I scramble back away from my brother, the fear overriding all else. His eyes...oh God, his eyes. Andy's eyes stare at me. They glitter like jewels, but in them I see a deep darkness. His eyes always held laughter before, but now they hold something vile. Evil. It glows in his brilliant sea green eyes.

He spits and something bounces off my head. It lands in my lap and I look down. It is a piece of bloody cartilage. He is smiling at me. Blood covers the lower half of his face, making his eyes seem even more dramatic in the blood that paints his face. I shudder and push myself backwards. I have to get away. It is too much.

"Sssyyddnneeeyyyyy."

I turn to see Andy's friend, Mike, standing a foot away beside one of the chemistry tables, an arm held in his hands like a weapon. His face is covered in blood as well. More sounds of fighting reach me. I see people fighting over body parts lying on the floor. No, not people. Things. They are different from Andy and Steve. They look awful. Their faces are sunk in and the sounds coming from them are more animal-like in nature than the sounds a human would make. They are eating the flesh from the bodies of the people lying on the floor.

I can smell them. They smell of decay and death. What are they? What have they become?

"Syydnney," Andy whispers.

My head snaps back around. His voice is getting better, stronger.

"It is alright, Ssydneey." He leaps from the table in one graceful jump. My head cocks to the side. Andy is different from the others, even Mike. His movement is fast, graceful. The others are jerky and stiff, their movements slow. "Just drink, no eat."

He pulls me up and leads me to the table he'd occupied.

Amanda. She is staring up at me out of eyes that are full of pain. She is alive. Someone has been eating her. There are large gaps in her flesh. I try to pull away, but he pulls me closer and forces my head down toward the exposed flesh of her arms. I fight, try to break free, but then the smell invades my nostrils. My mouth waters. I can smell her blood, her flesh. It coats my mouth and all I want to do is to bite deep, to savor the taste of her warm flesh in my mouth, to sigh in pleasure as her warm blood slides down my throat. The hunger hit me fast and hard.

The smell coming from her is like the sweetest chocolate known. My stomach clenches in hunger. I hurt with the need to taste her, to eat until the pain goes away. She is just a body, a meal.

Her eyes stare at me in silent horror. She cannot move, but she is still in there, still my friend.

If I do not get away now, all will be lost.

A low snarl erupts from my mouth and I shove myself backwards, knocking my brother to the floor. I cannot do this, I will not. I am human. I am not like these things. I will not eat the flesh from the living.

Mike grabs my arm and his scent hits me hard. It is not nearly as sweet as Amanda's, but it is close. I clamp my mouth tight. I ache from hunger.

"So sweet," Mike slurs and buries his nose in my neck. I go completely still, aware of the danger I am in. He is like them. He has tasted human flesh. If I smell as good as Amanda, as him, it will be hard for him to resist taking a bite out of me.

"No, Mike," Andy snarls. He has gotten up out off the floor and approaches us. The look on his face is terrifying. "Let herr go."

"You tassttedd, wooodnntt let meee."

"I was ssaving Amanda forrr Sydney," Andy growls. He crouches low, ready to spring. "Let herrr go now!"

His teeth nip my throat and I panic. I grab the hand holding me and twist away from him. I shove him and he flies backward and hits the wall hard. At least fifteen feet. I threw him fifteen feet? Dear God, what am I?

"Shhh, Syd," Andy soothes. "Must drink to feel better. I saved herrr forrr you. Herrr blood sweet like honey. Drink, only drink." He pushes me toward the table where Amanda is lying.

"Noooooooooo!"

I turn and bolt for the door.

A hand catches my hair and pulls me to a halt. Without thinking, my fingers reach back and take hold of the hand. I pull and hear a rip and a pop, but I am free and flee the room. I do not stop until I reach the end of the hall. With horror, I realize the hand is still attached to my hair and yank it loose. The fingers are still moving, seeking. Revulsed, I hurl it down the hall.

No one comes after me and I am shocked. That does not mean I am safe. I am on the fourth floor of the school in the east wing. I need to make it to the ground floor and outside. My ears pick up sounds of scuffling up and down the halls. There are more of those things. They crave my flesh. I can smell my own sweetness. My blood, my flesh is different. I do not know why or how, but it is. I have to get by those things to make it to safety and they all want to taste me.

What are they? Where did they come from?

Images flood my mind, my head feels like it is going to split open as I fight to hold onto my sanity. The pain hits hard and fast and I stumble, falling as my mind succumbs to the truth of what I am.

What am I?

One word comes to mind, but I refuse to believe it. I can't be that.

Zombie.