[Alicia & Irene]

Irene ignores Travis’s presence, instead focusing on the door leading to the chemistry room.

Alicia wipes her cheeks once she hears the knocking. ”Coming!” she croaks. The moment she sets her eyes on Irene, she grabs the girl into a tight embrace.

Irene is momentarily surprised to see Alicia, but before she can say anything, her sides are crushed by a hug. C-can’t breathe. “Are you okay?” she chokes out. Didn’t expect to find someone I know already though..Guess I must be lucky.

“I-I…I thought I was alone,” Alicia sobs. “Thank god, thank god…”

“It’s okay now,” Irene says softly, rubbing Alicia’s back, “What happened though?” She doesn’t seem to be injured at least. Not physically anyhow.

“I woke up in Mr. D’s room… must have been the leftover fever I had from yesterday. Was locked in by myself. Do you know how there are zombies in the school?” Alicia sniffs and clasps her hands together.

“I’m not sure of the true origin of the zombies, but I know that there are two to three breaches in the school. And we’re fairly close to one right now--the one at MST down,” Irene replies. Examining Alicia, she asks, “Do you need a weapon by the way? I have an extra if you want.”

“That would be nice.”

Irene unslings the spear from her back and hands it to Alicia, “I’m glad to see that you’re alright though. I’ve been wondering what happened to everyone since this whole mess started.”

“What needs to be done?” Alicia takes the spear and motions to the bunsen burners. “I was hoping to mess around with some stuff I got-I know where the chemical closet is and coke supply in my bag. But if we need physical reinforcements it can wait.” She swings the spear around and nods in satisfaction. Really nice weight...wonder if I can attach blades on to it so I can slide as well as stab.

“Our main priority now is to seal up all the breaches. That way we can finally get rid of all the zombies in the school, once and for all. And messing around with chemicals isn’t a bad idea. Maybe we can make Have you eaten at all though?”

At that moment, Alicia’s stomach grumbles. “No...how long has it been? An hour since the lockdown?”

“Ummm.. a lot longer than that,” Irene checks her watch, “It’s 11:26 right now, so 23 hours and 26 minutes since the lockdown started.” Wow. Not even an entire day since this madness started.

“Really?” Alicia cracks a smile. “Bet I can compete with you in a pizza eating contest now.” She opens a bottle of diet coke and took a swig, EW EW EW I KNEW I HATED DIET COKE. Even when I’m starving and probably dehydrated I still hate it. Still, she swallowed it, making a face. “I guess I can survive on this now. Is there any other food available?”

“Ha. I doubt it. There is a place where we can get food, but..” Irene’s voice drops to a low whisper, “No one else can know about it. Otherwise people are going to make rash decisions.”

Alicia perks up. “Rash decisions? What has happened so far?” Other people?

“Nothing, as of yet since I did damage control. But everyone knows that there’s food in the cafeteria, but not everyone knows that they can access it,” Irene says quietly, eyes darting towards Travis.

Alicia widens her eyes. “Oh, it’s not just you. Travis and…”

[Irene]

“...And Matt. I’m guessing you two never really got to know each other in what, the three years you’ve been in the same school?”

[Alicia]

“Ah Matt. It’s hard to know everyone in my grade. I think I’ve seen you around.” She holds out her hand for him to shake.

[Matt]

"Ah, hello." You wipe your blood covered hand on your pants before holding it out to shake.

[Travis]

You see that Matt and Alicia are basically meeting for the first time so you turn and watch the hall for any movement.
Glad some people can relax a little with a zombie horde about.
You decide that there might be some useful stuff in the chem lab to scavenge and slip in past the others and start to cautiously look around for anything that might be useful.

[Irene]

“Yup, I only got to know him fairly recently as well. Even though I saw him in the morning a lot when I was running to school. And that apparently he’s lived within a minute or two walking distance from me for six whole years. Yuuuup.”

[Matt]

You shrug.

[Alicia]

Alicia got up while Matt and Irene were talking and noticed Travis wandering around the room. She slipped on her bag. “So, any tips? Since I just woke up and stuff. And are you sure I shouldn’t get any chemicals? I mean, we’re in the chem room.”

[Irene]

“I think it’s more important for you to get some sort of protection, same with you, Trav--where did he go?” Irene looks around, and spies him in the chemistry room, sifting around, “But chemicals could be good too.”

[Matt]

“I have no idea how to create a bomb with chemicals. If you guys know how, then great.” You rummage around the room looking for the Bunsen burner lighter thingies, since you figure they'll last you longer than matches. You eventually find a drawerful and pocket two.

[Travis]

You find some of what you think might be useful chemicals and other assorted items.
I’ll have to ask what chemical are with cause they all see to be clear liquids for the most part...
You carefully put them on a counter next to you and look toward the group to make sure they didn’t head back without you and see that Irene looking over in your direction.
You shrug. “Never know what might be useful.”

[Irene]

“Oh, I wasn’t judging you. Did you find anything though?”

