DEGREES OF DEATH

9. A Guest Bearing Death

 

The morning drizzle felt like icy needles against their skin. From the second floor of the convenience store, Daniel and Xavier watched the sea of death migrate. Tens of thousands of corpses shambled through the thin fog, heading straight for the main gate of Hudson University.

"We can't go through the front," Daniel decided quickly, adjusting the logistics backpack on his left shoulder. "We'll circle around through the alley behind the strip mall, climb the wall to the faculty parking lot, and get in through the faculty's emergency exit. We can't be late, Vier. If that giant horde surrounds the building before we get there, our friends are finished."

Xavier swallowed hard, his face still as white as a sheet. "This is the craziest cardio of my entire life, Niel. This bag is full of canned beef, I swear it's so heavy. My back feels like it's about to snap."

"Better your back than your neck," Daniel replied coldly. "Let's move!"

They hurried downstairs and slipped out the back door of the store. The back alley was relatively quiet, with only a few scattered bodies and the stench of rotting garbage mixed with rainwater.

Daniel pushed their pace to a half-jog. His balance was off. The weight of the backpack on his left shoulder and his heavily bandaged right arm strapped across his chest made him walk with a slight list. Every time his foot hit the asphalt, the vibration shot up and tortured his dislocated collarbone. He clenched his jaw, refusing to make a sound.

"Hold your breath, Vier. No noise," Daniel hissed as they approached the back wall of the campus.

They struggled to climb the six-foot concrete fence, Daniel needing a push from Xavier to get over. The moment they landed in the faculty parking lot, the atmosphere on campus felt suffocating. From a distance, they could faintly hear the rumbling footsteps of thousands of mutants beginning to pour through the main gate.

"Quick, to the emergency stairs," Daniel signaled.

They ran along the outer wall of the faculty building, hiding behind concrete pillars whenever they saw a pale silhouette roaming the grounds. Xavier's breathing sounded like a broken whistle, cold sweat plastering his tense face.

When they reached the emergency staircase on the left wing of the building, Daniel let out a small sigh of relief. They crept up the concrete steps.

"Almost there, Niel," Xavier whispered, his hand gripping his aluminum bat trembling with exhaustion. His palm was slick with a mix of sweat and rain.

They rounded the landing on the second floor. The long corridor leading to Room 2-B stretched out before them. The hallway was dim and appeared empty.

But in this world, disaster strikes when you feel the safest.

Xavier's slippery fingers failed to maintain their grip on the aluminum bat. The sudden shift of the heavy backpack on his shoulders threw off his balance, and his hand reflexively opened.

CLANG! CLATTER!

The baseball bat fell, hitting the tile floor with a metallic clang that echoed with shocking loudness in the silent hallway.

Daniel froze. His heart felt like it had stopped. He slowly turned to look at Xavier, who was now staring at his bat with a face of pure dread, like someone who had just dropped a live grenade.

"Shit," Xavier mouthed silently.

In that same instant, from the far right end of the corridor near the main lobby, three piercing shrieks erupted.

Daniel whipped his head around. Three students in tattered, blood-soaked university jackets were standing there motionless. Their heads had snapped toward the sound of the falling bat. Their milky white eyes locked onto Daniel and Xavier.

"RUN!" Daniel roared.

The three Listener-phase mutants shot forward. Their speed on the slick floor was unnatural.

"Grab your weapon, you idiot!" Daniel yelled, charging forward to cover Xavier.

Xavier scrambled to pick up his bat. The mutant in the lead, a stocky guy, leaped to tackle Daniel.

Daniel couldn't use both hands. With the remaining strength in his left arm, he swung his teak club straight at the mutant’s face. Thump! The blow landed squarely on its nose, but because he only used one arm, the hit lacked power. The mutant just stumbled before lunging again, grabbing the collar of Daniel's shirt.

"Get off, you bastard!" Daniel kicked the creature in the stomach, but he was overpowered. The mutant’s grip yanked on his right shoulder. A blinding pain exploded in his head, and his vision went white.

