Chapter 7: The Wrong Step (2)

Chapter 7: Chapter 7: The Wrong Step (2) Blaze and Min crept through the empty hallway, not daring to use the phone’s flashlight. Especially because even the slightest noise was making Min jump and Blaze didn’t want anything else to attract the zombies. Still, Blaze had underestimated the destruction those creatures had caused. He couldn’t even remember how many metal bars he had seen twisted in unimaginable ways. There’s no way our flimsy barriers would hold against those headless creatures. Then why weren’t we attacked? It was like something had prevented those monsters from locating them. He was still thinking about it when Min tapped his shoulder. "What is it?" Blaze asked, slightly annoyed. "We’re here," Min replied, pointing at the dangling sign overhead. Blaze nodded, carefully pushing the door open. Thankfully, the door didn’t creak or make any noise, but the foul stench coming from inside made them gag. "My god..." Min mumbled, hurrying to the side. He had seen too much and couldn’t hold back from emptying his stomach. While he puked, Blaze scanned the surroundings. From the number of mangled corpses strewn about, he concurred the mess was hit by those monsters first. It’s not a surprise, considering it was our break time when it all happened. The tables were turned over and broken. Some corpses were stuck in between, half-eaten and rotting. But there was a lot more blood compared to the number of corpses there. It must belong to those... Blaze thought, turning his eyes outside the window. The zombies were still there, but they weren’t moving anymore, just looking at the sky. Sky... they’re staring at the moon? But why? The situation felt off, but they were there for the food, so he decided to move towards the pantry, navigating through the strewn-about utensils. "How long are you planning to puke?" he asked Min. "Come on, we got to move." "Easier for you to say..." Min said, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. "Does this not affect you at all?" Blaze sighed, shaking his head. It wasn’t that those corpses didn’t affect him; he was elated to see such specimen and their fear-stricken faces frozen in time. The only reason for him to be unhappy was the lack of tools to check those corpses. But Min didn’t have to know that. "Why are you studying to be a biologist if you can’t even handle this much?" Blaze scoffed. "Not like any of it matters anymore." Min didn’t refute his words, but he noticed something different about Blaze. He was way too chill about everything. He... isn’t enjoying this, is he? Just as that thought entered his mind, he immediately shook it off. Blaze might be a bit strange, but he was the professor’s son. He couldn’t be that bad. Soon, the duo arrived at the pantry door, but there was a minor issue. The pantry had an auto-lock system in place. If anyone had locked it, then it’d be impossible to open it without power. Here goes nothing... Blaze turned the handle and... it wasn’t locked! "Thank god—" "Shut it!" Blaze hissed, covering his mouth with his hand. He closed his eyes to concentrate on listening, but couldn’t hear any movement from the outside. Still, he whacked Min on the head. "What part of being quiet you don’t understand?" he scolded. "Sorry... I just got a bit excited—" "Whatever, let’s grab some ready-to-eat food and return." Min nodded, and the two got to work. However, their luck had run out. Just as they were stuffing food into their pockets, two figures entered the food court. They were the other two headless monsters. Before Blaze or Min even noticed them, the one with the loudspeaker mutation let out a screeching noise. Min dropped whatever he was holding in shock, while Blaze turned toward the window. The zombies... they were looking right at them. "It’s a trap!" Blaze yelled, running out of the pantry only to come across the mutated creatures. It was these damned creatures who laid the trap. Blaze hadn’t expected them to be capable of making such plans, but it was an oversight that could lead to their demise. "The phones, hand them over!" Min handed one over and Blaze played any music he found and threw it outside the window. The zombies were staring at them and were distracted by the noise coming from the phone, but only for a while. Blaze hypothesized the one with the massive eye that could see them, while the one with the speaker would alert the zombies. They must have shared senses, like a hivemind of sorts. Since the latter couldn’t see, he only needed to distract the one with the eyes to escape. At least, that’s what he thought. With no way out, Blaze acted on his half-baked theory and turned the flashlight on, blinding the monster before running through them. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Min yelled, running after Blaze. "What do we do now!?" "Keep running!" There was no point in being quiet anymore. He could already feel the pounding feet of those zombies. They poured back inside the building like a tsunami, threatening to swallow them. "How are they so fast now!?" Min continued yelling. Blaze didn’t have an answer. They had all seen them being clumsy and weak, but suddenly they were even faster than Usain Bolt. It didn’t make sense! They were either pretending to be clumsy in order to fool them, or something had happened in the time it took for Blaze and Min to reach the food court. Either way, there was no time to think about it. The only thing that mattered was surviving. Min was right behind him, or one could say Blaze was intentionally keeping him behind. He knew Min could outrun him, but he couldn’t let that happen. He knew they wouldn’t make it to the room in time. The classroom was still farther away, and by the time they removed the barrier to get in, the zombies would be on them. In the worst event, those inside wouldn’t even open the door for them, just like they didn’t for Martin and David. That’s why he needed Min to survive a bit longer. To buy me some time. If only he fell... With that thought, Blaze picked up the pace. He reached the top floor, and wanted to kick Min down into the horde, but then he saw someone standing on top of the stairs. "Neha, help me up!" Blaze said, reaching out. Compared to Neha, Min was more useful. So Blaze decided to sacrifice her instead. The moment she grabbed his hand, he would pull her down the stairs for the horde to devour. But... she didn’t move. Instead, she narrowed her eyes as if she was disgusted by Blaze. The next moment, she kicked him right in the chest. "What—?" Blaze lost his balance and fell backward. Min saw him, but instead of helping Blaze, he moved aside, letting Blaze fall. He hit the floor, and his eyes widened in disbelief as he saw Neha helping Min instead. Noticing his gaze, Neha threw him another dirty gaze before uttering the words that shook him. "I’m a chosen, too," she said. "And I read your thoughts." "What—Look, there’s got to be—Argh!" Blaze tried to get up, but his ankle was broken in the fall. He couldn’t even get up, let alone move and, with the zombies closing in, his fate was sealed. Even then, he could only wonder about what Neha said. I am a chosen too... But I didn’t get any powers... what a joke... Survival of the fittest. Blaze thought he was destined to survive. Being a chosen only reinforced his beliefs. However, none of it mattered anymore. He didn’t even fight back as the zombies buried their nails and teeth into his flesh, dragging him downstairs. Did he scream? Yes. But he remembered nothing, other than the groans of the zombies, as they tore him apart.