Zane sees there is no one and nothing on the walkways, well, except for the corpses to his left. Maybe "corpses" is a strong word, they aren't really corpses; more like a mixture of organs. He looks to the kids in the class and tells them all to stay quiet. They walk in a line, desperately fighting off their own curiosity to look left. One of them does and pukes immediately, causing the rest to look back and see a glimpse of the organs.
They start retching. Barely able to hold in their breakfast. Zane looks back with panic on his face and nearly screams at them but remembers to be as quiet as possible. They all close their left eyes and move forward, looking away from their former friends. Some are crying, others are shocked. They reach a corner and see Zane stop. They stop as well and some start looking around in panic, wondering why he came to such an abrupt stop. Zane peeks around the corner and sees the beast. He reflexively pokes his head back. He looks for a little stone near him. Once he finds one, he picks it up and adjusts his grip. He throws the stone to the bushes far away. The monstrosity runs to the noise, giving them all a small gap to sneak past. Just like in the video games he used to play. "I can't believe that stupid trick actually worked out so well. I guess video games did take some inspiration from somewhere."
Suddenly, a girl screams. A normal reaction to seeing a monstrosity. The same girl who looked to the right earlier and puked. The beast turns around and sees the kids trying to sneak past. It starts running straight to the girl. Zane starts sprinting full speed to the next building and hides behind the wall. Three boys and two girls manage to follow him. The rest get torn apart behind them.
Frustrated, Zane keeps walking forward. From 17 down to 5 meat shields. At least these are fastest and the strongest ones. Their value is higher than all the dead combined right now. They should also be the smart one otherwise, they wouldn't have reacted like him at all. They continue to the office in a swift, tight-knit manner.. There are scattered human bits everywhere in the hallway. A few broken doors here and there. Signs of struggle. The walls are slightly cracked as if a huge amount of force hit small parts of the walls. It looks like a scene straight out of a zombie apocalypse movie.
Why are they headed to the office?
Well, simply because there is always a gun in the safe of a school in case a robbery happens, or the school needs something to protect themself. Zane just has to be lucky enough to find the key to the safe, and hope it's not a combination based lock. If it is combination based, or the key is missing...
They are doomed.
The five behind him seem to have gotten significantly more used to the scenes of blood they see everywhere. Zane sees some papers moving forward and backward in the office around a corner. That's where the principal's office is. Zane gestures with his hand that the rest of them should stay here. They nod their heads in acceptance.
Zane moves forward confidently. He is nearly frozen with fear but pushes through. He needs them to look to him as their savior after all. He can't wait till they reach that level of trust. Then he can just send them in and protect himself. Right now he doesn't know any of their specialties nor do they trust him enough, so the responsibility falls upon him. He leans slightly forward, peeling one eye into the office. He sees a leg first. Then a hand covered in blood. Then a gun on the floor. Then a body, sitting up against the window. "Miss Daney! The pretty teacher. Why is she covered in blood though? She seems to be in shock."
Zane enters the office then sees she's holding the gun. "Miss Daney?" He says in a calm voice. She looks up at him instinctively holding the gun pointed towards him. Zane lifts up his hands and in a panic, he speaks loudly: "Don't shoot! It's me, Zane. Remember, I'm in your English class. I sit at the back! IM NOT HERE TO HARM YOU!" She looks relieved, lowers the gun and stands up, hugging him with a sigh of relief. She starts speaking in a panic. "How are you alive? What was that thing? What d-"
Zane cuts her off, puts his finger on her mouth and says: "I don't know either. I have five other students with me. What happened to you? Why are you covered in blood?" She responds to this a little calmer than before: "That thing. Whatever it is, it came in here and started ripping apart the office staff. One of the staff gave me the key to the safe and said I should get the gun, so I ran here as quickly as I could. I got the gun just as it entered. The principal tried hitting it, but the monster just started tearing him apart. I shot the gun with my eyes closed as I felt the blood on my hand. The monster ran away with the principal in it's mouth. I don't know if I shot it or not. I sat down and after a while you came."
Zane makes the assumption that she had a panic attack or something similar. Doesn't matter to him, since he now has a gun. Better safety than any of the kids. "Can I please have the gun? I know how to shoot. Trust me." Zane asks, sticking out his hand. She hands it over to him hesitantly and sees the rest of the kids coming into the office. They all look clean, but their expressions have one singular emotion spread across all 5.
F E A R.
Miss Daney, on the other hand, has a panicked expression. Zane remains focused. He starts pacing around somewhat restlessly. Miss Daney takes notice of this and grabs his arm, and in a calming, mother-like voice: "What's troubling you Zane?"
He looks at them, switched the gun to safety, and rests it back in the holster he put on earlier. He speaks with a more commanding voice: "Okay, let's get things straight. That way we are all on the same page and we know where to go from this point. We are going to need a plan. Let's first clear our heads. Firstly, we can't refer to that thing as a monster or thing or whatever anymore; we are gonna need a name for that amalgamation of animals-"
Diane cuts him off: "How about just that? Amalgamation. We can't call it a griffin after all. It didn't seem to fit all the criteria." Zane looks confused at Diane. "Miss Daney-" "Call me Diane." Zane is a little taken aback by this. He continues.
"Okay, Diane, it didn't look like a griffin at all though. It looked more like a gorilla." She shakes her head. She doesn't agree with him. "No, it had a leapord's body with eagle wings as well." Zane's eyes widen in shock as he realizes.
It's not the same one they saw. There isn't just 1 Amalgamation.
And they are all different. Which means they all would realistically specialize in different areas. Some speed. Like the one Diane had seen. And others specialize in brute-strength like the one they saw.
Zane's shock is broken by a loud roar. A roar unlike anything he had ever heard before. "Okay, let's call them Amalgamations then. It sounds like the griffin is gonna be back soon. Everyone, be quiet for now. I'll take a look down the halls; the rest of you sit under the window sill. Don't be seen." Zane starts whispering to them near the end.
They sit down underneath the windowsill. Zane takes a look at the ammunition in the gun. "Seven shots left. I better be careful. I don't know when we'll get ammunition again. 1 Shot to it's head should be enough." He thinks to himself.
He aims the gun down the hallway. He sees the shadow of a limping beast. It seems to be four legged. "It must be the same one Diane shot."