, Nick nods at Elle to let her continue.
“This girl Abbie in my tutor started coughing up blood and screaming midway through our exam, then she tried to attack some of the teachers. She had to get dragged out and from the looks of it she managed to bite a chunk out of Mr Matthew’s arm.”
The reaction from the table was instantaneous, various shouts and exclamations echo around as everyone reacts to that.
“Was she okay?” Charlie asks, after the initial confusion dies down.
“She never came back in, apparently they took her to the hospital.” Nick supplies, reaching out to steal one of Charlie’s crisps.
“Holy shit?” Tao questions. “Was she rabid or something?”
Isaac looks up from his book, “Tao, humans don’t just get rabies.”
“It was like something from that Korean film Tao made us all watch a few months ago – Train to somewhere.” Elle twirls a strand of her hair between two fingers as she takes another swig from her juice.
“Do you mean Train to Busan?” Tao argues, “And don’t lie you all enjoyed that film, I saw you crying at it, Elle.”
“Wait, are you saying she was a zombie? Don’t be ridiculous.” Charlie pushes his sandwich around uneasily, the conversation making him slightly queasy.
“It was like that, I swear. I’ve never seen anything like it before.” Nick shudders.
Conversation moves past the girl in the exam, but Charlie’s mind never fully lets it go. A vague sense of uneasiness crawls up his spine and wraps its arms around his throat, threatening to choke him. He shakes if off as the lunch bell sounds, offering Nick a hug a gentle kiss to his forehead. Nick lingers in the hug, seeming to sense something wrong with Charlie, and for a second the uneasiness he feels is replaced with the warmth of Nick. But then they pull apart, and the cool air seems so much worse than before.
The first hour of afternoon practise goes well for the band, Charlie enjoys the time hanging out with Tara and Darcy and they trade fun stories and sarcastic comments during each small break. It’s only when the clock reaches two pm and they’re given an actual break for 15 minutes that things start to go wrong.
There’s a loud bang from the corridor, and someone screams loudly. Charlie glances at the others nervously as that feeling of uneasiness crawls up his throat again. He sips his water and tries to slow his pounding heart and the trembling in his hands.
You’re overreacting. He tells himself. It’ll all be fine; you’ll be at Tao’s soon for the movie night and this will just be a bad day.
He’s no stranger to anxiety and its physical symptoms, so it is easy enough to dismiss everything he feels as simply his body reacting to things that aren’t there. It’s easy enough to explain away with his overactive imagination and whatever that was that happened in the exam before. Nothing bad is going to happen, he’s just feeling anxious today. Geoff would be proud of him.
Darcy walks back over to the group; they’d gone to peer out into the commotion in the corridor after Miss Greenwood had gone to investigate. Their face looks confused, and they twist their hoodie strings anxiously.
“I think whatever Elle and Nick were talking about in their exam is happening outside now, there’s a lot of screaming and blood but they’ve moved around the corner so I can’t actually see without going out there, and I do not want to do that.” They bite their lip worriedly, and Charlie notes the anxiety seeping out of her body, any doubt he could possibly have had at her story melts away.
“Oh shit, maybe it’s a virus or something.” Tara adds, she stops idly reading through the music sheets for the show and reaches up to put the book back on the stand. She readjusts the pink clip in her hair as she sighs, “Maybe they’ll send us home early if it’s that bad.”
Before Charlie can reply, Miss Greenwood re-enters the room. She’s holding her arm and it’s bleeding profusely; her face is white and her clothes are stained with blood. She immediately folds a music stand up and uses it to barricade the door shut.
“Alright class listen up, nobody is to leave this room until I say it’s safe, understood?” She moves again, but wobbles – reaching her good arm out to steady herself on the nearest desk.
“Okay, what the fuck is going on out there?” Charlie asks, running a hand through his hair and thinking briefly about where the others in their group are. Is this happening to them too? Or is it only this side of the school that appears to have lost its mind?
Before anyone can respond, Miss Greenwood’s arm buckles and she sinks to the floor, head smacking against the floor tiles. She doesn’t move again, until another student reaches her. Charlie recognises her – she’s called Rebecca and in his maths class. She’s not the brightest kid in there, but she’s sweet enough and asked him if he was okay a few times when the bullying was bad.
“Help,” Rebecca shouts, “She’s losing a lot of blood.”
Other students seem to jump into action at this, Charlie would be surprised if any of them had any real first aid training but he seems too frozen in fear to do anything so he just watches. Tara and Darcy do the same, horrified by what is occurring.
It’s at this moment that someone starts banging on the door, a loud groan and something almost like a growl coming from them. Darcy is stood closest to the door, and they jump back before taking a step forward.
“I want to see,” Darcy says, squaring their shoulders in determination, “It can’t be that bad.”
Charlie pauses for a second, then agrees. He follows them to the door, and Tara remains not far behind them both.
There’s a small window in the door that they can peer through, and outside there’s a student banging on the door. Their face is bleeding, and their eyes are completely red. There’s someone else further up the corridor, and as they turn around to see what the noise is, Charlie glances at their stomach – more specifically the organs hanging out. There’s no way anyone can survive that, Charlie thinks, but watches transfixed as the person notices them peering through and screeches, running towards the door and slamming their face into it.