[Travis]

“Found some chemicals, no sure what any of them are, but we might be able to make some kind of grenade thing with acid in case of an emergency or something, but we would have to be careful with what we put in them and when we would use them.”
You sort through the non chemicals and find some scissors and tweezers.
Might be able to create a throwing knife, wouldn’t really be any good, but it would be something...

[Alicia]

She follows Irene and Travis while they were talking. “You think we should find matches or lighters? I mean, since the power is out, doesn’t it kinda get cold at night?” She scanned the closet that Travis had opened. Darn nothing with the label on sodium yet.

[Irene]

“Yeah, those would be dangerous,” turning towards Alicia, Irene responds, “It’s practically summer so it’s not really all that bad. But matches and lighters would be useful regardless.”

[Alicia]

She gives a wry smile to Irene. “Okay maybe it’s just me that gets cold. Or just me getting over the chills.” She opens a drawer. “Here. I put these here at the end of last year at the end of our chem lab.” She hands the matches to Irene.

[Travis]

You look up from the scissors.
“We would be able to cook some meat and boil water with fire, wouldn’t be a bad idea to use them, but again it would have to be sparingly until we find more stuff.”
Your mind turns back to the path toward Giant.
Yea, and if we can get to Giant, it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to get to my place and get my dad’s knife collection and arm up a little better than homemade weapons.

[Irene]

Irene gives the matches a look, she had never used one before. After all, she had grown up learning to never touch them--in case she managed to set the house ablaze or something. She then holds them out for Matt to take and remarks, “You could probably put these to use better than me.”

[Matt]

“Thanks,” Matt hears heavy footsteps heading their way, accompanied with screams. He runs towards the source of the sound.

[Irene]

Irene notices Matt run off and glances back at Travis and Alicia and says, “Matt and I can go help the person, you two should keep working with the chemicals and such.” Irene rushes in pursuit of Matt. I would have had to do a lot of explaining if they saw what I was going to do next. This is only for the best.

[Alicia]

You turn to Travis. “What kind of materials do we need to make the grenade? Since the grenade does need casing.”

[Travis]

You glance over to Matt and Irene as the rush out the door.
“Good luck you two.”
You return your attention to Alicia.
“Well, the casing can be glassware or something else that will shatter or break on impact, the stuff inside could be acid or alcohol depending on what we want to use the grenade for.”

[Alicia]

“So would vials work?” You turn to Irene to wave as they run out of the door

[Travis]

“They would work, but it would be a good idea to use some larger flasks for larger grenades, but we might as well take as much as we can so that we have a good idea of what we have to work with.”
You start to wonder about who is actually working toward surviving this thing.
Matt is probably trying to organize enough people into a group so that we have a better chance of surviving, Irene probably is trying to work out who is worth being told major planning details...
A distorted voice in your head rings out
Where does that leave you?
You shudder inwardly.
Guess I am gonna find out.

[Alicia]

You open another cabinet. “Ahh, here we have some flasks and beakers. We can put them in my backpack and cushion them with my sweatshirt and pillow pet.” You don’t hear an answer. “Travis?” You turn to see him standing there, looking out in space. Man he looks tired. I must have been out for a long time.
As you stood there waiting for a response, you wondered how Irene and Matt looked so strong and confident while Travis looked worn out. I am the weakest if I was the one who had a mental breakdown?

[Travis]

You snap back to reality.
“Sorry, what, yeah we should pack this stuff up carefully.”
Shit, I hope I didn’t space out too long.
You start to shift the chemicals toward Alicia.
Just gotta stay calm and focus on reality
You can try
You continue to move the stuff trying to not look like you might be starting to crack under the pressure.

[Alicia]

You take out all your binders but left a notebook just in case you needed the paper. You place the pillow at the bottom so the beakers and chemicals you plan to place is cushioned. You take the chemicals and the vials that Travis hand to you and place them gently. After everything is piled, you zip up your bag.
“Okay, anything else?”

[Travis]

“I can handle the scissors and tweezers.”
You put the scissors and tweezers in your pockets.
Going to have to focus on the tasks at hand if i’m going to get through this.

[Alicia]

“Okay, where is base?” You slip on your bag and then strap on your spear. “Lower MST or cafeteria?”

[Travis]

“We are in the Media Center and I think we are getting our food from the cafeteria, but I don’t know for sure, haven’t had time to check or ask.”
You start to move toward the door.
“I think the main breach is down stairs, but I wouldn’t know exactly where or how big.”
Hopefully someone comes up with a plan to close up the breach, or we will all get worn down until we are all overwhelmed by zombies.

[Alicia]
“Okay. I think I’m going to check out the Health room to see if it’s unlocked and get supplies from there. I’ll see you later.”

[Travis]

“Bye”

You leave the chem lab and head back toward the mediea center.

