An HvZ (perceivably) Short
Prerequisites: Don’t know what HvZ is? Visit: www.humansvszombies.org
In the days that followed that unbelievable week, all grade levels joined together from a common interest and recounted their misadventures during that 5-day fallout of civil society among the students and faculty at Father Duenas Memorial High School. No one was spared; many did not wish it. These are their stories.
Name: Carl Maine
Level: Senior
Nothing could have prepared me for something like this! Of course I attended all of the briefings and every instructional class the Mods(moderators) held after school, but even with the research and strategy suggestions that were found online and passed around when the majority was still alive, nothing came close to describing that unmistakable terror feeling of running down an enclosed hallway with two on your tail and only one bullet left. But I digress, the real story lies in the outbreak. Oh how ill-prepared the underclassmen were. I remember that first day, they were dropping like flies. I knew the O.Z. (Original Zombie) had his work cut out for him seeing as the entire school was participating, but I didn’t realize how easy it was to fall into the army of undead. I swear my gang and I nearly pissed our pants after we saw the kill count for that day.
It was 6am, Monday morning. Even with the mandatory cease-fire order on the first morning of the game, my team had voted on getting there early to check in, take stock on weapons, and settle down before the excitement began. As you can tell we took the game very seriously because of the prize waiting for us at the end and so we could finally put to use that Black-Ops training we mimicked perfectly from the new Rainbow Six game. The nerds within us reveled without inhibition. Considering the little time we had to prepare before hand, my team was definitely one to watch out for; we resembled the clichéd banding together of various specializations. We had the Heavy, armed with our recently modified Nerf Gatling Gun and Warlock Axe, the Ninja, armed with nothing but a belt of socks and two Thunder Fury swords, the Commando, armed with a Rapid Fire and Stampede with enough ammo to supply an armada of Freshmen, the Scout, armed with a sock belt and four Mavericks, the Soldier, armed with 2 Mavericks and 2 Recons strapped to his side, the Tech, armed with a backpack full of Transforming Assault Blasters and served as our intelligence intercept throughout the game, and me, the Sniper, armed with the LongShot, the Big Bad Bow, and 2 Furys for when I want to get dirty. Our 7-man team was named the Enders as in we believed with every fiber of our being that we would live to the end of this game; how naive. The Monday morning assembly started like any other, with the exception of the student body being heavily armed with every form of foam-dart gun imaginable. After the principal made his peace, he handed the microphone off to the Lead Moderator of the game, the man who brought this onslaught of chaos upon this school and was highly praised for it. He introduced the game, final instructions, brief rules, and the underlying plot. Apparently some stupid person found this stupid biohazard container and stupidly decided to open it; frankly, he had it coming. Now he is all zombified and looking to take his stupid mistakes out on the rest of us, what a jerk! Now as the Lead Mod closed out his speech, I noticed he put on an evil smile that I didn’t find comforting, “Once you exit the gym, the game has begun and you can now be tagged, I thought we could make it a little more interesting…Will the following people please come forward: from the Senior class, Allen Hewer and Angelo Manubay, from the Junior class, Jericho Tobias and Michael Tan, from the Sophomore class, Patrick McDonald and Clinton Gloton, and from the Freshmen class, Aaron Smith and Vincent Stevens.” As the chosen few came up to center stage he continued, “While I cannot tell you the identity of the O.Z. I can make you very paranoid. The O.Z. is among these eight students in front of me and they will have a head start back to class.” I sat in amazement. Why would he pull a stunt like that? I’m not paranoid, I’m using this to my advantage. I know the two seniors well, they’d tell me if they were O.Z., which brings the number down to six and better odds for keeping an eye on them. As the whole school watched the eight walk out of the gym with clever smiles on their faces we all felt like pulling out our guns and doing away with all of them right now. But alas, all we could do was wait. Once the last one pulled around the corner and was out of sight, the principal called order and routinely released us by class, Seniors first as usual. All the seniors went running out the door trying to keep an eye on the eight who were blacklisted as possible zombie, but when we cleared the main entrance, no one was there. Now I was paranoid. The Enders and I were lucky to have banded together because at a game like this and stakes like these, unity was the first to go. It seemed like only two other teams were formed among the seniors with 3 or 4 members each. Our chances of survival were looking good at the moment, then we reached the Cafeteria building.
