The yard was chaotic. There were still so many people there, shoving past each other and trying to force their way out. Asa gripped the handle of the rake harder and dove into the fray.

He caught one of those people under the chin when he came too close, knocking him over. Asa refused to feel bad as he continued on.

He didn't even know what he was doing.

Asa body slammed one of the people down before she could grab a kid who'd tripped. The boy ran away and disappeared in the crowd.

He was never a particularly athletic person. Why was he here?

There was a woman, sitting frozen on the ground. A man stood above her, reaching out for her.

He was running, faster than he'd probably run before. He held out the pit rake like a battering ram that he ran into the man's chest, knocking him down. "Go! Get out of here!" he yelled over his shoulder. He knocked the man over again as he began to get up.

He could recognize the man, he realized suddenly. Mr. Michaels always ran into every concert and meeting a few minutes late, but he was always so frustratingly nice and apologetic to everyone that they couldn't feel bad about it.

But there was no sheepish smile on his face, no joke spilling from his lips. Instead, he was pale, veins protruding from his skin. There was a chunk of flesh gone from his neck, blood lazily flowing.

He felt someone grab his arm. It was the woman—Mrs. Michaels, he could see now, her eyes wide and frightened. There was blood sprayed across the front of her shirt and covering her hands. She dragged Asa away, something which seemed to be happening to him quite a bit today.

But there was someone missing in this scene. "Mrs. Michaels, wait!" he yelled over the din of the crowd. "Where's Julie?"

Mrs. Michaels faltered, but then continued, a determined set in her eyes. "I don't know! I'm looking for her."

Something in Asa's chest clenched, and the image of the girl, her golden hair soaked in blood, flashed through his mind. Julie was such a sweet kid, probably the nicest in the entire first grade. Of all people, she didn't deserve to get hurt. "I'll help you."

They ran through the main entrance of the school, and it wasn't much better there than outside. The bazaar had been held in the gymnasium, with several games and booths having been placed in the library. All in all, there was probably just as many people in the school as there were outside.

Except most of them weren't...normal anymore, Asa realized as he ducked an arm that reached out to grab at him.

"In here!" he yelled out to Mrs. Michaels as he dodged his way to the grade one classroom block. He knew it would be unlocked, because the custodians weren't going to clean it until after the barbecue was over.

He threw open the door and ran in. The door slammed as Mrs. Michaels ran in after him.

He set his rake against the wall, his heart pounding. The people smashed into the door, repeatedly, their groans deafeningly loud. But the door didn't open.

"We can't just run around in here. We'll just die." As if Asa could say anything, when he'd been running around this whole time with no plan.

He grabbed a whiteboard marker and started to scribble words on the board. "There're a lot of rooms still open, because they thought it would be a bother to clean them when everyone was here? They should have locked all the rooms on the far side of the school, so we don't need to check those. But we should check places she went a lot to first, maybe? Like, she went to Miriam's class for drama every other day. So," he closed the marker and tapped the board with it. "We should check these places first. And, uh—" Asa set down the marker and looked back at Mrs. Michaels. "You probably need a weapon."

He didn't particularly want to hurt these people, especially since he knew most of them. But he had a feeling that it wasn't really something they could avoid, when those people didn't hesitate at all when attacking others.

Thankfully, Mrs. Michaels nodded, a serious expression on her face. Then she headed for the shelves, rifling through them. She started to speak, her words quiet and measured. "Those...people. I don't think they're really human anymore."

There was something about the way she said it, the blankness, the certainty, that chilled Asa to his core. But he tried to keep his voice even as he began searching the room as well. "Why do you think that?"

"You saw Justin, right? The wound on his neck. One of them bit him. And I was trying to help." When Asa looked over at her, she was staring at her hand, the blood dry and dark on her skin. "I wasn't prepared, and even if I was, I might not have been able to save him anyway. And he died. I know he did. His heart stopped, and he wasn't breathing anymore. He was dead."

Mrs. Michaels let out a shaky breath and abruptly turned, walking to the Asa's desk and rifling through it. "Then he got up. But it wasn't him anymore. It's like he's died, but his body kept moving."

As a paramedic, Mrs. Michaels was probably someone Asa could trust to know to know if someone was dead or not. But still... "It doesn't make any sense."

