Canto III

"So this is hell. I'd never have believed it. You remember all we were told about the torture-chambers, the fire and brimstone, the "burning marl." Old wives' tales! There's no need for red-hot pokers. Hell is—other people!"

—Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit

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"To hell with this, Star. If I die, see you on the other side. Let's go!" With that, I initiated the attack and ran towards the first zombie. It was a man in an awfully torn shirt. He has a huge bite on his rotten arm and his head is tilted in a weird way. Before he could even close the distance between us, I jumped and kicked him straight on his chest. He did not whimper or expressed any pain, he just kept on growling even when he just staggered and his lost balance. He fell back in a short distance and slowly, as if something triggers him, he lunges at me. Like a reflex, I did the swordsman's stance I frequently see on anime. I prepared myself; pointed my wooden sword at his direction and using two hands I leveled it with his head. It was not hard since we are about the same height. I grasped my sword tight and focused intensely. I thought I was scared but surprisingly, my mind is completely calm right now. I can see that he is coming at me fast with his hands dangling on his both sides, it did not look really good to be honest. Especially with his weird eyeballs and dark tongue sticking out like that. I could tell he was not going to stop for he is not capable of thinking anymore. He ran towards me with full force which the welcoming tip of my wooden sword received through his head. I almost lost my balance but I fixed my grip quick and thrust the sword deeper in his head. After just a few seconds of weak wriggling, his low growl stopped. He went completely motionless. All I could think about is that this is the first time I heard that kind of sound—the sound of brain when pierced by a sword. I do not know what to feel but when I saw the black liquid spilling everywhere, I wanted to puke. Out of repugnance, I kicked him to pull my sword away from his rotten body.

"One down," I thought, not feeling any type of pity nor remorse.

When I looked around, I just noticed that even though afraid, they really went after me. The four GSU personnels, uncertain of what they should do, surrounded the two zombies and kept poking them using their weapons. I saw Stella went on a close combat with another zombie way bigger than her. As swift as ever, she avoided its big limbs that tries to catch her. Using her other hand, she pointed the nail gun so close on this big zombie's forehead and pulled the trigger knowing she would not miss. It's 2019, we already know their weakness. These motherfuckers will continue to ravage until you hit them directly in the head.

"Star!" I shouted out of sheer panic when I noticed that behind her, Miss Cruz was fast approaching. The zombie was not distracted by my loud voice and still went straight to Stella. I ran as fast as I could and luckily, I got in time. I held onto Stella to cover her and to gain enough balance to kick Miss Cruz's abdomen. She fell back but as if unaffected, she still continued walking towards us. I fixed my stance and prepared for the incoming attack. But Stella against me was shaking. I glanced at her and saw that she is seething with rage.

"Woah, there girl." I said.

"This motherfucker. I don't have plans on dying tonight. How could you jump on me like that, you rotten piece of shit." She said approaching Miss Cruz.

"Hey, that's Miss Cruz." This girl just cannot control her mouth sometimes.

"Well not anymore." She extended her arm while holding her long hard baston that is about two feet long. The tip of her weapon was on Miss Cruz's chest however it is flat and therefore, could not pierce. The zombie could not move forward and just kept extending its arms as if reaching. Before I could wonder what she is about to do, Stella pointed the nail gun on Miss Cruz's forehead and shot her. It went deep and the force made her fall to the ground. She wriggles at first and then die for the second time.

"Wow, that was cool." I'm not surprised, though. Stella used to go to my house which is an hour away from her home only to play Call of Duty on Xbox with me and my older brother. We used to help each other kill zombies in that game. We also play Left 4 Dead with Astrid and Talia. Not to be big on my already egocentric friend but Stella is as cool in the game as she is in real life. She is a close combat fighter and a real sharp shooter in both worlds. Other than being the smallest in the girl's basketball team, she is also a commanding officer in our Citizenship Advancement Training. C.A.T. is a mandatory training patterned after military activities which is claimed to help in maintaining order and serving the nation in times of danger. Best believe that she is well-trained for times like this. Stella—or Star as I call her even though she does not like it—is a petite girl with long limbs and huge eyes. These features made her wickedly agile and she's pretty strong, too, for her body type. Sometimes, I wonder how her small petite body can contain all her arrogance.

"Ha! Look at that pitiful thing." Here she goes. She smirked as if proud of what she just did.

"I saved you, though." I said, trying to deflate her ego.

