Chapter 5
Hours passed, the darkness deepening, before they finally gave in to exhaustion. The screams and pleas for help from various parts of the campus continued, a constant, unsettling soundtrack to their vigil. The boys took turns guarding the door while the girls huddled together on the other side of the room, trying to sleep.
Edgar slapped a male classmate who was staring at the girls' legs.
"I'll gouge your eyes out," Edgar muttered. The boy sheepishly scratched his head, claiming he couldn't help himself.
When the girls woke, they found themselves surrounded by overturned desks, coats, and bags—a makeshift barricade constructed by the boys during the night. Grace removed a coat draped over her legs and a bag from beside her; Joaquin's belongings.
One by one, the girls woke, finding the boys still by the door, eyelids drooping with sleep, except for Edgar, who was intently watching the infected outside.
"This is bad," Edgar murmured, rising from the desk. He quietly kicked Joaquin, who was sprawled on the floor, leaning against the desk.
"What the hell, Espinosa? The guy's sleeping, you jerk—aww!"
Edgar smacked Joaquin on the head with a piece of cardboard and climbed down from the desk.
"I heard gunshots around 2 a.m., and then they suddenly stopped," Edgar said. Joaquin sat up, startled.
"Help arrived?" Joaquin asked, his mind suddenly alert. The others woke as well, excited at the prospect of going home, but—
"I haven't heard anything since then," Edgar replied. Everyone fell silent. Dexter nervously chuckled.
"Maybe they're on their way up, or calling for backup since there are so many infected here," Dexter suggested. Edgar didn't respond, picking up the baseball bat resting on the desk.
"Let's go down," Edgar declared. Philip immediately objected.
"We should wait for help, and—"
Edgar looked at him, implying that anyone who wanted to stay could.
"I'm thinking about the worst-case scenario if we stay here," Edgar said. Joaquin looked at him, asking what it was.
"We'll all get hungry and weak," Edgar said flatly. Conrad pointed out that they had more girls than boys, giving them a better chance to fight.
Edgar paused, looking at his classmates. Several of the boys retreated.
Only three remained in the middle, unmoved in front of Edgar. Edgar gripped his baseball bat tightly.
"N-No," Fatima stammered, fearfully stepping towards Conrad and the others.
"I'm scared, but I'll fight."
Grace and Sairah joined them. Grace said she didn't want to be a burden.
"I don't want to die without doing anything," Sairah said. The other girls approached, admitting their fear but also their hunger.
Several of the boys muttered curses. They would look cowardly if they insisted on staying behind.
"I'll stay here, you guys go! I don't want to die yet," Philip whined, but no one paid him any attention.
Edgar went first, gripping the doorknob. He took a deep breath and, before opening the door, looked back.
He saw Sairah, her bow and arrow ready. She was aiming at the door.
"Whoa, Estrella's so cool."
Edgar felt slightly calmer knowing Sairah was behind him and Joaquin, armed with a metal bar salvaged from the chairs, was beside him.
Edgar slowly opened the door and peeked out.
"Six on the left side and eight by the stairs," Edgar reported. Dexter cursed upon hearing this.
One of the infected turned and ran. Edgar slammed the door shut, but the loud bang caused the infected in front of their door to scatter.
"We can't get out. The fact that we're on the fourth floor and there are so many monsters on both sides makes it impossible to sneak past," Edgar said. On the other side of the room, Grace was peering out the window. She saw a fire extinguisher and a hose. She remembered it was long and sturdy.
"We can go through the window."
Edgar and the others stopped and looked at Grace. Grace was pointing to a hose outside. There was an axe and a fire extinguisher.
"Remember in grade 11, you and Joaquin broke one of those, right? It's long, and it'll definitely reach the window over there."
Grace pointed to their classroom window.
"That won't reach the first floor," one of their classmates said. Edgar thought for a moment.
"We don't need to go straight to the first floor," Edgar said, standing up straight. He looked at the door.
"There are curtains on the third floor, and there might be another hose in the hallway. We just need to secure the room if we see any infected," Edgar explained. Joaquin laughed, praising Grace's intelligence.
He raised his hand for a high-five, but Grace just rolled her eyes. Joaquin awkwardly laughed and caught his own hand.
Edgar opened the other door. Joaquin said he was coming, so Edgar let him. To avoid making noise, the two crawled out.
They needed to pass through the door of the adjacent classroom. Edgar was shocked by the number of infected inside.
Edgar looked at Joaquin, telling him to be careful.
Edgar and Joaquin tried to move silently until they reached the fire hose reel. The problem was, they had to break the glass.
"Joaquin, go back to the room," Edgar said, taking the metal baseball bat from his bag.
"What are you saying—"
Edgar looked at Joaquin, explaining that the infected would attack when he broke the glass. Joaquin would be waiting to grab the hose.
"You run faster," Edgar said. Joaquin cursed, saying Edgar was crazy.
Inside the classroom, Sairah saw Edgar and Joaquin arguing. Dexter cursed and asked what the two were discussing.
Sairah last remembered the two arguing when Edgar almost got kicked out for taking the blame for Joaquin.
Sairah approached the door. Grace removed her thick scarf and slightly approached the door while Dexter was peering from below.
Dexter was startled when Edgar smashed the glass of the reel. The infected immediately turned and ran.
"Holy shit!"
Joaquin pulled the hose, running towards the door, but before he could get there, an infected bumped into him and tried to bite him.
An arrow struck the infected in the head, allowing Joaquin to escape and continue running.
"Get this, quickly!" Joaquin yelled. Instead of going inside, he turned back and started attacking the infected, followed by Dexter.
"Ahhh!"
Dexter lifted a teacher's desk and used it to knock down the infected, then threw them over the railing.
