Chapter Text
Minute walked down the hallway, heading towards the school parking lot. His friends were waiting outside while Minute quickly went inside to retrieve his water bottle from the gym.
The hallway was so packed with people that Minute had to apologize every single time he took a step. Students in graduation gowns, parents holding a bouquet for their children, laughter and cheers filled the air. Minute could hear some sobs and crying—which he never understood, everything was going great for him anyways. Sure, he was an orphan but his foster parents were awesome and he got into one of the top tier universities with scholarships.
Also, he and his friends were planning to go on a road trip for two weeks—which Minute was very enthusiastic about. Though Minute was going to be one of the drivers for the trip, it was still exciting.
A future was bright for him. Minute hummed as he went to open the door to exit the school.
The laughter was cut off when a scream echoed down the hallway. Minute paused his hand from pushing the door open. What was going on?
There were screams, a lot of screams. Minute turned towards the sound in confusion, the door not yet opened, what the heck? Did someone pull a graduation prank? People murmured around him questioning what was going on.
Minute heard a sudden thud and turned his focus back to the door. Minute saw blood splattering on the glass of the door from outside. He flinched as he let go of the handle and ran the other direction. Away from the parking lot.
Minute wasn’t sure what to do other than to run with the crowd of people who were clearly in a panic. Someone screamed, someone yelled for help, someone’s phone rang but was left unanswered as its owner was already too busy getting away from the situation. And when Minute turned around just to see what was even going on, he saw it.
There were corpses—walking corspes— chasing them. Some were stuck on the door but a lot of them managed to enter the school. Bloodied handprints covered the glass and the banging on the door was too loud. Minute shut his eyes immediately and turned his head around but the image unfortunately would not leave his head. The tinted yellowish skin as the rotting bodies moved in a way they shouldn’t. More screams were heard from the back—probably people who had entered the school a little too late— but now Minute refused to turn around.
He ran deeper into the school. The high school graduate froze when he heard someone cry for their mom through the crowd’s panick—a kid who probably came for their sibling’s graduation—before it changed into a high-pitched scream until it stopped. The muffled crowd’s voice replaced its silence. Minute inhaled sharply before entering the closest classroom before shutting the door. He quickly went over to the other side of the room and closed the back door as well, making sure it was locked. He leaned his back on it as he let out a sigh of relief, thinking he was safe. His legs gave out and he fell onto the floor.
He just realized, he was in Mr. Mackay’s history classroom where he and his friends laughed in just a day ago. Now, it was covered with blood. Minute felt his breathing quickening. His hands were shaking at the sight. He wasn’t safe—were there even anywhere that’s safe? Somewhere he wouldn’t end up like freshly slaughtered pigs.
Someone’s purse was left on one of the back row’s desk and right under it a red high heel, which had the foot still attached to it but not the rest of the body, just simply laid on the ground. The body itself was right by the shoe. It was her foot in the high heel. Her graduation gown was ripped as well as the skin underneath, her stomach was torn wide open with organs he couldn’t even identify anymore spewed out on the floor. Minute gagged at the sight, covering his mouth with his hand. Minute could have been like this body on the floor if he didn’t stay inside of the school when he heard the scream.
He stood up taking a look at the rest of the room, most of the tables were no longer standing as well as the stacked chairs in the back that were now just a mess on the ground. Everything was covered with blood. Minute gagged at the sight.
Minute liked Mr. Mackay’s class. He liked history, especially with Mr. Mackay. His friends called him a nerd but did it really matter? It was a class where Minute could relax. Now being in here was making him freak out rather than calming him. A classroom where he should have been safe in, had a literal corpse inside.
Shoot, where were his friends? Minute turned to face the door. And where did all the people go? He could still hear the crowd’s panicked voice.
Minute did see many people just simply running away in panic through the window on the door. He knew he probably was one of the luckier ones, had just enough sanity to hide rather than to run without directions and probably run into more zombies.
Minute’s grip finally loosened around his water bottle. He didn’t even realize he was holding it so tightly—his knuckles were pale. The thought about his friends popped up again. They wouldn’t have ended up like… her… right? Minute thought as he looked down at the girl’s dead body.
Then, one of her fingers moved. Minute inhaled sharply, his eyes widened. What the fuck. The screams from down the hallway made Minute even more scared. It was a fucking zombie.
Minute was starting to panic on what he should do in this situation. It was just him and the corpse, on the other side of the room There were definitely more zombies outside and definitely more bodies, he couldn’t just leave, he would be eaten alive!
The girl’s body rose up, but fell immediately down as it could not balance itself due to missing a foot. Every time it moved, more organs fell out from the open wound. Its esophagus was the only thing that kept the stomach attached to the body and it swung as the corpse finally got on its feet—foot?
