The Zombie Apocalypse with MCR (Complete)

Homeward Bound

The corridor we tumble into is empty. I don't stop, can't stop, because anyone could be following us out that door. I trust that the girls are behind me, their footsteps echo mine, at least.

"Why can't we just loop round to the front doors?" Alissa wheezes.

I don't stop and I don't turn. "It'll be a bottleneck of bodies trying to get out. The top gate will be blocked with teacher's trying to get into their cars. If we get stuck, we're dead."

"Maybe it's just one crazy man, Nevaeh!" Nat is panting too. "The police will be coming to get him! Everyone he hurt will go to hospital."

We're far enough away that the shouting has faded, so I turn a corner and bring us all to a stop.

Maybe it is just one crazy man.

I lean against a wall and breathe hard through my nose, trying to get my bearings. Maybe... Maybe that man was just sick.

But whatever made him sick, he'd passed it onto that little girl. She had black eyes, and the black veins on her cheeks. Whatever he had, he spread. And it spread quick. It couldn't have been three, four minutes, between the time it took her to hit the floor and the time it took her to get back on her feet.

(Assume the worst, dad lectures, an earthquake will be followed by aftershocks. A tsunami hardly ever has the one wave, and the first wave is often not the biggest. It's not just one punch, assume it's a fight.)

"I don't believe that." My voice is slow, but sure. "Think of the news. The fighting all over Europe. People missing. I think... I think he was sick. I think that little girl got sick too."

"This is insane!" Alissa snaps, "Where are we even going? Huh? Lets just call the police!"

"Try!" I retort, waving a hand. "You've got a mobile, haven't you? Try to call anyone."

She huffs, shrugs a shoulder, and fishes in her pockets for her phone.

"We've got to get out of here," I decide, "All of us, we'll- Where's Eliza?"

Nat's eyes go wide, and she looks around the corridor like I might have missed her. "Holy shit, Nevaeh, we've got to go-"

"We can't." I hear myself say. I see the mess of the cafeteria. All those people that sick man attacked. If they've started to wake up, to attack others...

But my chest squeezes with indecision. Eliza had picked the same univeristy as me for her first choice. We were... We were going to travel together to see it.

"Can't-" Nat splutters, "Can't go back for her? Nevaeh, this is insane. Unhinged! I'm sure things are fine-"

"999 isn't working!" Alissa spins towards us, and there's hysteria in her eyes. "Like it's fucking engaged! 999 isn't supposed to be engaged!"

"Did you try anyone else?" I ask.

"Both of my mum's phones are off, and my nan's landline won't ring either!"

"Like the networks have gone down." I murmur, "Yours was the same this morning, Nat, when I tried to phone the house. And the national radio wasn't working. It's all fucking connected."

"You're sounding like a goddamn conspiracy theorist, Nevaeh. What, you think it's fucking aliens?" Natalie demands.

"I don't know what it is!" I hiss, "But I'm not sticking around to find out. I'm going home."

I turn, and run smack into a body.

Alissa screams, and I wrench back so hard, with such panic, that I hit the ground hard enough to make my coccyx spasm.