Chapter 5: Spread

Ben froze in fear. His eyes were fixed to the person in the alley. Fear struck his heart, and his hands trembled immensely. He tried to move, but couldn't.

Gore thoughts invaded Ben's mind. The sight of blood mixed with sweat, the ripping off of limbs and the decapitation of heads as they spilled out a fountain of blood. Eyes being gouged out, skin being torn, all of that. Ben couldn't handle the fear.

Then, the person switched his gaze to Ben. His head tilted in an instant. Ben saw the devoid human slowly walk closer and closer to him. He groaned. At that, Ben snapped out. He told Kira to run as fast as she could. He scanned the surroundings of the school, and saw a huge wooden stick. Kira finally fled. Nobody was around, except for Ben. The person suddenly ran towards him, with their hands falling behind, looking like they had no bones. Ben grabbed the wooden stick and used it as protection. As the person gradually went nearer to him, Ben noticed the smaller features.

That thing wasn't human.

Its face horrified Ben. He lost one of his eyes, and the other one was nothing but pure white. Green lines travelled from its neck to its forehead. Its dead skin tone was swollen, filled with bruises, scars, and veins. Most of its black teeth (probably dried blood) had fallen apart, and the tongue was no where to be seen.

Suddenly, another one of them came rushing to him as well. It looked like the corpse the first one feasted on. They then caught up to Ben, and by the looks of it, tried to bite him. Their wide mouths dripped blood. Ben then fell with his back on the ground, and the devoids went down with him. Ben resisted by putting the stick against their mouths, and he moved backwards, until he felt a wall at his back. His face stiffened as the devoids slowly pushed the stick closer to him.

Ben's hands slowly got weaker with fatigue, and they were covered with blood. The devoids' faces were already 10 centimeters to Ben's, and their blood for saliva dripped in his face. They kept groaning and groaning, and Ben was recalled of the time in his dream.

Then, he heard cracking. The stick was about to break. Images of memories came flooding to his mind shortly after. The moments he spent with his mother, his deceased father, the two days spent with Kira, the fun he and Drake had, and the image of snow melting as the dawn broke.

It was his time to go.

When the stick broke, Ben stopped resisting. He closed his eyes and whispered the words, "goodbye".

*Bang!* The sound reverberated across the calm side of the school. Nobody heard it, since they were all in the field.

When Ben opened his eyes, he saw two corpses that were on his body. He vomitted to the sight of the bloodbath. The stench added to that. It look a while before he noticed that they died. When he looked into the direction of the sound, he saw none other than the president, Pat Murphy, holding a pistol, aimed at the corpses.

The president blew the excess smoke coming from the muzzle. He placed the gun back to his stash.

Kira, who was behind the president, ran to Ben and hugged him. She screamed in relief. Ben tried to push her away since he basically took a bath in blood, but she resisted and hugged even tighter. Ben's senses tingled.

When everything settled down, Pat started to talk.

"Your girlfriend here called me."

Ben spit out saliva as he heard this. Girlfriend? He had no such thing. When he looked at Kira though, her face was pastel red all over, and she covered her lips with the four fingers of her right hand, excluding the palm and thumb. She then talked.

"I-I thought you needed help, so I c-called him."

Ben was fazed by the situation at hand. He was relieved that he escaped death's door, but a new problem arose. He thought to himself, "How does he have a gun... in school?"

As Ben thought about it while looking at the corpses, his eyes averted and met Pat's. This time, though, he couldn't sense evil intent any longer. He sighed at that.

And then, he fainted, his head fell against a huge rock.

Ben was transported to the nearest hospital. His body was filled with scars and bruises, and his hands were severely damaged. His heartbeat was close to non-existent. There were massive cuts in his arms, and his legs were close to fractured.

He was being treated by the doctors to make sure he lives. His mother heard the news, and quickly rushed to the hospital to see him. Despair filled the mother's eyes as tears rushed down. She thought about her only son, and her last ray of sunshine. If he dies, she would be left alone. She was screaming Ben's name in agony.

As the days passed by, Ben's wounds slowly healed and closed up. The scars were still there, but it was harmless now. The doctors asked how Ben got to this situation, and the mother said that he was abused by drunk men who were walking in the street. That's what Pat told her.

(Before Ben fainted)

Pat explained to Ben and Kira what they just saw. He said that they were not normal humans any more. They were "zombies". He said a disease was spreading, and the cause was unknown. The only known information was that when a zombie bites a healthy human, the disease in the zombie transfers to the human, and he or she gets infected.

As Pat was talking, Ben interrupted by saying that zombies were just fictional beings. Pat opposed.

"Face it, Ben, this is the real world. You can't change that."

(Present time)

Two months passed, and Ben was still bedridden. He was in a coma. In the early stages of the coma, his heart would stop beating, and that gave a problem to doctors. But as it lengthened, it calmed.

Another two months had passed, and Ben's situation did not get any better. One day, Kira, who was not in her school uniform, visited Ben. She had a lot of bruises, but these were tended to by the nurses.

Kira sat beside Ben and held his hand tightly with her two hands. She then whispered the words as she shedded a tear,

"I'm so sorry, Ben, your mom..."

When she said these, she shivered in agony. Her words went unheard. She squeezed Ben's hand more tightly. She then continued.

"...She's gone.. and it started to spread... you're not safe here."

She knew Ben couldn't hear what she was saying, so all she could do was cry.

Ben's hand then twitched at this.

Kira was alerted by this, and she called the doctors. Ben slowly opened his eyes, and studied his surroundings. Kira wept.

"Ben! Are you okay? How are you feeling?"

Kira's tears rushed down like a river. She wanted to hug Ben so badly, but he was silent. His next words then startled Kira.

"Who's Ben?"