"Die, ugly!"

Xavier darted out from behind Daniel. The curly-haired guy wasn't running anymore. He swung his aluminum bat with full force from the side, smashing it into the stocky mutant’s temple.

CRACK!

The mutant’s skull fractured, its body thrown against the corridor wall.

"Nice one, Vier! Two more!" Daniel yelled, forcing himself to refocus. He jabbed the sharp end of his club into the throat of the second mutant as it arrived, tearing its vocal cords and sending it gurgling to the floor.

The third mutant hesitated for a split second, but Xavier immediately kicked it in the chest, knocking it backward, then brutally slammed his bat into its head again and again. Crack! Crack! Black blood splattered across Xavier’s shoes.

"To the classroom, now! Before the horde at the front hears us!" Daniel ordered, dragging Xavier, who was still in shock from the results of his own handiwork.

They ran for the door to Room 2-B. Daniel hammered his left fist against the wood in their pre-arranged emergency pattern.

Knock-knock-knock! Knock! Knock-knock!

"Chania! Open the door!" Daniel yelled hoarsely. From the lobby end of the corridor, the sound of hundreds of shuffling feet was growing louder as they started up the stairs. The giant horde had entered the building.

The classroom door slid open a crack. Chania’s pale face peered out, and the moment she saw Daniel, she pulled him inside, followed by Xavier.

As soon as their feet were over the threshold, Chania and Bianca slammed the door shut. Alex immediately helped Xavier push the bookcase and desk back to barricade it. The sanctuary was sealed.

Outside, the sound of hundreds of mutant footsteps filled the corridor. They ran past the classroom door without stopping, heading for the third floor or another wing of the building where some other sound had drawn their attention.

Daniel slid to the floor, his back against the barricade, his breath coming in ragged gasps. Sweat poured down his face.

"You made it…" Chania whispered, tears in her eyes, as she sat down beside him. She anxiously checked the bandage on his arm. "Is your arm okay?"

"Just sore. I'm fine," Daniel answered quietly. He turned to Xavier, who was shrugging two heavy backpacks off his shoulders.

Xavier unzipped them. Bottles of mineral water, crackers, bread rolls, chocolate bars, and a dozen cans of corned beef tumbled out. The sight was like treasure in the middle of hell.

Alex, Bianca, and Kimberly immediately gathered around, their eyes shining.

"Divide it evenly. No hoarding," Daniel commanded, closing his eyes to try and steady his heart rate. "Eat just enough for energy today. Save the rest for tomorrow."

Chania tore open a package of bread and gave two slices to Daniel along with a bottle of water. As the cool water ran down his dry throat, Daniel felt as if he had just swallowed a drop of heaven. The bland bread tasted like the most luxurious meal he had ever eaten.

"I swear, this is the first time I've ever felt like a loaf of bread is worth more than a kidney," Xavier mumbled through a full mouth, sitting near the whiteboard.

"Thanks, Vier. You guys were incredibly brave," Alex said sincerely, looking at Xavier and Daniel.

The room filled with the sounds of soft chewing and sighs of relief. For a little while, at least, their stomachs weren't aching. Outside, the growls of hundreds of mutants patrolling the corridor became a terrifying white noise.

But the small moment of peace only lasted for ten minutes.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

A soft but frantic thumping came from the barricaded door. Daniel froze instantly, the bread in his hand stopping mid-chew. Xavier and Alex reflexively grabbed their weapons. Chania held her breath.

"Open up, please!"

A hoarse whisper from outside the door cut through the wooden slats. It wasn't the growl of a monster. It was a human voice. A man.

Thump. Thump.

"Please, they're at the end of the hall, I'm begging you, open the door…" The man's voice grew more desperate, breaking into a sob.

Everyone inside Room 2-B looked at each other. Bianca swallowed, her eyes wide. "There's… there's someone else alive," she whispered.

