THE DAY BEFORE
This is a story of what happened the day before. The day before the world as we knew it came crashing down around us. The day before so many lives came to an end. The day before PERA finally admitted what they’d truly been up too all these years. They were supposed to create a serum to cure all disease, but all they succeeded in was creating another infectious deadly virus. This is our story.

It was an average simple school day nothing out of the ordinary happening (at least not yet). We were in 6th period not doing anything important, just listening to Mrs. Floyd rave about how China is so abused and neglected by the United States. Nothing more than just a simple 10th grade class with a couple of stubborn 16 year olds in it.

These insignificant students are named: Keylie, Madison, Kennedy, Rian, Justin, Ashlyn, Laiken, Jacob, and Austin. Plus an ignorant, stubborn student that obviously doesn’t know right from wrong. Me, David Hixon.

Class was almost over, the teacher was working and we were all quiet. Either Texting, sleeping (Jacob), talking, and surprisingly even working on homework. I was conversing with Austin about the origins of AIDs and how they got to the United States. All the sudden Jacob jerked his head up out of the pile of drool he was making on his desk and shouted, “Grandma Crows!” the whole class looked at Jacob with surprise.

I don’t know why Jacob yells and does stupid stuff all the time, but it’s always hilarious when he does. Jacob is the strongest and biggest kid in the class. His biceps look like somebody surgically implanted a grape fruit into his arm. It’s kind of hard to imagine him doing this stuff, but he does.

Mrs. Floyd walked over to Jacob. She opened her mouth to speak, but the intercom interrupted her before she could say anything. “Will all teachers report to the office immediately,” said a female in a very urgent voice. “Ok class everybody be quiet and stay put, I’ll be right back,” said Mrs. Floyd. As soon as the door clicked shut the class erupted in voices.

Jacob shrugged and laid his head back onto his desk. “What do you think that was all about,” I asked Austin. “What? You think I know?” responded Austin. “I seriously think AIDs came from Korea,” he added quickly. “Austin. Quit trying to change the subject. Why would they call all the teachers?” I said adding a little emphasis on the word all. Suddenly a blood curling scream erupted from down the hallway. All the students looked towards the door in fear, except for Jacob who looked slightly upset now that he was awake. Rian sneezed and it brought me back to my senses. I got out of my chair and rushed towards the door.

Another scream was heard from the hallway, this time it was intelligibly a male. When I reached the door I peered through a small window that was built into it. The lights in the hallway were out. The only light in the hall was coming from the window I was looking through. I couldn’t see anything other than dark shapes flitting in and out of view. I looked away and locked the door.

I turned around to find all my class mates standing out of their seats looking at me with frightened intense faces, except for Jacob. Kennedy was crying, tears streaming down her face. The screams started again, this time even louder. Instead of screams of terror it was of pain. They were so horrifying and terrible you couldn’t even tell the gender. Austin, Laiken, Rian, and Keylie looked out the small window. Each of them jumped back in shock when they saw something. None of them were able to get a good view to tell what the things roaming the halls were.

The screams carried on for at least an hour. Each one spaced out at different times. Sometimes a whole bunch of people screamed all at once. We sat down on the floor texted, talked, even played paper football. Anything we could to entertain ourselves.

Long after the phones all died, the paper ran out, and people didn’t have anything interesting to talk about, the screams finally died down. Everything was quiet, not a sound other than the breathing of terrified students. Austin was frantically texting his girlfriend. Somehow he had conserved his battery, unlike the others. Jacob was staring blankly out of the window in the back of the classroom. Nobody saw anything out of the window. Nothing at all. No passing cars, people, or school buses. We didn’t even see any birds outside.

