The five storey section of the building – the apex of the broken circle shaped high school – uncannily resembled the library at Telos Academy, and that included the transparent permaglass floors that gave a person the impression they were standing on air. Unfortunately, it allowed anyone on the floor below to upskirt the girls on the floor above. So the library at Telos Academy that was meant to be shared was now the exclusive domain of the female student body. There had been complaints from the male students inspiring a proposition to coat the floor glass with a material that would turn it into a one way surface, allowing people to look down but not up. However, this ran into problems when the girls demanded the library remain a sanctuary for the fairer sex.
I found the whole situation irritating as hell, and it reeked of gender bias. Coating the floors would have solved the problem, but the Student Council President, a buxom brunette beauty by the name of Aleena Saint-Pierre, campaigned to shoot the plan down with the added backing of her mother who sat on the board of the school’s directors. If I ever had the opportunity, I would do my utmost to have that decision overturned. At the very least, they could finance a library for the boys, one that was strictly off-limits to the girls.
I realized I was glaring at the library and hurriedly tried to dispel my heated emotions. The best way to do so was to focus on dealing with the situation at hand.
After taking a deep breath, I rolled then relaxed my shoulders. Looking down at the lightgun, I checked the ammo count. Of the ninety mini-bullets it originally contained only forty remained.
I gave the library another studious look, then made my decision. “Let’s go.”
“Hmm…go where?”
“To save the survivors.”
“Oh…but they could be zombies by now.”
I turned my head and faced her. “What do you mean?”
She looked up at the ceiling, then replied in a downcast voice. “They turned to zombies without warning. One moment they were normal students. The next moment they were zombies.”
“Care to elaborate.”
She tilted her head while looking up with a detached gaze. “What’s there to say? They were normal one moment”—her body contorted strangely for a short while—“then they were zombies the next. Very odd indeed. Very troublesome too.”
Though I was keeping an eye out on our surroundings, I turned my body toward her. “What exactly happened here?”
The girl looked down at me and shrugged, with her palms upturned. “I don’t know. I decided to ditch class. I was smoking behind the gym. Then I heard a voice say, “Translocation imminent. Brace for Translocation.” She lowered her hands and looked at me dispiritedly. “Everything went dark. Then whack—I woke up on the ground. I went back to class in time for homeroom. I was sitting in the back looking out the window when some of my classmates began acting strangely. They attacked their neighbors.” She raised her hands and mimed a mushroom cloud. “Pandemonium soon followed. Running. Screaming.” She shook her head. “I jumped out the window. Landed on cafeteria table. Made my way inside and hid in a storage room at the back of the kitchen. Waited for the stampede to end. When I came out, I saw zombies in the grounds surrounding the school, so I went back inside the building. I saw students sheltering in the library.” She pointed at me. “I was looking for a way out when the teachers found me. Chased me. You saved me. End of chapter, and a new chapter begins.”
My reaction was hard to pin down into few words. I can best describe it as being both confused and surprised by her story. I was also quite distinctly afraid as a dire scenario began to form in my mind. The Game was a survival simulation that pulled people into its stages, and thrust them into a life or death situation. I was at an advantage because I possessed the lightguns, and carried a sizeable quantity of ammunition. However, others might not be so fortunate, this girl being one of them.
Turning around, I regarded the library visible through the curved corridor’s window.
“What school do you attend?” I asked her.
“Telos Academy. First Year, Class One-Eff.” She bowed politely. “Tabitha Hexen. Nice to meet you.”
I started to return her bow when her words abruptly drilled through my awareness. “Telos Academy? Did you say Telos Academy?”
“Yes, I did.”
I glanced at my watch, reading that it was well after six pm, but when I then looked out the corridor window at the overcast sky, I noted it was bright enough for late afternoon.
“…that can’t be….” I faced the girl, Tabitha. “How long have you been here?”
Unexpectedly, she looked up at the ceiling rather than pull out her phone to get the time, and I noticed she had no wristwatch.
“An hour? Maybe less.” She shrugged a shoulder dejectedly. “I don’t really know.”
What the Hell is going on here? Was this really Telos Academy? If so, had I somehow been displaced back in time?
I noticed movement behind her down the corridor. “Ah—could you stand still for a moment.”
Raising the lightgun with two hands, I aimed at the two students stumbling and staggering toward us. One of them was a girl, and she was helping her wounded companion, a boy. Catching sight of us, the girl cried out for help, and I hesitated for a moment before aiming at the boy whom she was supporting, centering the target beam on his head.
“Wait—we’re not bitten!” she cried out. “He fell and injured his leg. That’s all! Please, you must believe us.”
I stepped away from Tabitha, and shifted my aim to the corridor behind the two students. I’d like to say I was feeling calm, but that wasn’t the truth. Certainly, having the lightguns improved our chances of survival and bolstered my confidence, but the stage was fettered with unknowns such as how many zombies were we facing.
I fired at the handful undead emerging from a classroom behind the two students, two shots to each of their heads. The girl noticed and began to hurry toward us, knowing to stay out of my line of fire. When I was done clearing the corridor behind them, I gave the corridor in the other direction a good look. For now it was clear of zombies, but for how long remained to be seen.
