Picture at the side is of course Conor and Harry!

I turned round to see Conor trailing behind me, carrying a piece of the wrestling ring that was a little too oversized for his frame. I shook my head but I couldn’t hide the smile. Someone actually wanted to help me.

“That is one of our best friends stuck in there!” Conor said as if I was stupid for doubting him coming to help. He jogged over to me and put his arm around my shoulder.

“Wait!” Another voice said from behind us. I turned my head to see Harry and Liam experiencing the same shock my body had to the cold breeze, both holding metal parts from the wrestling ring and readying themselves for a fight. I stopped and waited for them to adjust to the cold breeze before both running over to me.

“You’re braver than most of us, you know.” Liam ruffled my hair with his hand. “The others will make sure Susan gets to the Science rooms safely. They’ll grab the acids and stuff, wait for us and then we’ll plan a proper escape!”

“Why are you guys helping me?” I questioned. Neither of them knew me and as far as I knew Harry and Sadie ended ages ago!

“You helped me.” Harry shrugged, again implying it was stupid I was asking these questions. Liam nodded in agreement. I felt a warmth inside me, like I was being accepted and that people knew I was being serious and wanted to help me. I hadn’t experienced that much in my life.

“I’ve not done anything!” I said, turning around to face Harry and Liam. Although it meant walking backwards, I wanted them to see how serious and happy I was for their help – but it was short lived. In the distance I could see a man running towards us, his shirt a deep shade of blood red. My smile dropped instantly and I stuttered and stammered, pointing behind them. Liam immediately looked backwards.

“Shit! Run!” Liam gasped and we instantly run further away from the man, although I tried to lead us towards the gym.

“He’s not stopping!” Harry said, out of breath. We ran round a corner and stopped, all desperate to get our breath back. I leant my hand on the wall as I doubled over, breathing in and out so quickly I began to get dizzy.

“What… the… hell… do we do?” Conor said as he steadied his breathing.

“We’ve gotta get rid of it, or it might catch us at the wrong time.” Harry said, the look of anger etched on his face. “I’m not running from them forever!” He clenched the metal bar in his hands and walked back round the corner, back onto the field and closer to the guy. I held my breath for a second, my stomach in knots as I waited for the guy to run at Harry. I couldn’t take not knowing if he was going to take Harry down because he wasn’t prepared. I closed my eyes and mentally prayed to God that we would get through this mess and whatever was happening would cease so we could all live normal school lives again – something that already seemed like years ago! Taking a deep breath in, I looked back to Liam and Conor before I ran out onto the field, just reaching Harry before the guy did; Seeing the blood down his shirt and the holes in his arm and cheek made me sure he was one of them.  I swung the metal pole with all my strength and it connected with the side of his head, sending vibrations up my arms and causing me to stagger backwards. Harry shot me a thankful glare quickly before using his weapon to swing down on the guy’s head a few times, again bringing back the memories of what Louis had done only a little while ago. I put my hand on Harry’s shoulder and he finally stopped swinging the weapon at the guy on the floor.

“It’s done.” I said simply. Harry wiped the sweat from him brow with his hand and sighed heavily.

“I never want to do that again.” Harry finally showed his emotional side.

“It’s them or us, Harry. I know you don’t want to do it, I don’t want to either but I’d rather live as a human than one of those.” We both looked down at the remains of the guy and I shuddered, swallowing the sick feeling that was slowly creeping up.

“Let’s go.” Harry put his arm around me and walked us back to Liam and Conor. “Thanks for your help. I couldn’t think of what to do!” I put my hand on his hand on my shoulder and smiled. The warm feeling returned and I felt happy and protected once again, despite the fact I’d just saved Harry!

“What the hell were you thinking?” Conor snapped at me as I walked up to him. I jumped back a little and stared at him, confused.

“She was thinking about helping me stay alive!” Harry hissed from behind me. “If you’ve got a problem with that, I suggest you make your own way to the science rooms.” Conor scowled at Harry before he grabbed my hand and started walking, wanting to continue the journey to the gym.