‘If we weren’t in this stupid classroom we would be in 8th period already,” I told myself. Austin’s phone suddenly started ringing. He’s a music fan so his ringtone was some guy screaming at the top of his lungs. I flinched at the sound even though I had gotten used to his ringtone since we hung out a lot. Austin picked up the phone and answered, “Hello? “ I wasn’t close enough to understand what the other person was saying, but it was clearly a female, possibly his girlfriend. “No! Lock the door or barricade it or something!” shouted Austin. He had the attention of the whole classroom now. Even Jacob was watching. “Alicia, Alicia calm down. Everything’s going to be all right,” he sounded actually serious and calm for once in his life. Then a dreadful scream came from the phone. It was loud enough for all the students to hear. Austin slowly sat the phone down on the ground. Alicia’s voice was still blaring over the phone. Austin’s face was pale and expressionless. The screaming finally stopped, you could hear a sort of really loud static sound coming from the phone. It took me a second to realize it was the sound of munching, as if someone was eating right over the phone. I crawled over to where Austin sat and picked up the phone. I ended the call unable to stand the awful sounds coming from it.

“She’s gone, she’s really gone,” said Austin with ultimate despair in his voice. “Austin I’m…..” I paused unable to think of anything I could say to help my friend. “I think she’s ok, she’s too tough to go down like that.” I finally managed to mummer out in the most reassuring voice I could. Keylie suddenly rose up, her blonde hair streaming down her shoulders. “I don’t know about you guys, But I don’t plan on ending up like that girl on the phone,” she said pointing at the phone still lying on the floor. “I’m getting out of here, so who’s coming with me?” she added. Rian, Madison, Ashlyn, and Justin all stood up. “What? You want to go out there with those things?” asked Laiken. She was obviously completely against the idea. “It’s better than waiting for them to come in here,” responded Keylie. “Fine, you think I care if you die. Go for it,” said Laiken through clenched teeth. Keylie marched out of the room, the others right on her heels.

I would have gone, but there was no way I was going to leave my friends behind. Not even four minutes later, we heard the terrified screams of are fellow students coming from down the hall. “I stood up and said, “Okay guys, we seriously need to get out of here. I don’t plan on dying today.” “I’m with you bro, I can’t stand it in this room any longer,” said Austin as he stood up. Jacob walked over towards us and gave a nod in agreement. Kennedy stood up wiping tears from her eyes once again. “I’m coming too,” she said in a faint voice. “Laiken? What about you?” I asked. “No, I’m staying here no way I’m going out there with those things,” said Laiken. “Alright,” I sighed knowing that we wouldn’t come back.

“We’ll need weapons to fend off those…… things,” I said. I still described them as things because I hade no idea what exactly they were. We searched the room looking for anything that would possibly hurt or kill something. Jacob had a small knife in his pocket that we could possibly use. Austin found a broom in the closet. He broke the head of the broom off and sharpened the broken end with Jacobs’s knife. Austin was actually very scary looking with a sharp object in his hand. Jacob pocketed the knife and walked over to the nearest desk. ‘Hey David, can you give me a hand real quick?” asked Jacob in his deep booming voice. If you hadn’t known him you would have thought he was older than he actually was. “Sure,” I responded. “Hold down the desk while I rip the back off this chair,” said Jacob. “Ok?” I said a little confused about what was going on. I put my hands on the desk pushing down on it really hard. Jacob grabbed the back of the chair and pushed down breaking the back of it off. He picked up the broken part of the chair brandishing it like a mace. Kennedy had found a pair of scissors which she now clutched tightly in her hands. I saw two heavy looking paper weights lying on Mrs. Floyd’s desk. I picked them up and put them in my pocket. I searched the room looking for something else I could use. I spotted a small dusty old flag laying the corner. It was made out of metal and seemed pretty sturdy to me, so I took it. “Alright guys are you ready?” I asked.

They all nodded their heads in response. I turned to the doorway and unlocked the door. I slowly put my hand on the door knob scared of what might be on the other side. I turned my head and saw my friend staring intently at me. I finally opened the door and stepped into the pitch black hallway. The first thing I noticed when I stepped out was a small yellow toy truck lying in the middle of the hallway. I took a step closer and saw that it was surrounded by a large pool of blood. Off to the right side of the blood was a tiny familiar looking ring. Mrs. Floyd’s wedding ring and it was still attached to her hand.

