DEGREES OF DEATH

Part 6 – A Fatal Mistake

DEGREES OF DEATH

Daniel led the way, moving low along the shadowed wall of the indoor building. His body stayed crouched, his eyes sharp as they swept every inch of the dim parking area. When they reached the emergency metal staircase, he gave a brief signal. One by one, they climbed, Daniel’s hands gripping each step with careful precision to minimize the scrape of metal.

They emerged into the pitch-dark second-floor corridor. Daniel removed his shoes, continuing in nothing but socks across the cold ceramic tiles to keep his movements silent.

“Find the safest classroom. We need a wide vantage point facing the main road,” Daniel ordered flatly.

They had barely gone a few meters when a harsh scraping sound shattered the silence. In front of classroom 2-B, two figures in torn campus jackets clawed at the wooden door until their fingernails snapped, leaving thick red streaks behind.

“Finish them,” Daniel hissed.

He lunged forward, swinging his aluminum baseball bat in a short, powerful arc. CLANG. Metal met bone, and the first zombie collapsed instantly. Xavier surged in, smashing the edge of his metal tray into the second creature’s face, sending it reeling. Before it could recover, Bianca drove the tip of her arrow straight into its throat.

Silence. The classroom door cracked open. They slipped inside, and Daniel immediately locked the bolt before helping Xavier stack desks into a barricade against the entrance.

“You guys?”

Kimberly stood in the center of the room, still regulating her breathing. There was no hysterical crying, only raw exhaustion etched across her face.

“Kim?” Chania and Bianca rushed to her side, checking quickly to make sure she was unharmed.

“I got separated from Bianca in the cafeteria earlier,” Kimberly said shortly, her voice low but steady. “I ran here and locked myself in. There was another student with me at first, but he got bitten. I managed to shove him out the window before he turned.”

Daniel let out a rough breath, his eyes sweeping over the exhausted faces before him, then moved to the window. Using the tip of his baseball bat, he pushed aside the curtain, keeping a safe distance from the glass. Below, the campus had become a slaughterhouse. Cars were crushed together, flames licked at the body of an overturned bus, and thousands of silhouettes dragged their feet beneath flickering, dying mercury lamps.

“Noah … he’s part of them now.” Daniel murmured, his voice nearly swallowed by the roar of the rain. What lay below was no longer a riot. It was a mass execution with no end in sight.

“Niel, come here.” Xavier called quietly. He was kneeling in the corner of the classroom, fiddling with a small handheld radio that appeared to have been left behind in the lecturer’s desk drawer.

Xavier slowly turned the radio dial. Loud static filled the room. Bzzttt… Bzttt… Until he found the right frequency. Faintly, a heavy male voice broke through, fragmented by interference.

“… instructions… all civilians… remain sheltered… do not approach crowds… the military is conducting isolation in zone—” Bzzzzzt. The signal died completely, returning to empty noise.

“Evacuation? Where?” Bianca asked, fragile hope flickering in her eyes.

“He said isolation, not evacuation.” Daniel corrected sharply without turning from the window. “And that radio didn’t mention any coordinates. They’re just telling us to stay put until we starve.”

Daniel turned around and sat on the edge of the lecturer’s desk, studying his team. Their numbers had grown, but their mental stability was at rock bottom. Kimberly looked numb, Chania was barely standing from exhaustion, and Xavier clutched his laptop bag as if it were the last anchor to his sanity.

“Listen.” Daniel broke the silence. “Don’t expect help to drop right in front of this door. Tonight, we hold out here. The door is barricaded, but the windows are a weak point. We’ll set watch shifts. Xavier and I take the first. The rest of you sleep.”

“Niel.” Kimberly spoke, her voice thin. “Are we going to survive?”

