Chloe Chen. She should have graduated last year but failed some classes after getting mono. We worked together on a project in an algorithms analysis class when I was a freshman. Short shorts over leggings and cute grey hair with gray highlights. I see her dog pop up on my Snapchat feed every now and then.
Don't really have a strong impression of her but she wouldn't have gotten my vote for "Most likely to murder a dude when he tries to bite someone." Really stellar job though, I can't see Kevin coming back from that one.
Oh.
Nevermind.
He getting back up now.
On the floor Kevin's husk was struggling to perform a crude mockery of a push up. Next to me Chloe was clutching her laptop with hesitation. I can understand, they cost a small fortune and "used as a murder weapon" is most definitely not covered by the school insurance. I also assume she has some semblance of a conscious and feels bad about hurting Kevin. Although he wasn't all there right now he too is a human with dreams and a-
*Shplaat*
...goodbye Kevin's dreams..
The tangy iron scent of Kevin's blood stung my nose as it leaked out of his cracked skull. Screams filled the classroom as students panicked to escape what used to be their classmates. Not many of the husks had drawn blood and if you didn't know what had happened it would seem more like a couple people had gotten severe nosebleeds as opposed to the room having been the site of a mass cannibalism episode.
A large crowd was streaming into the halls from the one common door. There were still a few people in the classroom including... one... two... three... four... ten? Ten husks? Minus Kevin makes nine. Right now the husks seem a bit disoriented. Just like with Kevi's pathetic pushup from earlier, the other husks seemed unable to properly use their bodies and we unable to follow the escaping crowd. Didn't stop them from trying however as every one of them still in the room was trying their best to crawl towards people with, I assume, a heartbeat..
*Hhhkk*
Beside me, Chloe's breathing became restricted as her body started twitching.
"Chloe?" I asked tentatively, "You doing okay?"
In response her eyes rolled back into her head.
"That looks fun but, uhhhh those husks are coming over here so you might want to wrap that up."
Chloe collapsed to the ground her mouth frothing as a guttural sound came from somewhere deep inside her. From a few desks down, a lanky girl staggered towards us, her steps shifting from a shamble to a walk as she closed in on us.
"Chloe? Seriously please get up now. Chloe? Chloe please!" I vigorously shook light back into her dead eyes.
"Urgh..." Chloe clutched her head as she sat up. Fist clenched against the hard metal of the laptop as she lifted it and swung down at the new threat
A brave smile filled her face. "Stand back." She commanded.
The husk which had just relearned how to walk found a dented hunk of metal lodged into her skull. Chloe then got to work murdering the remaining husks in the room.
Her name was... Janice? Alice maybe? The one that Chloe just killed. We shared a dorm freshman year. Its sad but the only thing I can remember about her is that she had a near constant ear infection the second semester of that year.
Next was Bryce. Accused of sexual assault in his second year but the girl was expelled instead of him. I always hated him for that. Really shitty.
Next up is Gerry? Paul? It was a dad name. I should remember since we were roommates for like a third of a semester.
After that is one of the many Will's in the Computer Science department. Then Alan who's doing a double major. Then Solomon who I tutored in PLC. Then Haeley, then Delvin, then Amy.
I didn't know any of them. Not really. Maybe I should have gotten to know them.
I guess it doesn't matter now.
Still. Seeing so many people die like this...
"Damn, I'm so close! One more should do it!"
I looked up at Chloe whose pretty grey hair now had bloody red highlights. The laptop in her hand twisted and useless. Excitement filled her face, as if she hadn't just killed several people. Or she had enjoyed it. Even if they were already dead, shouldn't she feel something? I guess you never know people huh.
As she walked out of the room I sunk to my knees.
The classroom that notten minutes ago had been filled with screams was now deathly quiet. Literally. I was the only living person in a room full of corpses.
"What now?" I whispered.
...
...
...
"Hey, Tali wasn't it?" Chloe's head popped back into the room, "Are you coming or what? Without me around you're bound to die."
"Yeah, coming." I stood up and grabbed my bag, quickly stuffing my own precious laptop into it. Outside the door Chloe waited for me to pull on my coat.
Outside the classroom was a corpse. One was clearly Chloe's handiwork. A nice cracked skull. Next to it desperately trying to stop the bleeding was a boy missing the flesh between his thumb and his fingers. Using some context clues I think it's safe to assume a husk bit him.
"Alright you two, let's get out of here and head to my dorm we need to prepare for night." Chloe said assuming the role of the leader. "First we grab any food we can scavenge and then we see if we can find some makeshift weapons. Somebody has to have a crowbar or something in their room. Also, on the way there I'll deal with the zombies but you'll each have to kill at least one." She beamed, clearly proud of her plan.
The other student looked skeptical but neither of us protested.
"I have a crowbar?" He offered when her eager gaze didn't falter.
"That's the spirit Sasha now let's get going!" She did an about face before marching us down the hall.
The building was cleared out considerably but you could still see people here and there. A girl crying in the stairwell. Two guys in a fist fight next to the vending machines. A tall dude pacing in a classroom his face covered in bloody hand prints.
There were husks too. Most of them were behind closed doors. Chloe ignored them and she was probably right to. Although in the beginning they were slow and clumsy, now their movements were hardly distinguishable from humans.
