text: [Themes: sci-fi, post-apocalyptic]
  
  Once Dr. Verrukt has stepped through the chalkboard portal you note that one of the circle's he'd drawn moments before disappeared. Frank steps through next and you watch as another circle disappears. James goes next followed by Destiny and then Christie; leaving you and Mike behind.
  
  "Thanks for vouching for me," you tell him.
  
  He sort of shrugs it off and waves it away. "Hey whatever," he says. "All I did was speak the truth. Now come on, let's check this world out." Without another word Mike steps through the portal leaving you alone behind them with a single circle remaining above the portal.
  
  You take a deep breath and step through. As you step through the portal you find that you feel more like you are stepping out of a chalkboard than stepping into a new world. As soon as you step through Dr. Verrukt draws a portal on the blank chalkboard you stepped out of. Above it he carefully drew a series of runes slightly different than the ones he'd drawn to create the original portal.
  
  "This is the way home," Dr. Verrukt said. "If for any reason we are separated and you need to return home simply draw a circle above the archway and step through. The quality of your circle does not truly matter; you could draw a square or triangle just the same. All that matters is that your circle is closed."
  
  "Why can't you just draw the circles now?" you ask.
  
  Dr. Verrukt looks at you very seriously. "Because anyone can step through that portal if a circle is drawn." He turns to the others and tells them to partner up.
  
  James is with Destiny, he has his aluminum bat over his shoulder and Destiny holds a taser in her hand. Frank is with Christie, she has a crowbar and Frank has a few hunting knives stashed about him. Mike teams up with Dr. Verrukt, both of whom appear to be poorly armed; Mike has a walking stick and the doctor carries some kind of device that looks like little more than a glorified cell phone.
  
  "What about me?" You ask.
  
  "Join up with whoever you want," he tells you. "Just follow their lead and do as they say."
  
  "Okay," you say.
  
  > join Frank and Christie
  Christie smiles as you walk over. Frank rolls his eyes.
  
  "I'm with you two," you tell them.
  
  After a few moments, Destiny reaches for the door handle. "Right this way then," she says. Destiny says. James is just a few steps behind her as they walk out the door. He looks back at you and sneers a little but you're not watching him, your eyes are focused on the gently seductive sway of Destiny's hips as she steps out of the room.
  
  When she's out of sight you find yourself meeting Christie's eyes. She glares at you as Dr. Verrukt and Mike walk out of the room next. Busted. Haha.
  
  "Come on," Frank says; heading out the door. He takes you down a long corridor. Every room you check is the same, empty and covered in dust. It gets so monotonous that at some point you guys just quit checking.
  
  "Hello?!" Frank calls.
  
  "What are you doing?" Christie whispers to him.
  
  Frank looks perplexed. He does not whisper. "If someone's out there, I figured they'd answer or something."
  
  "You just gave our position away!" Christie says in a more harsh whisper.
  
  "I gave our position away to nobody!" he returns. "The school is empty."
  
  You spot movement further on ahead. "Yeah?" you ask, pointing into the distance. "Then who's that?"
  
  The others turn their heads to follow where you've pointed. Ahead is a small crowd shambling down the hall toward you. They walk awkwardly, as though putting one foot in front of the other is a challenge that they are barely able to perform. There is a low guttural hum coming from the crowd, like a medley of growls and moans and snarling. You feel a chill go down your spine and the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.
  
  "Jesus," Frank whispers in awe; "How many of them are there?" You start instinctively counting but lose track somewhere around thirty, they're moving around too much to get a proper count.
  
  "I don't like this you guys," Christie says; "Let's get back to the portal."
  
  "Yeah," Frank nods. "You're probably right." The three of you turn around and start heading back up the hall, thankful that the crowd behind you is moving so slowly.
  
  Your hopes are quickly dashed when a group of roughly ten enters the hall ahead of you, rounding the bend and making their way to you with the same slow and deliberate pace as the others. The tension intensifies.
  
  "Fuck," Frank curses.
  
  Christie screams.
  
  "What do we do now?" you ask.
  
  "We need to hide," Christie says in a state of panic, her eyes are looking frantically around. "Maybe in one of these classrooms."
  
  "No, fuck that," Frank counters. "We need to kill these fucking zombie looking fucks and get back to the portal."
  
  That sounds dangerous. But what choice do you have, really?
  
  > hide in a classroom.
  "Come on," you say; opening a nearby room. "In here."
  
  Christie wastes no time rushing through the open doorway but Frank seems antsy and hesitant. He has one of his knives in-hand and is sort of hopping back and forth from one foot to the other. Finally he says "Ah shit, fine!" and steps inside the room.
  
  You close the door behind you lean your back against it.
  
  "Great," Frank says. "Now what?"
  
  "Now we wait," Christie says in a trembling voice. "Hopefully they walk right past us."
  
  "Right," Frank says with derision. "Not likely."
  
  You find out soon enough that he's right as they begin pounding, scraping, and pressing at the door. As more arrive, holding the door in place actually becomes a challenge. If any of them figure out how to turn the knob, you realize; you'd be screwed.
  
  You stand with Frank and Christie as the minutes pass in abject horror; the scraping and knocking at the door accompanied by a litany of growls, snarls, and moans. Eventually it becomes too much for the door to bear and a sort of cracking sound can be heard. A screw pops out of the hinge and a moment later the door starts to break under the pressure. Soon the door falls inward, countless bodies toppling to the floor atop it; bringing a wave of decay stench with them.
  
  Frank hands you a knife and moves in, stabbing the fallen ones through the skull as others climb over top. You struggle to open your knife and Christie takes it from your hands, pressing a button and pulling the blade out. She hands it back to you.
  
  "Come on," she says with a weak smile. You follow her and the three of you jam your blades into skull after skull like you've seen done in countless horror films. It is tedious, disgusting work.
  
  It would be different, you think; there would be some satisfaction in it, if only you were making progress. But for every three zombies you kill, four more step in to fill the void. There is no hope in what you are doing, only a delay of the inevitable.
  
  "I'm sorry I told you to come with us," Christie says to you. "We've never encountered something like this before."
  
  "Fuck!" Frank screams as he jams a knife into the eye of a zombie whose mouth had clamped over his shoulder. "I've been bit!" He fights on but grows weak as he loses blood. Eventually he falls to his knees and is consumed. He goes down fighting, stabbing at them even as they rip the flesh from his body.
  
  Christie is crying as she drives her blade into another zombie. You wish there was a way for you to comfort her, but it doesn't matter. Soon their masses overwhelm the two of you and you fall beneath the weight of a trio of them.
  
  It hurts. Bad. Each bit of flesh they tear away exposes nerve endings that send jolts of pain through your body. The pain never stops. Even as the world fades away around you, the pain is still the one lingering aspect of your humanity. It echoes in your final thoughts.
  
  When you wake, the pain is still there. The pain is everything. It consumes you entirely. The only thing that can help the pain, you think; is warm flesh and blood. It is the only thought you can articulate as you climb to your feet.