Ep4

Judy looks at Scarlett, confused. I laugh bitterly. Seems like I"ve been laughing a lot lately. "I don"t want to be friends with you. You"re toxic AF." Scarlett looks at me, then rolls her eyes. "You can lie all you want," she pauses and leans in, just a few centimetres from my face. "But I know that you"re a pacifist." My heart drops. She"s right. I hate drama. It never ends well. Glaring I turn on my heels and head towards the storage room. "Uh uh!" What now? "Get it from the cafeteria!" Judy"s face pales. "Charlotte don"t do this." She pleads. "You haven"t been there before. It"s dangerous!" What should I do? "Judy...I need to do this. If I"m not back in an hour tell the others" And, without looking back, I left.

I walked for a bit, heading towards the middle school. I went downstairs and walked along the hall. A glimmer of moonlight slips in through the window, illuminating my path. I can"t help but stare at it. Everything seems so peaceful. That"s when I see it.

It"s an old one. Grey, decaying. I can smell it"s rotting flesh through the wall. It swings its arms back and forth as it walks, as if it is trying to throw them off it"s body. It turns around and it sees me. With an unearthly screech it rushes towards me. Without even thinking, I run and hide under the window. My heart is pounding. I"m scared now that the zombie might hear it. I wait for a minute. Then two. Slowly, I stand up. It was gone. Maybe they relied on sight to hunt? I made a mental note of this and turned to keep walking. Wait, what am I doing? Why should I keep going? I"m going back! I turned and ran for the stairs. I took up them two at a time, before I crashed into someone.

Sitting on the floor, I looked up. Ethan was standing there looking down on me. "Uh, howdy!" I say cheerfully. Ethan looks at me suspiciously. "What are you doing here?" he asks. This is my chance! I can dob Scarlett in! But that would make me no better than her. "I got hungry, so I came looking for snacks." Ethan relaxes at my answer. "It"s dangerous down here. Heaps of rogues. We probably should"ve told you that. Come with me, I have some food in my room." I nod and follow Ethan as he leads the way. I can"t help but feel betrayed by Scarlett though. She knew I could get hurt down here! In fact, I could"ve even been killed! I was smart to turn back when I did. Otherwise all Ethan would"ve found down here is my dead body. I give a shiver and try not to look back behind me.

Ethan and I are walking back towards his room when we notice that everyone else is already gathered in 1-C. The meeting! I had completely forgotten about that. Ethan and I walk in and I take a seat next to Judy. I can"t help but notice how tense she is. I give her hand a squeeze and a small smile, telling her to relax. I just focus on Judy and ignore Scarlett"s death stare. Lawrence stands up and calls the meeting to attention. "Alright guys," he begins. "We have patrols tonight. We need two people for each area. Tonight, we are doing," he pauses to look at a piece of paper. "The main floor, upstairs, the basement, and the courtyard." "The courtyard?" The words pass my lips before I can stop them. I get looks from the others, but I decide to keep going. "Aren"t there zombies out there? It can"t be safe. By going out there you"re risking your life!" Lawrence smiles and explains a bit more to me. "It"s really just a quick sweep around the building. Just check for anything that seems out of place." I sit down, unsatisfied, but I do understand the importance of doing these patrols.

Scarlett grins at me. "Hey Charlotte!" Ugh. Her tone is so sickly sweet. Over in his corner Jay snickers and Sue gives him a glare. "Why don"t you do the courtyard? Or are you too scared?" I am scared. The thought of going back out there with that thing makes me want to scream and cry and hide. But I can"t say that. I think and choose my option. "I"ll do the courtyard." This takes everyone by surprise. "You said it"s just a quick sweep, right?" I ask Lawrence. He nods slightly, looking a bit uneasy. "Well then, you guys have done it before and lived and there"s the gate, so I reckon it"ll be alright." Everyone looks too tired to argue, except for Scarlett but I don"t really care about her. "Alright then. It"s settled." Lawrence goes on and puts the others into pairs and then we all head our separate ways. Harry walks over to me. "Looks like you"re with me! We just need to grab some supplies, then we can head out."

