Note: I'm bored. You're really bored if you're reading this. Moving people around abruptly for convenience. Why is setting the basis taking so looong… oh yeah.. I'm unmotivated and suffering from writer's block.
"Houston, we have a problem…"
"What?"
"There's a dead girl out there."
"So?"
"She's moving."
"Oh, that's funny."
"That's why it's a problem."
Chapter Four: Who Knew Dead Things Walked
The next morning…
Liza yawned as she got up. It was early morning, and the sun was out. Not to her surprise, Alexia was still slumbering in bed. As was her usual routine, Liza prepared to take a shower. It seemed that Jade and Google were not up either. She shrugged. There weren't many morning larks in college. The numbers were obvious in the amount of people outside; none.
Liza sighed as she readied for the day and stepped into the shower. It was Saturday, and she was planning to go the library to study right after brunch if her suitemates woke up early enough. As she showered, she went over the events that had happened in her mind and planned out her day. It was going to be a typical day of studying. She didn't understand why her roommate and Jade never went to the library. They needed computers, but there were computers in the library too.
As she started to dress after finishing her shower, Liza heard someone enter the bathroom. Whoever it was seemed to be rather drowsy. She could almost hear the feet drag. "Whatever." Maybe the person was drunk. Liza didn't care. She was sure there were many others like that. She finished dressing and opened the curtain.
To her surprise, the person was right outside the curtain facing her with signs of serious sleep deprivation. It was a girl, one of the ones that lived on the floor above. "Hi." Liza shrugged and brushed pass the girl carefully. As she left the bathroom, she had the strangest feeling that the girl was still staring at her. It made her slightly uncomfortable, but she didn't care. She had work to do, and that was more important.
About three hours later with Alexia waking the latest, Liza, Google, Jade, and Alexia went off to brunch. As they passed by Deran's dorm, Google started randomly yelling his name. There was no response to Jade's relief, and the rest of the girls giggled.
When they entered the dining hall, they quickly picked a table and dropped their stuff off. Unknownst to Jade, Google had spotted her previous target. She and Jade were heading in the same direction, and Jade was surprised when Google started to push and steer her in a certain direction.
"What are you doing?" Jade asked. Google only giggled. Right before Jade hit, she realized who the target was. "GOOGLE!" She managed to avoid hitting, but with an extra push from Alexia, she failed and completely crashed into Deran. "OW!" Unfortunately, Deran caught her and the side of her face still smashed against the student's body. There was a bunch of giggles behind her as Liza, Google, and Alexia laughed. It didn't help that the dining hall was half full. The tray Deran was holding clattered to the floor.
"Whoa. Are you okay?" Deran asked. He was blinking quizzically. "That was… interesting." He glanced at the other girls.
"Awwww, he caught her!" Alexia cooed.
Jade mimicked barfing. "Anyways… that hurt. Oh, yeah! Serena's coming to brunch today! Hehe. She's actually walking!"
"I heard that!" came a yell. As the others sat down, Serena arrived and pulled Jade's hair in response to her comment. "Just because I live on North doesn't mean I won't walk to east."
"Figures… once we're not suitemates, you actually get up."
"Hmm… hehe."
Some of the chitter chatter conversation just flew through Deran's thick skull as he observed the surroundings. The students seemed much quieter than usual. He supposed that they were rather lethargic and worn from the day before. It was strange though. They hadn't come that early to brunch. People were bound to be awake. Instead, he heard low moans and indistinct groans. He shrugged and went back to making random stupid comments that made the girls either stare or laugh.
Serena ate moderately fast as she enjoyed the conversation and contributed her share. The East campus food wasn't as bad as it seemed, but North food, the others insisted, was better. She agreed. Jade seemed as if she had improved from disliking 99.9 of the food in the dining halls. She couldn't be too sure. The dining atmosphere was strange though. North was definitely much louder… probably due to the freshmen. East was strange and groany. She raised the fork she was holding toward her mouth and nearly dropped it when there was a high pitch anxious scream behind her.
Everyone turned toward the noise. Alexia blinked at the sight. A boy had anchored his teeth on a girl's arm. She would have smacked that boy right there if she was the girl… IF. She had no wish to be in that position. The girl had been bitten rather deeply as blood gushed out. The boy seemed not to pay attention and kept gnawing on her arm. After a moment of shock, several people went to help her and pried the boy off.
"Eesh. Ambulance?" Deran remarked.
Serena blinked. "Yeah. Wow… there are no good guys in Cornfield."
"That's sad…." Alexia commented.
