The student moaned again, holding his head as he rose up behind the three boys. The comic book had fallen to his feet, the weapon of arousal that had alerted the trio of the student's existence at all. "Say Ardwen," Chase said, backing away slowly from the groaning teenager.
"Yes Chase?" Ardwen was also stepping back, though he had run into Raul already, who had yet to move.
"Isn't that one of the people from the bowling alley?" Chase finished.
"Why yes, yes it is."
"And why are its pupils missing?" Chase's teeth started to chatter as he finished the sentence.
"I think they're in some sort of resonance state." As Ardwen spoke his final word, the student took a step forward, slowly at first but then they gradually picked up the pace, closing the gap between them and the three.
"Chi," he moaned. Then he repeated it again, longer this time. "Chi," the teen said for the third time. It was nearly running at this point.
"Z-z-z-z...." Raul stuttered. "Z-z-z-z-z..."
"What's his issue?" Chase muttered to Ardwen, who shrugged in response.
"Zombie!" Raul screamed, grabbing Ardwen and Chase and dragging them away as he sprinted out the cafeteria.
"Chi!" came the student, suddenly angry that the group was gone. Its voice faded into the distance.
"I didn't know Raul was afraid of zombies," Chase stated, bouncing off the floor every so often as his collar was tightly gripped by the running Raul.
"Well how would we?" Ardwen responded. "It's not every day your school gets overrun by zombies."
"But aren't they just people in resonance states?"
"I suppose so but they seem to want our chi, which would put us in a resonance state. Sounds kind of like zombies to me." Ardwen glanced up behind him at Raul and grabbed another comic from the youth's back pocket. He flipped through it for a bit before finding the right page, which he flipped around for Chase to see. "Look here. Zombies kind of slowly move and stumble around and hunt people down for their brains. If they bite you, you become one. That kind of sounds like our situation here doesn't it?"
"I guess so." Chase held his hand to his chin, mulling it over in his head while flying along behind Raul. "Shouldn't we be freaking out too then?"
"You know, the way thing go around here, I'm not really that surprised by this kind of stuff anymore."
"Good point."
* * * * *
"Oh Gretta it's going to be so much fun." Nami skipped and twirled down the hallway with her doppelganger. They had been surprisingly empty halls to walk through, without much noise or other people to encounter. In fact it had been a bit creepy to not see or hear anybody. But Nami was so wrapped up in the future sleepover in the cafeteria she had yet to take notice the way Gretta had.
Gretta had already voiced her opinion numerous times about how there weren't any people anywhere. Nami had thrown her words aside already and begun ignoring her, listening only when she posed a question to Gretta. That was the only time she cared about what the girl had to say.
"Fun yes, fun. Woo." Gretta's eyes never stopped moving around as her paranoia grew. Back at home she was used to it just being her and Aunt Shauna but when she was in town she knew there would be people. Living in this academy was like being in Easley. There was no difference in her mind. So to be walking through the empty school was like being in a ghost town. And ghost towns were creepy.
"Yes, and Chase will be there, and Raul will be there, and Ardwen will be there too!"
"Ardwen?" Gretta suddenly perked up upon hearing his name, the dread curling up around her heart suddenly releasing. "And Chase will be there too? Oh that will be so cute!"
"I know right? Porter will be there too but he's in a coma-thingy so it's not as much fun stalking him or tackling him. There's no fight, no game. It's no fun without the chasing."
"Yeah Ardwen doesn't run much at all. None of the moves you show me I get to put into action. It's kind of boring."
"Hmm, well when I was having trouble with Porter..."
"Yes Nami, I know all about the jealousy wars. I've heard it before." That was politest answer Gretta could give since she had heard the stories every time she had seen Nami after the night of the dance. She knew most of it already because Ardwen had explained a lot of it to begin with, what with him being so honest and all.
There was an echo that bounced down the hallway, a footstep that passed by the girls' ears. Gretta froze, her fear immediately rising back up and gripping her tighter than ever. Nami continued to spin, barely even noticing something else had happened, her mind filled once more with the tale of the jealousy wars. There was another sound that followed the footstep, words this time that Gretta managed to make out while Nami was stuck in her oblivious mind.
"Chi."
"Say Nami."
"Yes Gretta?" The little girl stopped, hoping Gretta was going to resume talking about the boys once more.
"The thing that you use in your Goliaths. What was it called again?"
"Chi. It's your life force. We all have it inside of us, as does every other living thing. The Goliaths just have a specific drive in them that takes energy from our Chi..." Nami's inner brainiac took over and she trailed off while Gretta stood in place, paralyzed with terror. That hadn't been an ordinary "chi." That had been a moaning, groaning "chi." That had been a chilling "chi." That "chi" had not come from a normal human asking about chi or talking about chi. That particular "chi" had come from something that was barely even living.
