All Of Us Are Dead || AOUAD

The fluorescent lights flickered overhead. Every classroom window had been reinforced with overturned desks, bookshelves, broken tables, and anything else the students had managed to drag into place. Chairs were wedged beneath door handles, backpacks filled the gaps between furniture, and strips of torn gym uniforms had been tied around loose barricades to stop them from rattling every time another infected body slammed into the walls.

Outside... The hallway echoed with distant screams. Some were still kinda human, and some weren't.

Every few moments, dozens of footsteps thundered past the classroom before disappearing again, followed only by the wet growls of the infected wandering the halls of Hyosan High.

Inside Room 2-5, nearly twenty people had been forced together. No one had planned for it. No one had wanted it. But survival didn't leave room for personal preferences.

Cheong-san stood closest to the barricaded door, gripping a fire axe scavenged from the emergency cabinet. Beside him, Su-hyeok quietly listened for movement outside, his bruised knuckles wrapped in torn strips of cloth. On-jo carefully rationed bottles of water across several desks. "We have enough for maybe another day... if everyone cooperates."

"That's assuming somebody doesn't drink more than their share," Na-yeon muttered while hugging her backpack.

*Mi-jin immediately rolled her eyes.& "Oh, great. She's talking again."

"I'm just saying—"

"No," Mi-jin interrupted. "You're complaining again."

Dae-su sighed dramatically. "Can we go five minutes without trying to kill each other?"

"I'd settle for two," Wu-jin answered.

Near the windows, Ha-ri checked the tension of her bowstring while Min-jae counted the remaining arrows. "...Seven."

Ha-ri frowned. "Make every shot count."

Across the room, Hyo-ryung nervously peeked through a tiny gap in the barricade before quickly backing away. "I hate this..."

Ji-min sat nearby with her knees pulled to her chest, constantly glancing toward the door every time another impact echoed through the hallway. "I don't think they're ever leaving..."

"They won't," Joon-yeong replied calmly while sketching another rough floor plan across a notebook. "Which means we stop waiting for them to leave."

The classroom grew quiet. Every pair of eyes slowly turned toward the far corner. Nam-ra. The class president sat with her back against the wall, hands folded neatly in her lap. She looked almost exactly the same. Almost. Her heartbeat was slower. Her eyes occasionally shimmered an unnatural gold. She could hear every heartbeat inside the room. Every breath. Every whisper. Every infected body shambling through the hall. She was no longer fully human. She was a Hambie. Yet despite the hunger constantly clawing at the back of her mind... She hadn't hurt anyone. Not once.

Su-hyeok quietly walked over before sitting beside her. "You okay?"

Nam-ra nodded once. "...I'm still here."

He smiled softly. "I know."

Across the classroom, several students visibly relaxed. Others didn't. Na-yeon folded her arms. "I still don't understand why everyone's acting like this is normal."

"It's not," On-jo answered. "But she's still one of us."

Na-yeon looked unconvinced. Before another argument could begin—THUD! The entire barricade shook violently. Everyone jumped. Cheong-san immediately raised the axe. Su-hyeok moved beside him. Ha-ri lifted her bow. Mi-jin tightened her grip on a metal pipe. Even Dae-su slowly stood. Nam-ra suddenly tilted her head. "...Wait."

The room froze. "I hear..." Her enhanced hearing focused beyond the hallway. "...Voices."

Joon-yeong frowned. "The infected don't talk."

"They're alive." Another pause. "...Several people."

A wave of cautious hope spread through the classroom. Survivors? Or another trap? Three slow knocks echoed against the classroom door. Knock. Knock. Knock. No scratching. No growling. No desperate pounding. Just calm, deliberate knocks. Every person inside instinctively held their breath. Cheong-san stepped closer. "Who's there?"

Silence. Nobody moved. Nobody trusted it. Not anymore. Nam-ra slowly closed her eyes, listening beyond the door. "I hear heartbeats."

*Still... No one reached for the barricade. Not yet. Because everyone inside Room 2-5 had already learned the first rule of surviving Hyosan High. Sometimes... The monsters looked exactly like people. And the fact that everyone is being this scared annoys Yoon Gwi-Nam

Yoon Gwi-nam leaned against the classroom wall with an impatient scoff, lazily twirling a bloodstained pocketknife between his fingers as the knocking continued. He rolled his glowing amber eyes at the group's hesitation. "Jesus... are you all this pathetic?"* he sneered.* "It's just a damn door." Pushing himself off the wall, he glanced around at the frightened students before letting out a dry laugh. "Either open it and find out who's there, or stop wasting everyone's time pretending you're having some deep moral debate." He clicked his tongue in annoyance, glaring at Cheong-san and Su-hyeok. "If whoever's outside wanted you dead, they'd already be banging this place down like the rest of those idiots." Crossing his arms, he smirked. "Honestly... if you're all too scared to do it, I'll open it myself." His words immediately filled the room with even more tension, because no one trusted Gwi-nam's judgment—Hambie or not.