All the other girls except Liza nodded. Deran arched an eyebrow and began to utter a protest, but the scenario allowed for otherwise. The boy had began biting others, and other students were restraining him or trying. They were fortunately able to restrain him before the medic crew came with police enforcers.
"Wow, he's insane," Google mumbled. Everyone agreed.
"Let's go." Liza picked up her bag and tray and bussed it. Everyone nodded and followed.
"It's gone!" Woozi breathed a sigh of relief as he looked out the window through the random things they had hammered onto the frame to protect themselves. His eyes were barely open, and the light streaming in nearly blinded him.
The boys had not gotten much sleep. They had locked and covered every possible source of entry into the house and had taken turns keeping guard while the others slept. "Coast clear?" Zhen asked.
"Well, I don't see anyone out there. I don't think I'm blind."
"I don't know, Woozi." Ethan shook his head and Isiah chuckled.
Woozi yawned again and turned around. "Well, I'm just going to get something to eat…"
"Get stuff for us too," Zhen ordered.
"Get it yourself," Woozi mumbled as he trudged out of the room.
A moment later…
"SAFEHOUSE BREACHED!" Woozi hollered at the top of his lungs as he ran back into the room.
"What?" His housemates stared at him.
Woozi panted. "The back door! It's broken!"
"Whoa! That's not good." Zhen shook his head.
"Well, it's war and toasty in here. We didn't feel a draft…" Isiah commented.
"Yo, the thermostat's reading 90 degrees F," Ethan blinked. "What idiot turned on the temperature to that high?"
Everyone blinked. "Not me."
There was a loud groan. "Oh, s#t," Zhen stared at one of the doorways to the room. "We have company." The same girl from the night before was standing in the doorway with a gaping hole in her chest. Behind her was another male.
"Luckily, I picked up a sparker," Woozi said smugly.
"Yeah? And how's that going to help us?" Ethan inquired.
"Well, obviously, they're not very human so fire!" Woozi clicked the sparker and spurts of flame shot out.
"That's for lighting things… not lighting people," Zhen said. He looked nervously at the approaching duo.
"The smart idea would be to run…" Ethan mumbled. He did so, knocking over Woozi while he was at it.
"Wtf!" Woozi went down, his hand still flickering the sparker. The lighted sparker hit one of the sofas in the room, and smoke began to form slowly after.
"Woozi! The couch!" Zhen shouted.
"RUN!"
And with that, the boys escaped. Looking back from a distance away, they saw their house with smoke pouring out. As they traveled away, they heard a loud boom. Their house was on fire.
"Now where are we going to live?"
"Man, if we have to pay for that… I'm giving the bill to that thing…"
"Forget that! I hope that thing is dead!"
"LOCK THE DOORS!" Alexia screamed as she and Jade slammed the doors shut and locked them. "Phew…close call."
"Uh, they're still out there…"
"The thing with stupid guys…" Alexia rolled her eyes.
"Next thing you know, you have to build a bomb shelter to defend against them," Jade sighed in agreement.
"Oh, come on. What's wrong with them?" Liza asked. "They sound normal and nice to me."
Alexia and Jade looked at each other. "Right. She hasn't seen the freaky dark side."
Jade's cell phone rang, and she picked up. "What…" The name on her phone coined the called as Zhen.
"Look, this isn't funny. Our house got burnt down."
"That's ridiculous. Bye." At the same time, Alexia and Liza got calls from Woozi. They all had the same reaction. They finally gave in and took it in as real news. After hearing the story from the boys, the girls were in silence.
"Uh, yeah… That just sounds stupid…" Google said. "Woozi, why did you have a lighter?"
"What else was I supposed to do? People use guns. I use this lighter. First thing I picked up!" Woozi replied.
"And burn down your house," Alexia muttered.
"Well, that's what you get for hiding alcohol there." Jade shook her head slowly. Ethan shook his head as well.
"Hey…" Zhen started.
"Though something weird did happen at brunch today…" Serena commented. She had moved temporarily to where the other girls were living for the week to avoid mass drunkards at her dorm. After she explained the early morning events, everyone stopped making fun of each other.
"I think we have a problem," Zhen started.
"There's something wrong with the people these days," Serena sighed.
"Well, they'll get better. They probably overdosed at the concert," Liza declared.
"Uh, who tries to bite other people as a side effect of overdosing?" Alexia shook her head.
"Zombies." Jade stuck out her tongue. "Like in Alexia's favorite series."
"This is real life, Jade. Zombies don't exist."
Jade shrugged. "Well, just hypothesizing…"
"So… since we have nowhere to stay, can we-" Woozi started.
The girls had anticipated the question before he even finished. "NO!"