Time seemed to freeze as the creature darted towards me, blood and flesh clinging to its mouth. It's dark nails mere inches from my face.

"Look out!" Dami's warning was enough to break me out of whatever stupor I was and quickly swatted its hands away with the handle of my makeshift weapon. Dodging its attacks I slashed my knife across its vital organs. Eyes, lungs, heart.

The others formed a circle around the creature, taking turns to bash its head in between my jabs as I pushed it towards them. Round and round it went until after a total of five rounds it finally collapsed. Its head is crushed and oozing out black blood.

The creature looked to be a woman in her 40s. Which could mean that she's either one of Vigil's staff or teachers or someone from outside of Vigil. Surprising, considering our top-notch defense systems.

We made our way to the boy who the zombie was eating as if it was dinner. I took a sharp intake of breath. His face skull was split open, contents inside clearly visible. I felt something rise in my throat and closed my eyes. Several of the juniors gagged and Sana was dry heaving. Like us, she too had an empty stomach. The boy was unrecognizable. I quickly searched his pockets for his phone or wallet, doing my best to not look at his torn open stomach and skull. I felt a cold metal, the size of a phone from his left pocket and pulled it out. The screen was completely destroyed. I pressed the power button to turn it on and the screen came alive with colours.

Password it said. A retinal scan was out of the picture, but I hoped against hope as I grabbed his index finger and placed it on the phone, that he had set up a fingerprint password. And viola it opened into his homescreen. It was a picture of the clear blue sky. I opened up the Vigil forums and checked his official ID.

Dex Leblanc. A 1st year at Vigil.

Dami peered in to check from behind my shoulder.

"He's from the Wraith Squadron, isn't he? What's he doing all the way here?" she asked.

"I don't think he can answer that anymore. We'll check with his squad mates later."

Dami nodded.

"Hey Does anyone have a white handkerchief?" Atlan asked.

Dami nodded and pulled out a white handkerchief with black polka dots.

"Um..." I looked at Atlan and she shrugged. "Will do."

I caught Dami's eyes and she made an expression as if to say what's wrong. I pointed to Atlan who covered the boy's face with the polka-dotted handkerchief.

Dami's mouth formed an Oh as she finally realized.

We looked at each other, our expressions grime and quickly fell back in line. This time Dami and I took up the rear.

We silently made our way to the Hydra squadron. Carefully eliminating the zombies we encountered, we reached the entrance of the Hydra. I sensed movement behind me but before I could turn around and shout, a pair of hands covered my mouth. I swung my weapon forward, about to jab them with the handle.

"Easy there Val." At the sound of his voice, I relaxed. Only Ian could pull such stupid pranks. Rolling my eyes, I bit his palm, covering my mouth.

"Ouch. Could you not?" Ian says, violently jerking his hands away from my face and wiping down his palms, on his cargo pants. "Could you not," I say pointing to my mouth.

Dami who had caught on to his prank, made eye contact with Atlan in the front and they signalled the squad to halt. "Why are you here alone?" I asked, glancing around the corners to catch sight of the rest of his squad.

"Afraid I am the only one who made it alive guys." He says as his lips curl into a frown and his eyes start to water. The cadets behind me gasped. But I had caught the slight quiver of his lips as they struggled to maintain a frown. He deserved to be in the cinemas. Wasted talent right here.

I kicked his shin. Ian bounces back, holding the leg in pain. Once again exaggerates the pain. This time Dami ready's her baseball bat.

"Okay okay. I was kidding. My squad is getting ready to exit through the back entrance, The front is filled with those creatures and the first-floor staircase towards the entrance has collapsed. I came to warn you as soon as I saw you guys."

Ten minutes later we were out again, this time with half of the Hydra Squadron by our side. There were more girls from our block than the boys in Hydra. We girls weren't a part of a completely different squadron. We just had separate living quarters. Two girls from our current squad were a part of Hydra. The rest were part of different squadrons. They might be itching to join their squadrons, but that had to wait. We first had to gather the weapons.

But we had barely walked a few hundred meters when the girl in front of me whispered "Can we make a stop for the restroom?"

"Let's take a break, shall we? My stomach is bothering me. I might throw up from not eating anything." Her buddy added in.

