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[sub][hr][/sub][color=silver][right][sup][i][color=#139AE8]L[/color][color=#1089CE]o[/color][color=#0E78B5]c[/color][color=#0C679B]a[/color][color=#0A5682]t[/color][color=#084669]i[/color][color=#06354F]o[/color][color=#042436]n[/color][color=#02131D]:[/color][/i] Stockbridge Academy, Teacher’s Lounge[/sup][/right][right][sup][i][color=#139AE8]D[/color][color=#0F7BBA]a[/color][color=#0B5D8C]t[/color][color=#073F5F]e[/color][color=#032131]:[/color][/i] 3/6/19[/sup][/right][right][sup][i][color=#139AE8]W[/color][color=#0F7BBA]i[/color][color=#0B5D8C]t[/color][color=#073F5F]h[/color][color=#032131]:[/color][/i] Everyone[/sup][/right][/color][sup][hr][/sup][indent][color=silver]Colmillo supposed being a slacker sometimes had its perks. 

The lesson in Ms. Stevens' English class had been about... halfway through? She wasn't really sure, actually. Whatever book the class was discussing didn't particularly interest her, so she'd been sleeping in the back. This wasn't irregular for the girl-- Ms. Stevens' class was probably her favorite of this year, in fact-- but, books were long and boring, there were better ways to convey ideas and feelings to people. And Ms. Stevens, to her credit, was aware of this attitude-- she actually let Colmillo sleep through lessons like this undisturbed. Colmillo wasn't sure why; the woman was always encouraging whenever she lit up during certain lessons though, outside of class proper she'd tried to get her to see the guidance counselor, and was always allowing her extra time for assignments and giving her extra credit assignments that she seemed to just [i]know[/i] would interest her-- all so she could at least maintain her 'C.' So it definitely wasn't that she just didn't care-- quite the opposite in fact. Most other teachers Colmillo had would just violently jolt her awake, yelling something they thought clever at her, often provoking some kind of response from the rest of the class. Ms. Stevens was just, really nice and sweet.

Colmillo hoped she was still alive.

[i]So[/i], the announcement had been made at some point during her nap and Colmillo didn't catch any of it. By the time the girl was being gently nudged awake by her teacher, the classroom was already completely empty-- everyone already well on their way to the auditorium. Ms. Stevens slowly explained, as Colmillo roused, what was happening-- a disease, or an outbreak, everyone needed to head to the auditorium-- the woman let Colmillo process things on her own time. When Colmillo asked why you'd want to gather everyone in such close proximity if the sickness or whatever was really such a big threat, Ms. Stevens let out a light chuckle. She was pretty when she laughed-- well, [i]prettier[/i], Colmillo supposed. The woman quickly added that they'd walk to the auditorium together, so Colmillo gathered her things and off the pair went.

Of course Colmillo would be late to something like this, Ms. Stevens joked, she'd probably be late to her own funeral if she could!

By the time they got there, pretty much every seat was taken, the principal or whoever was already speaking about... [i]something[/i]. Cliques and friend groups were clustered together, with underclassmen getting a lot of the more undesirable real estate up front. Seats not taken by students seemed to filled in by some of the older faculty members. Silence swept over the crowd. Colmillo had scanned the room, hoping she could just hide behind Gerald and Ashley until this was over-- but Ms. Stevens put a protective arm around the girl's shoulder as the speaking continued, Colmillo's eyes went wide, but she didn't let herself shake under the terrible sensation of being touched by another person. Colmillo wasn't paying terribly close attention, but it really seemed to spook Ms. Stevens. Colmillo figured the woman needed someone to hold onto, or maybe just feel like she was protecting [i]something[/i]-- if her being there could help the woman in some way, she'd certainly stand and be held. So, the two stayed in the back, close to where they had come in from. 

Colmillo [i]really[/i] hoped that woman was still alive. She'd saved her worthless life.

Days later-- after spending most of her time talking with, or really mostly listening, to Ms. Stevens-- the yell came. Colmillo had been napping at the time, it was pretty easy for her to fall asleep anywhere, but she hated yelling-- and quickly one panicked scream led to another. Soon enough people were standing, tripping over each other each other to get away from groans that grew louder by the second. Colmillo, expressionless, looked up at the terrified face her teacher wore, the woman who had stayed by her side, watching over her as she slept for days-- she'd mentioned to Colmillo in the lead up to this that she had a bad feeling, that they needed to be ready. Something bad was definitely happening and as Colmillo processed her teacher's prophecy finally coming to fruition, her heart began to rise in her throat, warming her body-- she needed to do something, but she didn't know what. 

