Love, blood, and zombies

I glance at the clock, only thirty minutes until school is over. The intercom crackles to life," This an emergency assembly, please go to the gym." My teacher, Mrs. David grabs the emergency red bag and says, "Line up at the door. Quietly!" Everyone goes to the door, whispering and wondering what's going on. "Izzy." I look to my left to see my best friend, Zea. "What do you think is going on?" I shrug and say," Its probably nothing."

    We get to the gym, it smells like sweat and confusion. Our class sits on the bleachers. Someone taps me on the shoulder. I turn around it's my boyfriend, Tim. He smiles at me and blows me a kiss. I pretend to catch it and roll my eyes. A class sits in the row in front of us. I see my friend Julia then I see Tyler. Tyler is... how to describe our relationship. In middle school, we were close friends. I even had a crush on him. Once we got to high school all that changed. It was a competition we would constantly compete to be best on the track team. Our friendship was strained at best. My thoughts are interrupted by the principal. "Good afternoon everyone, You're probably wondering why you here. In numerous labs across the country, including one near us. An experiment was occurring, on reanimation." Zea whispers, Reanimation. Like the fancy word for zombies?" The principal continues, "They were successful in reanimate twenty human subjects. Unfortunately, many of these subjects escaped three days ago." A girl a couple of rows in front of us gasps. "It has come to the scientist's attention that if bitten." The principal pauses take a deep breath then continues," If you are bitten, you get infected and convert into one too." Gasps erupt from all across the gym, several people pass out. "OMG actual zombie," Zea mutters. "I like sci-fi but, I don't wanna live through a zombie apocalypse," I whisper back "Okay everyone, I know that this is scary, but you'll be safe. Your parents have agreed to let you stay here until the evening. After the assembly, you'll go to your homeroom and stay there with the doors locked until your parents can pick you up." Tim leans in from behind me and whispers," Seriously more school." I try and laugh off my fear but Zea can tell I'm worried, she squeezes my hand.

    In homeroom, most kids are playing on their phones or texting their friends and family. It was supposed to be like an extended study hall, but no one was doing schoolwork. "Hey, Izzy." I look up, its Tyler. "Hey," I say back. "Some people from the track are sneaking to my place. My parents are at a meeting in New York. Do you want to come with us? Julia and Zea are coming." I could imagine Zea going. I'm surprised Julia would go, though it's not like we're doing to do anything important. I smile, "I don't know with 'zombies' I'd rather stay-" I'm interrupted by a blood-curdling scream from the hall, "ZOMBIE" I instinctively look at the window in the door. I see a boy, pushed against the glass, covered in blood. A pale grey hand wraps around his neck and yanks him away. I stare at the blood, dripping down the glass. Tyler grabs my hand, pulling me out my daze, "Come on, you're coming with us." I yank my hand away, "No! It's safe here." He rolls his eyes, "The door won't hold." Tyler nods to some other people, we head out the backdoor. Our teacher is too busy comforting other students to even notice. Once we're out of our room, we sprint towards the student parking lot. I hear a faint voice yelling at us to "Come back here." We get to Tyler's car "Izzy, you can ride in my car," Tyler asserts. "No, I can drive in my own car, " I explain. "You don't know where you're going. We can always come back for your car." "Fine, I say as I jerk the passenger side door of his car. Some people I recognize from track, Elijah and Sam, sit in the backseat. And we head off to Tyler's house.

    We pull up to Tyler's house if you can even call it that. It's huge. Once we're inside I see that there are around 10 people mostly people from the track, but some that aren't. I see Julia she runs over and pulls me into a hug. "Did you see the zombie," she asks. My phone rings "hold on," I say, "Its Tim" I go upstairs to take the call.

