Chicago, USA

Evergreen Academy

Kartik's POV

I pulled over the car as we reached Kairav's school. I and Watson came out of the car and looked at the condition of the school. The biters were scattered in the ground. Half eaten, rotten, torn apart bodies were lying on the ground. There was blood everyone. Everything was quite, only the biters' snarling can be heard. No sign of humanity.

"Here we go again", Watson said sighing looking at the school. I looked at him. Just then, it thundered and we saw black clouds covering the sky.

"We better hurry up", I said and both of us walked into the gates of the school with our guns down.

We hurried towards the entrance door with quick yet soundless steps. As I was about to push open the door, a biter appeared from nowhere and showed its ugly face on the other side of the door. There were many of them inside and they were snarling, but their noises couldn't be heard.

"Fuck", I muttered taking a few steps back.

"What do we do now?", Watson asked looking at me worried.

"There has to be a window. We can enter through that. We need to search for it", I said and Watson nodded. We started hovering around the school, looking for a goddamn window into the infirmary.

"I found it", Watson shouted and I rushed to him.

"There's the infirmary", he said pointing inside the window. I looked at the window. It was a glass window with a height of 3'6" and width of 3'4" approx. It was closed from inside. I sighed and looked at Watson.

"We'll need to break it!", I said and Watson nodded.

Two axes were kept nearby in the garden. So we brought them and started breaking the glass with them. Hearing the sound, the biters walked towards us, a huge number of them. We broke the glass at last.

"Jump in", I said Watson and he jumped into the infirmary through the window, holding the frames. The biters almost approached us and I was still out.

"Hurry up", Watson said and forwarded me his hand and even I jumped into the infirmary, just in time.

After we were inside, we looked at the biters who had blocked our only exit - through the window. There were too many of them. Snarling and stretching their arms to get us through the broken window. Watson sighed in disbelief and turned towards me.

"What should we do now? They've blocked all the exits", Watson asked me.

"First we do the job for what we came here and then we figure out this shit", I said looking at the biters and Watson nodded.

We started grabbing all the antibiotics, the bandages, the first aid kit, pain killers, forceps, scissors all the surgical items. I looked at the women section and realised something. I walked towards the women section and grabbed some sanitary pads for the ladies. I stuffed them all in my bag and after we were done grabbing stuff, we looked at the horde of the biters standing outside the window.

"You have a knife?", I asked Watson taking out my knife.

"I do", he replied.

"Okay...we stay inside and walk close to them. We stab these knives through their skull until all of em die", I instructed Watson and he nodded his head.

We walked towards the biters slowly. The biters were growling loudly, stretching their arms to reach us through the window. I looked at Watson. Watson looked at me. I nodded and he nodded back and we started stabbing those soft, rotten skulls of the biters with the knife.

"Ha Ha....this is fun", Watson said chuckling as the biters fell back on the ground, dead.

"It is indeed", I replied as I stabbed another biter through the skull.

Just then, a car horn blared and the biters started walking away growling and snarling towards the source of the sound. Our exit got cleared so easily and we looked at each other confused. We jumped out of the window when all the biters were gone.

We walked further to look at a red car, its horn blaring non-stop , surrounded by biters.

"The exit is clear...we must leave", I said as I felt a rain drop on my skin.

"There must be a survivor in the car", Watson said looking at the car. He turned towards me.

"We survive by saving and helping people. We must save that man", Watson urged me and I sighed in disbelief.

"What if there's no one? What if there's no survivor? What if its just a dead body of some man with his head pressing the horn?", I asked him so many questions in one breath, totally protesting his idea of sacrificing such a great opportunity of sneaking out.

"If I had these many questions, these many doubts in my mind, I would've never been able to save your wife and son", Watson replied looking into my eyes. I sighed and rubbed my forehead processing things in my head. I raised my head and looked at him.

"We save him", I said and he smiled at me. We looked at that car surrounded by biters.

"You got any silencers?", he asked me.

"Yeah...", I replied taking out the silencers. He took one and inserted it in his gun. I took one and inserted it in my gun.

"We shoot em' from here....killing as many as possible. Then we pave our way towards that car, killing the near by biters with machete because we don't want the bullets to finish", Watson shared his idea and I approved it.

We aimed our guns at the biters and shot at them, aiming for headshots. We killed a dozen of them and then we started running towards the car, killing the near by biters with machete as planned. We got most of the biters killed and we finally approached the car. We looked inside to look at an old man, probably in his sixties, trembling with fear sitting on the driving seat. He was alive. We knocked on the window to bring him out of his trance. He looked at us and quickly came out of the car.

"Hey...are you alright?", Watson asked him and he nodded, his eyes showing a suspicious fear.

"What's your name?", I asked him.

"Professor Eugene Jenner. I teach biology in this school", he replied, his voice quivering with fear and I nodded.

