Endless Recess

A Cold Winter Night| Part 1

The clouds were gray and thick on the sky, even this early in the morning.

The wind crashed against Emma's window with ferocity, shaking it and managing to get through it even if it was closed shut.

Emma rested on her makeshift bed, she wasn't sleeping, unsurprisingly it was something difficult for her to achieve.

She held her cellphone in her hand, with a single tap of her thumb the screen lit.

It was 6:16 am.

She raised from the ground, her hair a tangled mess, walked up to the window, and peeked through.

The world outside had changed little.

The corpses dominated the streets as their sinister frames walked around the streets deserted of anything living.

Not even the birds went to the ground anymore, as they would try to catch anything alive and big enough to be noticed.

Emma wouldn't be surprised if they could see a mosquito they might try to eat it.

She watched them either stand still as if they were truly dead or slowly walk a few meters.

Nothing had changed.

She was about to close the window when something caught her attention.

One of the corpses was bashing its head against a light pole. ferociously even, as if it did so with hatred.

Emma opened the window shaking window and a powerful wind quickly invaded her room, it was strong but fleeting.

She leaned forward, focusing all her attention on the corpse hitting its head.

A first look didn't fare many answers, its ragged appearance was similar to that of all the other corpses.

At that moment, a pigeon landed on the ground nearby, feasting on a toppled trash can.

A few of the corpses noticed the creature and turned their bodies in its direction, yet, the one hammering its head against the pole jumped with incredible speed and caught the bird in its jaws.

First, Emma was shocked, then the realization hit her, the day of the outbreak those who came back were quick on their feet, noisy and savage.

But ever since she first left the security of the barricade weeks ago, every one of them was slow and lethargic.

That would mean that whoever that corpse was, it came back not so long ago.

The sound of footsteps made Emma look behind at the door, then at the clock on the wall, without noticing more than half an hour had passed and classes were about to begin.

She held the curtain and spared one more glance at the corpse feasting on the gored bird in its hands.

She then closed them and grabbed her backpack.

Entering class almost everyone was there already, everyone except Heather's bunch and of course, Annie.

Emma walked to her place and sat, placing a book about literature in front of her, Mathew was sitting next to her, after exchanging pleasantries the discovery of earlier made for a great topic of conversation in her head.

"Hey Mat, have you noticed how they have changed compared to the early days of the outbreak?" She said dragging her desk a little more closer to his.

"They? what do you mean?" He replied, doing the same with his desk.

"I mean, at the start of the outbreak, they used to run and jump around, now, they can barely jog"

Mathew seemed to be taken by surprise by that fact, his eyes widened as he noticed the difference.

"You are right, none of the ones we have faced has tried to run at us"

"Why do you think that is? I thought it could be due to how long has it been since they have raised"

Mathew carefully considered her words in his mind as he weighed his own opinion on the matter.

"Don't you think it's because of the cold?" He said after looking at his jacket "Maybe after a while it slows them down"

"You do have a point there" Pensive, Emma stared at the ground for a moment "Have you ever thought about this?"

"They getting slower? not before but-"

"No, no" Emma raised her eyes to meet Mathews " I mean the outbreak, this whole, s**t that just appeared out of nowhere"

Mathew looked away for a brief moment, he seemed to ponder something, but once he looked back at her he seemed, troubled.

"Yeah, I have"

They remained silent for a moment, Emma, realizing he wasn't going to tell her, grew curious.

"So? spill it"

"Y-you can't laugh" he squinted his eyes as a slight reddish coloration tainted his face.

"I promise" Amused, Emma extended her pinky.

Mathew giggled and rolled his eyes, he then grabbed her pinky with his own.

"If you laugh, you swallow a thousand burning nails" he said pointing his finger at her as if warning her.

"I know, I know" they let each other go "Now, tell me"

Mathew seemed nervous, he leaned in closer and motioned with his hand for her to do the same, Emma did so and he whispered in her ear.

"I think black magic is behind this"

Immediately Emma moved back and stared at her friend with a raised eyebrow and doubt.

"You are serious?"