Minute could see the skin and the guts mushing onto the wooden floor, making a horrendous noise. The flesh was being crushed by the weight of it’s body and the trail of bloodied footprints— one being more of a circle shaped stamp rather than an actual foot—was left on the floor. He winced in disgust but that wasn’t his biggest issue right now.
He was in a room—an enclosed area—with a fucking walking corpse.
The body took a step forward but the ankle of the foot bent in a way it should not. The body fell forward, hitting its head onto the floor after bonking onto the desk corner. A loud crack echoed in the room and Minute took a deep breath in before grabbing the desk next to him, seizing the opportunity.
The corpse’s fingers wiggled and its knees bent in an attempt to get up. Its body slowly rose again from the floor.
He told himself: don’t look at it. Don’t look at it.
Minute closed his eyes shut before slamming the flat part of the wooden desk smacked down onto it’s head. The body fell limp back on the floor when a loud crack sound echoed within the walls. The blood splattered onto Minute’s shoes and pants and slowly soaked the floor.
It wasn’t moving anymore.
Minute took a few steps back before falling onto the floor. His whole body shook in fear. His gaze dropped onto his jeans—it wasn’t blue anymore, it was red, a disgusting dark red.
Minute didn’t know what to do. He had just taken someone’s life!
Fuck
The scent of iron filled the air.
-
Minute wasn’t sure how long he was zoning out for, but it was clearly long enough for the blood on his pants to turn a now maroon color and the floor to be covered with dried blood. The corpse was still—unmoving with its head cracked open. The skin which was flapped out along with the shattered bones were starting to smell awful.
Minute leaned in forward slightly to get the momentum to get back up. He grunted as he stumbled back on his feet. Things felt pretty unreal now that he had zoned out. Him slamming the desk at full force felt like a fever dream.
But the dead body lying next to the wooden desk with a big stain of blood on it screamed at him for it being reality.
He didn’t care. Minute just hoped it was a dream. He hoped he was part of those horrible story endings that ends with ‘it was all a dream and then they all woke up’. Wake up, wake up, wake up.
Minute shut his eyes and curled into himself. The murmurs inside the school walls were fully gone now, replaced by some kind of growling you would hear in movies or far up the mountains. The sound was wrong, it didn’t belong here. This was supposed to be a good day for Minute.
Though turns out life was a bitch and absolutely hated humanity.
The thought of turning into one of them scared Minute. Would he be walking around with only half a body left with lifeless eyes and the urge to eat people? Or their brains or whatever these zombies eat?
He shook his head to shake these thoughts out. He had to leave the school, he didn’t want to be in the same room with that thing until he died from starvation. He opened his water bottle and drank some of it. The cold liquid felt nice going down his throat. Good to know at least the taste of water was still the same.
Minute stood up again and walked closer to the window. He was on the first floor—luckily—so he wouldn’t need to climb down the building to get on the ground.If he opened the window and left, no zombies in school should be able to see him. Walking through the hallway would be a death sentence. He was sure a lot of people were doomed as the crowded hallway were filled with a large quantity of corpses and the school is probably infested with zombies by now.
There was a handprint on the window, Minute just realized. Who’s wasn’t a big problem. He really doubted that person’s survival chance, they were either dead or turned into zombies. Minute couldn’t believe he was being so… cool-headed right now. He was panicking just a few seconds ago.
Either way he was going to stay fucking alive. That was his primary goal. Stay the fuck alive.
He opened the window carefully, trying not to make any noise. The window lead straight back to the parking lot. Where he would have been a few minutes ago if everything was back to normal. Minute swallowed that thought away. There was a concrete road with blood on it right beneath Minute’s gaze, the planned road trip being cancelled was the least of his business.
Minute took a deep breath in and placed his right foot on the open window frame with his left hand on the side, keeping him balanced. Minute, holding the handel of the water bottle he had been clutching for his dear life with his left hand, jumped, leaving the school finally. His feet landed on the grass field at the back of the school.
Turns out, the owner of the handprint was right below the window—a blindsight. Minute landed just a few inches away from the body that was now crawling around. It was missing half of its leg—which explained why the grass was so bloody—and its hand grabbed onto Minute’s ankle. The body’s teeth chattered aggressively as its mouth opened and closed with unhealthy speed.
Minute kicked the hand into letting go of his ankle and he ran. Where should he go? To his house? The town? What did the zombie apocalypse protagonists do again? Right, to a store. Somewhere he could find food and water. And a bag to carry stuff.
The open area was a death sentence, but he had to cross the parking lot to get anywhere. He would have gone around the school, looping the other side if it wasn’t too far. And… he wanted to see if his friends were… okay.
