In A 'Juice Box'

Throwing my hands up defensively and blocking my face as the glass spits out from the window, I hear her growls as she viciously lashes out, her arms fraying in the air and half her body sticking out.

My attention turns to Hutner as I see him reach for his bat, it was tied to the back of it on some sort of strap, smart if you need to act quickly!

"Go, I'll handle this one!"

Hunter urged, raising his bat, ready to strike.

Carlos grabs my hand and we run upstairs back into the staffroom where we previously were. Short breathed, I leaned against the wall, my heart pounding. My eyes narrow as I look around the room, something feels wrong.

"Where is Daniel?!"

I call out, my eyes focusing on Carlos in worry and concern. I notice Carlos take a quick glance around the room before he looks back to me.

"If there is one down there, then who knows how many more are out there."

He said to me, looking outside the window at the field.

"Why was he covered in blood though? I don't understand!"

I add, thinking back to how Daniel appeared when we first saw him, but now he's gone! Carlos pauses for a moment as if thinking.

"Maybe... Yeah, no clue. I suppose all we can do is hope he found his little 'buddy' and they're hiding somewhere."

I hear him say in response. I shrug my shoulders and my heart jumps as I see Hunter standing at the doorway, his bat drenched and dripping with glistening red blood.

"Definitely don't be a future problem. Say, why don't you guys have weapons yourselves? By now, I'm sure at least everyone in the state would have a gun on them."

Hunter questions, his gaze turning from me to Carlos again. He did look genuinely concerned about why we didn't have a weapon at hand but I turn to Carlos in shock as he reaches behind him.

"Well, instead of a gun I got this."

He says, pulling out a kitchen knife from his waist. I realized he had been carrying a weapon without even telling me! How the hell did he have that there? I mean, I'm glad he did have something to defend himself with, but still! If this continues, next time he is gonna have an axe up his-

"We should go down to the cafeteria. I know where it is, went to this school about a year or so ago."

Hunter states, putting his bat away as we walk out of the room. The thought of Daniel still remains in my mind, but I have a feeling he is okay and probably hiding in a locker. He'd be lucky if he won't get locked inside. Or would he be lucky?

We walk down the staircase, Hunter and Carlos talking to each other, sharing each other's hobbies and school experiences as if they were high school girls gossiping. Carlos opens the door to the cafeteria. The canteen was on the other side, I hope that they still have the lunch I never got.

"Come on, we should get whatever we can before someone else does. But don't start eating yet, we need to save our supplies. It's gonna be difficult to live when anyone would kill for food and water."

Hunter says as we walk towards the canteen, making our way past all the tables and stairs set up around. Why would he say 'anyone would kill for food and water', does that mean he has seen someone do that? Or maybe he has done that...

"Why would people off each other for food? Just go to the store!"

I say, looking up at Hunter, confusion displayed on my face with a hint of disgust in my tone of voice, imagining how aggressive people can be over a can of soup. What if you just open and close your fridge enough times it might have something new, like in those cartoons!

"Because there will be no more food in stores, well at least in another day or two if we're lucky. People coming back from holidays won't be happy 'bout this."

He answers. Well, I guess lots of people must be very hungry then! Ooh, I wonder if we can go hunting, like how me and Dad sometimes went! We enter the canteen, I quickly look around, excited to be inside, I've never seen the actual inside. The stoves are still warm, and it's still fully stocked, a few foods missing from today, but there is plenty to go around!

"Hell, we could live off of all this!"

Carlos exclaims, walking around inside the canteen and examining the fridges and freezers and evening finding what looked like hundreds of noodle and pasta containers, but in reality was only around 40, still a lot, which were next to the stoves in a cupboard.

"Hey, don't get ahead of yourself, before you know it there won't be anything left."

Hunter says, taking some drinks out of the fridge before turning to me and walking over before handing me a juice box. I smiled happily and grabbed it from his hand, trying to avoid touching the dried blood around his hand.

"Thank you!"

He nods and gives a smile back before turning around and walking to Carlos, handing him a sugar-free Coke since that's all they had here which wasn't juice, water, or milk, guess they're too cool for 'kiddy' drinks. I think Carlos would enjoy a nice cold drink now, and so would I!

I grab the plastic straw and stab it in before drinking. It felt nice to just relax and enjoy myself, it brings back memories from before even though it hasn't been so long, but my whole world has basically just... flipped.

"Oh shit-"

Carlos says out loud, sounding distressed, putting his drink on the counter.

"About that kid, Daniel, have you seen him? Roughly Violet's height, brown scruffy hair, pretty much been bathing in blood."

"Oh, that dude? He'd be better off, honestly. He is just going to dead meat or another reason why we'd get absolutely demolished by zombies."

Hunter answers brutally, not even a second thought behind that tone of voice. I guess not everyone is as friendly and sympathetic as I thought, especially him since he saved us from a zombie and seems like a friend to Carlos, but I still don't 100% trust him yet, we only just met this guy, he could stab a knife through our backs!

"That kid is definitely annoying, but do we really gotta leave him off the hook like that?"

Carlos asks, seemingly nerved by what Hunter said.

I had to admit, even though Hunter said that, I gotta respect him for it. 

"Yeah, he'll come finding us if he's in trouble."

Hunter responded, placing an abundance of packets of noodles on the counter. Looked like someone was about to cook a feast!

"Carlos, can I go outside?"

I ask, gently tugging his arm to bring his attention to me.

"No, you know how it is out there. I don't want what happened earlier today to happen again."

He answered.

I huffed before walking away and climbing up onto the counter, looking out through the window. The sky was grey, but not just grey, the clouds looked angry, and I could hear the growls and rumbles from outside. I remember when Loona would always hide behind the couch when there was rain or a storm.

I jump down from the counter, landing on my feet with ease.

I hear a loud threatening bang and the sound of glass shattering. My eyes widened in alert and I crouched down, seeing Carlos and Hunter do the same, hiding against the counters

Hunter yanks his bat, holding it as he sits crouched beside the door, peeking outside through the window on the door, but it is no use since it's a blurred window, only being able to see the bare minimum and making everything look pixilated.

I hear dragged footsteps coming from outside in the cafeteria. Another sound of glass shattering causes me to gasp in surprise, and I quickly cover my mouth, hoping that whoever or whatever is out there doesn't hear me.

More footsteps begin to pile in and my anxiety begins to grow and rain starts to pour outside. I peek out and see at least five zombies roaming around cluelessly, bumping into the chairs, and one of them muttering something as they stare up at the roof.

I look to Carlos and Hunter hopelessly, not knowing what to do or what their plan is- if they even have one.

Outside I hear the sky rumbling in anger as the rain heavily shoots down, and lightning starts to flicker, cold air blowing in through the open shattered windows.

Hunter picks up a packet from the counter and throws it into the small crowd of zombies, quickly bringing their attention to it as it hits the ground. I peek up again, looking at the zombies. 

I could still recognize two of them, Charlotte's Mum and our neighbor. I only know Charlotte's Mum since I walked past her after school, she's the only one who decided to wear a bright pink crop top and jeans.

They eventually lost interest in the packet and continued to walk around slowly. I look back to Carlos but realize he's gone, and so is Hunter! 

I look back outside and see both Carlos and Hunter under a table in the middle of all the zombies. How in the world did they get there unnoticed, and especially by me?!