They were only one or two meters away from the heavy, rusted metal of the back door, the threshold between this nightmare and the cold, sane world outside, when the air was sliced open. They stopped dead in their tracks, the soles of their sneakers screeching against the linoleum. It wasn't just a sound; it was a physical force. A loud, wet groan that started deep in a human chest and tore upward, ending in a scream that sounded like a saw blade hitting a bone.
It was a sound that didn't belong to a living throat. It had a sort of rattle to it, a gurgle of fluid and air that suggested the person's lungs were struggling against something thick and suffocating. A paralyzing shiver raced down Leo's spine, making his skin feel like ice and causing his heart rate to spike up.
Leo whipped his head around, his neck clicking with the sudden movement. He was met with the most terrifying sight he had ever seen; A vision of human ruin that his brain struggled to categorize.
A student stared back at him. It was someone he vaguely recognized from the hallways, maybe a year younger, but the boy's humanity had been stripped away like old paint. His ears were gone, crudely severed or perhaps torn away in a fit of mania, and the wounds were perpetually oozing a dark, viscous blood that stained his school uniform into a muddy crimson. His clothes were shredded, hanging in tatters around a large, jagged gash that ran through the side of his stomach, exposing his mutilated and discoloured flesh and underneath which, something appeared to be pulsing.
But it was the face that stopped Leo's heart. It was severely disfigured. It was ccovered with gashes and shards of glass imbedded into the skin, making his features unrecognisable. His face was so badly damaged that it almost looked like it was split vertically. Bits of loose flesh hung off his jaw like wet rags, and everywhere Leo looked, the student was leaking; blood, bile, and a clear, thin fluid that smelled faintly of ammonia.
Leo didn't stop to think. He couldn't afford to. The "smart" part of his brain shut down, replaced by a primal, screaming survival instinct. He didn't register the horrifying nature of the situation or stop to scream for help. He simply turned his back on the monstrous thing and ran.
The second his foot hit the floor, the guttural scream erupted behind him. It was closer now. He could hear the heavy, slapping sound of bare feet hitting the tiles in a frantic rhythm. He was vaguely aware of the heavy breathing of the people behind him, presumably Jay and Krystian, their footsteps echoing his own in a desperate, three-man sprint for survival.
Leo's eyes were laser-focused on the exit door. The light through the small, reinforced glass pane looked like the eye of God. His only instinct was to reach it, to burst through and never look back at this cursed building. But life, as he had learned through years of being the "weird" kid in the corner, always has an obstacle ready to block the path to success.
In Leo's case, the obstacle was a wave of death.
The exit doors didn't lead to freedom; they burst inward with the force of a tidal wave. A horde of "student-like" creatures spilled into the hallway, a chaotic mass of limbs and distorted faces. They were all different in their mannerisms. Some limped with shattered ankles, others crawled with spider-like speed and some simply stood vibrating with a terrifying, silent intensity. All of them were equally horrific, their veins pulsing with a dark liquid and their skin taking on that grey, calcified sheen Leo had begun to fear.
Leo couldn't even focus on their individual appearances; the sheer number of them was the true nightmare. It was a sea of gray skin and bloodshot eyes.
Suddenly, leaving the school was no longer an option. The path was swallowed.
Leo didn't hesitate for a second. His mind re-routed his escape path in a millisecond. He knew the first student was still closing in from behind, and now the horde was scattering in every direction. Most of them were limping, rushing, and snarling toward the three of them. Leo didn't know where he needed to go. Everything Leo had planned was went under water and his mind was swallowed by the sea of creatures coming towards him.
He let his legs take over. He trusted the adrenaline that was currently scorching his veins. There wasn't any room nearby that wasn't a potential trap, so he veered toward the only open path: the stairs.
He hit the first step and flew. He ran up those stairs faster than he had ever done in his life, his lungs burning with the intake of cold, dusty air. The fear acted like a drug, masking the ache in his legs and the pounding in his temples. He looped around the landing and charged toward the next floor, his hand skimming the cold metal railing for balance. Twice, his sneakers lost traction on a patch of something wet and he almost slipped, his heart leaping into his throat as he barely steadied himself.
Just as he reached the landing for the second floor, the world threw another curveball. He turned right, intending to bolt down the long corridor, but skidded to a halt. A girl was stumbling out of a classroom, her pigtails matted with gore, her eyes wide and vacant. She wasn't just bleeding; she was covered in it.
Leo spun on his heel and sprinted in the opposite direction. His legs were finally beginning to fail him; the "high" of the adrenaline was crashing into a wall of pure physical exhaustion. His breath was coming in ragged, shallow gulps that felt like swallowing glass and his heart felt like it was going a million miles per hour
Then, the true terror hit him. The hallway was too quiet.
He couldn't hear the heavy thud of Jay's shoes or Krystian's frantic breathing anymore. He stopped, his chest heaving, and turned around to check the landing behind him. His heart hammered against his ribs like a trapped bird.
He saw Krystian first. The boy had just reached the second-floor landing, his face pale with exertion. But before Leo could call out, a pair of pale, grey-streaked hands reached out from the darkness of an open classroom. With a sickening, effortless strength, Krystian was yanked backward. He didn't even have time to scream before he was dragged into the shadows.
Leo's momentum carried him forward, his brain was screaming to stop, to help or do something. But he was moving too fast. He didn't stop or bolt back to the stairs. Suddenly, he tripped over a water bottle that was lying on the floor. He fell face first onto the hard floor. Leo felt a pang of pain and felt something hot run down his face.
Just as he was getting up from the floor, He was dragged into a classroom by a pair of hands.