In anticipation of our inevitable splitting up to our different homerooms, the Enders devised a system that ensured that everyone was safe at all times. After comparing and plotting all our schedules together we discovered that each of us had at least one other Ender in the same class for the first five periods, the last two, however, was not as simple. The last two periods were electives, the group either had an Ender in the same class or the class next door, everyone except me. I was alone in my seventh period, in a classroom away from the others. Luckily, there was a safe zone within a reasonable distance. The Enders were confident that my combat skills could get me to the safe zone which would serve as our after-school rendezvous point. So there we were, seven students moving slow and steady in a tight formation down the hallway parallel to the West wing looking out for someone trying to kill us. The hallways were empty of all life, which sent chills up my spine and adrenaline shooting through every nerve. Guns raised, we walked together as quickly as we could before the stampede of students came and boxed us in. Down the West wing hallway it was the Heavy and me who were the first to break formation, at the end of the hallway all was clear and we broke away; I couldn’t help but think this may be the last time I see my friends alive, and then I laughed heartily. The game was getting more real each second. Once 1st Period ended, S.O.P. had the Heavy and me wait to be the last ones to exit the room and make our way to the between-class rendezvous point where we regroup and caravan to our next classes. When we got there the other Enders were waiting for us and I was glad to see them all alive still, so far none of us had to fire a single shot, yet. For 2nd period, Scout and I were at the furthest classroom at the North Wing, we were on our own until the Enders regrouped at the second rendezvous point. As we entered the classroom we couldn’t believe it, already five Seniors had turned. The rules state that weapons must be concealed during class which was acceptable because classrooms were safe zones, so I wasn’t afraid to walk up to the zombified seniors and ask them how and, more importantly, who tagged them. “Sorry Carl, no can do, you still have a pulse. You are the enemy.” With that they continued their silent whispering to each other. I took a seat near Scout and told him what had happened. “Damnit, I knew this was going to happen. As soon as they turn they forget all allegiances with us and focus only on their team. This is going to be a very interesting game.”
I went through 2nd and 3rd periods on cruise control because after 3rd period came the fun part, Break, 45 minutes of all classrooms becoming locked out to students who were then forced outside to their dooms. I couldn’t wait to see how many people would get tagged in 45 minutes. Of course it would also give the Enders a chance to evaluate how effective the Zombie Horde was at hunting Humans but we’ll leave the statistics to Tech. Once 3rd period ended, the Enders just stared at each other and smiled all thinking the same thing, “Game On!” Following S.O.P., we exited the classroom 2nd only to the teacher and made our way to the Break period rendezvous point. I was lucky to have Soldier, Commando, and Tech in my 3rd period so getting there would be a cake walk. That’s when hell broke loose. 6 sophomores were walking toward the cramped hallway that funnelled everyone to the Cafeteria, when suddenly a loud scream could be heard echoing and the sophomores began firing down the hallway. With the amount of yelling I could tell there were a lot of them so we had to act quickly. I didn’t want to get into it without the full force of the Enders behind me so I looked for exits. Tech must have been on the same brainwave as me because he pointed toward the front entrance of the school at the south end of the Quad and we made a run for it. Soldier led the way while Commando covered our 6 with Tech and me in the middle. In moments we were circling around back to the Cafeteria. I stopped at one of the locked side gates of the Quad and looked for survivors. Much to my surprise, I saw 2 sophomores still alive in a slew of about 15 stunned zombies. They were over-dramatically mourning over the deaths of their comrades who were lying on their backs in the grass. The Four of us chuckled, but I was still amazed at the 2 who had survived an attack that was right out of a Zombie horror flick. The way those zombies traveled together and stampeded was surreal; I was having the time of my life!