"Niel, what do we do?" Alex asked quickly, moving toward the barricade. "We have to open the door. We can't just leave him."

"No," Daniel countered coldly. He forced himself to stand, his left hand gripping his teak club. "Don't you hear how many hundreds of them are out there? If we open this barricade and he comes in, the sound of this furniture moving will draw every mutant in this corridor right to our door. Our barricade will be torn down."

"Are you insane, Niel?! He's a person!" Xavier whispered back, his tone protesting. "We can't just let him die right outside our door. You said we don't leave people behind!"

"I said we don't leave our group behind, Vier!" Daniel retorted, his voice like ice. "I don't know who he is. Are you willing to risk the lives of Chania, Bianca, Kim, and yourself for a stranger who might have already been bitten?"

The argument grew heated. Outside, the man's voice turned to weeping. "Please… I'm still human. I'm an architecture student, my name is Satria. Help me, I swear I'll start banging on this door if you don't open it!"

Hearing that desperate threat, Daniel's face hardened. The man outside had lost it. If he really did start banging on the door, the hundreds of Listener-phase mutants in the corridor would swarm Room 2-B.

"Dammit," Daniel cursed under his breath. Either option was a fatal risk. "Vier, Lex. Move the bookcase. Just a little. Just enough for one person to slip through. Chania, Bianca, get your weapons ready. If he comes in with a tail, you go for the head."

Xavier and Alex immediately began to move the bookcase, doing their best to minimize the sound. They turned the lock and pulled the door inward.

A hand shot through the narrow gap frantically, followed by the body of a man in a dirty grey hoodie who fell stumbling onto the classroom floor.

The moment he was inside, Daniel and Alex slammed the door shut and turned the lock. Xavier pushed the bookcase back into place, holding his breath.

Outside, a few sets of rapid footsteps could be heard running past the door, drawn by the faint squeak of the hinge. But since the door was already closed again, they passed by. They were safe.

The man named Satria lay on the floor, his breathing ragged. His face was deathly pale, his hair matted with sweat and rain. His shirt was caked with dirt and grime.

"Thank you… thank you so much, God…" Satria sobbed, trying to sit up. He wiped tears and snot from his face with a trembling hand. "I came from the next building over. I thought I was going to die in that hallway."

"Are you alone?" Daniel asked. His tone was cold and intimidating. His sharp, hawk-like eyes scanned every inch of Satria’s body. He hadn't lowered his club.

"Y-yes… my group… they were all eaten on the ground floor," Satria answered, his lips trembling. His eyes suddenly fixed on the pile of bread and water in the middle of the room. His Adam’s apple bobbed. "Could… could I have a little water? I haven't had anything to drink since yesterday afternoon."

Alex felt a pang of pity. He was about to grab a bottle for him. "Here, have a—"

"Stop right there, Lex," a small but piercing voice cut in.

Everyone turned. It was Kimberly. The girl who had been huddled silently in the corner was now standing. Her red, sleep-deprived eyes were wide, staring straight at Satria’s arm. The look on her face was one of far greater terror than when she had seen the mutants in the lobby.

"Kim? What's wrong?" Chania asked, confused.

Kimberly raised a trembling hand and pointed directly at the newcomer's left arm.

"His jacket," Kimberly whispered, her voice shaking so badly it sounded like a whimper. "The left sleeve of his jacket is torn."

Daniel’s eyes instantly snapped to where she was pointing. Through the rip in the grey hoodie's lower left sleeve, a small patch of Satria's pale skin was visible.

Daniel froze. The room suddenly lost all of its warmth.

On Satria's pale skin, three long, deep scratch marks were clearly visible. But it wasn't red blood oozing from them. The edges of the wounds were already turning necrotic, and the veins in his forearm weren't blue. They were jet black.

The black veins were pulsing grotesquely beneath his skin, as if a swarm of poisonous worms was crawling its way up his arm, slowly but surely, toward his heart.

The infection had a delay. And they had just let a ticking time bomb into their locked room.