“Either God is a bastard or He enjoys seeing people suffer, which makes Him a sadistic bastard,” David moans next to me. I motion him to shut up but he keeps going.

“I worked three years to keep a 3.9 GPA, I didn’t do anything but study and suck up to teachers so they would give me good recommendations. Then, when I’m finally on the right road and I get that internship with Google lined up for next spring, Google, man. Imagine me at Google. But it just couldn’t happen. No sir. Instead the whole world goes insane and look at us! God damn it! Trapped in a frigging library, God damn it!”

I slap him before he can scream again. His dorky glasses fly across the room and he quickly crawls after them, holding his cheek. He almost looks like a giant rat scurrying to safety. The thought must’ve crossed Andrea’s mind as well because she gives me a tired smile.

“And I thought I had problems because my boyfriend tried to eat me. Thank God Google boy helped me put things in perspective.”

“Shit-heads, I can hear you!” David yells at us from a corner. I almost giggle. Nobody really liked David before They started attacking, but his popularity definitely took a nose dive since he started bemoaning his lost internship every few hours.

“Why do we have to get stuck with the lamest kid in the whole college?” I turn towards Miranda who is slowly walking out of the office we designated as our sleeping quarters.

“Woke you up, honey?” I ask, kissing her. We’ve been dating for almost a year and luckily, she was sleeping in my room the night it all started. According to one of the many Virus-control blogs, her dorm was one of the first buildings in our town where the infection spread.

Miranda hugs me and I almost moan at the feeling of her small frame pressed against me. The thought of her beautiful body getting mauled by Them makes me shudder. The fact that she invited me over that night makes me feel even worse. What if I had agreed?

“No news?” she asks, stretching.

“Nope,” Andrea answers. “David is still in shock about his lost internship, we still have Mars and Hershey bars on the menu and I still cannot convince your boyfriend to cheat on you.”

Miranda grins and hugs me again.

“You mean my hero boyfriend?”

The sound of a car alarm makes us all jump. I rush to the large glass mural that allows sun-light on the third floor of the library, but behind the painted college logo, the campus looks just as dead as it did for the past two days. In the distance the main classroom hall still smolders and small puffs of black smoke rise in the clear October sky. The pathways connecting dorms and classrooms are still abandoned. Were it not for the bikes, backpacks and boxes poking out of the grass and dotting the concrete slabs, you’d think it’s already winter break and everybody’s home.

From our fortress I can see past the college gates, but the highway near our campus is just as abandoned. Empty cars with their doors swung open block the road, and patches of what could be caked blood dirty their hoods. Nothing moves in the deafening silence that follows the shrill alarm. The whole world looks dead.

“Probably just a raccoon or something,” I say, trying to calm myself as much as everybody else.

“The library is the safest place on campus and we’re well stocked on snacks and water from the vending machines,” I repeat for the hundredth time. God bless whoever built our college library without any windows on the first floor. I know I did my share of cursing the lack of sun light in the main room and the heavy wooden doors that barely opened, but I take it all back. Whoever designed our library to resemble an ancient castle was a genius.

“What’s that?” Andrea points at a limping shape.

“It’s Joe Trever,” she gasps. “He’s a football player. I had class with him. Shit, he looks hurt.”

Before I can move, she starts frantically waving towards him.

“What the hell are you doing?” I ask, grabbing her arm. “What if he’s followed or bitten?”

“Victor, are you serious? We can’t let him out there. Come on, help me open the door,” she replies, already halfway down the stairs. I look at Miranda for help but she shrugs and follows Andrea.

We barely move the large closet barricading the doors when Joe rushes inside.

“You should deactivate the ID scanner,” he says, panting. “Anyone accidentally scanning their ID could unlock the doors.”

Andrea shoots me a triumphant gaze. See, he’s already helping us survive and you wanted to let him die somewhere outside.

“Are you hurt?” she asks as Joe helps push the closet back and collapses next to the brick wall.

“I think I sprained my ankle, but I’m fine. Greg didn’t make it,” Joe’s face furrows. “Me and a few guys were just getting out of practice, the weight room is more quiet in the evening. Me and Greg wanted to go for a drink, but Fred was tired. We were arguing when this guy just darted in front of the car. We didn’t realize he was infected and Fred got out to help him.”

