Cleaning Duty

The last bell rung and students chatting could be heard all across the school. Till the chatting died down in the distance, Diana and Noelle were put in charge of cleaning duty. After the incident earlier Mr. Kan had assigned them to stay and clean.

"Aww I wanted to go to the new shop that opened down town."

Iris pouted with disappointment in her eyes. Amelia and Iris were still there with Diana only having small talk before they left.

"Why do you have to clean on the first day? Mr. Kan is ruthless."

Amelia spoke while pulling iris.

"Anyway, we're going to go now. Good luck."

With a wink and a teasing smile Amelia and Iris went outside. Hearing the small chatting outside fade. Diana was secretly cursing Mr. Kan for picking her and Noelle after that awkward incident during lunch. 30 minutes in awkward silence past by, Diana decided to take the initiative and spoke.

"Uhm so, did you like it?"

Noelle took a quick glance before returning to cleaning

"You know, the sandwich."

"…it was okay…"

"I couldn't hear you, what did you say?"

"…"

"..ahem, uhm so is that a no?"

"it was good."

After replying to Diana the classroom become silent which was more unpleasant than before. Diana couldn't handle silence, she felt like the tension could rip her apart. Before she could say anything else a low growl was heard outside.

"Grauuuh…."

The sun barely peeking out was slowly going down an orange tinge covered the sky. The deafening noise did not stop though. Diana was petrified, she was always scared of anything related to horror and froze. Noelle spotting this goes towards the door and slides it open. Instantly she closes the door.

"Move the teachers desk here NOW!"

Hearing Noelle's shriek Diana instantly snaps out of her frozen state and began moving the desk towards Noelle.

"What? What happened?"

Asking in a panic voice still hearing growls outside

"RAUGHH"

"Shut up and help me secure the door!"

Scrapping noises and bangs could be heard outside the door. While the grunting sounds were also getting louder. Finally after securing the door Diana couldn't help but question her.

"Are you going to leave me in the dark? What happened?"

"Zombie."

"Eh…"

Diana was confused, questions began running through her head 'what is a "zombie?" How did it get here? What about Amelia and Iris?? They were just here a couple of minutes ago.'

"W-what do you mean…"

"How else am I suppose to explain it? Are you stupid didn't you see it?"

"Can you just explain what you saw!"

"It was a person in our uniform. They were missing half their face."

"Huh…"

*BANG, BANG, BANG*

"RAUUUGHHH…"

It became more aggressive after hearing them talk. Hearing the ruckus more came along banging on the door and walls.

"grahh"

"Shh, shut up, stop asking questions. You're attracting them."

"W-What?! How can I be quiet! What about mh-"

A cold hand cupped Diana's face. The change in temperature made her flinch a little, the feeling of being held down though had oddly comforted her. Until she realized who's hand it was she was trying to move her face. The grip became tighter making it harder to move so she stayed still but was glaring at Noelle.

"Have you calmed down now?"

Diana with tears swelling up from the pain nodded in frustration.

"I'll explain to you after it dies down."

Diana thought to herself 'How can she be so calm? What does she mean "missing half their face" is she crazy?!' Being flooded with questions but no where to ask, she stayed quiet. Finally Noelle let go of Diana and sat down. She put a finger next to her lips gesturing to Diana to stay silent. Diana face heats up suddenly being treated like a kid. She holds her cheeks in pain but sits down next to Noelle since she was too afraid to go anywhere else.

"AHHHH HELP ME"

"STAY BACK!"

Many voices and screams could be heard outside in the city. Noelle crawled towards the window so the things outside doesn't become more aggressive after seeing Noelle. She peeked the top half of her head and instantly put her head down.

"w-what?"

The screams became louder, car sirens, store alarms, glass breaking, and gunshots could be heard all across the city.

"…"

"RauuUuugHhhh"

Noelle quietly crawls back but had a look of stress. She was trembling and was fidgeting.

"What did you see?"

"I… don't know how to explain it."

"What do you mean? Let me go look then."

Diana sits up but a firm hand grabs her,

"Sit, the zombies could see you."

"Well, how am I suppose to know what happen then!?"

"If you really want to see it crawl."

Diana embarrassingly gets on all fours and scoot over to the edge of the window. What she saw was nothing she could imagine. Blood painted the streets and people were running over others. Humans eating others and tramping through what looked like already dead bodies. Stores were being broken into with just a persons head. Diana thought to herself that these people didn't look right. They had a pale bluish greenish hue to their skin. It looked like they had no blood circulation in their bodies and had huge wounds which no human could survive. It looked like they were filming a movie but it was too realistic. Instantly after watching this scene she ducked her head and crawled back to Noelle. Staying silent the whole time.

The noises of the zombies quieted down after an hour. The classroom had become completely dark. The city that use to be bustling had now become silent. An eerie stillness had blanketed the whole city. There was no lights on, only a few turned on occasionally but were quickly turnt off. Feeling even more creeped out Diana decided to scoot closer to Noelle touching her hips.

"D-don't get me wrong I'm only close to you because it's cold…"

Hurriedly tried to give a good reason to not let Noelle notice her shaky voice.

"Mm."

Feeling that this was the right time now she decided to ask Noelle all the questions that wouldn't leave her alone.

