On The College Side -- Olivia & Kitty
In retrospect, they should've seen this coming.
The muffled screaming echoing from all directions outside of their classroom, the tense silence as the students in Psychology 101 looked at each other, trying to figure out what to do and what was happening --
In a world full of the walking dead, their first instinct should've been to think: zombie.
But that isn't what happened.
This is what happens:
The door at the front of the classroom creaks open, slowly, as though the hand that's turning the knob open is rapidly losing track of its ability to grasp and twist. The students in the classroom look at each other, then up at their teacher, unasked questions heavy in their mouths, and the door opens wider.
Olivia Jensen is tense in the back of the classroom, eyes wide as she looks at the door and wonders how quickly she can get out. She knows she's not too far away, and she's fast, but she's not the only one in the room. There's a good twenty other people there, one of her best friends included, and she looks sideways to meet Kitty Gilmore's gaze.
And then the door opens fully, slamming against the wall -- the undead tissue and muscle responsible for it doesn't know its own strength anymore -- to reveal a child.
Olivia doesn't know how old she is. She doesn't know why she's here. She just knows that she's young and that there's something not right about this intrusion and the empty way the child is staring at them as she shifts back and forth from one leg to the other. Olivia has never seen a zombie this fresh before, and she doesn't know enough to know that this is exactly what she's seeing. So she hesitates.
Kitty is motionless in her seat, her eyes locked on Olivia’s as the strange interruption continues to unfold before them. She opens her mouth to speak, but quickly snaps it shut again. The same puzzlement Kitty feels is reflected in Olivia’s eyes, along with something else, a desire to run, maybe?
Do they need to run? Do they even know what’s happening right now? Kitty isn’t thinking, she can’t think, because her heart is already racing and that fight or flight instinct wants to take over as the young girl moves from shuffling from leg to leg to haltingly moving further into their classroom. There’s something unnerving about her, about the way she’s looking at them, but not really seeing them. The girl moves her gaze in quick, jolting movements, almost like some kind of cheap animatronic that might have been malfunctioning -- except the young girl wasn’t wires and plastic, but flesh and bone.
Only one word is rattling around Kitty’s mind now.
Zombie.
Kitty’s eyes are wide and she clutches at the edge of her desk as she mouths “Zombie?” to Olivia. Fearful that if she speaks the girl, no, creature, might direct its attention towards her.
Olivia nods imperceptibly as the girl takes another step inside, then swallows hard. She can't tell if she's imagining the taste of bile in her mouth. Her eyes glance from left to right, looking for any other possible exit besides the door to the hallway, but they're on the second floor and there's no other door. She allows herself to ponder briefly how risky it'd be to jump out the window when --
One of the other students in their class -- Olivia realizes with a start that she doesn't even know his name -- had tried to reach for the gun in his backpack -- what a world they live in, now -- and the zombie leaps for him, her attention focused on the prey who's unwillingly drawn her focus. It seems like it happens in slow motion -- her teeth sink into his neck -- he hadn't even stood up yet, and if he'd been fully upright she wouldn't have gotten him in such a vulnerable area, maybe -- and he screams.
Suddenly, the classroom is a blur of students trying to escape. There's more screaming -- Olivia has no idea if it's coming from her or someone else in there, or others in the school -- She goes sideways first, not forward, and grabs onto Kitty's hand.