"I know it doesn't. But it's the only explanation I have." Mrs. Michaels turned to him then, her gaze so serious that Asa knew she wholly believed what she said. "And if it lets me defend myself and still sleep peacefully tonight, then I'll keep it."

Asa didn't think he'd sleep peacefully regardless, but he nodded. "Fair enough."

They continued to look around, coming up with nothing time and time again. First grade classrooms weren't the greatest places to find weapons. Then Asa remembered something.

He ran to the next classroom, which was separated from the other only by a simple divider. There, above the blackboard, was a flag. The grade one classes had worked together to design it, and it was rotating between classes every month.

Not that that was important at the moment. Asa yanked the flagpole from the wall and, as Mrs. Michaels turned the corner with a curious expression on her face, removed the flag.

"Here." He held the pole out to her. "It's probably not the best thing ever, but it's better than nothing." It did have a rather pointy tip that he was sure could effectively, though.

Mrs. Michaels smiled tightly as she took the pole. "Thank you. We should get moving, then."

Right.

They went back to the door, Asa picking up and clinging to his rake in a white-knuckled grip.

"You'd have better reach, and it might be easier to push them back with the rake. So I'll open the door, you keep them back."

Asa nodded, pulling his rake closer to him as they moved closer to the door.

Mrs. Michaels put her hand on the handle.

Asa moved closer to the opening of the door.

Mrs. Michaels turned the handle.

His grip on the rake tightened.

The door opened, barely, just enough that they could slip through.

Asa reacted as quickly as he could, shoving the flat part of the pit rake into the nearest person's chest, shoving the crowd back as he made his way out of the room.

"Go straight, the closest room on the right," he called out over his shoulder. Mrs. Michaels didn't reply, but she continued next to him until they made it to the room.

There was no one there.

They made it to the next room.

There was no one there.

Next room.

There was no one there.

In the eighth grade classroom, there was someone there. A woman, a piece of flesh missing from her arm. Blood covered her legs.

There was a small figure on the ground, golden hair splayed in a puddle of vibrant red.

Mrs. Michaels was moving before Asa even processed the scene. With a terrible scream, she sent the sharp point of the flagpole through the woman's back.

The woman didn't so much as scream. She turned, ever so slowly, and looked back at them with her bloodshot eyes on her blood covered face. Then she snarled, reaching out towards them.

Mrs. Michaels hit her again, in the head. And again, and again, and again.

The woman fell to the ground and stilled.

The clock ticked.

They breathed, one more pained than the others.

"Julie?" Mrs. Michaels fell to her knees, reaching out to the girl who lied on the floor.

The girl didn't reply, her breaths wet and shallow.

"Julie, sweetie." Her voice was high and soft as she stroked the girl's hair gently. "I'm so sorry. I was too slow. I love you, I'm sorry..."

And so it continued, until the girl took one last, shuddering breath. She stared sightlessly up at the ceiling.

Mrs. Michaels let out a single sob as she let her hand drop away. There was a fresh layer of blood on her hand.

Asa looked away. He didn't say anything. He didn't know what to say.

And they were silent.

Then Julie screamed, a guttural noise. Her body tensed, her small hands clenching and unclenching. Veins bulged in her neck, in her hands. When she turned her head towards them, her eyes were bloodshot.

Asa dragged Mrs. Michaels away before the creature could touch her. Mrs. Michaels kept staring at the creature, her eyes wide.

"We need to go," he said urgently, pulling her away. She kept staring as the creature tried to stagger up, too much gone from its legs to do so properly.

He ran out from a different door. The hall was surprisingly empty, compared to where he'd been before, probably because he was getting further away from the areas where people had been.

And as he paused and tried to think of where to go next, a small figure barreled into him. Asa automatically reached out and caught them before they could run off.

He struggled for a moment to keep hold of the kid, who was kicking and screaming like Asa was an ax murderer. Mrs. Michaels wasn't much help, and he didn't really expect her to be.

Then he saw the boy's face, eyes wide in terror. He remembered seeing that same face in the office yesterday, having apparently got into some kind of fight that ended with the other kid having a nasty shiner. And he was one half of the only pair of twins in their school, which was a bit memorable.

He tried his best to kneel down and look the boyin the eye. "Briar Dean?"