Cat was on her lunch break when the zombies came storming through the building. There had been rumors of undead outbreaks in Ireland and other countries prior to this, so it didn’t come as a complete surprise. Cat had even been joking about the subject with her sister Jules a few nights earlier, and had said that she didn’t think she’d notice a difference if all of her students were turned into zombies.
Still, like most sensible people, Cat had dismissed the rumors. She hadn’t been expecting an invasion, and like the majority of her fellow teachers and their students, she froze when she spotted the monsters streaming through the school.
Cat had been on her way to the staff room, but had stopped when she’d seen a group of girls hanging out in a chemistry lab. They shouldn’t have been there. Cat thought about saying nothing, but a few of the girls would be in her class after lunch and she was worried that they might sneak in some combustible materials and start a fire—it wouldn’t be the first time. So, with a sigh, she went in to chase them out.
It should have been a simple eviction, but the girls only laughed when she told them to leave. “We’re not doing any harm, miss,” they protested.
“Out,” she insisted.
“But why?” they whined. “It’s quiet in here. We can do a bit of extra studying.”
She spent several minutes arguing with them. She could have threatened to report them to the principal–all of the students apart from Becky Smith were wary of Miss Reed–but that would have been a sign of weakness. She had learned very quickly that if you were to stand up to these little savages, you had to stand by yourself.
The girls had almost given up and were at the point of leaving when the screams rang out and they caught sight of the first wave of zombies.
Cat knew with a single glimpse that these were genuine members of the living dead. They were ripping open throats and skulls, lashing out at anyone in reach. They had long fangs and there were bones sticking out of their fingers and toes. They hunted like predators. Each one of them would scratch or bite a few passersby, then target an individual and bring the victim down before cracking open the poor person’s skull and digging into their brain.
Cat and the girls watched the slaughter with horror. Cat wasn’t surprised to see the students who had been wounded start to turn into zombies themselves. It had always been that way in the movies.
Then a few of the zombies set their sights on the group in the chemistry lab and lumbered through the doorway.
That was when Cat came into her own. Reacting instinctively in line with her motto that there were no second chances in life, she grabbed one of the girls and threw her to the advancing zombies. As the girl screamed with terror, Cat grabbed two of the other spiteful cows and pushed them after the first.
The rest of the girls shrieked and ducked out of the way of their teacher, but Cat didn’t care. The zombies had stopped to feast on the three she’d propelled at them, giving her a chance to break free before any others came in.
Dashing to the rear of the lab, which overlooked a small courtyard, Cat smashed the window to pieces with a chair. Then she leaped through and set off for the front of the building.
She never looked back, or called to the terrified, helpless girls in the lab to follow her, or spared a thought for the three she had condemned. This wasn’t a time for pausing. It was a time for action. Those who seized their chance might get away. The rest would be lost. And Cat Ward had no time for losers.