It was a student. A tall guy, maybe a senior. He was standing near the half-court line, but he wasn't moving toward the exit. He was standing perfectly still, his head tilted at an impossible angle toward the ceiling. His arms hung limp at his sides, swinging slightly with the momentum of a body that didn't seem to be holding its own weight.
"What's he doing?" Jay whispered, crawling up behind Leo.
"He's just... standing there," Leo breathed.
Then, the student moved. He didn't walk; he lurched. His left foot stayed planted too long, dragging across the wood with a high-pitched squeak that set Leo's teeth on edge. He moved toward a stray basketball sitting near the bleachers.
The student reached down, but he didn't pick it up. He fell to his knees, his movements jerky and robotic. He pressed his face against the orange leather of the ball and began to tear at it with his teeth.
The sound of the thick rubber popping and the air hissing out was the only noise in the massive gym.
"He's eating... a basketball?" Jay's voice was thick with confusion. "Leo, he's lost his mind. He's completely gone."
Leo backed away from the vent, his stomach doing a slow, nauseating flip. This wasn't just a "flu." This wasn't "agitation." It was like the boy's brain had been wiped clean, leaving only a starving, broken animal behind.
Just then, a sharp noise made them jump. A phone notification. Leo's eyes widened with horror. He looked up at Jay who was now frantically searching for the phone. His hands starting to shake again
Leo's heart didn't just beat; it hammered against his ribs like a trapped bird. The chime of the notification—a bright, cheerful ping —sounded like a gunshot in the hollow silence of the equipment room.
Jay's face went from pale to ghostly white. His fingers scrambled against his thigh, clawing at the pocket of his cargo pants. The phone vibrated again, a dull buzz-buzz against the metal floor that seemed to vibrate through the very cinderblocks they were leaning against.
"Switch it off," Leo mouthed, his voice non-existent.
Jay finally yanked the device out, the screen's artificial glow cutting through the dark like a spotlight. For a split second, the notification banner was visible: VIOLENT RIOTS HAPPENING THROUGHOUT THE CITY; 100's INJURED. Then, with a frantic thumb-press, the screen went black.
But the damage was done.
Outside, the wet, tearing sound of teeth on rubber stopped instantly.
The silence that followed was heavy, a physical weight pressing down on the closet door. Leo didn't dare move. He didn't even dare breathe. He stayed pressed against the floor, his eye glued to the vent.
The student near the half-court line didn't lurch. He didn't move his body at all. Instead, his head snapped toward the closet—a jagged motion that made his neck vertebrae crack with a sound like dry twigs snapping.
Leo's hand automatically shot up to his mouth. Only one thing was going on in his mind. This was how he was going to die, killed by a psycho.
The boy didn't have eyes anymore; just two blown-out, crimson smears that stared at nothing. But his nostrils flared. He was sniffing the air, catching the scent of two terrified boys and the faint, lingering heat of a cell phone battery.
Scritch.
A single sneaker squeaked against the hardwood. Then another. The "Basketball Boy" was moving toward them, his movements no longer random. He was hunting.
"Fuck,fuck,fuck," Jay whispered as the boy got closer to them, dragging his feet along. Leo could feel his heart beating, not in his heart, in his throat. He looked to Jay and to the empty space between them which Krystian usually occupied. Now more than ever, he missed the laughs they used to share, all the teasing, all the good times. Now it felt like a void.
The boy's footstep stopped just outside the door. For a few seconds there was total silence. Leo didn't even dare to breathe. Then it happened. The boy rammed against the door.
Leo and Jay crawled as far back from the door as possible but it wasn't much. The boy was still ramming into the door. Even though it wasn't enough power to open the door, Leo's heart just beat faster against his ribcage. He glanced over to Jay who had closed his eyes in a silent prayer.
For one hellish minute, the noise of the door and Leo's heartbeat were his only companions.
Then it stopped. The noises and the screaming stopped. Leo heard the sound of a body hitting the floor. It was like time slowed down. The thump of a body, the screams of students in the distance, things falling, people falling. It all flooded back to him.
From the corner of his eye he saw Jay crawling to the vent, keeping a safe distance. For a while he just looked out the vent, his expression almost blank. He turned to Leo and whispered, "It's dead." The words almost stuck in his throat. Leo didn't dare believe it. Nevertheless, he positioned himself beside Jay and looked out.