So they’re hiding in the classrooms. Good to know.
I checked the ammo count.
Thirty rounds in the magazine. I average three rounds per zombie, that means ten more kills.
I regarded the lightgun grimly.
I’ll need to swap out shortly.
As the girl and guy neared us, Tabitha broke her silence. “You should be careful.”
“Of what?”
“I told you before…my classmates turned into zombies without warning.”
Holding the lightgun diagonally across my body, I glanced at Tabitha. “Are you telling me to abandon them?”
She shook her head sadly. “No. I’m simply saying you should be careful.”
Though I wasn’t aiming at Tabitha, I did raise the lightgun a little in her direction. “Then what about you? Should I be wary of you as well?”
“Oh, I’m not going to turn into a zombie.”
“How do you know that?” I asked her brusquely, my feelings turning blunt toward her.
“I just know.”
Now my feelings turned sharp. “And how do you just now?”
“Because I’m not like them,” she replied softly. “I’m like you.”
I almost gawked at her. “What does that mean?”
Tabitha continued. “Do you think you’ll turn into a zombie?”
I swallowed. “Honestly, I don’t know.”
“Then remember, we were both pulled into this school. But they weren’t—”
The girl suddenly cried out and collapsed onto the corridor floor. At first I thought she’d tripped, but then I saw her and the male student convulsing on the floor.
“No…no…we weren’t bitten…we weren’t bitten….”
She pushed herself up to her knees, and I watched her skin become ashen like it was for the zombies I’d encountered thus far.
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“No…no…please no….”
In the corner of my eyes, I saw Tabitha turn away. “I told you, didn’t I…?”
The girl on the floor looked up at me, and I watched in horror as the light in her eyes faded. “…help…me….”
I fired at her without thinking. The first shot created a large hole in her forehead. The second bullet sailed through the opening and exploded inside her head. I watched her fall to the corridor with blood spurting out of her nose and mouth, while I turned my lightgun on the male student reaching out for her. I waited until he touched her lifeless hand before I blew two holes into his head, and fired a third bullet that detonated within his skull.
I realized I was shaking and my heart beat with anguish in my chest.
Killing the child in the pram had been hard, more so because I’d had the time to think it over, to gather my resolve and pull the trigger. I’d felt sick afterwards. Yet this was horrible in its own way.
I clutched my chest with a hand. “What the Hell…is going on here?”
“You’re too soft…,” Tabitha whispered sadly, her arms crossed and her head bowed as she stood with her back to me.
With a loud growl, I turned upon her. Anger, fury, despair, they gave me strength and I slammed the girl against the corridor window. Tabitha rebounded straight into the muzzle of the lightgun I was shoving hard into the valley between her breasts, pinning her to the permaglass window.
“What the Hell is going on here?”
Tabitha’s eyes had grown wide in surprise, but a heartbeat later she looked over my shoulder. Again, I reacted on instinct, spinning away from Tabitha while whirling to face the undead emerging from the classroom that had been behind me. I emptied the magazine by firing the remaining bullets into their heads. Flicking the ejection lever to release the empty magazine, I swapped it out with a full one from my left trouser pocket.
“Wow,” she remarked as she observed my skills, “you’re good at that.”
“Run,” I yelled at her, choosing not to encourage her.
She didn’t need to be told twice and ran ahead of me down the curved corridor. If we continued on this path, we would eventually arrive at the permaglass entrance to the library on this floor. As we fled, every so often I turned to check the corridor behind us. The undead students spilled out of the classrooms, but their numbers were fewer than I expected. It was on one occasion while I was looking behind us that I collided into the Tabitha who’d come to a sudden stop.
“What are you doing?” I yelled at her, then realized we’d arrived at the entrance to the library.
Tabitha pointed at the library visible through the closed transparent doors that intersected the corridor.
“No point going that way,” she muttered morosely.
“Yeah, I can see that,” I snarked back at her.
The students sheltering in the library had succumbed to whatever turned them into zombies. I watched them loiter about drunkenly within the library level before us, and when I peered upwards I saw more of the same.
Tabitha crossed her arms under her modest bust, and declared dejectedly, “This is the end. Nowhere to run. We’re doomed.”
“Speak for yourself. I haven’t come this far to give up.”
“Then what will you do now?”
I turned around and faced the corridor in the direction from whence we’d come. “What do you expect me to do? Clear the stage! What else?”
Dropping to one knee, I quickly unslung the second lightgun and placed it on the floor beside me. I did the same with my carry-bag, doing my best to control my trembling hands. Half of the shakes were caused by fear beginning to get the better of me. The other half was caused by my lack of stamina. Then again, it was likely that adrenaline was responsible for the tremors that made it difficult for me to unzip the carry-bag. I was growing quickly flustered, wondering how I could so calmly swap out spent magazines a minute ago, yet now faced such difficulty trying to open my carry-bag.
“You need to calm down,” Tabitha commented in her usual crestfallen manner.
“That is easier said than done,” I growled and finally succeeded in opening my carry-bag.
“Oh…they’re coming.”