"Hey babe," I say "Where are you! I've been looking for you," he shouts  "Don't worry I'm at Tyler's," I say trying to calm him down. "Seriously I've been looking for you and you're at another man's house! Well maybe all spend this apocalypse with my ex, cuz we're over" he bellowed. "Babe it is not a big deal," he hangs up. I let an exasperated sigh and plop down on the couch. "You okay?" I jump up and see Tyler leaning against the doorframe. "Yeah, I'm fine," Tyler walks over to the couch. "Why do you always get back with him? Didn't he cheat on you last year?" Tyler asks. Annoyed I  shoot back, "Why are you here?" "I saw you come here and wanted to make sure you were fine. And I live here," he added "Oh yeah. Of course," I stammer. "You never answered my question, why are you with Tim you could do so much better, " inquires Tyler. "I'm with him because I love him and he loves me." I reply  "Are you trying to convince me or yourself?" Tyler questions "He loves me," I say, wanting this conversation to end. "Don't tarnish the name of love with your on-off relationship. You deserve someone who really loves you" I look at my feet, to hide my flushed cheeks. My phone beeps, I check it. "It's my mom," I say avoiding eye contact. "She says that she and my dad will have to stay overnight at work because their buildings are surrounded." I read. "Your welcome to crash here. Some others are staying, too." "sure." I smile. 

We head back downstairs. It's like a regular party, but I know that outside these walls, a crisis is going on people separated from family. People on the run from zombies. But here it's normal. "lets party," I say smiling

I wake up to a scream the next morning. I jolt awake. My mind is racing, whose couch am I on? what's on my shoulder? I glance over, Tyler's head is resting against my shoulder. The fact he's still sleeping is surprising but what was that scream? Julia runs into the room, she starts shaking some people "Wake up," she begs, "Come on guys, their zombies outside." I start shaking Tyler "What?" He must realize what's going. "Come on. Get your sleepy butt up, we gotta go," I tell him. I move on to waking everyone else up. everyone's groggy but they're finally up. "Okay guys, they're like 5 zombies outside. " Tyler interrupts Julia, "We need to leave, but first gather supplies, John you know where the food is. a boy nods I'm going to the garage, we happen to have a van that can fit most of us plus the cars everyone came here with" "I don't want to go with you, U want to head home party at my place, " Sam Announces. "Fine, if you want to party instead of trying to go somewhere safe, leave." Several people leave. Only Tyler, Julia, John, Elijah, Zea, and I are left. "Well I know somewhere that's safe, I believe. John grab some snacks, it's a four-hour drive."

After we promptly collect supplies we pile into a black van. Probably not recommended for people to just hang out in the open back. Tyler takes the first turn driving and the rest of us sit on the floor in the back. It's a little small, but everyone has a fair amount of personal space. We've been driving for almost ten minutes, nobody's said anything. To decide to try and break the deathly silence, "Where are we going?" everyone looks at Tyler. he pulls over on the side of the road and turns around. "We're heading to the building where the experiment happened," he says. "What?" John exclaims. "My parents were part of the team that was working on project Frankenstein. the one that created this whole mess, to begin with. my parents texted last night and told me they would offer me protection. I'm not sure if they'll be upset I'm bringing you guys too but I'm, not leaving you all to die." "okay," says Elijah. Elijah was one of the best hurdlers on the track team, and one of the quietest. "let's play a game," Zea says. We all nod. "How about truth or dare?" john suggest with a sly smile. Whatever he's planning it'll be no good. "fine," I  say. "okay truth or dare, Zea," Julia says "dare," Zea responses. "call your last boyfriend and ask to get back together." Zea's expression turns cold, but she still grabs her phone and dials. Someone's phone rings, everyone looks at each other. Suddenly Elijah picks up his phone, "hey Eli, I'm really sorry, now everyone knows so," Zea pauses, "do you want to, get back together." Everyone's staring at Elijah now. "Yeah, I missed you too," Elijah says. "What the frick? Eli dude, why didn't you tell us." Elijah looks at the floor, trying to hide his smile. Zea clears her throat "I guess it's my turn. Umm. John, truth or dare," "Truth," John says. "Okay, what's your GPA?" Zea asks. "Wow. Way to try and embarrass me, 4.5" "My turn. Isabella truth or dare," he asks. Tyler choughs from the front seat. "C'mon Izzy truth or dare," john asks again. "truth?" I say. "anyone needs to use the bathroom," Tyler asks loudly.  "Tyler Jones!" john says, "stop interrupting. Now Izzy what are your thoughts on Tyler." "Well we used to be really close, in middle school I even had a crush on him." the van jerks to the left. "Continue," John says. "umm now I gues were friends."

