Chapter 41: Beyond the Horizon
Stepping through the opening, Miles felt snow crunch beneath his shoes. A wall of sharp, cold wind mixed with drifts of snow crashed into him, nearly throwing off his footing. It left his exposed skin stinging.
The temperature drop was instant, and the storm’s roar was much louder here.
A flashlight from the back row showed that the glass doors and windows serving as the entrance had all shattered. The weak light barely pierced through the storm beyond.
More emergency lamps hung off the ceiling, only shining with enough light to illuminate themselves. They barely did anything beyond that.
Some more flashlights roamed around, revealing the shape of the room.
A stairwell at the center led upwards, with a set of double doors behind it, an opening opposite them, and a glass entrance that was mostly gone.
Beyond that were notices, announcements, and banners hanging off the wall. The largest was a yellow banner displaying the school’s motto.
"Beyond the Horizon."
They had all been tattered by the wind.
A groan sounded in the room, freezing the roaming flashlights for a moment before they converged towards it. The lights illuminated a figure pushing itself off the stairs, eyes firmly locked on them.
As though the sound flipped some switch, more groans sounded throughout the room. All were barely audible over the storm.
More lights shifted towards them, illuminating at least nine different ghouls. Some pressed against the wall, some buried under the piling snow, and the rest scattered around the dark room.
There were only nine people shining their flashlights, so more could’ve still been lurking in the darkness.
Miles didn’t pay attention to any of that. His gaze rested solely on the two bodies near the stairwell.
Muscular and well-defined, with dark frostbite crawling up their arms and onto their exposed chests.
’They’re here.’
He barely heard Morgan’s sigh over the storm. The man tapped Grimm, giving him the signal to use his weapon.
He turned around, looking at the students behind him before pointing towards the metal doors of the cafeteria. He took a step forward.
It was easy to guess what he meant. They had to keep moving. They couldn’t get pinned down, not here.
The ghouls were all up now, sprinting towards them.
Grimm’s gun was already raised. He fired.
A burst of shots rang out, blasting a portion of an abnormal ghoul’s skull off.
His face paled, yet he pivoted his rifle towards the next. It was too late; the ghouls were already upon them.
Grimm shot again, taking out a leg of the second abnormality right before it crashed into them, sending it down. Morgan wasted no time in pouncing on it.
The remaining ghouls closed in rapidly.
Ryan dragged the exhausted Grimm back, stepping forward just in time to meet the ghoul lunging for him head-on.
Blue flames sparked to life off one of Brandon’s arms, which he immediately flung onto an incoming ghoul, sending it screaming to the side. Another ghoul ran past it before he could react, entering his range with outstretched arms.
The boy met it head-on, grabbing its face with his flaming hand as they both went tumbling to the ground.
Morgan was just about done with the abnormal ghoul. Unfortunately, three more ghouls had taken the chance to slip past him and into the second row.
One headed for Miles, another for Chloe, and one for the rows behind.
Someone screamed at the sight, a sound that very quickly devolved to wet, bloodied choking. One of the flashlights went dark.
Miles didn’t have the luxury of paying attention to that as the ghoul entered his range. He swung his bat into its side, not trusting himself with an accurate headshot, and sent it slamming into a locker next to where Grimm rested.
He stepped towards it before any of them could react, smashing his bat onto its now stationary head. He only swung twice before a notification popped up.
The moment he dismissed it, an inhuman, ear-piercing scream rang out from the opening leading to the left wing of the building. More groans and the sound of shuffling were muffled audible over the storm.
’Shit.’
Glancing to the side, he found that Chloe had already dealt with her ghoul. She had stretched out her bat, letting the mindless ghoul slam into it with its own momentum. The moment it sent itself to the ground, she was upon it, caving its skull after multiple swings.
Looking to the back rows, he turned just in time to find the problem already dealt with too. Mia stood over a ghoul with a caved skull, all her exposed skin covered in a bright red blush. Black blood dripped down from her clenched fist.
’Did she... punch it?’
It was a thought he could only entertain for a moment, as more ghouls burst into the main hall. Most came from the opening leading to the right wing, and a few came down from the second floor.
Luckily, none seemed abnormal.
Morgan grimaced, just finishing off the last ghoul from the initial nine, before pointing towards the cafeteria door again. He immediately began walking towards it.
Ryan, having taken Grimm’s place, and Brandon, shakily pushing himself off a charred corpse, followed him, forming the new front row.
Miles glanced at Grimm, still catching his breath against a locker, then grabbed his arm and slung it over his shoulder. The boy flinched, muscles stiffening, but didn’t resist. His gun was still clenched in his other hand.
Miles pulled the boy’s head close.
"Tell me if you need to jump."
Miles whispered sharply, to which the boy responded with a nod. They both moved forward, followed in step by Chloe.
The back rows trailed behind, all making a beeline for the cafeteria.
They hadn’t even taken five steps when the front row stopped. The first among the new wave made contact, four barreling towards Morgan.
But Miles couldn’t even pay attention to that.
There was a faint clicking coming from the stairs. In his peripheral vision, one of the emergency lights flickered for a moment as though something passed over it.
He moved to track it. When all of a sudden, the ground shook as something heavy crashed into the corridor behind them, right where the backrow stood.