Phillip creeps around the corner and looks down through the railing to see the bottom floor overrun by zombies. A horde of bodies tries to climb over itself, unable to surmount the ultimate obstacle: stairs. Well, at least there will be fewer zombies on the top floor if most are stuck down there. Phillip dashes past the staircase and climbs up onto the lockers on the other side. He leaps over a gap in the locker line where there's a door. He lands on the locker on the other side with a clang. A loud slam comes from behind him as a zombie bursts from the door. Phillip flinches and whips his head around in a flustered rush. He reaches back and throws a pencil-bundle arrow, stunning the zombie as he runs off.
Phillip doesn't stop running until he reaches the MST-up stairwell. He pauses, panting with his hands on his knees. He freezes as he hears footsteps coming from the direction of the comp sci room.

((Collab Post))

[Irene & Matt]

Matt opens the door, nearly hitting the kid running by. He can only see the kid’s back, but he looks fairly injured, with fresh blood running down his back. Not only that, the kid was limping awkwardly as he ran, and Matt watches as he nearly falls, pushing against the wall for support. The zombies barrel past Matt, moving unusually fast. Maybe they sensed that their prey was weak and vulnerable.

“Wow. Perfect,” Irene comments as she catches up with Matt, neatly dodging to the side as the zombies chase the kid.

Matt jogs to catch up to the closest zombie, spear held at the ready. It’s gonna be hard to hit its head as it’s running away, so I’ll go for the legs first. He adjusts his grip on his spear and prepares to swing low.

Irene unsheathes her sword, sprints to overtake Matt, sticks her foot out, and trips the lagging zombie. She watches as it lands flat on its face and steps on its back to keep it down. It struggles, and she knows that she can’t keep it down forever like this. So Irene stabs at its head repeatedly until it stops moving.

“Oh c’mon. You’re just going to get tired sprinting like that.” Matt complains.

Irene retorts, “But sprinting is fun! And I’m not sprinting all that much so I should be okay. Plus, it’s not like I’m by myself.” She speeds up again to catch the next slowest moving zombie , trips it, and holds it down with her foot. Irene then gives Matt an expectant look.

Matt grins and raises his spear like an executioner before a helpless captive. He brings it down with enough force to smash through the zombie’s skull and into the floor. Hitting the floor with his weapon at full force, unfortunately also puts too much stress on the shaft, and the meter stick handle breaks with an audible *CRACK*.
Matt frowns. gg too stronk. The stronk was just too much.

That’s one heck of a smile. Irene jumps back as soon as Matt swings down with his weapon to avoid getting blood all over herself. Her eyes widen when she witnesses Matt’s weapon breaking. Well crap. That’s not good at all. At least the zombie got rekt. Irene quickly unslings the baseball bat from her back and offers it to Matt, “Do you want this?”

He sighs and takes the bat. “Sure.”

“Sorry about your weapon though,” Irene comments, “You had put quite a bit into it. Are the knives still retrievable from it?”

“It’s fine, I’ll just make a new one. I’ll reuse the knives yeah.” Matt responds.

“Alright then. Let’s take down the rest of the zombies then,” Irene replies.

“So you can get your precious decoy haha.” Matt leaves the broken spear on the ground for now and swings the metal bat experimentally a few times.

“You make me sound like a bad person. I mean, if you’d rather fight an endless horde of zombies, be my guest,” Irene says nonchalantly, “And it’s not like I want to do this either. Unlike someone here.”

“I mean, I’ll probably get bored of this eventually. But for now, it’s fun!” Matt exclaims as he leaps on the horde, which had missed the passing of its backmost members. He crushes a knee with a low swing and rapidly brings the bat down on the zombies head until it’s no longer recognizable as human.

Irene shakes her head and kills another zombie with the same method she used before. I’m getting somewhat tired… She glances up ahead of her and notices the zombies slowly gaining ground on the kid. We need to finish this up soon--or he may not make it.
What? Live for now so you can send him into his death again?
Shut up.

Eww. Bats are so much messier than blades. Matt wipes his face on the back of his hand skips forward to the next zombie, planting the bat squarely on the small of it’s back and pushing hard. The zombie, already moving forward, starts to tip forward uncontrollably as it’s back arches, and it falls over, managing to trip up the one in front of it as well. The outstretched arms of the zombies as they fall brings down most of the rest of the horde. Tossing his bat aside, Matt leaps from zombie to zombie with his knives, planting a knee on its back and slicing and stabbing the back of the neck neatly to sever the brain stem.

Irene capitalizes on a downed zombie and swings twice at its neck to decapitate it. She looks up to see that Matt has dealt with the rest of the zombies so she walks over to the cowering boy and offers a hand. “We’re here to help now,” Irene says with a reassuring smile on her face.

The boy takes her hand gratefully and responds relieved, “Thanks for saving me! I thought for sure I was going to die!”

Matt bites his thumb to hide a laugh. You weren’t wrong about that.

“No problem. My name is Irene, what is yours?” Irene queries.

“My name is Sam, Sam White,” he replies.

Irene assesses the kid’s wounds, Yep. The wound on his shoulder is infected, he won’t last long at all. She looks straight at the boy and says, “You’re going to die.”

“What!? How?! I feel fine! My shoulder hurts, but I feel okay overall!,” Sam exclaims frantically, a look of anguish overcoming his features.

“The wound is infected by zombies. And there’s nothing that can help those,” Irene states levelly.