She spent time enough looking over the crowd for her step-siblings that students got wise and began to escape through whatever means they could. Ms. Stevens snapped out of her shock, clasping Colmillo's hands in hers, she turned the girl away from the crowd and looked into her eyes-- she told the sophomore to leave through the door they came in through before it became too clogged with other students with the same idea, to find somewhere quiet and hide. Before Colmillo could protest, that she had to get her step-siblings out of this mess-- an angry hand appeared from the crowd, gripping her braid, undoing her mother's handiwork from the days before with undead fury. Ms. Stevens, acting on instinct and adrenaline, kicked the zombified student away from the girl and practically threw her out the door, into the hallway. As far as she could tell-- she was one of the first out, in this particular hallway at least-- as she gazed back Ms. Stevens told her she'd stay behind and help some others get out, but that she'd find her later. Her last words to Colmillo were to [i]'run like hell.'[/i]

Colmillo [i]definitely[/i] walked away from the mess with a bit of a pep in her step.

She wandered the halls like this for a time, second? minutes? Her thoughts began to race, as they often did when... well, [i]anything[/i] happened. She knew she needed to do something, hide, but she couldn't figure out [i]where[/i]. People quickly began pooling into the halls behind her, running away from the... [i]zombies.[/i] They were fucking zombies. She'd been trying to kill herself for years, and [i]this[/i] was what was going to get her? How stupid. Appropriate perhaps, for a girl as stupid as her. Lost in her thoughts, she was pushed and fell to the floor as people ran past, screaming, not sure of what to do. Students around her were acting on what mostly seemed like adrenaline. Making it easy to run, but harder to think things through. Colmillo wasn't sure she [i]had[/i] adrenaline-- even before she had started seeing dead bodies every time she closed her eyes-- it felt like a reflex she was just born without. Usually when something bad happened she just froze and tried to think of a way to smooth things over. But there didn't seem to be any smoothing this over, she thought as she began to crawl, not then-- not for everyone having to suffer through this. She just wanted to help, if she had a quiet place to hide she could think this through...

Looking up, the downcast girl noticed the knob of the teacher's lounge, door slightly ajar.

[color=#139AE8][i]Huh.[/i][/color]

And she was alive-- mostly-- due to sleeping in class and a sweet teacher who had kept her close. She watched silently as people came in-- all school mates she didn't recognize, save for [i]maybe[/i] a face or two? She knew they didn't recognize her, though it seemed after what they'd seen in the auditorium most of them couldn't recognize anything, so many were trembling. Still, they were a proactive bunch, once the room reached max capacity, they began to barricade the doors. A student even took the chair she'd been sitting in to barricade against the door. She'd slumped against the wall after that, eventually falling to the floor, sitting with her legs crossed as her new companions worked, or panicked. 

Then they waited. 

As they did, Colmillo rested her head against her hand and occasionally got a look at the people around her, when she wasn't gazing at the ground. She probably looked bored-- she wasn't. While she didn't quite feel adrenaline, she [i]did[/i] feel fear. A lot of it. All the time. Every day. Every second for the past half decade. When she glanced up, seeing the tears and shakes and desperate attempts to make calls, she could tell they were feeling it too. She wanted to comfort some of them, to tell them that they'd get used to this feeling, that if they all kept calm they could figure something out. Even as she thought it, it kind of felt like a lie-- it was entirely possible that they were all going to die here. They were, technically, in a worse situation than the auditorium after all-- they were packed in an even smaller room, they didn't know how the sickness worked, so if anyone had it-- they'd just die in here even faster than the carnage she'd barely gotten to witness. She kept this to herself, it definitely wouldn't help anyone to hear that, and if [i]she'd[/i] figured it out then all of them definitely had.

She wondered if her family was okay? Colmillo figured they were definitely fine. After all, if her dumb ass could last this long, then they were invincible. Still, Gerald and Ashley gnawed at her... And Osiris was...

Someone spoke, breaking the long silence. Plan? Colmillo glanced briefly at the woman, not recognizing her at all. She blushed as she looked back down. A plan would be nice, it really would. But what did they have to work with? WiFi was down, so there was no hope of getting any news, their phones didn't seem to work in this room for some reason. So they couldn't gather anything about this illness, how to cure it, how it spread-- aside from the obvious way. So what information did they have to build a plan off of? The zombies seemed to have short enough attention spans, they left the lounge alone after a few minutes of silence, and Colmillo had gathered they retained at least some of their senses-- when she was on the floor they could have easily gone for her, but they seemed to prefer louder targets. Her experience in the auditorium taught her they'd also go after still targets, even if they were relatively quiet compared to other targets. Move silently and quickly? That was something, but it wasn't really a plan. Everyone had probably already gathered that much, anyway.

