Chapter 6:
The whole hospital was in fear and chaos.
Everyone ran to look for the safest hide when they saw the beastifying girl running out of the hospital.
"Maddy! Stop!!!" Tate roared as he ran behind her, ignoring the pain in his injured leg.
"Security, lock the gates!" Ray shouted beside Tate.
The two security men at the gate immediately moved in alert to close the gates when they saw Maddy running towards them with speed.
But it seemed as if Maddy heard her friends screaming behind her because she increased her speed in the next second.
"Argh!!! She's turning into a monster!!!" A girl screamed from the side amidst the groups of students who had gathered to see what was happening.
The whole school was already turned upside down from the time they returned from the woods, and words had spread like wildfire that Maddy was turning into a beast.
Now, this was happening, and everyone was scared for their lives. Some students still claimed to be brave by making a video record of Maddy and her friends, but the majority of them were scared and were hiding to save their dear lives.
Students were running here and there, and they made it hard for Tate and Ray to navigate their way to Maddy on time.
"Graaa!" Maddy pushed a boy down and pinned him on the floor.
"Argh! No! Get off me! Get off me!" She was about to take a chunk out of the boy, but Tate shouted for her to stop.
"Maddy, don't!" He screamed and tried his best to reach her faster.
Maddy growled aggressively and turned her head behind her. She saw that Tate and Ray were getting closer to her, so she abandoned the boy and sprang up, continuing her speedy journey toward the now-guarded gates.
"Stand down!" One of the guards ordered in a loud voice, pointing his gun at Maddy.
Maddy growled in response, not reducing her speed as she unexpectedly leaped on her feet and landed a hard kick on the guard's head, knocking him out cold.
The other guard saw what had happened to his colleague, and immediately, he pointed his gun at Maddy, ready to shoot.
But before he could press the trigger, Maddy appeared in his face and growled loudly, causing him to lose his gut and run away.
"Fuck, she can't get out of the gates," Tate breathed heavily.
At that moment, as he stared at Maddy, she smartly kicked open the gate and ran out of the school compound; he wished their school wasn't so big.
They were still halfway to the gate. Meanwhile, Maddy was already out of the gate due to her improving speed.
Tate and Ray hurried as they saw that Maddy had escaped. They needed to stop her before she went far away from the school's premises.
Their school was quite far from the city, and not many people walked past that area. It was rare to see anyone around their school, except some residents who lived nearby.
But, if Maddy managed to reach the busy city, then that's where their problem would arise from.
"Argh!" A woman screamed from outside the gates, and the moment Tate and Ray heard the scream, they immediately knew what had happened.
"No, no, no, Maddy, what have you done?!" Ray asked loudly.
They finally ran out of the gates and freaked out when they saw Maddy sinking her teeth into a woman's neck.
"Fuck!" Tate didn't waste a second nor had a double mind about Maddy, all he thought about was that he needed to get Maddy off that woman.
He looked around and saw a baseball bat lying beside a shrub, and he immediately limped over there and picked it up.
"Ray! Catch!" He shouted.
Ray immediately turned to him and saw him throwing a heavy bat at him. He instinctively positioned himself and caught the baseball hat, and without wasting a second, he ran toward Maddy and raised the baseball bat really high above his head, then sharply lowered it to the back of Maddy's head.
Maddy snarled angrily and turned to face her attacker, but before she could fully see who it was, the baseball bat hit her strongly on the side of her head, and with one strained snarl, she fell limp to the floor.
"Oh my God! This monster bit me!" The woman quickly stood up and shifted away from Maddy, staring at her with fear in her eyes and holding her hand against her bleeding neck.
Tate slowly went to move close to the woman to apologize, but the woman quickly picked up her handbag, which had fallen to the ground when Maddy had attacked her, and flung it in front of her as a weapon.
"Stay away from me!" She shouted, her voice shaking.
Tate raised his hand in the air in surrender to show the woman that he meant her no harm.
"No, please, I mean no harm, please, follow us into the school, we have medical professionals who would immediately tend to your wound," Tate pleaded, trying to get closer to her.
But the woman was stubborn, she moved far away from Tate and shouted. "Stay away from me! All of you! I always knew this school used children for experiments, stay away! I'm going to report to the police! And don't try to stop me!" She pointed from Tate to Ray and quickly ran off.
Tate sighed and limped over to Maddy, who was lying on the floor; her beastly features seemed to be receding, and her color seemed to be returning to her skin.
"What's really happening?" Ray whispered as he stared at Maddy's unconscious form.
"I don't know. But whatever it is, it's not good," Tate replied.
"Yeah, can you help with lifting her?" Ray asked, leaning over to hold Maddy's arm.
"Hey, back up, who are those?" Tate tapped Ray's shoulders and asked him to look up.
Ray immediately stood and looked ahead, squinting his eyes as bright headlights emerged in front of them.
In the next second, they were surrounded by black-tinted cars, closing every space that could have escaped from if they wanted.
"What now?" Ray muttered.
Tate carefully observed, and it wasn't long before he recognized one of the cars, the car had visited their school many times, and he could identify it even with his eyes closed.
