Before she could stop her, another girl ran up and unlatched the door. Brent and the other two stumbled in, slamming it shut behind them.
Outside, Xender was still fighting through the chaos. He gripped the bloody scissors tighter.
"Attack the head!" he shouted.
He glanced back, half of them were already dead. The rest were cracking under pressure, trembling, screaming. The girls—Lucy, Cindy, Kayla and another, were fighting to stay alive. The fourth girl didn't make it. A Z latched onto her shoulder and tore through flesh.
"Help me! Please, Xender!" she screamed.
He didn't even look back. Her screams drew the horde away, just as he wanted. He signaled the others, hand gestures, silent and sharp. Forget her. Move now.
They broke into a run, bursting out of the health department block.
The air outside reeked of blood and rot.
Then they saw them—another group of survivors. Not students hiding in fear, but maniacs fighting like animals. Chaos. People screaming. Some used others as shields, shoving them into the Z's to buy themselves time.
Xender's group froze for a moment, shocked.
"Well, well…" said a voice, a woman's voice, low and dark. "What do we have here? More survivors?"
She stepped forward, the leader. A health science student, still in her blood-soaked white coat. Her eyes were wild, her grin unhinged.
"More meat shields, huh," said a guy beside her, laughing like it was a joke.
These weren't survivors, they were predators in human skin. They'd dragged other students from hiding with promises of food and safety, only to throw them at the Z's as bait.
Xender watched, disgusted, as the lunatic leader sliced open a Z's throat with a scalpel, then jammed a curette into another's eye without hesitation.
The two groups collided in chaos, running and fighting toward the cafeteria. Screams, footsteps, blood.
Then, out of nowhere, one of the bastards from the lunatics shoved Xender sideways—straight toward an incoming Z.
"Move, idiot!" the guy shouted, using him as cover.
Xender stumbled, the Z's claws barely missing his face. He spun, eyes burning with fury.
"You picked the wrong guy," he growled.
The Z nearly sank its teeth into Xender, but he shoved the scissors into its mouth, driving the blade down until the creature's head went limp. It dropped with a wet thud.
"What the...? He lived?" muttered the lunatic who'd shoved Xender toward the thing. His tone was equal parts shock and contempt.
Xender's jaw tightened. You threw me to die, motherfucker. He didn't forget. He wouldn't. But the group had only one focus now: reach the cafeteria. Survival was a fast, ugly business.
Sasha, the lunatic leader, ran ahead, carving through Z's like they were paper. A manic grin split her face. "Damn," she said aloud, letting the scalpel sing, "I wonder how it'd feel to slice real humans, not this rotten garbage."
Lucy, Cindy and Kayla hovered by Xender, checking for injuries. He was fine. The three girls hadn't done much, Lucy worst of all, with no kills to her name. Kayla and Cindy had managed a few. Still, they tried.
The lunatics kept throwing bodies at the Z's, using survivors as bait until, finally, both groups staggered up to the cafeteria doors. Sasha slammed her palm against the glass and spat.
"Open up! Open the damn door!"
Through the glass they could see chaos—dozens of people had already made it inside and were fighting over food.
"No fucking way… we came here first. This place belongs to us!" a muscle-bound guy in softball gear barked. He held a blood-smeared bat like a scepter. Behind him, his crew, more hulks in matching gear—fanned out, menacing.
"How many of them are there?" one of the muscle heads grunted, wary.
Groups inside argued too. A gaggle of nerds in computer science shirts, led by a lecturer who still clung to the idea that authority mattered, argued for reason. "We should open the door, those people outside will die if you don't."
The lecturer stepped forward, voice trembling but earnest. "This is madness. We're all survivors. We have to work together."
Cafeteria staff peered silently from behind counters piled with snacks, stunned and holding their breath.
Sasha pressed her forehead to the glass and hissed, "I'll break this door right this fucking moment if you don't open it."
The Z's were closing in. Xender watched them press at the windows like tidewater. He felt the panic coil in his gut. They'll break the door, he thought. We have to get in.
"We should open it," someone inside said. "There's enough food for everyone." The lecturer's plea carried a fragile hope.
A nerd, hands shaking, moved to the latch and pulled. The door cracked open.
Xender's group and the lunatics slipped inside just as the Z's surged at the threshold. People pushed and shoved, bodies colliding in the narrow entry. The door slammed and a metal bar dropped into place. For a moment, the world outside was reduced to a pounding roar against the building.
They were in.
"Perfect… now what?" one of the muscle heads growled.
"Listen up, shitheads," the muscle-head leader barked, taking the center like he owned the room. "I don't care about any of you. We came here first...this is our territory. We control the food."
"What? No way—" a voice protested.
"This place belongs to all of us," a nervous nerd countered. A few others echoed him. "Yes…"
"I have money," a spoiled-looking nerd interjected, voice high and frantic. "My family's rich,I'll buy everything. I'll give you money, just give me food."
Sasha laughed, cold and flat. "Ha. Who cares if you made it here first… and you, rich guy, who gives a damn?" She looked them over, amused. The lunatics behind her flexed scalpels and curettes like toys. One of them sneered, "You think we're afraid of your bats?"
Xender stayed where he was, flanked by Cindy, Lucy and Kayla. He said nothing, only watched. The room bristled with tension.
The lecturer tried to step in, voice trembling with authority he was desperate to keep. "Hey—listen up. Like I said, there's enough food for everyone. Let's divide it fairly..."
"You crazy, old man?" the muscle-head leader snapped. "Didn't you hear me? We control this food."
"But... the staff were here first," a cafeteria worker stammered, voice shaking as she backed toward the counters.
"If you speak again," the leader snarled, "I'll crush your head and feed you to the Z's."
The lecturer opened his mouth, pleading for civility—then Sasha's eyes flashed. A memory flickered across her face: this bastard had failed her, giving her poor results on purpose just because she rejected his sorry ass. The sneer hardened into something darker.
Before the lecturer could finish his appeal, Sasha moved like a blade. Her scalpel flashed, and the man's throat split open in a spray of dark red. He fell to his knees, clawing at the wound, blood bubbling from his mouth as he choked.
Panic cracked through the nerds—some backing away, some shaking, some collapsing into sobs. The lunatics, however, leaned in, hungry for blood. Cindy, Lucy and Kayla felt bile rise in their throats.
Xender watched coldly. The lecturer had failed him once too just because he came late to his lectures. He felt nothing but a hard, bitter satisfaction.
Even the muscle-head leader took a step back, suddenly nervous as Sasha claimed the room. She put a hand to the glass, grinning with easy menace.
"Now listen up," she said, voice smooth and lethal.
"The time for adult rules is over. This is an apocalypse. Since you don't want to share the food, we'll take it by force."