Ten minutes later, the group walked through the dark hallways. The only noise was the quiet squeak of their sneakers on the floor, and in the deep silence, it sounded very loud.
Ethan has successfully reached the security room, he quickly gets to a monitor in the room and checks the live footage to look for the movements of the monsters if they were still inside the campus.
Finished with his check, Ethan quietly slipped out of the room and rejoined Matthew and Ryan, who were hiding at a corner spot in the Hallway.
He slid to a stop beside them, breathing heavily, "Okay. Good news and bad news."
"And what's that?" Matthew asked.
"Bad news: I saw something. Near the gym. Big. Black. Ugly. Maybe it was one of those assholes!" Ethan was still breathing heavily.
"And what's the good news?" Ryan whispered, his voice trembling.
"It's slow and facing away from us. The field side is still clear, but we have to move now. And the monster doesn't just seem to be alone; I think they are… definitely gathering." Ethan announced.
"So what do we do now?" Ryan questioned.
"We stick to the plan!" Matthew whispered, "Go towards the football field, while staying under the shadows and then quickly jump over the wall, behind the field."
"And what if… the monsters can see through all this darkness? What if they've already noticed us?" Ryan whispered, his voice tight with panic.
Matthew turned slowly, giving him a flat, deeply sarcastic stare at Ryan.
Ethan clapped a heavy hand on Ryan's shoulder, a terrifying grin stretching his face, "Listen, I'm telling you the truth: If we actually walk out of this alive, I'm going to find the sharpest bamboo stick I can and give you something real to worry about."
"Asshole!" Ryan spat out.
"Come on!" Matthew gripped Ethan and Ryan by the back of their shirts or possibly their collars, depending on what feels right and forcefully yanked them toward the library.
A few tense minutes later, a soft, urgent knock sounded on the library door. Sarah, still holding her breath, crept toward it.
"Sarah! Emily! The route is clear—come out!" Matthew's low, urgent voice cut through the wooden door.
"Emily, let's move," Sarah whispered, turning to her, who was already on her feet by the makeshift armory.
Emily picked up a baseball bat and handed a heavy iron rod to Sarah. The three boys also quickly secured three axes which were kept next to the door inside.
Sarah and Emily slipped out of the library, and the five of them began their careful, quiet movement through the halls. Staying close to the shadows, they navigated out of the school building and towards the football field.
Their escape to the boundary wall, with three separate nervous checks of the route, took twenty agonizing minutes.
"Now!" Matthew hissed, after reaching the boundary wall.
Ethan grabbed Matthew's shoulder, "The wall! Climb over! We have to get out quickly"
One by one, all of them quickly get to the other side of the boundary. They had successfully gotten out of their school campus and now the only challenge was to get home safely.
"Go! Go!" Matthew whispered looking over the wall to see if any monster was following them or not.
They didn't stop running until they reached the first familiar residential street, the dark shapes of those houses made things feel normal, but that feeling was easily broken.
"We split up here." Matthew gasped, leaning against a tree, trying to catch his breath. "The Berry Hills road loop will take us all home eventually, but we can't stick together. We'll be too loud, and too visible, to those monsters."
"Getting Emily home safely is my duty!" Ethan simply nodded, his eyes wide, and he grabbed Emily's hand, "Be safe. We'll meet up tomorrow... if there is a tomorrow."
"And I will make sure about Sarah!" Matthew said.
"I don't think it's over, guys. I feel like it's just beginning." Emily looked at the others, her calm expression finally breaking into a frown of deep concern.
"Mee too!" Ryan was just too scared to even attempt a joke.
They were about to split up and go down the dark streets into the neighborhood to their homes, when they heard a low, wet growl from a nearby alley.
Before the group could react, a louder growl answered the first. Then, two huge monsters with hard, faintly shiny shells walked out into the dim light of a streetlamp, completely blocking the path.
The group froze, a collective gasp of pure terror escaping them.
Matthew didn't hesitate. He pulled the small axe, which he had still kept with him since leaving the school's library, close to his chest and gripped it tight, making his knuckles turn white.
Ethan, despite his fear, took a defensive stance, pulling Emily further behind him. They knew they were hopeless and would be quickly outmatched by the monsters.
They were too much injured during their first encounter with those monsters in the cafeteria. But the group wasn't going to run; they had decided to face the monsters.
The two monsters lowered their huge, drooling heads and were about to lunge towards the group. At that exact moment, the quiet night was shattered by the sharp, metallic sound of a machine gun shooting.
CRACK CRACK CRACK.
The gunfire slammed into the monsters' flanks and shoulders, causing them to turn their thick, ugly heads just for a second towards the source of the noise.
And that fraction of a second was all the opportunity needed.
A figure launched himself from the rooftop of a two story building right next to the monsters, dropping with impossible speed.
With a roar that wasn't of terror, but of pure, focused rage, the man swung a long, razor-sharp sword in a sweeping arc.
In two clean, sickening slicing sounds, the heads of both monsters flew from their bodies. The massive creatures collapsed onto the pavement—headless, silent, and dead.
The figure landed lightly, his combat boots scuffing the pavement, his M16 rifle still strapped to his back, and the blood-soaked sword held ready. He was tall, blonde, and wore a military uniform under a light layer of dirt and sweat.
He turned to the group, his face a mix of exhaustion and relief.
"You kids alright?" he asked, his voice rough.
It was none other than Major Pierce Coogler.
"Yeah! We are just fine." Matthew replies.
A military jeep pulls up to the place, Private Reynolds, Private Rodriguez and Private Lucas were on it, they were the ones who were firing at those monsters just to buy some time for Coogler.
"That was some kind of style we would expect from Major Coogler!" Reynolds laughed after getting down from the jeep.
"Done with that?" Coogler turns to them.
"Yep!" Rodriguez replied.
"Then, let's move from here before another group attacks us!" Coogler orders, "Kids, get into the jeep."
"Before that, who are you?" Ethan asked.
"Major Pierce Coogler! Commander of G3 Unit of the Army!" Coogler replied, "Now quick get in. If you don't want to die!"
"Can you kids just adjust somehow! We have less space here." Rodriguez said.
Five of them quickly got into the jeep, there wasn't enough space, but they had to adjust in it. And Lucas quickly drives the jeep towards a safe place nearby.