[Recommended Song]: Monsters by: Ruelle

‼WARNING: graphical violence‼
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"Hm... You creature little zombie will cause havoc to this school, until it goes down, along with other challenges."

Wisteria wiggled the pen in her hand. "Die alone, or die with someone-" She murmured. "Let the game begin."

Zombies gathered inside of the principal's office, innumeral corpses were turned into one. If the zombies are killed, they will all keep coming from the cemetery.

As the master, Wisteria wasn't attacked. She learned to control these deathly harmful creatures with the help of her younger sister.

"Open the door, Ambrosia, set them free! Make sure to send warnings too." She demanded with a loud holler. The younger did as she was told, and opened the door widely enough for the zombies to go out. The monsters were led to the garden of the university.

---

Kai woke up in the middle of the night. He heard sound sounds of leaves from the hard surface underneath him. He zippered the tent open and saw someone walking to the garden. There was something about it though, that 'person' walking likely to have a broken leg: he was limping.

"Kai..."

"Ah! Gege!"

Startled, Kai placed a hand on his chest and lightly punched Zack's arm. "Seriously?! Why are you startling me?!"

Zack gave a frown: "What am I supposed to do, then?" He asked in a calm but raspy voice.

"Well- You... You could've at least tapped me on the shoulder!" Kai explained, followed by a short growl at the end of his sentence.

"Even if I did, you'll still be startled because I was asleep before I tapped or even called you."

For the younger, it did make sense. He just has to accept the fact that he was someone to be startled easily, to the point that even small movements will still scare or shock him.

"Something is going on..."

Just then, one of the guards pulled Zack and Kai out of their tents.

"Where are you taking us?" Zack questioned as he walked ahead of Kai who was confused as well. (Too confused to talk.)

The guard just shrugged. "The board of directors had decided to give you a physical task They say to take half of your population to the court and half to the garden." Replied the staff in a soft tone.

Kai found his voice and spoke: "Nighttime? Are they for real? And, since when did we have so many guards in this university? I remember having only nine to ten."

"Don't ask questions, kid." Said the guard. "We (the past and current guards) also don't know why they hired new ones. These new lads are younger than most of us who worked here for the past seven years. The most confusing part is that they are all nightshift: only ten patrols in the day."

The explanation had the two bewildered more. Then Kai remembered something. He went closer to Zack and whispered.

"Gege, I saw someone moving to the garden. It seemed like they have a broken leg." The younger said in a hushed tone.

Zack gave a small "eh?" in confusion. But, moments later, it came across his head that maybe it was another group of students who came first before them, and one of these students tend to be disabled.

"Maybe it's someone disabled, didi. Don't judge too quick."

Kai's lips curved downwards. "I am not judging- I have a bad feeling." He said emphasizing the last of his words. The latter didn't know, but, there was something bothering him about... about those people he saw earlier. (especially that one person limping.)

"Easy," Zack hummed looking at the other. "You'll meet your shijie and gege there, maybe the rest of he squad will be there as well."

Kai didn't want to argue about it anymore, so he nodded and stopped.

---

"Gosh! Why does the principal often instruct activities during nighttime?!" Callista complained as she moaned.

Dominic crossed his arms. "Principal Lixin... is he a night owl?"

"Probably," Tris answered back. "But, the thing is, why... why does he have to include us to everything that he's doing?! Not everyone is a night owl like him!"

When half of the students arrived at the garden, they were astounded when they saw some people chained to the trees.

"What the..." Dominic says as he silently mutters a curse. These people, they smell like rotten flesh. However, the younger didn't mind that at all- he came a closer to one guy. Kiara went close behind him too.

The man tied who was tied was a male, the latter looks like he's in his middle 30s. Kiara extended a hand, trying to touch the man's hand.

'He looks dead, he even smells rotten.' Dominic thought, he smelled like a dead reincarnated corpse.

As Kiara's hand almost intertwined with the other, the guy shook awake.

He growled like an untamed dog, struggling with the tied chains.

When it looked up, Kiara almost cried in horror. The man wore a common, yet familiar uniform. He looks like a janitor. He even resembled Mr. Park. Dominic came close to female8, he saw the man upclose. He came to a conclusion that maybe, it was the mentioned janitor.

"M-Mr. Park?" The two students let out in a shaky voice. The man-turned-zombie looked up at them as soon as he felt their presence.

That's when they felt their whole world shatter. It was indeed their janitor. His bones were now visible, his skin having many bruises and wounds.

And his face... a bloody mess. Mr. Park looked as though he was starved and beaten to death.

A growl was heard from his mouth as he smelled flesh, brain: a whole human-being for his late night meal.