Our supplies seem to include some water, snacks, a roll of bandages each and a weapon. "A weapon!" My surprise at this is obvious. "Oh, it"s nothing like a gun or anything. Just some planks of wood, baseball bats, and metal pipes and such. Basic stuff." I walk around for a bit before settling on a sturdy looking baseball bat. I follow behind Harry as he leads me out into the courtyard, through an exit I had never seen before. We walk around for a bit and check for holes in the walls. As I"m walking, I notice something white sticking out of a bush. I head over towards and I scream when I see it. I fall over and back away, trying to hold back the food threatening to come back up. Harry comes running over, ready to fight. "Charlotte! Are you ok?" I nod as I shakily stand up. "Just got a fright." Harry looks at me worriedly. "Are you sure?" I nod again, not daring to speak in case I vomit all over him. "All right, well that"s all we had to do. Let"s head back." As we turn and walk back to the school, I see something glimmering on the ground.

"Hang on a sec." I jog over and pick it up. "What is it?" Harry calls out. "A key! I wonder what it"s used for." Harry seems excited by my find. "There"s a dozen locked classrooms! And if not, it might unlock a locker!" We walk back into the building, discussing what it could be used for. When we arrive back in 1-C, I notice we are the first ones back, except for Lawrence who is writing down something in a journal. At the sound of our footsteps, he looks up expectantly. "Welcome back. Take a seat the others should be here soon." He looks so tired. Has he been staying up just for us? "Did you find anything?" he asks. "Yea we did, actually." Says Harry. "We should wait for the others to get back before we say anything though. I don"t want to talk twice."

We wait for a while, trying to keep ourselves awake. Eventually everyone is here, except for those who already went to bed. Lawrence stands up and clears his throat. "Alright everyone. Harry and Charlotte have found something." Harry stands up as well and begins to explain what happened. "In all honesty it was Charlotte who saw it. I didn"t even see it." "So, what is it?" Zion calls out. "That"s what I was going to ask..." Hailey mumbles. I stand to join Harry and hold out my palm, with the key inside. "A key?" Jay is the first to react. "That"s what it is?" "It could lead to a locked classroom or even a locker. There could be useful things inside." I retaliate. "What rooms are locked?" asks Sue. "The music room, library, broadcasting room, the principals office, the storage shed outside, the teachers lounge and the roof." lists Eugene. Wait. The roof isn"t locked. He and I were up there this morning. I give him a look and he shakes his head at me. I"m not sure why he"s lying but I decide not to say anything.

"It"ll be a waste of time." Zion is calling from the back of the room. "The most it"ll be is a distraction from this boredom. Which we need. But still I say it"s a waste of time that could be used to prep for another wave." I look at him as he rolls his eyes at me. "If you need a distraction so much, then why don"t you come with me tomorrow to try it out?" Zion looks surprised that I"ve asked him this. Still he shrugs his shoulders and responds with a casual "Sure." Jay stands up and heads to the door. "And with that settled, I"m going to bed." Zion laughs and turns to Eugene. "He sounds like you." Eugene punches his arm and retorts "Nope!" Although they tease each other they seem to have a good relationship. I close my eyes, letting myself rest for a minute, a smile on my lips. When was the last time I had been this happy? A voice arouses me from my daydream. "You going to bed?" I look up to see Ethan staring down at me. The room is completely empty except for the two of us. "Yeah in a minute. I"m just gathering my thoughts." He nods and walks away.

After a long time, I finally get up and head to my room. Inside Judy is already asleep. I sigh and lay down on my side of our makeshift bed. I open my bag next to me and plug in my music. I choose a song called "RUDE-Eternal Youth" and settle down and close my eyes. But before I do, I take a few of my pills. I"m trying hard to weasel myself off them but so far it hasn"t been working. I"m just lowering my doses now. I don"t even know if I should. They help with the pain. My bottle is nearly full, so I should be ok in the meantime. As I put them away, I hear a shuffle in front of the door. I get up and open it, ready to face Scarlett, but no one is there. Strange. Probably just rats, them little buggers. I close the door and drift off to sleep, ready to face the morning.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***