The Teacher      

[Jin]

"Fuck!"

"What is that?!"

"Closed the door!"

The students scrambled to their feet to get away from the door, screaming and panicking, while the others were confused about what was going on.

Fear wracked Leon's nerves, and he stood frozen on his spot.

Mr. Henry was only meters from him. Mouth so wide it tore his face into two. Hairy hands so big and pimpled with boils and blisters, popping with pus, outstretched towards him. Those gruesome giant hands would surely grapple him to death if he was caught.

"Idiot! Get inside!" Jin pushed Leon into the room, quickly leaped inside, and closed the sliding door.

The students yelled and shrieked when a big hairy hand pushed through the slit, and the door stopped with a gaping gap.

"Shit!" Jin cursed, hands red from gripping the door tight, pushing it with all his might to close. Rotting hand trashed inside, dark and purple fingers with broken nails trying to grab anything it could hold.

"Argh!" Mr. Henry growled from the other side, and everyone in the room panicked and shouted.

"What is that?!"

"What's happening?!"

Sweat coated Jin's skin, and the veins on his face pulsated hard, teeth-gritting to hold the door while Mr. Henry squeezed through the gap.

"Jin! What are you doing? That's Mr. Henry!" Meryl shrieked, shooting to her feet. "Let him in!"

"Let him in, and we're all dead!" Jin spat at her, and Meryl's legs gave way. She went limp on her seat, shaking with fear. No one knew if it was his piercing glares or Mr. Henry's scary head squeezing through the opening, he didn't bother to know.

The English teacher's fleshy skin was tightly pulled back, some torn from his face, melting and angry with blisters, red eyes bulging with pupils never settling in one place, big teeth shattering just to get inside that small gap.

The others screamed when pieces of broken teeth popped in every direction, and they scrambled to get away from the door far as possible.

Then they went silent when they heard shouts, screams, cries, and shattering glasses outside the room. The sounds were like cold hands gripping everyone's throat.

"What's going on?!"

"Can somebody please tell me what's going on?!"

"Help me!" Jin shouted at the others. His loud, desperate voice rang above the rest. His strength was failing him. The heat was getting into him, and the sweat salted his eyes.

The men in the room stood frozen in fear and confusion while the girls didn't dare to move and even back away from the door.

"Idiots!" Jin shouted, angry and helpless. "Help me hold the door, or we all die!"

Leon was the first to regain his composure and helped Jin push the door to the side, followed by Lina. With their strength, they managed to close the gap a little enough so that Mr. Henry had to back his face away. But his hand was still barge on the door.

"W-we can't close it!" Leon said, voice shaking. His usual smile had long gone from his face. His hand were cold, sweaty, and shaking, but he didn't dare let go of the door.

"We have to get that hand out of the way," Lina told them between breaths, face anxious and tone breaking. She was bathed in sweat, and her legs were starting to quake.

"Fuck." Jin hissed through the gap of his clenching teeth and kicked Mr. Henry's hand. The sickening sound of bones breaking echoed in the room, together with the teacher's loud growl from the other side.

The students gasp. The others screamed and cried when Jin kicked the hand relentlessly, again and again, without stopping. Not until every bone broke at each force, twisting and jutting out from the flesh, blood spraying everywhere.

Meryl's eyes shot to the back of her head, and she lay unconscious on her seat, head hanging on the backrest of her chair.

Mr. Henry's arm went limp on the ground, shattered and broken, flopping on a thin cord of flesh and sinew. On the other side of the door, the teacher hammered the wooden panel, the small rectangle peeking glass vibrating from each force. He was pulling what was left of his arm, tearing the skin on the other side.

"Now's our chance!" Jin and Leon pushed the door to the right, but there was still a small gap from Mr. Henry's shattered bones and flesh, preventing them from totally closing it. If they couldn't close it, they couldn't lock it.

Jin quickly thought of a plan, eyes darting here and there, searching for something that he could use until he spotted it.

"Get that thing here!" Jin shouted at the others, nodding at the bookshelf in the back.

Fortunately, George and his friend had recovered and quickly moved the bookshelf to the fixed door.

The doors in all classrooms were sliding doors a meter per panel, but only one was movable while the other was fixed. The size of the bookshelf perfectly fit over the fixed door, and they used it as a blockade so the sliding door wouldn't open to the other side. The bookshelf was back against the wall on one end while the sliding door was on the other end, locking the sliding panel in place.

Though there was a gap left, it was minuscule, just enough to pass small fingers inside its opening.

Jin, Lina, and Leon breathed easily when they could finally let go of the door.

Leon's hands were red, numb, and he couldn't stop them from trembling.

Lina was catching her breath and wiping her sweat with shaky hands. Her face white as paper.

When relief washed over him, Jin felt his insides quake with dread, and Eva's words rang in his head.

Apocalypse, she said.

Was this it? Jin uttered to himself. How could she know?

"What have you done?!"

Loud, accusing voices made Jin shift his attention to his classmates.

"That's teacher Henry!"

"You've broken his arm!"

"Murderer!"

Eyes and mouth pointed at Jin, and Leon was quick to shield him. "Hoi–!"

Before Leon could form his words, Lina's voice rang in the room, loud and piercing.

"That's no longer Mr. Henry," she told everyone. "That thing is no longer human."

"The hell it is!" Penny went hysterical, and she burst out crying. "I want to get out of here!"

Before anyone could react, Penny bolted to the other sliding door, unlocked and opened it.

"Stop!"

"Don't open that door!"

Leon and the other's warning came late, and the next thing they knew, the hallway was barge open for them to view, and there were two girls on its floor. The other one was on top while the girl below her was screaming and trashing.