“Since when were you best buddies with him?” Conor whispered harshly. The look in his eyes showed jealousy, anger and frustration. I couldn’t blame him though, this situation was enough to make anyone crazy. Yesterday, the likes of Harry and Louis, Trudy and Susan wouldn’t have even said two words to me.

“Conor, let’s not go into this right now, keep your eyes and ears open for any activity.” I rolled my eyes and began to walk faster not wanting the trouble, but if anything I ran into more trouble. I heard a growl from my left, but before I could even turn my head to that side I was knocked to the ground by a redhead. Her hair was bloody and matted at the back of her ponytail. As I hit the floor, I landed on my right arm and let out a yelp as the pain shot through my arm, my trusty weapon rolling out of reach. As I had done when trying to save me and Susan, I kicked the redhead in the face until I heard a now satisfying crack. I pushed myself further away from her and quickly grabbed my metal pole, not realising a small bolt stuck out of the side of it and it cut deeply across my right hand. Ignoring all the pain I swung the pole with all my might and aimed her head against the wall. I didn’t have any more strength left in me, I sat on the floor just watching and waiting for her to crawl back over to me and bite me. I cowered as I moved myself backwards, until my back was up against a door. There was no way I’d have enough time to stand up, open it, get in and shut it before she would grab me. I, once again, prayed that I could get out of this and as if my prayers were answered, Liam swung his metal down on her head and stopped her from getting up.

“Holy crap! Are you ok?” Liam ran over to me, tears now rolling down my cheeks. I grabbed my right wrist with my left hand and looked up and Liam, Harry and Conor who were all staring intently at my hand.

“The metal had a bolt sticking out.” I whimpered. I watched as all three of them simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief, obviously thinking I had been bitten. “And I landed on my arm and it tingles.” I let out a small, pathetic laugh. Conor walked up to me and ripped the other sleeve off my dorky white sports top after a prompt from me and helped tie it over the wound. Liam grabbed my metal pole and after some tampering he managed to get the bolt free and threw it down to the field.

“No more surprises, ok?” Conor said as he helped me up from the floor.

“I’m not making the surprises!” I said as I brushed myself down with my uninjured hand. I took another deep breath in and out as Liam handed me my weapon back and we continued towards the gym.

“Two in the space of a couple of minutes… Anyone else not liking the sound of that? There were three in the space of the whole morning when we were locked in the changing rooms.” Harry said sombrely. I felt my stomach drop as he said it. I hadn’t really thought about how many people would have been affected by this virus, these ones didn’t even make it to the hospital!

“What is causing this?” Liam asked us all in a way that made him think no one would know the answer.

“A virus apparently.” I said, even though I kept my eyes and ears on my surroundings. “It’s causing people to go crazy and start attacking everything and anything in sight.”

“Right.” Liam said monotonously. “So how comes they don’t die when they have chunks of them missing?” There was a small pause.

“Yeah, still working on that!” Conor said quickly. “No one had chunks of them missing last time I’d checked.” We quickly dived into the school through an open window into an art room. The gym was only down the hallway, but it was how many of those things we were going to meet before we got there.

“Let me go first.” Liam said, gesturing to my injured hand and then just looking at Harry with a plain expression. Harry looked slightly embarrassed but nodded, I agreed too. I could hardly lead with an injured hand. Liam opened the door slowly and peered across the hallway, closing it quickly afterwards. He let out a huge sigh and ran his hand through his hair. “There’s about five.”

“Five!” Conor shouted. I quickly flung my hand over his mouth and shushed him in his ear. “Sorry!” he whispered through my fingers. We all looked at each other with a mix of hope and dread in our eyes. We would start this fight, but could we end it? Would I even be able to make it to Elle and Sadie?

“What if they all run at us at once?” Harry questioned as we lined up to leave the room in an order that would protect us all the most.

“We fight them all at once.” Liam said as he swung the door open, the pole clutched like some sort of lightsaber. This was going to be interesting!