They all jump back, but Charlie’s eyes remain fixed on the faces of the two students outside the door. Their faces look the same – covered in blood, red eyes, jaws hanging open and growling incessantly. It makes his stomach turn and he wonders briefly what on earth those people would do if they got inside the hall.
Tara grabs his arm, “C’mon,” She says, “Lets get away from here for a moment.”
All of them look terrified as they sit back down in their corner, Darcy has switched from tangling their hoodie strings to chewing on one. Another anxious stim Charlie had noticed from them previously.
“Maybe Elle was right and this is like Train to Busan.” Tara says her voice is a few notches quieter than usual and her gaze is fixed on a spot on the floor.
“Truham is bad, but I didn’t think it was zombie-apocalypse-patient-zero bad.” Charlie squints up at the ceiling, then checks the time on his phone. Its only five minutes past two but enough has happened in the last few minutes for it to feel like hours.
It’s at this moment that Miss Greenwood stirs, a groan coming from her throat. Charlie glances over and notices the blood running down her face from where the other students have propped her up against the wall. Another groan sounds, and Charlie’s mind races.
Before he can shout a warning, Miss Greenwood’s eyes open and he gets a glimpse of the blood red colour before she lunges forward and bites down on Rebecca’s neck. She screams, and the other students back away murmuring in fear.
He stands, dragging Tara and Darcy up with him. There’s another door to leave the hall, it is just a couple meters behind them and leads straight out to the playing fields. He takes a step back.
Miss Greenwood sits up, just as Rebecca makes that same groan and twitches on the floor, a large puddle of blood spreading away from her.
“Does anyone else feel like we should run?” Darcy says, and then Miss Greenwood leaps forward and Charlie grabs hold of Tara’s hand as they race to the door. There’s another scream from behind them, and more quieter groans but Charlie doesn’t dare turn back to see what happened.
The corridor outside is quiet, and they race to the playing fields, never once letting go of each other’s hands. There are some other students who follow them, but some never make it outside. Charlie chooses to pretend they went the other way down the corridor, and not that they didn’t make it because they were infected by whatever that is.
“Wait,” He shouts, “What about the others? We can’t leave them.”
“Fuck,” Darcy groans, “You’re right.” Their bleach blonde hair is matted against their head with sweat and the corner of their lip is bleeding slightly.
They stop running, all three of them panting for breath. “Do you think the rest of the school is affected? Maybe it’s contained to just this block.” Tara suggests, optimistically. Her hope is cut short as a window on the second-floor breaks, a single person falling from there and landing hard on the ground. Their body is barely visible through the trees, but Charlie watches as the body twitches before dragging itself up and taking off running again.
“I think we’re in trouble.” Charlie says, “I know Nick was in a maths revision session, and Tao was in the art block.”
“Elle would be back at Higgs now, right?” Darcy suggests, “Maybe she’s avoiding all this mess.”
“I think the maths session was open to both schools after the joint exam this morning.” Tara confirms, and Charlie’s hope of Elle being safe from harm fades rapidly.
“If we go in the main block first and find Nick and Elle, we can exit through the art block and collect Tao.” Charlie suggests.
“Do we reeeeaally want to go back in?” Darcy says, their eyes trained on the broken second-floor window.
“No,” Charlie confirms, “But we don’t have a choice.”
**
Nick was having a wonderful day so far. First of all, he’d finished his GCSE history exam – no more nights staying up trying to memorise dates or names of people who died hundred of years ago. Then he’d had lunch with the Paris squad and they always have fun together. After that, his maths teacher had bought in a load of snacks for their revision session, and him and Elle had spent the whole time light-heartedly discussing stupid things their respective significant others had done over a pack of party rings.
Even the commotion during their exam hadn’t thrown his mood off, even if it had been confusing and borderline terrifying to watch.
It’s only when the teacher’s phone starts blowing up with different notifications and another teacher appears at the door to have a hushed conversation with their teacher that the two of them start to realise something else might be going on.
“Alright class, I know we’re scheduled to have a break in five minutes, but nobody is allowed to leave this room until I say so, understood?”
Nick and Elle share a confused glance.
“I wonder how their concert practise is going on.” Nick muses, Elle watches with a soft smile as his face lights up as he thinks of Charlie. Despite her initial dislike of Nick, she’s quickly come to think of him as one of her closest friends and seeing him and Charlie so happy brings her almost as much joy as seeing herself and Tao happy does.
“I wonder how Tao’s art project is going.” She joins. Nick shares a soft smile with her.
“I bet they’re both having more fun than we are,” Nick groans as he glances back down at his sheet of algebra questions. Only 15 more days until he’s done with maths, and then he is will never have to do it again.
Not that he’s counting down or anything.
“Probably,” Elle agrees. Her eyes focus on their teacher reading the notifications on his phone, they follow the crease in his eyebrows and anxious lines on his forehead.
“What do you think is going on out there?” She asks.
“Probably just a fire alarm drill or something.” Nick bites down on the last party ring, the sugary biscuit bringing slight amounts of comfort to his tired brain.
There’s a loud bang at the door, followed by several more, and a scream of help me.
“Okay,” Nick swallows, “Maybe not a fire alarm test.”
Their teacher opens the door, and a student outside is covered in blood. He’s holding his arm and from what Nick can see, it looks like it’s been bitten. He’s only young, probably no older than year seven or eight, and his face is streaked with tears. Their teacher ushers him inside, before shutting the door. The kid collapses against the back of it, his face as white as snow.