Minute managed to get to the end of the parking lot without being seen by the zombies. Surprisingly, there weren’t too many—not compared to the group he had been chased in the hallway—but still a good amount.
Minute took a big breath in and ran to hide right behind a big orange car. It was the orange car that always parked the closest to school. Been there since Minute first entered the highschool. Minute licked his lips, where was his friend’s car parked? The eyes scanned the parking lot for a white van—that his friends would joke about it being a kidnapping van.
It was in the middle of the parking lot and was no longer white. It was maroon, probably from dried blood—what did he mean by probably? It was guaranteed at this point—and a few zombies walking around it. A dead body was laid next to the right side of the van with the smashed window and Minute recognized the sweater. Shit.
SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT
He quickly left his little spot behind the orange car and returned back to the grass field. The zombie laid down on the same place Minute’s ankle was gripped was too busy attempting to lift itself up—which failed miserably since, well, he was missing a leg.
Minute turned his head and completely ignored it. The image of his friend dead on the ground didn’t leave him alone. I can’t, I just can’t, I really really can’t do this. Minute thought to himself. He was going to end up like them, he was going to end up dead, get gutted out and eat other humans.
But he still didn’t stop running.
The town was pretty close to the school after all. Minute and only ran about 10 minutes before arriving at the town where he and his friends hung out often after school. Minute entered the book store immediately, he didn’t care how useless it was to even be in a bookstore—the closest store. He just wanted to rest his lungs and sit down somewhere.
He had run through the bushes near the road rather than the actual road to keep himself hidden from the zombies eating him alive. His shoes were covered with dirt and mud, he would have complained about it, but it covered the dried blood. So he wasn’t complaining.
The bell rang as Minute opened the door. He heard growls and footsteps, even some noises that sounded like a wet towel being smacked to the ground. Minute knew it was not a damn towel.
He quickly moved behind the isles to hide himself and not get caught by the zombies who were attracted to the bell. He sat down, heavily breathing. Then, he heard a thud with a scream. Minute peaked to see what was going on.
A body fell to the floor. He was still alive as three zombies jumped on him. Minute could hear his scream as the green corpses clawed the person’s skin, each time getting deeper. A loud terrified noise coming from the person’s vocal cords stopped soon enough as his skin was ripped off of his body. Minute covered his mouth with his hands just to stop himself from sobbing at the horrific sight. The man was where Minute was standing just a second ago.
Blood soaked the carpet beneath the man as the nerves and the blood vessels were scattered on the floor. The person's body was limp and Minute could hear the bones cracking as if they were just branches beneath the heavy weight of the zombies.
One of them yanked the right arm a few times, clawed them again to rip the skin and the muscles that were keeping the limb attached to the main body. A horrific scream echoed in the bookstore. When it was successful, it shoved the person’s hand into its mouth. The sound of the joints and the bones against the teeth were horrendous. They were the sounds you would hear in the Savannas when the lions bit into its prey. It was the sound that was supposed to belong in the horror movies from the sound effects. It should not be coming from the corner of the bookstore.
The second one opened up the person’s stomach, as if performing a surgery, the organs were pulled out one by one as soon as the bones forming the rib cage were snapped. The blood gurgled. The lungs became deflated as its green hand seized the air filled organ. Crumbling with ease, the two lungs were pulled out and landed on the ground next to them. Blood splatted all around. Soon it was the heart that was dissected out of the human body. But instead of hitting the floor, it was dropped into the zombie’s already blood soaked mouth.
The last one was biting the person’s head as well as using its right hand to keep the skull steady and the other digging into the person’s eyeball. Its claw had ruptured the eyeball and it was getting drowned in some kind of black–red?–liquid that was being oozed out from where an iris should have been.
Minute didn’t know why he was staring at it happening. He didn’t understand why he hadn’t shut his eyes and looked away. Though the teenager couldn’t take his eyes off of the man getting eaten by those who were once a human being as well. Was it considered cannibalism? Could you consider zombies and humans the same species?
Minute felt nauseous. A sickening feeling drowned him, the stomach acid was stinging his throat.
-
“Are you good?”
Minute looked up from the floor. His heart was beating fast, too fast. He wasn’t sure what just happened. He probably passed out. Yeah, that happens, yeah, he probably passed out.
The man looking down on him had a black medical mask covering half of his face. Wearing a black jacket and long cargo pants that matched the color. The red streaks in his black hair were nice.
“Leo, he’s awake.”
The man turned his head to face someone who had pure white hair and an eye patch on his left eye.
“Hey,”
The white haired guy squatted down to match the eye level with Minute, who just sat up—feeling dizzy. The two men were the first people Minute saw alive—not dead. Not on the floor, not bleeding out, not trying to eat him alive. Minute felt… relief.