A boy spoke up from the corner, one of the people she'd seen crying that she wanted to comfort in some way. He said that he had a car and immediately Colmillo's anxiety spiked. Was that really the best idea right now? She thought it sounded terrible, but remained silent. Adrenaline high teenagers who had recently experienced a traumatic event probably shouldn't be driving-- especially if this was going on everywhere? All those panicked drivers... Well, they couldn't [i]know[/i] that this was happening anywhere outside of the school... but she felt they could reasonably assume [i]something[/i] was going on outside of the school, she thought. Someone would have been sent for them otherwise-- in fact, there was no way everyone's parents would just accept that their sons and daughters would be spending several days in Stockbridge's auditorium. 

Either they hadn't been informed and were having a hard time getting getting to the school to find out what was keeping their children, [i]or they had[/i] and... what? Everyone's parents had just accepted it? [i]None[/i] of them had tried to pick up their kids from school? The more she thought about it, the more she felt confident that something much worse was outside the school. It couldn't even fit all of them, anyway. And Colmillo knew that they should definitely stay together... the more people thinking on a way to get out of this together the better. But knowing that the main entrance was crowded was useful-- they'd need to move quickly and quietly to some side exit or something.

[COLOR=lightcoral]"We're fucked, aren't we?"[/color] He said. Colmillo looked back at the ground. Of [i]course[/i] he'd figured this all out already. Everyone in the room probably knew all this. She was struggling just to catch up. Why was she even trying to help? They've already figured out all she had-- definitely even more-- nothing she could add to this conversation would be worth anything. She scolded herself internally.

Another girl spoke after the boy with the car, one who knew the first girl, apparently. [color=BA55D3]"I don't want to stay here any longer than we have to, but how many of us have any idea on what the [i]hell[/i] is going on, other than everyone turning into cannibal freaks?"[/color]

[color=#139AE8][i]Zombies.[/i][/color] She mentally corrected. 

[color=BA55D3]"None of us know what's waiting for us out there, Fitz."[/color] 

[i][color=#139AE8]Something bad enough to have kept away everyone's parents for the past few days,[/color][/i] Colmillo thought. Fitz was the blonde's name, she noted. 

The brunette girl continued to speak, [color=BA55D3]"No matter what we decide on, we'll have to risk it, but, I don't know, shouldn't we at least take a moment to get our bearings and let people calm down before possibly rushing headfirst to our deaths?"[/color] 

[color=#139AE8][i]YES.[/i][/color] Colmillo agreed with this girl. Everyone was still freshly traumatized, they would only be able think of so many things in their current state-- if they took some time to let themselves decompress, let their instincts that had driven them here die down so they can all use their brains again, they'd definitely be able to come up with a better plan. Colmillo, despite herself, almost voiced her support of the brunette's idea-- but she couldn't get a peep out before a much louder voice chimed in.

[color=F4A460]"Huh?!"[/color] Another girl-- pretty, Colmillo noted-- immediately voiced, loudly. 

Loud noises. Ahh. Colmillo shrunk against the wall as she spoke, glancing nervously at the window above her to see if the zombies outside had heard her. Her eyes returned to the floor as the pretty girl explained her reasoning. They'd be 'sitting ducks' anywhere though, wouldn't they? If things outside were as bad as they were in the school, they at least knew they were safe from the outside threat in here. And there was running water-- that was really good, right? If they capitalized on that while it was still running and divided it nicely, they could last... a while in here, right? Colmillo wondered if there were any containers they could hold water in, in here...

Then a brunette boy spoke. Mentioning that he'd seen this before. [color=#139AE8][i]Like Zombieism?[/i][/color] Like, he'd seen it outside of fiction? Colmillo didn't really watch much TV besides a few cartoons, so she wasn't terribly informed on zombie media, but she knew enough to recognize that that's what these were. She didn't know that they happened in real life! She wondered if he had any more information-- like, if zombieism or whatever happened in other animals and it could be reversed, then maybe they could save some people? Colmillo shook her head internally. This kid might be smart-- but there definitely had to be other people who had tried to fix it. She was being stupid again.

[color=FF7C96]“I don’t give a shit what the hell is going on.”[/color] Fitz said, practically shooting daggers at the brunette-- Kay. 