"I know she's there, you didn't need to."

"Fuck you," and then we laughed but that was all too quick for we heard one of the GSU personnels shouted.

"Brad! Stop! It's me, Adrian." When we turned to face them. Brad already latched his teeth deep in his co-worker's shoulder from behind, making it bleed all over his shirt. If I could make rules in this zombie world, the first rule would be to 'never turn your back on your enemies, literally'. Though predictable, it was terribly dreadful to look at. Adrian's face was filled with pain and panic as he tries to pull Brad's head away from him. Doing this, his flesh slowly ripping off his body and I can only imagine the pain. I already explained this to them back in the office but since he is one of those who dismissed me, it can be assumed that he did not mind me when I told them: 'one could not reason with the undead'. Those weird—almost all white—eyeballs could no longer recognize other people, not even themselves. The other three could not also stop to rescue their colleague, two zombies keep them preoccupied. For a brief moment, Stella and I looked at each other.

"I'll go get Brad and you help them with those two ugly motherfuckers." She just nodded and off we go. I walked slowly towards Brad with my sword on my right hand. Brad seems to notice and left Adrian's weak body on the ground to approach me. Before I closed the distance, I told him,

"Soon, you'll be reunited with your wife," then I lunge at him fast. Before he could even react, I cut him vertically with force but it only scraped him and torn his shirt. Seeing that I made only small damage, I backed a step. Quickly, I lunged again to cut him twice diagonally and this attack made him lose his balance. I took this opportunity to stab his head. I cannot look at him any longer so I kicked him to pull my sword away. My mind cannot absorb how this man Brad was just fighting on their side minutes ago and now he is lying weakly on the ground, slowly dying for the second time. A lot already happened this night, a lot to process.

"Kill me," said Adrian while bleeding helplessly on the ground. I rushed to him and sat on one knee to prop his head. Even after everything, I still find it difficult to watch a man die. The least I could do is to try not to make him feel alone. I noticed that his complexion turned pale and grayish. He was coughing and spewing blood all over, too, as if the amount of blood coming out of his wound was not enough. I just stared at him almost solemnly and offered a little prayer in my mind. For a moment, his eyes closed and he stopped wincing.

"He is dead." I whispered.

I put his head down on the ground again as gently as I could. I took this moment to stand again and with both hands, I held my sword and pointed it directly across his face. In just a few seconds, his eyes opened again. They looked lifeless now, as if pupil is the only dark colored part of his eyes. Adrian started growling in a low voice, he already turned into one of them. I did what I have to do. I took a deep breath and down the tip of my sword went until his body stopped struggling.

'Again,' I thought.

I looked back to check on Stella and the others. They seemed to have the upper hand on the situation. I trust in Stella so I looked for other things to consider. I think Gate A is still open. Miss principal is on her knees right now which I think have bruises now because the ground is cemented and rough as fuck. She has her head down; the bible is on her lap and she's praying hard with a rosary in her hand. That's her weapon of choice, I see. Beside her is Karl who still seem out of it. He's staring blankly behind me and when I checked, it was the bus.

"Fuck it. Safe or not, I'm going." I said on a low voice. I glanced on Stella and the others and it seems they already took one out of the two zombies down. They circled around the remaining one, looking for an opportunity to pounce. I carefully snuck my way to the side of the bus. They opened the door for me quickly. When I entered, a guy immediately close the door after me. All the whispering and talking grew louder. They were throwing questions at me from every direction.

"How is everyone inside?"

"Is it safe to go down?"

"Is there still anyone here alive?"

I was shocked to see that they were quite a lot and cramped inside. I asked the guy beside me.

"What's your head count?" I know the school has a habit of having a head count before the bus leaves.

"Thirty flat, it used to be thirty-two but the two coaches who went down to check on something did not come back." I thanked him and went to face the crowd. They all wore aghast expression on their faces. I bet they have seen more of what is happening than us.

"Everyone, listen. The entire school has no idea what is happening. For those who are not aware, our batch is on retreat. For two straight days, we have no phones, no television, nothing to know about the outside world at all." I paused and then suddenly everyone started talking about their experiences all at the same time. I could only catch glimpses such as 'zombies', 'bad', 'everyone is dead', 'flu' before another word or phrase drowns the other like a vicious cycle.

