School vs. Zombies

Chapter 3

Lucas poked his head out of the backstage entrance and looked down the hallway. It was the hallway Mr. Ladelson's room was in, so it's no further than they've already been. On a positive note, there were still no signs of any zombies.

"Okay," Lucas whispered. "The coast is clear. The front office is a straight left from here. It's lengthy, but it's there."

"Alright," Jerry whispered in reply. "You lead the way."

"You're usually the leader of everything," Becky pointed out. "Why don't you lead the way?"

"Because I only lead my own plans and ideas," Jerry replied. "Plus, if a zombie does a sneak attack from the front, at least it'll be Harving getting killed and not me."

"How nice to know you care," Lucas grumbled. He then took one last look down the hallway.

"Phoebe, do you have the ammo?" he asked the chubby sophomore.

"Yep," she replied as she held up a box of unopened nails. They looked pretty long for construction purposes, but that could easily be used to their advantage.

"Everybody, get a nail loaded, just in case." Lucas commanded. The high-schoolers quickly did just that as quietly as they could.

"Okay, let's head out on the count of three," he told them all.

"Wait," Ned suddenly said, "does that mean 'one, two, go' or 'one, two, three, go'?"

"Does that really matter?" Becky asked.

"Yes, actually! I don't want to go out too soon or too late!"

"Shhhh!" Lucas shushed loudly. "Okay, if it's that important, Ned, it's 'one, two, go'. Okay?"

"Got it."

"Okay...let's do this."

The high schoolers all carefully held their slingshots tightly and waited for the signal.

"One," Lucas counted quietly, "two...three!"

With Lucas in the lead, the teens quickly and quietly went down the hallway, weapons at the ready. As they walked, Lucas was sure to keep his eyes peeled for any signs of life, whether it be human or zombie. He really hoped they'd encounter another human, though; the thought of six sole survivors doesn't sound very encouraging.

"Hold up!" Jerry suddenly told them all.

Lucas turned around and saw the jock looking through one of the classroom door windows.

"What is it?" Becky asked.

"There's something in written on the wall in here," Jerry replied. "I can't tell exactly what it says, though..."

Curious, Lucas sneaked over to the window and looked inside. It was the choir room, which was normally very organized; Mr. Evans is a neat freak, as it were. But now, the room had chairs knocked all over the place, and the giant mirror in front of the room had been partially shattered. The main focus, though, was what was written in red on the wall next to the mirror.

"I can't make out the whole thing," Ned admitted as he poked through. "It looks like something along the lines of "is not here"."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Becky asked.

"Who cares?" Chelsea replied with a hint of annoyance. "Can we just get out of this place already?"

"Right," Lucas replied as he looked back down the hallway. "C'mon, guys. Let's go."

Lucas then continued down the hall, checking behind him to make sure everyone was following, which they all seemed to be. It may have been a trick of the mind, but whenever he looked back, it was almost as if Phoebe was looking directly at him every time; however, she'd look away as soon as he turned.