I feel Miranda grab my shoulder, but her eyes are fixed on the football player. I can’t help but notice that Andrea took his hand and now she’s slowly patting it. All you need to impress a girl is a crazy enough story, and there’s bound to be plenty of them nowadays.

“You actually saw one of Them? Miranda asks. “We only saw the news, before the TV signal went off,” I can hear the wonder in her voice, as if Joe is some sort of super-hero.

“Yes. Me and Greg made a run for it. We’ve been slowly making our way towards my dad’s house since yesterday. We hid in Greg’s dorm for a while. He was in shock. This morning They caught up to us and surrounded the building. We tried to make it across the roof tops, but–”

He continues the story of his adventurous escape while I make my way to the main office and disable the ID scanner. How the hell could I forget about that? I just gave that douche the chance to look like a smart survival expert, as if any one of Them could use an ID scanner anyhow.

Suddenly I realize why Joe’s story annoys me so much. I’m actually jealous at that dumb jock. How stupid! I was the one who organized this stand. I took the right decisions and saved all of our lives. No matter what happened I was the leader of this group and everybody knew it. Joe’s voice suddenly rings in my mind.

“But you never thought about that ID scanner did you?”

Still cursing I return to the main floor. The two girls are crouched besides the tall football player and he’s animatedly explaining something. Miranda starts laughing and somehow that makes everything worse.

“Vic,” Miranda turns to me, smiling. “Joe thinks it would be best to head out of here and go to his dad’s house.”

“It’s an old, solid building; we can secure it relatively easily. We would have more food and my dad even has a few hunting rifles,” Joe adds with a smug grin.

“It’s not safe. Before the Internet went down every blog warned against going outside from a secure hide-out,” I protest.

“Is this really secure?” Joe responds in a tone that suggests we both know better. “I mean I’m sure you guys did a good job but that ID Scanner could have ruined your whole plan.”

I feel ready to smack him, football player or not, he’s just a condescending ass.

“Look, captain,” he goes on, slowly raising to his feet. What annoys me more than his plan is that Miranda helps him up. “I don’t want to steal your thunder. You did a great job, but if we want to live we have to move on before we get surrounded by zombies.”

A loud shriek makes us all turn towards the staircase. David is running towards us, jumping two steps at a time. He skids on the marble floor, almost crashing into Joe.

“Don’t say that word!” he yelps at the tall football player. “Zombies are not real. This is just some mistake and we’ll be back in class by the end of the week. The army will fix everything, you’ll see. By spring I’ll be at Google working with top engineers.”

I see the disgusted look on Joe’s face as he pushes David away.

“Get a hold of yourself man. We’re at war here and we must play our game as best as possible,” he says with a strange sparkle in his eyes. I suddenly realize what is so odd about his story. He told us about Fred’s death as if it was a minor inconvenience that prevented him from playing the ideal formation in the next football game. There was no emotion behind his blue eyes, nothing but cool calculations. He was the kind of bastard who used the words expendable losses quite often.

“Is that what this is to you?” I ask. “is it just anther game, where the best defensive is a strong offensive?”

Miranda gives me a cold glance that makes me feel like a dumb-ass.

“No, captain,” Joe smiles. “My life is too important for games. I just use what I learned so I can survive and save as many people as I can.”

I mumble some excuse about going to the bathroom and walk away embarrassed. Why the hell did I have to give him another chance to show how cool and smart he was? We were fine before he showed up. We were just damned fine before he came along with his damned plan that’ll get us all killed. I should have let him outside.

David startles me in the men’s washroom. I laugh nervously, trying to ignore his puffy face and red eyes. I wish I wouldn’t have slapped him. He isn’t a bad kid, he just has the wrong priorities.

“I have a plan,” he says as we wash our hands side by side. I’m tempted to cut him short. Everybody has a damned plan except me. Before I can say anything he starts, explaining by drawing strange figures in the air.

“This is the library, here. The weight room is over here, last time I could check on-line this whole part of the campus was in an orange danger zone. But Joe says he got attacked here, in this dorm.” I can’t follow David’s imaginary drawings but somehow I get the gist. They are slowly spreading.

“But if I remember well, this area turned back to green about three hours before the Internet went dead,” David exclaims enthusiastically.