“What happened?” Someone in the class asks.
“A guy in my class had a seizure or something, then attacked me.” The kid says, Nick watches as their nose starts bleeding and drips onto the white uniform collar. “I thought I was going to die but Mr Bell saved me and then he – ” He breaks off into sobs. Nick and Elle share an uneasy glance.
“What happened to everyone else in your class?” The teacher asks gently, wrapping the kids arm in paper towels.
“They ran, there were too many of them though. God,” The kid sobs again, “There was so much blood.”
The teacher’s face pales. “Nathan, keep an eye on him while I call another ambulance.”
Nathan, a student who just happened to be unlucky enough to be sat closest the door, stands up and moves towards the kid hesitantly.
Nick is suddenly thankful to be sat towards the back of the class, he turns to Elle. “Another?” He mouths, she shrugs back. Clearly just as unsure of the whole situation as he is.
They both turn back to watch what is happening, the maths sheet forgotten in front of them. As their teacher phones the ambulance, the kid appears to get even paler and even more blood is dripping from their nose until their head jerks back, hitting the door hard.
Nathan jumps at this, racing down to comfort the child. Nick guesses he has younger siblings from the effortless comfort he gives. It appears to be in vain as the kid is unresponsive.
The kid jerks again, his uninjured arm flailing out and hitting Nathan in the side. His head leans down, and he stills for a moment. When his head lifts again, its with a low growl and his eyes are impossibly red. Nick feels anxiety bubble up in his stomach and resists the urge to run but shuffles his chair out slightly. Elle, watching the same thing, copies.
The kid groans again, before grabbing Nathan’s head and leaning up to bite down. Nathan screams, and the rest of the class backs away – the people sat at the front push away from their desks and stand.
Nick watches as the kid tears a chunk of flesh off, and bites down – chewing it messily. His stomach turns, and he thinks briefly about how nice going completely vegetarian sounds in that moment.
Nathan falls to the floor, his arms coming up to touch his bleeding face as the kid bites down again on his stomach. Their teacher races over, phone discarded on the ground and pulls the kid away, but with some inhuman looking strength, the kid breaks free and bites down on the teacher’s neck. Blood spurts out and he sinks down to the ground, eyes wide open in shock.
His mouth is moving as the kid leans back in for a bite of his leg, and Nick manages to make out one word.
Run.
Nick grabs Elle’s hand, and races towards the back door. Most classrooms in the school only have one door, but this one leads to the main supply closet which has another door leading into the corridor. The door is a few paces in front of them, but as every student races towards it, Nick’s heart sinks at the realisation that they won’t all fit. At the front of the class, both the teacher’s and Nathan’s bodies are jerking randomly, and the kid has dragged himself up.
Nathan’s head snaps up from the ground and Nick gets a glimpse of blood red eyes before he’s running towards the crowd. He stands frozen in fear clutching onto Elle’s hand and trying not to be sick at the bloodbath their classroom has become.
The students scrambling through the back door scream and push further, causing people to trip and fall over each other. Nick and Elle are pushed towards the side of the classroom as the kid and Nathan pounce on their classmates. Their teacher at the front jerks slightly and Nick sees his chance.
“Run.” Nick shouts, dragging Elle away from their desk and towards the front of their classroom. Her shoes slip on the blood as he drags the door open, and the teacher reaches out a bloody hand to grab her leg. She screams and kicks at him, but the creature growls and snaps its teeth.
Nick glances around, spots a thick textbook, and moves before his brain catches up. He slams it down on the creature’s arm and hears bones crack. All it does in response is groan louder and bite again. He lifts the textbook and hits the creature in the face.
Nick is strong, he knows this – hell anyone who takes one look at his physique knows this, but the book somehow manages to break through the skull and bits of blood and chunks of flesh fly out. There’s a sickening crack and he only has one second to process what he just did before Elle is standing and grabbing his hand. She drags him down the corridor, but as he glances back a puddle of blood begins running out of the classroom.
He feels sick.
Where is Charlie?
**
Tao doesn’t hear the first scream, or the second, or even the third. His headphones are blasting the playlist Elle made him after their third date and his mind is focused fully on how he can fix the sketch that is supposed to be a couple standing in the rain but looks more like a hotdog.
He doesn’t even realise something is wrong until Mr Ajayi taps him on the shoulder and gestures for him to remove his earphones.
“As I was saying class,” Mr Ajayi continues, “There’s some kind of situation occurring in the school, so nobody is allowed to leave this classroom until I say so.”
“What’s going on?” One student asks.
“Is it a knife fight? I bet it’s a knife fight.” Another chimes in.
“Maybe that gay kid in our year finally got some sense knocked into him.” Chimes in Matt, Tao’s least favourite classmate.
Tao sees red but is too focused on worrying about his friends scattered around the school to retort. He pulls out his phone and opens their Instagram chat.
New message: PARIS SQUAD WHOOOOO
@tao_xu: what is going on in school right now, are you guys okay?
Five more minutes of meaningless questions pass before Tao gets concerned about not hearing a response. He knows its highly logical that they’re all just busy and haven’t checked their phones, or they had their phones taken away, but the weird situation is making him anxious so he messages again.
@tao_xu: guys wtf is happening out there mr ajayi won’t say anything ???
