Gale groaned. Her head pounded and throbbed with some sort of ungodly headache. If this was what napping in the middle of the school parking lot felt like, she wasn't going to do it again.<br/><br/>Taking a random nap there wasn't the best of ideas, but when Gale thought about Polly leaving the school while crossing the school parking lot, she ended up tearing up, curling up into a corner and wallowing in self-pity.<br/><br/>"She's gone now. You can't and don't need to do anything," Gale whispered to herself, pushing herself off to her feet. The headache was still there, and beyond her eyes was a messy blur, but she felt confident enough to walk.<br/><br/>"What... sort of nap makes me di-" Her body collided with something she could not see. Something that wasn't heavy. Something that was probably human-sized. Gale fell backwards onto her hands, and the strangest feeling struck her hands. Falling back like that would be quite painful, especially to a girl, but her entire body felt quite numb. It was not completely numb; she could feel what she touched in that moment, but all the pain was stripped down to its bare essentials. Gale knew she struck something, it just didn't hurt enough to make her cry out.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">"<br/>Ů̴̬͖ͥu̠̝ͩͅu͔ͪͭͪͪr͖̒̈g̒̉ͯg͉̳̲͗ͧ͐ͅͅḣ̶͓̰̙̱̲̿h̬̖̭͖̼̉ͅ..."</span><br/><br/>The weird, inhuman groan jolted her out of her thinking about the weird sensation a moment ago. And when her vision cleared up enough to see beyond the palm of her hand, Gale could see the face of the man she walked into. She saw a teacher, Mr. Everson. What she did not expect to see was his grey, clammy face with eyes glazed over, moaning.<br/><br/>"The hell!" she screamed, leaping to her feet. The teacher's groans increased in volume as he got up unsteadily, his hands outstretched to grasp Gale.<br/><br/>Or at least, it seemed to be. His hand reached past her, and he stumbled forward. It wasn't her that what was left of the teacher was seeking. It was the sounds she made.<br/><br/>"Zombies...?" Gale whimpered, clutching her hands close to her non-existent chest. Zombies were supposed to be rotting undead monstrosities, hungering for the living flesh and turning them into their kind by biting. Or in the Walking Dead series, any death would do. Gale pretty much stopped watching the Walking Dead after Andrea died, but she knew enough about zombies.<br/><br/>"But zombies... don't just ignore—" She caught sight of her hand. Grey. Cold. Clammy.<br/><br/>Her mind blanked out at that realisation. And a single thought popped in.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">I'm a zombie. This... can't be.</span><br/><br/>The PA system crackled with static, before a voice came on. It drew her attention, and the zombie Mr. Everson. She saw him, in the corner of her eye, pushing himself against the wall, clawing and struggling to reach the PA system in some attempt to eat it. He looked pathetic, and tears almost welled up in Gale's eyes when she thought about it. No one wants to end up like that.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">"Testing... one two three."</span><br/><br/>It was the voice of a young man. A student, definitely. Gale paid attention to it, but she moved quickly towards Mr. Everson.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Listen, this is uh... Leon Harkess. I'm a member of the student council."</span><br/><br/>Her hands went into his pocket, picking out a keyring full of keys. His desk key was definitely amongst them. Mr. Everson was always preaching about the nobility of guns and the American way of life. As a British gentleman/gentlewoman, Gale cared very little for his words, but she surmised that he probably kept some guns either in his car or at his desk in the staff room.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">"Something happened to us. I think we all know what. I've only seen intelligent... zombie students. The teachers and staff, they didn't... <br/>Anyway, I caught a glimpse of the emergency broadcast out there. The dead are rising and attacking people. It's like a zombie movie out there."</span><br/><br/>The thought of that froze Gale in place. She couldn't feel the warmth of the sun that day, or the chill of any passing winds, but there was definitely a chill somewhere in her body when she thought about zombies. How many people were struggling to survive this very moment, their lives precariously hanging between the living and the dead?<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">"There's an evacuation centre at the hospital up north. It's roughly 10 kilometr-"</span><br/><br/>The interruption let Gale take a closer look at Mr. Everson. He didn't carry any guns on him. Not that it would have saved him. His body was free from bite marks, or anything that showed how the 'zombie virus' got in. Whatever killed them all and raised them as members of the undead was unknown.<br/><br/>"Sorry, Mr. Everson," she whispered to herself. Grabbing the back of his head, she closed her eyes and slammed it forward.<br/><br/>The gentlemanly girl tried not to think about the mess she made as she rushed to the staff room. She avoided eye contact with anything, diving straight into Mr. Everson's drawer and ransacking it. Digging through a few dirty magazines, Gale found a silver-plated, slightly off-balance pistol at the bottom of one of the drawers.<br/><br/>"That's a Deagle. Desert Eagle." A voice came from behind her.<br/><br/>Gale gasped and spun around. It was Leon Harkess. His blonde hair and blue eyes still quite outshone his youthful face, even though undeath drained some of the liveliness from his face. He was almost a head shorter than Gale. She wondered for a moment why it was he that made the announcement, rather than any of the leadership of the student council.<br/><br/>"You're planning on leaving, aren't you?"<br/><br/>Gale nodded.<br/><br/>With a shrug, Leon crashed onto a sofa and sighed. "I had thought about Mr. Everson and his love for guns. Thought I could grab one too. But you were faster, Knight."<br/><br/>He closed his eyes and lounged on the sofa from end to end. "Everyone's probably leaving. But the student council wants to hole up here. Fortify. Make it a place to live. Maybe if things go badly at the evacuation centres, humanity's got a stronghold to hold onto."<br/><br/>Gale took a seat at Mr. Everson's desk. She hadn't thought about it. What would happen if humanity really collapsed completely due to this? Would they be the only 'living' left? And what about the other countries?<br/><br/>"What about... the other countries...?" she mumbled to herself.<br/><br/>Leon seemed to hear her words. "Just as bad. End of the world scenario."<br/><br/>Gale looked at Leon sullenly. The boy seemed so relaxed, and perhaps he had a right to be. Leon's parents were soldiers, and both of them died in Afghanistan 3 months ago. He took so long to recover, considering that he had no relatives. It was only just a few days ago when he came back to school in a functional state. Leon had no family to lose in the end of the world.<br/><br/>She suddenly remembered Mr. Everson's car. Getting up, she nodded towards Leon politely and ran out. A lingering thought did remain in her head as she ran out to the parking lot.<br/><br/>Why did Leon not comment on the blood and brain matter on her shirt and blazer?