Chloe dealt with a couple that tried to attack us but not a single one was able to overpower her. She was a human dynamo knocking husks to the floor, even ones with a foot of height on her, before splattering their brains.
Stepping outside my nose twitched in response to the brisk winter wind that ran over it. It was overcast and although it hadn't snowed yet this winter it was more than cold enough that it should have by now.
Above us was the almost comical sight of a plane in free fall. It looked like a bad physics engine as it floated down from the sky directly into the Math department with an earth shattering rumble.
*CRRRRGRHGHG*
The old brick and mortar building near totally collapsed as twisted metal and rocks were strewn across the quad between the academic buildings.
How many people had been killed in the crash? It was a big plane. International maybe? Dozens dead? Hundreds? How many would have survived that in the building?
*PSHWRRRR*
A wave of heat dispelled the previous cold we felt as a fireball ripped through the plane.
I think the number of survivors may have just gone down.
"Come on this is a great opportunity!" Chloe cried out excitedly after the dust settled, running towards the wreck. Me and Sasha had no real choice but to follow.
Although Chloe was strong she wasn't very fast and before I knew it was was ahead of her entering the wreck. I pushed through the doors of the crumbling building scrambling through burning wreckage.
Smoke stung my eyes as I moved through the building. The math halls had previously been filled with posters of stuff like fractals that were now charred black. Tears blurred my vision upon seeing the burning victims. Some of them weren't dead but I wish they were. Skin melted off flesh as faces filled with agony were unable to let out screams from their scorched lungs. Nothing is where is should be. Shriveled grapes where there should be eyes. Guts not in the correct location at all and crooked limbs.
I left. I had to. I couldn't help. I couldn't watch.
Sasha was patting my back as I puked. The crisp air filling my lungs mixed with the bile that had found its way onto the grass and the smoke streaming out of the building.
The plane had snapped in half with the top stuck through the building at a sharp angle and the back end lying on the ground outside in a crumpled heap. The top had blown off then collapsed inwards and all that remained where corpses still strapped to their seats and burning luggage.
*thump*
I lifted my head struggling to hear over the crackle of the flames.
*thump*
There it was again, I definitely heard something.
*thump*
*thump*
Towards the area where the plane split in half and a few meters in I could hear a faint thumping. Waving away Sasha who tried to stop me I started walking towards the plane.
In front of me was the door to one of the bathrooms with the little green vacant sign flicked halfway to occupied. Inside someone was throwing themselves against the door causing it to bulge open slightly. Unluckily for them there was a heap of red hot metal in front of it.
"Hold on!" I croaked through the smoke, "I'm going to get you out of there!"
Grabbing the metal to move it only burned my hands tearing off a layer of skin and putting red welts on what was left.. I took off my coat as the smoke clogged my lungs and tried again using it to shield my hands as I pried away at the pieces of metal in the way of the door.
It felt like I was being cooked alive between the hot metal causing the coat to smolder and the burning plane that was roasting me. As time went on the thumps from the other side of the door were getting fainter and fainter. I struggled in vain to get rid of the metal as blisters started to form all over my body.
Just when I was about to lose all hope a figure came up behind me.
Startled I whipped myself around, finding myself staring into a deep purple pair of eyes.
I'd never seen those eyes so close to me before. Those eyes which had followed me around for three years ever since I first saw them on my way back from Christmas break freshman year. Always flitting from the corners of my vision and never allowing me to get a good look at them. Those eyes were now towering above me attached to a hulking body. Each eye was the size of a peach and attached to a head with a grey hood extending around it shaped like the ace of spades. The creature had a barrel like torso with two spindly arms coming off of it. It seemed to be wearing some kind of metal suit which ended in something like a skirt.
It stared at me briefly before reaching down with its stick thin arms and directly lifting the whole pile of debris blocking the door and throwing it further into the plane. It then slashed at the door shattering the lock allowing me to open it.
I went into the bathroom and helped the barely conscious man out from the small smoke filled room. When I got out the creature was gone. Deciding not to think about it for now I escaped from the heat of the plane
When we got outside I collapsed onto the ground letting the cold frosty grass comfort my heat assaulted body. Tears flowed from eyes both from the smoke and the emotional trauma of today.
"I don't want to!" Sasha pleaded arguing with Chloe.
"Just kill the stupid zombie Sasha! Be a man and just do it." Chloe was yelling at him. Turning my head I saw a burned husk with broken legs. Chloe was next to it holding a sharp piece of twisted metal nearly her height.
"If you can't do this your better off just dying." She said, "Look at this." She pointed to her back at something I couldn't see.
"What does that even mean?! How is your tattoo supposed to convince me of anything? I'm not killing it, it used to be a person!" Sasha protested.
"Listen! You want to survive? Then take this and drive it into the zombie's head. If you can't stomach it then just jump into the flames. At least Nati has guts and saved someone from the fire! You're completely spineless. You want to know what this tattoo means you gotta kill a zombie first."
Chloe finished her little speech and handed Sasha the large metal spike she was holding.
"Can't I just-"
"Did you see how many I killed? At least twenty. If you can just kill this one then you can be like me." She said switching from the stick to the carrot, coaxing Sasha into it. "C'mon Sasha, what if you need to protect Liz?"
Those words pushed Sasha past his indecision. He looked down at the crude spear in his hands for a few seconds then drove the spike into the husks head.