Matt nods in agreement, sliding a finger across his throat for emphasis.

“B-but I can’t! Not yet. Not now. I’m too young to die!” the boy wails.

“Yes. You’re going to die. And eventually fade from memory, with no record of your existence,” Irene responds nonchalantly, “Imagine, in about fifty years from now, no one will know who you are. You have not made a lasting impact with your life.”

And so the manipulation begins! Matt listens closely as he retrieves his broken spear and takes it apart, cramming the blades into his pocket, as well as hooking the hammer on his belt.

The kid’s face twists in agony at the mental image.

“However...there is one way you can be remembered as a hero, for now and forever,” Irene says calmly.

“How??” Sam asks, desperate.

Matt takes the Northface jacket off of a dead girl and cleans his blades thoroughly with them. He wipes his face clean as well, although his black hardcover-scalemail remains deeply stained with blood. Careful inspection of the armor reveals minor tearing of some duct tape, but nothing that couldn’t be easily fixed.

“You could help us out,” Irene looks around, “As of now there are too many zombies near the breach. We need a distraction.”

“So you want me to face those monsters again?!” the boy exclaims in a shrill voice.

“Yes. And I ask this of you because only you can do this.”

After his upkeep was finished, Matt starts to scavenge the zombie bodies, figuring that phones and keys should prove valuable. He finds one pair of car keys hanging from a lanyard, and 4 phones, three iPhones and one android. He manages to fit the loot into his cargo pants pockets, thankful for the storage space. With nothing left to do, Matt wipes the metal bat off and takes a seat next to Irene against the wall, the bat in his lap.

“B-but it’s too scary! I don’t want to!”

“Look at the facts. You are already going to die, no matter what, by the end of today.”

“I want to at least enjoy my last moments!”

Irene gives the boy an exasperated look, “Do you want to be known as the coward who could’ve saved everyone, but didn’t-- just because he was too scared?

Sam shakes his head.

Irene continued on, her voice getting more gentle “You can save everyone here in this building. Instead of dying somewhere, unknown and alone, you can be a hero, a savior. Your name will be remembered, for all of time, as the one who bravely faced a horde of zombies in order to let everyone else live. Think about it, do you have any siblings in this school?”

The boy whimpers and nods, “An older brother.”

“And while you will die, you can at least do something to help the people you love and care about. I know it’s scary, but you’re the only one who can do this.”

The kid shakes for several moments, steadies himself, and nods slowly, “I-I’ll help.”

Pretty effective manipulation. It wouldn’t work on me, but others are more gullible.

Good job, Irene! You have now successfully condemned a person! Yay. Fantastic. What a monster.
Shut up shut up shut up.
You awful person.
Beaming a smile at the boy, Irene says soothingly, “You made the right choice.”
Looking over at Matt and the freshman, Irene states in a more serious tone, “So here’s the plan. We’ll first transport all the materials needed to MST down. You and Travis can carry the materials while Alicia and I guard you two. If we find Kate, she can help with guarding. Afterwards, you and I will oversee the initial stages of the decoy plan, while Kate, Alicia, and Travis standby until the area is mostly clear. We can then scout for the location of the breach. Once we find it, we can have two people work on repairs, again probably you and Travis, while the rest make sure no zombies come close.”

“I’m almost certain the breach is by the lower parking lot doors. I’m also pretty sure that’s where the power was damaged, I smelled smoke and stuff,” Matt interjects. He feels slightly sorry for Sam, but he was probably going to die anyways, so he might as well live out his final moments being useful.

Irene gets up. “Alright then. Let’s go find the others and tell them. C’mon Sam,” Irene starts walking toward the chemistry room and motions for the kid to follow, “You made a brave decision today.”

[Matt]

"Hang on Irene, I'm gonna reorganize my supplies and repair my gear. I'll meet up with you in the media center when I'm done." You walk past the chemistry room intent on meeting back up with Kate and storing your loot, but you find Philip in the stairwell. A lone zombie appeared to be approaching him from the tenth grade hallway.

"Sup Philip! Glad to see you're still alive. Are you able to deal with that zombie, or do you want me to...?" You ask curiously, wondering if Philip had any weapons on him.

[Irene]

"Alright, I'll check the chemistry room really quick to see if Travis and Alicia are still there."
You make a short trip to the chemistry room, to find that everyone had left. Guess I'll go to the media center then and wait for Matt. You walk towards the MST stairwell only to bump into Matt again, this time with Phillip. You and Sam watch curiously to see what happens as a zombie makes his way towards Phillip.

[Kate]

You sit up with a jolt, realizing from the stiff pain in your back and neck that you had fallen asleep. You immediately jump out of the chair, grabbing your microphone stand and whipping around to look for assailants. Grabbing your water bottle and shaking your head, you uncap it and take a small sip, mentally haranguing yourself for falling asleep in the middle of a warzone when you have friends out there that probably need your help. Yanking your backpack up, you stuff the water bottle inside and put it over your shoulder, grabbing the doorknob and stopping as you realize you really have no idea where anything is.
Frantically you start digging through your backpack, trying to remember if you had a map of any kind, anything that might help you, and after a few minutes you give up and grab your phone and call Matt.