"I-I am! how else do you explain it?" Offended, he crossed his arms.

"I don't know, a virus? manmade or set free from the south poles due to global warming?"

"That's ludicrous! there is no way a virus can resuscitate the dead!"

"And you tell me Merlin mistook his books one afternoon?"

"What's cooking in here?" Brook appeared out of nowhere making Mathew jump in his place "You talking about whatever this is?"

"Jesus Christ Brook" Mathew held his chest as he stared at the teen with a mixture of anger and still fear.

"Yeah" Emma said leaning back on her chair "Mat thinks it's black magic"

Betrayed, Mathew gasped as he pointed at Emma.

"You were not supposed to tell anyone! a thousand burning nails, a thousand!!"

"We never agreed to that" Emma said smiling villainously.

"Oh, s**t, I should specify better"

"I think it's NANOBOTS!" Jason shouted from behind Mathew, once again, making him jump.

"That is not funny, I'm serious" Mathew said more flustered than ever.

"Of course-" Brook smirked as he spoke but Jason spoke louder.

"And don't even dare say it's because I'm Asian! I'll sue you" both friends smiled at each other joyfully before Jason focused on Emma "But I'm serious, how else could they still walk with how deteriorated and broken their bodies are? not to mention their strength!"

The group considered Jason's words, nodding their heads as even if crazy, it at least provided more answers than the two other theories.

"But who could have made them? the Russians?" Brook asked dragging a nearby desk and sitting on it.

"Aliens" Jason said with complete confidence as he pointed upwards.

Everyone else in the group stared at him expressionlessly, but clearly, not buying his theory anymore.

"W-what?! it makes sense!"

"Enlighten us, Jason" Brook said mockingly.

"The aliens would want to terraform the Earth, so eliminating all forms of life first would seem logical" he spoke in a matter-of-fact tone with a little bit of arrogance " After everything is clean they can bathe the world with fire and then use their advance machinery to make the planet more alike to their homeworld!"

Everyone remained silent for a while, their faces serious.

"What about you Brook?" Emma asked looking at him.

"Don't ignore me!" Jason yelled as everyone else ignore him.

Brook brought his hand to his chin and closed his eyes while humming, after a couple of seconds he snapped his fingers and looked at her.

"Fungi"

Very surprised and confused at what he said, everyone stared at him with curiosity about what would he say later, something that he seemed to enjoy.

"I saw on TV a while ago about fungi that could control the body of their host" Mimicking Jason, Brook spoke as if he was an expert trying to communicate with troglodytes "You see, the fungi evolved due to radiation and the hatred that the Earth has for humanity because we cut trees, so she evolved this fungus to infect humans and now through it, she can eat us for our transgressions against her!"

Everyone stared at him as seriously as they stared at Jason a minute ago.

"For a second there I thought you were making sense" Emma said with her hand on her face.

"Your hopes are wasted with Brook" Jason said flipping off Brook, who was doing it first.

"Oh come on, Mathew thinks it's the work of the devil" Brook pointed with his thumb at him.

"Seriously?" Jason asked incredulously, looking at the irritated Mathew.

"It was a silly idea I know!"

"No! tell us in detail!" Brook said excitedly leaning closer to him.

"Yeah, I don't think we are gonna come up with an answer in here either way" Jason said sitting on top of Brook's desk.

Mathew was reluctant, but after feeling pressured by the stares of the others, he let out a defeated sigh.

"I don't mean like, God and Satan, I was thinking more about voodoo" He said nervously looking at their reaction when he saw they seemed interested in hearing more he relaxed a bit " With the dark arts you are supposed to be able to raise someone recently deceased and force him to do your will"

"But in this scale? the whole city it's gone, if not most of the country, or the world" Jason spoke, raising his eyebrow.

"The day of the outbreak, the horde of undead came from the north of the city right? directly opposite from us" Waiting until everyone agreed, Mathew then pointed at the window near Emma "The crypts are over there, so maybe someone or a group tried to bring a corpse back to life but failed, causing everything to spiral out of control"

"That's just dumb" Jason said snickering at him.