"My car's fuel is all burnt and I have nowhere to go", he said and I looked at Watson. He shrugged his shoulders. I sighed and turned to look at Eugene.

"Wanna come with us? You'll be safe. The city is too dangerous to dwell in and.....it has already started raining", I asked him, as it started to drizzle.

"I would like to if you agree", Eugene replied nervously. I sighed.

"Come...follow us", I said and started walking away with Watson, Eugene walking beside us and trying to match our pace.

NAIRA'S POV

"If my son dies....your son dies too", Claire said glaring at me with bloodshot red eyes and moving the knife closer to Kairav's neck.

"Mom!!", Kairav screamed in fear as Claire held him tightly.

"Kairav!! Claire...are you out of your mind? Why are you hurting my son? What did I do to you? You're not in your senses...calm down Claire!", I shouted at her but she continued moving the knife closer to Kairav's neck.

"Mummaaa!!", Kairav started crying as the sharp end of the knife touched his delicate skin.

"Claire!!! Leave my baby....I can do nothing to bring Sam back. Even I can't digest the fact that Sam is gone...but please don't hurt my son. Why are you doing this?!", I screamed at her bursting into tears, literally begging her to leave my son. It had started raining by now and it had started to get dark.

"I'm doing this because you have a precious little thing that I don't have!", Claire shouted back and was about to move the knife into his throat that I saw somebody behind her.

"Sam!!", I said shocked and Claire's grip on Kairav loosened. Kairav ran to me and hugged me tightly. But it wasn't Sam. I mean it was Sam but no more Sam. He had turned into a zombie. His skin had turned paler, his teeth were rotten, his nerves were visible and his eyes had become green.

"Sam", Claire said happily and turned to hug her son but the latter pierced his sharp teeth through her skin, oozing all the blood out.

"Nooooooooo!!!!", I screamed as Sam started tearing the flesh of his own mom.

"Sam...", Claire managed to speak and held Sam's face in between her palms, still smiling at him.

"Noooooo", I broke down and burst into tears as the rain started falling and Sam fed on his mom while she was still alive.

"Naira....get inside!!", Thomas made me stand on my feet and everybody started dragging me inside. Hannah picked up Kairav in his arms and took her inside while I still looked at Sam and Claire with tearful eyes. We finally entered inside the house and Rebecca closed the door behind.

KARTIK'S POV

We were driving through our neighborhood and I was shocked to know that it was no more safe. The roads were filled with biters and dead bodies.

"We can no longer stay here...its not safe!", Watson said as I continued driving. It was almost dark and I could see the rain drops falling through the beam of the headlight.

"We need to leave this place tonight!", I declared as I saw the fighter planes flying past us towards the city.

"There're gonna bombard the city!", Watson replied, realising all this shit and punched the window with his fist.

"Fuck", I said as I saw a horde of biters in front of us, snarling and growling. I stopped the car and turned off the engine. I kept those headlights on so that the biters get attracted to that and we escape easily.

We came out of the car and started running towards home as fast as we could with Professor Eugene following us behind. We reached home.

"Get the bus Watson", I ordered him and he nodded his head.

"Professor Eugene....follow him", I told him and he walked away with Watson. I reached the front door and pressed the door bell many times until someone opened it. I waited for a few seconds and Naira opened it.

"Kartik...", she said smiling brightly and climbed on me hugging me tightly while I was covered with biter blood. I released the hug and looked at Naira, holding her shoulders tightly.

"We need to leave Naira...its no more safe here. We need to leave!!", I informed everybody and everyone started freaking out.

"I don't want any questions...just get your butts into that goddamn bus", I ordered them and everybody did so, except Naira. She kept staring at me with bloodshot red eyes. I knew what she was thinking, I goddamn knew it but there was nothing else we could do now. I hugged her tightly but she didn't hug me back.

"I know Naira its difficult...its difficult to leave this house since we have so many memories with this house. This is the first house I bought after our marriage, Kairav was born here, he learnt to walk in this house, he grew up in this house but we need to leave. The army is gonna bombard this city. Its not at all safe here now", I tried to explain her hugging her tightly. We heard the sound of distant explosions. I released the hug and held her shoulders tight, looking directly into her eyes.

"We need to hurry up. Please Naira...", I begged her and she came out of the trance. She walked inside. I sighed in disbelief. I looked at Kairav, he was staring at me with fear in his eyes. I walked towards him and picked him up in my arms. He hid his face in the crook of my neck and wrapped his arms around my neck. I smiled as I realised that my son felt safe around me. Just then, Naira came with all the photographs and looked at me with tears in her eyes. I nodded at her and she walked straight into the bus. I sighed and closed the door of the house. I wiped away those tears and climbed into the bus with Kairav in my arms.

"Everybody inside?", I asked Watson who had sat himself down on the driving seat.

"Yes", he replied.

"Then let's go", I said and he started the bus and we drove away.

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