Fitz seemed... kind of scary? No, that was unfair-- she was dealing with stress like everyone here. Colmillo was just worried about her way of handling it-- she seemed to be lashing out at Kay. And further still, how could she [i]not[/i] care about what's going on? [i]What's going on[/i] seemed like a pretty unpleasant death by zombie-- or people panicking. Colmillo knew well how dangerous panicked people could be. As much as she had fantasized about her own death, she didn't want to become something that would hurt other people. That sounded terrible! Staying here for as long as it took for the initial shock to subside and to take stock of what they had, like the boy mentioned, and come up with a surefire way to keep everyone safe once they did leave should be the plan. As long as it took. 

Oh god... Colmillo had to say something, didn't she...? 

She felt her stomach knot up as another person spoke up-- one of the two black boys who had made it out, he looked a fair bit older than the other. He mentioned something rather sensible, Colmillo wondered if he had medical training, since he was asking about injuries. He might have even been in the pre-med club. Maybe he knew Ashley? Or maybe he was just asking because he was worried someone might... become a zombie? Colmillo felt a little bruised from when she was knocked to the floor earlier, especially her left arm-- but she didn't want to waste his time with something a benign as that, she was fine.

She looked back to Fitz, who appeared to be calmer, as she placed the things she had on the table. Calm was good. People arguing usually didn't lead to anything productive, and definitely induced more anxiety in the girl. If Fitz could accept that they'd need to spend enough time here for everyone to at least [i]somewhat[/i] process what was going on without an argument, that'd be for the best, she thought. For Colmillo's part, the tall, slender girl got up wordlessly, silently agreeing with the brown haired boy's suggestion and following Fitz's lead, placed her thermos on the table-- it may have been useful as a blunt object, she supposed? Though, she really hoped it didn't come to that, with people who could potentially be cured-- next to her thermos she dumped the entire contents of her messenger bag on the table without thinking-- this was a mistake. 

Out fell more useless batteries and crumpled up pieces of paper than she cared to mention, most rolled uselessly onto the floor of the lounge. [color=#139AE8][i]Great job! You've only made everything in here worse.[/i][/color] The few things she had on her that weren't literal garbage weren't of much use either. A single composition notebook filled with her chicken scratch, a couple of pens and pencils chewed on to hell and back, a beat-up but still functional walkman disc player, one of the last things she had of her father, some CDs, still in their cases [i](Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version, The Steven Universe Movie Soundtrack, A Fleetwood Mac Compilation Album, The Adventure Time Soundtrack, and The Mouse & The Mask),[/i] her earbuds, her phone (which she had turned off days ago, after a few failed attempts at calling her mother) and some chapstick. Looking at her pile of useless junk made her want to die, this only increased as she felt the weight of the glances of the others in the room bore into her like drills. For a moment, she seriously considered just snapping a CD in half and slitting her throat, then and there. But... she really liked those CDs, at least. And there was the whole question of 'if she died would she come back?' She didn't want to inconvenience anyone. Ugh.

Colmillo decided then and there that she'd just be mute around these people. At least they wouldn't bother her as much if they thought she was non-verbal, right? As she continued staring at her pile, she glanced over to Fitz's-- noting that there really wasn't much useful there either, just better organized than her own mess. This alleviated her stress a little-- but only a little. Colmillo also figured that their phones could still have [i]some[/i] use, as her eyes flicked between her own and the blonde's. If the zombies were stupid-- and attracted to [i]any[/i] noise... then they could maybe set off alarms on their phones? If they could leave the room without being seen, or maybe even just slide the phones down the hall...? And the phone with an alarm set was far enough away-- maybe it would draw some of them away? She narrowed her eyes at the phones, she knew she'd be willing to sacrifice hers for the experiment, she was never particularly attached to the thing, it was really just a device for calling her Mother and looking at memes. Turning slightly, she looked at the barrier the other students had made...

She couldn't just... start taking it down for the sake of some curiosity. She doubted she even had the strength to, and anyway...[h3][center][color=#139AE8][i][b]It was a stupid idea.[/b][/i][/color][/center][/h3]
With that, Colmillo let out a yawn. She wanted to go back to sleep, but she was up now. She figured may as well do [i]something[/i] useful. So she moved over to the sink and began looking through the cabinets, and whatever other nooks or crannies the room held. Looking for anything useful or something that could hold water-- she was worried it could be turned off at any second. Apparently more worried about that than how many strange looks she was sure she was getting.[/color][/indent][hr]