Chapter 29: Bus Keys
Shortly after the meal, the group began their exodus.
Felicity, Tevin, and Nero moved ahead, forming a triangle at the forefront of seventy high school students, most of whom were burdened with supplies—cartons of milk, packets of biscuits, sacks of rice and oats, flour, and enough waffles to feed everyone who had taken shelter in the gymnasium.
They huddled tightly together, a living mass of anxious youth packed like sardines, eyes wide and feet uncertain.
At the front, Felicity was a blur.
Her short, curved swords glinted under the overcast sun, dancing with ruthless precision. She blinked rapidly—so fast her movements were inhuman—cleaving through the encroaching undead. In one seamless sweep, a dozen zombies collapsed in her wake. The elegance in her violence was undeniable, and awe spread like wildfire through the group. Respect had already taken root, but now it bloomed.
To witness her move was to see death personified in beautiful form.
Beside her, Nero conjured ball after ball of flame, hurling them into the heads of zombies with terrifying accuracy. Each hit left behind scorched skulls and smoldering bodies.
Tevin, ever brutal, wielded his bone spear with practiced aggression. Every few minutes, he’d erupt into a sprint, crashing through zombies like a human battering ram. The carnage he left behind—limbs, viscera, mangled faces—was so gruesome it made more than one student gag, their breakfasts threatening to come back up.
Then the moment fractured.
"Stephanie!" a girl screamed, her voice breaking into raw emotion. She pointed, her entire body trembling. From the flank, a zombie staggered forward, its face familiar, horrifyingly familiar.
Her sister.