High School of the Dead

 Thanks for keeping this alive. Updates should resume shortly, as soon as I can get my car back from the shop  so I can sleep in again a little. For further details please read the notice in Royal Treatment

 

Wrote the update at work (shhh don't tell)
Need to get home to type it up. Spoilers.... Alcana is in...   please look forward to it.

 

Huddled in the locker, the girl awoke, holding her breath. Her light eyes were pinched shut as she tried to calm her beating heart. There was nothing outside now but silence, yet she didn’t think she’d ever forget the sound of taut flesh being tore off the bone.

Right now she could picture the sinewy muscle clinging to the pale white bones stained red with blood. The tendons snapping as they were rent from the body, the blood dribbling out from veins ripped open by greedy fingers. The blood red sclera eagerly examining their victim as the body shook in quivers of death long after the heart beat its last.

Her lips were in a tight line as inch-by-inch she lifted herself from her crouched position. Legs aching intensely from the way she had been sitting. Her long hair tugged against the metal hinges of the door, almost pulling it from its braid. Extricating herself gingerly, she peered out of the slats at the top of the locker door.

The hallway outside was dark. Despite this she could see the blood smears dried upon the far wall. Frightened, she steeled her emotions. It was time to make up her mind on what she was going to do. To her left were the stairs towards the third floor and to the right were the stairs towards the first floor.

Pushing open the door at last she wasted no time stepping out. She promptly fell to the ground, her legs numb. It was difficult to stand, the pain like pins and needles as it pricked up her calves. At last she got to her feet and turned right.

Gasping, she threw herself against the locker as she came face to face with a girl with long brown hair. The girl looked so normal, so helpless and fragile. Her lips were quivering yet when she smiled awkwardly blood began seeping out from between her formerly white teeth. Her eyes were still green but bleeding into red.

The bloody girl lurched forward. “P-Please,” she groaned out and then smiled again despite a pained look crossing her face.

Staring at the girl that must have been a former student and her senior at that, the girl with the braid felt at a loss. This girl wasn’t right. The braided girl’s limbs tensed as she prepared to run. Without looking back, she turned and sped down the hallway to the stairs leading to the third floor. The rushing sound of the wind in her ears drowned out the noise of her panting breaths as she rounded the railing and leapt up the stairs two at a time.

Not daring to stop, she reached the third floor and tugged on the first door she came across. Locked, she tried the next, feeling her heart sinking as she was repeatedly denied access. In her mind she vividly remembered the screaming of her fellow students and wondered if she would become a victim as well.

At last the door she had been tugging on opened and she rushed inside. The room was a small utility closet. She was plunged into darkness as she pulled the door shut behind her. Searching frantically for something to barricade the door, she at last propped an old wooden chair against the door and slid down against the cabinet, cradling her head in her hands.

The girl was Alcana, and she was a newcomer to Holly Glen. She had transferred in mid-semester and had yet to make many friends. It didn’t help that she was only a freshman and therefore garnered no respect from her status. Her parents were seldom home so she had become very resourceful and independent at her young age. As she sat in the darkness, listening to her pounding heart, she thought back to how it all had begun.

   ~~~   

It was mid-morning on another day of school as Alcana wandered through the hallways. Lunchtime left them as bare as a ghost town, but she hadn’t had much to do anyway. Pulling out her cellphone, she had just begun to send a text when the chaos erupted. Swept up in a sudden crowd of students rushing through the hallway, she was pushed to the floor, her phone skittering from her hands only to be crushed under the trampling feet of the mob.

As the crowd moved past, Alcana slowly lifted herself up, wondering what was going on. The panic that had been present in the air had not yet settled despite her being left behind. Looking around at the papers strewn about from her notebook, she set to the task of picking them up when she got the feeling that someone was watching her.

Raising her eyes she saw a girl with red hair in a uniform she didn’t recognize. The girl looked down at her where she was crouched, picking up her notes. Her eyes seemed to be filled with pain as they met Alcana’s. Alcana recoiled in shock, dropping the pen she had just lifted from the ground.

“A-Are you all right?” Alcana asked, her voice shaking.

“It’s not my fault…” the girl mumbled, gazing past her as if she weren’t there. “He didn’t survive… It’s not my fault.”

Alcana stood gradually, her heart beating faster as she felt a sense of dread. The red-headed girl took a step forward and Alcana automatically stepped back. The girl’s eyes were red as if irritated, but the whites had been dyed the sickly color of blood as if from a heavy concussion.

“I-I’m late for class,” Alcana lied, backing away.

The girl then smiled, her eyes still filled with pain. Alcana couldn’t suppress the small scream rising in her throat. The stranger’s teeth were stained red, in such a deep color that Alcana could only imagine what the substance was. Turning, she ran towards her classroom, the hallways eerily deserted. That was when she saw it. The image forever imprinted upon her memory.

Two boys were crouched over someone lying on the ground. At first Alcana believed they were assisting the fallen girl. Then she saw the blood. Blood everywhere, pooling out over the shining tiles of the hallway, drifting lazily towards her sneakers. The girl upon the floor had her eyes wide open, and her mouth was portrayed in a silent scream, but Alcana knew that she was no longer amongst the living.

The school uniform upon her had been ripped open, discolored darkly from the coagulating blood. The boys’ hands were working frantically, tearing into her stomach as if it were wet paper, withdrawing what looked like endless yards of intestines. The noisy crunching and slurping echoed through Alcana’s ears, rattling around her brain. Unable to comprehend the situation she froze on the spot, watching the grotesque scene.

The boy furthest from her lifted his head then at an invisible noise, his eyes gazing at her before a grin spread over his cheeks. Flesh stuck out from between his teeth as he gnashed them together. Almost unable to look away, Alcana could hear the red-headed girl moaning her mantra “I don’t wanna…” over and over behind her.

In a split second, Alcana saw her locker ahead and zoned in on it. Her fingers shaking, she dialed in the lock, at last wrenching it open before slipping inside. The door sounded infinitesimally loud as she pulled it shut, and she took in deep breaths as if she couldn’t get enough air. The darkness settled around her and she soon became horribly aware of how small the locker was. The metal walls enclosing her touched her thin frame as she shook, making her wonder if she had just sealed herself into her own coffin.

The sounds from outside were muffled and she listened intently, wondering if she’d be discovered. The time passed so slowly, her eyes began to droop. The pangs in her stomach told her it was dinnertime but she couldn’t bear to move. Her legs were stiff and unresponsive, but she quelled the panic rising in her belly. They were still out there, she could feel it.

A loud bang like a gun sounded, shocking her out of her lethargy. She could hear footsteps running somewhere nearby. Someone was sobbing, but the other voices speaking were urgent. Unable to move at first, she heard the rapid fire of guns. Rising from her slouched position, her lips cracked as she tried to call out. But when she lifted her eyes to the slats of the locker, she found someone was staring inside. Her exhausted mind unable to take anymore, her eyes rolled back in her head and she passed into darkness.

   ~~~   

As Alcana sat in the tiny utility closet, she wondered what was going to become of her.