"Hey… how did you know it was a zombie earlier?"

"I read a lot of manga."

"What's that have to do with anything?!"

A cold soft sensation pressed up against Diana lips made her instantly flinch.

"Quiet, if you want to ask questions whisper."

"O-okay…"

"Zombies are a pretty popular genre in manga's."

"Oh, so what do they do then?"

"Hah… have you never watched zombie movies?"

"Uhm I'm not good with scary stuff…"

"Well they just eat brains and once you get bitten you turn into one. I don't know if fiction and real life are the same though."

Diana thought about Noelle's answer for a bit, seeing the scene in the city had made more sense to her now.

"Eeehhhh~? That's so scary…! How can you watch that type of stuff"

Noelle shrugs. Sleepiness hit both of them and they decided to deal with it in the morning.

"I'll keep watch then!"

Diana exclaimed feeling fully confident. Noelle didn't question her and drifted off sleeping. Not too long after Diana succumbed to the sleepiness as well forgetting to wake up Noelle.

~~~~~~

Rustling was heard down below, Noelle woke up from the sudden noise she checked her watch, 1:48 AM, 5 hours had gone by. Hearing muffled groaning from outside the window Noelle inches closer to Diana's ear until barely touching, her warm breathing tickled Dianas face which made it go numb.

"Do you hear that?"

A low whisper prickles Diana's ear which woke her up and she instantly froze. She lift her back up in a daze. The words that Noelle said didn't fully register into Diana's head.

"W-what?"

Noelle's breath still lingering on her ear made her fluster a bit. Before she could question about what was happening, Noelle stood up and walked towards the window. Diana also followed being too frightened to be alone. Once they were at the window they heard weird gnawing sounds. Diana looked down and the city had turned into a disaster, there were broken stores and disturbing disfigured humans chewing on corpses.

"MmmMmm-!"

A muffled scream could be heard from below. A woman staring right at Diana being chewed on was trying to scream for help. Noelle couldn't see too well because of the dark but Diana perfectly saw the scene happening below. In pure shock Diana can see the girl reaching up signaling to them for help. Her tongue seemed to be bitten off so her screams had become inaudible. It looked as if she had fallen off somewhere as her legs were twisted in a weird way. Tears started rolling down Diana's eyes from the scene, she notices who the woman was after taking a couple more glances. Her and Diana didn't talk much but she was definitely one of the girls who had hung around her frequently with a bunch of other students.

"Ah…"

Feeling her knees giving out from the shock Diana almost collapses onto the floor. She braced herself for the impact but someone had caught her before her descent. Once a warm embrace had grasped her she couldn't stop shaking and burst into tears.

"Uwahhh, sh-she's being eaten by it! We have to help her!"

With stutters and a tight knot developing her throat, she cried till it was too much to bare for her as she accidentally thrust her head into Noelle's shoulder to cover her face. Noelle was shocked by such sudden movements and was knocked down onto the floor. Using herself as a cushion Diana was fine but her small body still trembling.

"Huh? calm down what are you talking about."

"I'm scared…what's going to happen?! W-wh-"

Noelle pats the back of her head and hugs Diana back. She also couldn't help but tremble as well. She was scared but felt like she shouldn't show it. Still she couldn't help it once she saw Diana break down, Noelle nerves had reached their limit and she burst into nervous cries. She didn't know why she was crying or what was happening other than they were suddenly in a situation that was too similar to the ones in zombie apocalypses but she didn't want to believe that possibility. Both girls stayed in this position crying for a few minutes.

*Sniffs*

"S-sorry… I got your jacket dirty…"

"It's okay. I got your sweater dirty as well…"

Both embarrassed, they sat besides each other, faces red trying to forget about that moment.

"I didn't know you were scared too.."

Diana muttered with a solemn face.

"I just didn't want you to get scared too…"

"mm, thanks."

Diana's mind kept flashing back to the girl being eaten and the abnormal amount of bodies in the city.

"Hey… did you see bodies?"

"What bodies?"

Noelle eyes widen,

"Huh, You didn't see?"

"No."

"The city, there's… things down there and bodies…"

Diana heart starts to speed up, 'How could she not see it?' Though Noelle knew that there were definitely something down there she didn't have her glasses on since she lost them in the morning arriving to school.

Silence enveloped the room, Noelle didn't know what to say.

"I had bad eyesight ever since I was young. My hearing is more sensitive so I could only hear mumbling sounds outside."

"Ah, that makes sense… Is that why you always look so mad?"

"Mad? What do you mean?"

"Whenever you glance at someone your eyes become more slanted."

"Oh, sometimes, like this?"

Noelle slightly squints her eyes while pursing her lips up

"PF- hehe"

"What's funny?"

"Sorry I couldn't help it…is that you trying to lighten the mood?"

"Mhm, it worked didn't it?"

Diana being embarrassed turned her head.

"For a bit… I didn't think you had that side to you."

"We met for only a day, did you think I was mean?"

"Ah… you just seem intimidating"

Noelle nodded agreeing with Diana since she already knew

"I think it should be fine if we both sleep right?"

Diana asked eagerly with her eyes half open,

"Mmm it should be fine."

Both feeling exhaustion hit them they decided that they'll sleep at the corner of the room with a barricade of desks just to fell safe till morning.