Zombie apocalypses are so inconvenient

            Adam idly tapped his pencil on the desk as he listened to Mr. Ferguson’s droning voice go on and on. He loved history, but Mr. Ferguson made it as boring as possible. It was almost like he enjoyed putting kids to sleep and then screwing with them. Come to think of it, he did always have this sick smile of satisfaction whenever he caught someone dozing. Adam glanced around the room to see who the victim would be today. No one seemed to be asleep yet, but several were pretty close. Sarah smiled at him as he glanced her way and he grinned back. Still grinning, he turned back to the front and almost jumped out of his seat when he saw Mr. Ferguson standing right next to his seat.

            “Mr. Martin, I realize that I am not as pretty as Ms. Garcia, but I would appreciate your eyes staying on me,” Mr. Ferguson said with a slight grin. “I knew it, he does get sick satisfaction out of it,” Adam thought. “Sorry, sir,” he said apologetically. What a sadist. One day I’m gonna snap and beat the old creep’s head in. The rest of the class laughed at Adam’s embarrassment for a minute and then settled back down to the business of trying to sleep without being noticed. Ferguson continued with his lecture on ancient Assyrian sanitation practices and paid no more attention to Adam.

            A dim scream echoed slightly in the hall and a few students glanced curiously towards the small window in the door of the classroom. Mr. Ferguson didn’t even pause in his lecture and not many people in the class seemed to care. Another scream reached Adam’s ears, this one much closer. As more screams echoed through the halls, Mr. Ferguson finally stopped with a sigh and walked towards the door. “I’ll go investigate class. Please, try not to set anything on fire; and by all means, if you’re going to engage in intercourse, go to the designated corner.” The class giggled slightly and a few guys looked suggestively towards the back corner.

            Mr. Ferguson dashed back through the door suddenly, his usual sarcastic calm shattered. “Class, get out. Now!” he yelled. “There’s… something attacking the school. We need to leave n-." Mr. Ferguson’s words were cut off by something tackling him and biting his neck. A girl screamed and Ben picked up his desk and smashed the creatures head in. Swearing, Ben locked the door and began barricading it with furniture from the classroom. The initial shock began to wear off and two boys jumped up and started to help Ben barricade the door. Several girls began sobbing and a boy began swearing loudly. Adam stood up and walked over to where Mr. Ferguson and the creature were lying. Hurriedly, he tore several legs off of the chairs in the class and began passing them out as weapons. Other boys followed his example and soon everyone was armed.

            He tossed the last one to a friend and then bent over the body of the creature. It was humanoid, but looked as if someone had splashed acid on the face and then clawed the skin off in places. The eyes were bloodshot and every muscle in its body was tense. Flesh was stripped off of the creature in places until the bone showed. Adam gasped in shock and stood up slowly, gripping the chair leg in his hand until the knuckles turned white.

           Ben glanced back from barricading the door and then stopped when he saw Adam’s face. “What is it?” he asked tensely. Adam shook himself and glanced around. When he was sure no one was listening he drew close to Ben and whispered in his ear, “I’ve been looking at what killed Mr. Ferguson, and it looks a lot like… well, like a zombie.” Ben looked serious and nodded slightly. “Maybe it is. Or maybe it’s an alien, or just a psychopath who had some serious injuries. At this point we can’t know for sure. Maybe if we…” Ben trailed off and stared with shock at a point behind Adam. Adam whirled around, chair leg raised, and almost screamed when he encountered Mr. Ferguson, standing upright and staring at him. Blood still dripped from the gaping hole in Mr. Ferguson’s neck and he swayed slightly as he stood.