"Good evening, students!" Exclaimed a familiar voice. The tone of the voice seem to show excitement and a bit of threat.

"Is that... the principal?"

Jace's eyes suddenly darted to the walls. Its space were occupied by mini-black speakers. A nursery rhyme started to play in a creepy melodic tone.

Ring around the rosie
Pocket full of posies
Ashes, ashes
We all fall down

Ring around the rosie
What do you suppose we
Can do to fight the darkness
In which we drown?

Ring around the rosie
This evil thing, it knows me
Lost ghosts surround me
I can't fall down

"What... the..." Kai felt his spine ran cold as he froze. "This... this isn't the original nursery rhyme!" He exclaimed. The previous sweet and fun kids' song was now turned into a creepy and haunted one. Something you'd sing for someone's not so tranquil funeral.

"For today- I mean, tonight, rather, you shall survive a deadly apocalypse. They rise in the dark, and lurk under the sun." Continued Lixin maliciously. "No clues, but solve the puzzles along your way."

Before ending his speech, the principal added slyly. "They will all keep coming, wave by wave until the sun rises- the game is over. The walking corpses will be killed and burned, those bitten survivors will be cured. However, those who turned to zombies amidst the game will be killed and burned as well. Good luck, pupils, let the game begin!"

Hungry, these corpses began to run wild. Blood, flesh, brain, and human: these are the lists of things that they want.

Each zombie tied was now released.

"RUN!!!"

The students ran for their lives. There were also some students bitten. The squad ran hurriedly rushed through the garden. A zombie was following them, luckily, they made it lose track.

"Wait... Kai and Zack!! They're missing!" Callista panted as she stopped. "Jace... we have to go back, the two might be in the grounds!"

"Jiejie, there's no time left- sooner or later, a zombie might be following us once again. We can't... we can't go back there." Elijah said, sweat dripping off his forehead.

"Elijah, what about your brother?! What about my brother, huh?!" Callista can't help but to growl in frustration.

"We'll find the-"

"KIARA, BEHIND YOU!!" Jace yelled as soon as he saw a zombie that was about to bite Kiara's neck.

Kiara screamed and jumped just before the zombie could bite her.

"Damn it, we're fucked." Dominic cursed as he picked up a wooden stick and stabbed it right through the zombie's chest. He took it out and pierced it right through its mouth as well.

As they look back, two zombies were coming for them.

"One, two, three... shit, they're a crowd. Let's go!!"

They ran to the closest room they could find. Jace turned to the squad. "I know a short-cut back to the main campus. Gods, maybe Kai and Zack-gege are in there."

The squad followed, they went through weird tunnels and spaces till they reach a classroom.

Blue seats and brown tables were neatly alligned. There was a white board and a teacher's desk great enough to hold the door (and a book shelf right beside it.)

There were still no sign of Kai and Zack. Jace and Callista were worried sick about their youngest brother.

"Are you all okay?" Elijah asked worriedly. Everyone nodded checking themselves. Elijah walked closer to his lover.

"Love, y-you..."

He noticed a wound with somewhat like teeth mark left on Jace's shoulder.

"Fuck it, Elijah, stay away from him- Jace got bitten." Tris pulled his brother back. Elijah was astounded, no words came out of his mouth.

"Ring around the rosie, what do you suppose we can do to fight the darkness in which we drown?" Jace repeated the second line of the dark nursery rhyme he'd heard earlier.

"Drown..."

Jace felt his breath shortening, his legs going weak, his nose... bleeding.

"You have to kill me, or tie me down."

"Kill? No one is killing anyone. The sun is almost rising- Your body just needs to cope with the virus." Callista said in a cold tone. However, this doesn't seem to affect his brother like before.

Jace voluntarily tied himself up. "This rope will stop me- zombies are vicious."

"What is even in our principal's head?! Keeping us up all night just to... fight a crowd of zombies he let in?" Kiara growls angrily.

Jace could feel the virus spreading through his body. When he looked up, his eyes went red. His head was black, all the memories he had were wiped. He coughed red blood and started craving for human flesh and thirst for blood of the living. There was a way that he could still control it, but it reached its limits and triggered the body to change.

He could feel his heart pump and beat rapidly like an exploding bomb would. The last thing he saw before blacking out was purple veins creeped everywhere.

It was painful....

Like the torture of hell.
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Hello! I apologize for updating late. I've been working on Espejismo oneshot book, and after a month of work, Espejismo is finally out! You can check it out on my profile <3
Requests are also open, just send me a DM on wattpad and we'll talk there. ♡ Enjoy!!

-xoxo: Ms. Khi 🦊🖤