"Dinner!" Mr. Harris yelled out down the hallway.

Everyone quickly rushed out not caring about anyone. They pushed through trying to get to the table first to get a good spot. Like I do normally I wait. All the students moved out as I walked out last. I slowly walked downstairs to the STEM Corridor where the food was being served.

I saw a spot next to Kiara and Alleigh. They were waving over me to come over and sit with them. I walked over to them. As I was about I sit down someone quickly sat down in front of me in the spot Alleigh and Kiara saved for me. That's when I realised who it was, it was Matthew.

Matthew is one of the schools bullies. He thinks he's better then anyone else. He's been suspended so many times that he's on the verge of being moved to another school. I guess the virus saved him from being moved.

I stood at my spot as Kiara and Alleigh both looked at him weirdly. He then looked up at me and saw my face.

"What do you want?" Matthew asked.

"We were saving that spot for our friend, would you please move" Kiara said.

Matthew smiled at me and looked at Kiara.

"I'm sorry but no. First come, first serve" Matthew said as he began to ate his food.

Kiara and Alleigh looked at me and shrugged.

"It's fine. I'll just sit somewhere else" I said.

"No this is your spot. Your sitting here. Matthew move now" Alleigh said.

"Bitch, do you ever shut up?" Matthew asked.

"Don't call her that" I said stepping forward.

Matthew slowly turned around and looked up at me. He was blinking faster than normal as he looked at me with an unimpressed face.

"Or what?" Matthew said standing up and putting his face right into mine.

I just looked into his eyes. I didn't blink. I'm not scared of Matthew. I never have been. I stood my ground and I stood up tall.

"Or I'm going to put your arse on the floor, so move before you make a scene" I said tapping my feet because I was loosing my patience.

Matthew looked into my eyes trying to scare me. He didn't blink either.

"What the hell are you going to do? You're a toothpick, you would be down in a single blow" Matthew said.

"Well we might just find out" I said.

Matthew let out a little laugh. He looked away from me and looked down at my paper plate. It had a chicken drumstick with some rice on it. Matthew spit on my food.

"You guys better vote for me as the year level leader. Everyone else is" Matthew said walking away.

"Asshole" Alleigh said.

"Here you can eat some of mine" Kiara said sliding the paper plate to me.

"I'm fine. I'm not too hungry" I said walking away to put my paper plate in the bin, I then walked back over to the table and sat down.

Alleigh and Kiara both looked up at me as I walked over but as I sat down they looked down.

"You sure you don't want mine?" Kiara asked.

"I'm good, trust me" I said.

"You shouldn't take his crap. You should just take a hit at him one day. He's not even that strong. You could take him" Alleigh said.

"I hate fighting. I can't stand it" I said.

"Well push him then" Alleigh said. 

"Maybe one day" I said.

I looked up at the teachers who were all sitting together eating. I saw Mr. Harris. He had his head in his hands and he was against the table. He didn't look so happy.

"I'll be back" I said standing up.

I slowly walked over to the teachers table and I sat next to Mr. Harris.

"Are you ok sir?" I asked.

Mr. Harris turned his head and looked at me. He was crying a little. Hopefully no one sees.

"This is the teachers table, you have to sit over there" Mr. Harris said sniffling.

"I know I came to check on you. You didn't look too happy and I wanted to see if you were ok" I said.

"Why would you care about me? I'm just your principal" Mr. Harris said.

"You're a damn good one. People here, they don't know what you are doing for us. Either that or they don't care. You've done a lot for us. I need to repay you somehow" I said.

Mr. Harris shrugged and looked at me.

"I miss my family. I know everyone here does as well, it's just I'm not coping with it as well as others. I just want to see my wife, and my kids. But that would be hypocritical of me. So I have to wait just like all of you" Mr. Harris said.

"I understand. Feel better, you will see them soon" I said standing up and walking back to Alleigh and Kiara.

I sat back down and they both looked at me weirdly.

"What the hell did you talk to him about?" Kiara asked.

"I thanked him. He's done a lot for us. He's keeping us safe" I said.

"I guess he is" Alleigh said.

I looked up at the clock. It was 7:36 at night. Apparently lights are out at nine on the dot. If we are caught up past that time we can get into trouble.

Mr. Harris stood up and looked at me. He then faced everyone and was about to say something.

"If I would have your attention please. I would like to announce the year level leaders. When I call your name please stand up" Mr. Harris said.

He took out a piece of paper and started to call out the names.

