Mason ran.
Not the kind of running he did during PE. This was animal-running, don't-look-back-running, if-you-trip-you-die-running.
A stampede of students surged down the corridor with him, bodies slamming shoulder to shoulder, everyone screaming different versions of the same desperate prayer.
Mason's breath tore in and out of his lungs.
'Don't look back. Don't look back. Don't—'
A girl shrieked behind him. Something wet splattered on the wall.
He didn't look.
The crowd thickened into a crushing wave.
"Move motherfuckers MOVE!" Mason yelled, but he was packed between bodies, sweat and terror.
'Shit, they are making too much noise. Why not carry microphones while we're at it?'
HEY CREATURES, HERE WE ARE! DINNER'S READY!
Panic fuzzed his brain. He cursed under his breath—
"Shit, shit, shit—"
Then he looked to the side and saw the window halfway down the hall.
It wasn't really a smart plan but, it was something alright.
'Crazy idea, Mason. Perfect time for those.'
He elbowed through the mass of terrified students, ignoring their shouts as he shoved his way toward the window.
Behind him screams rippled through the corridor in ragged, desperate and ending mid-breath.
And above it all… that sound.
That screech.
A distorted, throat-ripping howl that didn't belong in any human throat.
'Mutants. Mutants? What the hell even are those things? Fuck'
He reached the window and grabbed it, trying to force it up and that was when a shoulder slammed into him hard, knocking him to the ground.
"HEY, asshole watch where you're going, you stupid ap…"
He froze.
Standing over him, panting with blood all over his shirt and wild eyes was…
"John?"
"Mason" John's voice cracked. "Mr. Carson he, he got killed. I tried to pull him away but—"
He looked down at his blood-soaked shirt. "I think this is his. He, he exploded or something when those things hit to us. They ripped him apart Mason"
"Nope. Nope. Not talking about that," Mason said instantly.
"Let's get this open."
John blinked. "But shouldn't we just run?"
As if summoned, a fresh wave of screeching ripped through the hall.
The students screamed in terror as they felt a death breathing gently down their neck. Bodies rammed into walls. Something slammed into the floor with a wet crack.
Mason snapped, "We don't have TIME for this!"
He drew back and kicked the window.
CRASH.
Glass burst outward.
Mason yanked up his hoodie, careful not to take off his back pack and slapped the hoodie over the jagged edge.
"Go!" he barked.
John didn't argue as he quickly climbed through the window onto the second-floor balcony.
Mason followed and pulled himself outside.
Cold air smacked his face.
The moment both their feet hit concrete, another round of guttural screeches echoed from behind them.
They turned and looked down over the railing and froze at what they saw.
Below them in the mist were students but not the ones they knew five hours ago.
Their skins were pale with twitchy and erratic movements along with that faint blue luminescence pulsing under their skin.
John whispered, "Zombies?."
Mason shot him a look. "If those things are zombies? And they're that fast?"
He exhaled shakily.
"We're screwed… and what is up with this fog? No it feels more like a mist"
Screams from the corridor behind them made both boys whip around but they stayed still.
Going back meant death.
Staying near the crowd meant louder noise.
Louder noise meant every creature within a mile would come running.
He grabbed John's arm.
"We move around the balcony. Away from the noise. Toward that other end. There are other windows maybe we can loop around and get the fuck out of this place."
They crept along, keeping low.
"Mason," John whispered suddenly, "Look."
At the far end of the balcony, the very window Mason wanted to reach burst open.
Then four figures climbed out, gasping, shaking.
Two guys and two girls.
All around their age.
One of they guys with a tall, athletic build, a buzzcut and looked like he was about to pass out came out panting
'Riley?'
The second guy looked thinner with cracked glasses clutching a backpack like it was his last lifeline.
'And Evan?'
Mason looked to the two girls, the one with braids, sharp eyes and blood on her sleeves. Talia.
And the last was a girl with blond hair streaked red from a nosebleed and trembling violently like a leaf. Mira
They all turned at the same time, seeing the both of them they all froze.
The six of them stared at one another on the narrow balcony covered in sweat, blood, fear and disbelief blending in the cold air.
Talia and Mira exchanged shaky looks.
"You're… Mason, the school's delinquent?" Talia panted, clutching her shoulder like it burned. "And John Hale, campus royalty."
Mira wiped her nose, eyes still flicking between the boys. "Richer than half the school combined and always together."
John grimaced. "Yeah, thanks for the reminder"
"Now why the hell did you have to make it sound like that, all greased up and suspicious. Besides, this is not the time to be a fan girl." Mason narrowed his eyes as he looked at Talia's shoulder. Oh, he knew who they were. The upper class kids of their school, always stirring up one thing or another.
Before he could finish his thoughts however, a screech ripped through the air below them and agrowl followed.
Everyone instinctively leaned over the balcony and into the mist.
Down below, the creatures jerked their heads up to look at their direction.