Sairah was in the middle, continuously raining down arrows, hitting all the infected surrounding Edgar, who kept hitting them with the bat.
"Sairah, behind you!"
Sairah turned, but before she could be bitten, Grace wrapped her scarf around the infected's face and stabbed it in the head with a wooden stick.
Everyone was stunned by Grace's actions.
"Get inside! Close the door!" Philip yelled. On Sairah and Grace's side, a dozen zombies were charging at them.
Conrad came out with a bathroom door and used it as a barricade. Many of the girls came out and helped Conrad.
"Help Edgar. No one else should die," Conrad said. Sairah pulled her bow and continued her attack.
"Waahhh! Ugly bastards!"
Conrad and all the girls pushed the door, shoving the infected back.
"Damn it!"
Philip ran out, followed by some of the boys, to help Conrad push the door.
Grace stabbed all the infected trying to climb over Conrad's barricade.
"Damn it! Why did you come out?!" Edgar yelled after seeing Joaquin wrestling with the infected alongside him.
"Stop being a hero, Espinosa. No one will use that hose reel you got if we all turn into zombies. No one will remember you, idiot."
When the infected on that side were eliminated, they all ran back. Joaquin went first, pulling the hose from the reel and closing the door.
"Ahhh!"
Dexter ran, pushing the door and knocking down the infected on the other side.
"Get inside, quickly!"
Everyone rushed inside. Sairah, Conrad, and Edgar were last. Conrad kicked and threw several infected from the fourth floor.
Conrad also ran inside and yelled at Edgar to get in.
Edgar pulled Sairah inside the room. Conrad quickly closed the door and barricaded it with a desk.
Edgar lay down on the floor and cursed repeatedly.
"What happened to your foot?"
Edgar looked up. He saw Philip backing away slightly. One of their classmates was bleeding from the ankle.
"No—no, I wasn't bitten!"
Some of the girls hid behind Dexter.
"Look, I wasn't bitten!" the boy yelled. Edgar sat down and stood up.
"Calm down, Erick," Joaquin said. Their classmate clutched his head, saying he wasn't bitten; he was fine, it didn't hurt.
He looked at his classmates and nervously laughed, saying he wasn't bitten earlier.
Everyone stopped when their classmate's nose suddenly started bleeding, and Erick slowly turned pale.
Erick clutched his nose, saying it was just from shock.
"Damn it! Get that out of here! They'll eat us again!" Philip shouted. Everyone looked at the window and door after the infected screamed.
"Don't look at me like that. I'm not infected. I won't become a zombie."
The boy started hallucinating. He yelled at them not to look at him, even though everyone's attention was on the door because the infected were going crazy.
"Anna, you believe me, right? I'm not infected."
Erick approached one of the girls, then suddenly vomited blood. The girl screamed, causing Joaquin to push Erick away.
Erick fell to the floor. The boy's veins bulged in his arms, and his eyes glared at Joaquin and the girl.
"You don't believe me? Why don't you believe me! I'm not infected."
He attacked Joaquin, who threw the boy onto a chair in self-defense, but—
"Oh my god," Fatima Arica said, covering her mouth. One of their classmates in the room suddenly got up, and like the other infected, his eyes turned red.
Philip ran behind Sairah, who raised her bow to shoot Erick in the head.
"Shoot him, quickly!" Philip yelled. Erick was their classmate; when his parents sent money from abroad, he always gave them chocolate.
Anna, who was close to Erick, started crying. Erick always defended Anna from bullies in the dance club. He was bitten because of her after she stepped on the infected who had grabbed her foot earlier.
Sairah cursed. No one in Class F could bring themselves to kill Erick. Conrad grabbed a chair, and everyone gasped when Conrad used it to knock Erick out of the window.
"W-what! Why did you do that?!" Erick's friend shouted, grabbing Conrad.
"Because you couldn't," Conrad replied flatly, pointing to the window. Looking down, they saw Erick get up from the fall and run away when he heard the screams.
Conrad looked at Joaquin and Edgar. He couldn't blame them for hesitating to kill their classmate, even though they had already killed dozens of infected outside.
He wouldn't admire the bond of Class F for a year if it was easily broken, but in that situation—
"In our situation now, if one of us turns into a zombie, it's game over. Those creatures aren't human anymore. They don't recognize us anymore," Conrad said, removing his classmate's hand from his collar.
"All they want now is to eat us."
"Guys! There's a signal!" Dexter shouted. The infected outside screamed, causing the boy to cover his mouth.
Joaquin and the others rushed to Dexter and opened his phone. He immediately tapped the emergency call and tried to call the police.
Later, at the Laguna police station, the phone rang, and an officer answered.
'Sir, help us! There are many zombies here!'
That's what Dexter said. The officer, bored, asked for the student's name and school.
"Sir! Please send officers immediately! We need help," Dexter said, looking at the window.
"Okay, okay, we'll send an officer to check the situation. Wherever you are, stay there so you don't get bitten."
Dexter almost cursed at the officer if Edgar hadn't covered his friend's mouth and Joaquin hadn't grabbed the phone. Joaquin thanked him and hung up.
"It's obvious the officer didn't believe us," Grace said. No one spoke.
"I also received a call from Laguna High early this morning from a teacher. They said some students were acting violently. I sent an officer to check the situation, even though the report was a bit weird since it was already early morning," said the female officer after hearing her colleague's call.
"It's just one of those prank calls. You know how kids are these days. Zombie, zombie. How can there be zombies—"
The officer stopped when the phones in their area suddenly started ringing.
"What do you mean outbreak? Where is it!"
"What? Hospital? Students going crazy?"
The officer looked at the phone after it rang repeatedly.
"Damn it, what's happening here?"