Where is safe now?

'decisions... decisions... decisions... where shall we go...'

Day One

There was a slight pause outside the classroom, as the three students stared at James in fright. For a moment there they pictured the terrifying image of a hungry zombie lunging at them through the open door, but the 'comforting' humanlike voice and sane face did much to ease their beating hearts.

The sudden shift from despair to relief came so suddenly it overwhelmed them and left them stunned, standing in place.

"Get in," James repeated, with gritted teeth.

The boy, Obinna, snapped out of his daze and hurried them into the classroom while glancing nervously down the hallway.

"Come on, come on, hurry up".

Once inside the trio collapsed, partly out of relief and also out of fatigue. The day had been haunting and navigating it was even more so, so their tiredness was quite reasonable.

James ignored them and strode over to Dion, Dion had abandoned his previous position, he now rested his back against the wall but his mouth was still covered by a hand.

However, from the parts James could see, his face was as pale as a sheet of paper, his breath came after long intervals and there was a distant look in his eyes.

James sighed, "Dion..."

Just then, "SP!"

One of the girls exclaimed excitedly.

Of the two girls, judging by their uniforms, one was a junior student and the other was a senior, as the junior girls wore suspenders-like gowns and an inner T-shirt, while the senior girls wore their T-shirts with skirts.

It was the junior student who had spoken just now, the girl had her hair bound in two neat pigtails, her face was slightly chubby with hints of baby fat still present and her big round eyes stared at Dion with excitement... and curiosity.

At her exclamation, the senior girl and Obinna, who was the labour Prefect, glanced over at Dion.

But Dion made no movements, and if he was aware of their presence he made no move to indicate.

The cheer that had momentarily appeared on the girl's face faded, "Is... is he okay?"

Her voice dropped a pitch, and became laced with worry.

James frowned, but didn't respond.

On seeing his absent gaze, Obinna sighed, honestly after everything he had experienced today he wouldn't blame anyone for caving in to despair, it was just that witnessing your SP - who was suppposed to be the student leader of the school - like that, he was slightly disappointed.

'No matter...'

Obinna observed the class with a frown, "We can't stay here for long".

James shut his eyes and rested his back against the wall while he crossed his arms.

Of course he knew that they couldn't stay here for long, Dion had said it before they came up. Although this floor was way less populated than the first, this classroom was way too close to the stairs and it would thus receive every zombie that mistakenly - or purposedly - wandered up.

Besides, James was still distrustful towards these people, although he knew their threat level was way lower than what he could handle, the experience with Osaremeh had left him with a bitter feeling.

"SP..." The junior girl muttered, her tone filled with worry.

Obinna gazed at James and a certain light flickered in the depths of his eyes.

"Come on, James," Obinna said pleadingly. "We have to protect these girls, and this place isn't safe".

" Where is?" James shrugged.

Obinna, "..."

He paused for a bit then that light returned to his eyes, his face wrought with determination.

"This is serious, James," he hissed. "This is our lives I'm talking about, stop being childish".

James ignored him.

Watching the junior girl grew anxious, "But... SP... he - "

"Don't worry," Obinna assured. "We'll take him with us... even if - "

" Where would you go?" James suddenly interrupted.

" Huh?"

"I assume you have a plan for after you leave this place, right?" James continued, his voice the epitome of calm. "I'm not against the idea of us leaving, but where do you think you can call 'safe' right now?"

Obinna paused, he knew James was right, with the current state of things outside now no place could be called safe, infact it might be better to just hole up in a place that provided you with some safety, albeit only temporarily.

But at the same time, Obinna knew he was also right, while staying here would be a better option right now in the long term it would be suicidal, as its location was too exposed to both humans and zombies, so unless one was confident of his chances 1v1 against a zombie it was unwise to keep staying here.

In other words, if they held up here they were only waiting for death.

"Well..." Obinna began, he was a little shaky and nervous as he knew that his suggestions could very well decide their life. "I was thinking... maybe we should head to the Geography lab".

"Geography?" James was confused.

"You see, we all know we should avoid places which had much crowd before the... the outbreak," Obinna reasoned. " Besides, it's on this floor so we wouldn't have to risk our lives too much, we can barricade the doors and wait for rescue, I doubt the military would allow this mass genocide to go on much longer ".

James mulled it over briefly, then he gave a faint nod.

He knew they had to move quickly, and honestly, although he was still distrustful he felt that what Obinna said made a lot of sense.

If they were to avoid places that drew crowd then the Geography lab was top of that list, the lab was usually ignored most times because of its eerie nature as even the Geography Teacher preferred to have his classes outside his lab, so the likelihood of it being empty was way high.

With this in mind, James saw no reason to keep on delaying their movement, he felt the faster they got to somewhere safe... safer, the better it was for all of them.

"Alrighty," Obinna spoke excitedly. "We must immediately - "

"We are not going to the Geography lab".

Suddenly a cool voice sounded in the class and everyone froze.

Looking back, Dion was sitting up and looking at everyone of them with a frown on his face. His eyes radiated a chilling coldness that seemed to affect the environment tangibly.