There’s a distant scream from somewhere in the school building. For a horrible, horrible second Tao thinks it might be Elle.
Then he hears Nick shout her name, and his stomach sinks. Without thinking, he stands up and runs out, ignoring Mr Ajayi’s protests. His lungs burn before he even makes it to the stairs, but adrenaline kicks in and he races up there, taking two steps at a time. He knows they had maths last, so runs to where he hopes she’ll be.
His heart pounds and he feels sick at the thought of someone hurting her. He’s never heard her sound that terrified before and his stomach knots.
He reaches their floor and pulls the door open. Just to almost run face to face into Nick. The other’s hair is messed up, and his face and shirt are splashed with blood. Elle is stood slightly behind him and she shouts his name, relief evident in her voice.
Tao sees the blood on Nick’s shirt and remembers the scream and sees red.
“What did you do to her?” He shouts, pushing a long finger into Nick’s chest.
If he’s paid more attention, he would have noticed how Elle wasn’t bleeding and Nick’s eyes looked too distant to be capable of actual conversation never mind hurting a friend.
Nick just stares back at him, mouth opening and shutting as he gasps for air.
“Tao, we have to go, now.” Elle shouts, and grabs onto his hand and Nick’s, dragging them both down the stairs.
“What the fuck is going on?” Tao shouts back, lungs already burning from his run up the stairs never mind the trip back down.
“It’s like Train to Busan out there!” Elle responds, rounding the last corner of the stairs.
“You mean zombies? In Truham? No way.” Tao protests, stopping running to lean against the wall for support, each word punctuated by a loud gasp. “There’s no way there’s zombies up there.”
Before Elle can respond, a loud groan echoes down the stairs and something bangs against the walls. There’s a series of loud thuds where Tao remains too scared to move, before someone falls down the last set of stairs. There’s a loud snap as their neck twists awkwardly, and the body remains still. They’re covered in blood, a single bite mark showing under their Truham uniform. Tao vaguely recognises the guy, but when his head snaps up and the groan sounds again, he realises there’s nothing left of the person he vaguely knew in there.
“Okay, maybe there are zombies in Truham. But I’m not convinced this isn’t some elaborate prank.”
The body starts to drag itself over to them, and Tao watches the bloody fingers grasping for hold on the linoleum floor.
“Move, now.” Elle says and pushes open the fire escape door.
Outside the school seems relatively normal at first glance, but there’s blood stained on the ground in random large patches, and a couple of windows are broken. It’s sunny outside, and there’s seagulls flying around picking dropped bits of school food. A younger boy reaches a hand up to grab a seagull, and Tao watches as the kid grabs it and bites down, tearing a chunk of feathers away.
He swallows the rising nausea and runs.
**
Charlie is not having good luck. First of all, he’d slipped going around a corner and landed face first in a puddle of blood, staining his shirt and sweater. God his mum is going to kill him. Second of all, that same fall had twisted his ankle slightly, and while he’d immediately got up and kept running, the dull ache had only gotten worse in the few minutes it had taken to reach the maths classrooms.
When they make it there, the hallway is quiet. A few groans echo down the corridors, but they seem faint enough to not be a concern right now. There’s a puddle of blood in the doorway to one classroom, and a collection of blood-stained footprints lead away from it towards the next stairwell. A glance at the door reveals the classroom to be the one they always use for year elevens, because its right next to the supply closet.
Against his better judgement, Charlie pushes the door open. Tara and Darcy stand slightly behind him, ready to run.
There’s a moment where nobody moves, and the air is so still Charlie could choke on it. And then, a series of loud groans ring out and Charlie is backing away.
“Nick and Elle aren’t there.” He says, ignoring the possibility they have become one of them. He isn’t thinking about that yet.
He grabs Tara’s hand, and they’re running again. There’s a loud screech from ahead, and Charlie pushes the door to the stairwell open and follows the bloody footprints down the stairs. His ankle aches with every step but he uses the adrenaline to push through it and focus on making it outside.
There’s a large puddle of blood at the base, and a trail after it like someone has dragged themselves across the floor, and as he pushes the door open, the culprit is revealed.
A single zombie, groaning and stretching his arms out after some unseen targets. It doesn’t spot them until the other zombies reach the stairwell, and the noise draws its attention towards the three of them.
Tara glances around, “Over there!” she shouts, pointing towards the gates. Other students seem to have had the same idea, and several also seem to be running toward the gate. Charlie thinks briefly about how they’re always locked during school time but ignores it in preference of potential escape.
He’ll find Nick somehow; they always find each other eventually.
They take off running, ignoring the groans from behind and the burning in their lungs. Darcy stumbles slightly, their black converse slipping on the grass, before standing upright again and continuing. The zombies behind them have broken out of the fire escape and seem to be gaining quickly. Charlie feels his breathing quicken from panic and forces himself to regulate his breathing. The gates ahead are crowded already, and he hopes its other students and they’re not just running straight towards the dead.
He spots a beanie in the crowd, a head of black hair tied back with a yellow scrunchie, shouts their names, praying to a God he doesn’t quite believe in that Nick is with them.
