This Beautiful World - Book #1 (BxB)

Chapter 3

The four of us sat together on the floor. Me, Riley, and Alex had our backs against the walls while Jonathan sat across from us. As for the other students, well, they seemed to fade into the background for me. None of them offered any help when we were facing that zombie and they weren't helping us come up with a plan either. Not like the four of us knew what to do right now either. The only thing we really knew was that we couldn't sit around here waiting for something to happen. The longer we waited, the less time Jonathan had. He was already starting to look pale.   

"Not to be a dick or anything, but maybe you shouldn't be so close to us. I'd rather not die today," Alex commented as he directed his gaze at Jonathan. 

"It's not like I want to put your life in danger either. We need to start coming up with some ideas, though. There are other lives on the line and as long as I'm still me, I want to help," he replied. 

Alex looked like he had some smart remark to say, so I cut him off before he could get any words out. "We appreciate any help that we can get. Since this seems like it just started in our area, maybe there won't be too many of those creatures. We should search the room for any sort of weapon and maybe one of the other students has something in their backpacks that we can use. Everyone needs to work together if we want to make it out of here."

"Fuck the others. We need to think about our own survival, Aiden. My car is in the parking lot. I always have my keys on me, so if we run for it then we should make it there just fine." Alex sounded pissed off, which only annoyed me. I understood that he was worried about surviving, but how could he actually suggest that we abandon everyone else?

It seemed like I was the only one worried about everyone else. Riley finally spoke up after being quiet since this whole incident started. "I'm sorry, Aiden, but I agree with Alex. As much as I don't want to leave everyone else behind, we need to think about our safety. We can't possibly save everyone. Getting to Alex's car is our best bet for getting out of here. And either way, if that is our goal, then we wouldn't be able to help everyone  anyway."

I knew that they had a point, but it was still fucked up. I looked at Jonathan to see if he agreed with me. After all, he said that he wanted to help. Instead of standing up for me like I hoped he would, he shook his head. It was three against one. I knew that I wasn't going to win this argument. 

"Damn it, fine. But we should still let the others know so that they can try to escape on their own." That was the least that we could do for them. Maybe they couldn't come with us when we eventually reached the car, but we could tell them that we planned on getting out of here. Maybe one of the other students had a car of their own. 

"I'll let them know. You three should search the room for any sort of weapon that you can use." With that, Jonathan stood up. He left us and approached the students that were towards the back of the class. When he got closer to them, I noticed them recoil in fear, which made him stop just before he reached them. 

As Jonathan talked to the others, Alex was the first of us three to get to his feet. I followed shortly after and helped Riley to her feet. She was still shaken up from what happened. 

"Hey, we're going to be okay. Stay close to me once we try to make our escape." I didn't know if that would comfort her. I wanted to assure her that we would all make it out of this alive, but I didn't know what the future held. Anything could have been waiting outside for us when we walked out that door. 

She nodded. At least she wasn't frozen by the fear. We wouldn't have to force her to come with us, which was a relief. Alex might have wanted to leave the others behind, but I knew that he couldn't do the same to Riley. The three of us have been friends for a long time now. We wouldn't abandon each other. 

I glanced over at Alex and saw him pull the scissors out of our professor's head. The sight made me feel sick to my stomach, but we did need weapons. Scissors weren't the best weapon since it did take some force to plunge those into the professor's skull, yet it was better than going out there empty-handed. Now we needed to find something for me and Riley. 

I knew that I didn't have anything in my backpack that we could use and I didn't want to ask the other students for anything now. If they had something, then they would need it to defend themselves. I began to search through the professor's desk once again. There had to be something here that I could use. 

When I opened up the last drawer, I was lucky when my eyes landed on a pocket knife. It was hidden under the papers in the drawer. I wouldn't question why the professor had this in the classroom. It was another close combat weapon. I hope that we wouldn't actually have to get close to these creatures. Riley still needed something. 

I looked up at her to see that Alex was already handing her something. It was a yardstick, which wouldn't be able to kill the zombies, but she could use it to keep them away from her if any of them got close. Anything was better than nothing. 

"Did you find anything?" Alex asked me. I showed him the knife that I found. "Looks like you found the best weapon for now. Shall we get going? We probably shouldn't waste any more time."

Shortly after we were prepared to leave, Jonathan joined us. With every minute that passed, he was looking worse. "I let the others know. Some of them might follow us, but there are a few who want to stay here and wait it out."

That was their choice. Jonathan told them what we were going to do. Whether they followed us or not, I prayed that they would all be safe. None of us knew what we would be facing and we didn't know what the world outside of this campus was like. If we were only starting to get infected people, then I could only imagine what the cities were like. Thinking about this made me start to worry about my family's well-being. My mom and sister were in the closest town from here. 

"When we move this desk out of the way, I'll take the lead. I've already been scratched after all. I don't want the same thing to happen to the rest of you," Jonathan said. 

Before moving the desk, we waited and listened for any sound. The zombie that was banging on it before stopped. There was only silence from beyond the door, but that didn't mean that she wasn't there anymore. She could still be close by. We waited for another minute and when we heard nothing, we moved the desk. 

Jonathan opened the door.