The Survival of Helena University

It seemed like my surroundings were in slow motion as I stood in the middle of our university's soccer field. I couldn't explain what was happening because it was happening so fast. Just a while ago, we were peacefully sitting in our respective classrooms, listening to our professor, but in a blink of an eye, chaos ensued and my fellow students were running around like mad dogs.

Running here, running there. The panicked students were running in no particular direction, just trying to escape.

“Aira!” That shout brought me back to the present.

When I looked to my right, I saw a student coming towards me, bloody, with a bite mark on his neck and his eyes turning white. I tightly gripped the baseball bat I was holding and prepared to swing at him.

Afterwards, I immediately ran towards my friend's location, entering our building.

“Hurry!” Allen shouted as we ran upstairs.

Every floor had obstacles, so we had a hard time reaching our classroom.

Our classmates, who were sweaty and looked like they had just arrived, screamed in surprise when we entered and quickly locked the door.

“What the hell is happening?!” Maika, the fashionista and most dramatic in our class, asked in a high-pitched voice.

“Zombies” Darra, our class president, said quietly but loud enough for us to hear.

Roy, the tough and bully in our class, tiredly washed his face. “Fuck!” he shouted, kicking a chair.

“I can’t believe that what I used to watch is happening in real life” Franz, the taekwondo player in our class, said in a trembling voice.

We all screamed when the door of our classroom started to shake due to the zombies trying to attack us.

“Bring the chairs and tables here! Hurry!” Roy shouted while trying to keep the other door from opening.

I immediately moved, followed by my female classmates, while our male classmates were at the two doors, preventing them from opening.

After they locked both doors, we all helped to place the chairs and tables as a barricade.

We also locked the sliding window and placed chairs and tables as a barrier.

When we finished, we slowly gathered and retreated while watching the students who had turned into zombies.

I walked towards the other window where I could see the whole university and my muscles almost gave out at what I saw.

Screaming, running, and crying of my fellow students asking for help.

“What are we going to do now?” Amira, the quietest and most timid among us, asked.

“We can’t just stand here because any moment now, the door could break and we're surely dead if that happens.” Roy said.

“I have a plan…” We all looked at Darra.

“Spill” Franz said, walking towards Darra.

“You’re a taekwondo player, right?” Darra asked Franz, who immediately nodded. “We only have minutes before the door and window give in… Aira, Maika, Amira, let's work together to remove all the curtains and look for additional ones in the cabinets and connect them. And you boys will support the barricades, Franz use your skills in case we get caught. Is it okay if you're with me till the end?”

We were all alert while listening to Darra.

“I have a question,” I interjected.

“Go ahead,” Darra said, nodding.

“Which floor are we going down to, given that the infected are scattered on all floors?”

“Okay listen, everyone. Roy, you'll be the first to go down once we've fixed the fabric. You'll look for a safe room that we can go to. Because we can't just leave the campus, you've seen the situation, so the only thing we can do now is to find a new room to hide in before we make a new plan to get out of the campus.” There was no trace of emotion on Darra's face as she spoke. “Everybody move!” She ordered authoritatively and we immediately moved.

We removed the curtains one by one, Amira rummaged through the cabinets and luckily, there were some stored there. When we gathered all the curtains, we immediately worked together to connect them. When we finished, Darra called Roy to rappel down.

“Take care” Darra reminded before Roy finally went down.

The rest of our male classmates were on standby at the door because it was giving in due to the continuous onslaught of the damn zombies.

When Roy was finally able to go down to a room, Darra immediately instructed us to follow.

Even though I was trembling, I mustered the courage to go down because I didn't want to be a burden to my classmates. When I arrived, Roy assisted me and the others followed.

Darra and Franz were the last to go down because the door finally gave in and luckily, they were already holding onto the fabric and the zombies were trying to reach them.

We breathed a sigh of relief when the two finally went down and we immediately assisted them.

We sat down tiredly while Franz lay down and covered his face with his hands.

“What are we gonna do now?” Amira asked sadly.

“We need to escape this university”

“But how?” Maika asked.

Darra took out her cellphone.

Oh right, we have cellphones. I also took out mine but

I got disappointed to see that there was no signal.

“There's no signal,” I said.

“We can't call outside for help.” Allen said weakly.

I looked around and only then did I realize that we were in the art room.

“We have no choice but to fight and kill the dead” Darra said coldly before picking up a piece of wood from the side.

“What?! I can’t do that!” Maika complained dramatically.

“If you want to live, fight and don't depend on your us, if you want to die then go out and offer yourself to the zombies, we won't stop you. It's your choice, it's either survive or die” Darra's voice was chilling when she said that before she walked to peek in the hallway.