Shula regretted taking the first watch with Joon Woo. That annoying man had snuck off to puff his rings of smoke into the fresh night air too many times to count. She shouldn’t have given him that pack of cigarettes. Left alone with her own devices, she kept on drifting off to sleep. She tried analyzing the plasma shield problem but her brain was fried. Then, she paced the atrium until her legs gave out under her. 

The rest of the survivors had settled in for the night. Ah Long, the bald supply runner, was still up when she had last patrolled. His arms engulfed his two sleeping kids like a protection blanket as he looked out at the night sky. The mysterious woman, Sinjin, slept under the pile of tables, her body curled in an odd way to avoid the metal legs, her red duffel bag peeking out from under her arms.

She had seen Joon Woo talking to the male doctor, Junming, earlier. Her pointed glare at him had made him pout but thankfully, nothing had happened. The next time she saw the doctor, he was sleeping peacefully. With no Joon Woo beside him.

But now, that nicotine addict was nowhere to be seen again. He said he was headed to the toilet, that is to say somewhere out in the open where he could whip it out. She leaned back in her seat and sighed. Her fingers lingered on the handle of her bat. 

Solar panel-powered lamp posts illuminated the rare firefly or gnat buzzing around but its dim light was eclipsed by the inky darkness. Peaceful nights like these were a trap. It dulled your senses with the singing of the crickets and the soft patter of the rain, taking you back to a time when the world wasn’t full of walking corpses and survival was taken for granted. 

Shula watched out for moving shadows hidden within the cover of the night, but the more she squinted, the more her eyes drifted shut. When her eyes flew open again, she was no longer a twenty-nine-year-old adult but a tiny child of five or six, padding down a familiar corridor reeking of cigarette smoke. A dull shaft of light cut through the hallway from the half-open door to her parents’ bedroom. Hushed voices drifted down to her.

“-this is part of my job, don’t you get it?” A low, gravely voice snapped.

She tiptoed closer until her dainty feet were planted behind the door. Clutching the edge of the frame, she peeked into the room. Her mother stood in front of the bed, arms wrapped around her chest. Her white traditional dress, or baju kurung, billowed at her feet as the stand fan blew at her back. 

The young Shula’s gaze was pulled to her father as he crossed over to the wardrobe and took down several of his best shirts and slacks. His skinny, long face was pulled into a stern expression that sent a shiver down her small spine. She cowered, afraid he had seen her, but he hadn’t noticed her tiny head poking around the frame.

“Your family needs you. Shula needs you,” her mother pleaded. “She’s still so young.”

“She’ll be fine.”

“Why do you need to go?”

“I told you already, woman.” Irritation clouded her father’s tone. “The company sees the potential in my work and they’re promoting me to a position in headquarters.”

“You can do the work remotely from here, right?”

Her father closed his suitcase with a snap and muttered a curse in Cantonese under his breath. “Of course not, you silly fool. Don’t you see this is a huge honor? You should be celebrating, not whining.”

“How can I be celebrating when we won’t get to see you for god knows how long?” 

For the first time in her life, Shula heard her mother raise her voice. Tears sprang to her eyes. She didn’t understand everything but she knew her father was leaving, her mother was upset, and she felt a sliver of guilt that this had to do with her.

“You’ll get used to it,” her father’s cold voice sealed the end of the fight.

He stood up and brushed past his wife, his suitcase in hand. Shula had little time to react. Her heart pounded in fear as she tried to press herself against the wall and away from the door. Her father’s footsteps grew louder until the sound drowned out her heartbeat.

When he pushed the door wide open, she thought her heart would stop. Light spilled out into the hallway and as she shied away from its exposure, she bumped into one of the toys she had left on the floor, sending it clattering. She gasped in terror, her hands flying to her mouth.

Her father halted in his steps. He looked down at her, his slit-like eyes drinking in her presence as if she were an intruder into his space. She shriveled into a ball under his intense scrutiny. She wished the floor would swallow her up and whisk her away into her mother’s embrace. 