"Interesting, because, Tyler. I shouldn't say but I think you can infer what I'm thinking." John says, "Anyways your turn now." The game proceeds but now with an air of anticipation, and tension.

After that game of truth or dare, things are awkward. We stopped at a gas station. "Hey, about the stuff questions. If it wasn't obvious, I. I like you. That's all I gotta say." Tyler bites his lip and looks at his shoes. "Well Tim and I are over, after that call you overheard. He's probably with his ex now." Tyler looks back up at me, I smile. "Guys we gotta get back on the road. Where's Zea, and Elijah," Julia asks? I walk around to the back of the building. There I see, Zea pushing Elijah against the wall, and kissing him. I cough. They look at me. "We're kinda busy here, " Zea says, Elijah pulls her in for one more kiss then says, "come on Z. We should hit the road again." 

We get settled in the van again. It's John's turn to drive. We're two hours from our destination, the lab. Elijah and Zea are making out in the back of the van. Julia's curled up sleeping. "So how do you know where we're going?" I ask. "Well my parents go there for days at a time, and they told me if I ever really needed them when they're at work they told me I could go there. I've been there several times." "Okay, " I say and we go back to staring at the wall opposite from us. Suddenly I sense Tyler put his next to mine. I decide to take a chance, so I intertwine our hand. From the corner of my eye, I see him look at me. I smile. Then he uses his free hand and turns my face towards him. We hold eye contact for almost a minute until I glance at his lips. That's when he pulls me into him. It's a gentle kiss, then he pulls away to smile at me. "Finally, " John says from the front of the driver's seat. "Yeah, " Zea, cheers. Julia stirs but doesn't wake. "Be quiet, you'll want Julia, " I say. "Whatever." Zea rolls her eyes. "I've got to use the bathroom, " Elijah states, "Can we stop soon."

We stop at a gas station ten minutes later. I'm stretching my legs. When I hear footsteps approaching. Without looking up I say, "Hey." There's no response, so I look up. "Zombie, " I scream. I grab a wood plank that happened to be nearby and swing it. It hits him, insides cover the wall. Blood splatters. "There's more in the front, " Julia screams. I run to the front of the gas station. She was right, there stood almost a dozen zombies. One's come right behind Elijah. "Elijah, behind you." He spins around, but the zombie was taken care of. Zea smashed a glass bottle over its head. "Come on everyone get in the van." We run the van, it helps that we're all track kids. "Where's Tyler? " I ask. "We have to get him, he wouldn't leave anyone else behind, " John says. We run back to the gas station. I find him in the ground, he's holding his side and limping towards the door. "Over here, " I shout. He wraps an arm around our shoulders. We go as fast as we can to the van. Julia puts the pedal to the metal as soon as we get in the van. John lies Tyler down. "Izzy put pressure on the wound." I do as John says. "We're only thirty minutes out," Julia says from the driver's seat. Just keep him alive full then I pray. " Izzy, " Tyler moans. "Shhh. Just rest we're gonna get your help." A tear falls from my cheek. Tyler reaches a hand up and wipes the tears from my face. "Stop being cute and keep the pressure on his wound," John demands. "How'd you get it, " Eli asks. "A zombie scratched me, don't worry it's not a bite. So no need to worry about me turning to a zombie."

Ten minutes later we arrive at Shelley labs. They immediately take Tyler. They give clean his cut and give him stitches. They told me I could see him in five minutes. They told me that fifteen minutes ago. I look at the clock. "Isabella Davison, Tyler Jones is ready for you, " a nurse tells me. He leads me to a room, once I'm inside I run to where Tyler was lying down and hug him. "Hey. Don't worry I'm going to be okay." He hugs me back, " everything's  going to be fine."