FULL LOCKDOWN (Book #1)

𝕰𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙

She's no angel and I need to understand that this is Hell. I lift all my fingers up and firmly place them back down on my baseball bat, my knuckles going white. Here goes everything.

"Sorry, Angelika," I raise the bat into the air.

1, 2, 3-

Get down!" a female voice screams from up ahead.

We trust it enough to drop down flat. Next thing you know, bullets are blazing in the air above us and we block our ears tightly. We never have school shootings in Australia so hearing gunfire like this is crazy to us. The last lurker drops dead just as the firing ceases.

"Amber!" I get up.

"What took you so long, big bro?" she asks, the semi-automatic gun resting over her shoulder like it's nothing to her.

"Damn, that's your sister?" Jace asks me, pointing to her.

"Twin sis," I tell him.

"Whaddup, Amber?" Brayson gives her a fist pump proudly.

From the amount of time Brayson comes over to our house, you could say Amber and him are close friends too.

"Hey, Brayson," she smiles, then she looks at Jace like you are also in the crew, "Jace, you too?"

"Yup, me too," he gives her one of his best smiles. "It's nice to meet another Sylvester. Was kinda getting bored with this one," he smirks at me.

Jesus, I roll my eyes.

"Yeah?" Amber asks him rhetorically. "Funny how you went through all of high school without noticing my existence until now."

"I mean, with an entrance like that, I don't think I'll ever forget you now," he says with apocalypse rizz.

Amber holds back a smile.

Wait, are they flirting? Wtf. Ew.

"Anyway, for starters," I point to the gun, "where the hell did you get that from?"

"From a dead army man. After our call, I heard loud shots from somewhere else. The zombies must have followed it because when I came out from my hiding spot, the library was empty. I walked down the corridor and found this on one of the army men. He was dead twice."

'Dead twice', funny how that makes sense.

Okay, so once you die from a zombie attack, there's this period where nothing happens. It varies. For instance, Sam took a long while before he started seizing whereas Ms Mills didn't. But both seizures took exactly 13 seconds before they became a zombie.

"Lucky we didn't stay like Ms Mills told us to," Brayson states. "Staying for a lost cause."

"Good call, Dean," Jace pats my back.

"It wasn't a good call," I take no credit. "It was just common sense."

"However you're willing to take it," Jace says.

"Besides," I mutter, not proud at all, "Ms Mills is dead, let's show a lil resp-"

"What?" Amber questions, taken aback.

Fuck, I turn away from her. It's my fault she died.

"Yeah, Ms Mills, Coach and Sam are dead," Jace fills in for me because I don't have the balls to do so.

"Omg, how?!"

"Long story, Amber, but we should get going now," Brayson tells her, saving me from feeling the extra guilt that could've come from Jace's answer.

❖

We link back with the girls.

"Els!" Amber runs to hug Ella.

"Amber! So glad you're okay!" Ella hugs her tightly.

Since when were they BFFs?

"Can we get outta here now before they nuke the place?" Carmen breaks their reunion short.

The boys and I look at her awkwardly.

"What?" she asks us nervously. "Why y'all staring at me like that?"

"N-nothing," I stammer. "It's nothing."

She can't know about it.

"Her?" Amber faces Carmen. "What's she doing here?"

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you – Carmen, Angelika and them, used to bully Amber a lot. So I bet it must've felt good for Amber, blasting them bullets.

"Care to explain, Dean?" Amber turns to me.

I lay an arm around her and guide her away from the group for a sec, "I couldn't just say no."

"Dean! She used to bully me for years! Remember that milkshake incident? My hair smelt like expired cow milk for 4 days straight! She's a fat bitch!"

Brayson clears his throat and awkwardly grins at Carmen.

"Jesus, can you say that any louder?" I hiss at Amber.

"SHE'S A F-"

"Amber! Stop being fucking childish! You killed her friends, is that not enough?"

"I didn't kill her friends, I saved yous," she rebuttals.

"Still-yeah-whatever."

"And I should tell her," Amber turns away from me.

"No, what the fuck?" I grab her arm, clenching my jaw. "You're not doing that."

"Oh yeah? Is that a challenge?"

"Look, I know what you're trying to do and now's not the time for it."

She frowns, stubborn.

"Just don't worry about her. If she holds the group up, we'll throw her out – simple," I tell her what she wants to hear.

"But, Dean-"

"Trust, okay?"

"Fine," she finally agrees. "But I'll be the one to kick her out."

"Deal."

We rejoin the group.

"So what now?" Brayson asks.

"Now we get the hell outta this damn school."