Following S.O.P., we were to have a different Break rendezvous point everyday, today was behind the West Wing Building. Behind the West Wing was both private and open and perfect because no one was allowed back there but of course as Seniors we usually tend to know what rules we must follow and which ones we can skirt around. Once there we found Scout, Ninja, and Heavy waiting for us already and we brought them up to speed of the situation. “This isn’t good. This means the zombies can actually think,” Ninja said. We busted out laughing at this, a little too much for comfort. A few minutes passed and we were settled down each of us going through our own ammo and weapons making sure they are fine and within reach. None of us wanted to sit down because the paranoia of the game was really setting in now, especially after what we experienced in the Quad. I decided to get them talking about strategy again. “The plan is simple, never split up, that’s how everyone ends up dead in the zombie films, they split up, stretch their resources and man-power so they become overpowered and turn on their teammates,” Commando said. “I get that, but we have to account for ‘what if’s: What if we do have to, What if it is our last resort, what are we going to do then?” said Tech. I then jumped in, “I agree with him, we don’t want to but we should be prepared, just in case.” “Since we already have our hiding spots around campus coded all we need to do is decide on a location quickly among us and then when we have to split up we all work toward regrouping at that location,” Soldier said. “What happens if we are rushed and we cannot decide on a location to meet? I think since last time we discussed leaders no one could agree we should take turns being leader, only problem is that two people will be left out. Anyone okay with not having a day to lead the group?” I said. Scout and Soldier acknowledged. “Perfect! So are we good then? The remaining 5 of us each take a turn leading through the week. Who starts today?” After a few tossings of a coin, Commando was made leader for the day or Alpha as we referred to him from then on. “Well, Alpha, what are we to do now?” I asked. “I think we’ve spent too much time here, we should keep moving,” he replied. We packed up and headed back south toward the safe zone nearest the Quad. Suddenly, screaming could be heard behind us and we spun around to be greeted by at least 5 zombies running at us. Commando and Ninja took care of them easily but we could hear some more screams in front and coming through one of the gaps between the West Wing buildings. They pushed us back into the parking lot away from campus and were coming at us from the left, right, and front. They gathered at all three sides and looked to have us pinned against the fence. The situation looked grim. “What’s the plan, Alpha?” Ninja said. “I think we’re going to have to split up, there’s about 30, we can’t take all of them at once.” said Alpha. “It’s a Hail Mary pass but I think we can split all of them up so we can take them on separately.” The Zombies started slowly moving in. “I got it! Heavy will lay some cover fire, Ninja and Soldier run left, Tech and I will run right, Snipe, Scout, and Heavy will charge at them and cut between that open gap between the building. We separate, try to stun or shake them and meet up at SafeZone-P, everyone got it?” There was no time to respond, some of the zombies started to charge at us as we spoke. Heavy jumped in front of the group and laid down some fire, enough to have them back up a few feet. Simultaneously, Heavy, Scout and I started forward clearing a path to the opening in the building, Soldier and Ninja booked it toward the north gym and Tech and Alpha headed for the front of the school. The zombies fell into an unorganized mess, splitting up among the confusion and going after members of the Enders. The rush from running from the Horde was exhilarating and exciting…and terrifying at the same time. I was not about to let them stop me from winning this but running through that enclosed gap between the buildings that would take me near the cafeteria left me with uncertainty and a new level of adrenaline because I had no idea if there was another Horde waiting for us at the other side or if I would ever see my other friends alive again. I wished them luck as I fired behind me down the opening and jumped into the next hallway. To our dismay my fears were confirmed, the next hallway presented us with a whole new Horde that were, fortunately, sitting about nonchalant enjoying their break. However, the moment they saw us running through the opening they jumped into zombie mode, jumping at the chance for another kill. That’s when the crowd cleared and our prayers were answered. On the opposite wall was the door to the cafeteria, a safe zone, it was about 4 yards away but there were so many of them. All three of us knew it was our only option. In a survival sprint we made it for the door, gunning down the closest zombies. Scout made it to the door first as Heavy and I covered him, he threw it open, jumped in and we followed; more like fell in because they were right on top of us. With zombie arms flailing to grab us and pull us back out, Scout shoved the door between them and us. After an impossible situation like that, it seemed we were safe for the moment. I hope the others made it.
To Be Continued…
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