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At the best of times Liam didn’t like Math, but today it just didn’t seem to cooperate with him. He was sitting in class and not ten minutes in he had already lost focus and begun to daydream looking out the window chin resting on his hand. He saw a few kids run past the window, late for class Liam thought, but then he saw a few more run past. It was odd. Obviously it was normal for one or two students to be late for class but more than that it was a little strange. Thinking back lead to him remembering what he had heard from Stiles. Once is normal, twice is a coincidence, but three times would mean something.
After what felt like an hour staring out the window Liam decided that it was probably time he focused on the lesson before he missed something important and end up behind everyone. He picked up his pencil and straightened up to see what he was meant to be doing.
All around him he started to hear whispers across the class, looking around he saw that people were starting to look out the window as more people ran past, but this time it wasn’t just students but teachers too.
‘That’s the third’, Liam thought still only vaguely interested. he begun to turn back towards his work when there was a shrill scream coming from outside, instantly the goings on of outside had become far more interesting to the class than actually doing the set assignment as every student and the teacher leapt up and looked out the window.
There, just outside, were students and teachers alike running across the field, all running to the exit of the school. It was odd though, not all the students and teachers were running directly to the exit but were instead chasing those that were.
A girl tripped mid-way across before she could do anything at least four of the students had run to her, which seemed a little excessive to help someone up Liam thought but when they reached her she screamed so loudly it sounded as though she was in the room with them. The other students looked on at the crowd not really knowing what to do, but Liam was focused on the girl that had tripped. He couldn't really see what was going on as more people crowded around her, that was until she started screaming again, long agonized screams as Liam finally saw red appearing on the ground under her and on the people crowding around her.
Liams heart filled with dread as he stepped back and breathed a shaky breath. it felt as if the world had gone quiet and cold, looking around he could see that other people had started to notice the girl outside as some started to run out the room in a panicked frenzy while others just took a step back and stared blankly at a random area of the wall.
Just as the panic Liam felt begun to subside, he quickly ran out the room and down the corridor, not really knowing where he was going to until he ran, almost directly, into his best friend Mason.
“Liam! What’s going on?!”, Liam didn’t bother answering straight away instead opting to drag Mason down the hall and into a supply closet.
“Liam! Hey!” Mason was snapping his fingers in Liams face trying desperately to get his attention “What the hell is going on? Why is everyone running and screaming?”, “Liam!”.
Finally Liam seemed to break out of his stupor and looked into Masons eyes, the overwhelming fear welling in his eyes and the borderline violent trembling telling Mason everything he needed to know in that second.
“Ok, you remember your breathing exercise right? Breathe in and out” Mason held Liams’ shoulders knowing that it would help to ground Liam and help to calm him.
“Mason...” Liam started but didn’t get very far before he collapsed to the floor and begun to sob. Mason sat on the floor next to him and just held Liam with his arm around his shoulder.
As a few minutes passed Mason could hear sounds outside the door of people running and screaming as well as some strange sounds as if something was growling. Mason turned to Liam, who had stopped crying and was now just staring blankly at the wall opposite the pair.
“Liam, are you going to tell me what is going on out there or am I going to have to find out myself?”, suddenly Liam turned to Mason and grabbed him stopping him from being able to get up to open the door. “Mason… I think there are zombies out there. Like actual flesh-eating zombies” Liams’ voice was shaky from the crying but determined to make his friend understand.
Obviously Mason didn’t believe him and instead moved to open the door announcing “Liam are you sure you’ve not just been playing that zombie game too much” Mason sounded half serious but definitely a little amused, but Liam held him down, being the stronger of the two.
“Mason I am serious, this isn’t some kind of joke I… I saw someone b-being torn apart!” Liam started breathing heavier, the feeling of a panic attack coming on.
Seeing how much his best friend was panicking Mason knew that this wasn’t a joke, as even if it was he knew that Liam wasn’t that good an actor to pretend to be like this. So he sat back down and stayed silent for a moment. The room was silent, with the occasional sound of running footsteps on the other side of the door the only thing to break the silence. Mason looked at Liam “Hey Liam. I think I have an idea”, Liam didn’t respond but only nodded his head for Mason to continue. “If we wait here for a couple of hours then maybe it might be safer to leave, I mean the zombies will be drawn away from here so we won’t have to worry too much”.
Liam turned to Mason and silently agreed, slumping his back against the wall again and trying to get comfortable for the long wait.
Mason lent forward and dug through his bag, obviously looking for something then, after seemingly finding what he was looking for, he produced a plastic tub from his bag and offered it to Liam “Hungry?”.