Death stared at him.
Death didn't have eyes. It took the form of a high school senior tearing at a basketball. Leo knew he was dead. Not from his eyes; He didn't have any. He knew from the way the hand stood limp on the side, from the way his chest wasn't rising and falling. It was over. But how did it begin?
Leo couldn't look at the body anymore. He thought he was going to be sick. He sat up and scooted over to a corner in the room, resting his head against the brick wall.
After minutes of silence, it was Jay who finally spoke, "What's happening right now? like- what the hell is happening?" The words came as a whisper, fear and confusion carved onto his face. Leo took a deep breath and rubbed his temples. An incessant throbbing had started somewhere behind his eyes, making his thoughts hazy.
"I don't know man. I thought we were dead for sure. That stupid phone," Leo said, finding some energy to speak. He needed air. The cramped closet was hot and poorly ventilated. The smell of rusted iron and old sweat was making him nauseous.
Jay suddenly sat up straight and took out his phone, the white light coming from the phone lighting up his face. "What? What happened?" Leo asked, crawling over to Jay.
Jay was scrolling through instagram scanning the posts. Leo stared at Jay, "What the hell are you doing? We're stuck in a school attack and you want to scroll through Instagram?"Leo asked in disbelief. Had he gone mad?
Jay didn't reply. He kept on searching through apps until he stopped at a post on Twitter. Leo squinted at the phone to read whatever Jay was looking at. For a minute total silence took over the room.
"Violent riots? Aggressive people in the city?" Leo uttered, his voice barely leaving him as a whisper. "This is fucking crazy."
Jay was silent; he looked like he was thinking about something. "I saw a glimpse of this notification earlier." Jay looked over to Leo, "Leo, I know this may sound crazy but… these sound like zombies or something." His words hung in the air like a question mark.
Leo gave him a look of disbelief, "Zombies aren't real Jay. I think everything has been messing with your head too much. You need to wake up." But Jay remained adamant about his theory. "It makes sense. The flu thing and people getting violent attacking people. You saw how that guy behaved earlier. It looked just like a zombie."
Leo looked over to the door. What he said wasn't complete nonsense. He had also seen many zombie movies. Most of them started like this.A high school, violent students and a group of survivors who died one by one.
"Well," Leo finally said, "We can't consider them zombies until we know more. I think it's just that flu making people violent. Zombies don't exactly die do they?"
Jay replied, "Not really. But maybe someone killed it from the back? I don't know, it just seems too surreal." Leo nodded. He understood how Jay felt. Confused. Trapped.
"We need to treat them like danger, Leo. Otherwise we'll get hurt." Jay said with determination. Leo sighed. "Yes they're dangerous. But I don't think they're zombies." He was thinking about Krystian. They didn't know where he was. They didn't know if he was safe. They needed to get out of this closest and find Krystian.
"We can't just stay here," Leo said, his voice gaining a sudden, sharp edge. He grabbed an aluminum bat and gripped the handle until his knuckles turned white. "If that's what happens to you when you get sick... we can't let them get close."
Jay looked at the catcher's gear laying beside him, then back at the door. "We need to find Krystian before he ends up like that guy." He took the gear and passed one to Leo signalling him to put it on. But Leo's hands were shaking too hard to tie it. Jay had put on this same gear many times before. But it didn't feel like protection anymore. It felt like confinement.
As they were putting on the safety gear, Jay scooted over to Leo "Hey, If that..person died by someone else, Shouldn't we be worried?" Jay asked, giving the door a cautious look. Leo had also been worrying about that. There was possibly someone armed in the school. And they could also get hurt if they went out.
They took a football helmet and put it on. Jay grabbed a bat and gripped it as tight as he could. They checked their bags for anything useful.They checked their phones. Leo's phone was close to full charge and Jay's phone was new, so the battery wouldn't drain as fast. They tried to stuff another football helmet in the bag for Krystian but couldn't.
Finally they were ready to get out. Leo's heart beat a tattoo against his chest. He was about to open the door when Jay suddenly spoke, "But Leo... if they're sick... we can't exactly hit them with bats, can we? If they aren't zombies, they're still students."
Leo looked at the bat in his hand, then back at the door where distant noises were still echoing through the gym.
"I don't think they're zombies but…I don't think they're students anymore either" Leo whispered.