Love In The Dead Days

The First Scream

My name is Isabella Kim. My friends call me Isa. I am 21 years old. Second year at Westwood University in California. I am half Korean, half American. Long black hair, small body. I like staying indoors. I don't like parties. I go once in a while but I prefer to stay in my dorm, make handmade bracelets, read, and gist with my friends. My best friend is Chloe Martinez.

That Monday morning was very normal. I woke up at 6:30am. My iPhone 11 was charging beside my bed. The alarm was ringing. My dorm room, Room 12, was small but clean. Chloe was already awake, making coffee and toast with our small electric cooker. Outside, the sun was shining, birds were singing. It looked like a normal school day that would be boring.

We had 8am lecture - History of Art. Our professor, Mr. Davis, is old, 60 years old, talks slowly. He was writing on the board about Renaissance art. The class was hot because air conditioner was not working. Some students were sleeping, some were pressing phones, some were writing.

Then we heard it.

A scream. Very loud scream from outside the window, from the school field. Not normal scream. Like someone was being killed, like animal scream.

Everybody kept quiet and looked at each other. Professor stopped writing. Then another scream. And another. Many screams together.

Chloe ran to the window first because our seat was near window. She looked outside and her face turned white like paper. She shouted, "OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! ISA COME AND SEE! WHAT IS THAT!"

I ran to the window too. What I saw, I will never forget for the rest of my life.

On the school field, a guy from Engineering department was biting a girl's neck. Not fighting, not punching. Biting like a dog eats meat. Blood was everywhere on her white school shirt and on the green grass. The girl was struggling and shouting "Help! Help!" then she stopped moving. After 10 seconds, she stood up again. Her eyes were completely white, no black, no brown, just white. Her mouth was full of blood and she was growling "urrgh". She turned and started biting another boy near her.

More people started falling on the field. More people started biting. It was spreading fast, like fire spreading in bush.

The school security guard ran inside our lecture hall, sweating seriously, his uniform torn, shouting, "LOCK THE DOORS! LOCK THE DOORS! VIRUS! VIRUS OUTBREAK! EVERYONE LOCK THE DOORS! DON'T GO OUTSIDE!"

Professor Davis quickly pushed his table against the door and used a chair to lock it. Students were crying, shouting, calling their parents, but network was already bad.

On Twitter, i********:, w******p, news was spreading fast. Someone posted that a lab in California had a leak two days ago. A virus that makes people turn to zombies. If you get bitten or scratched, you turn into zombie in 24 hours. No cure yet. Government was trying to contain it but it reached our school.

The university management locked all school gates with chains. No one can enter, no one can leave. Police and army surrounded the school from outside but they did not enter inside. They left us trapped inside with the zombies.

That was how it started. That Monday morning, 8:15am. The dead days started in Westwood University.