Supernatural Awakening

Chapter 8: The Shamblers

Caleb washed his hands, scrubbing the red blood away until his skin was raw.

"I'm safe," he told himself in the mirror. "My blood is red. I look like a Vampire. I can hide."

He took a deep breath, composing himself. Just go back to class. Act normal. You are Caleb Vance, the invisible orphan.

He unlocked the stall and stepped out.

Suddenly, a scream ripped through the air.

It wasn't a playful schoolyard scream. It was a guttural shriek of pure terror.

"Run! Run!"

"They're eating him! Oh my god!"

Caleb rushed to the hallway window. The courtyard below, usually filled with students eating lunch, was a scene of chaos. Students were stampeding toward the main building, trampling over each other.

"What is going on?"

"The school... invaded?" Caleb frowned. Schools were safe zones. Even the monsters usually respected the barriers.

"Caleb!"

Tubbs appeared at the bathroom door, panting and pale. "Don't go out there! It's madness! There are... things... in the cafeteria!"

"Things?"

"Shamblers!" Tubbs yelled. "Like in the movies! But fast! They're biting people!"

Caleb’s blood ran cold. Shamblers. Failed Awakened. Humans who rejected the serum and turned into mindless ghouls.

"Go hide," Caleb ordered Tubbs. "Lock yourself in the janitor's closet. Don't make a sound."

"Where are you going?!" Tubbs grabbed his arm. "You're a twig! You'll get killed!"

"I'm just going to look," Caleb lied, pulling his arm free. "I'm fast. Trust me."

He left Tubbs and sprinted down the stairs, skipping steps three at a time.

His heart rate began to climb—not from exertion, but from something else. A resonance.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

His heart, usually a metronome at 60 seconds, was speeding up. One beat every ten seconds.

"Why is my heart racing?" Caleb wondered, touching his chest. "Is it... feeding time?"

He reached the ground floor and peered through the glass doors of the cafeteria.

It was a slaughterhouse.

Five figures were tearing through the panicked crowd. Their skin was grey, their eyes milky white. They moved with jerky, unnatural spasms, but they were fast. Too fast for zombies.

Caleb analyzed them instantly. Shamblers. But not students. They're wearing street clothes. Adults.

How did five adult Shamblers get into a secure high school? They didn't just walk past security.

"They were planted here," Caleb realized. "Or summoned."

He watched as a Shambler tackled a girl from the debate team. It pinned her down, jaws snapping.

Caleb’s fist clenched. He wanted to help. He could burst through that door, transform his arm, and decapitate the Shambler in two seconds.

But there were cameras. There were hundreds of witnesses.

If he revealed his power now, his life was over. The Wolf King would find him. The government would bag him.

"Dammit!"

He stood paralyzed by indecision. The hero instinct fought against the survival instinct.

Then, the cafeteria doors exploded outward.

ROAR!

A massive creature crashed through the entrance, sending glass and debris flying.

It wasn't a human Shambler. It was a beast.

A rat. A giant, mutated rat the size of a minivan. Its back was covered in razor-sharp quills, and its eyes glowed with a demonic red light.

"A Magic Beast?" Caleb gasped. "A Backstab Rat?"

This was bad. Shamblers were E-Class threats. A Magic Beast was D-Class, bordering on C. It could tear through concrete.

The giant rat sniffed the air. It ignored the screaming students. It ignored the fresh blood on the floor.

It turned its head.

It looked directly at the hallway where Caleb was hiding.

Its nostrils flared.

"It smells me," Caleb realized with horror. "It smells the royal blood."

The rat shrieked—a sound that shattered windows—and charged. It wasn't hunting students. It was hunting him.

"Target acquired," Caleb muttered dryly. "Me."

He turned and ran. He didn't run toward the exits where the students were. He ran deeper into the school, toward the abandoned east wing.

He had to draw it away.

Thump-thump-thump.

Heavy paws slammed against the floor behind him, getting closer. The smell of rot and musk filled the hallway.

Caleb skidded around a corner, entering a dead-end corridor.

"Okay," he panted, facing the oncoming monster. "No cameras here. No witnesses."

He let the rage take over. His left arm exploded into fur and claw. His right eye glowed crimson.

The rat rounded the corner, drool dripping from its fangs. It launched itself into the air, aiming to crush him.

Caleb braced himself. "Come on, you ugly rodent."

Whoosh!

Before the rat could land, a blur of green motion shot out from a nearby ventilation duct.

A wooden spear—no, a sharpened tree branch—impaled the rat mid-air, pinning it to the wall with the force of a hydraulic press.

SQUEEE!

The rat thrashed, pinned like a butterfly.

A man dropped from the ceiling. He was tall, wearing camouflage, with eyes that looked like swirling leaves.

Aoki.

He glanced at Caleb, noting the transformed Wolf Arm. He didn't look surprised.

"You have decent instincts, kid," Aoki said, his voice calm amidst the chaos. "But you're loud. And you smell like a beacon."

He turned his back on Caleb, walking toward the thrashing rat.

"Jinx was right. You really do attract trouble."

Caleb stared at the man's back, his claw slowly retracting into a human hand.

"Special Group?" Caleb asked.

Aoki didn't answer. He just raised his hand, and the wooden spear grew thorns, shredding the rat from the inside out.

"Class is dismissed, Caleb Vance. Time to graduate to the real world."