Tao turns, says something, and then Charlie spots Nick and it is like the rest of the world melts away. He watches Nick’s eyes light up, and he doesn’t even register the blood on Nick’s shirt before launching himself into Nick’s arms. The hug is so tight it almost hurts, and Charlie is aware of Nick’s quick breathing and he can feel his heart beating rapidly. They break apart, and then Nick notices the blood.
“Wait, fuck, Charlie, were you bit?” Nick almost shouts, the panic evident on his face now.
Tao and Elle glance at him, and then step back slightly, both of their faces dropping.
“What?” Charlie asks, his fall in the hallway long forgotten by this point. It’s only when Nick gestures down at his stained shirt and jumper than he understands. “No, I just slipped in the corridor.”
All three of them relax at that, but before any more conversation can continue, Elle shouts to look behind them.
The groans are louder now, and when Charlie looks back the number of zombies running at them is impossible to count.
“The gate is locked,” Tao says, “There’s no way out.”
“We’re trapped.” Tara says, their eyes wide and focused on the rapidly approaching crowd.
“No, shit, no,” Darcy curses, “I can’t die like this, not before I get to meet Sidney Sweeny.”
The light-hearted joke does nothing to change the mood of the group, until Nick chimes in.
“We can get to the roof of the PE block this way, there’s an outside ladder.”
“What if they can climb?” Tao shoots back, “The PE block is the worst place to die.”
And Charlie chuckles slightly at that, but Nick is already running and the zombies are now close enough to make out individual faces, so the rest of them follow. Other students stay behind to try and open the gate, others run in different directions. Charlie hopes badly that they all make it out, but his main priority is his friends right now.
The PE block ladder is down an alley that looks like a dead end, unless you know what you’re looking for. It's a narrow silver ladder secured to the outside of the building, used for building work, and hidden from most students by overgrown bushes and stinging nettles. From this corner, the rest of the school can’t be seen except the gate and Charlie hopes it is enough to keep them hidden until they are up the ladder. The groans fade into the distance as the building shelters them.
“You guys go first.” Nick says, pointing at the girls.
“Sexist much?” Darcy retorts, “Why don’t you go first?”
“I’ll go first,” Tao says bluntly, “if it’ll stop you guys arguing.”
Darcy nods at this, and Tao begins the climb up. They wait until Tao is a few meters above them to start. Tara follows, then Elle. Nick gestures his head for Charlie to go, and he places on hand on a rung just as one zombie rounds the corner, its blood red eyes trained on the both of them.
Charlie climbs frantically, as the zombie runs towards them and Nick starts his climb. He thinks they might just make it, before Nick shouts out and when he looks down, the zombie has a hand wrapped around his leg. Its bloody fingernails digging in, and fresh blood drips down from Nick’s ankle. Charlie feels his stomach drop, he didn’t find Nick again just to lose him so soon. Not like this. Not ever.
Nick takes the other foot off the ladder, dangling from just his hands, and kicks frantically. His shoe connects with the zombie’s jaw and it swings inhumanly as it groans again. The eyes are dead and the smell of blood is so overpowering it makes Charlie want to cry.
Charlie feels powerless, and he shouts Nick’s name, drawing the attention of several other zombies. Nick isn’t high enough up to escape the clutches of the tallest ones, so he has to break free now.
Charlie shouts this down, and continues climbing, making sure Nick has enough room to escape. When he looks down again, the zombie has released it’s hold on Nick, and he’s just above the grasping hands. The groans seem impossibly loud over the blood rushing in Charlie’s ears, but all he can focus on is the relief that Nick is okay. He finishes the climb up, and Tao and Elle help him over the edge of the wall. He peers down, waiting for Nick.
Nick’s face is ghost white, and his shoe is shiny with blood and some chunks that look suspiciously like flesh, but he makes it up and over the wall. Charlie hugs him close, and blinks away the tears threatening to fall, the fear of losing Nick just sinking in.
“Fuck, are you okay?” he asks, pulling back to look Nick up and down.
“Yeah,” Nick says slowly, like he’s testing the words out, “I – uh, it scratched me.”
Charlie remembers the hold it had on his ankle and kneels down, pulling up Nick’s trousers to reveal the four crescent moon shaped marks just above his ankle, the bleeding has stopped but there’s a thick trail of blood leading down to his socks.
“It’s not bad, you’ll be okay.” Charlie comforts, pressing a kiss to his temple.
Behind him, Tao gasps.
“No,” Nick insists, “It scratched me.”
And Charlie understands. But God, he really wishes he didn’t.
“What if I become one of them?” Nick blurts out, “What if I hurt you guys?”
“We don’t know how this thing works; it might not be spread through scratches. Might just be bites.” Elle suggests, her face is scrunched up slightly and her eyebrows pulled tight suggesting she doesn’t quite believe her own words.
At the end of it, none of them know how it works. None of them know how it spreads or how people get infected or what is even wrong with the people infected. Its horrifying and confusing and Charlie doesn’t even have his science GCSEs yet but he knows there’s something incredibly wrong with all of this.
“Charlie, I – I don’t want to die.” A single tear leaks out of Nick’s eyes, and Charlie feels sick to his stomach. This isn’t fair. None of this is fair.
Nick sinks to the ground slowly, back pressed against the wall and buries his face in his knees. Charlie sits beside him and leans his head on his shoulder. He can’t think of much to say to comfort him, but tries anyway.
“It’ll be okay,” He says, “We’ll figure it out.”
He really hopes that is true.