"I don't know Jason, maybe he has a point" Emma said looking at the roof as she thought about his words.

"What?! you don't think aliens exist but evil spirits DO?!" Outraged, he stood up.

"Calm down bro, there is a lot of unexplained stuff out there" Brook said staring at the window with a stern look.

"It does not surprise me coming from you, but Emma?!" Jason still, couldn't believe Mathew's theory was more popular than his.

"I guess at the end anything is possible" Emma said lowering her eyes and looking at the ground.

"I'm sorry for eavesdropping" Joshua approached the group shily, his bible always in hand "But any of you have considered that there may be another option?"

They stared at him, waiting for him to speak, he coughed a couple of times, and even if clearly nervous, he somehow managed to speak with a steady voice.

"Maybe this is God's work"

"Well, I think we all supposed what you were gonna say" Brook said a little uncomfortable.

"But how can you back up your claims?" Jason said not taking Joshua seriously.

"I mean, none of us had any, but" Mathew struggled to find the correct words.

"If this is God's fault, then why the hell did he do this?" Emma spoke, some irritation in her voice.

Everyone else remained quiet.

"W-well, listen to this" Joshua walked closer to the group "Maybe the first undead were people that God took from this Earth, their carcasses roaming the Earth trying to eat the soul of others since they now lack one, and once a person dies and their soul joins the heavens, the cycle repeats"

The skepticism of the group dwindled slightly, as Joshua's words somehow made sense.

"But they used to run and now they are all slow, how do you explain that?" Brook asked as if it was an extremely important question that could disprove his theory.

"Christmas it's close right? It's a holy date, so these husks that are all the wrong of humanity become weaker"

"So, you are saying that not a single one of us, of anyone in the school, was taken? in other words, we are all unworthy?" Jason said crossing his arms and staring at Joshua closely.

"Let me answer you with another question, has any of you seen any children at all?"

Emma's eyes almost popped out, she hadn't seen any children since the outbreak began.

This was a large school so of course, it had several hundred young children, yet, she had never seen any.

She saw the others in the group and realized they too seemed to scramble their heads to find any memory with a kid in it after the outbreak.

Joshua seemed almost satisfied, at the inability of the others to fight against him.

"Children are pure, so not only did God take them, but he also took their bodies, as they were not tainted yet by dirty thoughts"

"So" Mathew said " You were also not selected?" he looked at Joshua, who with shame shook his head.

"I've had impure thoughts and desires as I'm sure all of you had, That must have made me unworthy of being taken"

Suddenly everyone was silent, considering Joshua's words and implications, but none more than Emma.

It couldn't be true, no God should leave its creations in such a horrible and twisted world.

Maybe criminals who had committed horrible acts, but a bunch of teenagers? only because someone had a boner or thought that one shirtless guy looked hot, it's out of the blue, tainted, and can't be spared?

"I think you are wrong" Emma said, turning her head and looking at the window, using her hand to move away from the curtain and look at the outside world "If you were right, God would have taken Layla"

"Good morning everyone" Mr. Asher said entering the room "Please, take your seats"

The group disbanded as everyone went to their respective seats.

The class went on smoothly, and as usual, Emma found herself caught by the empty skyscrapers and empty streets of the world outside.

The strong wind shook the window furiously, she looked up to the dark sky and felt, abandoned.

There had ever been an entity watching over them? and if there was.

Are you having fun? do you like what you see?

She thought, frowning slightly as she stared at the clouds.

It was not fair.

Sooner than expected, Mr. Asher's wristwatch began to beep, signaling the end of his class.

He left the class and right after Heather's bunch walked in, but the lioness herself was nowhere to be seen.

"I wonder why Heather didn't come this morning, maybe she's in the bathroom?" Mathew said turning to Emma.

"Last night Sarah told me she was crying, maybe she just didn't felt like coming"

Mathew's eyes popped as he seemed shocked at the revelation.

"Well, that's new, my brother should be with her" he briefly glances in his direction, sitting in front of the class "But he is not"

Before any of the two could say anything the door of the classroom opened once again, but it was not Miss Juliet who walked in, it was Annie.

