Chapter 3 - A teacher in an apocalypse

                                                       Why did the world became apocalyptic? Well, zombies appeared and humanity's population decreased. 

There were 7 billion people living in the world, only 2.33 billion people survived. The rest died or became zombies.

Zombies are beings that are dead and no longer have 'consciousness', they lose their 'minds' and they feed themselves with 'human' meat and 'crystals'. 

How did this happen? Well, it's something strange. Before the apocalypse happened, the sun turned red. It's rays soon turned dusts that would seep into a human and that human dies. 

On the first cases, doctors and scientists didn't think that this was grave, for symptoms of those who had died were mild cold and overheat. 

But who would have thought that those who were brought to the morgue would suddenly open their eyes and began biting people. And just like that, the apocalypse started.

Dum.

Sid closed the book and placed it on his right. Ever since he had seen the humans kill a zombie in front of him, it gave him slight fear of being the target next.

He had thought that zombies are like him. But in the past few days, when he has interactions with them, they seem to not communicate. 

At first, he thought that humans are 'evil' for killing zombies. But after reading the Book, he realised it was for survival.

  "Kids, are you ready?" a female voice sounded from front. There was a lady who had books in her hands and kids that seated in the ground. 

"Yes!" The cheers of the kids were quiet, at a young age, their parents warned them to never shout or scream. 

 "Good. Good." The lady clapped her  hands as she took out a scroll from her behind. She then opened it and pasted it on the wall. She took out a tall stick from her left and pointed at the words.

  The lady then started to tell the kids how to pronounce the words and what it meant. Sid peeked at a small hole from the wall and listened. 

 The three humans were the first humans he saw, due to curiosity, he followed them from behind. Yes, he had felt fear that time. But his curiosity to learn more had made the fear vanish. 

     The humans were living separately, most of the 'ordinary' humans were taken to the base while the 'ability users' were allowed to go out and live for themselves. The young lady who poses as a teacher, was named  Aby. She is one of the "ability users" and her ranking was quite high, despite this, she disregard everything to become a teacher to teach kids how to speak and write. 

   She did this to make the kids learn and not be naive in an apocalypse. Specially that you can't trust anyone, everybody has their own motives and would even not flinch if they kill a fellow person.

 This was only the information Sid know and he really loved learning from this teacher. He no longer found some words difficult and his pronunciation have gotten better. 

  "Teacher Aby, may you tell us why zombies are sensitive to sound and why they eat human flesh?" A little boy about the age of four raised his hand and asked Aby. 

Aby cocked her eyebrow, she then answered, "Based on the reports made by the scientists, zombies' hearing mutated and made them sensitive to sound. Not only their hearing, but also their smelling. This was because they lose some of their senses, us humans have five to six senses, while they lose about two or three.  Because of the lost and the mutation, the zombies' remaining senses evolved." 

"Why do zombies eat human flesh?  Well, zombies could not eat human food. Plants and animals mutated and was uneddible to them. Their only food source is human meat, especially the smell given off by blood which aroused them. So we must be careful not to have wounds and be prepared at all times." Aby placed her hand on her tummy as she told the kids information. 

 "Oh." The little boy then looked down with a solemn face. He then raised his hand again and asked, "Why can't they eat the mutated plants and animals? Zombies were humans, so why won't they eat each other instead?" 

Aby then answered, "Because their flesh is rotten." 

"Oh, now I understood."  The little boy replied as he took out his pen and started to write. 

...

 Sid listened carefully. He rubbed his stomach and touched his face. The teacher really did spoke of the truth, his hearing and smell were exceptionally good. But what had confused him is about his appetite. He has not eaten anything since he woken up, was this strange? In truth, he has not felt hunger at all. 

Even when he saw the man when he faught a zombie and was wonded, he wasn't aroused at all.

He then turned his head to his left, he stared at the head of the zombie that he had carried along. 

It was stated in the book that zombies eat human flesh and crystals. 

He does not have any idea if the head would have the crystal fragments the man spoke of. Sid then decided to take a look at it. 

He raised his hands that formed into sharp nails, with no second thought, he dug the head open. 

Crack. 

Just like a watermelon the head cracked and blue colored blood came out. 

Sid couldn't help but gulp and his stomach then began to rumble. Without waiting, he then scooped a handful of blue blood in his hands and drank it. 

Slurp. 

His eyes widened in surprise. It was a tasty and refreshing drink. 

Gulp.

He had finished the blue blood and drank it all. After a second of pause, he saw something shining inside the head. 

It was dazzling. Sid knew that this was the crystal fragment. He then stabbed his hand into the skull and took out a scoop of crystal fragments. 

Munch. 

It's taste was like that of a sugar. It was really tasty and he had eaten all of the crystal fragments with no leftovers. His stomach then stopped rumbling and became fat. 

 He patted it and smiled. It was the first time he had eaten yet he felt like this was already the most delicious of what he had eaten.      He then layed his back at the wall, not noticing that the crystal fragments' had a unique aroma and had flew through the small hole. 

...

Aby was teaching when she suddenly sniffed the aroma. Her nostrils then expanded. 

"Mm~" A little girl couldn't help herself, sniffled the aroma and felt her tummy rumble. 

"Teacher! Teacher!" The little  boy stood up from his seat and began pulling Aby's shirt. 

 Just as Aby moved her gaze downward, the little boy then asked, "Teacher! What's that smell? Why does it smell so yummy? Did the uncles cook something? Can I have a sip?"  

Aby furrowed her eyebrows as she looked around the room. Indeed, the aroma smelt really good. But this was new, the aroma smelt like sugar and was spreading faster. Did some idiot break open a zombie head outside? 

 How could that person be so naive! It was dangerous to break open a zombie head outside!         The smell was specially strong near the class, they must evacuate immediately! 

"Kids, take your things and evacuate!" Aby spoke in a low tone full of panic, she couldn't scream, she must save the kids!

The kids heard her and quickly took their things and ran with their teacher. Because they were trained, the kids did not ask any unnecessary questions and just stayed quiet, using their energy in the running.