“Do you wanna help?” I asked as I tossed a couple of fully loaded magazines into my trouser pockets. I then did a quick count of the remaining magazines in the bag.
Ten mags. Is that going to be enough?
I stood up and assumed a two-hand grip on the lightgun, pressed the extendable stock against my shoulder, and aimed the weapon at the oncoming undead. Their numbers weren’t sufficient to describe them as a horde, but there was certainly enough of them to keep me busy, and not knowing if this was the final stage, yet suspecting there were more to come, kicked up the tension within me another notch. No amount of trying to breath evenly helped, yet I felt slightly better when I depressed the trigger a couple of millimeters, and the targeting beam shone out and pinpointed the forehead of a male zombie student.
I’m going to need to find more ammunition.
I squeezed the trigger and fired the first round into the boy zombie. It staggered, then went down when a second round widened the first hole in its forehead and the third round blew away some of the brain matter behind it.
I shifted my aim and selected a second target, another male student, and fired a round that sailed purely by luck through its open mouth and exploded somewhere in its neck. Surprised, I fired again as the zombie chocked making me wonder if the undead breathed at all. The mini-bullet hit the top of its head, requiring me to shoot twice more into its skull in order to ensure the kill.
My third target was a girl with three pips on her blouse collar identifying her as third year senior. With three mini-bullets to her cranium, she collapsed to the corridor floor and lay still.
My fourth target was another girl, short of stature with blonde hair tied in twin tails.
My fifth kill was a tall, thin boy, a second year with two pips on his shirt collar. He fell with three rounds to his frontal bone.
The sixth was female teacher. She took two mini-bullets through an eye socket before going down.
The seventh…another male student. A four round kill.
The eighth…a portly girl, a first year….
The ninth…another girl, pretty yet with vacant eyes….
I stopped counting after the tenth, and I stopped looking at their faces, to make it easier to stomach shooting them.
When I had slaughtered the undead in the plaza, I had accepted they weren’t holographic virtual representations, but I also didn’t see them as people. That is to say, I understood they were real insofar as possessing physical bodies, but part of me refused to accept them as human beings. Because of this, I was able to kill them without being emotionally burdened by the act of taking not just one life but many, though ending the life of the zombie baby was by no means easy to accomplish.
However, my encounter with the girl and guy in the corridor had altered my perception of the undead creatures. I could no longer see them as just zombies that I needed to kill. I had no answer for the question of what The Game was, but I did know that these zombies did not start out that way. In order to kill them, to end their undead existence and perhaps release their souls, I had to refrain from seeing them as people. Yet these zombies weren’t like those back in the plaza. They were dressed as fellow students, and could very well be fellow students, and thereby I had a connection to them. It was this connection that provided the medium for the pang I felt in my chest every time I scored a kill.
The lightgun sounded an alarm, and three shots later the magazine was empty. I dropped the weapon, picked the second lightgun up off the floor, and continued where I left off. When its magazine ran dry a few minutes later, I ejected it from the well and slapped in a new magazine from a trouser pocket within seconds, and resumed sniping the undead.
I didn’t notice until after the shooting had stopped and the corridor was littered with dead zombie
s that my hands had stopped shaking. I found that odd, wondering if I was back in gamer mode as I didn’t think I’d come to terms with the act of killing what were once people. I was also breathing loud and hard, exertion weighing down my arms, and I doubled over while sucking in lungsful of air.
Tabitha stepped up beside me. When I glanced at her, I noticed she was looking toward the library with a dejected expression. “I don’t think you’re done just yet.”
“Huh?”
A soft chime and an equally soft swish greeted my ears. I turned in time to see the permaglass doors of the library entrance part aside, admitting into the corridor the dozens of zombies already clamoring for us.
“Did you do that?” I asked her, but Tabitha shook her head.
Does that mean someone is watching us?
I brought my lightgun up, and fired at the zombies as soon as the targeting beam floated over their foreheads.
“This just never ends,” I muttered between shots.
Remembering that there were four thousand students attending Telos Academy, that was far more than my finite ammunition could handle. With ninety rounds per magazine, it took two to three shots to bring down a single zombie. That meant I could bring down thirty to forty-five zombies at best before depleting a magazine, clearly not enough to purge the school of the undead infestation. I still didn’t know what the conditions were for clearing this stage, if indeed this was a stage, but cleansing the academy was unlikely with the limited ammunition I possessed, so perhaps there was another goal.
Abandoning the school was a more probable course of action.
Though my attention was focused on the zombies coming out of the library, I saw something unexpected out the corner of my left eye. Tabitha picked up the discarded lightgun. Wondering what she was up to, I spared her another glance and saw her eject the empty magazine, and then reload the weapon with a fresh mag she retrieved from one of her dress’s skirt pockets.
“…it fits…interesting…,” she said to herself.
Though distracted, I didn’t have time to be shocked upon learning she had ammo mags in her pockets. As the zombies drew closer, I backed away a step as I targeted a short girl wearing a torn uniform. The three mini-bullets to her head knocked her back before she slumped to her knees and then fell prone to the floor.
Gun Princess Royale: Awakening the Princess, Book One Page 9