She quickly reached Mathew's desk with a few steps and leaned on his shoulder.

"Hey handsome" she messed up his already messy hair making him blush "Come with me, I'm bored"

"I-I don't know, Miss Juliet's class is about to begin and-" seeing Annie's usual smirk disappear quickly made him feel pressured "Maybe, later?"

Emma stared at his friend and then locked eyes with Annie, she still felt that sensation that Annie was no good, but after what had happened out in the garden she felt those feelings were wrongly placed.

"You should go Mat, Miss Juliet won't mind if you skip a class" she said looking away from them both.

"S-sure?"

"Your mom said it was alright, come on!" Impatiently, Annie lifted him from his arm.

"I guess I'll see you later" Mathew waved at Emma even if she wasn't looking at him.

Soon they disappeared from the room not much later Miss Juliet walked in.

The class began but Emma was now busy thinking about other matters to focus on the lesson.

Annie.

Their few encounters were never smooth or normal, she had always felt, imposing.

Invading.

Threatening.

The way she spoke, the way she acted, the way she did anything at all simply seemed, alarming to Emma.

But she had never actually done something deserving of those thoughts, not that she knew about at least.

Emma remembered the first time she saw Annie.

It was two years ago, the classroom rarely had new students, it was not cheap and it was fairly far away.

That morning the physics teacher introduced her, she looked more or less the same, the main difference was that her hair was long, the longest of any girl, covering almost her entire face, with a long blue strand on it.

Emma watched her from afar for a while, unsure of how to approach her, so she ended up stalking her for a while.

Her unintentional stalking led her to follow her to the backside of the coliseum, where she saw the thing that later would become widespread about her.

How a couple of sketchy-looking guys gave her money and she in return gave them little bags filled with white powder.

Cocaine.

From that day on, she simply remained distant, but never stopped watching her.

As time went on what seemed like a shy girl soon turned to the Annie everyone knows, quiet, cold, and in her own way, frightening.

Always alone.

But now she sought out Mathew, her friend.

Before it could have been weird but, times change.

And the biggest change was easily spotted by just looking out the windows.

Loneliness, she understood that anyone would seek company in a situation like this.

She smiled to herself, Mat was definitely the best choice, he was kind, sweet, and a great friend.

And who knew? maybe through him, they could become friends.

There was no need for enemies in this world, for all she knew, they were the only ones left.

The door opened again and Emma realized it was Miss Juliet leaving, Mr. Landon was still resting, now in his room.

Quickly she stored her books and rushed out to speak with Miss Juliet.

"Oh, what is it, Emma?" Smiling warmly, as usual, Miss Juliet stopped when she heard Emma calling out to her.

"Miss Juliet" She had difficulty asking for it, like the first time she did "I need to speak to you" but she had no choice.

"I see, come with me then, let's go to my office" she turned around and walked in direction of the counseling room.

"If you had something to do I can wait"

"Don't be silly" she giggled as she unlocked the door "I had to meet with someone, but that can wait"

They walked in and Miss Juliet locked the door, it was the first time Emma had gotten inside the counseling room, as even before they just spoke outside of the school grounds.

The place was pretty and elegant, fancy-looking wooden furniture was all around, as well as a few paintings of flowers and wildlife.

There was a huge sofa color wine and a smaller one right in front of it, a coffee desk made out of glass in between them.

A couple of pots with large green vegetation either on the corners of the room or a few with flowers hanging on the wall.

A single window with its orange curtains shut.

Miss Juliet picked up some magazines that were on the floor and placed them back on the desk, she then sat on the smaller sofa and with her hand told Emma to sit in front of her.

A little insecure, she walked to the sofa and sat with her hands in the pocket of her hoodie.

"I would ask if you wanted any coffee, but I drank it all the first days of the outbreak" she chuckled with a little bit of embarrassment "I liked it so much, had an industrial amount of it in here before"

"I can tell, it still smells like it" Emma gladly took in the intoxicating aroma of the coffee beans.

They remained in silence for a short while, Emma looking around her, this place made her feel, like home.