I glanced down at my own stomach. As if on cue it emitted a growl. Dami and Ian barely held their laughter. Maybe we should take a break, have some food and freshen up. Some of the cadets were in their PJ's having not got enough time or peace of mind to change.

The closest place to take a break would be the Pharmacy. Just two hundred meters ahead. I pulled out my phone to check the time. It's 3 pm.

"Let's rest at the Pharmacy building everyone." Ian, the vice squadron leader of Hydra says. Since the Squadron leaders are all from the final year and are currently at the army central base, the ones left behind to lead the squadron would be the vice squadron leaders, chosen by the same head that chooses the squadron leaders.

We stealthily made our way to the Pharmacy, only meeting and eliminating a total of three zombies on the way. A mere hundred meters away, we hear an explosion. Turning towards the sound, I see black smoke emerging from a distance.

"Oh my god" Someone whispered.

"What the hell happened?" Dami shouts.

"Isn't that our Academies wall?" I wonder out loud. "Someone destroyed it. But why?"

"Do you think it's the special forces? Are they here to get us out?" Atlan says.

Or it could be someone trying to run us down with more zombies.

But I don't say that aloud. We had enough to worry about.

"But why would special forces break the walls and attract so much attention?" Ian says. I usually wonder what our Head was high on to appoint Ian as a Vice Squadron Leader but at times like this, I feel as if the Head has the ability to look through a person's soul. Here I was impressed by the prankster.

"Maybe they want to draw all zombies to a single place and eliminate them all together? Maybe they are the Valdian army infantry soldiers. Not the special forces?" Sana says as her mouth turns up into a smile. Maybe she was happy we were being rescued.

She wasn't wrong but she wasn't right either. Besides no one would destroy the wall just as a source to attract zombies. Imagine destroying the door of your house — the one thing that is protecting you from the zombies.

"Should we check it out? It's not too far."

I shake my head. I don't think it would be a good idea.

"It's gonna get dark soon. We can't be sure of who is behind the explosion. What we know is that with a gaping hole in the wall, we'll have more zombies incoming." I say as I make eye contact with Ian.

He nods his head in agreement.

"Let's set up base at the Pharmacy for now. Rest up, eat and afterwards we can decide to go check out the explosion." Ian suggests.

The others look at each other and follow Ian as he takes the lead with his combat buddy. After a few minutes, we finally reached the Pharmacy. The magnificent oak double doors were strewn open and had blood all over the handles.

"Spread out throughout the perimeter. Look for signs of forced entrances and eliminate any zombies you find." Ian commanded as he gripped the large knife in his hand tighter. "We still have a network. Set your phones on silent and remain in a conference call with me at all times."

We quickly spread out and circled around the perimeter. Dami and I headed towards the west side. I We quickly scanned for any holes in the wall or broken down windows. The west side windows were all grilled and none of the metal had been bent or removed. Nothing to worry about here. Dami who was observing the surrounding area gave an all clear sign to me.

"West side. Clear." I press the unmute button on the call and speak.

"South. All clear."

After a couple of more minutes, we got an all clear from all teams and decided to head inside. "I'll go first," I say as I quietly ready my weapon and head inside with Dami behind me. Pointing my makeshift weapon to the front I step sideways with my back against the wall and head over to the counter. I signal to Ian and his partner to block the left side of the counter while we block the right. We slowly approach the counter and—

"Help me please!" A boy shot up from behind the counter, covered in red and black blood. He looked to be in his teens, with messy brown hair and yellow eyes. I blinked. Black eyes. Was I starting to hallucinate?

But the bigger question was what was a boy in his teens doing at Vigil?

"Who are you and how did you get here?" I called out.

"I- I am Noel. My father is a professor here. Samuel Bard. I am his son and we live at the Vigil officer's quarters." The boy— Noel, was fidgeting with the sleeves of his long shirt, trying to pull it more as if he were cold or afraid. "I -We got attacked by those creatures and I got sepa— "

"Hands in the air where we can see them," Ian shouted.

The boy startled, immediately put his arms in the air. "I am u-unarmed." He sniffled. I squinted my eyes. The boy startled, immediately put his arms in the air. "I am u-unarmed." He sniffled. I squinted my eyes. Peaking out of his long sleeves where his hands should have been was a stump of skin covered with bloodied bandages.