Back to the present...

Jeff opened the door. Cil entered first, followed by Alex, holding an air rifle.

"Where did you get that... Gun?" Jeff questioned, but was not concerned. God knows a proper weapon would be helpful in these times.

"It's just an air rifle. But first, a teacher is waiting for us." Alex gave a short answer and released his grip from the gun handle.

Most students were surprised, but at the command of Alex, added with his intimidating looks, everyone settled down.

"All right juniors, listen up" Cil drew attention by clapping his hands.
"Miss Rubio, the teacher who brought us here, wants the girls to first follow Alex to a... a storage room on this floor where you'll meet her."

"And what about us?" A boy wearing round-frame glasses asked from the desk.

"Let me finish, goddamnit. Too many people moving around will cause problems. And once the girls reach the room, Alex will come back to fetch us and we can all go to the roof."

There were whispers of agreement from some kids, whereas some others refused to nod their heads, and some had yet to make up their minds.

Seeing the hesitation and doubtful looks from some students, Alex added, "We're not forcing you. Join us if you want to."

"Right, it's like Alex said. You're free to join us or leave us." Cil shrugged.

Alex who stood promptly near the door was now joined by the company of 9 girls. There were still 5 girls who either hadn't made up their minds or had decided to not join or stay in the classroom.

"Is that it? Let's leave." Alex started heading out after Cil but some shouted "Wait!" just then.

Hearing Jeff call out, Alex stopped.

Jeff spoke to the remaining girls.
"It should be better if you girls went along with Alex. I know him, and I don't think he's lying."

After that, even the remaining girls hurried along to follow Alex.

They reached the room pretty quickly and safely and Alex slowly opened the door and the girls started to enter one by one, and when everyone had entered, Alex quickly left and closed the door.

"Hello, children. I haven't taught anyone in your class, probably, but I'm a teacher so I'm responsible for your safety. We'll leave for the rooftop once the boys arrive, but before that, we have a task. I want you all to..."

***

"Now then, all of you, STRIP!" Cil shouted.

Alex who had returned to the classroom and the rest of the students looked at Cil with dumbfounded expressions.

"We need to check if you have been bitten." Alex explained to the students.

"What about you guys?" Mark questions Alex and Cil.

"You dare question the-"

Alex covered Cil's mouth and stopped his rambling.
"We were checked by our class before we came here."

"Alright then."
With a nod, Jeff started undressing and go himself checked.
Following his lead, all the boys had their checking completed with not a single one being bitten.
Alex meanwhile, stabbed the teacher- now a tied-up zombie, with a combat knife in the head. There was a soft cracking noise, spattered blood, and a short ghoulish scream. Finally, the zombie stopped moving.

The students formed two files and made their way to the roof with Alex leading them.

"Mark, let's go." George called out to Mark who was still packing up his bag.

"Yeah, go on ahead. I'll come in a bit."

Shrugging, George left with the rest of the class.

***

In less than half an hour, the entire class of 10-F made their up to the roof without any trouble along with Miss Rubio. When they reached the roof, a new teacher they barely knew guided them to a different spot on the roof and Rubio left the roof again after taking back the air rifles.

The roof, like a roof, was just a wide unclosed area strewn with construction materials and student groups, here and there. There were teachers with each group of students, not teaching and trying to keep the situation under control.

Jeff eyeballed the roof, counting ten teachers and around two hundred kids, with a third of them being younger than 13 years.
In particular, he stared at the 30-odd group of primary school children who managed to make their way up to the roof.

"Suprised?"
While he was lost in thought staring at the kids, he was met with a familiar, sweet voice.

"No- yes- yes, I am. How did they come up here?" Jeff turned toward the girl. She was his cousin who practically lived in his house since her parents always traveled an awful lot for work.

"It was Rubio. After she led our class, she went back and brought those kids as well. To be honest, she was rather amazing and cool along the way here."

"Did you meet any zombies?"

"Oh yes, many. But with an air rifle, and a makeshift spear used savagely by our teacher Rubio, reached safely. And we were the first as well."

Jeff nodded.
"But... Air rifles? How did you get them? and was it even effective?" He was pretty lost about it ever since he had seen Alex carrying it.

"Dunno how she got it. But it was effective though she told that it is pretty useless." She spoke, with a smile never leaving her face.
"Oh, Kay's calling me. I'll see you later." She ran, waving her hand at Jeff.

"Sure." He answered and returned her gesture.

"Did you see Mark?" Just when She left, George ran up to Jeff and asked him.

Jeff shook his head.
"No. Wait, is he not here yet?"

"No, he said he was going to come in a few minutes. What is he still doing?" George sighed.

"Hey, guys!" They heard someone nearing them from behind. It was Mark.

"Where were you?" George asked him.

Mark sat down next to Jeff before replying,
"Nothing much. Just took a look at the zombie. Anyways, what the hell's happening right now?"

"We have no idea either. No one here has made a call or gone online. Worse, not only the whole school but also the surrounding blocks have turned Zs." Jeff answered.

"Our school population alone is around five thousand or so..."

"Damn... I'm hungry and bored right now. Wish I could go home." George complained.

"I have binoculars with me. Want to check out the situation?" Jeff asked.

"Ree's sleeping right now, so sure." George replied and got up.

"Mark?" Jeff called out to Mark, who looked a bit out of his mind.

"Oh yes. Yes, let's go." Mark was momentarily startled and went along with them.

