My Undead System

Ch. 13 - Trapped

Rena led Jin and Kroll towards the next room, away from the cafeteria. Jin looked back and in the corner of his eyes, he caught a figure speeding in the opposite direction, until it disappeared.

Because of how fast things happened, the young man thought, his mind played tricks. Soon Rena stopped in front of chained doors. Without a key, there was no other way to go through, and Jin’s bat was good against skulls, but it can’t break chains.

Kroll turned to Rena. “Are you sure we are going the right way?”

The girl nodded. “Yes. If we go through here, we can go around the cafeteria. But I don’t remember seeing chains the last time I was here… Someone must’ve put them after we left…”

Her words confused both Jun and Kroll. “What do you mean? How is that possible?”

Rena shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. Jin sighed. “If that’s the case, we should find another way around…”

Kroll had other plans. He interrupted Jin and took his gun out of the holster. “Or…”

Bang!

After shooting the lock, Kroll removed the chains. First, the gunshot and then the clanging chains echoed throughout the hall and meshed with the growling of the undead.

Rena sighed and held her forehead as if she had a headache.

Jin pushed the doors open and an undead almost grabbed him from the inside. Startled, Jin stepped back as a reflex and swiftly swung his bat. He smashed its skull in one strike. Crimson blood spluttered on the walls and painted the floor.

They found themselves in the yard, where the inmates spent a lot of time. As luck would have it, undead filled the place to the brim, and their growls mimicked the symphony of cicadas.

Across from them was the cell area.

Jin, with the bat on his shoulder, looked at Kroll and Rena and smiled. “I’ll keep them away. Get in and I’ll join you later…”

Before Kroll could utter a word, Jin ran off and made a ruckus to draw their attention. Kroll sighed and shouted at him. “We’ll get in! Make sure you come back...”

Jin glanced at him. He nodded and smiled.

Kroll then looked down and took a deep breath, and whispered. “Coral will kill me,  if you die…”

Rena and Kroll made sure that the coast was clear before moving out of the hall. They saw Jin smashing heads while gathering the attention to himself. Even though they were worried, they understood the severity of the job they had to do.

They hurriedly reached the cell door and tried to open it. The fact that they locked it from the inside annoyed them deeply. Kroll shot the lock again after cursing a few times for having to waste a bullet.

Once they got in, they called out to Jin. The young man heard them and ran towards the door as fast as he could. Once he got there, memories flashed through his mind. He remembered the first time he was in this situation.

In his heart, he felt happy that it didn’t happen again. As he was about to step through the door. A rotting hand grabbed his shoulder and pulled him out. He struggled to break free when Rena came out and shot the undead’s head.

He looked at her, surprised, and nodded thankfully. She brushed it off and went back inside. Seconds later, Jin followed and closed the door behind him.

Inside, Jin noticed the spluttered blood on the walls and floor. Some cells were open, and teenagers lay on the cold floor with bullet holes in their heads. He couldn’t help it. Sorrow overwhelmed him.

Kroll frantically searched for his son by calling out to him repeatedly. “Krish! Krish!”

He broke from the group as he searched for his son. Jin and Rena tagged behind him, focused, with their guards up.

“Krish!”

Kroll disregarded the open cells. He didn’t want to believe that his son was amongst the dead. He desperately searched the closed ones until Jin called out to him. “There’s a manifest here with names and their cells!”

Kroll went to Jin and scanned the list from top to bottom. He pointed elated at the piece of paper in front of him. “Here! Second Floor! Cell 259”

They went up the stairs towards the far end of the hall. Most of the cells were open and bodies were on the ground. The closer he got to his son’s cell, the more anxious he became.

“Krish!”

He panted, and his breathing became erratic. As if someone grabbed his heart and squeezed the life out of it, Kroll grabbed his chest and clutched tighter. Jin saw his condition and ran to the front.

“Here! Cell 259! Locked!”

The information he received lifted a weight off his shoulders, but it still wasn’t enough. He still needed to check through the small window of the steel door and see if anyone inside was still alive or undead.

Kroll took a few deep breaths and peeked through the glass window. Even though there were stains of dried blood on it, he could still see through. He turned around with a smile on his face. “He’s in there. My son is alive!”

He banged a few times on the steel door. “Krish!”

The people inside heard the banging and looked up. A young man recognized the face and the brown beard attached to it and ran to the door. Outside, they heard the muffled voice of a young man. “Dad…?!”

“Hold on for a little longer buddy… Stand back!”

Krish did as his father instructed. The bullet that came out of Kroll’s gun created sparks when it met the door’s lock. It creaked ajar soon after. Kroll ran inside and hugged his son. Krish smiled and at that moment he lost all strength from his knees.

Unable to keep his weight up, he dropped into a kneeling position. The other four were in the same condition. Hungry and dehydrated. Jin and the others supported the five teenagers and basically dragged them out.

When they reached the yard, they expected to find the undead where they left them. To their surprise, besides those that Jin took down earlier, there was not a single soul in the vicinity.

They went through the corridors and reached the area of the cafeteria. At that point, they heard growls coming from all directions. In a split second, the undead surrounded them.

Not only that, but a growl more powerful than they ever heard before almost burst their eardrums as its echo carried on for several seconds. Jin glanced in the direction he thought it came, but there was nothing that could produce such a loud growl.

Their worry, though, was to get out of that situation while carrying five people as the undead drew closer with every passing second.