[Phillip]
Phillip breathes a sigh of relief when he sees Matt come out from the left wing. Matt mentions a zombie, which confuses Phillip. He turns around and shrieks as a previously lumbering zombie starts charging at him. "God, I though I lost that thing back in MST," he mutters. He whips out the ball and rubber band chain he improvised earlier and poises for the zombie's approach. "I think I've got it," he calls to Matt. The zombie's attention falters as it looks to see who Phillip was talking to. It's still hurtling towards him, though. Phillip jumps out of the way, slamming into a locker before rebounding and kicking the zombie in the back. The zombie tumbles to the ground. Phillip then enjoys about twenty seconds of beating the zombie with a large rubber band whip before he decides it's actually dead now. "Told you I had it," he manages to get out while gasping for breath. "Just gimme a sec. I'm still pretty worn out from running over here." He grins and walks over to Matt.

[Irene]

You watch as Phillip beats the zombie repeatedly with his improvised ball-and-chain weapon.
"Not bad," you say to Phillip, "Although your weapons aren't terrible efficient."
Sam asks you excitedly, "Can I get a weapon too?"
Irene looks down at the kid with a sympathetic face, "It's probably better if you didn't. You'll do more than your fair share later on. And while you're distracting, a weapon would only slow you down."
Also because we can't afford to waste resources on someone who's going to die.
And who's fault is that?
Mine. I claim full responsibility for his death. But this is a necessary action.
The boy responds, "Okay, I understand."
Irene turns to Matt, "Now what?"

[Travis]
You make it back to the Media Center and you realize that you need to get rid of Adam's corpse before anyone else sees it.
Got to avoid awkward questions
The others will still ask, no matter what what you do
Please shut up if your not going to say anything helpful
You lift the body up and carry it toward the humanities wing.
You will learn in time that you need to ignore your petty morals
You get to the railing and dump the body over the edge into a small crowd of zombies.
There is no need to kill the others at all, heck I wouldn't be able to stay alive without them right now
You walk back toward the Media Center.

[Matt & Kate]

He starts to move forward to help Philip, then stops himself, then starts again, then changes his mind again. This continues for the painful twenty seconds Philip takes to beat the zombie to death. I, I guess he's got it? I really should just give him a knife... Matt thinks.

"Good job!" Matt almost feel like clapping when his friend finally finishes with the zombie and stands up. "Here, take this knife, it might serve you better than that flail, and it cant hurt to have a sidearm." He hands a knife to Philip before turning to Irene.

"I was going to check in with Kate before meeting up with everyone at the Media Center. Did you see Travis and Alici-" Matt’s phone vibrates while you're speaking, and he answers upon seeing Kate was calling.

"Kate? I was just about to check on you. Are you still in the closet?”

She let out a sigh of relief as he answered, very glad that he wasn’t a zombie.
“Yeah. I have no idea where anyone, anything, or I am. No zombies in earshot, thank god. I fell asleep.” She said wryly, rolling her eyes at her own recklessness. And also in more than slight wonder that she’d actually been able to fall asleep.

“I guess stress will do that to you haha. I went outside to kill zombies, met up with Travis and Irene, and saved Alicia and Sam from zombies. Oh, and the explosion we all heard probably happened downstairs. It looks like the zombies are coming in from there, and also where the power is. Wait, why am I even calling you, I’m right outside the closet!” Matt fishes his keys out of his pocket and fumbles with the lock on the door.

“Wait what really?” She walks over to the door and opens it, ending the call.
“Sup.”

“Welp.” Matt pulls the keys out and pockets them. “Hiya.” He grins, not sure what to do.

She smiles and grabs her backpack, slinging it on her back. “Man, I’m just helpless here. Really should’ve taken the time to figure out how to get around this place. Or at least get a map.” She picks up her weapon, and gives Matt a hug. “Thanks for finding me.”

“No problem.” He smiles back. “Sorry if I got any blood on you.” Matt says, looking down at the dried bloodstains covering his hoodie.

“Eh, it’s fine. Would’ve gotten blood on my clothes anyway.” She replies, pulling back and tilting her microphone stand spear whateverthehellweaponshe’sholding over her shoulder.
“So, WH4T NOW?”

“Hang on lemme duck inside first actually.” Matt hurriedly shuffles inside the closet and closes the door behind them. “I don’t like the thought of our food being exposed. Also, I need to repair my armor, and I don't wanna have it off when a zombie comes by.” Matt explains, unloading the loot he had brought as well. Three iPhones and an android phone come out, as well as car keys and two knives, a kitchen knife and a meat cleaver.
“My spear broke during the fighting, so I’ll have to make a new weapon somehow. The phones are so we have spares, and the keys are for the parking lot if we ever manage to make it out there safely. I took them off of zombies.” He takes out duct tape and begins repairing.

