[11:49 a.m.]
No one's talking anymore.
We sit in a classroom that used to hold 40 students.
Now there are maybe 13.
Some curled up. Some silent. Some still staring at the corpse in the corner.
Lin's tying cloth to her knuckles like she's preparing for war.
Palm hasn't let go of my hand since… the attack.
And Kao hasn't blinked in five minutes.
"Main gate," Lin says. "If there's still electricity, the code should work. That's our best shot."
No one disagrees.
Because the silence in this school is worse than the screams now.
[12:03 p.m.]
We move in a pack.
Corridor lights flicker. A balloon bounces across the floor, dragging its string like a ghost.
Palm whispers, "Feels like a haunted house."
I reply, "Worse. At least haunted houses end."
Kao suddenly stops walking.
"What?" I ask her.
She doesn't respond. Just looks ahead.
And then I hear it.
[12:05 p.m.]
A sound like someone… humming.
But off.
Like a lullaby sung through broken glass.
We round the corridor—
—and see a girl.
Alone. Standing near the gate.
Wearing a junior uniform. Hair neat.
She's smiling. Her lips are split at the corners, like they've been cut too wide.
She's the one humming.
[12:06 p.m.]
Palm steps forward, but Lin grabs his shirt.
"Don't. Move."
The girl tilts her head.
And then she screams.
It's not a human scream.
It's like a siren.
Piercing, vibrating through your ribs.
I drop to my knees. My ears are bleeding.
Kao's the only one still standing.
And then—
From every hallway, every crack, zombies start pouring in.
Her scream brought them.
[12:07 p.m.]
"Ahhhh!!! Why is she screaming?" Lin yells.
It lunges forward with inhuman speed, mouth wide, eyes dead.
Palm grabs a fallen signboard and swings. Lin tackles it midair. Screeching. Nails clawing.
I try to move—legs numb. My brain is screaming louder than she is.
Then I feel hands pulling me up.
Kao.
She leans in close, whispering calmly:
"Close your ears and kill that throat."
[12:08 p.m.]
Lin pins the Screamer. Palm wraps a jacket around its head.
I swing a metal pole — straight into her neck.
She gargles.
Blood sprays like a broken sprinkler.
And the scream stops.
The hallway falls silent.
But not peaceful.
Behind the gate…
hundreds of zombies… now looking straight at us.