Striving to Survive [DISCONTINUED]

1 []Outbreak[]

[3 Months Earlier]

Waking up. It's always the same, everyday again and again. School. History repeating itself endlessly. Until today.

7th period, PE. Any other day I would've been more than happy for PE to end, but not for this.

No, never for something like this.

The P.A. system sprung to life. The lazy murmur of students slowly dissolved into silence to listen to the current announcement.

"Attention students. Word of a deadly outbreak has spread to a local hospital through blood, medicine and research samples. The infection causes it's host to slowly and painfully shut down the body. Once it is shut down the infection will fully activate and trigger part of the brain which causes the once deceased host to reanimate and act rabidly, attacking others, clawing and biting. The disease is severely contagious, spreading through a single bite of an infected host. So it seems as if there is some sort of Zombie Apocalypse."

Zombie Apocalypse...

The words rang in my ears, but only long enough for my friend Sedecca to snap me out of it.

"Esadeth!" She whispered pulling me back into reality, "Doesn't your mom work at the hospital?"

The realization suddenly dawned at me amid the crowd of high schoolers and almost instantly I sprung into action. I sprinted for the door but was blocked by the brawny gym teacher.

"Excuse me sir, I really need to get out of here, see, my mom-"

"Um excuse me, but we need all students and faculty to remain inside the building until we make sure it is safe to evacuate."

"But sir, you don't understand! I really need to get to my mom, she works at the hospital. She's in danger!"

"Look, I can't let anyone out of the building. It's against our emergency procedure's policy. If we were to let anybody out, it would be dangerous for all of us. The school is contacting your parents, just be patient. Take a seat on the benches with everyone else."

I stared into his icy blue eyes, on the verge of tears. "I hope they eat you alive." I muttered harshly. I turned away before a response and stomped back into the crowded benches of high schoolers. I felt pale, thin arms wrap around me from behind. Aspen. "It's ok Esadeth." She spoke in a light bubbly whisper. I can't help but smile a little at her voice.

[]-[]-[]-[]

Slowly more and more students began to pluck off the wooden, sweat stained benches, off to their homes, off to their families...

Their safe... Safe families..

"Esadeth?" Aspen's light voice crashed unexpectedly into my train of thought. "You okay, Esa?" Sedecca asked playfully. I know she was trying. I know they were both trying, but I knew how this was going to end.

Yes! Say yes.

Any other day I would've said yes. But this isn't any other day. Times are changing. And soon so will we. "No." My voice rasped. I hug my knees to my chest and allowed the tears to roll freely down my face. They looked at each other worriedly as I sulked into my denim jeans. I felt their arms wrap around me in an attempt of comfort.

"Sedecca?" I asked rather sadly. Her eyes widened, a bit surprised that I had spoken. "What is this?" I asked shakily. "I'm scared. I'm scared for my family. I'm scared for myself. And I don't know what's happening. Just tell it like it is; please. Are we going to be okay?" I questioned.

She stared at me for a moment with a look of sympathy and opened her mouth for a second; but she was silent. Then she nodded.

I watched as she rolled her head around the room. She had a sudden sharp focus. "Well hun... I'll tell you what it is but it ain't gonna be pretty....It looks like we're in an apocalypse, it's going to be dangerous, and these are the 'survivors' we're stuck with if we don't get picked up." She turned and pointed at a group of kids around us. "Survivors that could barely survive without a wifi password." I heard her mutter which caused me to smile.

That was when I turned to look at them. There were four others. One sleeping under his hoodie leaning against another sleeping boy with his mouth hanging wide open. There was an air-headed cheerleader that seemed completely captivated in examining her nails and a boy with a red SnapBack that seemed lost in a hurricane of thoughts. "Your soft Esa, most of us are, so..."

She looked me dead in the eye with unmitigated seriousness.

"We're dead."