“Yeah, ok.” She nods and lets him in, then starts digging through the loot as he unloads it, nabbing an iphone and the kitchen knife, sticking the phone in her back pocket and digging through her backpack for a roll of duct tape with which to tape the knife to her microphone stand. “I think I might want to get a better thing than this soon, it’s only mediocre.” She said, dissatisfied with her weapon of choice, and nodding in acknowledgement of the reasoning and source of the phones, knives, and keys.

“It’d be great if we could stop by Kendall’s to get real blades.” Matt says wistfully, referring to the HomeDepot-esque store only a 10-15 minutes walk away from the school at the village center.

“...Is there a window or something overlooking the direction toward Kendall’s?” Kate asked, brain already ticking.

“No, you can’t see it from here, too many trees in the way.” He responds.

“Dammit.” She muttered, chewing on her lip and trying to think of a way to get there.
“I wonder how much faster than a zombie I am…” She muttered under her breath.

“We could probably slip past the crowds of zombies, but it’d be risky, we’d get tired eventually, and the crowd that we slipped past would still be following us, maybe even attracting more. I dunno how we’ll get there...”

“I hate to bring this up, but… Decoy?” She said, grimacing at the prospect. Then she shook her head. “No, no… There has to be some other way.”

Should I tell her about the plans for Sam? I don’t know if she’ll agree to it, but she’ll have to find out eventually anyway. “About that... Sam is infected and badly wounded. So he’s agreed to be our decoy for us when we try to seal up the breach.”

“...”
She wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that. She shook her head slightly, closing her eyes. Kate, come on… Sympathy isn’t gonna do any good here… She thought, trying and failing to convince herself that it wasn’t that bad.

Matt frowns and looks away, finishing up his duct tape repairs. “Anyway, we should exchange numbers on these new phones, so we can call each other even if one of our phones is broken somehow. #BackUpsAreImportant”

She nods, pulling the phone out and spending a few minutes fiddling with it trying to break the passcode. She luckily gets it before it locks, barely, and then spends another few minutes attempting to find the number of the phone itself. “Did you really just use a hashtag in real life.”

“Hmm? What hashtag?” Matt glares at the iPhone, which was proving resilient to his attempts to unlock it, and starts on the other iPhone instead. To his delight, it didn’t even have a passcode on it. They exchanges numbers with the new phones.

“Don’t pretend like you don’t know what I’m talking about.” She said, making the ಠ_ಠ face at him.

“Did you just make a ಠ_ಠ face at me?” Matt makes a >.> face.

“How in the world did you even pronounce that? Never mind, I don’t want to know.” She asked, ending in a mutter.

Matt chuckles and shakes his head. “Oh, its near lunch time actually. Time for some provisions.” He reaches under the tarp covering their cart and eats his fill. Can’t forget to eat.

“Oh, it is?” She asks with surprise, checking her watch. “Huh. I’m not even hungry.” She said, grabbing a clementine and peeling it, eating it quickly.
“I guess I’ll just stuff some noms in my backpack for later.” She said, grabbing a bag of doritos, a package of beef jerky, and an apple, and stuck them in her backpack.

Matt does the same, and in the end his backpack is filled with water, food, some medical supplies, duct tape, and knives.

Kate grabs some water bottles too, including the one she’d been drinking on, after taking another sip out of it. Duh, silly girl. Gotta stay hydrated.

Matt, after seeing Kate take a sip of water, drinks some water himself. Can’t forget to drink stuff either.
...
For some reason I feel like we should be drinking wine instead...
...We can get some at the spirits store at the VC, I don’t think adults will be caring much about underaged drinking at this point.

She looks over at Matt, wondering was on his mind.
“Whatcha thinkin’?”

“Oh nothin’. Just that with societal laws collapsing and whatnot, we can drink and no one can tell us we can’t!” Matts exclaimscreamsays

“Hmm that is true.” She replies, screwing her face up at a memory involving fermented pineapple. “Not sure I’d necessarily want to, though.”

“I don't know if we’ll live long enough to be legally able to try, so might as well try it now I figure.”

“I think securing a safe place is a good idea before we start partying it up.” She says wryly.

“Truuuue.” Matt laughs. “We should probably go do that now. Ready?” Matt stands up and looks at Kate.

“Thought you’d never ask.” She says with a grin, standing up as well and grabbing her microphonestandthing.

“Then let’s be off! I feel like I should say something epic, or cliche, before we leave, but I can’t think of anything...”

“Eh. You don’t need to gank someone else’s words to be awesome.” She says with a smile, punching him gently in the arm.

Matt grins and nudges her back, lightly. “We’ll leave our mark in all the zombie bodies we’re leaving around the school then haha. (Not gonna clean those up >.>)”

“Sounds like a plan. And I’ll probably end up singing the whole damn time, because I can’t stop getting songs FUCKING STUCK IN MY HEAD.” She said, making a frustrated growling noise.

“Language, Kate.” Matt gives her a mock stern glare.

She gives him an extremely exaggerated eyeroll in return. “Dammit, Mattquius!” She said, and couldn’t help but chuckle at her own bad pun.