On arriving at one edge of the roof, Jeff looked through his binoculars. The school grounds were completely swarmed with white zombies - since they of course wore uniforms and the roads were filled with small fires, blood, and smashed corpses and vehicles.

"So, what'd you see?" George asked.

"Here. Take a look." Jeff handed him the binoculars.

After taking a look, George passed the binoculars to Mark and exclaimed.
"Fuck, this is too bad! What is the outside world doing?!"

"Maybe they are doing something as we speak." Jeff replied.

Mark looked through the binoculars and rapidly shifted his gaze several times during the time his friends spent discussing the correct course of action in a zombie apocalypse to Miss Rubio's spear skills to starting a brawl. Though it was noon, it was quite cloudy and hence didn't feel tired yet.

"Mark, did you find a naked female zombie chasing a man seeing as how you are staring through the binoculars so intently?" George asked, lying on the floor breathing heavily.
"Or a-"

"No. And shut up." Mark cut him off before he could give him another bizarre visual.
"I feel like there's something very odd..."

"Are you stressed out? We're surrounded by zombies. Everything is odd today." George laughed.

Mark replied slowly in a low voice, "I know, but... Jeff, can I borrow this for a bit?." He pointed to the binoculars. Jeff nodded and he shouted "I'll be back." before leaving.

"Okay?" Jeff replied, partially confused, but resumed brawling with George anyway.

Mark ran around the edge of the roof, using his phone and binoculars to capture pictures.
When he was done, he returned the binoculars before leaving quickly again.

Mark headed to the roof entrance but was stopped by a teacher. She was Katelyn, the school nurse.
"Where are you going?"

"I need to meet Miss Rubio."

"Why?" She asked him in a sweet tone but firmly.

"I need to pass a message to her."

"And what might that message be?"

'Ah, come on. Can't you just let me go for once? I'm not an elementary kid for god's sake!!!'
Mark was trying very hard to resist dodging her running away. But he gathered his patience and made up a story.
"My younger sister is in a classroom right below the floor below. If I wait for Miss Rubio to return, my sister will be in danger. I want to save her and so I want to ask Miss Rubio for help." Mark told his not-well-spun story with an almost teary face.

"Oh dear, I'm so sorry for stopping. Here," Saying so, she hugged Mark and continued, "Don't worry. Your sister will definitely be alive. Miss Rubio's in the room with a door labeled 'CONSTRUCTION TOOLS'." She let go of him and let him go.
"I want you to come back right after you're done telling Miss Rubio. Got it?"

"Yes, Miss Katelyn." He ran back into the building worried someone else would stop him. He was actually surprised that his story worked. 'You shouldn't trust humans- or kids- so much, Miss Katelyn...' he thought.

Once inside the building, he slowly made his way through the corridor and carefully watched for any dangers, but luckily, he met none. In a few minutes, he was already near the door and quickly entered it. Or tried to.

Even before he could so much as say "I'm not a zombie!", in a flash of grey and dark blurs, his mouth was pressed against the cold floor with his limbs held tightly by someone. With a cold knife pressed into his head, threatening to pierce it with even the slightest motion.

"You seem to be human. Make a V sign with your index and middle finger with your left hand and close the rest of them. Hold it for five seconds, and then ball both your fists."

From her voice alone, he could identify it as Miss Rubio. Struggling, he completed the task and the knife was slowly removed from his head.

"Okay, that's great. Come into the room quickly." She removed herself from Mark and the latter quickly entered the room like he was told.

"I'm sorry, but one can never be careful." She apologized.
"But why did you come here?"

"It was my fault for barging in unexpectedly." Mark was surprised that someone who could do something like that was teaching in his school, but he didn't show his expression. Instead, he continued to speak.

"Miss Rubio, have you found anything strange at all about the zombies?"

"No. Why, did anything happen?" She asked, quite worried.

"No, nothing happened. But I just realized that our teacher who turned into a zombie had no visible bite mark on him."

"It must have been hidden by his clothes, right?"

"Of course, it is quite possible. In fact, we can check that since he must still be in our classroom. But I was using my friend's binoculars to look outside, and this is what I noticed" He showed his phone to her and continued, "I counted a total of 500 zombies on our school grounds looking exactly like that." He pointed to his phone.

"In the sense?"

"Look at the picture. The zombie has no bite marks on its skin. It does not even have any blood on its uniform. Only its eyes and facial expression look different from non-zombie humans."

"So you mean to say..."

"Yes. One or two might be coincidences, but for at least 500 zombies to not have any bite marks? It must mean that the zombie virus can spread through means other than getting bit."

"Oh, fu-" Miss Rubio forced a cough and held out the knife in her hand.
"I'll go check that teacher in your classroom. Stay here till I come back."

"But can I come along with you to check, miss Rubio?" Mark asked as he received the knife from her.

Rubio thought for a few seconds before replying,
"Alright. Don't stray."

The two of them left the room and made their way to 10-F.

"But, miss Rubio, what were you doing in that room?"

"Food. I was looking for tools to make my way into the kitchen pantry in the dormitory building. After all, there hasn't been a word since morning from anyone outside."

Mark made an understanding exclamation.

They entered the classroom and by now, it reeked of blood and something which was probably grey matter.
Rubio covered her face with a scarf and tore open the zombie's clothes. But instead of seeing anything revolting, there was just a normal human corpse covered with skin. Without a single injury anywhere.