Chapter 11: Kiss of Death

She placed both hands on my face, slowly feeling her way until she reached my lips. The moment her hand grazed my lips, the sound of her heartbeat quickened. Before I even had the chance to ask what she meant, she pressed her soft lips against mine. She came in a bit too fast, and our teeth clanged against each other. She quickly lifted her head in surprise.

“I’m so sorry! This is my first time kissing anyone.”

She took a deep breath, then pressed her lips against mine again, this time more slowly. With the strong scent of death lingering on her, I couldn’t help but feel as if I was being claimed by the grim reaper herself.

To be honest, I had never kissed anyone either and had no idea what to do. I merely lay there as Sarah stuck her tongue in my mouth. The sensation was strange at first, but I slowly grew accustomed to it. I tasted a variety of flavors, mostly from the meal we had eaten for dinner.

After a long and passionate kiss, she finally pulled away, a long streak of saliva connecting us. She was breathing heavily, and so was I.

“Thank you.” Tears streamed down her face, but she quickly wiped them away.

Her words reminded me of the way Jason screamed right before I put an end to him. In a way, this was Sarah’s death cry. She then forced a smile, climbed off me, and went to lie back down. The warmth of her body lingered with me. She was running an unnaturally high fever, and I could tell she was in a lot of pain. Death was coming, and all she could do was curl up by herself and wait for its embrace.

I couldn’t help but think that I might have disappointed her somehow. This was my first kiss, yet it felt cold and empty, just like everything else in this life. Everything in this life feels dull and uneventful, even the damn apocalypse.

Pushing my usual thoughts aside, I went over to Sarah and embraced her from behind. Curling up and dying alone seemed too harsh a fate for her to bear.

She quivered when I held her, but then I slowly felt her starting to relax. We lay together quietly until she finally asked a question that seemed to have been on her mind for a while.

“Will you do it?”

Her question was vague, but I understood it. She was asking if I would take care of her after she turned into a zombie.

“I will.”

“Thank you.”

Her body was burning up, and her temperature climbed even higher by the second. After a while, I started to smell blood. I soon realized she was biting down on her lips to keep from making noise from the pain. As the night passed, I continued to listen to her heartbeat slowly weakening. Her breathing grew softer until it stopped completely.

She died just before the sun rose at dawn. I honored my promise to her and took care of her before she turned into a zombie. After stopping her transformation, I wrapped her up and placed her in a corner of the room, then went back to sleep.

In the morning, when everyone discovered the body, I explained that she had passed because of an infection in her eyes. Naturally, they were sad to lose another classmate, but they didn’t have time to mourn since the vice president gathered them for an important discussion.

“I think it’s time we discussed leaving here,” he said just as we settled in for breakfast. “The government or the military should have been here by now. The fact that they haven’t means the same thing is happening in the outside world. If we stay here, we will eventually starve or be killed by the zombies.”

Everyone’s faces paled as he spoke.

“Maybe we could just stay here for a few days to wait it out. There has to be someone who will come, plus escaping sounds more dangerous than waiting it out,” President Ava suggested, to which everyone vigorously nodded.

“How long do you think that door will last? The zombies are piling up outside as we speak. You only need to go outside and glance out the window to see more coming into the school. Before long, this place will be completely overrun.”

Everyone sat quietly; they couldn’t argue with his point. That was until Victor raised his hand to speak.

“May I offer a different solution? It seems to me that reinforcing the school is the best option.”

The vice president furrowed his brow.

“What do you mean?”

“You said it yourself; the outside world could be just as bad as here. In that case, wouldn’t the safest option be making this place safe? We can get rid of the zombies and barricade a section of the school. We can make it safe. Yesterday, while we were out, I realized something…”

“What is it?”

Victor smiled confidently.

“All the blood moths are gone. During our supply run yesterday, we didn’t encounter a single one.”

I realized that too. I used my thermal vision to check the school, and there were none outside either. It was like they had all just disappeared. They seemed to be creatures that were drawn in by the scent of blood.

“This way, we can wait until reinforcements arrive, and we won’t have to worry about the zombies.”

In truth, his argument made sense, and I could see most of the students nodding along with him. The only person who didn’t seem completely convinced was the vice president.

“Do you think the little fighters we have can actually clear the building?” he asked.

Victor wasted no time and answered.

“If we work together, we can. We just need to come up with a plan that is easy to follow. We are currently on the third floor; if we block the stairs, it will stop any more zombies from reaching us. Then we can work together to clear this floor.”

The vice president stared at him as if deep in thought. The room stayed quiet until he finally made a decision.

“No.”

This single word alone was enough to change the atmosphere of the whole room.

“You guys are forgetting something important,” the vice president said, but before anyone could ask what it was, he continued, “We have families outside waiting for us. Your mother, your father, even a sibling. We can’t afford to be selfish. Don’t you want to go back to your families? We can’t afford to die here. Some of us have been given abilities. What’s the point if we don’t use them to protect our loved ones? Hiding here is the coward’s way out. We are leaving.”

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