"It's the president," Tate replied quietly.
Ray frowned, "What is he suddenly doing here?" He whispered as men in black suits got down from the car, their earpieces signifying that they were bodyguards.
One of the bodyguards walked toward another black car and gently opened the door.
Before someone stepped out of the car, a loud announcement was made from the loudspeaker of one of the cars.
"Culprits should please remain in their position; I repeat, Culprits should please remain in their positions; failure to adhere to this instruction shall lead to immediate termination," The announcement ended briefly, and a middle-aged man stepped out of the car that was opened by the bodyguard.
"Shit, the president, he is really here," Ray could not help but whisper to Tate.
Tate nodded discreetly, "The boy Maddy had pushed down in front of the school was Cole," Tate provided.
"Damn, Cole Burrington? The president's son? Shit," Ray cursed.
Would their situation ever get better from here on?
They had just wanted to do a group project and get a good mark on it, but look how they turned out, from being chased by a zombie, to one of them getting bitten, then chased by a wolf, they proceeded to witness Maddy's horrendous changes, and now, they'd landed themselves in trouble with the president.
This was no joke.
The president stood in front of his bodyguards and stared at the three friends for a while, his white suit a bright contrast to the darkening night.
He gave a sign to the men beside him and three of his men walked toward the three friends.
"Step away from the virus-infected person, young men," One tall and muscular bodyguard said to them as they approached them.
They hesitated, "What are you going to do to her? Are you planning to take her away?" Tate questioned bravely.
"She isn't guilty of any crime; she was just unconscious of her actions, and we apologize on her behalf," Ray added.
The bodyguards looked back at the president and made way for him to walk toward the young guys.
"Mr. Tate, we're not here to hurt any of you. We're here to help you, or don't you want your girlfriend to be cured of the unknown virus?" The president gently placed his hand on Tate's shoulder and asked him calmly.
Tate was surprised that the president knew his name and what he had told him made his mind relax a little bit.
If anyone should have a cure for Maddy's condition, then it should be the government.
It was good as they were stepping into the matter at this early stage, not when things had gotten out of hand.
"Sorry, Mr. President, we appreciate your concern," Tate replied and stepped back from Maddy.
Ray followed suit. He heard what the president had said, and he agreed with the idea. A solution to the problem was the only thing they needed at that moment.
One of the bodyguards immediately lifted Maddy off the ground and carried her bridestyle into the school gates.
"Please, Call me, Mr. Burrington," The president tapped Tate's shoulder and walked ahead.
"Walk with me boys," He said as he moved toward the gate.
Tate and Ray exchanged a look and slowly started to walk toward the gate.
Due to Tate's injured leg, Ray was supporting him as they walked back into the school compound; they could feel the two guards on each of their sides as if they were guarding them in case they wanted to make a run for it.
Most of the bodyguards stood outside, safeguarding the perimeters while some of them followed them inside the school to guard wherever needed to be guarded.
As they walked back toward the hospital, the students were all outside, and a huge crowd formed in front of the hospital.
Tate didn't understand if it was because of the president or because of Maddy's condition.
But whatever it was, he was glad that the president's guards were with them, clearing the way for them easily without being dragged or questioned.
"Mr. President! Save our school! We're all going to die!" One female student screamed from within the crowd, and immediately, the other students started throwing in words that all pointed to how desperate they were for survival.
They finally got into the hospital, and some of the guards stood in front of the closed hospital door, guarding from the desperate students.
"Mr. President, welcome to our school," Ama was the one who quickly ran up to the president, smiling at him warmly as if she hadn't been scared out of her mind a few minutes ago.
"Ama, where's the doctor?" The president asked directly, not buying into her calm and happy demeanor.
Ama gulped and looked around. They had agreed to keep everything low so that the government wouldn't find out and ended up closing up the school, but right now, she knew that it was useless hiding it.
She knew his son, Cole, had been the one who called him because she was the nurse who was treating his grazed knee when he called his father and reported to him about the incident that had happened in their school.
Cole wasn't to blame, he did what any normal teenager who was scared would do, calling a parent.
"Right this way, Mr. President," Ama nodded and led him into the emergency room.
Tate and Ray followed the president behind, and when they reached, they discovered that all the doctors in the hospital were all gathered around Maddy who had been laid down on her bed and straps had been put on her hands and legs, a caution for just in case she decided to go for a little run later.
"Mr. President," Dr. Nix raised her face from Maddy's bed and quickly walked toward the president.
"Welcome, Mr. President, and I'd want to apologize for any trouble the school might have caused," She spoke diplomatically.
The president slowly nodded, but he kept his eyes locked on Maddy.
Tate could feel the tension in the air, he knew that the president was already forming an opinion about everyone in the school.
Tate watched as the president slowly
removed his eyes from Maddy and looked Dr. Nix in the eyes.
"What's the solution to the Zombie Virus, Doctor?" The president asked.
The president's question rang throughout the quiet emergency room, it was the question in everyone's mind, and they were all eager to hear what Dr. Nix had to say to him.