Walkers began spilling into the hallway.
The first stumbled out of a classroom, followed immediately by three more.
Noah's expression hardened.
Across the floor, more doors stood open as the sound of movement inside gave way to shuffling out into the corridor. Some walked blindly forward, while others immediately turned toward the nearest living targets.
Them.
Noah tightened his grip around his spear.
"Levy."
"I see them."
The two stepped forward.
Noah drove his spear through the skull of the nearest walker before pivoting toward another. Levy moved alongside him, his scissors flashing as he struck at anything that came within reach.
For several moments, it worked.
Every walker that reached them went down.
But there were too many.
More continued pouring from the classrooms behind them, filling the hallway faster than Noah and Levy could cut them down. The bodies beneath their feet began making movement difficult, forcing them to give ground.
Levy glanced over his shoulder.
"...There's no end to them."
Noah looked toward the staircase.
"We gotta go back up."
"And what about them?"
Noah's eyes shifted toward the students they'd rescued.
"They're coming with us."
He raised his voice.
"Alright guys, it's time to move! Head for the stairs!"
The students hesitated.
Then the growing mass of walkers surged toward them.
They turned and ran.
Noah and Levy stayed at the rear, striking down any walker that came too close as they retreated toward the staircase.
"Keep moving!" Noah shouted.
The students scrambled up the stairs, stumbling over themselves in their desperation to escape.
Noah glanced back. The hallway was almost completely filled.
"Levy!"
"I know!"
They turned and sprinted after the others, while the walkers surged toward the staircase behind them.
Thankfully, the walkers were too slow to keep pace. By the time they reached the second-floor landing, the distance between them had grown considerably.
For a brief moment, it seemed they had managed to lose them.
Then a few walkers emerged from the second-floor hallway, slowly making their way toward the stairwell.
"Keep going!" Noah shouted.
He took the lead, with Levy falling behind to watch their rear. Noah stepped into the hallway and dispatched the first walker with a quick thrust of his spear. Another approached from the side, and he struck it down before it could reach them.
"Go!"
The students hurried past.
Noah turned toward the stairwell and grabbed the door, intending to pull it shut behind them.
It wouldn't budge.
He looked down.
A walker's body had fallen against the other side of the doorway, its neck caught beneath the edge of the door.
"Shit."
Noah pulled again.
Nothing.
Footsteps shuffled closer from the second floor.
He glanced over his shoulder. The horde from the first floor was slowly making its way toward them, gaining ground with every passing second. Noah gritted his teeth and wrapped both hands around the door.
"Come on..."
He yanked.
The door suddenly gave way.
The walker's head snapped beneath the frame with a sickening crunch, its body collapsing out of sight.
Noah recoiled, his stomach twisting as a wave of nausea hit him. He swallowed hard.
"Keep moving!"
The students scrambled up the stairs. Levy paused long enough to glance back at him.
"You coming?"
"Yeah," he retched, "I'm coming."
Noah followed close behind, forcing himself to ignore the bile rising in his throat while behind them, the walkers continued their slow pursuit.
When they reached the first floor, Noah was surprised to find only a few walkers wandering the halls. None of the classroom doors were open.
Yet.
He wasn't planning on sticking around long enough to find out what happened when they did.
Noah and Levy quickly dealt with the remaining walkers before turning their attention to the stairwell.
"Can you find something to wedge between the doors?" Noah asked the three students. "Something sturdy enough to keep them from opening."
The trio nodded and immediately began looking around for anything they could use.
"I'll stay here with them just in case," Levy said, glancing toward the stairwell. "You go get the class."
Noah nodded. He tightened his grip around his spear before turning toward the hallway. By the time he reached their homeroom, the class was already preparing to leave. The moment he stepped inside, the room fell silent.
Ms. García was the first to move. She hurried toward the doorway, letting out a breath of relief as she reached it. Noah caught the faint, minty scent of her gum as she stopped just a few feet away. For a moment, her expression didn't fully settle. Noah was there—but only Noah.
"Are you two alright? Where's Levy?"
"We're fine," Noah said quickly, stepping just inside the doorway. "Levy's still out there with the others. He's okay."
That seemed to ease her slightly, though her gaze lingered on the empty hallway behind him. Ms. García looked between him and the corridor again before asking the question everyone else seemed desperate to hear.
"So... are the halls clear?"
"No."
Noah's response came instantly.
The single word immediately drew everyone's attention.
Noah didn't step further into the room. He stayed near the door, half-turned toward the hallway as if expecting something to appear at any second.
"Safer than before," he continued. "We cleared the floors on the way down, but by the time we made it back up, walkers were flooding the halls behind us."
A few uneasy murmurs spread through what was left of the class.
Then the questions came.
"What are those things?"
"Is there really a System?"
"Did you guys level up?"
"Did you see anyone else down there?"
Noah barely had time to register one before another followed.
Then—
Click.
A classroom door opening somewhere down the hall.
The room went still.
The class president let out a nervous breath.
"Another class made it out?"
A few students turned toward the sound, hope flickering across their faces.
Noah's stomach dropped.
"No."
The word came out sharper than intended.
He finally stepped fully into the room, but his attention never left the hallway.
"We don't have time for this."
His grip tightened around his spear.
"We need to go. Now."
Noah didn't wait for a response. He immediately turned his back on the classroom and stepped back into the hallway.
He turned toward the only other open door in the hall.
It was the door closest to the north stairwell—the same one they'd just escaped through.
