Edison Regional Highschool
12:25AM
Biology Class
"u good?"
"text me back, dumbass"
"Nate, Seriously."
Those Were the last text messages Blake sent to Nathan.
"Still nothing?" said Maya
"No...you?" Blake said
"Nothing" Maya says with a disappointed voice
A voice cuts through:
"Nathan's been gone two days and now Kelter too? Nah."
She sat two rows back, hoodie up, face pale from a night of zero sleep.
"Riley…." Blake said as it made his uneasiness worse
A boy leaned his back against the wall like he always did, wearing glasses, chewing a pen cap. "Could be a coincidence."
Riley speaks back up "But what if it's not, Oliver?"
No one answered.
The clock ticked loud. Fifteen minutes in, no teacher. No announcement. Just that low, unspoken panic crawling up everyone's spine.
Outside, sirens wailed. Again. Third time that morning. But this time they didn't fade.
They stopped.
Somewhere close.
Blake's foot tapped nonstop under the desk and he began to speak:
"We should check his house. Something's off, Maya."
Maya nodded slowly. "After last period."
"No," Blake said. "Now."
Before she could answer, Tyson Harrow usually on the quiet side, sat near the windows, started coughing. Not the normal kind. Deep. Wet. Ugly.
A few heads turned. Someone said, "Are you okay?"
Tyson didn't respond. Just hunched forward in his chair, fingers twitching, whole body shaking like he was about to puke his organs out.
Blake stood up fast. "Hey, someone go get help."
Oliver went to go run but stopped dead in his tracks.
A low, guttural crack, like wet wood splintering inside Tysons chest was heard.
Tyson snapped upright. But his head lagged behind, neck bending too far. One eye bulged. His jaw unhinged slightly, too wide. Skin stretched tight across his cheekbones like it didn't belong to him.
People started backing up. Desks scraped across the floor.
"What the fuck," Oliver whispered feeling like a step could be the end of him.
Tyson tries to speak and it sounds like someone gurgling through broken glass.
Then he started twitching fast, violently, as if something inside him wanted out and didn't care what it broke to do it.
His back arched. He screamed. But it wasn't a scream. Not human.
A shriek that had teeth in it.
Students were already running. Chairs flipped. People tripped over desks.
Riley grabbed Maya's arm. "Move!"
But Maya couldn't. Her eyes were locked on Tyson or what was left of him. His face was… melting. Flesh sagged, sliding off like hot wax, revealing what should have been skin underneath. His fingers bent backward, bones snapping through skin. He looked tired and his eyes were redish.
He walked backwards and in all directions slowly as if he was a toddler trying to learn how to walk.
And then he lunged.
He didn't run. He launched himself at the nearest person.
There was a sickening crunch as they hit the floor, and their scream cut off fast. The sound of tearing, blood and flesh was prevailed through every sound that was made as all the students ran
The zombie would speak and cry repeating only the words he could in a broken fucked up way
"Are You Okay?
"Are You Okay?"
It says while tearing his neck off.
a random student was paralyzed and ended up vomiting.
Riley yanked Maya back hard. "We gotta go, now!"
"Where's Kelter?!" Blake shouted, looking around, eyes wide with panic.
"He's gone," Maya said. "He's been gone."
Tyson or the thing that used to be Tyson lifted its head. Blood soaked. The student, presumed dead, started transforming.
While the other student was transforming.
Tyson looked at them.
Then it ran.
Straight at Blake.
"MOVE!"
The four of them bolted Maya, almost tripping over eachother running extremely fast, Blake, Riley, Oliver out the back door of the classroom and into a hallway already filled with screaming.
Lockers slamming. Footsteps. Blood.
That could only mean one thing
Their classroom wasn't the only one.
Almost all of the students escaped, died, or hiding.
The smell was horrid and the fire alarm blaring disorientated their senses.
"What the hell was that?" Oliver snapped. "What the actual hell was that?!"
"We all saw it!" Riley yelled back. "That's not human!"
"No shit it's not human!" Oliver spat. "People don't rip faces off while asking if you're okay!"
They turned a corner bloody handprints smeared across a locker door. Another student on the floor, unmoving. No way to tell if they were alive or just… waiting.
"We have to get out," Blake said, out of breath. "Front doors. We run straight through."
"They're probably locked," Maya said. Her voice cracked. "They lock them during class."
"THEN WE BREAK THEM!" Blake shouted.
"Yeah? With what, your fucking science grades?" Oliver threw up his arms. "There's like fifty of them out there, Blake!"
"You wanna wait here?" Blake snapped. "You wanna stay in this fucking school?"
"I didn't say that!"
"Guys shut up!" Riley hissed. "Listen!"
They all froze after hearing it.
Screaming. Not far. A girl could be heard and seen. Then multiple yells followed but it would be all be unintelligible.
