Leiloni's POV
We were all standing here outside the auditorium watching it slowly being engulfed with raging fire as heatwaves brushed through my skin. The roof already collapsed revealing the blazing flames inside, emitting thick black smoke. But the thing that I can't get out of my mind is how we survived from that horde of monsters a while ago. They just passed through us without them attacking us and I know it's not luck at all. I know that I should be thankful that we're still alive but I just can't stop thinking about it.
"Hello?" Troy said answering a call from someone.
"Troy, good thing you answered my call. For some reason, I can't contact Kevin's phone. But good news! There are no monsters left here, we can finally get out of this school," a voice of a man said excitingly on the other side of the phone, it was Alexis. But after he mentioned Kevin I turned my attention back on the auditorium. If only I warned him sooner, he could've been still alive by now.
"Good, we'll be there in a minute," Troy said in monotone and ended the call. He looked at us with fear still painted on his face and told us that we should get going. All of us just nodded and started sprinting because it's already noon and we can't waste our time.
I just realized there are still a lot of things that we didn't know about those monsters. I have too many questions about them that are still left unanswered. But I want to know, I need to know.
As we arrived on the second floor of the main building, three happy faces have immediately greeted us.
"Did my plan work?" Alexis asked.
"Yeah... It worked, it worked too well," Lauren said with full of sadness and fear on her voice.
"Where's Kevin?" Kellie asked but all of us who knew what happened back there in the auditorium just looked at each other's faces.
"Did something happen?" Angel asked but we remained quiet.
Troy broke the deafening silence and finally told them what happened back there in the auditorium. The smile on their faces was changed with a frown and tears started to form on Kellie's eyes. Michael immediately hugged his sister as Kellie started sobbing.
"If only I warned him sooner, I could've saved him from that freaking monster," I said looking down as tears started to form into my eyes.
"No, none of this is anyone's fault okay, we can't do anything about it anymore," Troy said that made me look at him, "it already happened and all we need to do now is to get the hell out of here so that Kevin's sacrifice won't be put to nothing."
"He's got a point, the path is clear so we should really get going," Alexis agreed.
All of us started to pack our things to the school bus and there are really no monsters left. Michael and Elio are getting paler and weaker because we only have four hours left before sundown. After all of us got inside the school bus Troy immediately started driving and we were finally near the gate. The gate was closed so he commanded Audrey to open it and she did not hesitate to follow Troy's order. I noticed that Audrey is not that smart, but the thing that amazes me about her is that she's too brave and has a keen eye. She's the one who always notices first when there is a monster around us.
After opening the gate widely, Audrey immediately went back inside and Troy started driving again. As we got out of the school's premises, we were all dumbfounded at what we saw. Cars have scattered along the road and there are no people left at all. Dead bodies are everywhere and I also spotted some blood splattered on the walls, posts, vehicles, and even on the ground. Troy's totally right about what he said, it is really happening everywhere. Troy was driving slowly since there are some dead bodies laying on the road and there are some cars blocking the way making it absolutely difficult to drive faster. The rest of us were sitting quietly while gazing our eyes on the terrifying sight outside.
"Three days have already passed since this horrifying catastrophe has started, and within that span of time, I can't believe there are so many things that have already happened," Alexis started talking breaking the silence inside the school bus. All of us turned our attention to him except for Troy who's focussing his attention on the road, "and after witnessing different tragedies, I have formulated a few hypotheses about those flesh-eating monsters or the so-called 'infected'. First, getting bitten by an infected could turn you into one of them and I think it depends on how serious the bite wound is. Just like my friend, he got bitten on his hand but it was not that deep. It was about twenty minutes or so before he completely turned. Also, one of my classmates got bitten on his chest that removed a huge chunk of flesh and he quickly turned into a monster within a span of like, thirty seconds or one minute."
That's an excellent observation right there, but how come that the span of time turning you into a monster depends on how serious the bite wound is?
"Remember that guy named Gerald Lewis?" Troy suddenly spoke but still focusing his eyes on the road.
"Yeah, that guy back there on the junior building, who knocked the door seeking for help and later on turned into a monster," Lauren said.
