DEGREES OF DEATH

11. BLOODY AUTHORITY

The iron crowbar was lifted slowly. Its bent, bloodstained tip reflected the dim light from the broken window. The air inside Classroom 2-B suddenly felt colder than the storm raging outside.

Vincent Damian, with his sociopathic smile, scanned the terrified faces before him. His eyes paused for a moment on Bianca and Kimberly, who were huddled in the corner, then shifted to Chania with a disgusting, predatory gaze. Finally, his eyes returned to the pile of bread and bottles of water on the floor.

"Not a bad haul," Vincent praised with a sarcastic tone, stabbing the tip of his crowbar into one of the water bottles and puncturing it. "I've been starving since yesterday afternoon. Only found a sewer rat in the dean's office. Tough meat."

Xavier swallowed hard, his teeth chattering. "Wh-where have you been, Vin?" he asked, his voice trembling as he tried and failed to sound brave.

"Hell," Vincent answered casually. He stepped forward, his expensive shoes deliberately kicking the head of the zombie he had thrown to the floor, sending it rolling until it bumped against Chania's leg. "I was trapped in the dean's office when the chaos broke out. Watched from the window as students became a free buffet. It was pretty entertaining, like watching a big-budget horror movie."

Vincent stopped when Daniel blocked his path. The two men now stood face to face, separated by only a few feet. One was a wounded, pragmatic leader; the other, a crazed predator hungry for power.

"I said, this place is full. Are you deaf?" Daniel repeated in a low voice. His left hand gripped the teakwood beam tightly. He deliberately angled his body to protect his paralyzed right arm from Vincent's reach.

Vincent snorted. He glanced at Daniel's heavily bandaged arm, then smiled dismissively. "Look at you, Niel. Lame, crippled, and gasping for breath like a mangy dog. You think you can still be the hero here? You're just dead weight."

Vincent turned to Alex, who was standing hesitantly behind Daniel, holding a baseball bat with an unsure grip. "Hey, you! Basketball boy!" Vincent called out. "You gonna keep following this cripple's orders? Or do you want to join me? I know where the security guards' weapon locker is. You join me, you can have a pistol."

Alex froze. His eyes flickered to the pistol tucked into Vincent's waistband, then back to the injured Daniel. That hesitation, even for a split second, was enough to fracture the team's morale.

"I don't need a gun from a murderer like you," Alex cut in, trying to sound firm, but his voice shook.

"Murderer?" Vincent burst out laughing. It was a dry, terrifying sound. He pointed out the broken window toward the horde of the undead still groaning in the hallway. "In the world we live in now, you think there's such a thing as a 'murderer'? There's only the eaters and the eaten, kid. And I'm definitely not the one getting eaten."

Vincent stepped forward, shoving Daniel's shoulder with the tip of the crowbar. "Move it, cripple. I'm gonna get my share of the food."

Daniel didn't budge. He absorbed the push with his left shoulder, his eyes locked on Vincent's. "You take one piece of that bread, you're taking it from one of my friends."

"Then I'll take two," Vincent replied lightly. His patience was gone. In a swift motion, Vincent swung the crowbar, not at Daniel's head, but at the pile of chairs barricading the main door.

CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!

"What the hell are you doing, you psycho?!" Xavier shrieked in panic.

Vincent kept smashing the crowbar against the barricade. "I'm just reminding all of you," he said between blows. "You could try to jump me right now. But if I die, this door swings wide open for my friends out there. Your choice."

It was the most effective kind of psychological sabotage. Vincent had made himself the key to their survival. If he died, they all died with him.

"What do you want, Vin?" Chania asked, trying to negotiate, her voice trembling with a mix of fear and rage.

Vincent stopped hitting the barricade. He turned around, resting the crowbar on his shoulder. "I just want what's mine. Food, a safe place, and… entertainment," he said, glancing cynically at Bianca and Kimberly. "And since I'm the strongest one here, that makes me the leader. All supplies belong to me now. You eat when I say you can. Daniel," Vincent pointed at him with his chin, "you're demoted to doorman."

"Never gonna happen, you bastard," Daniel snarled.

"Oh yeah?" Vincent raised an eyebrow. He stepped toward Alex, who was standing closest to him. "I'll give you one last chance, basketball boy. Join me, or become the first example of how I punish dissent."

Alex took a step back. "Stay away from me!"

Vincent smiled. He didn't attack Alex. Instead, he spun around quickly, swinging the crowbar straight at Daniel's bandaged right arm.

It was a cruel, cunning attack, aimed at his opponent's weakest point.

Chania screamed. Bianca and Kimberly squeezed their eyes shut.

Daniel knew he couldn't dodge in time. But his cold, calculating mind had already anticipated an attack like this. The instant the crowbar flashed through the air, Daniel didn't retreat. He lunged forward one step, twisted at the waist, and let the tip of the crowbar whistle past his back, missing by inches.

In the same motion, Daniel used his left leg as a pivot, kicking out hard at Vincent's right kneecap.

CRACK!

"ARGH!" Vincent roared in pain. Daniel’s kick was so powerful it bent his knee in the wrong direction. He lost his balance.

Daniel didn't stop there. As Vincent stumbled, he twisted his body again, swinging the teakwood beam in his left hand in a powerful uppercut that connected squarely with Vincent's chin.

THWACK!

Vincent's head snapped back. Blood flew from his mouth. His muscular body was thrown backward, slamming into the whiteboard so hard it cracked.

"Don't ever touch my family," Daniel hissed, his breath ragged.

Vincent was sprawled on the floor, clutching his shattered knee. His eyes burned with pure hatred. He tried to reach for his fallen crowbar, but Xavier was faster. The curly-haired guy stomped on it with his shoe.

"Time for you to be suspended, Vin," Xavier said bitterly.

Alex and Bianca moved in, ready to beat the now-helpless Vincent.

"STOP!" Daniel commanded.

Xavier and Alex froze, looking at Daniel in confusion.

"We can't kill him in here," Daniel explained, still panting. "If we kill him, his blood will draw the monsters to that broken window. Get him over to the door. Tie his hands."

Xavier and Alex roughly dragged the struggling Vincent over to the barricade. They used the rest of the duct tape to bind his hands behind his back.

Daniel leaned against the wall, trying to catch his breath. His right shoulder throbbed with pain from the evasive maneuver. He glanced at the barricade, now partially damaged from Vincent’s crowbar.

"We have to get out of here. Right now," Daniel decided. "This barricade won't hold. They must have heard us fighting."

As if to prove his point, a massive impact from behind the door shook the room.

BAM!

It wasn't a small thud like before. This sounded like a car crash. The entire barricade of desks and cabinets shifted forward a few inches.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

"They're breaking it down!" Kimberly screamed in panic.

"Damn you, Vin! This is all your fault!" Xavier cursed, kicking Vincent in the back.

Vincent just let out a hoarse laugh from the floor. "Enjoy your dinner, friends."

Outside, the sound of hundreds of savage shrieks grew closer, responding to the banging on the door of Classroom 2-B. They had found their prey.

Daniel stared at the violently shaking door, then at the broken back window, and finally at his pale-faced friends. "Change of plans," he said quickly. "We're going out the back window. Now!"

The jammed wooden door let out a horrible groan. Its hinges were beginning to tear from the frame. A pale hand with blackened fingers punched through a crack in the center of the door, grasping at the air inside the classroom.