“So? They’re just moving where the food is, once they cleaned an area they move on.”

“I think they’re migrating,” David responds. “They don’t completely clean an area, otherwise we wouldn’t know this part was safe again. They must have left some survivors behind, who then reported it as a safe zone. And don’t tell me They just smelled Joe and Greg ten miles away, They just happened to find them because the dorm was in Their path.”

David’s plan slowly becomes clear.

“You want to ride it out in here? You think They’ll just pass us?”

“If they’re migrating north-west, Joe’s plan would get us straight into a huge wave of infected,” David concludes. “I’d rather stick with you. I mean you saved all our lives once.”

I ignore his compliment although it makes me smile. After all, he isn’t a bad kid.

“But, David, how do we know They’ll keep going past us?”

“If They don’t know we’re here, They’ll just keep going. It’s only us that have to see Them, not the other way around. If we lay low for just another day the whole campus should be full of infected. That’ll be enough to convince that football oaf to wait in here until the army comes to clean everything. We just have to stall Joe until tomorrow,” David answers.

His plan is wonderfully simple, all we have to do is make sure none of Them can sense us. The image of the mall surrounded by zombies in Dawn of the Dead pops into my head. I chase it away with a shudder. Nothing will go wrong, we’ll just stay put and ride it out. It’s the safest way.

I return to the library main room. By now Joe’s leg is bandaged and Andrea is massaging his knee. She would have never done something like that for me, although I was the one who was going to save her life. The irony makes me smile.

“Okay, I thought it through,” I say. “It’s better we get out of here while we still have sun-light. Joe can you run?”

I cross my fingers, praying that his ankle is worse than he lets it show. Instead his stupid need to be in charge saves me.

“I’m glad we agree champ, but first we have to prepare. We can’t just run out there and hope for the best. Do you guys have any weapons? We should also take some food with us.”

While Andrea helps him take the inventory of our stocks Miranda hugs me gently.

“I’m glad you saw what is best,” she smiles. “Joe says his dad even has a hot tub.”

As she’s kissing me I can’t help a bitter taste in my mouth. All it took for her to betray me was the promise of a warm bath, but I will save her too. I will save her because I am the only one who can, because I am a hero.

#

Joe shakes me awake. From the poor light I guess it’s still early morning, just after sunrise. I want to push him away but the smiling football player is gone. There’s steel in his eyes and a deep line crossing his forehead. The change scares me and I feel completely awake.

“There are zombies outside,” he whispers. I want to protest him using the Z word. Zombies are something out of movies and bad stories. David made sure to tell us that everyday.

“Shut up, we need to get out of here before more gather,” Joe stops me. “Get everyone ready, I’ll gather some food and…”

“No,” I say before I can stop myself.

“What the hell? Man, there’s a dozen out there, there’ll be a hundred within the hour. We can still outrun them, kick a few down and get the hell out of this trap but only if we leave now.”

Behind me Miranda is already up. I can hear her unzipping her backpack and throwing stuff in.

“Come on, man, we have to get going,” Joe says in a harsh tone. I can smell his morning breath and I want to laugh in his dumb face. He’s no leader; he’s just a scared football player. But somehow, this morning, I don’t feel like much of a leader either. A bad feeling is nesting in my stomach and I feel dizzy from the abrupt awakening.

“David has a theory,” I begin to reason, trying to ignore the headache that is starting to grip my head. “They’re just migrating towards–” Before I can finish David appears in the doorframe. He’s scared face, reminds me of a raccoon caught in the headlights. I want to smile, let him know everything is fine, but suddenly I notice his backpack and the bad feeling in my stomach spreads towards my throat.

“Come on people, we need to leave,” he murmurs, looking me straight in the eyes. For a few seconds I can’t do anything but stare back in mute amazement.

“You said we should wait it out,” I almost yell.

“That’s crazy,” David replies. I can see the surprise on his face, but his eyes are the same, unchanged. The eyes of a damned raccoon caught in the headlights. “We’d be trapped in here with no way out.”

I feel the floor sliding from under my feet and the bad feeling warps itself around me, snickering. Everything is sliding away and I’m falling into a bad nightmare – which will get all of us killed.