The door would slam shut as the girl would push something heavy on the door and be the only and first person to leave, running in the opposite direction.
A zombie could be heard banging on the door banging his head against the wall until his brains splattered on the door.
Then silence.
Maya looked like she was about to cry. "I-I can't-"
"Don't break down now," Riley said, voice sharp but her eyes softer. "We move. Find another exit."
"There's the gym doors," Blake said. "Emergency exit by the locker rooms."
"That's on the other side of the school," Oliver said.
"Yeah," Blake said. "And that's where we'll find daylight."
"Unless we find teeth first."
"Keep your voice down," Maya whispered.
"Or what, they'll hear us?" Oliver hissed. "They're already everywhere!"
"Shut the fuck up and run," Riley snapped. "You wanna live, move your ass."
They ran again, sneakers slapping against the tile.
Every corner was a gamble. Every hallway a death trap. Blood smeared across trophy cases. A shoe. A torn backpack. Someone's glasses crushed underfoot.
They passed an open classroom. Inside, a teacher stood behind a flipped-over desk, swinging a chair at two figures crawling toward him. One lunged. The chair snapped. The teacher screamed. Riley yanked Maya's arm before she could stop and look.
"Don't," she said. "Keep going."
They hit the stairwell and took it two at a time. Down one flight, then another.
Maya slipped and nearly fell. Blake caught her.
"I'm okay," she gasped. "I'm okay."
Footsteps echoed above them. Not theirs.
"They're following," Oliver panted.
"They're everywhere," Maya said.
Then—laughter.
Not theirs.
Upstairs, someone was laughing.
Broken. Choppy. Like a kid pretending to laugh but not understanding how.
"Are you okay?" the voice said again, way too loud. Then another voice. Same tone, different pitch. Repeating it.
Blake didn't look back. "Don't turn around. Just keep moving."
They hit the lower level, the lights were dim, and there were concrete walls. It was the maintenance hallway. The boiler room was nearby, and the gym just past that.
Then they heard it.
A door slam ahead.
Footsteps.
Not running.
Limping.
Something dragged.
"Wait," Maya whispered, stopping.
"Why are you stopping?" Oliver hissed. "Keep going!"
"No. Listen."
They did.
A dragging sound. Rhythmic.
Something scraped the wall.
Then a voice.
Not slurred.
Not broken.
A voice they knew.
"Guys?"
They turned.
It Was Mr Kelter.
He stood at the far end of the hall, hoodie soaked, eyes wide.
"Help me," he said.
Blake froze.
"Mr. Kelter?" Maya whispered.
"You okay, man?" Oliver asked, already backing up half a step.
"I… I don't know," Kelter said. "I woke up in the basement. I think I think Nathan was there."
"Nah…," Riley said, voice like a blade. "That can't be right."
"Fuck you, Riley," Blake said. "That's Kelter!"
"Look at him," she said. "Look at his eyes, and why would Nathan be in the basement…..this isn't even Kelter."
They all looked at Kelter.
Red rings. Black pupils.
Too wide. Too still.
The creature took a step toward them, still imitating Kelter perfectly as it saw his picture on the wall.
"I'm okay," he said.
Then he smiled.
It was slow. Unnatural. Teeth too white against blood-covered lips.
"I'm okay."
"Run," Riley said.
The creature broke into a sprint.
They ran.
Hard and fast.
Blake didn't look back, his arms swinging through the wind as if they were his enemy
He heard the footsteps behind them, fast and wet, like someone running barefoot through blood.
Blake shoved open the next door into the gym still going as fast as possible. The light was flickering. A single exit sign blinked over the double doors.
It didn't budge.
"It's locked!" he yelled.
"No, no, no!" Maya choked out sounding like she was about to cry and almost going into a full on panic attack.
"MOVE!" Oliver ran at the door, slammed it with everything he had.
Still nothing.
"OLIVER FUCKING PUSH" Blake said, his voice angry and almost tearful
Together, they slammed it again.
This time the door swung open, completely broken, and they all ran for their lives.
Oliver pushed the door back and looked for anything he thought would be heavy and pushed it as fast as possible onto the broken door adding more weight so they couldn't escape easily.
Maya called out to him:
"Oliver, hurry!"
They tore across the back field, no plan, no direction. Just away.
Blake turned, just for a second.
More figures flooding out of the school now.
Running. Limping. Crawling.
He climbed.
Jumped down hard on the other side.
Grass turned to pavement under his feet.
Cold air. Night sky.
Freedom.
Kind of.
Sirens still screamed.
Smoke rose in the distance.
And now that they were outside, they could hear it more clearly.
Other screams.
From other buildings.
From other streets.
Whatever this was…
It wasn't just Edison High.
It had already spread.
And they had nowhere to go.