"He got a small chunk of flesh missing on his chest and a moment later, he turned into a monster that caused a lot of death," after Troy said those words a horrifying scene suddenly flashed on my mind. Oh, right, Gerald Lewis, he really did turn into a monster but not as fast how Kevin turned.
"Kevin got bitten on his shoulder, the bite wound was too deep that we could almost see his bone and it rapidly made him turn into one of those monsters. It was only like two minutes or so and he was even fighting it but unfortunately, he did not last long," I said making Alexis' theory makes sense.
"Speaking of Kevin, he got his calculations wrong," Alexis said that made all of us look at him with our puzzled faces.
"What calculations?" Lauren asked.
"Last night, he told us that it was forty-eight hours before Melissa completely turned, but he's wrong," Alexis said while the rest of us were listening carefully, "you see, I remembered that it was around 4 pm that Melissa got scratched by a monster and she completely turned around 6:30 in the morning."
"Holy shit you're right!" Lauren said realizing that we totally missed how Kevin calculated wrong.
"That means it only took fourteen hours before Melissa completely turned," Alexis said. Why does it feel like something bad is gonna happen?
"Fourteen hours? Wait, as far as I remembered, it was around 5 pm when Elio got scratched then followed by Michael. How come that both of them haven't turned into a monster yet?" After Audrey has said those words, there was a sudden sound of cracking bone that came from the back of the bus. All of us stared at each other's faces as my heart started to beat fast.
"Uh, guys..." Audrey said pointing at something behind our back that made all of us looked at where she was pointing.
I covered my mouth with both of my hands watching at the horrendous sight in front of us. It was Elio and Michael, a purple pulsating slime was streaming out of their eyes, nose, mouth, and ears until they were both covered in it all over their body except for their faces. Both of them are unconscious but their skin has completely turned pale while red and purple veins are starting to show up below their eyes.
"What's happening back there?" Troy asked but all of us remained quiet and still in shock.
The purple slime covering Michael and Elio suddenly moved by itself and was slowly reaching towards each other like it has a mind on its own. All of a sudden, the slime merged with each other pulling Michael and Elio together and after that, the slimes went back inside them through their eyes, mouth, nose, and ears revealing a disturbing sight.
Kellie and Angel shrieked in horror and the bus suddenly stopped that made all of us fall on the floor. I immediately stood up and once again I saw the body of Michael and Elio laying on the floor which disturbingly merged into one.
"What the hell is that?" Troy asked that made me look at him and his face was filled with fear and disgust.
Lauren fixed herself and stood up from the floor. "That's Michael and Elio."
"How the hell is that Michael and Elio?" Troy asked again with his puzzled look. Kellie started to sob so Lauren immediately hugged her.
"There was this purple slimy thing that made them look like that," Audrey tried to explain while helping Alexis get back from the chair but it made Troy even more confused. Before Troy could even say a thing, Alexis immediately spoke and explained what happened but Troy still can't believe it.
Even I can't believe what I just saw, the whole thing was completely surreal.
Troy took a step closer to Michael and Elio's merged body. "Those purple slime, what are those?"
"I don't know but it was totally fascinating," Alexis' said with his face that looks so amazed.
"Fascinating? That was completely disturbing!" Lauren tried to argue and I totally agree with her.
Kellie suddenly ran towards his brother who has completely merged with Elio. The poor girl burst into tears while Angel walked beside Kellie patting her back trying to comfort her friend.
My phone suddenly vibrated so I immediately took it out of my pocket. Someone is calling but I don't know who it was because it's a number. Who might it be? The first thing that I have thought was dad so I immediately answered the call.
"Hello?"
"Lei..."
That voice, it was Aaron. I was about to say something but a loud shriek of two girls made me flinch. I looked at who it was and I was right, it was Kellie and Angel. I just stood there frozen terrified at what I saw. It was Michael and Elio's merged body, it is now standing on the backside of the bus holding Kellie and Angel on their necks.
Kellie... Angel... No...
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AN: Hi there! Happy 1k reads you guys! Yey 🎉. Thank for still reading this story and I totally appreciate it 😊. Any thoughts about this chapter? Stay tuned!