Daniel looked down at the aluminum bat in his hands. Dried black blood dulled the metal, leaving it grimy and stained. “I don’t know, Kim,” he answered flatly, refusing to give false hope. “Our degrees are worthless now. No one cares if you were a top student or not. The only title that matters tonight is whether you graduate as a human, or end up part of the herd down there.”

He turned back to the darkness outside the window. The collective growling below sounded like endless funeral music. “Their numbers keep growing.”

“Like I said earlier.” Chania replied hoarsely. “Because of the rain, their transmission might be faster. They’re going to get more aggressive than this.”

Kimberly’s stomach suddenly growled, the sound cutting through the tension. Daniel looked at her, then released a long, heavy breath.

“Endure the hunger.” Daniel said, his voice softening but still firm. “Tomorrow, I’ll go out to look for food for all of you. For now, rest while you still have a place to close your eyes.”

The night grew deeper, but Daniel remained awake. Inside classroom 2-B, the silence was so complete that the drip of rainwater leaking from the roof sounded like a ticking clock. Kimberly, Bianca, Chania, Xavier, and Alex were already asleep on the floor.

Daniel could not sleep. His thoughts returned to Chania’s words about “faster transmission because of the rain.” He reached for Chania’s phone lying beside her and scrolled through the remaining open search tabs.

His eyes froze on a saved forum thread. It contained a photo of a female student reported missing a week before the disaster, the same woman Daniel had seen behaving strangely in the campus cafeteria before everything broke apart. Beneath the photo was a leaked medical note: “Patient Zero shows extreme body temperature increase when exposed to high humidity. Cellular characteristics shift toward active predatory behavior.”

Sharp curiosity ignited his logic. If rain truly was the catalyst, then every second they stayed here, the creatures outside were evolving into something far more terrifying. He had to see it himself. He had to know how far the “change” had progressed.

Daniel rose slowly.

“Where are you going, Niel?” Xavier whispered hoarsely. He was the only one still awake, his eyes bloodshot with drowsiness.

“I need to check something in the corridor,” Daniel replied quietly. “Watch them. If I go out, close the barricade immediately. Don’t open it unless you hear three knocks. Understood?”

Xavier hesitated, but Daniel’s authority compelled obedience. He helped Daniel shift one of the barricade desks, creating a narrow gap for him to slip through. The moment Daniel stepped onto the cold ceramic floor of the corridor, Xavier sealed the opening again. the sound of the desk sliding shut locked Daniel outside.

Daniel stood alone in the darkness. He had made a fatal mistake. Too focused on his curiosity, he had left his baseball bat leaning against the lecturer’s desk to avoid making noise. All he had was a small folding knife in his pocket.

The second-floor corridor felt different. The air was thick with moisture, almost like the inside of a wet cave. Daniel moved slowly toward a large window. Suddenly, he heard footsteps. Not the slow, dragging shuffle he expected, but the rapid, rhythmic tapping of claws striking ceramic.

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.

Daniel looked up.

On the dim ceiling, he saw it. A creature that might once have been the female student from Chania’s phone. Now her skin was blistered, and the muscles along her back bulged outward, pulsing in rhythm with the rain outside.

The creature no longer groaned. It hissed sharply.

SKREEEEE!

Before Daniel could even open his folding knife, the creature launched itself from the ceiling with predatory speed. Daniel tried to dodge, but the impact was overwhelming.

His body was hurled violently aside, his shoulder slamming into a concrete pillar so hard his vision went dark for a moment. Agonizing pain shot from his shoulder down to his wrist.

“Damn it.” Daniel groaned, crawling with what little strength he had left toward the door of classroom 2-B. He knocked on the wooden door three times. There was no response.

Daniel turned, his back pressed against the locked door. In front of him, the creature lowered its body, pale yellow eyes locking onto his throat.

“Xavier … open the door, damn it .…” Daniel hissed. His voice was strangled by the pain radiating through his shoulder. He glanced at his right hand hanging limp, his nerves seemingly severed, unable even to grip the folding knife that lay useless on the floor.