"The leader for year twelve is Jesse Hays" Mr. Harris said.

I looked over at the year twelve table and I saw Jesse Hays stand up. He normally plays basketball at lunch with the younger year levels.

"The leader for year eleven is Rowan Lewis" Mr. Harris said.

Rowan is one of the smarter people. I don't know him at all but he's always in the library doing maths work or any kind of homework.

"The leader for year ten is Jasmine Bridgers" Mr. Harris said.

Jasmine is the opposite of Rowan. She's the popular girl. Everyone wants to know her. Everyone wants to be her friend. She's a rich girl, and apparently lives in a two story house with five bathrooms.

"The leader for year nine is Jia Thitinun" Mr. Harris said.

He's the one who I was watching play basketball. He's nice, at times. He can get angry pretty easily. But when he's not angry he's got a good sense of humour and he's very fun to be around.

Mr. Harris had a small pause as he looked up at me. He smiled at me. That's when I knew, he must of changed the year eight leader to me. I nodded no at him trying to make him change his mind. He didn't see me though because he put the piece of paper down and looked around the room.

"The leader for year eight is Sam C" Mr. Harris said looking back at me and smiling.

Everyone went quiet. I didn't want to stand up. I'm not a leader. I'm an introvert. I slowly stood up folding my arms and trying to look anywhere else then students eyes. Alleigh and Kiara both looked up at me and smiled. They could tell I didn't want to be the leader.

"These five will be you year level leaders. If you need any inquiries go to them. They will report to us teachers every week. Thank you. Dinner is now over. You are free to do anything, just don't be noisey" Mr. Harris said.

As soon as he finished talking obviously every student started yelling and screaming. They all stood up and quickly ran out of the STEM room. There was only a few student who stayed behind and kept sitting down.

"So Mr Leader. What's your next move?" Kiara said.

"Oh gawd, you know I'm not a leader. He probably chose me as the leader because I went over to him before" I said.

"It's not that bad. You're just going to have every year eight student asking you questions" Kiara said jokingly.

"Fun" I said sarcastically.

Kiara stood up and did a three hundred and sixty degree spin randomly and put her hands in the air.

"Let's play a board game or something!" Kiara said loudly.

"Like what?" Alleigh asked.

"I don't know. What about UNO?" Kiara asked.

"That's a card game but sure. You in Sam" Alleigh said.

"I'm in" I said smiling.

Kiara ran over to the stack of games in the corner of the room and grabbed the deck of UNO. She quickly ran back and sat down on the other side of Alleigh and I. She took the cards out and shuffled them. She then dealt seven cards to everyone. She put one card into the middle of the table. Of course it was the card that you can't use as a starter. It was the reverse card. She then put down another. It was a six blue.

"Left to dealer, you start Alleigh" Kiara said.

"Ah ok. Sorry Sam" Alleigh said putting down a blue plus two.

"Dammit" I said picking up two cards.

The cards I picked up was a plus four and a blue reverse.

"You should of saved that card" Kiara said putting down a blue plus two.

"Sam if you can reverse it please, I need to get my payback" Alleigh said picking up two cards.

"Alright here" I said putting the blue reverse down that I picked up before.

"Oh no" Kiara said.

"Oh yeah, thank you Sam" Alleigh said putting down a plus four.

"Oh no. That's so bad I have to pick up four" Kiara said sarcastically putting down another plus four.

"Plus eight!" Alleigh and Kiara yelled laughing together.

I looked over at Alleigh.

"Wait no. You don't" Alleigh said knowing that I had a plus four as well.

I put down my plus four card. Alleigh looked at me and then looked back at the deck.

"Pick up twelve" I said.

Kiara started laughing as Alleigh slowly picked up twelve. Alleigh now has nineteen cards in her hand.

"What colour?" Kiara asked.

"Make it green" I said.

It was now Kiaras turn. She didn't have a green card so she went to pick one up. As she picked up I put down a green five. As I put my card down I could hear something. Screaming. It was coming from upstairs. The three of us all looked up at the celling.

"What was that?" Kiara said.

We all stood up and walked to the stairs. We walked upstairs and looked down the hallway. I saw a student holding their arm with a bite mark on it. But then I noticed what happened. The student with the bite mark must of shown someone and the person they showed got scared.

Ms. Haywood was comforting the girl who was bitten. She took her away to stop the bleeding. She must of been bitten at the fence when all the parents were there. She kept it a secret from everyone.

"Everyone please walk away" Mr. Kealy my history teacher said.