"Oh look." Nami snapped Gretta out of her fear-induced haze as she shook the girl's shoulder a little. "It's Rick down there. See? He's at the end of the hallway. Rick! Oh Rick!" she called out. The shambling Rick stopped and slowly turned his head, his shoulders hunched and his head angled awkwardly.
As she looked at him, Gretta immediately felt the terror creeping back into her stomach, forcing it into flips. There was something very off about how this person was moving, how he was walking, as if he had some different purpose. He wasn't coming to say hi. His hand slowly drifted downwards to grasp the hilt of his sword, drawing it out beside him. "Chi," he mumbled.
"Umm Nami..." Gretta tugged at the teen's shirt a bit, attempting to grab her attention as she continued to garner the attention of Rick.
"Rick is so nice. He's Riya's bodyguard and he was once supposed to kill her or something but then he turned out to be a great guy. It's a long story and all."
"He's trained to kill people?"
"Well of course, he's a Circuit Breaker. That's why he's so safe." Gretta froze as she heard Rick's title. Even for a small town farmer girl, she was very aware of the rumours circling around Circuit Breakers and what they did to people.
"So...he's trained to kill?" Her eyes wouldn't move away from Rick as he drew nearer.
"Of course! Rick is the perfect gentleman and the perfect guard to keep us all safe..." Nami ducked instead of completing her sentence, narrowly avoiding a slash from Rick's sword aimed for the top of her head. A little hair fluttered down in front of her eyes and a realization suddenly dawned on her as it hit the ground. There was a brief moment of silence between all three before Nami stood up and brushed herself off, conducting herself as if nothing had happened. "Run!" she screamed, taking off down the hall and leaving a stupefied Gretta behind. The girl took one look at Rick, who muttered "chi" again and she too gave chase to Nami.
"Wait up Nami, I'm coming!" Behind the girl, Rick was doing his best to keep up, his eyes half open while he dragged his leg behind him, still swinging his sword in the air and moaning out "chi" every so often.
* * * * *
Riya stood in her room, grabbing a couple of blankets and folding them up. She hummed a tune to herself as she worked, happily thinking about forcibly spending a night with Porter and everyone else. She liked what they had become, where they had gone.
These friends were different than before. Ever since she had arrived at Saint Maurius Academy she had been treated so special by everyone around her. She was rich, she was different, she had worth. Her Goliath was expensive, pristine, new. She had it all. Boys had come knocking on her door daily at first, though now they knew better. Her friends felt like a shell around her. They wanted to protect her and be associated with her. They attached themselves to her in order to become better. IF you hung out with Riya, you were a rich kid's friend.
It had only been through watching the antics of Porter and Nami, or of Chase and his cronies that had gotten her through the day. It had been observing Raul brooding in the corner, trying to figure him out, or seeing Ardwen argue with Nami over the right answer to a question. They had been real people, honest people. None of them were pretending to gain anything. Especially not Porter.
Porter was the truest person Riya had ever met. Every day she had watched him come in late, scramble to his desk, and fall asleep after studying late last night. She saw him struggle to answer questions he knew but couldn't remember properly. Chase would fight him daily, Nami would jump him hourly, and Porter would trip up every minute, and that's what made him pure.
That was why she loved him. That wasn't a new feeling to her or hard to admit, at least not to herself. She had never mentioned it to anyone, not even Nami when they were sharing their moments. That may be something she would take to her grave, as she always held on to the fear that Porter would run the other way as soon as he knew. That's what every guy did at this age, she was certain of that.
But Porter had grown so much over the past months. He had changed and matured. At his core he would always be a goofy boy who made mistakes. Now he was just much tougher on the battlefield, more of a leader. He had found a bit of a role now, a place. He was just like her, always on the outside, always looking in and wondering. And now they were both inside, together.
As Riya moved around her room, gathering more supplies for the coming sleepover, she began to remember the fights they had survived, and the things that been said. Those were some of the things she kept closest to her heart. The sacrifices Porter had made to try and save her so many times, to save his brother, and to save Easley. He had done so much already, protected them so many times. Now it would be there turn to watch over Porter while he was in his comatose resonance state.
Riya gave up on her humming and finally decided to turn on her music, turning up the volume to fill her room. For a soft-spoken girl, she did love her music loud, probably to drown out her own thoughts, which were always babbling in her mind. One of her favourite songs came on and she bobbed her head along with the tune as she packed up some more supplies, nearly finished.
As she packed, Raul, Ardwen, and Chase sprinted by, followed by a horde of zombie students who shambled past the open door, none of them noticing Riya and Riya noticing none of them. The pilot zipped up her bag and slung it on her back as the mob passed by and she spun to face the door. Yes, tonight was going to be a great night.
A/N: Zombies? Science-fiction can explain anything!