I stared at the severed hand in horror for several seconds. Jacob walked past me going down the dark hallway. I quickly followed after careful to avoid the small pond of blood on the floor. I peered through an open classroom door on the right and instantly regretted it. Lying in a massive pile of gore on the floor of the classroom was Keylie.

She was missing both legs and I could see into her through multiple holes in her body. Her intestines and innards were scattered throughout the room. Her hair was completely matted with blood, so thick you couldn’t even tell the hair color. The only reason I could tell it was her was because her face was left unharmed. She seemed to be peacefully sleeping other than the blood that was surrounding her mouth. She must have had a ruptured lung or something. The smell suddenly hit me and I almost retched onto the floor. I stepped into the room and saw Justin propped up against the wall in a corner. Half of his face was missing.



It looked like a horse had taken a huge bite out of the left side of his face. His remaining eye hung out of its socket dangling from a small piece of flesh that it was still attached to. I gapped in horror at such a scene. I’ve seen gore before on video games, but nothing I’ve ever seen would prepare me for such an awful display of brutality. I was almost ready to cry for my two dead class mates when Austin and Kennedy appeared in the doorway.

I walked out of the awful room closing the door behind me. I didn’t think Kennedy saw what was inside the room, but Austin did I could tell by the horrified expression on his face. On the way down the hall to catch up with Jacob we stumbled upon another body, but this time it was alive. Madison lay on the ground propped up by a trash can cradling her arm. When she saw us she picked up a rusted kitchen knife with her non injured hand. “Calm down, It’s just us!” I said. “Sorry. I thought you were one of those things,” she said, her voice was strained. She was obviously in much pain. She gently laid down the knife. Austin and I knelt beside her.

“Let me see your arm,” I said in a tender voice. She reluctantly showed me her arm. I gasped in shock at what I saw, she had been bitten. There were large teeth marks surrounding her forearm and it was definitely infected. I wished Laiken had come along her mother was a doctor so she might have known what to do. “It hurts so much, one of those things bit me,” she cried out. I could not imagine how much pain she was going through at this point. “Can you stand?” I asked. “I don’t know,” she responded, tears beginning to stream from her eyes. She attempted to stand and screamed out in pain. “Hold still I need to go find Jacob. Kennedy, stay with Madison,” I said reassuringly.

I stood up and raced down to the end of the hall where Jacob was standing, Austin was right behind me, his footsteps echoing down the hall. Jacob was staring through the double doors. I looked toward the double doors he was staring at. Behind the door were people, human people. Yet they were different. They were smeared in blood from head to toe. Several were missing appendages an arm or a foot. Two of them were clawing at the door with their hands. Leaving red stains all over the glass. They obviously had been scratching at the door for a long time. The fingers on their hands were rubbed down to stubs. They were making long drawn out moaning sounds. It seemed almost like they were hungry for some reason.

It was maddening listening to them just repeatedly slam the palm of their hands against the glass. All of their eyes were glazed over with a dull gray color. It seemed as if they were dead, “the undead” I said to myself as I thought for an appropriate name. A bigger man appeared in the crowd. A lot bigger than Jacob, Jacob took a step back. The big guy slowly walked towards the doors. He started beating on the doors in a wind milling motion with both hands. A crack appeared in the glass on the left door. This seemed to encourage the undead monsters even more. They started vigorously beating on the doors again. Something grabbed my arm.

I spun around brandishing my metal flag. I thought about how useless this flag would actually be in a fight. It was Austin. He had to shout for me to hear him over the madness behind me. Jacob had already disappeared. “We need to get out of here now!” screamed Austin. He took off back to the direction we came from and I followed after. I heard a deafening roar of anger behind me. I turned around I turned around just in time to see the big guy raise his heavy leaden fist and punch the window one final time. The glass bulged inward spewing small shards in every direction. The big guy smirked slightly and backed away. It was the first expression I’d seen from the monstrous beings outside. As soon as he stepped away the things started pouring through the window.