Before she could apologize for eavesdropping, her father spun on his heels and walked off. Her mother hurried after him. Shula’s wide eyes followed her father’s figure down the hallway, his pasty complexion melting into the darkness of the living room, his suitcase being the last thing she could see of him. The black suitcase with a large green ‘E’ symbol encircled by a pattern of triangles emblazoned onto its nylon skin.

Eden.

Shula awoke with a start. Her chest heaved as she panted and wheezed. Cold sweat beaded her forehead. Her eyes flitted wildly, taking in the high ceilings and giant pillars with increasing panic until she realized where she was. 

As her heart settled into its normal rhythm, she lifted her arm and glanced at her thinwatch. It was thirty-six minutes past midnight and almost twenty minutes since she had fallen asleep.

Grunting, she straightened in her chair. A hand massaged the cricks in her neck while the other felt for the bat that must have fallen to the ground. She reached back, searching the concrete floor until her fingers brushed against something cold and clammy.

She tensed. 

A chill crept up her arm and slithered its way to her spine. She swiveled her head around. 

Her heart stopped.

Right behind her stood an undead. Mouth wide open, drool dripping to the floor, a single bloodshot eye unfocused on something to her right. A soft gurgling sound escaped its throat. 

She didn’t move. Didn’t breathe.

One second passed. Then two.

Her wide eyes watched it shuffle like a slug past her chair. She struggled against the urge to suck in a breath as the lack of oxygen set her lungs on fire. Her vision blurred, panic settling into her bones as she fought off a wave of nausea. When it was five meters away from her, she finally let out a shaky exhale. 

Her gaze drifted to the atrium. The lights in the school were traditionally powered and couldn’t work. So before everyone had gone to sleep, they had set up five torches around the perimeter. 

Shula squinted. She couldn’t see anything caught in the overlapping cones of the dirty yellow glow. A flash of lightning illuminated the atrium. There, in the midst of the sleeping group, were four zombies shuffling aimlessly around. Her chest constricted in terror. How could they have missed spotting the zombies? And why were the corpses moving so slowly like dormant-

Fuck. Her eyes widened.

The blocked bathrooms. The dormant zombies must have found their way out, triggered into action by their loud fighting in the evening. Hungry and denied light for ages, the zombies moved like snails and spread out across the school in search of food but were close to blind.

If they didn’t make a sound, they would be safe. But who knew what would happen once people started waking up? And where the hell was Joon Woo?! 

She slowly swiveled around in her chair. Outside, the rain pelted the ground with a vengeance. Her mind scrambled a plan together. She could wake each person silently with a clamped hand over their mouth. If they could get to the scout car-

Movement outside stole her attention. Her eyes narrowed. A shadow scrambled close to the attached cart. Purposeful, stealthy. Definitely human. 

Shit, if an intruder were to steal their car, their escape options were severely limited. She stood up, careful not to make a sound. If she could get to the intruder, she might stand a chance. Her hands balled into fists and she stepped closer.

The sky lit up. The intruder turned.

Shula’s hand flew to her mouth. It was one of the men from their group. Their eyes met. She could see the fear written on his face. He lifted a finger to his lips, his palms pressing together in a plea. On the other side of the car, his female partner lifted the solar panel with both hands, intending to close it. 

Anger rose in Shula’s chest. These two idiots were jeopardizing all their lives, choosing to run away without waiting for the group to leave the next day. They must have thought they stood a better chance alone. 

She made to move when a loud bang resounded in the cold night air. Her gaze darted to the idiot woman who had her hand over her mouth. The solar panel was back in the closed position. The woman’s fingers must have slipped. The fucking woman might as well have rung the dinner bell for the zombies. Soft grunts from afar filled the air. She whirled around but she was too late.

A shriek inside the atrium turned her veins to ice. Hell had broken loose.