Matt chuckles as well. “Okay we’ve wasted more than enough time already, like seriously, we could probably sit around punning all day...”

“Oh, I’m sure we could. But I agree, let’s get going.” She said, opening the door after ascertaining that the tarp was back over the food cart.

“Looks clear to me.” Matt notes.

Together, they head out toward the media center assuming Irene and Philip were no longer there.

“So, where are we going, exactly?” She asked, eyes darting about, on the lookout for zombies.

“The media center! Where everyone else should be, provided ((they arent right in front of us.))

[Travis]
You make it back into the Media Center when you hear Irene's announcement over the pa system.
Well, if anyone wanted a target to lash out at during all of this, we just got singled out
You would have been marked as the weakest link anyway, take what supplies you can and hide in the booth while we prepare to seize power
Please shut up already, I am not going to run away
You walk back toward the pile of wood from the shop.
Too bad you forgot to get rid of Adam's head
You jerk your head around to where Adam attacked you.
Crap
You run toward the severed head and fumble a little picking it up.
Got to get rid of this quickly
You start to bolt back toward the Humanities hall door with Adam's head in your hands.

[Alicia]

Damn it Alicia you have too much emotional baggage.

You had almost made it to the health room when two zombies had appeared. Your crushes from freshman year. Even with rotting flesh and spine-crawling moans, they still wrenched your heart from your chest.

You forced yourself to think about how it all ended. How one of them broke your heart by hooking up with another girl instead. How the other played you.

You closed your eyes and swung. SPOOSH

Even all the resentment and anger in the world couldn't have prepared you for that sound. You opened your eyes to find their heads rolling on the ground. Their bodies collapsed where they once stood.

Fuck. You suddenly felt hollow inside. You wanted to cry but suddenly lost the ability to.

Come on, Alicia.Health room. You made your way and noticed the light under the door. You knocked. "Hello? Anyone in here?"

[Matt & Kate]

Matt and Kate walk to the media center. They encounter no zombies on the way there.
“What weapons do you think I should make?” (grr weapons!)
Kate shrugs. “I don’t know.”
“Like... what weapon would I use best? I mean yeah I’m strong, but that doesn’t mean I should be lugging around a sledgehammer just because I can lift it.”
“Yeah, no. That’d get too heavy way too fast, you’d get tired, not a good idea.”
“A simple sword or spear I suppose...” Matt mutters thoughtfully.
“And where exactly are you supposed to find a sword?” She asks in a joking tone, but still serious.
“Maybe in the houses around this suburban area? Some kid mighta bought a sword with his overly much allowance.”
“I suppose, but if you want anything of decent quality you’re probably out of luck. Actually useable swords are really fuckin spendy. My Sensei had a katana from… world war two, I think. Cost her a thousand bucks. Unless a martial arts instructor lives around here somewhere, you probably won’t find anything worthwhile. Besides, any martial arts instructor worth their school wouldn’t let themself be zombified anyway.”
“Haha true. Maybe we should break into a shipping warehouse then. I bet an Amazon warehouse would have literally everything inside, since you can order anything online.”
“You never know, I guess. Still isn’t highly likely, though. Is there even a warehouse near here?”
Matt shrugs. “Not that I know of. Still, I’m probably more likely to find a sword that way than order it online at this point. Blargh I want a sworrrrrrd.
She chuckles under her breath. “Not entirely likely that you’ll get one.”
“Shhh one can hope.”
With that, they arrived at the media center.

[Alicia and Ben]

Ben was rolling last night when Irene ambushed him, and fell asleep on the floor. He push off the bed to get to his feet and squint at the clock in the flickering light. 12:30. Nothing had changed since last night. Nothing at all. Realistically, he couldn't expect help to arrive on day 2, but he wonder when support would begin to prioritize schools for refugees. Digging into his supplies, he pulls out his single water bottle and take a sip. Settled for now, Ben begins sifting through the medical supplies for stuff that could actually be of use on the move.

Alicia knocks on the door. “Hello? Anyone in here?”

Ben turns to the door at the sound of the voice, seeing A SURVIVOR. He walks up to the door and says “Hello? I am in here.”

Alicia stares at the guy through the glass. She tries the handle, but the door is still locked. She scans behind her just in case any of the zombies got a pair of slippers and she wouldn’t be able to hear their entrance into the hallway. Also the stench of the zombie bodies outside the door was getting to her. How the heck did so many bodies end up outside the door? “Hi! Uh, can you open?”

Staring back, Ben grabs the key and unlocks the door. “Get in quickly, there’s no time to explain!”

Alicia barrels through the doorway at Ben’s command. “Explain what?” She gets up and dusts herself off. Thank god for the lack of corpses here.

Ben pushes the door shut behind her and locks it immediately.“Uhh never mind. That was…” (silent thunder face) ‘Welcome to the health room! Who are you?”

Alicia manages to muster a smile besides her deranged mental state. “I’m Alicia. Nice to meet you.” She holds out a hand.

Ben reaches for the outstretched hand and loosely shakes it. “Hi, nice to meet you too.”

