BOOK WARNING
Howlite's eyelids burst open as he caught himself dozing off, seeing that it had been only for a few minutes. A few students, four or so students, had finally finished their laps around the track, while a majority of them were either still jogging or walking patiently. Mister Saito was one of those gym teachers that held the entire class outside until every single student finished their laps, and sometimes, it was a bother, especially when the kids who did nothing but walk and chatter with their friends, not even putting in the slightest amount of effort, kept everyone outside when they could've moved on to the actual activities.
"Finished early again, Maeda?" the voice of a boy belonging to a shadow looming above him sounded.
Howlite looked up, seeing that it was a friend of his; Rentaro Ashikage, a fellow third-year student. "Hey, Ren."
Offering a hand, Howlite was lifted from the ground and onto his feet, standing a few inches shorter than his friend. "You should really consider joining the track team this year," Ren said as another student joined their group. "I mean, unless basketball is enough for you."
"I'm fine," Howlite politely declined, smiling as he saw a figure of a man emerge from the foliage and jump out onto the far opposite side of the track across from them.
"What the hell is dude doing?" one of the students who had finished pointed, looking between the man and Mister Saito.
Though Howlite was unable to clearly make out the features of the man, he watched as the mass of students erupted into a collective of horrified screams as the man dashed towards them and seized one of them by the wrist, sinking his teeth into the boy's arm. "What-"
Then, at that moment, another man slumped through the foliage and chased after the fleeing students. And another. And another. "What's going on?!" Rentaro shouted as the individual appearances quickly shifted into a whole horde of people, both men and women, that began to split in all directions as they approached the school, and specifically, towards them. The ones who managed to catch a student did the same as the first one had done; sink their teeth into the person's flesh. [i[Cannibals?[/i]
"Get in the school!" Mister Saito ordered as the psychos set their eyes on them, leading them back to the educational structure.
Howlite could not believe what he was seeing; is this some sort of nightmare? They couldn't have possibly been what he imagined them to be, but if this was reality... he had seen enough horror movies and video games involving zombies. Only these things were fast. Much faster. "Quick, Ashikage, Maeda! Run to Principal Genesis' office and tell them about the situation!"
"Got it!" Ren replied, patting Howlite on the shoulder to get his attention as the two of them broke into a sprint out of the gymnasium and out into the hallways. As they traversed from corridor to corridor throughout the grand infrastructure, the same scenarios began to repeat itself; crazed maniacs, no, zombies, were attacking the students, some of them were even wearing the school uniform. Some zombified faces, he could even recognize and name. "Don't stop running!" Ren yelled as the two shoved their way past a seemingly endless wave of zombies.
When they made it to the hall where the principal's office was, it was strangely quieter than the rest of the wings, save for the three zombies patrolling. "It doesn't look like they're gonna move soon, Howlite," Ren stated, looking around the mess of a hallway littered with abandoned supplies and selecting a binder as his choice of weaponry.
"I don't think that's very convenient in killing zombies, Ren..."
His friend snorted. "No shit. We need to get past them, and inside the office. Maybe there'll be something in there like a fire extinguisher or something. For now, pick something up so we can push them back."
Howlite nodded, digging through the supplies on the ground and unable to find anything effective. "Any day now," his friend complained as one of the zombies let out a distinctive cry. From the corner of Howlite's eye, he could see one begin to approach them in a slow manner, as if to investigate.
Finally, Howlite settled on a protractor, curling his fingers around the straight edge with the curved, sharper side near his knuckles as if they were brass knuckles. It'll have to do, he thought.
"You ready?" Ren questioned, with Howlite nodding in reply. The two prepared their "weapons" and charged towards the zombies, hoping to take advantage of the preemptive strike. As the two got closer to the group of three, the one eying them down cried out and opened its mouth wide to reveal its yellow teeth. Howlite arced his arm backwards and, as soon as he was in range, his protractor-knuckle crashed against the zombie's cheek as it was sent back by the punch.
Howlite saw that Ren had also been able to successfully send it forward in a similar fashion with the binder, though not so much for the third zombie. "Ren!" Howlite shouted as he saw his friend struggle with the zombie, hearing a pained cry as the zombie's sharp nail dug into Ren's wrist and caused him to stagger backwards. Howlite ran up to the zombie and pulled it off of his friend, backhanding it once and not bothering to see if it had been knocked over.
Howlite burst through the door to the principal's office with Ren in tow, slamming the door shut behind him. "Principal Genesis!" Ren called out as he winced in pain from his cut, covering it with his other hand as the two walked around for a bit, stopping when they saw two other boys with blood on their school uniforms. Other students. "Hey," Howlite said. "Where's the principal?"