Thankfully, they had managed to find multiple brooms and mops and wedge them between the handles, reinforcing the north stairwell door and keeping it firmly shut.
With that secured, Noah approached the door with his spear raised.
Before he could get any closer, Levy stepped out from the other side, another mop in hand. He immediately raised his free hand, a small smirk forming on his face.
"Easy, man. I don't think it's the time to be pointing that thing at your allies."
Noah sighed, lowering his spear.
"Sorry. Didn't realize it was you."
Levy walked over to the stairwell and wedged the mop snugly between the others, reinforcing the barricade.
The trio stepped out of the classroom soon after, each carrying whatever they could find to defend themselves.
A pipe wrench.
A mallet.
A crowbar.
They weren't much, but they were better than nothing.
Once everyone had gathered outside the classroom, Noah, Levy, the three students they'd rescued, and the rest of their classmates began discussing where they should go next.
The classroom had provided them with a temporary shelter, but the sounds of movement beyond the doors made it clear that they couldn't stay there forever.
"The cafeteria," one of the students suggested. "It's big, and there should still be food and water there."
"I agree," another student said. "There's way more room than in here."
Several others murmured their agreement.
Noah considered it for a moment before nodding. It wasn't a perfect solution, but it was better than being trapped in a classroom while the rest of the school filled with walkers.
They could regroup there, figure out what was happening, and anyone who wanted to leave afterward could do so without being forced to remain in the group.
Before they could settle on anything else, a classroom door somewhere down the hall creaked open.
Then another.
Noah's eyes immediately shifted toward the hallway.
"Alright, we gotta move. Now."
He didn't wait for anyone's affirmation. Noah took the lead, spear in hand, while Levy positioned himself at the rear of the group. The others quickly followed, keeping close together as they made their way toward the south stairwell.
The hallway seemed strangely quiet compared to the chaos they'd left behind. Noah kept his eyes moving from doorway to doorway, checking every corner as they passed, while the distant sounds of walkers stumbling through the newly opened classrooms echoed behind them.
They reached the south stairwell and began making their way down. Noah checked every corner before committing to the stairs, while Levy kept watch behind them, making sure no walkers had slipped onto the stairwell.
When they reached the first floor, Noah peered through the doorway before slowly pushing it open. He stepped through first and scanned the hallway. Once he was satisfied the coast was clear, he motioned for the others to follow.
They were nearly halfway through the doorway when a walker suddenly emerged from the side of the hall.
Its cloudy eyes locked onto Jared.
Jared's face went pale.
The walker lunged.
He reacted without hesitation, grabbing the nearest person and yanking her in front of himself.
The blonde-haired girl barely had time to gasp before the walker's teeth sank into her neck.
Levy, still on the other side of the door watching the rear of the group, never saw what Jared had done. Neither did the others. From their perspective, the walker had emerged from nowhere and attacked her.
"Get it off her!"
Noah spun around at the commotion and drove his spear into the walker's skull. The creature collapsed onto the floor, taking the girl with it.
She hit the floor with a dull thud.
Her brother immediately dropped beside her, his hands trembling as he cradled her head in his arms.
"No... no, no, no."
Tears welled in his eyes as he looked down at her.
"Not you, God, please not my sister," he said desperately. "What happened?"
She tried to answer.
Her lips parted, but nothing coherent came out. Blood bubbled in her throat, escaping between her lips as she struggled to breathe.
Her brother's face crumpled.
"Please..."
Her eyes slowly shifted away from him.
They found Jared.
For a moment, she simply stared at him, confusion and hurt evident in her tear-filled eyes.
Jared saw it and couldn't bring himself to meet her gaze. He turned away.
Her eyes lingered on him for another second before drifting upward toward the ceiling. Tears welled at the corners of her eyes and rolled down her cheeks.
Then she stopped breathing.
Her brother stared at her.
"No..."
His voice broke.
He pulled her closer, burying his face against her shoulder as tears streamed down his cheeks.
A few feet away, Jared stood silently through clenched teeth.
The boy eventually lifted his head.
His eyes found Noah.
The grief in his expression had hardened into something colder.
Hatred.
Noah felt his stomach tighten.
He couldn't understand how he'd missed it.
"You were watching the front, weren't you?"
Noah looked up.
It was Jared.
Jared swallowed, his expression shifting into something that looked almost accusatory.
"You said you'd clear the way."
The accusation hung in the air.
Several students turned toward Noah, uncertainty spreading across their faces. No one had seen what actually happened, and from their perspective, Jared's words made sense. Noah had been leading them. If a walker had slipped through, then surely he'd been the one who missed it.
Noah opened his mouth to respond, but the sound of groaning walkers echoed from the stairwell above.
More were coming.
"We don't have time for this," Levy said, his voice cutting through the tension.
He looked toward the dead girl.
Levy's eyes shifted toward Jared.
For a brief moment, the two locked eyes.
Jared's expression remained unreadable.
Levy narrowed his eyes slightly before looking at Noah.
"We need to move."
Noah clenched his jaw.
He still didn't know how the walker had gotten past him, but there wasn't time to figure it out.
"Everyone, keep going."
The boy stared at his sister for several seconds, tears still running down his face. He leaned forward and pressed one last kiss against her forehead.
"I'm sorry..."
He slowly rose to his feet, wiping his eyes with the back of his sleeve.
His gaze fell on Noah once more.
The grief was still there. So was the hatred.
"Let's go," Levy said quietly.
The boy hesitated before finally turning away from his sister and following the others.