Alicia scans his face. “Gee, you look a lot like Matt. Related?”
Ben squints at the question. Too many times “ He sighs and responds “Do I really? I get that question ALOT(no). Yeah, he’s my brother, have you seen him around? He’s been going places within the school.”

Alicia steps back. “Sheesh sorry. Just you guys look a lot alike. Ummm the last time I saw him was near the Chemistry room, but he and Irene went somewhere else afterwards.” She looks around the room. “You already raid this place?”

“Mm those two, okay… somewhere else huh. We grabbed some of the stuff, but not really RAIDED, as you can see. Okay not really but there’s stuff here that’ll be useful.”

How many times this guy has said “Really”, 3. “Hmm okay what stuff?” Alicia looked around and automatically took the box of tissues. DEFINITELY will need this. “I’m going to assume the refrigerator isn’t working?

Ben crouches at the refrigerator and says “Sort of, low power, but it stays cold since really, it’s a fridge, gosh. Not “re” anymore.”

“Refrigerator, fridge, same thing.” Alicia opens up cabinets and took out bandages and alcohol. “So you’ve been here this whole time?”

“Yeah, since last night I roamed and ended up here after this… happened” Ben responds while watching Alicia rifle through the cabinets “What happened this morning since you saw Matt and Irene?”

Alicia shrugs. “Raided the chemistry room with Travis. I did just wake up an hour ago. And killed...two zombies on the way here? Whoever knocked out the pile in front of your door did a good job.”

At that moment the intercom fizzles. Alicia looked up. How dafaq is the intercom working if there’s no power?

"This is Irene Feng. Will Matthew Choi, Travis Amtower, Alicia Ouyang, Phillip Hilliard, Sam White, Adam Luntz, Benjamin Choi, and Kate come to the media center?"

“Well Ben, looks like we have someplace to go.”

[Travis]
You hear the door near the cafeteria side of the media center open just as you make it in to the Humanities hall.
Way too close
You throw Adam's head in to the stair well, but you over shoot and the severed head smashes into the window on the far side of the stair well.
You always did have bad aim you idiot
Crap, why oh why is my luck so crap
Who are you Shakespeare, shut it with the fancy English crap and get back into the media center before a zombie comes to say hello
You turn around and start to shakily walk back toward the media center.

[Phillip]
Growing weary of the freshman's whining, Phillip decides to follow Matt. With Sam in tow, Phillip can't help but curse Irene's very existence for dumping this useless carbon-based water sack without any survival skills onto him. He was more of a handicap than a human being at this point. Before they could even get to the media center, Sam asks to go to the bathroom.
"As silly as it sounds, we are in a zombie apocalypse. There's no time or reason to use a bathroom. You can go in a corner once we get to the media center. Now come on; I think I hear Matt and Kate up ahead." Dragging the helpless freshman along, Phillip starts to run to catch up.

[Sei~]
http://imgur.com/xW4wKN0
Sei brushes off the announcement for the lockdown and instead drums her fingers against the mousepad, bored. She was stuck in the upper floor computer science room with nothing to do ever since the power went down. She walks over to the windows, curiously peeking out before the teacher pulls her away and scolds her for not listening to the announcement. She starts to wander around the computer room looking over at the other students who huddle in their own small groups chatting to themselves about what might be happening. After she went through all of her options she sighs loudly, lumbering over to an area unoccupied by students and curls up on the comfy carpeted floor and drifting off to sleep. Once she wakes up she sighs after looking around and seeing that the situation hasn’t changed since she slept. She tries to think up of new ways to entertain herself only to slouch against the wall, failing. A few minutes later she falls asleep once again, repeating the cycle a few more times before she notices the teacher slumping tiredly. Sei waits for the teacher to drift off to sleep before silently moving over towards her and snatching the keys away from her. Sei takes a peek out through the window only to flinch at the bloody lumbering undead outside. “Okay, Maybe...it isn’t a good idea to stay here…” she mutters and inhales deeply before mustering the courage to go out into the hallways.

Once outside, she gently shuts and makes sure the it is locked behind her and looks around the hallway for a weapon to defend herself with. After a few long minutes of searching, she spots a mop left unattended against the wall along with a bucketful of water and a janitor’s cart. She moves over to the mop and picks it up, weighing it before swinging it experimentally in the air. Sei stashes the teacher’s keys away in her pants’ pocket before she starts to walk down the hallway.Sei wanders around, keeping an eye out for any zombies or noises while she clutches the makeshift weapon she had picked up. She checks her bag, noting that she had started running low on water after she left the computer science room, thinking that it was a complete death trap to stay there during the current situation. So she had chosen to leave, heading for what she hopes to be a zombie-less cafeteria to try and get some sort of edible food and drinks. She comes across one of the students that had been severely injured by the zombies and puts the student down, swallowing her sadness as the would-be zombie stopped moving when she drove the pointed end of her 'spear' into its eye-socket. Sei then proceeds to move onwards towards the cafeteria.

(EDITTED, BROUGHT TO YOUR BY: ICE AND MEEH x3)