Riley, the arrogant one leaned over the railing and shouted
"HEY! BACK OFF YOU FREAKS!"
Mason grabbed his face in disbelief.
"Oh my God shut the fuck up."
Riley snapped back immediately: "Make me."
Mason rolled his eyes.
"Oh hell no. We are not mixing with that hot-head of yours. You wanna die loud? Go die loud alone." He muttered under his breath.
Evan, the quieter guy behind Riley, tried to intervene.
"Riley, stop please just stop shouti…"
But before he finish, something moved behind them.
John's voice came out tiny.
"Uh… guys?"
They all turned to see someone else climbing out the same window the four strangers had come through.
It was another student trying to make their way out.
Talia stepped forward, raising a hand to help.
"Hey come on, hurry we're here"
Mason looked at the student and saw the skin on his neck, it was peeled of while showing the tendon twitching with a blue glow underneath it.
"Oh shit, move away from him that not a person," Mason choked.
He grabbed John's shirt, yanking him back.
"We need to fucking go!"
The thing's head snapped toward them with a wet crack.
Its jaw opened unnaturally wide and—-
SKREEEEEEEEE—
"RUN!" Mason screamed.
Everything exploded into motion.
They broke into a full sprint toward the other window at the end of the balcony, the one directly opposite the one Mason came through.
Behind them, the infected student crawled halfway out the window, fingers cracking backwards as it clawed the frame.
Evan tried to push Riley forward.
"MOVE!"
But Riley shoved him off. "Back off, I'm going first—"
He didn't get the chance as a pale hand shot out and clamped around his ankle.
Riley's scream tore through the air.
"No, NO—GET IT OFF!" he kicked wildly as the rabid yanked him backward.
"MASON!" John yelled.
Mason turned in time to see Riley's fingers scrape uselessly across the concrete so hard a few nails peeled off and stained the concrete red—
Evans reached for him, but too late. Riley and the rabid tumbled over the railing together as he struggled and tried to push the rabid away from himself.
It was a long drop and impact was loud.
Riley hit headfirst. A sickening crunch echoed up the building as his neck snapped sideways in a grotesque and impossible angle.
Blood spread in a dark red pool.
The girls screamed as they saw his body, his glassy dead eyes looking up at them with a look fears etched into his cold and dead face.
Mira fell to her knees. "R-Riley oh God, Riley—"
More screeches erupted as more rabids began pushing through the first window. They started piling on each other, crawling over the frame like spiders.
"We HAVE TO GO!" John shouted, reaching for the girls.
Mason snarled inward, 'No, no, no don't do that you idiot don't INVITE them… shit'
He didn't wait for anyone.
He swung a boot at the window they'd been heading for.
CRASH
The glass shattered inward and he climbed in, dropping into the chemistry lab.
John followed immediately.
They didn't stop to check who made it.
They simply ran.
Evans came in next, hitting the floor hard.
Then Mira stumbled through, dragging Talia who cried out in pain from her injured shoulder.
The moment they were all inside, Mason scanned the room.
His eyes landed on a tall metal shelf.
"John! Help!"
The two boys grabbed opposite sides and heaved the metal as it scraped across the floor and shoving it against the broken window.
Just as the first rabid slammed into the glass.
THUD—THUD—THUD—
Blue-lit fingers clawed through the broken frame, scraping the metal.
Mason and John backed away, panting and sweating as the adrenaline shook them to their bones.
The injured girl Talia slumped to the floor, clutching her now useless arm.
"He's dead… he's dead… he's dead," she sobbed over and over.
Mira grabbed her face with trembling hands.
"Talia hey look at me, we made it, okay? We made it"
"No," Talia hissed, eyes unfocused. "He fell his head, his head, he's dead—"
A voice came out from the shadows of the lab.
"Keep your voices down they'll hear you."
Everyone froze. There were others inside here.
Seven people from what Mason could see.
Crouching between lab stations, hiding behind overturned tables, gripping makeshift weapons like broom handles, broken glass beakers and metal rods.
A busty girl with a bloodied lab coat stepped forward, finger over her lips.
"They can hear your screams, they are sensitive to sounds," she whispered.
Another student nearby, a girl with a torn ear nodded grimly.
"We've been hiding here since first period. Three got pulled out the window when they screamed."
The banging outside grew louder as the rabids pilled up against the shelf.
Everyone's eyes flicked to the door.
Someone whispered:
"What if they're already inside the building?"
Another answered:
"They are you idiot, why don't think everyone is screaming and running around? They're everywhere."
Mason swallowed heavily and at that time the power supply suddenly went off.
Leaving only the fluorescent lights installed in the ceiling as they flickered on and off.
Someone whispered, "We're not getting out of this are we?."
And then they heard another scream echoing from the hallway.
Much closer to the chemistry lab.
John whispered, voice cracking:
"…we're trapped."
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