**
Isaac was enjoying his time on the rooftop reading, until the screams from the school became too distracting to ignore. He almost wishes he’d gone to his RE class, instead of skipping to read his own book, which would probably teach him more about different religions worldwide rather than his class which seemed to focus primarily on protestant versus catholic. Alas, his curiosity doesn’t get the better of him instead choosing to believe that whatever is going on will surely get updated to him by one of the others after school.
He drops his book when he watches a student fall out of a window, and then get up and keep running. There’s a group of students outside running, and there’s someone – or something, his brain unhelpfully supplies – chasing them. And suddenly, his fear for his friends increases tenfold.
He pulls out his phone, switching it from do not disturb and watches as the notifications from Tao pour in.
New message: PARIS SQUAD WHOOOO
@isaac_irl: I’m on the roof of the pe block what is happening?
@isaac_irl: Why are people screaming
@Isaac_irl: Why did I just watch someone get eaten???
@Isaac_irl: I’m coming to find you guys, please be safe.
He makes it down the ladder and around the corner before someone runs at him. He gets a glimpse of bloody clothes, blood red eyes, and hears an inhuman groan before turning and running. The creature follows him as he enters the PE block and as he turns the corner, it’s right on his tail and the smell of blood and something he doesn’t recognise but thinks might be death itself almost makes him gag.
The supply closet is open, and he throws himself in, slamming the door shut but the creature had caught up, throwing its arm through the door before he could close it properly. There’s a bloody bite mark on the arm, and the once perfectly trimmed nails are broken and bloody.
Isaac shudders, resisting the urge to run away from the door and hide, and instead uses his body weight to keep it shut, glancing around for something he could use as a weapon.
The javelins are strapped to the far walls, he knows the ends of those are spikey enough to kill someone, but grabbing one means leaving the door and there’s other groans in the corridor. He could maybe fight one of them, but more than that and he’s definitely screwed. Instead, he pushes against the door, hard enough for it to break the flesh of the creature and drip thick, almost black, blood onto the ground.
Alright, he tells himself, push again. And he gathers all his remaining strength to push back as hard as he can.
There’s a disgusting squelch as the door breaks through flesh, and an even worse crunch as the bone snaps, and then the door is closing behind him and he races around to lock it.
He takes a few steps back and hears the door bang. The lock jumps as the creature pounds on it, and for a horrible few seconds he thinks it might not be enough to keep it out.
And then a door opens down the corridor, and voices drift down and the creature groans, moves away, and then there’s pounding footsteps as more join it. There’s screaming down the hallway, followed by crying. Someone shouts, but Isaac can’t tell if he knows them. He isn’t sure he wants to know.
There’s more screaming and if he listens closely Isaac can hear the flesh squelching. He wonders whether by running in here, he just doomed a whole class of people, but the screaming fades and he chooses to believe they made it outside.
He walks backwards, grabs the javelin, and settles down.
Help will come eventually, he’s sure of it.
**
Five minutes pass before Tao gets bored and starts pacing around. He tells the others he’s looking for anything that could be useful, but Charlie can tell he is just anxious and needs something to do.
He’s not going to stop him; he’s too concerned about listening to Nick’s heartbeat to really care what anyone else does.
He’s almost certain that by this point, if Nick was going to become one of the zombies, he would have by now. But Nick is still insistent on waiting by the rooftop edge. He asks again for Charlie to move over there and sit with the others, but Charlie would rather be bitten and turn than leave Nick at a time like this. He knows, if the roles were reversed, Nick would do the same.
His mother once called him loyal to a fault, and Charlie can see why now. But he doesn’t particularly care.
It’s only when Tao asks what book Isaac was reading at lunch, that Charlie really starts to think of anything else.
“Something about religion and science,” Tara supplies, “Why?”
“Was it The Atheist’s Guide to Reality, by any chance?” Tao asks again, he’s walked to the little alcove behind the doors leading to the inside rooftop access point and is stood staring at something just out of site.
“I think so?” Charlie says, “Why?”
Tao doesn’t say anything, just points at a spot on the ground.
Charlie and Nick share a single glance before both of them push off the wall and stand up.
When the round the corner, it becomes obvious what Tao was pointing at. The book lays face down and open on the ground, discarded in a rush, it’s owner nowhere to be found.
Charlie feels his stomach drop, “What if he went back in?”
Tao’s mouth tightens into a thin line.
He opens his mouth to speak when something makes him jump. “Fuck, oh my god, I’d forgotten I had this.”
He reaches into his blazer pocket and pulls out his phone, the screen is lit up with a notification.
Simultaneously, everyone else remembers theirs too.
“Oh shit, we can call for help!” Charlie exclaims, before reading the notifications he has.
The others seem to reach the same conclusion as their phones buzz again.