"What did you want to tell me, Emma?"

Miss Juliet asked her and she was still slightly reluctant to open up, it was something she had never grown used to.

For the longest time, she had always kept everything to herself, because what could other people know about her that she didn't?

How could they ever comprehend how she felt if they were not her?

But she was running out of options, burying her emotions, her thoughts, it was starting to consume her.

"I feel bad" It was all she managed to say.

"I see, what upsets you?"

"Myself, my own-" she struggled to use the correct words "What I do, or what I don't"

Miss Juliet simply nodded and remained quiet.

"I can't say what I think or what I feel because It sounds selfish, it sounds stupid"

"Is it blame?"

Now Emma was quiet and nodded.

"It's Layla, I'm guilty of her death" She squeezed the fabric of her hoodie " And I still, can see her face"

Her voice cracked as her eyes shinned and lips trembled.

"I killed her"

"Blaming you is wrong, Emma" Miss Juliet stared at her with compassion "Layla wanted your happiness as much as she wanted her own, agreeing to go out that night, it was for her as it was for you"

"But if I had never suggested we did, if I had stayed quiet, she would still be alive" The tears began to fall as she furiously dried them with her hand.

"No one knows that and thinking that you do, will only cause you pain"

"It's not the only one Miss Juliet, yesterday too" a mixture of anger and regret in her speech "I put everyone in danger, we almost died because of me"

"No one can ever be fully prepared for the nightmare that is the outside, Emma you are a kid" Miss Juliet stood from her sofa and sat next to Emma, hugging her "It's not fair for any of you to have such responsibility on your shoulders"

"Even before this, with my parents!" Emma broke down on Miss Juliet, crying.

"Your parents loved you, my dear! They just were not made for each other, as a child, you have no way to know what went down between them, they have many reasons to no longer wish to be with each other"

"They seemed happy, for so long"

"That was probably because of the sweet daughter they had" Miss Juliet chuckled as she pinched Emma's cheek "Probably they were together for as long as they did for you"

"Did I failed?"

"No, my dear" Miss Juliet moved Emma aside for a bit, so they could look at each other "It was their mistake to believe you could keep them together, no parent should put that weight on their child"

Emma calmed down a little bit, laughing nervously, she felt very embarrassed of crying.

"You never had control over their hearts, just as you never have control over Layla's decisions, they did what they think was right for their own lives"

The room fell silent once again, except for the rainy nose of Emma.

"But you do have control over something, Yourself" Miss Juliet smiled warmly " They made their choices, you have to make yours, and any choice you take must be what makes you happy"

Emma looked at the ground, what made her happy?

Many of the things she loved to do were gone or just didn't seem she could do ever again.

But there was one thing she loved, it was to create.

She always loved to try and create all types of things, pull apart objects, and see how they worked, she began to think of all the things she could do for the group she was in.

All the improvements she could do for how they lived.

It was not only making things that made her happy, it was making those she cared about happy.

She smiled realizing that it was exactly what Layla had told her.

Live

For the past almost two months she had survived, but it was time to try and live.

"Thank you, Miss Juliet" Emma stood up.

"Are you sure there is nothing else you want to tell me?"

"No, I feel better and-" She felt a newfound determination burning inside of her, like when she decided to show Layla the stars " I have a lot to do from now on!" she raised a fist into the air with excitement.

Miss Juliet chuckled again and stood up as well, walking to the door and unlocking it so Emma could leave.

Emma waved goodbye at her and rushed out, she ran to one of the unused classrooms, there were a lot of things inside many lockers that no one had any use of for the moment.

She opened the door and kneeled in front of a big pile of things littering the floor.

I'm gonna help everyone, no one else will be hurt like Mr. Landon, no one else will die.

I will make sure of it, for everyone else, I will protect them and help them.

This world can extinguish the light of everything but my will.

I will live.

She thought as she grabbed several objects, smiling broadly, aware that from now on, she had a reason to fight and felt lighter.

Understanding better, how not to put on herself, what she couldn't change.

But if she could change the lives of everyone in the group so they could be happier.

She would.