Everyone walked away from the hallway and got back to what they were doing. It was back to every student talking loudly again.

"That was weird" Kiara said.

"It was" Alleigh said.

We all stood still watching Ms. Haywood take her downstairs to the nurse's office.

"I hope she's ok" Kiara said.

The girl was in our year level. She's a quiet person. She normally sits by herself in classes and at recess and lunch. I guess she's kind of like me.

ONE HOUR LATER

It was bed time. Every student went to the room they were assigned in. We didn't finish our UNO game. We ended it after the girl. I was laying on the hard stinky carpet next to other students in my year level. They were al whispering because the teacher came in before telling them all to be quiet. I couldn't get to sleep. So I decided to get up and go for a walk around the building.

I stood up and walked to the door. It was unlocked which is what I expected. They wouldn't lock us up. I walked down the dark hallway. It was almost impossible to see if it wasn't for the moon light reflecting through windows. I made it to the end of the hallway and looked out through the window that looks out at the schools oval.

I could see a dark figure out on the oval. I don't know who it was. It could of been a parent hanging around. They were walking really slowly though. They were limping as well. Maybe they were hurt? I heard walking behind me. I turned around and I saw that it was Ms. Haywood.

"what are you doing up sam?" Ms. Haywood whispered.

"I couldn't get to sleep. I'm sorry I'll go back to the room later, I just needed a little walk" I said.

"It's ok, it's fine with me. I don't mind at all" Ms. Haywood said.

She stood next to me and looked out the window with me. She saw the figure out on the oval.

"What is going on? Really? I heard you talking with Mr. Harris. He said that he wasn't telling us the truth. What is the truth?" I asked.

"Why were you listening to our conversation for starters?" Ms. Haywood asked.

"I was walking past" I said.

"Well, there's a reason why he's not telling you or anyone" Ms. Haywood said.

"Please. I won't tell anyone, well I've got no one to tell" I said.

"Fine. The virus gets into the body and changes them. Somehow. The host dies within a matter of hours. Then they come back to life. But they are still dead. It's hard to explain it. They aren't the person they were anymore. There personality, who they were is all gone. All they want is human flesh. It's unknown how the virus is spread as of now, or at least it hasn't been talked about" Ms. Haywood said.

"I thought that guy on the radio was crazy. I guess he was telling the truth" I said.

"Get some sleep, ok Sam. I'll see you in the morning" Ms. Haywood said.

"Night" I said as she walked away.

I continued looking out at the oval. I was about to turn around and walked back to my room when I bumped into Matthew. He walked up behind me and waited for me to turn around.

"What up Sam" Matthew said.

I ignored him and tried to walk past him. But I saw another student walk out in front of me. That's when I noticed there was another student there. I saw three of them all together. The two standing behind Matthew were wearing masks and I couldn't see who they were.

"What do you want?" I asked

"I came here to congratulate you on your bullshit win. You rigged the vote. Everyone voted for me. It was hard to get the votes but everyone did. I should of won, but somehow you did" Matthew said.

"I didn't rig it. I don't even want to be the year level leader" I said.

"Bullshit. Bull fucking shit. You need to know that I'm top dog. If you mess with me, you go down. Boys grab him" Matthew said.

The two students ran over and held my hands behind my back. They grabbed me hard and held me still. Matthew punched my hard in my stomach. I got winded from the blow as he punched me again. It was painful.

Matthew then punched me across my face as I saw blood sit out of my mouth. I caught my breath and looked back at him as he punched me again. The people holding me let go of me and I fell to the ground. They all started kicking my hard. I crawled into a ball. I couldn't feel anything. The pain was too much that it felt like I was dead. It felt like I wasn't in my body anymore. But then I heard screams, lots of screams. All coming from the girls bedroom.

Matthew and his friends all kicked me one more time and quickly made a run for it. I slowly looked down the hallway as I saw all the girls running out of their room. They all had blood on them. My vision started getting blurry as I saw them running out. I couldn't see Alleigh or Kiara. I slowly got onto my knees and got up onto my feet. I limped down the hallway and slowly looked in the room.

I saw the girl who was bitten before. She was limping out towards me. I could see blood all over her. Her eyes were like the man from before. She must have the virus. How did she get it? We are in lockdown. I thought as I slowly walked backwards. I could see girl inside with blood all over them, they weren't moving either.

It came to me. They must turn into one of them when they are bitten. She was bitten that parent was bitten. It all makes sense now.