“We talked about this yesterday,” I say, reaching towards David. Joe steps between us before I can get close to him. Behind the tall football player those damned raccoon eyes fix me full of irony.

“Ladies, you can have your cat fight after we put a few miles between us and those…Things.”

Joe walks away as I crash back on my sleeping bag. I blink and ten minutes fly by. Somehow I’m not surprised when Miranda taps my shoulder; of course time flies, why the hell not? Everything is slipping away.

“Come on baby, we’re ready to go.”

I see her lips pronouncing every word, her tongue running over her teeth. We’re in slow motion, walking through water or fine mist. But this doesn’t surprise me either; of course the world slowed down to a crawl, why the hell not? Everything is going wrong.

Painfully slow I descend the stairs, following everybody else. Joe’s last order seems distant and meaningless. It feels like I’m watching a boring movie through a bad lens. I remember some distant night when I was five, trying to gaze at the stars through an unfocused telescope. This feels much like it. I’m trying to make sense of the world through the wrong end of the telescope. David somehow screwed us over and now we’re just completing his damned plan, but what the hell was his plan?

Joe moves the barricade and gets ready to open the library door. I can see Andrea kissing him before they dash outside. Miranda follows them closely. It’s my turn when I realize David is nowhere. I turn in time to see him rush behind a bookshelf. I swear he leaves ripples in the air as he moves. The whole world is just one damned movie on a unfocused TV set. I catch up with David before he makes it down the aisle.

“What the hell is going on?” I yell at him.

“Shh,” he grimaces. “If They hear you we’re both dead.”

“What the hell is going on?!” I scream louder. I couldn’t give a monkey’s ass for all the zombies in the world right now; they’re just a distant afterthought.

“Please don’t yell. Help me close the door,” David begs with me. “You can stay here too, there’s enough food now that Joe and the girls left, barely but it should last the two of us.”

“Is that why you wanted us to leave? You wanted all the food for yourself?” I moan angry at myself.

“If all of us would have stayed we would have starved. Besides, Joe’ll distract Them away from the library. While They follow the three of them we can hide in here,” David smiles hopefully.

I punch him and cursing I rush out. I need to save them. I need to warn them. Behind me David yells something but I ignore him. I can still save Miranda and Andrea, even Joe, I can still be the hero.

I’m barely a few feet from the library when I hear Them. It’s a constant moan that makes me stop in my tracks, shivering. The lens snaps into focus almost painfully. No more slow motion, no more distant film or walking through water. Everything is as real as it gets and I’m stuck outside with a bunch of bloodthirsty zombies. What the hell am I thinking?

Up ahead Joe is helping Miranda lift a bike. I doubt I can reach them and return to the safety of the library. Slowly the moan breaks into individual groans, hundreds of harsh voices moaning in unison, like the members of a devilish chorus. What little was left of my sinking feeling evaporates replaced by sheer terror. I want to call after Joe, but he disappears behind a building and somehow I doubt I could scream even if I wanted.

Suddenly the air is pierced by a girl yelling. It lasts only a few minutes and I cannot tell if it’s Andrea or Miranda. I don’t wait to find out; I rush back towards the library, cold sweat pouring down my back. The door is locked. Somehow it doesn’t surprise me, why wouldn’t it be? Everything else has gone to hell by now. I try the ID scanner but I disabled it myself, of course it doesn’t work. Behind me the moans grow, closing in. I can hear the shuffling of feet, slowly dragging over the concrete pathway. I don’t turn. I don’t want to see them, I don’t want to pass out or piss myself.

Cold fingers grab my jacket and pull backwards. Another pair of hands grabs me and I can feel teeth sink in my shoulder blade. I just hope they can smell David and they’ll stick around until he starves to death. I just hope they’ll stick around. My last thought goes to Miranda; maybe I distracted enough of Them to give Joe a head start. Maybe I did save them…maybe…

——
Alex Moisi is a Romanian born college student, living in Illinois and ignoring real life issues like angry friends and failing classes in favor of post-apocalyptic scenarios and disturbing “What if?”‘s. His work can be found in Residential Aliens, Bewildering Stories, the Desolate Places anthology published by Hardley Rille books and Strange Worlds of Lunacy published by Cyberwizard Publications as well as on his website www.dracken.co.nr.