New message: PARIS SQUAD WHOOOO
@Isaac_irl: I am trapped in the PE supply closet with a zombie hand and a javelin send help
@Isaac_irl sent a video
[alt text: the video is of a severed hand twitching on the floor, Isaac can be heard muttering faintly and distant groans sound through the door]
@tao_xu: we literally just found your book on the roof
@tao_xu: we’re all okay, except Nick who got scratched but he hasn’t turned yet so we think he’s okay
@Isaac_irl: oh thank god
@Isaac_irl: I’m okay other than the severed hand freaking me the fuck out
@nick_nzzzz: stab it idk
@charlie._.spr1: good idea try stabbing it
@darcy_the_egg: yes yes stab it
@Isaac_irl: I am not going to stab the hand
@Isaac_irl: nvm it moved and I stabbed it
@Isaac_irl: didn’t work now my javelin is bloody and the hand is still moving
@tao_xu: damn wtaf is going on
@elle_universerocks: can you get out? We’re on the roof, the outside is blocked but the inside entrance sounds clear
@Isaac_irl: I can hear them in the distance, but I also don’t know where to go
@Isaac_irl: is it down the weird corridor next to Mrs Singh’s office
@nick_nzzz: yea, there’s some stairs at the end its right up there
@Isaac_irl: okay I’m making a run for it see you guys soon!
“Maybe he would be safer in the closet.” Nick says, glancing down at the growing crowd of zombies around the base of the building.
“Nick, honey, nobody is safer in the closet. Especially not the PE one.” Darcy jokes, her tone stilted slightly by nerves. “Besides, it would be nice to have everyone here if we’re going to die.”
“We are not going to die.” Tao insists, phone held up to his ear. “Ugh, never mind, I can’t get through to 999 so we might die.”
“Does that mean this is happening everywhere?” Tara stands, staring out over the fence and into the field opposite the school.
In the distance, a car alarm sounds and sirens can he heard racing through the town.
“I hope not.” Charlie mutters, kicking a rock.
“That girl,” Nick’s eyes are wide and fearful as he talks, “From this morning.”
“God,” Elle laughs, “That feels like a lifetime ago.”
“No,” Nick continues, “She was taken to hospital, right? What if she was the first? What if she spread it out of this school?”
“We don’t know how she got it though, she might have been infected from someone else.”
Charlie leans back against the roof, staring at the sky. “This has been the worst school day, ever.”
“Agreed.” Nick says, lying back next to him. He reaches a hand out to hold Charlie’s, and squeezes gently.
There’s banging in the distance, approaching slowly. It takes everyone a second to realise it is probably Isaac running up the metal stairs indoors. Elle runs to the door, tries it once.
“It’s locked!” She shouts, jiggling the handles again.
“Guys, open the door, they’re after me!” Isaac’s voice sounds from the stairs, and everyone jumps up panicked.
Darcy snatches a hair grip out of their hair, “Move,” They shout, “I got this.”
It takes them twenty seconds of fiddling with the grip, before the lock twists and they yank the door open.
Isaac is just rounding the corner, when it opens, and he dashes through the open door and slams it shut behind him. The groaning gets louder for a second until there’s banging against the door and it shakes with every hit.
Darcy kneels down again, pushing the grip in and twisting until the lock clicks back into place. They all lean back with a sigh, watching the door shake as each undead hand bangs against it.
It takes a few moments, before it fades, but eventually the undead must get bored and leave in search of new targets. They all breathe a deep sigh of relief, before the group is pouncing on Isaac.
The group hug feels nice, it’s a reminder that they’re all safe. That they made it out, when so many of their friends and peers didn’t. And, if one of two of them cry, well, that’s nobody else’s business is it.
**
It takes a few hours of sitting on the rooftop before it starts to get cold, the sky isn’t darkening yet (thank God for summer), but this is only England and even at the best of times, the weather gets cold.
And so, after a reasonable amount of arguing and several moments of struggle before Darcy pulled out a lighter, they have a small fire. A collection of wood leftover from service repairs and random broken garbage is used as the base, and it is enough to build a campfire big enough to sit around and relax.
As it gets cooler, they huddle closer together around it. The groans have mostly faded away now, but the crowd of zombies gathered on the school fields are enough to keep them where they are currently.
“So, why did you have a lighter, Darcy?” Nick asks, breaking the calm silence that had settled over them.
“I steal cigarettes from my older sister sometimes, they help when I’m feeling stressed.” They confess.
Tara sits up and turns around to glare at Darcy, “You never told me that.”
“I didn’t want anyone to know, but it feels stupid to keep secrets like that now.” Darcy shrugs.
“What does smoking feel like?” Charlie asks, twisting his injured ankle to test how it’s doing.
“I can show you, if you’d like?” They offer, reaching into their blazer pocket and pulling out a packet of cigarettes, “I bring them to school because I don’t want my mum or sister to find them.”
Nick reaches a hand up to gently slap the back of Charlie’s head, “Smoking is bad for you, idiot.”
“So is getting eaten by zombies.” Charlie counters, and Nick doesn’t really have a good argument for that so he just shrugs, content to let Charlie have the win.
Darcy pulls out the lighter again and a single cigarette, she puts in in her mouth to light it, and inhales the smoke, breathing it out slowly a second later.
She holds it out to Tao on her right, who just grimaces and passes it to Elle, who takes a breath and breathes out the smoke a second later. She looks slightly disgusted but shrugs and passes it to Isaac who immediately passes it to Charlie.
“What do I do with it?” He asks, almost embarrassed.
“Just hold it in your mouth, breath in, and then breathe out. Don’t breathe too much in though or you’ll make yourself cough.”
Charlie holds it up, takes a drag, and immediately coughs it out. “God, that’s awful.”
Darcy shrugs, “My sister gets the cheap shit I guess.”
