I’m dead, Kenzie thought this the moment she closed her eyes, praying it to be quick and painless and deep down knowing that was not possible.

She thought about Mark and Lulu, lost and alone in a school of monsters. More than anything she wanted them to be safe, but the chances of that nearly brought her to tears. No one was safe anymore. There was no longer such a thing as safe.

She braced herself for the pain fast approaching and instead felt a splatter, and then a sudden weight land ontop of her, causing her to freeze. Kenzie opened her eyes to see the blank, lifeless stare of that man again, except this time, the blade tips of Tom’s scissors were peeking out of his left eye. He had stabbed it in the head.

Tom was panting above her, staring at the handle of the scissors and then at her. It took a few moments for him to stop staring and help her up, lending her his hand.

Standing on shaky legs, Kenzie noticed that Tom had taken out that girl as well. Her head slammed into the locker and a blood trail led to her body, crumbled. The body of the teacher laid beside them, the handle of the scissors could be seen sticking out the back of his head. The third remained unmoving as well. All three were down.

She felt like the damsel saved at the last minute by her hero, the scene around them resembling that much like one within a horror flick.

“You OK?”

Kenzie took her time answering him, eventually nodding her head. “Thanks for that.”

“Don’t mention it.”

They both spoke without looking at each other, creating an atmosphere of awkwardness in place of the recent horrors they had just witnessed. But once Kenzie gained the courage to look him in the eye, she saw Tom was staring at her once again, but not at her face this time.

He rose his finger and gestured to her clothes. She looked down to where he was pointing and finally saw what he did.

Some of the blood and black ooze had dripped onto her clothes during the struggle. She then remembered the splatter she felt just as Tom attacked and realized it had come from that thing.

Kenzie studied the stains, same as a scientist would, but without tools. It was definitely blood.

Except it resembled something she’d seen in one of the school science labs.

Staring at the strange substance on her and thinking back to the attack, a theory came to mind.

Kenzie kneeled beside one of the corpses. Tom raised his voice and hand in warning. “Careful.”

She took his advice to heart and moved slowly when examining each body. As she feared, each were bitten. She saw at least one bite mark on each corpse, and a type of infection seemed to spread also, circling where each had been bitten, making the veins awfully visible.

“Tom, look at this,” she called him over, after lifting the shirt of one of the dead, to reveal a large bite mark, clearly human. Tom too examined the bite closely.

“What the hell is going on?”

Kenzie rose to her feet, arms crossed. “I have an idea…but you won’t like it.”

“What?”

She looked straight into his eyes, expression serious and without a single crack. “It’s obvious we’re not up against anything human. Those three were dead long before we showed up.”

Tom froze. “What do you mean? They just – ”

Kenzie cut him off before he could continue.

“Dead bodies coming back to life and attacking. We’ve all heard about it once in our lives. Of course, usually it’s in movies or video games,” she clarified, looking at the three bodies. “They bite you, you become one of them and you kill. And none of them can be stopped without destroying the brain any way possible.”

“It’s that simple,” she said softly, more to herself than to Tom. “How this happened doesn’t matter. What matters is that we stick together and survive, whatever means necessary.”

Tom stared at her for what seemed like forever, possibly contemplating her theory or just thinking of how crazy she sounded, she couldn’t tell which. He looked at the three bodies around them, then back at her. “We’re going to need more weapons.”

Hearing those words, she couldn’t agree more.

Kenzie stood by the window, staring into space, that one word still on her mind. She’d seen enough movies to know exactly what they were up against. She just didn’t want to believe it.

Mark, Lulu, where are you? Wherever you two are, please, please be safe.

Kenzie and Tom searched all three bodies for possible weapons, but found none and were stuck with the two pairs of bloody scissors they already had.

Cautiously, the two made their way to the science building. Along the way, they crossed the paths of other enemies and made good use of the blood-stained blades. But there was still no sign of Mark, Lulu, or anyone else, alive.

They were close to Mark’s first period class when they heard it: a sudden pounding against metal, and snarls that belonged to nothing but one of the dead.

The sounds came from the end of the hall. It was in fact one of them, expect this one was hitting against one of the lockers, clawing at the door like a hungry and wild animal.

Someone’s cries could be heard from inside, and whoever they were, their voice was muffled and almost overpowered by the creature. It was obvious the person inside the locker was scared, their cries not seeming to cease anytime soon.

“It’s just one. We can take it,” Kenzie whispered. “Wait here, get its attention and I’ll take it out.”

Tom quietly nodded his head, and prepared himself.

Being as it was distracted, Kenzie was easily able to get passed the deranged student and move to the other end of the hall. She signaled Tom and he obliged by releasing a whistle loud enough only for it hear, directing the creatures’ attention towards him and not her.

It noticed him right away and moved towards him with a similar animosity as before. However the moment it came towards Tom, Kenzie snuck up behind it and pierced its brain, causing it to collapse to the ground.

The crying from within the locker almost silenced completely.

Tom and Kenzie looked to each other and confirmed each others gratitude with a smile, and together they grasped the locker door. The sobs slightly began to resume.

“Stay quiet, we’re gonna get you out. Just stay calm,” Tom told the person within, who became silent, as if in deep thought. Soon enough, the person spoke to them.

“10 – 19 – 27.”

“What?” Tom asked, looking to Kenzie in confusion. Instead, the person clarified.

“The combination: 10 – 19 -27.”

Both teens stepped back and stopped their attempt to forcibly open the locker. Kenzie reached for the lock and carefully dialed the recited numbers. Sure enough, the door opened and the person inside raised his head to them, revealing a scrawny figure with dark brown hair, and wearing a Spider-Man t-shirt that read: SPECTACULAR.

Her breath caught in her throat and she found herself unable to breath at the sight of him. He stared at her too, wide-eyed and tears still visible. And for the first time in a long while, she began to tear up as well.

She knew that shirt he wore very well. After all, she had bought it for him during their trip to the mall only last month.

Anything for her kid brother.