"Silence please." I firmly said. Nothing good can ever come out of disorganization. When all the panicking noise died down, I started talking again. I briefly told them about how everything transcended after seeing them enter the school. I also reassured them that our batch is safe. However, I told them they could not go down the bus yet. They started talking all at the same time again, I raised my finger and patiently waited for them to finish. When they did, I started to explain.

"Gate A is still open. We are still unsure that these are the only zombies that followed you inside. We cannot afford to spread the disease inside the school, especially not with this huge number of people." The people inside the bus included, I estimated that there are at least a hundred of students inside the school right now. That's a lot to protect for if one—even just one—of them is bit, the number of alive can go from a hundred to zero real quick. Based on what I have observed, it only takes three to five minutes for an infected person to transition from dead to undead. If they will not cooperate, it will put all of us in grave danger as if out situation could get any worse. I am certain that they, out of all people here, could feel how tight the situation for all of us right now. They have seen the situation outside the school. I suspect that six zombies are nothing compared to what they have seen. By now, they already learned to how to take precautions and they learned it the hard way. I do not know if the students here agree with me but right now no one is objecting. They might have thought this through and felt they could not do anything more but hope. It seems to me that they all looked wary yet very tired and defeated.

"This is hell." I heard the guy beside me say in a low voice. I turned to face him and noticed that his face looks familiar. It took a full minute to dawn on me that he is the captain of the baseball team. As far as I know, he goes by the name Fiel or Finley, I'm not sure but it's something along those lines. I think he is a year younger than me, too. His strongly defined face looks tired but unlike everyone else, he still has his full composure.

"Yeah, right." I sounded like I do not pay his statement much thought but that is just how I am. I look extremely calm on the surface but millions of thoughts already passed my mind. I completely agree with him, though. In this overly religious school, we were taught that hell is where bad people go after death. Hell is filled with eternal fire and in one of my favorite classic books, Dante's Inferno, it was described rather vividly. In the book, it says hell has nine circles specifically reserved for sinners depending on the weight of their sins. But where we are already in hell and there are no flames here nor nine circles. These books are only right on one thing about hell; it is not a place that one would want to go. If I were to describe everything myself, I would say, hell is other people. These 'other' people—the zombies or undead, whatever they are called—wreak unfathomable havoc. I do not even think there is a way of it. All I know is that I want to survive and if I were to die, I want it to be beside my family. That's the least I could ask for in this impending doom of humanity.

Disturbing my train of thoughts, I was alerted by the violent knocking on the bus door. I approached the door slowly and held my sword tight preparing for an attack. When I peeked, I saw Stella with the three GSU personnels behind her. I sighed with relief and asked Fiel, or Finley I don't know, to open the door. Stella came in and so as the other personnel when suddenly, we were startled by the screams coming from the end of the bus.

"They are coming! Holy shit, there's three of them who just entered the gate and are coming this way!" A girl shouted in a panicking voice.

"Let's close the Gate A." I said to Stella. I pushed her to face the door. She stomped her feet in protest like a whiny child and grumbled but still followed suit.

"I'm not even done catching my breath yet and there they go already. Can't a girl rest? Jeez."

"Just get off the bus, close the gate and then we can rest." I said even though I know it is impossible for me to sleep soundly tonight. The GSU personnels and Stella was back on the school grounds, now alert and wary of the surroundings. Before going down, I turned to face Fiel or whatever his name is.

"Fiel, right? Okay so, close the door and tell them not to go down until we had this whole situation under control. Thank you."

"Yeah, but who said I'm not going with you?" He wore an irritating smile. I want to smack his face now.

"Kian! Please hand me my bat and close the door after me. Tell them to stay calm and wait until we close the gate before going down." He said. Kian who wears a baseball hat and looks like a sophomore diligently followed his orders. He handed Fiel his baseball bat and closed the bus door when we got out. Stella and I looked at each other before staring at Fiel who is doing some stretching exercise with his bat.

"What are you doing, kid? This is not a playground." Stella said.

"Warming up. Those things move slow so don't worry." He replied with a smile. I can get a chance to hit him, I will smack his face twice. We were still staring at him even after he finished. I cannot believe he is signing up for this shit. He is a junior for Chrissake.

"What?" His eyebrows shot up and his charming deep set eyes were wide as if in question. I rolled my eyes on him. For someone who is in the middle of a zombie outbreak, his attitude is way too fresh.

"Whatever, let's go." I said in a serious tone.

Tonight, we are facing hell and I refuse to die.