Charlie holds it out to Nick, who stares at it for a second, before shrugging and taking a drag. He doesn’t cough it out, but he does pull a slightly grossed out face at the cloud of smoke he exhales.
Nick passes it to Tara, who passes it back to Darcy. Darcy stubs it out on the rooftop and slides the half-finished cigarette back into the packet.
There’s silence for a few more minutes, Charlie goes back to stretching his ankle. It’s only when he winces and gasps slightly that the others pick up on it.
“Did you hurt yourself?” Nick asks, his face making that soft puppy expression reserved only for Charlie.
“No.” Charlie denies.
“Bullshit,” Tao counters, “Let us see your ankle.”
After a moment of protest, and then realising nobody will give up on this, Charlie takes his shoe and sock off. The ankle is actually worse than he expected, it’s swollen and bruised and as he runs a finger over the worst of the swelling, a sharp pain stabs through it.
“Ouch, when did that happen?” Nick asks, he shifts to kneel next to Charlie’s foot, and gently moves it, noting how much pain it causes. His hands are soft, and at any other time Charlie would be relishing in Nick touching him.
“When we were running, I slipped on a pool of blood and it hurt but I didn’t get chance to stop and actually think about it until now.”
“It’s definitely sprained, but I don’t really know if there’s much we can do for it from here.” Nick looks genuinely sorry, and Charlie feels his heart melt with affection.
“It’s okay, I figured as much. That’s why I didn’t say anything.” Charlie moves it slightly again and winces.
“Just keep it rested and try not to run on it.” Isaac suggests.
“Gee thanks, I’ll just tell the zombies to slow down so I can hop away from them rather than running.” Charlie grins so they all know his comment wasn’t serious, and it causes a round of giggles to ricochet through the group.
“Alright,” Tao says when they’ve all calmed down, “Anyone else hiding any weird secrets?”
“I think I killed our maths teacher?” Nick suggests, and the smiles drop from a few faces around the group.
“Okay,” Tao laughs nervously, “I don’t want to hear anymore secrets.”
“I mean, he did do it to save my life,” Elle smiles softly at Nick, “So thanks for that.”
Nick nods back, and when he settles back down again, there’s a layer of tension gone from his body.
“I cheated on our history exam this morning,” Elle shrugs, “Not that I really think it matters anymore anyway.”
“What? But you’re good at history?” Tao exclaims, “You’re good at everything?”
“Yeah, but I wanted to make sure I got it right, it was only one date I wrote on the underside of my wrist,” Elle smiles sheepishly, “It didn’t even come up anyway so it was pointless.”
There’s silence for a few more moments, the sun is just starting to set and the sky is turning into a soft pink behind the school.
“We better get one hell of a grade boost after this,” Nick laughs, “I’m not ready to fail my GCSEs because some people got a bit hungry.”
They laugh, before the reality of the situation settles back in.
“Have any of you guys heard from your family? Or anyone else out there?” Tara asks, her voice quiet and vulnerable.
A chorus of no echoes back at her, and the group fall silent again. Tao pulls out his phone and taps the screen to wake it.
“Oh shit, I don’t even have signal anymore.” He holds his phone up, waiting for the little bars to appear in the top but nothing changes.
As it turns out, nobody else does either.
“Maybe they shut off the cell towers?” Isaac suggests, “They did that in a TV show my parents were watching last weekend, to stop the spread of misinformation or something.”
Everyone seems to mumble in agreement.
“God,” Charlie leans back again, resting his head on Nick’s thigh, “I never thought I’d say this but I’m so hungry.”
Nick chuckles weakly, well aware of Charlie’s struggles with eating and starts running his hand through the tangle of brown curls.
“I would die for some of those cookies you bake, Elle.” Tao groans, resting a hand on his stomach.
“Ugh don’t, I would also die for some of my mum’s homemade sweet and sour chicken.” Darcy flicks their wrist up, throwing their hair grip up and catching it again.
“I would kill you all for an apple right now.” Elle throws another stick of wood into the campfire.
Tara sighs deeply, “Can we stop taking about food before I actually just cry.”
The group settles in further, content to just relax in each other’s presence. There’s a strange atmosphere, where they’re all relaxed but the gravity of the situation is weighing on them deeply and everyone is lost in their own separate train of thought.
Tao, Elle, Darcy, Isaac, and Tara are all thinking about their family and friends outside of the school. They have no idea how anyone else is doing, and all they can do is hope for the best and hope this will be fixed soon enough and everything can return to normal, whatever that is.
Nick is thinking about the scratch marks on his ankle, he is too scared to say this out loud, but they itch and burn in a way he isn’t used to and his whole body feels both too-hot and too-cold. He’s thinking about the possibility of him turning over night and hurting one of his friends. He decides he’d rather throw himself into the hungry hoard below than cause harm to any of them.
Charlie is thinking about hope. He read somewhere once that while hope is humanities greatest blessing, it’s also their biggest torture. If this goes on for days (or weeks, or even months) he wonders how much they will all get tortured by their sense of hope. How many more people can they lose before it breaks completely? He hopes he never finds out.
The first star is visible in the sky. The North Star, his dad had told him once. It’s the brightest one in the sky, you’ll never be lost if you can find it.
Charlie hopes that somewhere, somehow, his family are looking at the same star.
It’ll be okay, he tells himself.
And as he looks around at the group, he starts to believe it.